Naman Shrestha
In Lifetime’s ‘Searching for a Serial Killer: The Regina Smith Story,’ the murders committed by Charles Albright, AKA “The Eyeball Killer,” are dramatically explored through the perspective of Regina Smith, a rookie police officer of the Dallas Police Department. Although the crime movie does a great job at filling in the viewers with the how and the when of the case, questions about the current whereabouts of the star police officer are bound to arise.
Regina Smith’s Determination and Perseverance Helped Her Catch the Eyeball Killer
After graduating from the police academy, Regina Smith became a part of the Dallas Police Department in 1988 and was right away placed in a Dallas area with the highest crime rate — Oak Cliff. Since she was still a rookie, her first exposure to death and murders was quite terrifying for her. Not long after, she and her partner saw several sex workers murdered on the street, which “was one of the scariest feelings that another human being can experience because of the gruesome way they were killed,” she told A&E True Crime.
Regina Smith, along with her partner, met one of the witnesses, Veronica Rodriguez, a sex worker who claimed that she witnessed Mary Pratt’s murder. When Regina was about to arrest Veronica and her customer in a truck, she claimed that the latter had saved her on the night Mary was killed. Despite relaying all these claims to the homicide division, they were reluctant to act on it. When another sex worker named Brenda White talked about her encounter with a customer whom she maced when he acted suspiciously, Regina gathered all the information she had and put it into the jail system. Once she ended up with Charles Albright’s rap sheet and photograph, she showed the homicide division her notes. Thus, thanks to her efforts, the police finally arrested the Eyeball Killer in 1991.
Regina Smith Went Through a Lot of Ups and Downs in Her Career
Following the capture of the serial killer, Regina gained national recognition and began rising through the ranks. She was promoted to Detective in 1993 before getting promoted to Sergeant six years later. In the following years, she served as a Sergeant in the Crime Scene Investigative Unit. At some point, she got married to a fellow Dallas police officer named Sr. Cpl. Norman “Big Russian” Smith. Unfortunately, he passed away in the line of duty in 2009. After the tragedy, she founded a music production company named Big Rush In, LLC, in his honor.
Soon, she started rapping under her stage name, Lucille Baller, but not without causing a problem within the police department. In one of the rap videos she released, she says, “…You know what I would do to somebody who tried to take advantage of me. You see this bullet right here. I’ll stick it from they rooter to the tooter and bring it out…” When the department learned about her website and songs, they placed her on administrative leave in late November 2012 while they conducted an extensive investigation. Soon, not only the video was taken down but the website was also shut down.
A couple of months later, in January 2013, the Dallas police officer claimed that someone robbed several expensive possessions from her car, including an iPhone, iPad, a $400 wallet, a $200 cosmetic bag, a $1500 Burberry purse, and cash, while she visited her late husband’s grave. More bad news followed as four months after Regina was placed on administrative leave, in March 2013, she received a five-day suspension for posting a video of herself online rapping lyrics containing threats of violence. According to the department, her performance “brought discredit to the department.”
The Retired Police Officer Uses Her Influence to Promote Empowerment of Women Today
During the above-mentioned interview with A&E True Crime, Regina Smith opened up about her desire to give the victims’ families the closure that they deserved. In order to do that, she tried connecting with Charlie Albright and asking him if he would reveal the locations of the eyeballs of his victims. “By that time, he was already in the hospice part of the prison. Although he had agreed to see me, people could not visit him in the prison’s hospital. I wanted to ask him, ‘Why did you do it? What did you do with those girls’ eyes?’ We will never know because he took that secret to his grave,” she explained.
Over the years, Regina has made appearances in various documentaries, including ‘Forensic Files,’ ‘Evil, I,’ ‘Very Bad Men,’ ‘Born to Kill?,’ ‘Murder by Numbers,’ ‘The Mark of a Killer,’ and ‘People Magazine Presents: Crimes of the ’90s.’ In October 2023, she got the opportunity to attend the 2023 DREAM Awards at the Suncoast Casino Showroom and be in the presence of several stars, including Ms. Jayne Kennedy, Avana Christie, Bobby Rose, and Steph Payne. As of today, the retired Dallas Police Department Lieutenant advocates for equal justice and works on overcoming challenges to promote women empowerment. Although it has been more than a decade since her husband died, she still keeps his memories alive and cherishes them at every chance.
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