Sartaj Singh
Directed by Wendy Ord, ‘Searching for a Serial Killer: The Regina Smith Story’ follows a rookie policewoman and single mother who pursues a sadistic serial killer and begins to uncover leads that the FBI seems to have missed. Soon after she joins the Dallas Police Department, Regina Smith (Karrueche Tran) is tested in a harrowing case involving the Eyeball Killer, who extracts the eyes of his victims after murdering them. While she is doing groundwork on the case, she discovers a trail of evidence that leads to the killer’s doorstep.
However, as a rookie and a woman officer in a male-dominated profession, Regina isn’t heard and has to put everything on the line to bring the cold-blooded murderer to justice and create a safer world for her young daughter. The Lifetime crime thriller narrates a thrilling tale of a serial killer terrorizing a city and the relentless struggle of an officer who trusts her instincts and remains hot on his trail.
Searching for a Serial Killer: The Regina Smith Story is Based on Real Events
Lifetime’s ‘Searching for a Serial Killer: The Regina Smith Story’ is based on the true story of now-retired Dallas Police Lt. Regina L. Smith and her pivotal role in nabbing the Eyeball Killer, Charles Albright. With a screenplay written by Conor Allyn and Benjamin Anderson, the movie moderately dramatizes the investigation and capture of the serial killer but remains largely true to real events. Regina Smith had been working for the Dallas Police Department for only two months when the first mysterious killing came to light in December 1990. Mary Lou Pratt, a 33-year-old sex worker, was shot in the head. An autopsy revealed that she had been severely beaten and that her eyes were removed with surgical precision.
When a second sex worker, Susan Peterson, was found murdered in a similar fashion only months later, the city went into a panic as it became apparent that Dallas now had its first known serial killer in history. Regina, who had contacts within the sex worker community, spread a message of vigilance and kept an ear to the ground for any information about the killer. Meanwhile, the Eyeball Killer left no forensic evidence behind, and the FBI had no leads to follow up on. They built a profile of the killer as working in a medical field and having a preference for Caucasian sex workers.
Over the months since the first murder, Regina had been reporting witness accounts and information given by sex workers who claimed to have crucial information relating to the case. First, Veronica Rodriguez claimed to have seen Mary Pratt’s killer. Then, Brenda White said that a man had tried to kill her when she got into his car, but she pepper sprayed him and ran away. Smith and her partner, John Matthews, took the description of the suspect given by both women, and in combination with a tip from a colleague, entered the information into the jail system. This yielded a match and returned the criminal record of Charles Albright with a photograph that fitted the description provided by Brenda White.
The Movie’s Parallels to the Real Case and Further Details
When Regina Smith had as much evidence as she could gather, she and Matthews headed to the homicide department in person and showed them all the correlations made by the information they had gathered. Convinced, they assembled a SWAT team to arrest Charles Albright at his residence. As a gesture of recognition, they asked Regina and John to accompany them while making the arrest. The SWAT team arrested Albright and allowed the rookie officers to take him to the homicide department. Smith noted that Albright had a cold stare and a bone-chilling presence, and he did not plead his innocence as they took him to jail.
Albright had wanted to be a doctor and surgeon as a teenager but failed to complete pre-med training. At the age of 16, he went to jail for a year for the theft of three weapons and petty cash. He continued to steal as an adult and forged his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Albright was never able to hold on to his jobs for too long and worked as a teacher, coach, and paper delivery man. When Mary Pratt was murdered, Albright was 57 years old, and experts believe that he may have killed many others before then. Even when presented in court for the alleged killings at the time, there was only circumstantial evidence to be found. However, hair was found at the Williams murder, which an expert testified matched that of Albright. The jury found him guilty on December 18, 1991, and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Charles Albright died on August 22, 2020, at the West Texas Regional Medical Facility in Lubbock. He never revealed the location of the eyes he took from his victims and continued to maintain his innocence. Regina Smith believes that he pickled and preserved the eyes, as a barn belonging to him contained various small animals, like frogs and newts, preserved in jars. John Matthews went on to write a book about the case titled, ‘The Eyeball Killer.’ Lifetime’s ‘Searching for a Serial Killer: The Regina Smith Story’ has Regina Smith as an executive producer, ensuring that the movie tells an authentic and personal story that remains close to the real chain of events, barring a few dramatizations for entertainment purposes.
Read More: Lifetime’s Searching for a Serial Killer The Regina Smith Story: Filming Locations and Cast Details
