Who killed Grandpa WalMart?

CHILLICOTHE - On Oct. 15, 2011, Harry Smith’s family didn’t realize the reunion would be the last time they’d see him alive. When he was found in his burning home dead the next morning, the family also didn’t know it would take eight months to rule his death a homicide or that they would still be waiting for his killer to be caught five years later.

A private investigator hired by a frustrated family in April 2012 had predicted it, though. In Lycurgus Group’s final report from September 2012, they called the delay in ruling Smith’s death a homicide and the fires arson “unreasonable” and wrote the murder “cannot be solved nor will a successful prosecution be possible unless some internal processes are changed.”

The family feels that change happened when the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation took over the case in October 2012. However, it seems they too have been stumped despite receiving new information as recently as last month, according to spokeswoman Jill Del Greco.

“While we cannot get into specifics about this ongoing investigation, we can say that investigators regularly work on this investigation and interviews have taken place in the past few months,” she said via email.

In one last push, the Smith family has added to the rewards for information - which totals $23,850 - in hopes money will shake loose the information needed to get an arrest that leads to a conviction. However, the $10,000 from the family and $3,850 from fundraising will expire on the sixth anniversary of Smith's murder, said family spokeswoman Andrea Smith. The fundraised amount will go to the VFW if that golden tip doesn't come in.

"If $23,000, almost $24,000, doesn't make somebody talk around here, I don't think anything will," Andrea Smith said.

At 89, Smith was like many grandpas of his generation in Chillicothe. He was a retired paper mill employee and a military veteran. He joined the Navy after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and served in World War II before returning home and raising a family with his wife, Opal.

In retirement, he picked up another job, becoming the local WalMart’s first full-time greeter and earning the moniker "Grandpa WalMart" among the youngest Smith grandchildren.

“My dad was a good, loving, hard-working man all of his life,” his son Jerry Smith recalled in a letter read at a memorial for his father on Oct. 16, 2012.”I look back on the good times when I was younger, like going squirrel hunting and going fishing. He always was a man who believed in doing a good job no matter how big or small.”

Oct. 16, 2011, was a Sunday and Smith would have been getting ready for a weekly visit from a granddaughter. But those plans were interrupted sometime before 10 a.m. when either Smith let someone into the home at 14546 Ohio 772, or they let themselves in.

Evidence suggests that Smith was bound with a disposable underpad and struck at least once in the back of the head. The blow fractured Smith’s skull and killed him, likely just before or shortly after at least four small fires were set around his home.

“The weird thing about the fire was the manner in which it was set,” said County Prosecutor Matt Schmidt. “It was kind of unusual … effective in that it created a smoke hazard and created an alarming scene for the first responders, but it didn’t consume the crime scene … It was a fire that smoldered and failed ultimately.”

When Smith's granddaughter and her husband arrived between 9:50 and 10:04 a.m., they saw two newspapers on the front porch, and the storm door was ajar. They opened the unlocked door, and smoke poured out. At least three people stopped to help and were able to get Smith outside where they attempted CPR until medics arrived. Smith was taken to Adena Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

At first, Sheriff George Lavender told the Chillicothe Gazette they didn’t suspect foul play. The family was told they suspected Smith was depressed over Opal’s death earlier that year and may have committed suicide. Although Lavender began calling the death suspicious within days, there wasn't an official ruling of homicide or arson in Smith’s death for eight months.

"This is something you think about every day, several, multiple times every day, and my heart aches for him (Jerry Smith) and that he lost his dad the way he did ... that no justice has been served for Harry," said Andrea Smith, "It's important to him, and it's important to all of us that takes place. I don't want my father-in-law to die before that's done."

Within days of Smith’s death, officials seemed stymied by the evidence at the scene. Some items, like a 1941 Chillicothe High School class ring, a brown onyx ring with an 'S' and Smith’s checkbook, were taken, but a cash box in relatively plain view was left untouched. While officials haven’t publicly disclosed or confirmed all the oddities at the scene, there were scenarios they felt could take them down the path to thinking Smith's death was suicide or homicide.

For example, Smith’s cordless phone and two cellphones were missing and until results from the fire debris was analyzed, there was speculation that Smith could have put them into the fire to prevent himself from calling for help. As for cuts and bruises found on his body during the autopsy, Ross County Coroner John Gabis said at the time Smith had a history of falls - which the family has contested - so the cause of those injuries wasn't clear cut.

“There was evidence of items being taken but other things of value that were completely ignored, so if this was solely for the purpose of theft or burglary, it was carried out very strangely,” Schmidt said. “It could be that they panicked, that the situation got out of control, but that’s speculation. I don’t know. But it was certainly, in terms of a crime scene, an unusual one."

Lavender declined to talk about specific elements of the case, noting details are withheld to help validate tips, but said the heavy smoke from the fire hurt the investigative process. The lack of a suspect early on also was a hindrance.

"The information coming out of the case was very sparse. Normally, we hear things on investigations of this nature, especially a murder, and there was just nothing out there," Lavender said.

The Smith family has agreed in the past that there were some unusual elements to the scene, but it was evident to them that Harry Smith was the victim of a homicide.

"The man had a fractured skull. The back of his skull ... When you look at the fact there was a pillow case missing and the other pillow case was full of stuff from the tops of dressers ... Where does that lead you as a detective who has never gone to school, never been educated, never had any training, what do you think?"

The family's frustration led to them spending more than $16,000 on a private investigation and ultimately requesting the Bureau of Criminal Identification take over the case.

Schmidt said he made the request to BCI because he felt the family “had such resentment toward the sheriff’s office that that was just better for everybody involved to get a fresh set of eyes."

If BCI hadn't taken the case, Andrea Smith said the family "would have absolutely given up every last bit of hope that we have."

By time BCI took over the case, the sheriff’s office reported they had already conducted more than 80 interviews, and at least 50 pieces of evidence had been analyzed by the crime lab. Where that number sits now is unclear; Del Greco declined to comment on specifics.

"It just haunts us. Every significant holiday that comes, whether it be birthdays or anniversaries or the anniversary of his murder, Labor Day, every get-together we have, it's just this cloud. It's just there," she said.

For Schmidt, the difficulty in the case has always been a combination of the unusual circumstances and the lack of a solid lead. While there have been several persons of interest, there’s not been anything “that’s even come close to giving us evidence that would be sufficient to charge someone,” Schmidt said.

“This was, it seemed to me, to be one where there were rumors swirling around but nothing substantial. And I guess, in my experience, the thing that seems so unusual was the relative silence from the community at large about what had happened,” Schmidt said. “Another difficulty, certainly, was a lack of forensics in terms of any source of DNA or blood or fingerprint or anything to really gain traction on.”

While the lack of evidence has been an apparent issue in solving the case, Del Greco said the biggest complication is key people aren’t talking. She urges anyone with information to contact BCI at 855-BCI-OHIO. And until Oct. 16, 2017, that information may result in a $23,850 payday. Afterward, it will revert to $10,000 - half from the Ohio Blue Ribbon Arson Committee reward and the other half from Southern Ohio Crimestoppers.

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