Macin Smith: Runaway Or Foul Play? Updated 11/19/2019

Macin Darrin Smith

He was shy, sensitive, smart and creative. He had a deep love for the post-grunge rock band Breaking Benjamin. Macin's dream was to learn to play guitar and be in a band. He loved anime, video games. He liked to play board games with his family and would occasionally bake at home. Macin was active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Macin was born on April 7th, 1998 to parents Tracy and Darrin Smith. He was the youngest of six children and often coddled by his older siblings and mother. When he was a toddler, his parents noticed a slight delay in his speech development, which led to him having to attend speech therapy. While the sessions helped, Macin was left with a slight speech impediment, which he was bullied for while in school.

In December 2013, Macin's parents noticed his grades were slipping and took away his Xbox as punishment. Macin ran away in the middle of the night, only taking with him a sleeping bag and some food. He also had resumes, hoping to make it on his own. However, due to the cold weather, he returned home a few hours later.

In April 2015, Macin and his mother moved to St. George, Utah first, with his father to come a little bit later.  At this point, Macin was the only child living under his parents’ roof, and the decision to move was based on the nicer weather helping the depressive episodes he and his mother would sometimes experience. His father was working construction jobs and would gone a lot of the time. As the move occurred just before Macin’s senior year and not all his credits had transferred, he enrolled in summer school at Desert Hills High School.

Upon moving to St. George, Macin was receiving good grades. In order to encourage him, his parents made a deal with him where if he continued to do so then he could watch anime, which he was an avid fan of. His parents did have a rule however, that he was not to use electronics after 10 p.m. on school nights.

Once Macin had begun his senior year, Darrin had returned home after working a job in Salt Lake City, Utah. Upon his return, he had shared that he hoped his son would get a job and become more social.

On August 31st, 2015, 17-year-old Macin had received news that the first weeks of his senior year were off to a good start, grades-wise, so he texted his mother asking if he could spend the night watching anime. However, his father had another idea, wanting to take him out driving. Upon arriving home, Macin claimed to have a headache, so the pair rescheduled. He has been said that Macin was fearful of driving.

At 8:30 p.m., Tracy returned home from work and noticed her son had already gone to bed. When she asked why he was turning in so early, he told her he wasn’t feel well. She told him good night and left him alone.

Before heading to bed, Tracy unplugged the internet router, so that Macin wouldn’t be tempted to spend the night watching anime or playing video games. Tracy claimed that she was feeling lazy, so she left the router out instead of hiding it.

At 1:30 a.m. that night, Darrin awoke and noticed a blue light coming from Macin’s room. When he entered the room, Macin was watching anime, so Darrin confiscated his laptop and cellphone.

When 7:00 a.m. came around, Darrin went to Macin’s room to check on him. Macin was allegedly getting ready for school. At 7:30 a.m., both he and Tracy heard their son in the kitchen, and at 7:40 a.m., they heard the garage door close and assumed Macin was heading to the bus stop, which was a two-minute walk down the road.

While Tracy went to work for the day, Darrin went to a local gym to work out before working at home in the backyard. He was planning on taking Macin out driving upon his son’s return home from school.

Once 3:30pm came around and his son still hadn’t returned home, Darrin began to worry. He was 15 minutes late coming home and this worried Darrin since the family lived such a short distance from the bus stop. Darrin was unable to contact Macin due to having confiscated his son’s cellphone the night before. So he texted his wife, who assured him Macin was probably just blowing off steam and would return later.

After speaking with Darrin, Tracy checked her personal email and noticed an email from Macin’s school, saying he had been absent the entire day. A worried Tracy immediately returned home and took a look at her Macin's room. Macin never locked his bedroom door, but this time it was. When Tracy picked the lock, it didn't seem to her like there was anything out of place. Tracy then contacted the family’s local church, as Macin would sometimes attend Youth Group meetings on Tuesdays. However, he was not there.

When 10:00 p.m. came around and Macin still hadn’t returned home, his parents assumed he had run away, like he had tried to once before and contacted the St. George Police Department to file a missing juvenile report. The deputy who took the report told them he’d keep an eye out for Macin during his patrol that night.

On September 2nd, Tracy drove to Desert Hills High School to pay for Macin’s graduation apparel. She thought that he would cool down and return. However, while there, she discovered he hadn’t shown up for class that day and that he didn't even get on the bus to go to school.

Tracy took one more look at Macin’s room and noticed he’d hidden his school supplies underneath a pile of clothes in his closet, as if to make it appear as though he’d gone to school the day before. That maybe he wanted to buy himself some extra time before anyone had noticed that he was gone. Tracy also discovered he’d left behind his wallet, which still had his ID and money inside. In Macin's wallet was a note inside, saying that he intended to hurt himself. Tracey also noticed he hadn’t taken any clothes with him.

Investigators searched Macin’s laptop and found “internet artifacts for an extensive amount of anime." There was also a deleted word document that talked about Macin trying to kill himself. 

Three days later, the St. George Police Department interviewed members of the family. The Smiths said that Macin had attempted suicide before due to depression while the family lived in Canada, but could not go through with it.

Not long after, the rest of Macin’s family arrived in town and helped to put up flyers in the neighborhood. Tracy also reached out to the family’s church for support, which helped put together multiple search parties.

At the time of Macin's disappearance it was believed he was wearing basketball shorts with a t-shirt. He may still be in the local area or may have traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada. He was 6ft to 6ft 4in tall, 190lbs, with strawberry blonde hair, and blue eyes.

UPDATE
The police are now focusing on Macin's parents. They say that there are a few inconsistencies in their statements to police. The part of the timeline that has raised the most questions revolves around Darrin Smith's trip to VASA Fitness on the morning Macin disappeared. 

After Macin reportedly left for school, Darrin Smith’s membership card was used to check in at VASA Fitness at 7:45 a.m. Macin’s bus was scheduled to pick him up at 7:41 a.m. The Smiths lived about 10 minutes away from the gym.

"I don’t understand what the discrepancy would even mean," Darrin Smith said. He said that why do they believe his wife when she said the same thing, but are now questioning him.

Another red flag for police is when they spoke with a retired police detective, a member of the Red Rock Search and Rescue group that had assisted in searches for Macin, about the conversations he had with Macin’s father. He said the father “had specifically told them he had never seen/heard Macin on the morning he ran away. And that Macin might have disappeared the night before.

Also, it is alleged that the parents didn't show up on the more large scale searches for Macin.

Allegedly, Macin's parents were told not to show up on those dates.

Both parents have allegedly taken lie detector tests, twice, and passed both times.

Detectives secretly put a GPS tracker on Darrin's truck. When Darrin found out, he said he was fine with that and grateful as well.