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.

Kenneth Starbuck has a seizure disorder and is missing.

Kenneth Starbuck was 64 years old when he went missing on Tuesday, September 1st, 2015.
Last seen at 2763 south, 2675 west in Syracuse, Utah.
He has a brain injury and a seizure disorder.
He usually travels on foot or by bus.
He could be in the Millcreek area near 4100 South and State street.
He was wearing a gray shirt, blue jeans, brown shoes and a gray baseball hat.
He is 5ft 6in tall, 155lbs, with gray hair and blue eyes.
He has tattoo of an eagle on his left forearm.

Diana Bober just went missing, can you help find her?

Diana Bober, 55 was last seen on August 29.
She was hiking alone.
Crews are searching for her in the Mount Hood area in Clackmas County Oregon.
Focusing on the Hunchback Trail where her car and backpack were found.
Two hikers found her backpack on august 30.
Her car has been found in the Zigzag Ranger Station.
She is an avid hiker known to frequent the area.
Her family thinks something might have happened to her.
She is not survivalist and has no tent or backpack.
She is petite with red hair and hazel eyes.
Police are looking to talk with anyone that hiked the Hunchback Trail around August 29, 30, 31.
Have you seen her?

Poor Jessica Chambers was burned alive and her accused killer is going back to court.

Jessica Chambers was a former cheerleader who wanted to be a nurse.
She was 19 years old on December 6, 2014,  when she was found burned alive in a wooded area in Courtland, Mississippi.
She died at the hospital a few hours later.
Two hours before she was found, surveillance video showed her at a gas station nearby.
Ali Fadhel, a clerk at the gas station, said she put $14 dollars in instead of her usual $5.
He had asked her why she was putting so much in and she told him she was going somewhere.
Firefighters found her walking next to her burning car  around 8 p.m., with burns on 93% of her body.
She was wearing only underwear and walking in 40 degree temperatures.
Some first responders said she looked like a zombie and when asked who did this to her she responded "Eric" or "Derek".
However, with her injuries to her mouth and throat, doctors noted that it would have been difficult for her to properly say anything.

A year later, Quinton Tellis, 29, was indicted by a grand jury for capital murder in her death in February 2016.
He pled not guilty and went to trial in October 2017.
During the trial, prosecutors used cell phone records, surveillance videos and witness testimony to build their case.
Prosecutors say Jessica and Quinton spend early December 6, with a friend smoking marijuana and driving around.
Then Jessica brought him home to his house.
He texted her later asking for "some lovin".
Prosecutors allege that he asked her for sex and she turned him down a few times before.
Tellis told investigators that he had sex with Jessica on one prior occasion, but denied having sex with her the day she died.
He said he and Jessica met up later again that day to get fast food.
Prosecutors say that the couple had sex that evening in her car when Tellis suffocated her.
They did not present any evidence that they had sex or she was suffocated.
He thought that he had killed her.
Tellis then drove Jessica's car with her inside it to the back road, ran to his sister's house nearby, jumped in his  sister's car, stopped to pick up gasoline from a shed at his house and torched her car with her inside.
Prosecutors presented evidence that Jessica was burned and she had gasoline on her and down her throat and nose.
There was Tellis' DNA found on her car keys that were found along the path between Tellis' sister's home and the crime scene.
Cell phone location data showed that the two were together until around 7:30 p.m..
Surveillance video showed his sister's vehicle, stopping at his home  at 7:50 pm before driving towards the crime scene.
Footage also shows that he changed his clothes three times that day.
Within an hour of her death, Tellis deleted all text messages and communications with her from his phone.
The prosecutors present evidence that directly shows Tellis is the one that burned Jessica in her car.
Defense says that based on first responders testimony that a person named "Eric" or "Derek" should be on trial instead.
After 10 hours the jury could not  reach a unanimous verdict.
A retrial has been scheduled for September 24, of this year.
Tellis also faces another murder indictment in Louisiana, where he is accused in the torture death of Meing-Chn Hsiao.
She was a 34 year old Taiwanese graduate student at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
He was caught using her credit cards after her death.

Scarey Movies Based On True Events

Ed Gein's final victim was Bernice Worden.
He killed her and then made a suit from her skin, which he would wear....
He inspired the character Leather Face.

Another inspiration for the film was the legend of Sawney Bean, who led a Scottish clan between the 13th and 16th centuries.
They reportedly ate over 1,000 people

TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE TRAILER

This movie was based on the disappearance of Tom and Eileen Lonergan.

They were a married couple from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States.
The Lonergans were scuba diving with a group at St. Crispin's Reef in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. 

The boat that had transported the group departed before the Lonergans returned from the water without anyone noticing the two were not on board.

The couple had recently completed a two-year tour of duty with the Peace Corps at Funafuti atoll in the small South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu and were repeating that work in Fiji.

Two days later, on January 27, 1998, that the pair was discovered to be missing after a bag containing their belongings was found on board the dive boat. 

A massive search took place over the following three days. Although some of their diving gear was found washed up later on a beach miles away from where they were lost, indicating that they drowned, their bodies were never found. 

Fishermen found a diver's slate  and wrote down what it reportedly read: 

"Monday Jan 26; 1998 08am. To anyone who can help us: We have been abandoned on A[gin]court Reef by MV Outer Edge 25 Jan 98 3pm. Please help to rescue us before we die. Help!!!"

OPEN WATER TRAILER

Some say Stephen King was inspired by serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

Arrested in 1978, Gacy murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men over a 6 year period.

He was referred to by many as the killer clown.

He often attended children's parties dressed up as Pogo the Clown.

IT TRAILER

Many of speculated that it is based on two horrific murderers.

Ivan Milat was responsible for "The backpacker murders". 

They were serial killings that took place in New South Wales, Australia, between 1989 and 1993.

The bodies of seven missing young people aged 19 to 22 were discovered partially buried in the Belanglo State Forest.

Five of the victims were foreign backpackers visiting Australia.
Milat was convicted of the murders on 27 July 1996 and is currently serving seven consecutive life sentences, as well as 18 years without parole, at the maximum-security Goulburn Correctional Center.

The other influence was that of Bradley Murdoch.

He murdered backpacker Peter Falconio and attempted to kidnap Peter's girlfriend, Joanne Lees, in Australia, on July 14, 2001.

He is currently serving life in prison.

Peter's body has never been found.

WOLF CREEK TRAILER

Suicide suspected in Realtor Christopher Lee's death.

A preliminary autopsy listed suicide as the cause of death for Realtor Christopher Lee.
Lee died of a gunshot wound to the head.
A weapon was recovered at the crime scene with the body and the investigation into the owner and purchase of the weapon has been forwarded to ATF for a tracking of the weapon owner and purchase.

Robert "Robin" Patton went missing from Eva Dawn Care Facility.

Robert Michael Patton's nickname is Robin.

He was 64 years old when he went missing on May 23, 2015.
He was last seen getting into an unknown type vehicle leaving the Eva Dawn Care facility in Salt Lake City, Utah.

He was wearing blue jeans, a black sweater and had orange fingernail polish on.

He has glasses and wears a shoulder length, reddish/brown, female wig.
He is 5ft 5in to 5ft7in tall, 150 to 190 lbs, and has brown hair and brown eyes.

Amy Westreicher moved to Utah from California and then went missing.

Amy Lousie Westreicher was 32 years old when she went missing on January 7, 2010.

She is from California.

Two years before she went missing, she moved to Roosevelt, Utah.
She is 5ft5in tall, 115 lbs, with reddish brown hair and brown eyes.
She has three tattoos.
"Paul" on the back of her neck, on her right calf "alighia" and a picture of a red devil on her chest
She had a verbal argument with a friend and left on foot.

It has been over a year since anyone has seen Dustin Bird

Dustin Lynn Bird Left his home in Taylorsville, Utah, to meet up with a friend and never returned.

He left his house on February 17, 2017 and has not been seen since.
He is 38 years old.

When he disappeared he was 5ft 10in tall, 170 lbs, with dark brown hair and brown eyes.

He has numerous tattoos.
He has both arm full sleeves,"Mom" right wrist, a spider top of head, Mia on the left side of neck, Sorenos on his stomach and left side.

He also has  "i think you got your fools mixed up" across his collar bone,"801" behind his right ear and "TLS" behind his left ear and on top of both of his feet. 
He was wearing blue jeans, long sleeve black shirt, Nike shoes and a gray hoodie.
His nicknames are Sneeks and Sneekie.

Oliva, Molly and Nova miss their mommy

Heather McDonald kissed her husband Stefan and kids goodbye.

The 27 year old mother was going to a friends house, she never returned to her home in Cartersville, Georgia.

Her husband said that leading up to her disappearance she was behaving a little unusual.

She worked part time at a convenience store.

A month before she disappeared she got in trouble with the law for possession prescription drugs that did not belong to her.

She said she needed a little break.

Saturday, September 19, 2016, she loaded up a red jeep wrangler her husband had rented for her and headed to her friends house in Acworth.

The next day she text her husband and asked what the girls were up to.

And that is the last text he gets from her.

By Monday he gets worried and calls the number of the friend she was supposedly staying.

He finds out that she is not staying there, she was at a guy friend's house.

The police knocked at Stefan's door, they had found the red jeep at a hotel.

Her bags were inside the doors were open and the keys on the ground.

Heather and her phone are missing.

Heather's younger sister had a conversation with her two weeks before she died.

She said she was being followed.

Heather's body was found in a wooded area by hunters 40 miles from home on November 3, in Haralson County.

2017, Richard Harden is named as an official person of interest.

He is a sex offender that spent two decades behind bars.

He had befriended her parents and did work around Stefan's house before Heather went missing.