Posted on 08/02/2007 6:25:22 PM PDT by blam
Pastor's wife back; news conference set
Thursday, August 02, 2007
By DAVID FERRARAStaff Reporter
Mary Byrne "Beth" Smith, the small-town preacher's wife who drew attention from people around the nation while incognito for four months, has returned to Alabama.
A 9 a.m. news conference has been called today at the office of Rob Stankoski, a Fairhope attorney she has hired, according to his office.
Stankoski could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
When she disappeared March 24 from a religious convention 500 miles from her Summerdale home, Smith left her husband, the Rev. Jason Lee Smith, and two children, ages 10 and 7.
Police in Bossier City, La., where Beth Smith was attending a seminar the day she disappeared, tracked the 30-year-old Elsanor School kindergarten teacher down last week. She was working at a fast food restaurant in New York.
It was unclear late Wednesday why Smith had hired an attorney or the reason for the news conference.
Smith's unexplained departure left many friends and family members confused, but her story appears to have had an impact on at least one Bossier City detective, Sgt. Jimmy Stewart, who said conversations with Smith had restored his faith in humanity and had "changed my life."
Bossier City Police Chief Mike Halphen told reporters earlier this week that investigators spoke with Smith for 20 hours between Friday and Monday.
"I wanted to know who she was," said Stewart, who worked the case from the start and talked the most with her. "There's a reason things happen, and everybody's got a story. I just took time to listen to it."
Stewart, who spoke to Smith even after police closed the case, declined to reveal anything Smith told him, saying that would be a "violation of things I told Beth I wouldn't say." "It's just a very interesting story," Stewart said. "And I'm very lucky that she trusted me enough to tell me. Don't read more into that than is there. Don't try to make it something that it's not. ... Maybe one day you'll be lucky enough to hear her story. ...
"Every now and then you talk to somebody that restores your faith in people. Somebody comes along that just really, really instills that in you again. She has instilled in me a faith in people. I think she's a very good person, and I wish her the best in life. I may never hear from Beth Smith again, but I'm sure she'll do fine."
Stewart said that throughout the four months of investigations, he never reached a point when he thought authorities would not locate Smith.
Friends and family pleaded for her return and prayed for her safety. Strangers created Web sites dedicated to her disappearance, and speculation about her life -- past and present -- poured in from around the globe.
The day she disappeared, she told friend Jenny Gipson that she needed to use the rest room and peruse the concession stands. But instead, authorities said, Smith pawned her wedding ring and hopped on a Greyhound bus bound for New York City. She apparently never used a credit card and never called home.
Police said Smith, who developed an addiction to painkillers before she disappeared, had been living under an assumed name while in New York. But on June 12, Smith mailed a request for her Alabama teaching certificate to the state Department of Education. The Press-Register obtained a copy of her request from the Alabama Department of Education. It was signed by a notary in Queens County, New York, which covers part of New York City.
She had used her own social security number and married name: Mary Byrne Smith.
A week later, state education officials mailed a copy of the teaching certificate to Smith, according to Alabama Department of Education spokesman Mitch Edwards.
Then, on July 26, an education department employee saw a television news story about Smith's disappearance and made the connection.
The department then gave police the address Smith used, Edwards said, and she was found.
I kind of hoped she wouldn’t be found, that she was safely off on her own pursuing a new life.
Things that make you go ... hmmmmmmm.
The female midlife crisis often manifests as a bizarre feminist streak. They suddenly resent everything of value and wish that they were Ally McBeal.
“Excuse me while I disappear.”
yes, there is something more to the story...wonder what??
“But instead, authorities said, Smith pawned her wedding ring and hopped on a Greyhound bus bound for New York City.”
Who amongst us hasn’t at least thought about it? ;)
I’d like to hear “the rest of the story.”
We just had a local woman pull this, too. They found her about 4 weeks later north of here. She was living out of her car, just “thinking things over.”
Divorce your husbands, or knock it off! Quit wasting precious tax dollars and police man-hours and stop worrying your CHILDREN half to death! Talk about selfish.
Is this the new “Mid-Life Crisis” cry for help from our women in society?
If so, it’s very sad.
Exactly! See my Post #8.
“Smith pawned her wedding ring and hopped on a Greyhound bus bound for New York City.”
How many times do you think I wanted to do something like that during my first marriage? But thank God I never did. Kids, you know.
I don’t know that they were abandoned, nor do I know if she fled her husband. All I know is she has returned home. In life there are often reasons why people seem to do the inexplicable. And those not in the inner circle are quick to judge the motives of others.
Not every woman is “mother of the year” and people do make mistakes.
The woman has been found and is safe. That is all that matters.
I don’t know how any mom could just pick up and leave her kids behind with them not knowing where she was or what happened to her. Very cruel.
Let’s see, addicted to painkillers, disappears, reappears in NYC, working 3 jobs, self supporting and apparently no longer addicted to painkillers?
Maybe she took the geographical cure because her loved ones were co-dependant enablers who sabotaged recovery?
Interesting story to speculate about, anyway.
I think it’s very real, but there are healthy ways to deal with it. I’ve seen mid-age mothers go back to school or start a new career.
The ones who go overboard must be really desperate apparently... and not too bright upstairs...
I used to work with a part-time preacher, very upstanding and very stright-laced. He had a beautiful wife and kids. We went on an out of town emergency project and he met and fell in love with a waitress at a truckstop. He went home and promptly told his wife he was in love with another and that he’d have to leave her.
He went back to the truckstop to find the waitress had already run off with a truckdriver.
There’s always more to the story.
That and the fact that she owes the taxpayers of Bossier City a few dollars.
So, do you think this runaway woman was having a fling?
The pastor should file divorce papers and seek custody of the kids on the grounds that she abandoned them. Then he should also seek child support payments.
I have no idea, but people who do the inexplicable, rationalize their actions.
I don’t know that [the man] abandoned [the children] [just because he left without telling them or supporting them], nor do I know if [he] fled [his wife]. All I know is [he] has returned home. In life there are often reasons why [men] seem to do the inexplicable. And those not in the inner circle are quick to judge the motives of others.
Not every [man] is “[father] of the year” and [men] do make mistakes.
The [man] has been found and is safe. That is all that matters.
There. All those dead beat dad's that walk away from their kids sure do look a lot more likable after a little humanizing.
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