Burned auto casts light on an obscure lifeBy Marc Perrusquia
perrusquia@gomemphis.comShe vanished into the Tennessee night as quietly - and as curiously - as she'd lived her life.
A burned-out automobile is the best clue authorities have on the disappearance of Katherine Smith, who toiled nearly three decades as an obscure state employee before her indictment last week with five Middle Eastern men suspected of possible terrorist links.
Smith, 49, a driver's license examiner at the state testing center on Summer Avenue, was arrested Feb. 5 and charged the next day with federal conspiracy to get Tennessee driver's licenses under false pretenses. Authorities allege she was involved in a scheme to sell licenses for $1,000 apiece.
Smith disappeared Saturday night, and a charred Acura Legend that federal officials said was hers was found early Sunday near the Mississippi state line.
"I knew her face, that's all," said neighbor Walter McGaughy. "I didn't know her name until I saw it on TV." Lt. Zane Smith of the Tennessee Highway Patrol said a badly burned body that authorities believe may be Katherine Smith has not yet been identified.
Lt. Smith said highway patrol investigators believe the car left the roadway about 15 minutes after midnight Sunday, passing through a ditch before striking a utility pole and breaking it.
The car apparently was heading northwest on U.S. 72 in Fayette County about 200 yards north of the Mississippi line when it left the road, he said.
"There's no determination why it left the road," Lt. Smith said. "We're trying to exhaust every angle."
He described the automobile in question only as "a four-door car,'' declining further detail. Fayette County Sheriff Bill Kelley said the car was a 1992 Acura Legend. According to an FBI affidavit, Katherine Smith had a 1992 Acura she was purchasing from one of the Middle Eastern men. Asst. U.S. Atty Tim DiScenza said in court Monday the burned car is the same one Smith had.
"It was burned so bad," Lt. Smith said, any personal effects such as a driver's license, evidently burned with it. {My note: If they were trying to obscure her identity, they would have taken license plates, which were intact.)
"We'd like to know where this individual was coming from and possibly where they were going to," he said. The body was turned over to the medical examiner. Dr. Cynthia Gardner, a forensic pathologist with the Shelby County Medical Examiner's office, said doctors would attempt late Monday to identify the body through dental records.
Personnel records show Smith worked 29 years for state government, the last nine with the driver's license division.
She lived in a small two-bedroom house at 400 Boston in the Beltline neighborhood near the Mid-South Fairgrounds. Property records list Smith and Aaron James Smith II as co-owners of the home.
No one answered calls Monday to Smith's home phone, which is also listed to a Vernola Buchanan.
Since she was traveling northwest and only 200 yards from the border, she was probably coming from Mississippi and heading home. (My Atlas shows 72, but does not show the Beltline neighborhood or the Mid-South Fairgrounds; but we could probably find it on-line somewhere to confirm this.) If she was coming from Mississippi, we may eventually be able to connect some dots.
We know she was getting licenses for illegals, as was the person in Virginia--but nothing happened to him. She was apparently murdered. (It looks to me like parties unknown may have been chasing her and ran her off the road. Despite the lack of damage to the car, she was going fast enough to travel through the ditch and still break the utility pole. She may or may not have been conscious when the assailant(s) started the fire, but we know she was still alive because of the smoke inhalation.) The guy in Virgina was not killed because he could no longer identify anyone or group really important. But she was killed because she could still hurt an ongoing operation.
Honway's info has turned up a possible biological connection. Memphis is on the Mississippi. Couple that with these old posts:
Miss. Probes Crop Duster Sprayings (Rosedale is roughly 100 mi. SW of Memphis)
Sprayed Towboat Relased from Quarantine, EPA holding release of crop duster tests
FBI Looking for Tips on Small Planes (3 Airplanes Appear to Have Dropped Gray Smoke Over Boats)
Of course, her murder could be related to this, too: REPORT: ATTA EYED PLANTS IN TENNESSEE
Just a couple of interesting possibilities ...