Who Is the Family of Larry Gene Bell

Larry Gene Bell: The Murders of Shari Smith and Debra Helmick

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It was May 31, 1985, and schools across the United States were finishing upwardly for the summertime. Seventeen-year-old Shari Smith, of Lexington, Due south Carolina, had just completed her terminal year at Lexington Loftier School. The following days were going to exist busy, just Shari was excited. Her graduation ceremony, where she would be singing the national anthem, was taking place on June 2. So she and a grouping of friends would set up off on a prowl to celebrate the end of their high school years and the get-go of a new chapter.

The Smith Family

Sharon "Shari" Faye Smith was born on June 25, 1967, to Hilda and Robert "Bob" Smith in Columbia, South Carolina. Shari was the center child; she had an older sis, Dawn, and a younger brother, Robert Jr. The Smiths were a tight-knit, loving family. They were highly regarded and influential in Lexington, where they were agile in their church and the customs. Shari had bouncy blonde curls, a rosy complexion and brilliant blue eyes. She was bright, approachable and radiated positivity. Friends and family unit could always count on her to lift them up if they were ever feeling down.

Shari (continuing) and Dawn Smith (sitting) (source: Dawn Jordan Smith - here)

The Smith Family unit (source: Dawn Jordan Smith - here)

There One 2d, Gone The Next

The sun shone brightly that terminal day in May. Shari had spent the afternoon at a pool political party with her friends. At 3:38pm, she arrived back at her home on Platt Springs Road in Lexington. A driveway, about 200 meters long, led up from the primary road to the Smith home. At the end of the driveway was the Smith'due south mailbox.

Shari's father, Bob, glanced out the window of his function and saw Shari turning onto the driveway in her car. Expecting that she would come through the forepart door at whatsoever minute, he went dorsum to what he was doing. About v or 10 minutes later, nevertheless, he realized that he had not heard Shari come in. Looking out the window again, he saw her car, sitting at the end of the driveway next to the mailbox.

Odd, Bob thought to himself. What was taking her and then long? He got the distinct feeling in his gut that something wasn't right.

Shari'south empty car sitting at the end of the driveway leading to the Smith domicile (source: Youtube)

Bob hopped in his motorcar and sped downward the driveway. In one case he arrived at the mailbox, it was clear to Bob that he was correct to be concerned. There was Shari's machine, merely no Shari. The engine was still running and the door was wide open. On the rider's seat sat Shari's purse. In that location were bare footprints leading from the driver's side door to the mailbox, simply none coming back. Several pieces of mail lay on the basis next to the mailbox.

The Investigation Begins

From the get-go, it was clear that Shari would non have left of her ain accord - she was content and happy in life, loved her family unit and was excited for summertime ahead. Furthermore, she was diabetic, and would not have gone anywhere without her medication.

On examining the scene, it appeared to investigators that Shari had gone from her car to the mailbox, was snatched by someone, and dropped the mail.

Right away, investigators from the Lexington County Sheriff's Dept. organized a manhunt. At the fourth dimension, it was the largest to accept place in S Carolina history. Despite this, it did not plow up any clues as to Shari's whereabouts.

The Start Phone Phone call

The Smith family were sick with worry and publicly pleading with Shari's captor to let her go. Otherwise, all they could exercise was wait. The feelings of helplessness and lack of command were unbearable.

"For the offset time in my life as the father and protector of my household, I was not in charge of my home," Bob would subsequently recall.

Ii days after Shari disappeared, on the evening of June ii, the Smiths got a telephone call from an unknown human who had distorted his voice. He asked to speak to Shari's mother, Hilda. Shari is with me, he told her. The man described the black and yellow swimsuit Shari had on nether her wearing apparel to prove to Hilda that the call was not some kind of prank. He told her that Shari was doing well and that they were watching TV together. While he did not demand any money in exchange for Shari'due south render, he did tell Hilda that they would exist receiving a letter the following day.

Detectives traced the call to a payphone 20 miles from the Smith home in Columbia, but time was not on their side. By the fourth dimension they were able to pinpoint a more than precise location and travel there, whoever had fabricated the call was long gone.

"Last Will And Testament"

Detectives arrived at the Lexington post office the following morning and began sorting through the mail. Sure plenty, they found a letter addressed to the Smiths.

The letter, which was two pages in length and written on paper from a yellow legal pad, was in Shari'due south handwriting. Beyond the acme she had written, "Last Will and Testament".

Several times throughout the letter, Shari emphasized to her family unit how much she loved them. She wrote that they should never allow this ruin their lives. The most frightening was her request that she have a airtight casket at her funeral.

The envelope containing Shari'south alphabetic character (source: Youtube)

Shari'due south "Last Will and Testament" Alphabetic character (source: Youtube)

Having accompanied detectives to the post office, Bob was the first to read the letter. He was devastated, but refused to abandon promise that his daughter might still come domicile. What he dreaded the most was telling Hilda what the letter said.

The letter was sent to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Crime Lab. Here it would be examined by a forensic certificate examiner for any clues, for example, fibers, fingerprints or handprints, or whatsoever discrepancies in the spelling or handwriting.

"Nosotros're waiting. God chose us."

Another call came through to the Smiths that afternoon. The same distorted phonation was on the other terminate. The man asked Hilda if they had received the post, to which she replied that they had. He and so asked if Hilda believed him. She replied that she was not sure, considering she had non heard from Shari, and did not know whether she was actually okay. The homo replied that she would know in two or three days.

That evening, the Smiths received however some other call. This one was particularly ominous. The man said to Hilda:

"Shari is now part of me. Physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, our souls are now ane."

Shari's captor, whoever he was, appeared to be very much enjoying taunting the Smiths, which indicated to me that he was a person who had never felt especially in control of his life or what was going on effectually him. Having the Smiths at his mercy instilled in him a sort of ability he had not felt earlier. He probably viewed his life as not working out the way he hoped it would - maybe he was unhappy in his job or not where he wanted to be financially. It'southward almost sure that he did not have much luck with women - he had probable suffered a series of rejections over time.

The Smiths received another telephone call the side by side day, Jun. 4. This time, Shari'south sister Dawn spoke to Shari'south captor. He told her that at 3:10am on Sat, Jun. 1, Shari wrote the letter of the alphabet. Then at iv:58am, he said that they "became ane soul". When Dawn asked what he meant by that, he told her not to ask questions. He asked that Sheriff James Metts of the Lexington County Sheriff's Dept. end searching for Shari. In the background, Hilda pleaded with him non to kill her daughter.

"Shari loves and misses y'all," he said. "Become good remainder tonight. Expert nighttime."

On Jun. five at around noon, he chosen the Smiths again. He told Hilda to listen carefully, and then proceeded to give detailed directions to a specific location. He ended the call maxim, "We're waiting. God chose us."

A Nightmare Come up True

Detectives followed the directions he provided. Hilda begged to keep, but they convinced her information technology would not be a skillful idea. What they establish confirmed everybody's worst fears. Shari'south body was exactly where the homo said information technology would be - behind an sometime Masonic Lodge in Saluda County, 18 miles west of the Smith home. The autopsy showed that Shari had been dead for about iv days. In fact, the medical examiner estimated that she had been killed near 12 hours after beingness kidnapped.

Shari's body was establish behind this edifice in Saluda Canton (source: Youtube)

They were unable to decide her cause of death, but a residuum of duct tape on Shari's face suggested she had died of suffocation. Pieces of her pilus had been cutting off considering the record had gotten stuck in it. This indicated to detectives that whoever killed Shari knew what he was doing, equally any clues he left on the body might lead them to him - for instance, his fingerprints may have ended upward on the duct tape. Due to the extended period of fourth dimension Shari's body spent in the elements, no forensic evidence was recovered. They could not definitively testify whether or not Shari had been sexually assaulted.

When the human said on the phone that he and Shari had "become one soul" on Jun. 1 at iv:58am, detectives causeless that this was the time he killed her.

Profiling Shari's Captor

FBI Agents John Douglas and Ron Walker of the Behavioral Science Unit of measurement came upward with a detailed profile of Shari's killer. They categorized him every bit an "organized killer" - he was sophisticated in his methods and had been planning this murder for a while. Information technology was possible that he had committed sex crimes/crimes of a similar nature before.

Co-ordinate to their profile, he would be young (in his mid to late twenties, or early thirties), white, homely and overweight. He had likely been married, only was at present divorced or separated. He was of to a higher place-average intelligence, with a cognition of electronics, given that he had altered his voice for the phone calls.

He was not impulsive or 1 to hazard - from listening to recordings of the phone calls, the FBI agents and detectives working the case were convinced that he was reading from a script he had written. The giveaway was that he sometimes stumbled and would go back to the beginning of a sentence and start over, maxim the exact aforementioned phrase once more.

Careful examination of the evidence led Douglas and Walker to the conclusion that this was not a i off for Shari's killer and in all likelihood, he would kill over again if not captured. He was drunk on the feelings of power and control that manipulating Shari's family gave him. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that he yearned for these feelings to keep.

More Sadistic Phone Calls

Even afterward Shari'south body was plant, her killer was not washed rubbing common salt in the Smith family's wounds. He particularly enjoyed speaking to Dawn on the phone. On June 6, he chosen the Smith home again. Dawn answered, and he told her that he was planning to turn himself in the next day, only was contemplating killing himself instead.

He then asked for her forgiveness. Sometimes he would mix upward Dawn and Shari; he accidentally said that everything had gotten out of hand and "all he wanted was to brand love to Dawn". When Dawn questioned this, he corrected himself, saying he meant Shari.

Plain aware of the engagement of Shari's funeral (although I couldn't find the exact appointment), he chose that evening to brand his side by side phone call to the Smiths. Once once more, he spoke to Dawn, and chose this time to be particularly cruel. He described to Dawn the details of Shari'southward death, including the various disgusting ways he sexually assaulted her.

He explained to Dawn that he permit Shari brand her own decisions regarding her decease, as if that somehow justified his heinous actions. For example, he "let her choose what time" she would die. He also gave her the choice of dying by shooting, a drug overdose or suffocation. She chose the terminal selection, he told Dawn. He wrapped duct tape around her head and she died, right in that location in front of him.

"God was ready to take her equally an angel," he said.

The phone calls ceased afterwards that.

The Killer Strikes Again

2 weeks after Shari was kidnapped from outside her home, her killer struck over again; just as the FBI were sure he would.

This time, he snatched ix-year-one-time Debra May Helmick from her front yard in nearby Richland County, 24 miles from the Smith dwelling. Information technology was broad daylight. Similar Shari, Debra was pretty, blonde and blueish-eyed. She had been playing outside with her younger siblings, and her father was inside the house. Just like Shari, Debra was there one second, and gone the side by side.

The headline in the June fifteen 1985 edition of The Country, South Carolina's largest newspaper, alerting the public of the kidnapping of Debra May Helmick (source: Facebook)

It had been 8 days since his last telephone call to the Smiths.

Detectives needed him to go far contact again, so FBI Agents Douglas and Walker came upwardly with a plan. Whoever killed Shari and kidnapped Debra loved attention. Equally I mentioned previously, he was likely of above-average intelligence. No doubt he believed that he was smarter than the detectives on the case.

The agents thought they may exist able to lure him out of hiding with a memorial service for Shari at the cemetery, with Dawn playing a primal part (given that he was plainly very fond of her). He would be paying close attention to the media, carefully consuming every story related to Shari and Debra, all the while patting himself on the back for having evaded capture. If the local media fabricated a big enough story out of the memorial service, there was a good adventure that he would attend, stand in the back and silently gloat.

The media coverage of the memorial was just what the agents hoped for. Members of the community came from far and wide to back up the Smiths. At the instructions of Agent Douglas, Dawn brought a small stuffed koala carry, Shari'due south favorite animal, to lay at her sister's grave forth with the bouquets of flowers. If Shari's killer did attend the service, he would see Dawn with the bear. With whatsoever luck, he might return after the service finished and have the bear as a gift. Detectives stood out of sight, taking down the license plates of all the vehicles that attended the service. Once it was finished, they hid, lying in wait for their doubtable to appear and have the carry. Only he never did.

"God Wants You To Join Shari Faye"

Just after midnight on June 23, the Smiths got another call. While Shari's killer had not been brought out in the open past the memorial service, information technology conspicuously awoke something in him. No doubt he wanted to become to the service, but did non feel it was safe. Instead, he satisfied his need for attention past calling the Smiths again. Dawn answered the phone. Of course, she never wanted to speak to him, merely keeping him on the line was vital in tracking down who killed her sis.

As he had a number of times before, he brought God into the conversation. He found playing God to be particularly satisfying. Mayhap citing God in his telephone calls made him less guilty, only I call up information technology's more likely that he knew the Smiths were dedicated Christians, and he derived pleasance from bringing God into his taunts.

A further indication that he was first to feel untouchable was the fact that he no longer distorted his vox for his phone calls to the Smiths.

The start affair he said to Dawn was particularly alarming:

"God wants you to bring together Shari Faye," he said to Dawn. Information technology was "only a matter of fourth dimension" and "she could not exist protected forever", he warned.

So he changed the subject field to what he really wanted to talk to Dawn about. He asked her if she had heard of Debra May Helmick. At first, she did not recollect. Then she remembered a immature girl had been abducted in Richland County.

"Listen carefully," he said. Then he rattled off a series of directions, but equally he had 2 weeks ago on the phone to Hilda when he gave directions to Shari'due south body. He ended the call by proverb:

"Debra May is waiting. God forgive u.s.a. all."

Information technology was like déjà vu for the detectives. They followed the directions he had given them. Knowing what they would find when they reached the destination filled them with dread. Certain plenty, just off a dirt road, amongst thick brush, lay the trunk of Debra May Helmick.

Smart, Just Not That Smart

Shari and Debra'south killer was enjoying having the detectives and the Smith family unit at his mercy. Every bit was covered in the FBI profile of him, he was of above average intelligence. He knew not to exit whatsoever testify on the bodies that could be traced back to him.

His fun was about to come to an stop, notwithstanding, cheers to the piece of evidence he had practically placed directly in the easily of the detectives: Shari'due south "Last Will and Testament" letter.

Given that the alphabetic character was written on paper from a legal pad (it was non simply loose newspaper), there was a good hazard that things the killer had written on previous sheets from the pad could accept left indentations on the sheets Shari wrote her letter on. Forensic document examiner Mickey Dawson used an electrostatic detection apparatus on the letter of the alphabet to detect any of these sorts of indentations. What he plant was pretty incredible; the car detected a a listing of names and telephone numbers. It appeared that it was a "call in case of emergency" sort of list.

One phone numbers was well-nigh complete, only missing the concluding digit. It began with 205, which showed it was an Alabama number. The next 3 digits, 837, was the exchange for Huntsville, AL. Detectives had ix out of ten digits they needed, and at that place were only 9 possibilities for what the 10th digit could be. They tested the phone number with the 9 different options for the tenth digit until someone picked up.

It was a young man who answered the phone. Detectives asked if he had whatever connections to South Carolina. He told them that yes, his parents lived there. The young man'south father was Ellis Sheppard, who lived just 15 miles from the Smith dwelling house.

Ellis Sheppard had no inkling how he could be of aid to detectives, merely he agreed to speak to them. He told them that he had been on vacation with his married woman when Shari Smith had disappeared.

Then, they played Sheppard a recording of one of the killer's later phone calls to the Smiths, in which the voice was not distorted. Immediately, Sheppard was able to identify the voice.

"That'south Larry Gene Bell!" Sheppard exclaimed.

Larry Factor Bell had been house sitting while they were away on vacation, Sheppard explained. On examination of Sheppard's phone records from when they were away, detectives discovered that some of the calls to the Smiths later on Shari was kidnapped were made from the Sheppard's dwelling.

Sheppard explained that he had left the list of phone numbers for Bell for while they were away. The list included the number of his son, who lived in Alabama .

Larry Gene Bell

Niggling information is available on Larry Factor Bell's childhood. He was born in Ralph, Alabama on Oct. thirty, 1949 and was one of v children. The Bell family unit never settled in one identify for long, moving betwixt Alabama, S Carolina and Mississippi. Bong graduated high school in Mississippi and went to trade school to go an electrician. When his preparation was finished, he moved to Columbia, South Carolina, where he got married and had 1 son.

In 1970, Bong joined the Marines, but was enrolled for less than a yr; he would be discharged subsequently accidentally shooting himself in the knee while cleaning a gun. Subsequently his stint in the Marines, he worked for a brief period at the Department of Corrections in Columbia. In 1972, he moved his family unit to Rock Loma, South Carolina. In 1976, he and his wife divorced. I'm assuming she got total custody of their son.

Profiled To A Tee

When Bell picked up Ellis Sheppard and his wife from the airport later on their vacation, he was non himself. He seemed nervous and on-edge. He had non shaved and he had lost weight. All he wanted to talk most was the missing Smith girl.

Bell was a textbook example of a killer beginning to "lose his cool". The behaviors he was exhibiting are precisely what FBI behavioral analysts await for when trying to track downwardly a killer.

Sheriff Metts would later hash out the awarding of behavioral assay in this case. Research in the field was in its early stages at the time, he explained, but John Douglas, as well equally other agents from the FBI Behavioral Science Unit, worked on the instance with him. Their profile of Shari and Debra'southward killer was spot on.

The only part they were slightly off on was his historic period. Bong was slightly older than the agents idea he would exist (he was 35, they guessed he would be in his mid to late twenties or early on thirties). They were, even so, correct regarding the following: Bell was white and slightly overweight (although he had lost weight since kidnapping and murdering Shari). He was divorced. He was intelligent, and had good knowledge of electronics.

Bell's past also included sexually motivated crimes; he had been caught harassing women over the phone earlier, making threats of a sexual nature. He had also attempted to kidnap a female student from the Academy of Southward Carolina but failed.

Bell's Arrest and Sentencing

On June 27 1985, 28 days later kidnapping and murdering Shari Smith, Bong was arrested. Police plant further evidence in the Sheppard home which incriminated Bell - six long blonde hairs that were virtually definitely Shari's. I don't believe they were forensically tested, but they were said to be "microscopically similar" to her pilus. They did not belong to Mrs. Sheppard or anybody the Sheppards knew.

Bell denied having annihilation to do with the kidnapping and deaths of Shari Smith and Debra Helmick. Just rather than merely outright denying it, he claimed it was the "bad" Larry Gene Bell who was guilty of the murders.

Bong at the Berkeley Canton courthouse on Feb. 11, 1986 for the jury selection for his upcoming trial (Source: The State)

In Feb 1986, Bell went to trial for the murder of Shari Smith. He made a scene during his six-hour long testimony, yelling and making bizarre comments similar the post-obit: "Mona Lisa is a man, and silence is golden, my friend."

It was obvious he was attempting to manipulate the jury into believing he was insane. Nobody bought it.

The jury deliberated for only 47 minutes. They returned verdicts of guilty on both charges of kidnapping and first caste murder in the instance of Shari Smith. Bell was sentenced to expiry.

He was tried separately, in 1987, for the kidnapping and murder of Debra Helmick. The jury in that trial came back with the same verdict: guilty on both counts.

Information technology was not only Shari and Debra'due south families and friends who were shaken by the heinous acts of Larry Gene Bell. The entire land of Southward Carolina was on edge from the time Shari was kidnapped to the day Bell was arrested.

Worried parents were wary of letting their children play outside without adult supervision. Teen girls were fear-stricken, and for good reason. They began traveling in groups, no affair how short the distance. To walk alone for even the shortest time was not worth the risk.

Even afterwards Bong was arrested, the fear never completely lifted. The scars he inflicted on the communities Shari and Debra left behind, though faded, nevertheless remain to this day.

Bell Is Executed

Bong was given a selection between beingness executed by lethal injection or by the electrical chair. He ultimately chose the chair.

There were no reports of Bell being a vehement prisoner. But I doubt that his loud and frequent declarations that he was the son of God made him any friends while in prison. Every bit I mentioned previously, Bell had a God complex, something that he would project until his final day on Earth.

On Oct. 4, 1996, after 10 years on death row, 46-year-old Bell died silently in S Carolina's electric chair. He had no parting words as he left this globe behind.

Unsolved Disappearances

Bell remains a suspect in the cases of ii women, 26-year-onetime Sandee Elaine Cornett and 21-year-quondam Denise Newsom Porch. Both women disappeared from Charlotte, Due north Carolina. Sandee was engaged to a coworker of Bell's, and apparently Bell had attended a party at her apartment before. She was last seen in November. 1984.

Denise Porch (source: here)

Denise managed the Yorktown Apartments (where she also lived) on Tyvola Road in Charlotte. The concluding fourth dimension anybody saw her was when she was showing a man around the Yorktown Apartments on July 31, 1975.  She had left her husband a note letting him know what she was doing. Despite an extensive search, Denise was never seen once more. She was alleged legally dead in 1982.

Bell became a suspect in Denise's disappearance after he was convicted of the murders of Shari Smith and Debra Helmick. Equally it turned out, Bell had been living just 300 yards from the Yorktown Apartments when Denise disappeared in 1975.

Aftermath

Unfortunately, I could notice very little information on Debra May Helmick. She was simply nine years one-time when Larry Gene Bell so cruelly ripped her away from her friends and family. I have no doubt that those who loved her miss her every day.

Dawn Smith, adamant not to let grief take over her life, decided she would enter the 1986 Miss S Carolina pageant, as Shari had always encouraged her to practice. She would be crowned the winner, singing "Je Veux Vivre" from Roméo et Juliette every bit her talent. Dawn would go on to be 2d runner-up in the 1987 Miss America competition.

Dawn is now a Christian singer/songwriter and motivational speaker. Her book, Grace And so Amazing: A True Story of God's Grace in the Midst of Life-Shattering Tragedy, is a tribute to Shari and a testament to the pivotal office her faith played in guiding her later Shari's murder.

"[Shari's murder] had the potential of ruining my family's life. It did. It could have, just by the grace of God nosotros chose not to allow information technology to. It's only by the grace of God that helps us—whatsoever of us—to be able to say this will not define me. This will non destroy me. This is going to brand me a stronger person and all the same be used for good." - Dawn Smith

Bob Smith later praised the fortitude and forcefulness his daughter displayed when she wrote the letter to her family, all the while knowing how close she was to expiry:

"That letter has been more closure to me than any kind of closure that the courts could do for me. Just the fact that she knew where she was going and she had that kind of faith."

Shari Faye Smith (25 Jun 1967 - 1 Jun 1985) (source: hither)

Debra May Helmick (12 Nov 1975 - 15 Jun 1985) (source: The State)

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Source: https://www.talkmurderwithme.com/blog/2020/12/26/larry-gene-bell

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