MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WTVF) — Secret surveillance video, a detailed body map, and a missing woman. It's all part of the mystery surrounding Marcie Smith.
Her husband Palmer Smith was the lone suspect in her disappearance. Detectives always believed he killed his wife, but couldn't prove it.
Now Palmer has died, and there was no deathbed confession.
This has all the elements of a murder mystery and a prime suspect who bedeviled Murfreesboro police for years. They never gave up on the cold case -- hoping Smith would eventually slip up.
He never did and now Smith — in his mid-80s — has died.
"My belief? Palmer Smith was the one responsible," said Deputy District Attorney Trevor Lynch who headed up the case.
"You think he got away with murder?" I asked. "Personally? Yes," Lynch responded.
What happened dates back to 2007 with this tearful plea:
"But anybody knows where she is I wish they'd help us, help her, please," a tearful Smith said the day after his wife Marcie disappeared. "I don't want to get emotional. When I think about it bothers me."
Police had their doubts. The only hard piece of evidence was a surveillance video from a Walmart parking lot. The video shows Smith pulling a bicycle from Marcie's SUV the day she disappeared and then casually riding away.
Later Smith came forward with a so-called 'body map' he claimed was sent to him anonymously from the killer showing where to look for the body. Police believe Smith sent the map to himself as a ploy.
He knew detectives thought he was the killer, but denied it from the beginning when I asked him back in 2008:
"I think I am their prime suspect," Smith said.
"Palmer did you kill your wife," I asked.
"No, I did not and I don't know who did," Smith responded.
Smith stuck to the story till the very end. The case had gone cold, but police always hoped Smith might slip up. But that never happened.
Without any physical evidence in the case, Smith was never charged with murder.
"I could tell you what I think, but the one thing I'm not going to do is put out how to get away with murder guides so that's why I wouldn't say how I think he did it," Lynch said.
Marcie Smith's remains have never been found. Her husband and prime suspect Palmer may now have died, but the cold case remains open.
Smith did serve a year in jail when it was proven he lied to police investigating the case and for planting evidence. But without a body, there was never enough to bring a murder charge.
