write a last will and testament to her family, then taunted them with chilling phone calls. >> have you received the letter today. >> yes. >> okay. so you know now that this is not a hoax call. >> a trace phone line couldn't track the abductor. but scientists would find a clue in the victim's last words. 17-year-old cherry smith had her 17-year-old cherry smith had her whole life before her. in two days she would have the honor of singing her national anthem from the lexington high school. then she would sail off on a cruise what her classmates.

>> they was the cement that held ore family together. he was the happy one. >> at 3:30 p.m. on july 1, 1985 she arrived home interest a graduation pool party. and stopped at the mailbox some 700 feet from her house. her father was watching from his home office as he pulled? >> five or ten minutes passed and she had not come to the house yet. something told me she was wrong. and i ran to the house and into the car and cranked it up and drove to the mailbox. >> bob smith found the door of his daughter's automobile open and running. and her purse on the seat. >> i saw footsteps going to the mailbox but none coming back. >> and he said honey i don't know how to tell you this but shari's car is at the end of the driveway running and she's not in it.

and i remember thinking oh my god. >> the couple called the sheriff's office. >> near the mailbox on the ground was some mail which indicated she had gotten out of the car to pick up the mail and was probably adducted at that point. >> lexington county sheriff jim mets immediately organized the largest man hunt in history for the area. >> we certainly had no reason to expect the she had run away. >> whoever it is that has our daughter shari, we want her back. we miss her. we love her. >> all her parents could do was

wait. >> the smith family was a very influential family in the community. and there was no reason that we could determine why she would be kidnapped other than maybe for ransom purposes. so we anticipated that the individual or individuals responsible would make contact with the family. >> the sheriff's suspicions proved right. two days after the girl had been abducted the smith's received a phone call. a man with a strangely distorted voice demanded to speak to mrs. smith. so prove the call was not a hoax he described the black and yellow bathing suit shari was wearing beneath her shirts and short. >> he said he would release her. he said she was nine. they were watching tv. >> he made no ransom demand but he told the smiths that they would be receiving a letter in the morning. >> my reaction was that individual who's got some fist indication in the crime he's committing. this is not the first time he's engaged in a sex crime of some sort. probably has been thinking about

a crime this for some i'm. >> agent walker agreed that the best hope of finding shari could come from the letter her abductor promise was coming. >> we woke up the postmaster in lexington on the weekend and started looking through the mail. i got to be pretty good at managing my symptoms, except that managing my symptoms was all i was doing. ♪ when i finally told my doctor, he said my crohn's was not under control. ♪ he said humira is for adults like me who have tried other medications

but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease. and that in clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief. and many achieved remission. [ female announcer ] humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. if you're still just managing your symptoms, ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. nineteen years ago, we thought, "wow, how is there no way to tell the good from the bad?" so we gave people the power of the review.

and now angie's list is revolutionizing local service again. you can easily buy and schedule services from top-rated providers. conveniently stay up to date on progress. and effortlessly turn your photos into finished projects with our snapfix app. visit angieslist.com today. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] if you can't stand the heat, get off the test track. get the mercedes-benz you've been burning for at the summer event, going on now at your authorized mercedes-benz dealer. but hurry, offers end july 31st. share your summer moments in your mercedes-benz with us.

shari smith's abductor had allowed the teenager to write a two page letter to her family in which she told them how much he loved them. >> i had a very helpless feeling come over me. but i was not without hope. i held out my hope to the end but i was totally helpless. the word last will and testament

knocked me back and i was totally helpless. i did not know what to do or say and the tough part was i had to show the letter to my wife. >> please don't ever let this ruin your lives shari's letter read. just keep living one day at a time for jesus. some good will come out of this. my thoughts will always be with and in you. in parentheses were the words "casket closed". >> sheriff mets immediately sent the letter to the crime lab hoping forensic document examiner could find some clues. >> i was looking for hand printing or handwriting. i was looking to see if i could

find any trace evidence in the hairs and fibers. >> ten minutes later the abductor called again. >> do you believe me now? >> i'm not really sure i believe you because i haven't had any word from shari and i need to know that shari is well. >> you will know in two or three days. >> why two or three days. >> call the search off. >> later that same evening, he called once more saying that shari was alive and implied he would release her soon. >> i want to tell you one other thing. shari is now part of me. physically, mentally, spiritually, our souls are one now. >> the call was traced to a public pay phone at that drugstore in downtown lexington. but in 1995 trap and trace required 15 minutes for authorities to trace the call and reach its location. the abductor remained on the phone for a very short time. five days after shari's abduction, the kidnapper called again and spoke to both shari's

mother and her 21-year-old sister, dawn. >> at 4:58 a.m. -- no i'm sorry hold on. 3:10 a.m., saturday the first, she hand wrote what you received. 4:58 a.m. saturday the first of june >> okay. saturday the first of june, 4:58 a.m. >> became one soul. >> became one soul. >> what does that mean? >> no questions now, please. to sheriff mets, search no more. blessings are near. >> do not kill my daughter, please. i mean, please. >> we love and miss y'all. tonight goodnight. >> wait a minute. >> he's gone, mom. >> the next day he made another call. >> hello? >> listen carefully. take highway 378 west to traffic

circle. take prosperity exit. go 1 and a half miles. turn right at sign. number 103. go one quarter mile, turn left and white frame building. go to backyard, six feet beyond, we're waiting. god chose us. >> shari's body was found in the backyard. on the body were the yellow top and white shorts she'd last been seen in. the autopsy revealed shari had been dead for several days. investigators believe that shari's abductor inadvertently revealed when he killed her when he corrected himself about the time she wrote the letter. they believe shari died at 4:58 on the morning of june 1st, two hours after she wrote the letter. if that were the case, shari remained alive for only 12 hours

after her abduction. >> one line i'll never forget, when she says casket closed. can you imagine what was going through her mind knowing what she was going to face. she knew at that point that her body had to be in a position that the casket had to be closed. >> they found residue of duct tape on her face. >> her hair does substantially shorter. he had to cut the duct tape out of her hair to keep from leaving it behind. and that tells me he had some experience of level of sophistication that the profile described a white male, unsuccessfully married, probably not currently. mid to late 20s probably early 30s who had a history of sex crimes. >> the signal analysis unit of

the fbi engineering section told investigators that the voice distortion of the abductors voice was accomplished by something called a variable speed controlled device. >> we believed either through employment or through his technical education had some background or experience in electronics. >> investigators believed the killer had everything planned out and was reading from a script clearly evident when he corrected himself about the time of shari's letter. >> 4:58 a.m. -- no i'm sorry. hold on. >> as a final assault to the family, the killer called them on the night of shari's funeral. it was a collect call. >> he wanted to tell us just how he had murdered shari. and he said well can you take it? who could take it? but we didn't have a choice. we had to try to keep him on the line to find out where he was. >> a few weeks later the killer called again. this time he no longer wanted to talk about shari. after the funeral of 17-year-old shari smith, her killer continued to taunt the family by phone. but he no longer had any interest in shari.

when you compare the top speed of dsl from the phone company with the top speed of comcast business internet... well, there's really no comparison. why pay more for less? call today for a low price on speeds up to 150mbps. and find out more about our two-year price guarantee. comcast business. built for business. after the funeral of 17-year-old shari smith, her killer continued to taunt the

family by phone. but he no longer had any interest in shari. >> have you heard about debra may hilick. >> no. >> the 10-year-old? >> richland county? >> yeah. >> uh-huh. >> listen carefully. >> two weeks after shari smith was kidnapped debra may hilnick was abducted in front of her family's trailer 24 miles from the smith's home. her father was inside just 20 feet away. neighbors saw someone pull up in a car, get out and grab her before speeding off. just like shari debra was a pretty blue-eyed blond. unlike shari, debra as only a child. >> turn right. last dirt road before you come to the stop sign at two notch road. go through chains and no trespassing signs.

and 50 yards and to the left. go 10 yards. debra may is waiting. god forgive us all. >> i felt like we were dealing with the same individual. >> investigators now knew they were hunting a serial killer. at the south carolina law enforcement division, scientists were still going over their only piece of hard evidence, shari's last will and testament. it had been written on lined paper from a legal pad. forensic document examiner mickey dawson believed latent images, or indentions, from a previous page of the pad might be revealed with the use of an electrostatic detection apparatus.

>> when i received the letter, took it into the laboratory and opened it up on sterile paper. and then each sheet would individually go into a humidified box. >> the document was then placed on top of a brass plate. and the magnetic field activated. the paper was then brushed with a substance similar to fingerprint powder. >> through the combination of all of this latent images form. >> dawson's first try yielded what appeared to be a grocery list. >> there was some bills to pay and there was a list of names and telephone numbers left someone to call in case of an emergency. >> dawson was able to make out what appeared to be a partial telephone number. the first set of numbers, 205 was the area code for alabama. the next three, 837, was the exchange for huntsville. but they only had three of the last four numbers to finish the

sequence. >> they just plugged the 9 digits in for the seventh. and found a telephone number that was a good number. >> finally called this guy in alabama and said do you have any relatives in south carolina. he said yes my mother and father. >> the man's father was 50-year-old ellis sheppard who lived just 50 miles from shari smith's home. telephone records indicated that some of the calls made to the smith family were made from his home. not surprisingly police wanted to here what mr. sheppard had to say. really... so our business can be on at&t's network for $175 dollars a month? yup. all five of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. low dues... great terms...

let's close. introducing at&t mobile share value plans... ...with our best-ever pricing for business.

it can help your business save money. false. the truth is when you compare our fastest internet to the fastest dsl from the phone company, comcast business gives you more for your money. why pay more for less? call today for a low price on speeds up to 150mbps.

and find out more about our two-year price guarantee. comcast business. built for business. 50-year-old ellis sheppard was an nutrition. some of the calls we are made from his phone. >> i wasn't worried but it was a little bit of a shock they wanted to talk to me. >> sheppard had no idea why his son's telephone number was found on shari smith's last will and testament. he said he and his wife were on vacation at the time. an alibi that checked out. >> i said dirty son of pitch

because i knew it was him. i said that's larry gene bell. >> he was house sitting for the sheppards the six weeks he had been away on vacation. >> i had left bell a lot of phone numbers he may need to call in my absence while we are on our trip. >> those pages were turned over to investigators. the transcript was superimposed over shari's last will and testament. the sheppard's note matched the indentions on share's letter, proving that shari used a piece of paper directly underneath. the sheppards also said that when bell picked them up at the airport, all he wanted to talk about was the kidnapping and murder of the smith girl.

bell has lost weight, was unshaven and seemed highly agitated. this is the police video taken inside the sheppard's home. investigators found six blond hairs in the bathroom that were microscopically similar to shari's hair. the commemorative duck stamp used to mail her last will and testament matched a sheet of stamps in ellis sheppard's desk drawer. bell was arrested the following morning. >> he just seemed to be shocked that law enforcement now had centered in on him. >> as the fbi had predicted, bell had been involved in various sexual incidents since childhood. >> he had been in trouble for making obscene telephone calls and at one point attempting to kidnap a coed from the university of south carolina. >> when questioned bell denied any involvement in the murders of shari smith and debra

hellenic. >> all he wanted to say over and over was this larry gene bell didn't do it. it was the bad larry gene bell. >> larry gene bell stood trial for the murder of shari smith in january 1986. >> in my closing argument i told the jury, shari smith had the fortitude and courage to write out her last will and testament. and i put the pen that we took from the sheppard's house in front of the jury. now each one of you don't you have the courage to sign your name on a death penalty verdict. it was electrifying. >> the jury needed only 47 minutes to return the verdict of the guilty of kidnapping and f. larry gene bell was sentenced to death by electrocution. >> that was the only punishment for him and probably -- this is

horrible to say -- too good of a punishment for him. >> he was tried separately for kidnapping and murder of debra held nick. that jury returned the same verdict. ten years after his trial larry gene bell became the last man to die in south carolina's electric chair. >> without that letter and without the ability to bring up things on that page that you couldn't see with the naked eye, it would have been even longer before we'd have gotten larry gene bell. >> bob smith remains a chaplain for the sheriff's department. his wife hilda recently offered a book "the rose of shari" to honor their daughter's memory. both are convinced as shari predicted in their last will and testament, some good as come out of their monumental loss.

>> that letter has been more closure to me than any kind of closure that the court could co-for me. just the fact she knew where she was going and she had that kind of faith. california police had several suspects in the robbery and murder of a retired couple. unfortunately, the forensic evidence was inconclusive. ten years later, a determined forensic scientist with materials used by dentists found evidence that had previously been overlooked, and in so doing, made scientific history. bakersfield, california, known for its oil fields, wide open spaces and an aggressive crime investigation unit.