Charlottesville police released new details on the investigation into the disappearance of local transgender teenager Dashad “Sage” Smith, removing the only person of interest in the case from suspicion.
Smith — then 19 years old — had plans to meet with former person of interest Erik McFadden and disappeared along West Main Street Nov. 20, 2012.
An updated timeline of the night shows Smith left home at 5:40 p.m. and was seen walking on 4th St. NW around 6:30 p.m. Smith later told witnesses at a bus stop in the area about meeting someone at the Amtrak Station. Text records show several inquiries from McFadden regarding Smith’s location during this time, ending with a final message: “Bye you stood me up smh.”
McFadden aroused suspicion when he abruptly disappeared a few days after initially speaking with the police, stating he did not meet with Smith on the night in question. Discrepancies between his initial account and an email to his girlfriend — in which he said he and Smith were approached by a car full of people — led to confusion about the night’s events.
Because the Charlottesville police have been working with limited information over the duration of the investigation, they still need to talk to McFadden, Charlottesville Police Captain Gary Pleasants said.
“There [are] no real directions to go [on] now other than what we had all along, and that is either McFadden or the car full of people,” Pleasants said. “[McFadden] certainly has information we need or need to dispel, one or the other.”
On the third anniversary of Smith’s disappearance this Friday, police will post missing person flyers around West Main Street. Pleasants said the posters are being made for CPD by the Save the Next Girl Foundation, which has assisted the department numerous times.
“Very little information has come in on this case over the last three years, even when it was fresh when [Smith] just went missing,” Pleasants said. “It may jog someone’s memory… anyone may have realized something they didn’t realize before.”
The reward for information on the case was doubled to $20,000 last November and is still being offered. Pleasants said the police are currently having a discussion with city officials on raising it further, although no decision has been made.
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