What Happened to Fran Gladden-Smith? We Finally Have Answers
John Smith Stored the Remains of His First Wife in a Wooden Box — What Happened to His Second?
The frame of John Smith's first wife used to be found in a wooden box Smith made himself. What happened to his 2nd wife?
By Jennifer TisdaleApr. 26 2024, Published 4:Sixteen p.m. ET
Fran Gladden-Smith
According to NJ.com, in September 1991, 49-year-old Fran Gladden-Smith left a note for her husband John that learn, "Going away for a few days. Don’t forget to feed the fish." The couple was once new to Princeton, N.J., and had simply moved there from Florida earlier in the year. It would have been ordinary for his wife to pick out up and leave. Smith would later tell police that Gladden-Smith had packed a suitcase sooner than leaving, however her suitcase was nonetheless of their condominium.
This small however significant lie forged a suspicious doubt over Smith's story, who was their first suspect after he reported Gladden-Smith missing on Oct. 4, 1991. Unfortunately, she used to be never discovered, though decades later, Gladden-Smith's circle of relatives would get some answers, alternatively unsatisfying. What happened to Fran Gladden-Smith? Here's what we know.
What happened to Fran Gladden-Smith? Only her husband truly knows.
On July 19, 2001, Smith was sentenced to lifestyles in prison with out the chance for parole in the first 15 years. He was once found guilty of murder in August 2000, but it surely was not connected to the disappearance of Gladden-Smith. This particular case used to be in reference to Smith's first wife, Janice Hartman, who disappeared in November 1974. It used to be while he was once in prison that information about Gladden-Smith came to light.
Despite not realizing where Gladden-Smith's frame was, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office indicted Smith in 2019. Unfortunately, the case was pushed aside after a judge made up our minds that the jury wouldn't be permitted to know that Smith was once already in prison for the homicide of his first wife. "Mercer County Judge Peter Warshaw ruled in October 2022 the jury would not hear about the Hartman case, saying one spousal murder does not prove another and introducing it as evidence would prejudicially tilt a jury against Smith," in line with NJ.com.
Smith brokered a care for the state so as to have the case dropped, which concerned him revealing the place Gladden-Smith's body had been dumped. He informed them that "two days after his wife died, he put her in a dark blanket and discarded her body in an industrial dumpster at the Carborundum facility in Keasbey, Woodbridge Township, where he worked at the time." It's vital to word that he didn't admit to being the person liable for Gladden-Smith's loss of life.
The body of Janice Hartman used to be found in a field.
Hartman and Smith have been married in 1970 when they had been both 19 years-old and newly out of high school. It did not take long for Hartman's friends and family to learn about Smith's troubling behavior. He would steadily yell at Hartman about her incapability to prepare dinner a meal that glad him, and as soon as threw a chessboard at her. In 1974 she made up our minds to divorce Smith and through November of that year, it used to be finalized.
Three days after the couple was legally divorced, Hartman disappeared and it was Smith who filed the missing individuals document. He advised police she was once final noticed "Nov. 17, 1974 with a stocky man who had a mustache at the Sun Valley Inn, a local tavern," according to Smith v Bobby. That Thanksgiving weekend, Smith's brother Michael found him development a picket field that he used to retailer some of Hartman's clothes in. It stayed till June 1979 when Michael discovered skeletal remains inside it.
Janice Hartman
When he asked his brother what happened, Smith concocted a wild tale about two males attacking him and Hartman. He then claimed an FBI agent threatened to frame Smith for homicide. Strangely, Michael chose to imagine his brother and did nothing when Smith took it and got rid of it. Nothing happened until May 1999 when Michael received a non-prosecution agreement which lead to him agreeing to file telephone conversations along with his brother.
Nothing came of the recordings however police had been eventually ready to attach Smith to Hartman's demise. He by no means confessed to Hartman's homicide and as of the time of this writing, has remained silent about Gladden-Smith's.
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