Angela K. Smith -- Missing in Kentucky Since March 2016

Details from NamUs**: 

Has not been seen since her house caught fire on 3/20/2016. [Author disputes description.]

Missing Person: Angela K. Smith

Alias: "Toot toot" or "tutu"
Last-contact date: March 20th, 2016 (disputed: one source says March 12th, 2016)
The area where the MP was last seen: Manchester, Kentucky
Link to government source: NamUs MP 

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VITAL DETAILS

Ethnicity: Caucasian
Sex: Female
Age at time of disappearance: 30 years old
Birthdate: Angela K. Smith was born between March 21st, 1985, and March 20th, 1986 based on her reported age at the last date of reported contact.
Hair: Brown, shoulder-length
Eyes: Blue
Scar: None listed
Height/weight: 5'5" to 5'10 and 130 to 145 pounds
BMI*: Angela K. Smith was in the normal range for BMI.
Tattoos: Angela K. Smith did not have any tattoos associated with her profiles.

Angela K. Smith was last heard from on March 20th, 2016 when she was 30 years of age. What stands out with her disappearance was that she has not been seen since her house caught fire. This individual has now been missing for about 5 years as of the original publication date of this blog post.

Research into this case did reveal one inconsistency. NamUs says her last contact was March 20th, 2016, however, a news source (Mountain News in Eastern Kentucky) said she was last seen on March 12th. Sometimes "last seen" and "last contact" can mean different things, however.

Smith, the missing person, lived in what I think was a trailer home in the Red Bird community. One source, quoted below, said she lived with her boyfriend. This trailer home burned down in March 2016. Angela was not reported missing until March 27th, 2016 (WKYT):

30-year-old Angela Smith of Clay County has been missing for more than a month. Angela's sister, Donna Fryman, says she grew worried when no one in their family heard from Angela on Easter day, March 27.

Donna went to police later that day and learned the home on Little Creek Road where Angela lived with her boyfriend had burned to the ground days earlier. Police say the last time anyone has seen Angela was March 12.

Kentucky State Police tell us they've had cadaver dogs at the site of what's left of the home, but found nothing suspicious. Police say they aren't sure if the 30-year-old's disappearance and the fire are tied together. KSP says Angela's boyfriend has been interviewed several times.

'Missing after a house fire' reminded me of a different and unrelated case that I covered at this site. Ricky Jean Bryant's home caught on fire and she was never seen after it happened. She was thought to be inside the home as it burned down, according to the journalism I researched. Bryant was a toddler and I wondered if her small volume meant her remains would be more likely to be entirely consumed by a house fire.

In contrast, Smith was an adult in the normal range for Body Mass Index. According to what I've read with house fire situations, the expectation is that if an adult dies in a house fire then the remains should be recovered. Adult-sized bones are not thought to be consumed entirely by flames.

So what does it mean for an adult's house to burn down, the person goes missing, and then that person's remains are not in the remains of the house fire? One scenario would be that she was abducted and/or murdered and the person that disappeared her created the house fire in order to destroy evidence or create a diversion of some sort. While that is just an opinion, fire as a means of destroying evidence is thought to have been used in many clandestine cases. Take a look at the following clippings from unrelated cases as food for thought.

Wed, Jul 27, 1949 – Page 4 · The Gastonia Gazette (Gastonia, North Carolina) · Newspapers.com

Thu, Oct 21, 1954 – 15 · Chillicothe Gazette (Chillicothe, Ohio) · Newspapers.com

Angela Smith did not have any articles or items associated with her missing person's reports, at least of the sources that I consulted. Please, take a moment to share this article on social media using hashtags relevant to the missing person's area. Also, please include the website hashtag #MPCSL.

Author: S.K. Lambert (Blogger Hobbyist and Freelance Writer)

All articles are subject to editing after the original posting.

S.K. Lambert (Blogger Hobbyist and Freelance Writer) is not a Private Investigator, however, he is currently studying to be one as of March 2021.

Website hashtag: #MPCSL

*For BMI values, I use the UPPER or HIGHER ranges that are given for height and weight.
**Text might be paraphrased. If taken verbatim, then grammar or spelling errors are not necessarily corrected from original sources.
Disclaimer: Whenever possible, government sources are preferred for getting the details of a missing person's case. However, any source that the article writer deems reputable may be used.