How did Beverly Lynn Smith die? Prime Video documentary The Unsolved Murder of Beverly Lynn Smith explores the murder

Beverly Lynn Smith's murder is the topic of a new documentary, The Unsolved Murder of Beverly Lynn Smith, premiering on Amazon Prime on Friday, May 6, 2022.

The documentary film looks into the hunt for a killer and searching for the truth in a four-decade-long mystery. Nathalie Bibeau, the film's director, Tara Jan, Courtney Dobbins, Jonas Prupas, and Catherine Legge produced the documentary. She noted that the story is personal to her in more ways than one, saying,

“I have a relative who is in jail because of this kind of sting. It’s not related to this case but, when the story came to me, I was immediately hooked for that reason because I connected with the stakes and hyperbole and the theatrical nature of this kind of sting operation.”

It remains one of the coldest cases in Canada, and it's still an intriguing narrative of one of Durham Region's longest unsolved homicides. While most of the investigation details are being kept under wraps, let's go into all the details about what happened to Beverly Lynn Smith.

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How was Beverly Lynn Smith killed?

Beverly Lynn Smith was vibrant, loving, and a beacon of light and hope wherever she went. The 22-year-old mother was a conventional American "Girl Next Door" and shared a home in Raglan, Oshawa, with her husband, Doug Smith, and their 10-month-old daughter, Rebecca.

Beverly, an old soul, had a knack for pulling off the perfect joke with her twin sister Barbra, and she was so fond of antiques and sewing that she even made her wedding gown. That was until the most unthinkable of tragedies befell her.

On Monday, December, Beverly Smith was shot and murdered at her family home in the north Oshawa hamlet of Raglan. 9, 1974. She was shot with a bullet in her head, which almost made it look like an execution. In 2014, a Cobourg man named Alan Smith was arrested and tried for her murder.

Since the night of the murder almost 50 years ago, Alan Smith has been a crucial figure in the inquiry. Smith became a significant person of interest as he used to be Beverly Lynn Smith's neighbor and was the subject of a contentious police investigation after a polygraph test raised suspicions.

Smith made headlines when apprehended for the crime more than 30 years later. Charges were dropped in an unexpected twist, only to be reinstated months later. Smith has maintained his innocence throughout all of the twists and turns of the case so far.

He has now sued the Durham Regional Police Service, the Ontario Provincial Police, and the York Regional Police for their roles in his detention. In addition, he is suing three Crown attorneys. The investigation is still ongoing.

Don't forget to catch The Unsolved Murder of Beverly Lynn Smith, which will premiere on Amazon Prime on Friday, May 6, 2022, at 12:00 a.m. GMT.