Cindy Smith's case - A detailed case overview

Oxygen's Cold Justice is re-airing tonight the episode that follows the brutal murder of Cindy Smith in 1988. Smith went missing from a local bar in Lawrence County, Missouri, on July 28, 1988. The 31-year-old nurse’s aide was reported missing when she did not pick up her sons that evening.

Eleven days later, her body was recovered from Dry Valley Cemetery. For over three decades, her brutal murder haunted the small town and devastated her family. It was only when Cold Justice’s Kelly Siegler and Johnny Bonds, alongside local investigators, picked up the case once again that it was finally solved.

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The discovery of Cindy Smith's body and the identification of suspects

In August 1988, tragedy struck Lawrence County, Missouri, when the body of 31-year-old nurse’s aide Cindy Smith was discovered in a cemetery. On July 28, 1988, Cindy had gone on a night out with friends at Checkers, a local bar in Lawrence County. She was then supposed to pick up her two boys, eight-year-old Shawn and four-year-old Jason, while returning home.

When Cindy showed no signs of showing up, her disappearance was quickly reported. Following a county-wide search, Cindy’s body was finally discovered in Dry Valley Cemetery, about 25 minutes from the bar. Her body had already begun decomposing, and she had been decapitated.

Cindy Smith's brutal murder triggered an investigation, which led to the identification of two suspects in the case. The first was Cindy’s estranged husband, Louis Smith, with whom she was going through a divorce. The second was a local man named Lawrence Timmons, a laborer with a troubling history of violent crimes.

In 1976, Timmons was convicted of kidnapping an 11-year-old boy, for which he had to serve four years in prison. His background made him a potential suspect in Cindy’s disappearance and death.

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Main suspect: Lawrence Timmons

Witness accounts from the night Cindy went missing made Lawrence Timmons the primary suspect in the case. Marilyn Chambers, a friend who drove Cindy to Checkers, recalled that Timmons was behaving aggressively toward women that evening while repeatedly asking them to dance. Chambers also recalled Cindy mentioning to them that Timmons would be giving her a ride home that evening.

Another witness recalled seeing Cindy inside a pickup truck with a man he could not identify. However, he could describe the truck in detail, and the description closely matched the vehicle Timmons drove at the time.

Cindy Smith's body was found decomposed and decapitated (Image via Getty)

Moreover, his then-wife Deborah, who died in 1994, had reportedly confided in a friend that she believed her husband had killed a woman and left her body in a cemetery. Deborah allegedly told her friend that her husband had come home late, immediately washed his clothes, and cleaned his truck the following day. This unusual behaviour raised suspicions.

Timmons also had a disturbing pattern of harassment. Several women in Monett, Missouri, claimed that he used his position at a YMCA to prey upon women. One woman even claimed that he sent her an inappropriate email propositioning sex shortly after she joined the gym.

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Cindy's case was finally solved after thirty years

For decades, Cindy Smith's case remained unsolved, with her sons growing up without any closure regarding what happened to their mother. It was then taken up by Cold Justice host Kelly Siegler, alongside retired homicide investigator Johnny Bonds, who joined forces with Lt. Chris Berry and Sgt. Melissa Phillips of the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office.

Together, they re-examined old evidence, tracked down witnesses, and pieced together a circumstantial case pointing to Timmons. They presented their findings to Lawrence County District Attorney Don Trotter.

The testimonies, combined with corroborating evidence, were compelling enough to pursue charges, and on September 6, 2019, Timmons was finally arrested. At the time of his arrest, he was already incarcerated on unrelated charges. Thirty years after Cindy Smith's violent death, her family finally got some closure and justice.

However, Lawrence Timmons always maintained his innocence during his trial, where he was represented by his attorney, Adam Woody. The murder charge against him was dismissed in late 2021.

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Catch more about the case on Oxygen tonight.