Dateline NBC: Was Betty Fran Gladden-Smith ever found?

The Betty Fran Gladden-Smith missing case haunted New Jersey authorities for years while her family members fought for justice. Another discovery related to Betty's husband, John Smith, shed light on the mystery as the mummified remains of his first wife, Janice Hartman, were identified in April 2000, per NBC News.

While Janice Hartman was buried in Morocco, Indiana, as a jane doe for two decades, Betty Fran Gladden-Smith remains missing to this day. While John Smith had been indicted for her murder in 2019, the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.

The Dateline NBC episode, titled Chameleon, aired on April 26, 2024, at 9 pm EST on NBC and will be available for streaming on April 27, 2024. The official synopsis reads:

"A woman goes missing; investigators uncover her husband's chilling history."

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How did Betty Fran Gladden-Smith go missing?

Betty "Fran" Gladden married John David Smith in March 1990 after the two dated for a couple of months, per Oxygen. She met John while he was working as an engineer in a computer software company in Florida. The couple moved to a condominium in West Windsor, New Jersey a year into their marriage.

While John Smith had reportedly shared an abusive relationship with his first wife, Janice Hartman, he was a better husband to Fran. Fran's sister, Sherrie Davis, shared with Dateline:

“John was great with my mother and my grandmother."

According to a Daily Mail UK report, Betty Gladden had been bedridden for almost a month due to hip surgery after she had slipped on wet tiles. However, she went missing on September 28, 1991, and was reported to the New Jersey police by Smith as a missing person on October 4, 1991.

John Smith mentioned that he had returned home to find Betty missing and a note left behind by her which read:

“Going away for a few days. Don’t forget to feed the fish.”

Per NBC News, John mentioned in the missing persons report that Betty had left for Florida to visit her family, having packed a yellow suitcase. However, this account was similar to the explanation he gave when his first wife went missing in 1974. John had mentioned that Janice Hartman had left for Florida with a red suitcase.

Fran's daughter, Dedy Childers, spoke to Dateline to share:

"I said, 'John, where's my mom?' He said, 'I thought she was with you. I was absolutely panicked because I knew something was really wrong."

The investigation into Betty Fran Gladden's disappearance picked up when the West Windsor detectives found out about Janice Hartman's disappearance under similar circumstances.

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Was Betty Fran Gladden ever found?

While John spoke to the West Windsor detectives saying that Betty had left for Florida to meet her family, she would never be seen again. Betty's family started suspecting foul play when they were informed by the detectives of John Smith's previous marriage - something they were unaware of.

As the years passed and John Smith was convicted for Janice Hartman's murder, Betty was never found. The West Windsor authorities continued to investigate the disappearance with the importance of a murder case, per NJ.com.

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Did John Smith admit to killing Betty Fran Gladden?

John Smith was indicted with murder charges of Betty Fran Gladden in November 2019, per NBC News. The prosecutor’s office, however, dropped the charges after Mercer County Judge Peter Warshaw ruled that evidence from the Hartman case could not be presented in the murder trial.

The prosecutors reached an agreement with Smith wherein he confessed to knowing about Fran's whereabouts in exchange for no charges. While he admitted no guilt, he mentioned that he had wrapped her body in a dark blanket and disposed of it at the Carborundum facility in Keasbey, Woodbridge Township - his place of work, per NJ.com.

John Smith further mentioned that a head injury in prison prevented him from recalling all the details of the incident.

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Watch the latest Dateline episode on Peacock on April 27, 2024.