Dateline NBC — What happened to Janice Hartman and Betty Fran Gladden-Smith?

The murder of Janice Hartman and the mysterious disappearance of Betty Fran Gladden-Smith have piqued the interest of true crime lovers over the years as the case has been unfolding with time. John Smith, the main suspect in both cases, married Hartman in 1970 and Fran Gladden in 1990.

Janice Hartman went missing in November 1974, and Fran Gladden supposedly disappeared after she went on a trip in October 1991. While road workers discovered Janice's mummified and boxed remains on a spring day in 1980, Fran Gladden-Smith's body remains missing.

The Dateline NBC episode, titled Chameleon, chronicles the murder of Janice Hartman and Betty Fran Gladden-Smith as it airs on April 26, 2024, at 9 pm EST on NBC. The official synopsis of the episode reads,

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

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What happened to Janice Hartman?

Janice Elaine Hartman and John Smith were fresh out of high school when they decided to get married. At the age of 19, the college sweethearts eloped to Detroit, where they tied the knot in 1970, per Oxygen. The couple returned to suburban Ohio in due course and took up separate jobs.

Their short-lived marriage was known to have its share of problems, and the couple divorced in 1974. Per the Wooster Daily Record, Janice Hartman of Doylestown reportedly went missing three days after the divorce.

A still of Janice Hartman (Image via Forensic Files Wiki)

An Oxygen report further stated that their divorce came shortly after Hartman had allegedly been the victim of an attempted r*pe. Hartman's family was shocked to receive the news as she regularly connected with her loved ones.

Janice was considered missing from November 17, 1974. Her skeletal remains were recovered by road workers from the edge of a cornfield by a remote stretch of highway in rural Indiana on March 22, 1980, per the Daily Record. The body of Janice Hartman (23) was found inside a four-and-a-half-foot-long sealed box roughly constructed out of plywood.

Janice's legs had been cut at her knees to make her fit inside the box, which, as later found, was constructed by John Smith. The authorities in Indiana stored the wooden box for over 20 years while Hartman's body was buried in Morrocco, Indiana, as an unidentified Jane Doe.

The investigations and legal proceedings later revealed that Janice Hartman's boxed body had been initially stored in the gas station that John's grandfather owned. John's brother, Michael Smith, had come across the unit and pried it open to find the dismembered and mummified remains of Janice along with her rainbow-dyed hair, per court documents.

John Smith was asked to remove the box when he reportedly dumped it by an isolated roadside itch.

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What happened to Betty Fran Gladden-Smith?

After 15 years, John Smith remarried after he had moved to Florida. He dated Betty "Fran" Gladden for two months before they tied the knot in March 1990 following their whirlwind romance. However, Fran Gladden-Smith disappeared within a year and a half of their marriage.

A still of Betty Fran Gladden-Smith (Image via Dateline NBC)

According to ABC News, John Smith and Betty Fran Gladden-Smith had been residing in a West Windsor, New Jersey condominium. Fran Gladden-Smith's disappearance did not settle well due to the cover-up John Smith used ever since she went missing on October 4, 1991.

While Fran (49) was recovering from hip surgery, John told her close ones that she packed a small red suitcase and had taken off to her home state of Florida - an explanation that was not enough for Fran's daughter and sister as her family never received her.

According to AP News, Betty Fran Gladden-Smith has never been found to date.

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Catch the latest Dateline episode on NBC on April 26, 2024, at 9 pm EST.