Khristine Renee Smith

• Missing Since 09/28/1994
• Missing From Portage, Michigan
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 12/17/1956 (69)
• Age 27 years old
• Height and Weight 5'5, 120 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics White female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Khristine's nickname is Khris. Her maiden name is Klein and she may use the name Caress L. Xavier. Khristine wears contact lenses.

Details of Disappearance

Khristine was last seen on September 28, 1994 at her home in the 5800 block of Thunder Bay Street in Portage, Michigan. Her husband, Russell L. Smith, told everyone they got into an argument and he left, and when her returned she was gone. A photograph of Russell is posted with this case summary. Neighbors reported her missing on September 30.

Khristine's loved ones did not believe Russell's story; they did not think she would have abandoned her daughter. She also didn't take her car, her clothes or any money, didn't use any credit cards or her bank account after her disappearance, and never picked up her last paycheck. In early October 1994, Russell visited a nude dance club with two boxes of Khristine's clothing and told the dancers his wife had left him and they could have her things.

Russell showed everyone a note that he said Khristine had written on the day of her disappearance, which said she was tired of being a wife and mother and wanted to be free. Her parents thought it had been written much earlier than September 1994. The note mentioned that Khristine had spent "five years waiting on you" in a reference to her marriage, but by September 1994 she and Russell had been married almost eight years. The note also described events that had taken place in 1992, not 1994.

At first police thought Khristine had in fact left Russell, but they began to suspect foul play after Russell refused to let them search his home or speak to his daughter alone. In late 1994, authorities got a warrant to search the Smith residence.

They discovered no physical evidence of murder, but they did find items that led them to charge Russell with embezzlement from his employer. Various items stolen from his workplace, including a snowblower, electric sander and tires, were found. He resigned his job the same day he was arrested for embezzlement. He later accepted a plea deal in the case and was sentenced three years of probation and 300 hours of community service.

Russell and Khristine's daughter was removed from their home in January 1995 when evidence surfaced that Russell may have been molesting her. He bought the seven-year-old a bra and makeup, dyed her hair blonde, moved her clothes into his bedroom and had her share his bed. He was never charged in connection with the alleged abuse, but his daughter was placed in foster care and the court ordered Russell to get counseling.

The girl never lived with him again. She spent nine months in a local foster home, then went to live with her maternal grandmother in Florida, then after a few months in that placement she went to live with her paternal grandparents in Ohio. In January 1996, Russell voluntarily gave up his parental rights, and Khristine's were terminated due to "desertion." Their daughter's paternal grandparents adopted her. She told police that her parents had argued on the day of Khristine's disappearance and she found blood in the upstairs bathroom, which Russell remodeled later that year.

Russell was arrested for Khristine's murder at his home in Florida in December 1998. In 1999, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He confessed that after they put their child on the school bus, they began to argue and Khristine threatened to leave with their daughter. Russell stated he shot Khristine to death, put her body in a black 55-gallon steel drum, took the drum out on Lake Erie in a boat, and threw the drum and the murder weapon into the lake.

He maintained that he was driven to kill her by her selfishness, meanness, and frequent affairs with other men. Investigators could find no evidence that Khristine had ever been unfaithful with anyone, but Russell had made multiple accusations of adultery during the marriage and even threatened to kill one man he thought was involved with Khristine.

Russell agreed to help detectives find her body, but searches of the lake turned up nothing. He was sentenced to 35 to 70 years in prison for his wife's murder. Khristine's remains have never been found.