School of Humans.
It was just before seven pm on September fifteenth, twenty eighteen, when a man, his wife, and their young child were passing by the train tracks in Gaylsburg, Illinois. They saw something that looked like a body lying in the creek bed of Cedar Fort Creek below.
Jail for next year. I mean nine one was your emergency? Well, you know what we're walking, me and my wife and it is a body academy in faris and what did you find? I think there is a body I'm down in the creek? Yes it is okay? Can you tell us that the male or female?
I mean, I can get it cool as by. I can't walk through it.
Sold, if you feel comfortable and you're safe doing so? Yes, he can't take video?
Okay? Hell about.
Are you going down in the creek?
No, I'm not.
I'm just looking rome Okay, jumping time by the training clack. Is it a male or female?
It's a male?
Can you tell if he's breathing? I can't tell anything. I have to jump in don no, don't jump, and I have an officer coming to you. You can't. Can you holler at him and see if they'll move?
Yeah?
Sure sure.
The body was identified as Tyler Smith, a twenty three year old graduate of Western Illinois University who had gone out drinking the night before September fourteenth with two friends from the Illinois National Guard, his friend Evan, and Evan's cousin Robbie. It was supposed to be one last celebration. Tyler had had his last drill the next morning, and then he was moving to San Jose, California, where he
had been accepted into the police Academy. He was just two days away for leaving for his new life in California. His mother, Sandra Halsney, was planning on going to California with him to get him set up there, but they never got to take that road trip because something happened that night. Tyler got separated from his friends shortly after eleven PM and then got lost after wandering around for
almost an hour. According to the health app data from the phone that was found in his jean's pocket, Tyler's strides got longer like he was running, then about two minutes after that, he stopped moving. Tyler's death was ruled a drowning after a thirty one minute autopsy, but his mother, Sandra had a lot of unanswered questions, including why did Tyler start running at eleven to fifty pm and was someone stalking him in that darkness.
I'm Catherine Townsend.
If you have a case you'd like me and my team look into, you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven four four six one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. As we said last week, Tyler's mom, Sandra has been her son's greatest advocate. She's filed for a request and spent thousands of dollars and thousands of hours on his case. The day after he disappeared, Sandra
could not reach her son. Then she got a text from Evan, one of the guys who was out with Tyler in September fourteenth, saying that Tyler had not come home and never showed up for formation. On the morning of the fifteenth, Sandra and Tyler's father, Keith made the drive to Gaelsburg. They found Tyler's car in the driveway of Evans House. Sandra found Tyler's suitcase inside Evans house packed.
It looked like Tyler dropped it there without opening it, so his stuff was there, but there was no sign of Tyler. Sandra said that she did talk to Evan, but the guys were apparently not much help, but they were able to verify with police some of Tyler's movements. The night before, Tyler drove to his friend evans house. He arrived there at about six pm. He left his car parked on the street. Later, Evans's family told Sandra and Keith the car was illegally parked, so they moved
it to the driveway. When Tyler and Evan left evans house, they went to Gailsburg. They ate at Buffalo Wild Wings. After that they went to the Cherry Street Bar. That's where they met up with Evan's cousin, Robbie. He had driven there separately in his truck, so just to clarify, they had two vehicles, Evan's car and Robbie's truck. Police pinged Tyler's cell phone. It gave a location zero point three four miles west of a tower at one hundred North Cherry Street, near the bars where the guys had
been the night before. While at Cherry Street Bar the night before, Tyler had sent a couple of snapchats. One was captioned Gailsburg with Evan and them. The guys appeared to be having a great time. Nothing jumps out a sinister in any of these images. After leaving the Cherry Street bar, the guys went to the Wells Fargo ATM. Tyler, Evan, and Robbie all showed up on surveillance footage there at ten forty two. After leaving the ATM, they continued on
to a bar called Corner Connection. There was live music that night until one am. Evan told Sandra they were all pretty intoxicated, and he said they can't really remember anything after that. They couldn't remember why they split up when the plan had been for Tyler to spend the night at Evans.
So I want to look at the.
Autopsy results, but first I want to dive into the timeline. I want to know what exactly happened between Tyler and his friends, Robbie and Evan, And is there any way considering they were all pretty intoxicated to retrace their steps. We know that at some point Tyler ended up with Evans keys because they were found the next day in Tyler's jeans pockets.
When Sandra talked to Evan.
He said he had given Tyler those keys because he didn't have pockets in his pants. When the police interviewed him a few months later, he said that he left Corner Connection, the last bar they were seen in. He said he had walked to the area where his car in Robbie's truck were parked, and at some point Robbie told Tyler to take Evans keys because he was way more drunk than Tyler. Now, last week, I said no one drove home, but apparently I was wrong about that.
I assumed no one drove home because everyone was drunk and because Tyler had Evans keys. But I've learned not to assume anything. Because Evan walked home, Robbie drove. Robbie said that he remembered he got back to his truck at eleven thirty five. He remembers that because he looked at the clock when he got back to his vehicle. So another detail that's confusing in all this is who was last seen with Tyler. Was it Evan or Robbie
or someone else. Robbie said the last time that he saw Evan and Tyler, they were walking to Evan's car. He said that he left and went to his truck, but we know Evan walked home alone. Remember, his car and house keys were in Tyler's pockets. When Evan got home, he apparently realized that he didn't have his keys. Both his house and car keys were on the same key ring, and those were the keys that were in Tyler's jeans, So he had to knock on the door really loudly
so that his mom would let him in. Now, Evan's mother later said that at that time, Evan told her Tyler was with Robbie, and then Evan went to bed. Evan's mom told Sanders she stayed up for a while until around two am, waiting for Tyler, but he never made it back home. So back to the night before, the three friends are having a good time drinking, etc. They go to an atm for an unknown reason at
ten forty two. We can see in that surveillance footage that Tyler already had money on his money clip, yet he took out one hundred dollars and remember he only had seventy two dollars on him when his body was found. The guys stop at a bar called Corner Connection for one last round. They all leave together, but at some point they split up. Robbie walks to his car, Evan walks home. Tyler starts wandering around, lost and confused. He
starts making calls. At eleven oh five, he calls another friend of his name Onie, to see if he can stay at his place. Apparently he didn't realize that that friend actually live forty minutes away.
This is Onie.
Remember the order of events for the text and the call we did call. I think either he tried to call me or something, but I heard him on the phone, and all I remember, this is what I've told Sandy and told everybody else, is I feel like he was like running, but not in like a scared way, like in a fun like he was pooping around like he like I don't know, like like think he just threw a snowball at your buddy's house or you did ding dung, bitch, and he was running obey like ha ha, I just
pulled a frank on somebody. That's kind of what the video or the audio sounded like when he butted out me or whatever he did and I and I heard him, so I tried to call him back, I think, and didn't hear from him.
So, according to Onnie Tyler kept chatting. He seemed calm and happy, even though he seemed to have no idea where he was. But then at around eleven fifty, after he lost contact with Onie, something changed dramatically.
I remember seeing I think some of those stories come out and like his spirits in me, I wanted to say, and I don't know about I'm thinking of this because of a story that I saw that maybe somebody saw him earlier in the night and saw an opportunity to take advantage and beat up a black guy, or maybe he just ran into the wrong person, because I think around that time period, whenever he was running, and I
think and I thought that he called me. I think was I don't know if he was running from somebody, because I remember standy or somebody was asking me. I don't know if he's the investigator. Did it sound like he was running from someone? Did he sound like he was scared? And he didn't sound like he was scared, And I couldn't hear anybody else.
It just sounded like he was running playfully.
I just I don't know if you remember.
From last week we talked about the step analysis from the health app on Tyler's phone. That was done by Mitchell Drake, the retired detective who was helping Sandra months after Tyler's death. According to this analysis, something made Tyler start running around eleven fifty then at eleven fifty two there was no more movement. The next time anyone saw Tyler was at the bottom of that creek bed.
The next day. Here's Tyler's mother, Sandra.
Someone had called nine one when I saw his body, and it kind of freaked like I think of it's not a It's like to me where I'm from, a creek is like a small river, you know, this is this is a concrete canal. He was seventeen feet down with the speed up against the walls, arms down at his side.
The position of the body bothered Sandra and later Mitchell Drake, the investigator who came into help. They thought it was very unlikely that Tyler had walked down there because the nearest access point to get there on foot was about one hundred and fifty feet away. Tyler's shoes were clean and white. They did not look like they had been walking through that mud. Tyler was lying face down with his palms facing up and his feet very close to
the wall. It seemed like an impossi position to fall from, because Sandra and everyone else wondered why if it was an accident, like the police apparently believed, why Tyler didn't try to break his fall some way. The only way that Tyler's body could have fallen that way, Sandra believes, is if he was unconscious. So the most likely conclusion is that Tyler either fell or he was pushed or
thrown from above. The next question is did Tyler's body fall to where he was found or did someone do something to him somewhere else and then drag it down there or somehow move it. Afterwards, Sandra goes on to say she believes that the crime scene could.
Have been staged.
She talks about pieces of evidence, including the beer can, the one that was lying very close to Tyler, the one that police did not test for fingerprints and threw away. She said the beer can didn't fall down there with Tyler because he's seen on video minutes before, and he doesn't have a beer can in his hand in that footage.
And there was being the true placed next to him like a beer can, which I have a video from walking. He doesn't have a beer can just four minutes before he steps moving, according to his health up on his phone. I mean, I've done a lot to find out what's happened to Tyler. I have a timeline.
Dragging a body from the point where the creek bed could be accessed on foot seems unlikely. And as we said before, Tyler's shoes are very clean. And then after an autopsy that was only thirty one minutes long, Tyler's cause of death was ruled as drowning. Now, the length of autopsy time does vary, but the average autopsy takes a lot longer than thirty one minutes. And again, all deaths, especially those of a young, healthy person with no known
medical issues, should be investigated as homicides until proven otherwise. Outraged, Sandra asked how the IMME had come to that conclusion. Their results were so unbelievable to her that she demanded a second autopsy. So one of the most common questions I'm asked is how you go about getting a second autopsy, And the answer how to get a second opinion or a second autopsy, and also who pays for it can be very complicated.
To me.
The issues go way beyond Tyler Smith's case, because a lot of people unfortunately have this happen to them. What do you do when no one, including the authorities, can agree on what actually happened to your loved one. People interested in a second autopsy would normally ask first for something called a medical record review. This is according by
the way, to the National Institutes of Health. A couple of weeks ago, we did an interview on this podcast with a company that does provide second opinions on death investigations. There are a lot of companies out there like this, so I think step one is basically submitting a freedom of information request. There are templates online you can use
depending on what state you're in. We talk about FOYER requests a lot, but I just want to say this, I think it's something we should all learn how to do, how to use, because you don't want to be learning when you're in shock after something like this happens to you or someone you know. If the case is an open investigation, you may not get much back from your FOY request, but depending on what state you're in, if you're a family member, you probably can get the autopsy
report then for a few hundred dollars. Usually the person who reviews the records. If you do go for a company that gives second opinions, can give you an opinion on whether a second autopsy would be a good idea. After that, if the person who reviews the case says yes, a second autopsy would be a good idea, You've then got to figure out who's paying for it. And second
autopsies can be very expensive, several thousand dollars. I've even heard quotes of up to ten thousand dollars, plus you have the cost.
Of exhuming the body.
In Tyler's case, Sandra was working with Mitchell Drake, and because Mitchell Drake was a retired police detective with years of experience investigating homicides, when he pointed out mistakes and oversights in the investigation, he seemed to have the respect of law enforcement. So they actually got the coroner to agree to his second autopsy, and so the county paid
to have Tyler's body exoomed. But sadly, there were some pieces of evidence they could never get back because the police had not, for example, checked for DNA under Tyler's fingernails, and Sandra was devastated to learn all of his clothes had been thrown away. Sandra talked to us about this, and again, this is something so many people are dealing with. The exorbitant costs she had to pay just to get
access to her son's own records. She estimated she spent over five thousand dollars and that's even with the county covering the second autopsy cost.
Imagine not being.
Able to access a copy of your own child's autopsy report because you can't afford the fees.
So basically, Tyler went for his second autopsy, he got it zoomed. I guess his body was in good condition.
Unlike the first autopsy that lasted only thirty one minutes, Tyler's second autopsy lasted more than four hours. The pathologists found a completely different cause of death and a lot of injuries that were not reported on the first autopsy. The pathologists concluded that Tyler did not die from drowning. In fact, they concluded that Tyler had died of injuries related.
To the fall.
But a fall on a chokehold are two things that he said. You know, a fall could cause that, But Tyler isn't laying in a position of a fall, like he didn't even try to catch himself. Like his hanger up against the wall, Like there's no way he fell straight down and landed in that position. You know, he would have been like in a fetal position, trying to help, you know what I mean, like trying to catch himself or something. And there were no drugs in a system.
His thought alcohol was zero point two four, which is like three times a leag a lemon or something. But we also have to remember this as a twenty three year old kid who had just finished a four year university drinking or you know what I mean, Like if you haven't, Like they're like, oh, your son was you know, black got drunk. I'm like, no, he wasn't, you know what I mean, Like I don't believe that.
Yeah.
Sandra says that she has a hard time believing this because she said that her son was a big guy and could handle alcohol. But as we all know, it's very possible to miscalculate, to have one too many, and to become confused, especially in a strange area. Tyler's friend Oni also said that Tyler was not the type to let himself get out of control or to drink excessively.
He was smart about his drinking, so for him to get three times the legal limit in a town that he wasn't familiar with, with people that he really didn't know well, didn't really sound like him, didn't.
Really sound like him. But I'd like to think that he knew Hillier well enough, because honestly, if it were me and I was in Tyler's shoes, I don't think I would I would have gotten as intoxicated as that.
But I don't know what the context of what they were doing, if they were playing games, if they were what they were doing exactly from what I remember, they went out to a bar, and Tyler wasn't really the type to go out to a bar already very drunk, So that when I when I heard that they were at a bar and he was really drunk already, that.
Kind of.
It did.
I don't know. It just didn't seem like he'd be drinking that much at the bar to get that drunk, because obviously it's expensive too, and Tyler was not the type to spend a.
Lot of money at the bar, which is why he said he was so surprised when he heard what happened. But he said the same thing that I've been thinking all along. This story is so relatable. We have all had moments and we're vulnerable.
That's hard to say, only because I've been in that position where I've been there intoxicated, and I almost turned into a different person as far as some of the things I do, some of the things I stay. So I wouldn't put it past Tyler to be so intoxicated that he wanted to stay out and have a good time. When you're that intoxicate, you really don't know up from down.
You don't know.
You don't have no self awareness, you know, when you're past a certain point, you just you just don't know. I'm told you hear the stories the next day. But if I'm being one hundred percent honest, I wouldn't. It does not surprise me that he wanted to stay out drinking. If he was less intoxicated and at a point where he could still I think maybe logically and remember the night before and form his own opinion and decision, I think you would have recognized, ya, I need to go home.
But I think he was just passed that point, and it might have something to do with the drug or whatever that was found in his system.
So the second autopsy found that Tyler died due to injuries stained in a fall. Some of his injuries, like the fact that Tyler bit through his tongue, could be potentially explained by landing the way that he did, face down on concrete. Others, according to the second pathologist, could not be explained, including bruising and blood from his nose that was pulled, which could indicate he was bleeding before death,
not after. Sandra also wondered again about the positions of his arms straight behind him, palms up.
She wondered if he could have.
Been restrained by handcuffs or something else. This, plus the position of his feet so close to the wall, made it look like he was either dropped down where he was found, possibly while unconscious, or was thrown there. Sandra talked about the shock of seeing the sheer number of unexplained injuries on her son, injuries that could not be explained by drowning.
At the autopsy, I guess he'd fit through his tongue completely, and the first totopsy they said it was normal. He had possible I think he said that he had a lot of like under one of his arms, a lot of deeek tissue, muscular injuries like to his shoulder, there are pictures of his first ass he that on the second att they said they weren't there and they just
said it's probably from skin shredding. But he's got these marks on his ankles that look like not taser, but like a dry stunt, like he'd been stun gunned, which you know, they just won't. I mean, that's exactly what it looks like. I've even measured the Gilsburg I've gone to the chief of police and said, I want to measure how far apart your prongs are, you know, and then they're you know, almost exact. But anybody could have
a stun gun. He's got lacerations. He had a watch on and it was ripped from his wrist, not undone at all, and but took part of the skin off his wrist and then it was still together, clastered together, kind of like laying like a foot away from his hand, like someone just put it there, you know what I mean, Like it didn't come off with him that way.
The second autopsy found that Tyler had twenty nine separate injuries. As we said, Tyler did start running at around eleven
to fifty pm. Sandra started to wonder if it was possible that he was running from someone, maybe the police car that she had seen pass by shortly after he appeared on the surveillance footage, just a few minutes before he stopped moving, or she wondered could he have run across someone else out there, someone who randomly decided to start something or take advantage of Tyler's vulnerability at that moment.
As we said last week, the area where Tyler was found had its share a violent crime like a lot of states. And by the way, this is according to Pew research. The CDC said that Illinois saw a spike in their murder rate between twenty nineteen and twenty twenty of thirty eight percent. She considered the possibility that someone pushed her son over the edge of that cliff in a struggle.
He was definitely fighting for his life, as fribe, thinking, what I'm getting from the police is that he was walking in an area. Of course he didn't and he is walking in a high methodsetamine area. He didn't know where is that he's telling his friends he's lost. He actually sent a message on Snapchat that he was lost to a friend that never indicated that he was like in trouble, but he was looking for another place to stay.
One of the people who claimed that he knew what happened to Tyler was a drug dealer who lived nearby. He went by the name ghost and he allegedly told people that he and some other associates had been involved in Tyler's death. It's not clear where it started, if it was just a local rumor, or if it could be something more.
He was basically a psychopath. Everybody was scared of him. He was a drug dealer. Some people say he was a narch. Some people say that he was you know, all this other things that I heard about him. But he was a bad person, and so they went to his kid's mother to ask, you know, because after he died, they're saying that he was. People are saying that he's
involved in Tyler's death with this other guy. And I don't know if it's a ribbery or if they jumped them, or if they just did it for the heck of it.
Ghosts died in a car accident.
Police have told Sandra that they planned to follow up on some of these leads, including another tip that they got. And I have to say, on the surface, and without more evidence, I find some of these tips very hard to believe, because, for example, there was one rumor that some guys supposedly tortured Tyler in a basement and filmed a video that showed up on the dark web. Honestly, looking at the evidence, there are absolutely no signs of
torture like that. Tyler's injuries appear to have happened when he landed in that position. It seems as though he landed face down on concrete in a couple of inches of water. So I agree with the second autopsy.
I believe it's.
Much more likely Tyler's injuries were caused from his fall. By the way, it is horrifying to me that Sandra has to do her own investigating. She has to be doing interviews with people who claim to have heard about horrific things that happened to her son, and to go through that emotional turmoil. If Tyler's fall was not accidental, if someone did attack him, what was their motive. If their intention was to rob him, why didn't they take his wallet, or his money or his phone, all of
which were found in his pockets. Tyler did have a very high blood alcohol level point two four to six percent, almost three times a legal limit, but no other illegal drugs in his system. Sandra had the blood retested several months after the autopsy and found something else. Tyler's blood tested positive for GHB. The GHB in Tyler's blood is for me, one of the biggest mysteries of this case, because the amount of GHB found in Tyler's blood was
pretty small. There's the possibility that the GHB could be a red herring because I learned something that others may find helpful. GHB can be present in blood after death naturally, especially if it's a small amount of blood, and there can be other factors like if the blood isn't properly stored or isn't processed for some time, which may have
been the case in Tyler's autopsy. Gamma hydroxy beter rate is also present in blood and urine, and post mortem GHB formation can take place before the sample is taken. So what I'm trying to say is it can be tricky to figure out if small amounts of GHB are naturally occurring or if there had been some exposure to the drug. Tyler's percentage was thirteen milligrams per liter, which is under the cutoff point for most cases. Of GHB exposure, but when mixed with alcohol, GHB is often used as
a date rape drug. So we also have to consider another possibility, the possibility that maybe someone slipped Tyler or something and followed him out to where he was found. Sandras said she had spoken to the men who first came up with a smiley face killer theory. New York City detectives Kevin Gannon and a criminal justice professor named doctor Lee Gilbertson who goes by Doc have publicly backed
this theory over the years. Most of you are listening to this probably have heard about the smiley faced killers theory, but for those of you not familiar with it, it's a theory that has gotten a lot of mainstream media attention, and it's also very controversial. In a nutshell, these guys believe that a person or a group of serial killers have been murdering young men, mostly college age and athletic young men, around the country and making the deaths look
like accidental drownings. Between nineteen ninety seven and two thousand and seven, around forty five young men have been pulled out of bodies of water in the United States. The first killing that was supposedly linked to this killer was when Fordham University student Patrick McNeil disappeared in New York City on February sixteenth, nineteen ninety seven, after being seen at the Dapper Dog Bar on the Upper East Side.
Patrick disappeared on April seventh. His body was found floating in the water near a pier in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn, and after he was pulled out of the East River. Patrick's cause of death was listed as drowning, manner of death undetermined, like Tyler and like so many other men in the United States. Later, Kevin and his colleague said they found evidence that made them believe that Patrick had been murdered, tortured, and placed in the water
after being drugged. The detectives believed that there were a lot of things that were not consistent with drowning, including the position of the body in the water. Now, a lot of people, including the FBI and other experts, have dismissed this theory. They've said it's just a conspiracy theory, it's an urban legend. A lot of people do not believe the Smiley Faced Killer is real at all.
I have mixed feelings about this.
I do think it's extremely unlikely that one person or a gang of killers is responsible for all these deaths. Personally, I think the weakest part of the argument is the connection to the smiley face graffiti, because one of the things that these detectives said the killings had in common was the fact that there was smiley face graffiti and a lot of these murder sites. But to be honest, sometimes there wasn't a smiley face. Sometimes the smiley face
was found miles away. And the smiley face, by the way, is one of the most common symbols in the world. That and maybe the peace sign are everywhere, so I find that I don't think that there's any link between smiley face graffiti and murder. On the other hand, the truth is death by drowning is very common in the United States. We know that a lot of these young men like Tyler, were intoxicated, and young intoxicated men are the second group most likely to die from drowning, the
first being children. According to Sandra, she reached out to Kevin and Dock. They said they did look into Tyler's case. They said they don't believe that it's connected to the other cases, but they did tell her they do believe that Tyler was murdered. By the way, that's another possibility that a lot of deaths in the United States that are supposedly drownings are in fact due to something else,
either accidental or otherwise. I've seen groups online blaming these supposed smiley faced murders on everything from a female cult to a shadowy group of Satanists. But honestly, the biggest story for me is not the supposed serial killer. It's the fact that look at the sheer number of men who disappear from areas with busy waterways in cities including Austin and Boston. I actually was floored to learn that every single day in the United States, eleven people die
from drowning. So I can see why since it is so common, given the number of deaths, the number of times the scenario unfolds, why it would be tempting to rule a death a drowning. But that's not fair to the victims or to their families. Every single person who dies deserves a thorough death investigation and not simply to be written off as another statistic. In the same way we get so outraged about missing young women being dismissed simply because they had mental health issues or other problems.
We should not assume that a young man simply got drunk and fell in the water without a thorough investigation. Sandra suspected her son did not die from drowning, and she was right because in Tyler's case, the second autopsy found the fatal injuries were due to the fall and not drowning in a couple of inches of water. So now the crucial question is what happened right before the fall.
Though the amount of the GHB in his blood was small, we do have to consider the possibility that Tyler could have taken GHB either that night or earlier that day. GHB is known to be something that bodybuilders do. Tyler was in the best shape of his life. He was working out a lot. He was really, really, really into fitness, and this drug is popular with people who are into fitness. It's a fat burner, it doesn't show up on a lot of drug screen and it's in and out of
the system really fast. It is metabolized very quickly. I considered this because even with the high level of alcohol in Tyler's blood, according to his friends and family, he seemed extremely intoxicated to the point of not knowing where he was. GHB mixed with alcohol can cause this. Amy asked Onny if, to his knowledge, Tyler ever took GHB.
I know we had a friend who was trying to kind of body build and he used he would use staburners. I don't know if those are the same. They're probably two different things. But no, if he was using that, he didn't tell me that. I mean, when we'd hang out, he wasn't there were people around us who did drugs or did whatever. He wasn't really the type to participate in that.
So this is interesting because in my experience, I have written a lot about GHB in the past, and also in high school, back when it was legal. I took it a few times, and I did drink with GHB once and I had a horrific experience that resulted in me almost dying. So I've seen firsthand how easy it can be to get things slightly wrong and to get
into a dangerous situation. That's just a complete side note, but only seems to be saying that this stuff fat burners GHB was something that was around in their social circle. It's possible that Tyler took some, maybe even not thinking it would affect him at all, and that it combined with alcohol with disastrous results. One of Tyler's best friends
was a guy named Nate. He said that he met Tyler when they and another friend of theirs named Tommy, went through National Guard training together, but they met again when they attended the same college, and that's when their friendship really solidified. Nate talked about how much Tyler loved listening to EDM music and djaying at home. He said
they also worked out together almost every day. Nate said that he did not know for sure if Tyler would have taken GHB, but he said he would not be surprised if Tyler had taken some kind of fat burner, which is what GHB is called, to get in shape for the academy. Nate was far away when Tyler died, so our conversation with him was not really related to the immediate investigation.
But I want to.
Include this because it was so clear how much Nate cared about his friend and how much he truly wanted to help.
So I was inspired by that.
And I'm going to end on something he said, because I think it's a crucial message for everyone out there who goes on a night out with friends to hear, hey.
Let Tyler go alone, which is never a good thing. I mean, I know, I always tell even my soldiers here, because I'm in charge of about fifty of them, I say, like, if one of you.
Get kicked out of a.
Bar, you all get kicked out of the bar.
When he goes home, you always need to travel with a battle buddy, or at least two or three of you go to make sure you know each other gets home safe. So the fact that I mean it angers me is the fact that they just kind of let him go and they're like, Okay, you go see you tomorrow, because I mean, you never know, you never know what's going to happen.
Yeah, and then for you know, this this happened.
And I feel like if somebody else is with him, the situation or this outcome would not be the thing.
Sandra says that, to her knowledge, her son has never taken GHB. She says she and her family are not giving up in their quests for justice for Tyler. She's keeping the Justice for Tyler Smith facebook page going. She's continuing to gather evidence any way that she can. I also want to help in any way that we can. Unfortunately, a lot of the surveillance footage that would have shown Tyler was deleted after a couple of weeks, so it's lost forever. But sometimes social media posts live for much
longer online. I have found Facebook live footage of the Corner Connection bar from the night of September fourteenth and the early morning hours of September fifteenth, twenty eighteen.
I believe there is more footage out there.
If you were there at the Corner Connection that night or in that area, please look through your phone.
You never know.
A black screen from a photo that you accidentally took from your jeans pocket could capture crucial audio. The crucial window of time is only a few minutes long. This was a small bar with only a few people there, and there's always a chance that someone out there saw something.
It is unfortunate that some people don't want to talk about it.
I mean, the more.
The more information provide, the better. I mean, even if it's something that you've already you know, somebody's already said. I mean, at least it just shows that shows that support, and that's definitely you know what I've always.
Been here for.
I wear a bracelet on my wrist every single day for him. You know, it's in the military. If you have a fallen comrade, either in combat or or personal life, you know, you wear that kind of represent them, you know, you kind of put his what his MOS was, with his military occupational specialty, his job, and then like you know, the born you know, to and front dates and and
you know, maybe a little little saying about him. So I continuously wear that around my rest every day, and then I have one sitting in my office on display, and he'd be frankly honest with you, I I definitely think that he has protected me in my life when I when I needed it the most, when I got assaulted back when I was in station in Colorado before my first employment. So even still to this day, I know that tis he's up there, up there Washington.
I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts. Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her research assistance. Music contributed by Ben Sale, executive producers of Virginia Prescott Brandon Barr and Elsie Crow.
If you have a case you'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helengong Murder line at six seven eight seven four four six one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
School of Humans