Tina Smith

Case background and investigation

Tina Smith, 41, was found dead in her home in Roanoke County, Virginia, on December 6, 2010, according to a Roanoke County news release. Her 12-year-old daughter was not at the house, and an Amber Alert was issued the same day, ABC News reported. The county later stated that Smith died of blunt force trauma to the head, strangulation and suffocation.

Investigators focused on Jeffrey Scott Easley, Smith's boyfriend, who was also missing. According to WSET's reporting on search warrants filed in the case, Smith and her daughter were last seen in the Salem area on December 3, 2010, and police believed Smith was killed that night. ABC News reported that surveillance video dated December 3 showed Easley and the girl refuelling a vehicle. The search drew national media coverage over the following days.

On December 10, 2010, a shopper in San Francisco, Theresa Shanley, recognized the girl outside a Safeway supermarket and asked store staff to call police, according to ABC News. Easley was arrested and the child was returned safely to her family in Virginia. WSET reported that Easley waived extradition at a San Francisco court hearing on December 14, 2010, and was ordered returned to Virginia. He was initially held on abduction and credit card fraud charges and was later charged with capital murder.

On February 28, 2012, Easley entered a plea of no contest to capital murder during a motions hearing in Roanoke County Circuit Court, according to the county's release. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. As part of the agreement a charge of abduction with intent to defile was dropped. WSET quoted one of his defence attorneys describing the agreement as a good resolution, given that a capital murder trial could otherwise have exposed Easley to a death sentence. In its statement the county said that Easley had had substantial access to the girl for about five months before the killing and had gradually increased his influence over her.

Easley served his sentence at River North Correctional Center in Independence, Virginia. WSLS reported that he died on March 1, 2021, at Twin County Regional Hospital in Galax, Virginia. At the time of that report the medical examiner's office had not determined a cause of death, and the Virginia Department of Corrections had opened an investigation into the death.

The homicide victim in this case is Tina Smith. Her daughter, who was a minor at the time, survived and was returned to relatives. No one other than Easley was charged in connection with Smith's death.