MACON, Ga. — It's been almost 15 years since 40-year-old Arthur Smith Jr. was killed in a Virginia homicide.
He was born and raised in Macon and taught English classes at Rutland High School. Smith's family wants answers after not hearing from Portsmouth, Virginia law enforcement since 2010.
Mary Smith says 15 years later she still wonders every day why someone would hurt her son.
“It hurts me to this day. I wonder what happened and why did anybody do something like that to him like they did,” Smith said.
She says she will continue to remember him as a respected and amazing English teacher.
“He loved working and teaching and helping other people; he was not one to just do what he wanted,” Smith said.
His younger brother, Dexter, remembers Arthur helping and teaching others growing up in their neighborhood.
“He reached a lot of people with his ability to teach different things,” Smith said.
Smith's family says he drove to southeast Virginia the weekend of Oct. 2, 2009, to watch his 8-year-old son play football.
They say he did it most weekends to spend time with his two children. They thought everything was fine until they got a call saying Arthur was found dead.
Portsmouth, Virginia detective Gino Jackson says police received a call reporting gunshots near Arthur's car. Jackson says it's a cold case, but they'll revisit it if they receive new information.
“We have no witnesses that were an eyewitness to the incident,” Jackson said.
Arthur Smith Sr. worries he may never find out what happened to his son but now his family is asking for more.
“It's been years since we even heard anything,” Smith Sr said.
They say they just want to know what happened and to know law enforcement tried everything they could.
“Was any type of quality police work done to even find out anything we don't know,” Smith said.
As a father, Smith Sr. says it never gets easier.
"It's hard to even talk about it,” Smith Sr said.
Investigator Gino Jackson says he's sorry for the family's loss and they are still doing everything in their power to find out who did this to Smith.
The family says any information in the case will help.
MORE THAN A NUMBER
More Than A Number is a Poynter-Stand Together award-winning project by Justin Baxley designed to help families of loved ones impacted by tragedy and trauma interact with journalists in a less intrusive way. Families are able to fill out a form about their family and also receive an in-depth guide on the next steps.
More Than A Number officially launched in August with a streaming special available on 13WMAZ+ for on-demand streaming. For any questions or concerns about More Than A Number, contact us here at the following email: MoreThanANumber@13wmaz.com
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