A MURDER RUNS THROUGH IT
Chance Douglas Smith
June 11, 1997 — December 14, 2003
An obituary for Chance Douglas Smith, which ran in the Charlotte Observer on December 16, 2003, was just 30 words. The first 25 read as follows:
STANFIELD — Chance Douglas Smith, 6, died December 13, 2003. funeral is 2 PM Wednesday at First Baptist Church, Locust. Visitation is 6–8 PM tonight….
As it is now more than sixteen years after the original publication, the remaining five words of the obituary have been archived, and whatever those five words were, they cannot have clarified much about who Chance Douglas Smith was or how he met his fate.
As obituaries go for small children who are murdered, this one is unusually brief. There is no mention of who Chance’s parents are or what other family members might have survived him. There is no indication of where he went to school, or what his favorite things might be.
Chance was only six-years old when he died. Not a lot of time to live one’s life, and the abruptness of how his life ended, combined with the callousness of one family member in particular, made this a story that would not let me rest.
