Crosby, Tenn., is shocked when a beloved father and pastor is found dead outside a ransacked house.Season 32, Episode 3Originally aired: March 5, 2023Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WatchSnappedPodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What happened to the beloved father and pastor?
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The father walked up there and discovered the son shot to death. It appeared he had surprised the people that were burglarizing the house and tried to flee. As the investigation takes shape, it reveals a life in turmoil. The post office had been tipped off that there was drugs coming in. And a secret affair pushes this family to the brink.
The affair was finally the straw that broke the camel's back, and he filed for divorce. His wife had left the estate with his children and nowhere to go. Then a brave young voice comes forward. You got a 10-year-old laying there in a bed pretending to be asleep, listening to them. That little girl is scarred for life. And a killer willing to cash in on family bonds is unveiled.
In that family, it's common knowledge that you won't be dead. Got to drop on him, to handcuff him, and start shooting him. It's like a dream, like a horror movie or a nightmare. 1997, Cosby, Tennessee. Quaint and quiet, the Campwright Acres Campground sits nestled in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.
Campground is located in a very rural area. The campsites had full services. They had electricity, water, that kind of thing. My family managed the campground and ran the campground. There were a lot of campers up there.
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Chapter 2: What led to the shocking discovery of Aaron Smith's body?
That campground was such a close-knit family, if you will. They loved the family atmosphere. However, at 6.05 p.m. on July 23rd, the serene campground turns chaotic when a shocking call comes in to 911. I got a notification from the Sheriff's Department that they had received a 911 call that there had been a body found at Camp Wright Acres off of Cosby Highway that appeared to be gunshot.
The caller is Harry Smith. He owns the campground and says that he's just found his son, Aaron, and thinks he's been shot. Minutes later, Cocke County Sheriff's deputies arrive. They follow directions Harry gave the dispatcher to a cabin at the back of the property. The house was a one-story frame house that was the owner's home. The body was about 13, 14 feet from the front door.
The father who walked up there and discovered him was very visibly upset. He just found his son shot to death. Harry Smith directs law enforcement up a walkway toward the cabin. He's lying face down in a pool of his own blood. He was shot in the ear, which is not life threatening. The second shot was a shot to the back. The fatal wound was a shot to the back of the head.
Chapter 3: What was the state of Aaron Smith's family life?
The deputies call for backup. Minutes later, Cocke County homicide detectives arrive, along with agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. For Aaron's death, it was a terrible, terrible heartache. Everybody was actually naturally drawn to him just because of his personality. Everybody that knew him, they were traumatized so much because this was wrong. This wasn't supposed to happen.
In 1960, Jonathan Aaron Smith was born to parents Harry and Cleta. They raised Aaron and his brother in the small town of Cleveland, Tennessee. Aaron's relationship with his mom and dad, I mean, was just like the loving all-American family. They were always cutting up together.
My dad and his brother grew up in church. I don't know of a time when they weren't going to church on Sundays. That was always a priority. He was very fun-loving and very adventurous, and he was the class clown. And he just had that happy, bubbly personality. He never met a stranger.
In 1981, 20-year-old Aaron was at a local Blockbuster video store when he struck up a conversation with the clerk, 20-year-old Denise Graham. He came in one night to rent a movie, and he flirted a little bit with her, and she smiled back at him. But yeah, he went into Blockbuster to rent a movie and came out with a girlfriend, apparently.
Denise was born in 1961 to Don and Linda Graham. But Denise didn't come into this world alone. Don and Linda were expecting. They didn't know it was twins until the girls were born. The surprised but happy new parents dedicated themselves to raising Denise and her sister, Debbie. They had a good upbringing. The girls never wanted for anything.
By the mid-1970s, Dawn landed a new job, and the Graham family relocated to Cleveland, Tennessee.
Denise was a very good student in high school. She played the flute in the band. She was very involved, and she had a lot of friends in high school. But Debbie got in with the wrong crowd pretty early on. A lot of drug use, a lot of drinking. She didn't really show up for school. They were polar opposites. Debbie got brought home by the police more than once, and Don would run to her rescue.
Don was closer to Debbie for some reason. That really made a lot of resentment between Denise and Debbie. The girls would get in fist fights in high school, and they would have to be broken up by teachers. They absolutely hated each other. Shortly after graduating high school, Denise started a job at a local blockbuster and found her Prince Charming, Aaron Smith.
They dated for, I think it was about a year or so before they decided to get married. Following the wedding, tragedy struck when Denise's mother suddenly passed away.
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Chapter 4: What role did Denise play in the tumultuous marriage?
Linda suddenly died of a massive heart attack. Linda was the pillar that held that Graham family together. With their mother gone, Denise and Debbie grew even further apart. Debbie drifted. She had a lot of problems. She ended up living in New York, and she and Denise rarely spoke or even saw each other. Denise threw herself into starting a family of her own.
A couple years later, my parents had me. I was early, but I made it through. And a couple years later, they had my brother, who has Down syndrome. My dad couldn't have loved him anymore. He was just happy to have a son. When we were kids, we liked to always be outside. We would go hiking, and we would stop and pick blackberries. And my dad would make a blackberry cobbler or a blackberry pie.
In 1991, Aaron's parents announced they'd found an investment opportunity while on vacation in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. They came across this campground for sale, and they really liked it. My grandparents thought it would be a good addition to their retirement, so they just decided to buy that campground.
There was a caretaker's home on the property that Aaron and Denise moved into, and Aaron helped his dad build another home for him and Aaron's mom. The rest of the 38 acres was rented out to campers. As Erin and Denise settled into their new home, Erin saw the opportunity to make a lifelong dream come true. Erin became an ordained minister and started a small church right there at the campground.
Denise found work as a dental assistant 30 minutes away in Sevierville. She just wanted to meet people and have some friends, so he was all for her being happy. But in 1995, after 13 years of marriage, Erin and Denise hit a rough patch. In the very beginning, it was all good. But as time passed, they began to venture farther apart, which was when she had the affair.
My dad found out about the affair. At that point, he realized that it was finally over. I think he saw it coming for a long time, but he was trying so hard to make things work to keep it together for me and my brother. So at that point is when he filed for divorce. And he went up the hill to live with his parents. That was a hard time for him.
We were his pride and joy, and he would have done anything at any time for us, no matter what it was. Until July 23, 1997, when the Smith family is left devastated after Harry Smith discovers his son shot dead in front of his home. We figured this happened sometime between 4 and 5 o'clock because he was found at 6 o'clock by his father.
Based on the position of the body, investigators believe that Aaron's confrontation with his killer began inside the home. It would appear that he had exited the house and was in an effort to get away from the house. He tried to run for his life, and they shoot him in the back. We went and checked in the house, and it looked like it had been ransacked. Items had been taken.
The house was in disarray. The drawers opened and emptied. Furniture knocked over. It appeared that Aaron Smith had come home and surprised the people that were burgling and tried to flee. Investigators ask Aaron's father to verify if any valuables are missing. Aaron Smith's father confirmed that there were pistols missing, a gold watch that was his, and jewelry that belonged to his wife.
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Chapter 5: How did Aaron's divorce impact his life?
That car only entered that gate because the person in the car knew the code. Coming up, investigators learn of big trouble brewing in a marriage on the brink. There's a warrant out for her arrest, but they still have no idea where the kids are. I thought I was going on a trip. They never thought in a million years that she was gonna run and kidnap us.
Tennessee investigators are at the Campwright Acres Campground, where minister and father of two, Aaron Smith, has just been found shot dead. The investigators found a witness who had seen a white car at the house at the campground prior to the murder and also heard one or two gunshots.
There's only one way in and one way out of the campground, and that road is blocked by a gate. You have to know the code to open the gate. Detectives realize it's possible Aaron knew his killer, and they ask his parents to shed some light on his background. We learned from Harry that they had just went through a divorce and a custody battle over the two children.
Harry says the marital trouble between Aaron and Denise started shortly after they moved to the campground six years earlier. She did not enjoy the campground life. And that may be where the first tinge of something's not right really started. According to Harry, Denise's job at the dental office put even more distance between her and Erin.
That job in Sevierville was not a good thing for her. There were several women that worked there that were having affairs with patients. And Denise was right there with him. One day, she had some kind of a little wreck. My dad had to come pick her up. She was on her way to meet her boyfriend. And he found out about the affair. He was very religious.
He tried very hard to make that marriage work for a very long time. And I think the affair was finally the straw that broke the camel's back. The feelings that he had to go through knowing that his wife was cheating on him, knowing that he was going to have to go to court and get divorced. And this was extra rough because of the situation with the custody of the kids.
According to Aaron's parents, it was after he filed for divorce that the real drama started. Denise countersued, taking everyone by surprise when she came forward with allegations of abuse. She had made that allegation that Aaron Smith was abusive and that it struck her and also struck the children.
That was the first mention of any level of abuse ever toward her, toward us, period. They were still living in the house together, and things were relatively cordial up until that point. But as soon as she countersued, she had the police come escort him out of the house.
The divorce battle was ugly. Denise wanted to do anything and everything she could to hurt him and take whatever she could get. She tried to portray Aaron as a monster, a monster in which he was not. Denise remained in the family home with their 10- and 8-year-old children while Aaron moved in with his parents on the other side of the campground.
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Chapter 6: What were the details surrounding Aaron's tragic death?
When the investigator told her that he was dead, he said he got no response out of her. She just listened. He started questioning her about where she was and where the children were. She said she was in Florida and said that she would come back.
Ten days after Denise disappeared with the children and four days after Aaron's murder, investigators finally get word that Denise is back in Tennessee alone. and she decides to turn herself in.
She traveled to Tennessee. She did not bring the children. She was taken into custody on the custodial interference warrant. I wouldn't say she was cooperating. She wouldn't advise where the children were. She wouldn't talk about Aaron's death. But we had our suspicion that she was involved. the cause of the divorce and the custody battle and how rancorous it had been.
She said she didn't know what had happened to them. She took the kids to Florida, and that was her alibi. She held out for a couple of days, but they wouldn't let her post bond until she turned us in. She called her aunt and uncle where we were staying and told them to bring us back. The children were returned. They came and went to live with Aaron's parents.
With no concrete evidence against her, investigators release Denise on Bonn and focus on Aaron's movements in the days before his murder. It doesn't take long to find something suspicious. We had received a tip that the Postal Service was looking into Mr. Aaron Smith.
On July 15, 1997, I received a call from the Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Post Office that an express mail envelope had come into that office concurrently with a phone call that said that that particular package contained illegal drugs. But there were several unusual things about this particular package. Coming up, detectives look into a nefarious claim.
There was a written statement that said, to Aaron Smith, next time the price goes up. And a surprising witness turns the case upside down. They walked over to the little table and said, well, it's done. We heard him pretty bad.
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Chapter 7: What evidence pointed to the involvement of Denise?
With Brittany's help, investigators are closing in. A lot of times, you know, you get information that you believe is good, but they corroborate it. But this, get this information from a 10-year-old girl, corroborate every bit of it, I'm just glad it turned out that way. But their work isn't finished just yet. Investigators still need to prove Denise's connection to the murder.
She paid for the rental car. She knew what happened. Did she put Alex and her sister up to it? Coming up, investigators zero in on Denise. She had bragged that he was not going to get those children. She had seen that. And an important piece of evidence is recovered. There were five fingerprints on the outside label of the envelope.
Investigators looking into the murder of Aaron Smith believe his ex-wife Denise worked with her sister Debbie, their father Don, and Debbie's boyfriend Alex to carry out the deadly plan. They know Denise was involved, but they need more. As investigators talk to Denise's friends, it's clear that Denise didn't hide her intentions when it came to her ex-husband.
We interviewed some of the people that she worked with, et cetera, and they said that she had asked if they knew anybody that would kill her husband because of the abortion, because of the custody battle with the children. She had bragged at a beauty shop to several people that he was not going to get those children. And she had seen that.
As investigators continue to gather more background on Denise, they get an update from the Postal Inspection Crime Laboratory. The results from the envelope of cocaine are in.
Our latent fingerprint examiner had come back with a report and said that there were five fingerprints on the outside label of the express mail envelope. The important thing is you have to have the fingerprints of any suspects for comparison purposes. We had the fingerprints of Denise and Debbie in the system. The fingerprints were from Deborah Graham.
Investigators believe that the drugs were Denise's first attempt to take Aaron down.
The package was delivered to him on July 15th. The child custody hearings on the 17th. They might have thought that they would get him arrested prior to the child custody decision. And then, of course, the 18th, the decision was made. And then the 23rd, he was killed. So a very short time period and all these things happened.
They were after him to discredit him in the community and before that judge. When that didn't work, authorities believe Denise went back to her family to devise a more sinister strategy. contacted the sister, the sister contacted Alex and her boyfriend. They devised a plan, making it look like a robbery, burglary gone bad, and they shot and killed him at the behest of Denise Smith.
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Chapter 8: What happened after Denise disappeared with the children?
Alex was moving around a lot, changed his location. He was at different addresses in the city. And agents in New York finally located him. About a year later, New York authorities arrested him. Authorities attempt to interview Alex, but like Denise and Debbie, he doesn't want to talk.
Alex didn't give any kind of statement for or against anyone, other than to say he didn't know what we were talking about and he wouldn't be involved in anything like that. When confronted with the ticket, he had to admit that he had been in Tennessee.
And when confronted with the information about the white car that had been seen there at the time that the gunshots were heard, he said, oh, yeah, it was there, but only meant to scare him. He was alive when they left. That just doesn't apply. It's obvious that he went there with the intention to kill. Investigators say Debbie and Alex ambushed Aaron inside his parents' house.
that went in, got the drop on him, they handcuffed him. He got out of the handcuffs. And Alex started shooting at him and shot at him at least three times. After the arrests, investigators speak with Denise's father, Don. The investigators believe Don was there in the motel with them in Miami. It was obvious he wasn't gonna cooperate, though. He's not gonna tell if he's involved.
With Denise, Debbie, and Alex behind bars, investigators hand the case over to prosecutors. But without a confession, the case hinges on one thing, the testimony of a 10-year-old girl. Coming up, a daughter faces her mother in the courtroom.
It's amazing to me that a 10-year-old girl would have to go through this, especially considering that her father had been killed. Very courageous little girl. Prosecutors attempt to explain a desperate bond. Debbie wanted Denise's approval so bad that she would do or say just about anything.
By the summer of 1999, Denise Smith, her twin sister Debbie, and Alex Rivera are all awaiting trial for the murder of Denise's ex-husband, Aaron Smith. Prosecutors make the decision to try Denise and Debbie together.
We were concerned that if we tried them separately, that Debbie would try to put it on to Denise, and then we tried Denise, and Denise would say, no, it was Debbie, and that we would not be able to convict them both. The trial begins in June. The prosecution calls their star witness to the stand, Denise and Aaron's daughter, Brittany.
I was 12 when Denise and Debbie's trial took place. It's hard to sit there on the witness stand and to tell them these terrible, miserable, horrible things about your mother, and she's sitting there staring at you like she could absolutely run through me. And Debbie's sitting on the other side of the table. That was really hard.
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