In 2007, 18-year-old Kelsey Smith set out on what ought to have been a easy errand—shopping for a present for her boyfriend to have fun their six-month anniversary. However when she didn’t return residence, her household’s concern rapidly turned to worry.
With no indicators of her whereabouts, investigators had just one clue- surveillance footage exhibiting Kelsey procuring inside a Goal retailer. The chilling video additionally captured a mysterious determine shadowing her each transfer within the retailer.
This haunting case has been explored in Ultimate Moments, Season 1, Episode 4, A Deadly Procuring Journey, which aired on April 10, 2022. It’s re-airing on Oxygen as we speak, September 18, 2025.
Who was Kelsey Smith? What occurred to her?
On the night of June 2, 2007, Kelsey Smith went out to purchase a scrapbook at a neighborhood Goal retailer to have fun six months together with her boyfriend, John. She was final seen on Goal surveillance video at 7:07 PM, trying out together with her gadgets and strolling to the parking zone. The footage confirmed her loading her purchases into her Buick Regal and coming into the driving force’s seat.
Moments later, a blurred determine in a white shirt and darkish shorts appeared from behind, seemingly forcing Kelsey into her automobile. Roughly two hours afterward, her automobile was found deserted throughout the road at Oak Park Mall. Inside, investigators discovered her purse, pockets, and the gadgets she had bought. Her telephone and keys weren’t there.
When the police reviewed the surveillance footage from inside Goal, they discovered that the identical man in a white shirt and black shorts appeared in practically each aisle she visited and left the shop simply as Kelsey headed to the cashier.
A suspect recognized
When a picture of the suspect was launched to the media, ideas poured in. A number of callers recognized him as 26-year-old Edwin Roy “Jack” Corridor of Olathe, Kansas. Police confirmed the match via his driver’s license photograph.
When Corridor was questioned, he initially denied involvement, even providing DNA and fingerprints to “clear” his identify. When forensic groups checked her automobile, they found Corridor’s thumbprint on the driving force’s seatbelt buckle, immediately linking him to the crime.
However probably the most essential lead got here from Kelsey’s cellphone. Investigators had requested her telephone data instantly after her disappearance, however on account of then-existing privateness legal guidelines and firm protocols, Verizon Wi-fi took 4 days to launch them.
As soon as the info arrived, the ultimate sign positioned her telephone close to Longview Lake in Grandview, Missouri, roughly 20 miles from the kidnapping website. Authorities started to look the realm, and at last, on June 6, 2007, they found Kelsey’s physique. She had been strangled together with her personal belt and sexually assaulted.
Arrest and sentencing
Police arrested Corridor later that night as he ready to go away city together with his spouse and younger son. Though Corridor had no grownup felony document, his troubled previous included juvenile convictions for violent assaults, like holding a knife to a foster sister and attacking one other boy with a baseball bat.
Authorities concluded that he had no prior connection to Kelsey Smith and had seemingly chosen her at random after seeing her arrive at Goal alone. Corridor was charged with premeditated first-degree homicide, aggravated kidnapping, rape, and sodomy. Initially, prosecutors sought the demise penalty for him.
In July 2008, nevertheless, Corridor pleaded responsible to all expenses to keep away from capital punishment. That September, Johnson County District Choose Peter V. Ruddick sentenced him to life imprisonment with out the opportunity of parole. Corridor stays incarcerated at Lansing Correctional Facility in Kansas.
Kelsey Smith Act
The investigation into Kelsey’s disappearance was hindered by delays in acquiring her cellphone data. On the time, service suppliers required both subscriber consent or a court docket order to launch information, even in emergencies.
Outrage over this case prompted the introduction of the Kelsey Smith Act, which authorizes telephone corporations to supply location information to legislation enforcement when there’s a affordable perception {that a} subscriber is in peril.
Kansas was the primary state to undertake the legislation, and in February 2021, Congress handed a federal model. In a single Kansas case, owing to the legislation, authorities situated a stolen automobile with a child inside by pinging the mom’s telephone, stopping one other tragedy.
Oxygen’s Ultimate Moments: A Deadly Procuring Journey explores intimately Kelsey Smith’s case as we speak, September 18, 2025.
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Edited by Sneha Haldar
