What is known about the American family killed by a shepherd guide in Georgia

An American family, Ryan and Laura Smith, and their 4-year-old son were killed in Georgia. A local shepherd was detained on suspicion of committing a crime. He initially admitted to the crime, but then began to deny his guilt.

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Edition “Currently,”Collected information about the deceased family.

California native Ryan Smith lived in Azerbaijan in 2002-2005 and studied the Azerbaijani language and culture. In 2005, he returned to the United States, where he met Laura and married her.

The couple moved to Georgia to start a project of their dreams in a predominantly ethnic Azerbaijani region in the south of the country.

The Smiths lived in the small town of Marneuli for more than six years. They were considered their own here. Laura taught English at a local school, and Ryan dreamed of reviving the ancient carpet weaving culture. He studied it for a long time in local villages and finally launched a project that gave work to local women.

They speak of him as a kind, honest, and sympathetic person.

For many Marneuli residents, the tragic death of an American family was a great loss. According to them, the Smiths immediately joined the urban community and maintained good relations with the locals.

The Ryan project gave the opportunity to earn many women in the village on the outskirts of Marneuli, where there is no work at all.

The Smiths also planned to open a playground in the city at their own expense.

13 July in Marneuli in the house of the Smith family held an evening of memory, organized by local residents. As a token of the memory of the dead family, they called for the opening of a playground in the city.

Recall, July 7 Georgian police found the bodies of 44-year-old Ryan Smith and 43-year-old Laura Smith in one of the gorges in the Mheta-Mtianeti region, where they came to rest, and a few days later law enforcement officers found the body of their 4-year-old son.

On suspicion of murder detained their conductor - 19-year-old shepherd Malkhaz Kobauri.

Initially, the suspect confessed to the crime. He said that on July 4 shot an American and a child from a hunting rifle, a woman tried to escape from him and crashed to death, falling from a cliff.

According to the shepherd, he left the dead man at the scene of the incident, and hid the body of the child in an avalanche. The cause of the brutal violence was the conflict between the American and the conductor. According to the suspect, he helped the woman when she nearly fell from a height, and her husband was jealous, and that was the cause of the quarrel.

On version of the investigationOn the way, Ryan Smith began to make a shepherd comments about the gun: allegedly the guy carried him carelessly, occasionally setting the barrel on the child. They began to curse, and that is why the shepherd shot - first at Ryan Smith, and then at his son.

The details of the crime, voiced by him, did not cause doubts that the man was involved in the murder; therefore, on July 9, he was arrested by accusing murder.

However, at the trial, Kobauri refused to confess and insisted that the murder was committed by two unknown men who threatened him with reprisals against relatives if the shepherd tells the truth.

The examination found that Laura was raped before her death. Moreover, the shepherd was shooting the woman on his phone and before the detention he had boasted photos in front of his friends. Now the phone is at the police.

Initially, the case was investigated as a murder through negligence. However, after receiving the data from the medical examination, he was reclassified as a deliberate murder with aggravating circumstances. The accused faces from 16 years in prison to life imprisonment.

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