An attempt by a wealthy American to live beautifully turned into a crime drama

Everyone thought that the wealthy Chris Smith finally fulfilled his dream and went traveling with his beloved on a yacht. However, in fact, he disappeared without a trace.

Chris Smith in California. Photo of Steve Smith Family Archive

In June, 2010, 30-year-old Chris Smith, who had just sold a stake in his advertising campaign, received a million dollars in his hands. To celebrate this, he decided to go with the former magazine model Playboy Tiffany in sea voyage. The American told his plans by e-mail to his family and friends when he had already rented an 13-meter yacht with a captain and a cook in Las Vegas and was preparing to sail to South America.

At this point, Smith fulfilled his dream, his family believed. Only more than six months later, when a private detective became interested in the whereabouts of the man, and he stopped communicating, his relatives wondered - where did he really go? The story of the search for the missing told the publication GQ, and the translation of which provided TJournal.

Dream to leave

When Smith's relatives and friends first learned of his plans to go on a long journey, they were not surprised. For years, the American was planning to leave the United States for a better place. He called people “Mu” because he believed that they too often behave like cows. They blindly trust the government, massively consume pharmaceutical "poison" and ignore the obvious conspiracies around themselves, according to Smith.

The American stuck the webcam on the computer so that the CIA agents would not follow him, invested in gold and regularly considered a “rescue plan”. Together with friends, he intended to leave the country for a more fulfilling life - in Tahiti, where you can surf for whole days, or on a farm in Costa Rica. To summarize, Smith’s plan for life was: get rich, quit his job and go traveling.

In June, 2010, an American, sent a picture of his companion Tiffany to his brother Paul, with the caption: "This is the girl with whom I am now." July 10 Smith reported on visits to Peru and Chile, and then promised to visit more 25 islands. “I like it so much here that maybe I will never come back. HA. I was joking, ”- said in a message from August 4.

However, a month later, Smith's parents, Steve and Déby, received a darker message. The American wrote that he feels bad, takes drugs and reflects on suicide. Prior to that, the 30-year-old man had never talked about such thoughts, so close people were immediately alerted. But his brother understood the gravity of the situation - when he left, Smith was worried that they would sue him, and for some of his money they would come from the tax service. “It looked like he was sinking deep into the bottom. Something was out of order, ”recalls Paul.

According to the businessman’s friends, thoughts of leaving the USA for a better life have been visiting him for a long time. He was born in California and professionally engaged in wakeboarding in his youth, but once he hit the water at a speed of about 96 kilometers per hour and tore the Achilles tendon. After leaving sport, in 2004, an American thought about the future: he liked to surf and party at parties, but he did not want to become an ordinary beach party-goer. Instead, Smith worked day after day in an attempt to fulfill his dream and become an entrepreneur in the technology field.

Smith launched a search site for wholesale of essential goods at a reduced price, which at the peak of popularity in 2006 brought thousands of dollars a month to a 72 businessman. In parallel, he created a social network for surfers Swellster - The site has not gained popularity, but helped Smith to establish connections with people from advertising and marketing. So in 2008, he met Edward Sheen.

New business - new opportunities

Unlike his future companion, 40-year-old Shin graduated from the University of California in 2001 and actively participated in student life. While Smith was having fun with numerous girls, Shin was already married and raised three children, regularly attending the local Christian church. Despite such striking differences in priorities, acquaintances quickly became friends and partners. “We were very ambitious and wanted to make a lot of money,” she said later.

In April, businessmen opened 2009 advertising firm 800Xchange. “Refinance your mortgage!”, “Reduce the loan debt!”, “Cheat the US Internal Revenue Service” - approximately such services were promoted by Smith and Shin. People saw ads, called the number and called their names. Then 800Xchange sold these data to mortgage companies, debt firms or anyone who was willing to pay.

Despite the ambiguity of such a business, the company's revenues grew rapidly. For five months, the company's revenue amounted to a million dollars, and 80% of this is net profit. The following year, the initial figure increased to three million, and in the third year it was already 5-8 million dollars.

Like Smith, Sheena could have been called a successful start-up, if not for his past. Once he became friends with the director of a technology company. LG Technologies Joseph Gray, and he helped him to get the position of president of the company. Soon, Shin began secretly transferring company funds to a personal account.

This was not the first fraud in the history of the Californian. In 2007, the publishing company, which printed the edition of the sports magazine Tire, sued 117 thousands of dollars for unpaid bills. It is alleged that the man even deceived his opponent during the world poker tournament for the debts of a six-figure sum. Presumably, the player got so angry that he thought to hire a hitman to get revenge on Shin.

An old American acquaintance Tom Raimi said that he suffered from gambling addiction and once in an hour lost about 140 thousand dollars in blackjack. At the trial of the theft of funds from LG Technologies the prosecution claimed that in just the 2008 year, Shin spent 185 thousand dollars worth of firms in a casino.

In Las Vegas, a Californian met Smith. Together with Raimi, they paid the former model Playboy Tiffany, to show her attention to Smith. Sheen forbade Raimi to tell anyone that they paid the girl. "The goal was to create the illusion that the guy is so cool that he may appear in some place and the women will start to thrill, and he can fuck everyone," explained Raimi.

It is not known how much Smith knew about his partner’s past mistakes, but in 2010, he decided to sell his stake in 800Xchange and start living for your pleasure.

Travel is delayed

In the fifth month since Smith’s departure, the suicidal tone disappeared from his messages. Instead, an American who began his journey from South America talked about visiting India, Turkey, Morocco and Egypt, where he met a certain person and went with him to east Africa.

"Through the north I will get to Egypt and then I will come to Spain, and from there I will go to Rica (Costa Rica - approx. Tj). Will we meet there in February so that we can sow and talk? ”Smith wrote to his brother. December 26 Paul received another message where an American said he was returning home through the Congo. After that, he no longer got in touch.

When Paul contacted the hotel manager in Costa Rica, who often visited with his brother, he found out that Smith did not book the place. Sensing something was wrong, the American filed a statement about the disappearance of a man at the Laguna Beach police station, where Smith lived before his trip. The father of the missing man, Steve, began a parallel investigation - he met with Sheen and he explained why the police could not track the American by passport activity.

According to the partner of the businessman, he traveled on forged documents, which made a certain person from southern California. Shin looked worried and offered to help find the author of a fake passport, but he disappeared somewhere and his phone was turned off. The police also proved to be powerless - investigators tried to track Smith’s movements through the facial recognition system, hoping that he was captured by a video surveillance camera in one of the visiting countries. Attempts were in vain.

In June 2011, Shin told the police that LG Technologies they sued 805 for thousands of dollars, and suggested that this partly forced his partner to flee. Smith advised the company and was mentioned in the lawsuit, and although the charges against him almost immediately dropped, he was worried about his financial condition.

“Honestly, I think he is now at the other end of the world and does not want to be found,” Shin argued. The traveler did mention the lawsuit in the messages, promising to return only in case of full confidence in their safety.

Private detective, bloodstains and unfinished business

Although Shin had a more or less convincing version of the reasons for the disappearance of the partner, his financial affairs were also not in the best condition. In January, 2011, a businessman took things from the office 800Xchange and disappeared without paying the landlord 40 thousands of dollars. The landlord immediately turned to private detective Joe Dahl for help (Joe Dalu)to find the missing company executives - Sheen and Smith.

Immediately it seemed to the detective that one of the partners had been absent for so long. Coincidentally, he worked with businessmen in the same building and often passed by their office. When he was hired to find those who had run away, he first asked the building manager whether his place of work was still free. “Yes,” the detective confirmed. "I offered the police to look in there, but they refused." When Dalu and the manager entered the office and turned on the lights at Smith's desk, they saw little dark drops that looked like blood.

The arriving police officers confirmed that it was indeed the blood of the missing American. She was splashed with a switch and a door handle, walls, carpet and ceiling.

For those few who knew what Smith and Sheen knew about, the signs of violence in their office only confirmed their fears. Back in May, 2010, an American, complained about Shin's strange behavior and said he wanted to leave the company. Shortly before the summer, he hired a security guard, who ensured that on all checks of the company with a sum of more than 500 dollars were signed by both owners. 4 June 2010, six days before Smith’s departure, he asked his lawyer to look after a partner, fearing that he was preparing to go on a new deception.

According to Shin, in the evening of the same day he met with a friend, they agreed on the terms of the sale of the company and signed the necessary papers. Smith then took the money and left. This version is quite satisfied with the police, while in the office did not find a drop of blood.

Smith never received a million dollars from Sheena and did not rent a yacht to travel with his girlfriend. As the police found out, the photo of the companion was downloaded from the Internet. 28 August 2011, the investigators arrested Tire at the airport when he came on board flying to Canada and charged him with "special homicide for financial gain."

Journey without end

After several hours of interrogation, Shin admitted that his meeting with a partner was somewhat different from what he had originally said. Allegedly, they argued about who should clean the office, and began to fight. Defending himself, Sheen pushed Smith, he hit his head on the corner of the table and almost stopped moving.

After that, Shin, as he claims, called his friend Joni Vegas Coponen (Johnny vegas koponen) and asked to "get rid of garbage." The interviewee agreed, asked to leave the door to the office open and prepare 10-15 thousands of dollars in payment. The businessman said that he did not know about the future of the body, while Koponen himself completely denied the dialogue.

Police believe that after the scuffle, the American got from a working computer access to the email and account of the victim in social networks. To ward off suspicion, Shin invented a story about Smith's world tour. The accusation completely rejected the version of the unintentional murder, pointing out that if the deceased had really died after hitting his head with a table, the office ceiling would not be spattered with blood. This could only happen if they beat him with a knife or a blunt object.

Edward Sheen. California Police Photos

For the investigation, Tire's motive was obvious - he had to pay it anyway. LG Technologies 805 thousand dollars and did not want to give another million partner. This is indicated by the fact that a few hours after the alleged murder, Shin wrote to lawyer Smith, saying that he was ready to sell his share not for a million, but for 45 thousand dollars.

Two months before his arrest, Shin began a blog, where he mostly wrote about his goals, faith, and forgiveness for certain sins. However, he did not specify what exactly sins were discussed.

It doesn't matter if you are a hardened murderer, holding a cross a few hours before your death, or who comes from a good Christian family, whose covenants led you to Jesus even before you committed a serious sin, we are all human. So yes, I'm sorry. And yes, one day I will do everything possible so that the things I have done bring as much benefit as possible.

Edward Shin

Californian businessman

The trial of Sheen began in January 2018. Since then, the new details of the proceedings have not been reported. Smith's body has not yet been found.

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