0:00

This podcast contains disturbing

0:02

content. Please take care while listening.

0:10

On August 25th, 2010,

0:13

Arthur Sheldon's remains were found

0:15

outside of Kim Smith and David Enos's

0:17

trailer at Twin Oaks Mobile Home

0:20

Park. It had come

0:22

to light that Arthur had been under Kim's

0:24

care,

0:25

just like Goldie Robinson,

0:27

who was still a missing person.

0:29

Detectives believed Goldie had been missing

0:32

for one to two months, but they didn't

0:34

have a definitive date because she was

0:36

estranged from her son Fred at the

0:38

time she went missing.

0:40

There were so many unanswered questions.

0:43

When and how did Arthur Sheldon

0:45

die? Was Kim or

0:47

someone she knew involved with

0:50

his death?

0:51

And where was Goldie Robinson?

0:54

Kim Smith was being held at the Orange County

0:56

Jail in Orlando for a parole violation.

1:00

And on August 23rd, she spoke with her

1:02

boyfriend David Enos on the phone.

1:04

David was clearly distressed. What's

1:07

the matter? Everybody's

1:09

trying to know where Goldie is. They

1:14

don't know where she is. They

1:16

think somebody, she's missing. She

1:21

is not missing. I

1:24

mean, missing and slash murder,

1:27

slash all kinds of crazy.

1:29

What? What? What? Yeah.

1:33

David is hardly audible on the call, but

1:35

he said everyone is looking for Goldie,

1:38

saying she's missing or murdered. Remember,

1:42

Kim doesn't know what's going on with the investigation

1:44

because she's in jail. And as

1:47

David updates her on what he knows,

1:49

he sounds tired, worried and stressed.

1:52

Babe, you need to get together, babe.

1:54

This is crazy. Honey,

1:58

I love you. This is crazy.

2:04

Kim Smith was a person of interest in

2:06

the investigation into Goldie Robinson's

2:08

disappearance, and now Arthur

2:11

Sheldon's potential homicide.

2:14

There were just too many suspicious things

2:16

to ignore. When detectives searched

2:18

Kim's trailer, they found financial records

2:20

for both Goldie and Arthur. They

2:23

also found a plastic Walmart bag

2:25

filled with unopened mail addressed

2:28

to Goldie Robinson.

2:31

But

2:31

of course, it wasn't just Kim

2:34

living in that trailer. It was

2:36

also David Enos. And David

2:38

sounds freaked out about the whole

2:40

thing on this call. More and

2:42

more defeated with every breath, like he's

2:45

just waiting for something big to happen. Something

2:48

bad. Kim tries

2:50

to reassure him that everything will be okay.

2:53

But nobody's done anything to Goldie. Goldie

2:56

is fine. I just talked to her on Tuesday.

2:59

Before I came here.

3:03

You need to get together and know

3:05

that if they had anything, they would have already

3:07

done something. It's

3:10

Adam, I'm sure Adam's freaking out.

3:14

But there's nothing to freak out about. There's

3:16

nothing wrong with her. She's fine. She

3:19

told me she's not coming back until December.

3:25

Throughout this call, Kim remains calm,

3:28

cool, and collected. Almost

3:30

like she has a live audience. Before

3:33

the call ends, she gives David a pep

3:35

talk. Ma'am, you need to keep it together,

3:38

okay? You didn't do anything wrong. We didn't do anything wrong.

3:40

You need to keep it together, okay? I love you, honey. I'm

3:43

not going to let anything

3:45

happen to you. You didn't do anything wrong. I need to

3:48

do we.

3:48

I need to go. I'm going to do it. I'm

3:51

going to do it. I'm going to do it. You're going

3:53

to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm

3:55

going to do it. I'm going to do it. From Cast Media,

3:57

this is The Opportunist. This

4:00

is season eight, episode three,

4:02

Kimberly Smith. Where

4:05

is Goldie Robinson? I'm

4:08

Hannah Smith.

4:17

In the search for Goldie Robinson, the

4:19

police had all but ruled out the theory

4:21

that she was on her honeymoon in Tennessee

4:24

with a millionaire.

4:25

Detectives were fairly certain that the

4:28

man in the wedding announcement was actually

4:30

Russell Rybak, an elderly gentleman

4:33

living in Kim Smith's trailer. It

4:35

seemed pretty clear that Kim was the one

4:37

who had created the wedding announcement

4:40

using a photo of Goldie and a blurry

4:42

photo of Russell just calling him Rusty.

4:45

It was almost like it was blurred on purpose to

4:48

make it difficult to tell 100% if that was the

4:50

person, but even

4:52

in the documentation of the report,

4:55

they suspected it was a fake photograph from

4:57

the get-go.

4:58

As soon as human remains were found

5:00

outside of Kim Smith's trailer, detectives

5:03

initiated a plan to search the entire

5:06

surrounding property.

5:08

Here's reporter Nicole Luca. After

5:11

they announced that that was not Goldie's

5:13

body, they

5:16

immediately went back thinking,

5:19

well, if there was one body there, then maybe

5:22

there's another body on that

5:24

property or in that area just kind of

5:26

went,

5:27

you know, all hands on deck. They

5:30

had investigators in and out. They had

5:32

investigators outside, and

5:35

then they brought in dogs to help.

5:38

Investigators planned to use cadaver

5:40

docks to search the small wooded area

5:43

next to Kim's trailer,

5:44

but they decided to wait a week.

5:48

Arthur Sheldon's remains had just been

5:50

removed and they needed to let the smell

5:52

dissipate so as not to confuse

5:54

the cadaver dogs.

5:56

During that week, detectives pressed forward

5:58

with the investigation.

5:59

knowing that the clock was ticking.

6:02

Goldie Robinson could still be alive somewhere,

6:05

waiting to be found. They believed

6:07

that someone associated with Kim Smith

6:10

knew something about Goldie.

6:13

On August 30th, detectives went

6:15

to speak with Kim's boyfriend, David

6:18

Enos.

6:19

And when was the last day you saw Goldie? Last

6:22

day I saw Goldie was... was

6:24

at... I don't know exactly,

6:26

but it was the end of... July...

6:32

not in front of her house in the night room. I

6:35

don't know how to go out there, I saw her.

6:38

David said he saw Goldie at the end

6:40

of July standing in the road outside

6:42

her home in the middle of the night, which

6:45

is odd.

6:46

But he doesn't give more details. He just

6:48

says he has no idea where

6:50

she is or what happened to her.

6:53

And then he adds that he didn't know anything about

6:56

Arthur Sheldon either until the

6:58

detectives told him they'd found a body

7:00

in his backyard.

7:02

But then the detectives say something

7:04

to David that honestly shocked me.

7:07

They said they had received information

7:10

that David killed Goldie Robinson.

7:14

The statements are of the effect that... you

7:19

beat Goldie over the head, you wrapped her up in

7:21

a carpet, and

7:24

you tossed her off a bridge. I

7:27

mean, hey,

7:29

you know what, it's a statement. We can't find it. I

7:32

got to ask you. Okay.

7:34

Nah, that's... I never

7:36

did anything like that.

7:41

They said multiple people told

7:43

them that David hit Goldie over the

7:45

head, wrapped her in a carpet, and

7:48

threw her body over a bridge. David

7:51

strongly denies this. And

7:54

then the detectives ask him if Kim

7:56

told him to kill Goldie. They

7:59

said Kim... can be very convincing.

8:22

The detectives tell David that Kim

8:25

is one of the people who told them that David

8:27

killed Goldie. I'm

8:29

not sure if Kim actually ever said

8:32

this. There's no recording of it. It's

8:34

possible that she did. It's also

8:36

possible that the detectives are bluffing,

8:39

taking a stab in the dark, trying

8:41

to get David to admit to something. But

8:44

he doesn't. He just says he doesn't

8:46

know anything. He also says

8:49

that he and Kim are splitting up and

8:51

that he's leaving her.

8:52

He has threatened to leave her

8:54

before, but he's always stayed.

8:58

Kim and David started dating in 1998. David

9:01

is 12 years younger than Kim.

9:04

And by 2010, they'd been through

9:06

a lot together. They had a daughter

9:09

in 1999, but she was taken away from them and

9:11

was being raised by Kim's mother. David

9:14

mentions many times in the recordings

9:16

of him talking to the police that

9:18

this was something he thought about often.

9:21

He wanted to try to get his daughter back.

9:23

But David also rarely had a job,

9:26

and Kim was financially supporting him.

9:29

David had stayed with Kim even when she

9:31

spent time in jail previously for identity

9:34

theft and writing a series of bad checks.

9:37

During this interview, David is actually

9:40

in the hospital. You may have

9:42

heard some machines beeping in the recordings.

9:45

A few days before this, he'd been drinking

9:48

heavily and then swallowed a whole bottle

9:50

of Tylenol.

9:52

He was alive, but he damaged

9:54

his liver and kidneys.

9:56

He tells the detectives that he's

9:58

worried he's done permanent damage to the police. to his organs

10:00

and that he's been thinking a lot about

10:03

his life and his mistakes. It

10:05

concerns me

10:07

as an investigator when someone

10:10

who doesn't have anything, at least

10:13

what they're telling us, anything to do with anything.

10:16

And they don't

10:18

know what's going on, but yet they take a

10:21

potentially lethal dose of medication

10:24

and start drinking heavily at

10:27

the onset of a missing person

10:29

investigation. Just

10:32

taking guilt

10:35

by association. My

10:37

life is over. Whatever

10:40

happened, whatever, if kids did

10:42

anything that was

10:44

anywhere outside of the

10:46

warrens, then that

10:48

means my life is over too now because

10:50

of her actions. People are

10:52

like asking me questions. I don't know

10:54

answers to. People

10:57

are like accusing me of killing people,

10:59

hurting people, all this other stuff that I've

11:02

never done a day in my life. And I

11:05

figured if I would start drinking,

11:07

then I guess it's what hell

11:10

is really like. So.

11:13

Things do not look good for David at this

11:15

time. And over the course

11:17

of the interview, it becomes clear that David

11:19

is trying to distance himself from Kim.

11:23

Detectives ask him if he's spoken to

11:25

Kim lately and he says, yes, he has.

11:28

But then he says that Kim has been lying

11:30

to him.

11:31

When he asked her where Goldie was, she

11:33

fed him the same story. She fed everyone

11:36

else that Goldie was on her honeymoon.

11:39

And David makes it very clear that he doesn't

11:41

believe this. He says to

11:43

the detectives, quote, she

11:45

never got married.

11:47

He's referring to Goldie.

11:50

At multiple times during this interview,

11:52

David sounds like he's so close

11:55

to turning on Kim or confessing

11:57

some information about where Goldie is.

11:59

But he never does.

12:02

His stance remains the same.

12:04

He knows that Goldie didn't get married, that this

12:07

was a lie that Kim told. But

12:09

he doesn't know what actually happened to Goldie or

12:11

where she is. Detectives

12:14

remind him that the trailer he was living in was

12:16

chock-full of Goldie's financial

12:18

records. And David

12:20

is very cooperative. He says, search

12:23

the house again, take my computer, do

12:25

whatever you need to do. Whatever you need to

12:27

do, go ahead and do. I mean, ultimately,

12:30

I want the same thing that you guys do, which is

12:32

to know what the hell happened to Goldie.

12:35

David told detectives that a while

12:37

back, Kim asked him to build a shed

12:39

behind their trailer for extra storage.

12:42

And the shed hadn't gone up yet, but

12:44

he had built a wooden platform for

12:46

it. Detectives asked him if

12:48

they could look underneath that platform,

12:51

and David said they could.

12:52

Do you expect we're gonna find anything on that wood

12:54

platform? I sure

12:57

hope not. I don't think

12:59

so.

13:00

The implication is clear. They

13:03

are going to start digging around Kim and

13:05

David's trailer.

13:06

They are looking for Goldie.

13:23

You

13:26

can follow, rate, and review The Opportunist

13:28

on Apple Podcasts. It really

13:31

does make a difference, so thank you.

13:40

Through conducting interviews, detectives learned something

13:42

surprising about Goldie

13:44

Robinson.

13:46

They wondered if it could be a potential lead in

13:48

finding Goldie. And they

13:50

found a lead. It

13:52

was a woman named Kim. Kim was a potential

13:54

lead in finding Goldie.

13:57

Prior to becoming close with Kim Smith,

13:59

Goldie had a roommate, a friend

14:02

of hers named Elaine.

14:04

Elaine and Goldie had been close friends for 30

14:06

years, but as soon

14:08

as Kim came into the picture,

14:10

Goldie and Elaine began having disagreements.

14:14

Goldie and her roommate lived together. I

14:17

don't want to misquote this, but I want to say it was

14:19

like 17 years they were roommates.

14:22

Got along great until Kim Smith came

14:24

into the picture. Then suddenly there were problems.

14:27

They weren't getting along.

14:29

Fred and Stacia both told me that Elaine

14:32

was basically part of the family. They

14:34

was the best of friends.

14:38

When they, mom

14:41

bought this trailer in a trailer park,

14:44

and

14:45

the back room, she

14:48

built a back room onto

14:51

the trailer. But actually

14:54

she built it for Elaine.

14:56

Goldie and Elaine met in the mid 70s.

14:59

They both worked at Denny's and became

15:01

fast friends.

15:03

And then in the mid 90s, Goldie

15:05

built an addition onto her mobile home,

15:08

specifically for Elaine to move into.

15:11

Goldie's husband Lester was still alive at

15:13

the time, and they all lived there together.

15:16

Once Lester died in 1999, it was just Goldie

15:18

and Elaine. I

15:22

don't ever remember Elaine not

15:24

being around. Elaine was just always

15:26

part of the family. She was always there. And

15:28

were you close with Elaine as well?

15:30

I was extremely close with Elaine. And

15:33

what did your dad think of Elaine? It

15:35

was like she was another

15:37

mother. To

15:39

him, she would come out of her area,

15:42

and she would always come out and eat dinner with us.

15:44

And she was just

15:47

part of our unit.

15:48

But then in the summer of 2010, Elaine

15:52

and Goldie had a falling out.

15:55

Their disagreement was so severe that

15:57

in June, Elaine moved out.

16:00

This was around the same time that Stacia

16:02

stopped hearing from her grandmother, Goldie.

16:05

At that time, I guess Elaine had

16:07

moved out. Were you or your father aware of

16:09

that? No. I want to say

16:11

the story went is that Goldie

16:15

and Elaine got in an argument

16:17

and she moved out. And

16:21

then I want

16:23

to say my dad tried to reach out to Elaine

16:26

and I don't think he ever got a response from her.

16:28

So he just, you know,

16:29

kind of let it go away. The

16:32

cause of the fight between Elaine and Goldie,

16:35

well, that's still sort of unclear.

16:38

There are multiple accounts of Kim

16:40

talking about this falling out, but

16:42

her story changes depending on the day

16:44

and who she's talking to.

16:47

Kim told one of Goldie's friends from

16:49

church that the problems between

16:52

Elaine and Goldie started with a life

16:54

insurance policy.

16:56

Kim said the same thing to the police. She

16:58

found out that Elaine had a life

17:01

insurance policy in her name. And

17:04

she was living.

17:10

But when detectives asked follow up questions

17:12

about this, Kim was vague.

17:15

She answered every question with

17:17

a story,

17:18

usually riddled with tangents

17:21

and non sequiturs. And by the end

17:23

of it, she still really didn't

17:25

have an answer.

17:27

For example, when detectives asked, why

17:30

did Elaine move out of Goldie's

17:32

trailer? This is what Kim said.

17:36

Something about her car. Elaine,

17:38

she swore up and down. Elaine went behind

17:41

her back. And.

17:47

Pretty much used her for that corvette. And

17:51

was having an affair with her son.

17:55

She swore up and down, up and down, up

17:57

and down that Elaine and

17:59

her son, Joe,

18:03

I think he's real-life

18:05

friend, Fred, who had

18:07

another family.

18:10

Kim told multiple people that

18:12

Elaine was having an affair with

18:14

Goldie's son Fred. Fred refutes

18:16

this claim, by the way. He says Elaine was

18:19

more like a mother to him.

18:21

But it is true that Elaine had a car

18:24

that she loved, a Corvette.

18:26

And according to Kim, the

18:29

Corvette also played a part in their

18:31

quarrel.

18:32

Goldie would put two fish on top

18:34

of the car for the cat to get on top

18:37

of it and the damage is over. Elaine

18:39

actually doesn't look as old as she

18:42

is, but Goldie would do little things

18:44

like that to her.

18:46

At this point, the detective is no

18:48

closer to getting an answer. He gets

18:50

impatient and redirects Kim

18:52

back to the original question, why did

18:54

Elaine move out of Goldie's trailer?

18:57

And then Kim begins talking about insurance

19:00

again.

19:00

She swore up and down that

19:03

she did not get the permission to take out that life

19:05

insurance policy. I never gave

19:07

Elaine no permission to sign an life insurance

19:09

policy for me, ever, ever, ever,

19:12

ever.

19:12

From what I can tell, Kim's story

19:15

to the police about why Elaine

19:17

moved out can be boiled down

19:19

to this. Goldie

19:22

was convinced that Elaine and her son

19:24

Fred were having an affair and she

19:27

was upset about this. She was also

19:29

convinced that they had secretly taken

19:31

out a life insurance policy together

19:33

on her. And this made Goldie

19:36

so mad that she kicked Elaine

19:38

out of her trailer and then she changed the

19:40

locks on the trailer. And also, for

19:43

some reason, she put tuna fish on

19:45

top of Elaine's Corvette.

19:48

But then Kim says

19:50

this.

19:59

to her voice. She

20:02

decides she wants to move into the new room, the

20:04

bathroom. She'll give them that room,

20:07

and then the little kids can have the other one. Sort

20:09

of the bathroom, the extension? Yeah, the extension.

20:12

It cannot be ignored that Kim had

20:14

a lot to gain from Elaine

20:16

moving out of Goldie's trailer, because Elaine

20:19

had been living in that small addition

20:22

in the back of Goldie's trailer.

20:25

And once Elaine moved out, Goldie

20:27

moved into that small addition.

20:31

And what happened to the rest of the trailer? Well,

20:34

Kim's son, Adam Smith, moved

20:36

in with his family.

20:38

But what about the life insurance

20:41

policy? Is there any truth

20:43

to that? According

20:45

to Goldie's granddaughter Stacia, there

20:47

is, at least in part.

20:50

But that is, that actually is true,

20:53

is that my, that Elaine

20:55

and my grandmother had life insurance policies

20:58

on each other. They lived

21:00

together for so long,

21:02

that that's

21:03

just kind of how it was. If you pass

21:05

away, you take care of my affairs. If

21:07

I pass away, you take care of my affairs

21:09

kind of thing. So that was, but

21:11

it was never a,

21:15

again, that might've been a Kimberly story,

21:18

but that just was not true. Shortly

21:23

after Kim Smith came into Goldie Robinson's life,

21:25

there

21:28

was a rift between Goldie and her longtime

21:30

best friend, Elaine, so

21:32

much so that they became estranged.

21:34

And this was around the same

21:36

time that Goldie had a falling out with her son, Fred, and

21:39

became estranged from him also. So

21:43

I can't help but wonder,

21:44

was it Kim's intention to isolate

21:46

Goldie from her friends and family?

21:49

And if so, to what

21:51

end?

21:55

We reached out to Goldie's former roommate, Elaine Gunness,

21:57

for the podcast, but didn't know it was her. not

22:00

hear back.

22:01

She did speak to the police on

22:03

August 26, 2010, and there are notes from that

22:07

conversation in the police report.

22:09

Elaine Gunness

22:11

stated that Kimberly Smith moved

22:13

into the Twin Oaks mobile home park and

22:16

befriended Goldie Robinson.

22:18

Kim started spending a lot of time at

22:20

Goldie and Elaine's home.

22:23

And shortly after that, Goldie noticed

22:25

that some of her jewelry was missing. And

22:27

when she asked Kim about it, Kim

22:30

apparently told her that Elaine

22:33

had stolen it.

22:35

And then separately, Elaine also noticed

22:38

some of her jewelry was missing, about $15,000

22:42

worth. Elaine stated that

22:44

she told Kim about her missing jewelry,

22:47

and Kim told her Goldie

22:48

had taken the jewelry. Now,

22:51

Elaine notes in her interview with police

22:54

that she suspected from the start

22:56

that Kim Smith was the one who

22:59

actually took her jewelry and Goldie's

23:01

jewelry. And this was some

23:03

kind of effort to turn Elaine and

23:05

Goldie against one another.

23:08

But she said when she brought this theory up

23:10

to Goldie, that Goldie got angry

23:12

and defended Kim.

23:16

Not long after that, Elaine said she was

23:18

asked to move out, and so she did.

23:20

And she never got her jewelry

23:22

back.

23:24

So what was going on with the life

23:27

insurance? Well, when detectives

23:29

looked into it, they found out that Goldie

23:31

had cashed in two life insurance

23:34

policies shortly before she went missing.

23:37

It's noted that the funds were put into an account,

23:40

and detectives could see that money was being

23:42

rapidly removed from that account.

23:45

In just one month, $12,000 had been

23:48

withdrawn. And when they got the ATM

23:51

photos back from the bank, it was

23:53

Kimberly Smith's face that they

23:55

saw. Kim had gotten a hold of

23:57

the money from Goldie Robinson's cashed

23:59

in.

23:59

and life insurance policies.

24:33

Nine days after Arthur

24:35

Sheldon's remains were found at

24:37

Twin Oaks,

24:39

police brought cadaver dogs into

24:41

the Mobile Home Park. It was September

24:44

3rd, 2010.

24:46

Goldie's son Fred and granddaughter Stacia

24:49

were at the Mobile Home Park that day. So

24:51

was Elaine. Father and I had walked

24:53

up the street to visit

24:56

some folks. They brought the dogs in.

24:59

And Elaine was standing right there at the

25:02

road.

25:03

Elaine called Stacia on the phone

25:05

and said, I don't want to get your dad

25:07

riled up, but something is going on

25:09

down here and you need to come now.

25:12

So I ran down there. I don't

25:15

know, maybe 10 lots

25:18

down. I ran down there. By

25:21

the time I got down there, they were kind

25:23

of they were putting up the like the

25:25

tarps. I

25:28

thought, oh shit, here we go. It looks like

25:30

the police had found something, but

25:32

Stacia couldn't tell exactly what

25:35

had been found.

25:36

The detective called

25:38

me and said, Fred, he said, if you come over

25:40

to the over to

25:42

the trailer, he said, I just want you to know.

25:45

He says, there's going to be a few cops here.

25:47

Fred knew that it couldn't

25:50

be good news. So I

25:52

jumped in the truck and went over there and

25:54

there was cops everywhere. And when

25:57

I got out of the car,

25:59

I pulled up. into that little community

26:02

parking lot and

26:04

this big cop got out of a car.

26:06

He said, are you Mr. Roberts? I said,

26:08

yep. I heard dogs barking. He

26:11

says

26:12

two dogs hit in a spot

26:15

over in that overgrown area.

26:17

I said, oh, you know, I

26:19

don't like where this is going.

26:22

They hit on a spot and they started digging

26:25

about four feet down. They

26:28

had found another body and

26:30

they was taping off the place

26:33

with a police

26:35

tape. Another

26:38

body had been found in Kim Smith

26:40

and David Enos's yard. Here's

26:43

Stacia again. And they

26:46

couldn't tell if it was male or female and that

26:48

had been there for some time, that

26:50

this, the body would have to go to the medical

26:52

examiner.

26:53

I want to say it was a Friday afternoon

26:55

or a Saturday afternoon. And it

26:58

was definitely a holiday weekend because I remember

27:00

I was pissed because the Emmy's office was closed

27:02

on Monday because it was a holiday. So we couldn't get

27:04

the results until Tuesday.

27:07

This was the second body to be found.

27:09

And the second time that Fred and Stacia

27:12

just had to wait and wonder if

27:14

it was Goldie. And then

27:16

on Tuesday morning, he got the call.

27:18

They told me that

27:21

was mom. That

27:25

was in the blue tarp that they took out of the woods.

27:28

And I tried to tell myself it wasn't

27:30

my mom, but

27:32

it was, it was

27:34

her.

27:36

Goldie Robinson's body was found buried

27:38

next to Kim Smith's trailer in

27:40

a shallow four-foot grave.

27:46

At this point, Fred had been in South

27:48

Daytona actively searching for his

27:50

mother every day for two

27:52

weeks, every day, not knowing

27:55

if she was alive, but every day

27:57

hoping that she was. And now,

27:59

He knew for sure.

28:03

My dad called me and told me that

28:05

they had called and confirmed that it was her

28:08

by hydrating her fingerprint. And

28:11

how did you, you know, feel when you heard that?

28:14

I mean, honestly, I was, I was

28:16

relieved.

28:17

Only because

28:20

the feeling of not knowing

28:22

where someone is is horrible. It's

28:24

just a horrible feeling. I

28:28

was relieved that we found her. I

28:30

was devastated that she was

28:32

gone. I mean, my

28:34

father and I had days

28:37

and nights just roaming

28:40

around Daytona looking for

28:42

her. Like we would sleep in shifts. It's

28:44

just, it was an exhausting process.

28:48

So, not, not to,

28:51

I hate that it does sound kind of selfish, but

28:53

it was just, um, you

28:56

know, like to leave, like we don't, we can stop

28:58

looking for.

29:01

Revisiting this moment was difficult for

29:03

Fred. And one of the things

29:06

that Fred told me during this conversation

29:08

is that when he was standing

29:10

at Twin Oaks and he had heard that

29:12

another body was found, he

29:14

did something kind of odd. He

29:17

took a video of medics carrying

29:19

the body out from the woods. It

29:22

was completely covered. There was no way to tell

29:24

who it was. But it

29:26

just struck me as such an odd thing

29:29

to do. And so I asked him about

29:31

it.

29:32

Some things you just

29:36

can't never unsee. And

29:40

that's, that's one of them. Why

29:43

do you think in that moment, why do you think

29:45

you took a video? I

29:48

guess I did it

29:50

in hopes of not being

29:53

my mom again, you know. We don't found

29:55

one body that wasn't mom. So

29:58

why not find another one that's not mom?

30:02

But it didn't turn out that way.

30:06

Taking the video in that moment, it

30:09

seems to me like one of those things

30:11

that a person does when they don't

30:13

know what to do.

30:14

Because things are too terrible to know

30:17

what to do.

30:18

As if by taking the video that he

30:21

would somehow be able to turn back

30:23

time to change the way that things

30:25

happened. To bring his mother back.

30:28

But of course that didn't happen.

30:31

Instead, Fred started to face the reality

30:34

that his mother was gone.

30:36

He told me the next question that

30:38

he desperately needed answered was how?

30:40

How did she die?

30:44

Just as it had been for Arthur, Goldie's

30:47

body was too decomposed for

30:49

the medical examiner to determine a cause

30:51

of death. A few days

30:54

after Goldie's body was found, detectives

30:57

interviewed Fred's cousin and Goldie's

30:59

niece.

31:00

A woman named Donna.

31:02

And Donna's interview ended up

31:04

being pretty important because Donna

31:07

may have been the last person, not

31:10

associated with Kim Smith, to

31:12

see Goldie Mae Robinson alive.

31:15

I received a call from my cousin Betty,

31:18

who is a niece of Goldie's, and she

31:21

had been trying to get a hold of her for

31:23

a couple months.

31:25

Donna lives pretty close to the Twin Oaks

31:27

mobile home park. She is Goldie's niece

31:29

and

31:30

she said they used to be close. But

31:32

after Donna's mother died in 2006, she

31:35

said she and Goldie just drifted

31:38

apart over time.

31:39

But then, in early July,

31:42

Donna got a call from one of her cousins,

31:44

Betty,

31:45

who had been trying to reach Goldie

31:47

but hadn't been able to get in contact with her

31:50

for over a month.

31:51

Donna says she drove to check on Goldie

31:54

on either July 6th or July

31:57

7th, she can't remember exactly, when

31:59

she pulled up.

31:59

to Goldie's trailer, she noticed immediately

32:02

that the place looked unkempt.

32:05

When I went into the house, there

32:07

was five people in the

32:10

living room and two children,

32:12

two babies,

32:13

and Goldie was nowhere to be

32:15

seen. What were you

32:17

thinking in that first initial moment when you walk

32:20

in and you just see so many

32:20

strangers in her house? I

32:24

thought something is not right

32:26

here. This just can't be

32:28

right. What's going on here? Where's Goldie? And

32:31

that's when Kim, she approached

32:34

me, well, who are you? And

32:36

I said, well,

32:37

I'm Goldie's niece. I'm

32:40

Donna. Of course,

32:42

Donna knows now that this woman was Kim

32:44

Smith, but at the time, she thought

32:46

her name was Yaya.

32:49

And according to Donna, Kim tried

32:51

to stop her from seeing Goldie

32:53

that day. She said she

32:55

is in the back bedroom. She's sleeping.

32:58

Do not disturb her. And I said, oh, no,

33:01

I'm going to disturb her. And

33:05

I proceeded to walk back to Goldie's

33:07

bedroom.

33:08

She

33:10

followed me with

33:14

nervous chatter, talking. I don't

33:17

even know what she was talking about. I'm a nurse

33:20

and I'm taking care of Goldie, that

33:22

kind of stuff.

33:24

Donna is a nurse herself and against

33:26

Kim's wishes, she pushed her

33:28

way through the trailer to the back

33:31

bedroom

33:31

where she found Goldie

33:34

asleep. When I got to the room,

33:36

Goldie was in bed. She

33:39

did not look to be in any pain or anything.

33:42

And I tried to wake her up. And

33:45

that

33:47

did not work. So I did

33:49

do a sternal rub on her chest.

33:51

And what does that mean exactly? The knuckles

33:54

on the breastbone when you do

33:56

it hard, if someone

33:59

is coherent.

33:59

they will wake up because

34:03

it's painful. It doesn't, it's not real comfortable.

34:06

So she did not respond to

34:08

painful stimuli. I didn't like it

34:10

at all. I knew

34:13

that I was potentially in a very

34:15

dangerous situation because

34:18

there were several people there at the house

34:20

that I did not know and all

34:24

I could think of was I need to get out of the house.

34:27

Donna left Goldie's trailer that day

34:29

feeling very shaken and

34:31

as soon as she was in her car she called

34:34

Fred.

34:35

She told him he should come to Florida

34:37

as soon as possible. Something was

34:39

very wrong. I said

34:41

this doesn't feel right. This

34:43

is the situation and he said

34:45

no everything is fine. Kim is helping

34:47

mom with her meds. She's

34:50

helping to take care of her and everything

34:52

is fine.

34:54

Of course later Fred would regret not

34:56

dropping everything and driving to Florida

34:59

but at the time he really didn't think there

35:01

was anything to worry about. He

35:04

spoke with Kim every other day it seemed.

35:06

He trusted her and he believed that she was helping

35:08

his mother out.

35:10

There was something that Donna said to the police

35:13

when they interviewed her that sticks out to me.

35:16

She said Kim's reasoning for

35:18

why Goldie was so deeply asleep

35:21

that day

35:22

was that Goldie hadn't been able to sleep

35:24

the last couple of nights and so Kim

35:26

gave her Darvasset

35:28

which is an opioid pain medication

35:31

and Ativan a tranquilizer.

35:33

She

35:34

had told me that she had been taking care

35:36

of Goldie the past few months. She's had to go

35:38

get her at Walmart and stuff

35:41

because the dementia was increasing. It

35:43

was getting worse and worse. She was

35:45

misplacing her telephones and

35:48

that that's why people were not able to

35:50

get a hold of her apparently.

35:52

Donna didn't know it at the time because

35:55

she hadn't seen Goldie in over a year

35:57

but Goldie didn't have dementia.

36:00

As far as health concerns went, she had

36:02

high blood pressure, but

36:03

that was about it.

36:07

This was just another one of Kim Smith's

36:09

many lies.

36:11

Just like how she told everyone Goldie

36:13

had gotten married and was on an extended

36:16

honeymoon and would be back in December.

36:18

Another lie. Just like how a week before

36:21

Goldie's body was found,

36:23

Kim told her son Adam that she had

36:25

just spoken with Goldie on the phone.

36:28

Goldie is fine. I just talked to

36:30

her on Tuesday.

36:31

Before I came here.

36:33

Detectives were still piecing together

36:36

a guess as to when Goldie died,

36:38

but it was clear that she had died in July

36:40

of 2010. Kim

36:43

made this statement that she had just talked

36:45

to Goldie in late August.

36:48

It was clearly a lie intended either

36:50

for her son Adam or for whoever

36:53

listened to her recorded phone calls.

36:56

There's one more thing that

36:58

Donna told me about her run-in with

37:00

Kim Smith.

37:01

Once Donna had Kim's real name,

37:04

she was determined to find out if Kim

37:06

was actually a nurse.

37:08

I of course did look her information

37:11

up on the Florida Board of Nursing

37:14

and she did not have a nursing

37:16

license.

37:19

Kimberly Smith is not now and

37:21

has never been a nurse. This

37:23

is something the detectives had also discovered.

37:26

Kim was giving Goldie Robinson

37:29

medication, a painkiller

37:31

and a tranquilizer. Detectives

37:33

wondered how many times had Kim

37:36

given Goldie meds and did

37:38

Goldie really need those medications?

37:42

This missing persons case had now turned

37:44

into a potential double homicide

37:47

along with a fraud case and Kim

37:49

Smith was right in the middle of it.

38:01

This season of The Opportunist was produced

38:03

by me, Hannah Smith, along with Natalie

38:06

Gregory and Sarah Dalglish. Colin

38:08

Thompson is our executive producer, editor,

38:11

and music editor.

38:12

Matt Sewell mixes and masters the

38:14

show. Our cover art is by Joel

38:16

Hassemeyer. Thank you to Stell

38:19

Klein for the tape sync. You

38:21

can email us at theopportunist at

38:23

CastMedia.com, that's CastWithAK.

38:26

And we have merch for sale at theopportunistpodcast.com.