Overview of Jeffrey Lynn Smith
Could Lynn’s high school boyfriend know more about Lynn’s disappearance?
Jeffrey Lynn Smith was a daughter, sister and a friend — born on October 12, 1969. She often went by her middle name, Lynn, amongst friends and family. Lynn’s mother worked for the Clinton family as a maid, and Lynn was named after Bill Clinton’s step father, Jeffrey Dwire.
Lynn just turned 16. Two months before she vanished Lynn was blowing out candles on a birthday cake with family. That day, her mother had given Lynn an opal ring for her birthday.
Lisa Allen, Lynn's sister and case advocate, said Lynn guarded the new ring "as if it were one of the Crown Jewels of England," — rarely ever taking it off for any reason.
The day Lynn went missing.
Lynn was last seen on December 4, 1985. Her day was pretty typical. She went to school and walked home with Frank. Some reports claim that Frank Hannah was abusive towards Lynn at the time, and that she was trying to end the relationship. Lynn was last seen near the intersection of Crescent Street and Silver Street in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Lynn was last seen wearing pink pants, a brown jacket and tan shoes. She is described as being 5’3” and weighing approximately 110 pounds. Lynn is described as a black female with a mole on the right side of her chin and pierced ears.
“It was the first time that Lynn had ever missed a curfew let alone not come home at all,” Lisa writes in a blog post for NCMEC.
A short time after Lynn vanished, with minimal leads, the family learned that Lynn’s beloved opal ring had been pawned at a local shop. It is believed that her boyfriend had pawned the ring, but this has not been proven. Lynn never went anywhere without it, therefore the family knew something wasn’t right when it was discovered.
When Lynn is reported missing.
Original investigators from Hot Springs Police first classified her case as a runaway. The family disagrees. They say running away would be out of character, also considering she had no prior history of any similar behavior.
Decades go by, but the family’s passion for justice and answers only grows.
In 2005, Lynn’s sister, Lisa Allen moved back to Arkansas and began to look deeper into her sister’s case. She uncovered that Lynn’s old-time boyfriend had since assaulted at least two other women; one was shot in the face, resulting in Frank serving jail time. Lisa had tracked down the two women and interviewed them via phone. After gathering her information and transcribing the interviews detailing abuse, Lisa handed over her information to Hot Springs authorities.
Two years later, in 2007, the family was able to review Lynn’s case file and noticed some investigative holes and inconsistencies — one of them being that Frank Hannah was never properly interviewed back in 1985. Strangely, in January of 2008, the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) had ‘purged’ Lynn’s case as a missing person from their system. Once this was discovered, Lynn’s case was re-added. Later that same year, Lynn’s case was reopened and in the summer authorities conducted a massive search, but no new information was found.
In December 2010, the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children conducted a full day cadaver dog search near and around the 300 block of Cypressvale Street, but it remains unknown if any new information was recovered. By 2012, Lynn’s case is reclassified as an “endangered missing child” and the local police announce that they have a new person of interest.
Where the case stands today.
To date, there have been no arrests in Lynn’s case. Her family is still seeking justice. In 2017, a safety seminar was held in Hot Springs, Arkansas where authorities taught parents how to use the “Safety Central” app which stores information about your child in the event that they go missing. The app and advocacy was spearheaded by Lisa Allen, Lynn’s sister.
