Hollywood movie executive Gavin Smith seemed to live a privileged life with his picture-perfect family in California. But behind the scenes, it was a different story - and in a tragic twist, his seemingly fairytale life turned into a horror movie.
When the 57-year-old father of three disappeared in 2012, he was living in Calabasas, an affluent suburb of Los Angeles, and had been working for 20th Century Fox for 18 years.
Los Angeles may be known for its sun, waves and celebrities, but the 2024 Netflix true crime documentary series Murder: Los Angeles reveals the sinister side of the City of Angels.
Smith's case is highlighted in episode four, A Hollywood affair, which investigates what happened to the director after he disappeared on May 1, 2012.
The researchers found that the man had become addicted to painkillers due to a back injury and was in a troubled marriage after repeatedly admitting to his family that he had had extramarital affairs.
Still, Smith's wife, Lisa, said he didn't just disappear. Detectives had their theories. Did his wife hire someone to kill him as revenge for the affairs? Did he commit suicide? Or did he run off with a mistress? Or did he just want some time to himself?
Detectives soon learned that on the night of his disappearance, Smith had secretly met with a woman with whom he had previously had an affair, Chandrika Cade.
So they turned their attention to Cade and their relationship. Cade's husband, convicted drug dealer John Creech, then entered the picture, and within months, detectives made a breakthrough in the case.
But it would be two more years before Smith's body was found, buried in a shallow grave in the California desert.
A missing manager
On May 2, 2012, Smith failed to pick up his son from school or show up for work, raising suspicions among those who knew him best.
Tara Smith Addeo, Smith's sister, said in the docuseries that she learned her brother might be missing when his wife Lisa called her that day to ask if she had heard from him.
"It was very unusual for someone like him to just not show up for work, or not show up to pick up his child, or just disappear into thin air," Addeo said. "I never dreamed something like this would happen."
LASD Homicide Detective Ty Labbe said it was Lisa who told them about Smith's extramarital affairs and that he had been staying with a co-worker after she caught him cheating twice. The co-worker said he left around 10 p.m. in his black Mercedes-Benz.
Smith's phone became an important piece of the puzzle.
The night he disappeared, he had called Lisa, his three sons, his sister and Cade.
"We knew she was the last person to talk to him," Labbe said. "What we needed to know was, who is this chick?"
Smith met Cade in 2008 at a rehabilitation center. Smith was there after becoming addicted to painkillers for a back injury.
Investigators say the two had an affair until Smith ended it in 2010. But after her name surfaced in his phone records the night he disappeared, they knew they had to question her.
Cade, who was emotional during the interrogation, told detectives she did not know what happened to Smith after their contact on May 1, 2012.
'A duck is a duck'
While detectives were at the house, Cade's husband Creech, an ex-convict who was on the loose, drove up, saw the police and abruptly ran away.
Creech, who had drug connections, was someone police wanted to question, Labbe said, noting his criminal past and the idea that he "might be pissed off that his wife was having an affair with this man."
"Say what you want. A duck is a duck," Labbe said.
"If I see a duck, and it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, talks like a duck, I don't know, it could be a-- duck. Yeah, we looked at it really hard right away."
Police were able to determine that on the evening of May 1, Smith and Cade's phones were pinged near Creech's residence in a "lover's lane" area. Creech's phone ping quickly joined them.
"At that point we knew for sure that something bad had happened," Labbe said. "This is murder."
In June 2012, authorities searched the couple's home and seized items including cellphones and computers, the Los Angeles Times.
That same year, Creech was named a person of interest in the case. At the time, he was serving an eight-year sentence in the LA County Men's Central Jail on drug charges.
In February 2013, Smith's Mercedes-Benz was found in a storage facility in Simi Valley, California. The car was found while Creech was being investigated for a drug bust.
"The condition of the vehicle combined with the witness statements indicate he was killed," Lt. Dave Dolson said at a news conference.
"At this point, the evidence leads us to believe he was murdered."
Hikers find remains of Gavin Smith in shallow grave
In May 2014, Smith was officially declared dead.
The judge who issued the death certificate dated it May 1, 2012, the night he disappeared.
"He died on the evening of his disappearance," investigators said in a statement at the time.
"He was a striking person, tall, fit and I think the idea of a person disappearing out of nowhere is intriguing and tragic."
Months later, on October 26, 2014, hikers found Smith's remains in a shallow desert grave in the Angeles National Forest.
It was about 70 miles (112 kilometers) away from where he was last seen.
The lawsuit
In January 2015, the district attorney filed a murder charge against Creech. A few months later, he was indicted by a grand jury.
Creech's trial began in 2017, with prosecutors describing Smith's killing as "an act of almost staggering brutality - almost unspeakable violence."
Meanwhile, Creech's attorney, Deputy District Attorney Irene Nuñez, called her client's actions self-defense.
Cade's testimony revealed that she had met Smith the night she disappeared. Her husband, Creech, tracked her location and followed them, sneaking up behind them and beginning to beat Smith.
Cade begged Creech to stop before fleeing in her car. Creech continued to beat Smith to death. The county coroner testified at the trial that Smith's skull was crushed on both sides.
Creech then stored Smith's Mercedes-Benz in a friend's garage for a while before moving it to storage. He traveled into the desert, where he buried Smith's body.
Creech was found guilty of manslaughter. He was later sentenced to 11 years in prison. Cade was not charged in exchange for her testimony.
'I was the love of Gavin's life - he just got lost'
When Smith's family received news that his remains had been found, their worst suspicions were confirmed, but his wife told the Los Angeles Times that she was relieved to hear that Smith had not intentionally abandoned the family.
"My sons and I are devastated and this has been the hardest 10 and a half months of our lives - without him. We love him dearly. He is the love of my life and the father of my children and he is gone. It is a tragedy," Lisa said.
"For the rest of the world to know that he didn't leave us is huge. He never would have done that. We knew from the beginning that something terrible had happened because he just wouldn't do this."
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Smith was a star basketball player in high school and at UCLA. He worked as a stuntman before breaking his back, but his dream was to be an actor. He had small roles in films, including sparkle but worked mainly as a waiter, which is how he met his wife Lisa.
The couple married and had three sons: Evan, Austin and Dylan.
Smith later joined the distribution department of 20th Century Fox, where he helped distribute films such as Avatar and the original Star Wars trilogy.
"He just loved working in the film industry," said his sister Tara, who described her brother as someone who was "larger than life" with a smile that "lasted for days."
In a 2017 interview with Date line His wife Lisa said, "I was the love of Gavin's life. He adored me. Our family was exactly what he wanted.
"He's just lost."