Smith’s wife, Lisa, was called as the prosecution’s first witness. She testified that she immediately grew concerned about her husband’s whereabouts after learning he had failed to pick up their teenage son. She said she first called her husband’s office and then a friend with whom he had been staying. She told jurors she drove to the local sheriff’s station to report her husband’s disappearance and provided them with photos of him.
Lisa Smith told jurors she also sent a text message to a phone number she thought might belong to Creech’s wife. She said she received a call back from someone she thought was “a man trying to sound like a woman” and who denied knowing her husband.