Downtown: The Missing Mrs. Smiths

Nov. 27 -- — When Janice Hartman disappeared, it was a mystery. When Betty Fran Gladden vanished, it was a mystery — and a coincidence that both women were married to a man named John Smith at the time of their disappearance.

Now, 26 years after Hartman was reported missing, John David Smith III, 49 is in jail, charged with killing his first wife. The F.B.I. says Smith is also a suspect in the disappearance of his second wife, Gladden, who vanished in September 1991 from their West Windsor, N.J. home.

Smith’s Wives Disappear

Hartman disappeared without a trace on Nov. 17, 1974, from Doylestown, Ohio, which is about 35 miles south of Cleveland. That was just three days after the couple divorced. Two days after the disappearance, Smith reported her missing. Her skeletal remains — the legs cut off below the knees — were found in a roadside ditch in Indiana in 1980.

But at that time, authorities were unable to identify her and she was buried in Morrocco, Ind. as “Jane Doe.” Authorities had no hard evidence that tied John Smith to Janice’s disappearance.

John Smith moved from state to state before finally settling in Florida [see interactive map above]. There, in 1990, a woman named Betty Fran Gladden became the second Mrs. John Smith, and the couple then moved to New Jersey.

Then, a little more than a year after they married, Fran disappeared in 1991. Her disappearance immediately raised questions. She had a broken hip at the time, yet police say Smith told them he believed she had gone on a trip.

Fran’s sister, Sherrie Davis, and Fran’s daughter, Deanna Weiss, decided to do some detective work of their own. They had no idea Fran was the second wife of John Smith’s to disappear, until Det. Mike Dansbury from the West Windsor, N.J. police, mentioned that John Smith had been married before. The women tried to find Janice Hartman Smith, but couldn’t. Instead, they found Janice’s brother, Garry, in Ohio. The two families banded together to help police.