In the early evening of February 21, 1991, 29-year-old Curtis 'Cochise' Smith left his mother's home in Plaquemine, Louisiana. He was a devoted family man, and on that particular day, he had set out to buy diapers for his infant son. A friend later saw him standing outside a local store in the rain, holding a striped umbrella. Smith mentioned he was waiting for his boss, a powerful local businessman named Tommy Francise, to bring him some money.
Curtis Smith was never seen or heard from again. At the time of his disappearance, he was wearing a blue jacket, a white pullover shirt, and gray sweatpants.
The investigation into Smith's disappearance quickly focused on his employer, Tommy Francise. Early in the investigation, Francise reportedly confessed to killing Smith, but he later retracted his statement, claiming that deputies had tricked him. He even led investigators to a location in the Bayou Pigeon area where he claimed to have disposed of the body in a barrel with holes poked in it, but a search yielded nothing. With no body and a retracted confession, charges could not be filed, and the case went cold for many years, leaving Smith's family in a state of agonizing uncertainty. The case was classified as a suspected homicide, and despite strong suspicions against Francise, the lack of evidence meant that for years, he walked free.
Years later, a significant break in the case came when a former girlfriend of Tommy Francise, Diet Himel, came forward with information. She informed law enforcement that Francise had confessed to her that he had murdered Smith. In a courageous move, she agreed to wear a wire and managed to record a chilling confession from Francise, in which he described shooting Smith and disposing of his body in the water, even laughing about the act. This recording provided a crucial piece of evidence for investigators. In 2016, a grand jury indicted Francise on two counts of second-degree murder, one for the death of Curtis Smith and another for the 2002 murder of another man who had worked for him, George Barrett. Before he could stand trial, however, Tommy Francise died of cancer in a correctional facility hospice unit in 2018. He maintained his innocence until his death and never faced a jury for the crimes he was accused of, leaving the families of his alleged victims with a sense of hollow victory. The case of Curtis 'Cochise' Smith is a tragic story of a young father who vanished without a trace, and a long, arduous quest for justice that ended without a final day in court.Last Seen: Feb 21, 1991
