In the quiet town of Pendleton, South Carolina, Christy Johnson, an 85-year-old man, lived a peaceful life with his wife. The couple was known in their community and had family ties that ran deep in the region. One of those ties was to a distant cousin, a young man named Andrew "Andy" Lavern Smith, to whom they had once rented a house. That familial connection, however, would not save them from a brutal act of violence that ended their lives and brought a notorious serial killer's reign of
terror to a close.
On the afternoon of May 28, 1983, neighbors became concerned when they couldn't reach Christy and his 80-year-old wife, Corrie. After a series of unanswered phone calls, they went to the Johnsons' home to check on them. Inside, they made a horrifying discovery. The elderly couple had been viciously murdered. The scene was one of extreme violence; Christy had been stabbed 26 times and Corrie 18 times. The weapon was a six-inch butcher knife that the killer had found in their own kitchen. Autopsies would later reveal that both had defensive wounds on their hands and wrists, a testament to their desperate struggle for life.
Investigators quickly noted that the couple's car was missing. It was later found abandoned about two miles away, near Hurricane Creek Road. The motive for the frenzied attack seemed incomprehensible until police arrested Andrew Lavern Smith on June 1, 1983. During questioning, Smith confessed to the murders of his cousins. He told detectives he had gone to their home armed with a pistol, intending to borrow their car. When Christy Johnson refused his request, an argument erupted. Smith admitted to hitting Christy, and when Corrie came to her husband's defense, he grabbed the kitchen knife and stabbed them both repeatedly.
The murders of Christy and Corrie Johnson were the final acts in a string of violent crimes committed by Smith along the Interstate 85 corridor. Known as "The I-85 Killer," Smith was responsible for at least four murders and one attempted murder between 1980 and 1983. His other victims included Henry Poore, a gas station attendant, and Nirad Jay Patel, who was found stabbed to death in a hotel. Smith's crimes also included the abduction and rape of a convenience store clerk, whom he threw off an I-85 overpass; she miraculously survived.
Prosecutors chose to try Smith for the Johnson murders first. Despite his initial confession, he later recanted, claiming detectives had fabricated his statement. In 1984, a jury found him guilty of two counts of murder, as well as kidnapping, first-degree criminal sexual conduct, and assault and battery with intent to kill from his other crimes. He was sentenced to death. Over the next 14 years, Smith's case went through numerous appeals. He was granted a new sentencing hearing in 1987 but was once again sentenced to death.
On December 18, 1998, Andrew Lavern Smith was executed by lethal injection at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. His execution was the 500th to be carried out in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, drawing national attention and protests. Before his death, Smith had no final public words. For the family of Christy and Corrie Johnson, the execution brought a painful chapter to a close. Corrie's daughter, Ann Roberts, spoke of the immense toll the murders had taken on their family's mental and physical health. "Ordinarily, I'm pro-life," she said. "But I do believe in execution for him... I have no sympathy for him. That was a gruesome thing he did."
