by Hollywood film executive Gavin Smith seemed to have a wonderful life with his picture-perfect family in California. But behind the scenes, it was a different story – and in a tragic plot twist, his fairytale life turned into a horror film.
When the 57-year-old father of three went missing in 2012, he was living in Calabasas, an affluent suburb of Los Angeles, and had worked for 20th Century Fox for 18 years.
Los Angeles may be known for sun, surf and celebrities, but Netflix’s 2024 true crime docs can Murder: Los Angeles the sinister side of the City of Angels is revealed.
Smith’s case is featured in episode four, Hollywood entertainment, which investigates what happened to the executive after he went missing on 1 May 2012.
What investigators found was a man who had developed a painkiller addiction due to a back injury and was dealing with a struggling marriage after admitting his extramarital affairs to his family more than once.
But even so, Smith’s wife, Lisa, said it was just a departure. Investigators had their theories. Did his wife hire someone to kill him in revenge? Did he take his own life? Or did he run off with a mistress? Or did he just want some time to himself?
Investigators soon discovered that Smith had secretly met a woman he was having an affair with, Chandrika Cade, on the evening of his disappearance.
So they affected Cade and their relationship. Cade’s husband, convicted drug dealer John Creech, then entered the picture and within months, investigators cracked the case.
But it would be another two years before Smith’s murdered body was found buried in a shallow grave in the California desert.
Executive missing
On May 2, 2012, Smith failed to pick up his son from school and never showed up for work, sending red flags to those who knew him.
Smith’s sister Tara Smith Addeo said on the docuseries that she found out her brother might be missing when his wife Lisa called her that day to see if she had heard from him.
“It was very irregular that someone like him wouldn’t show up for work, or he wouldn’t show up to pick up his child, or he just disappears,” Addeo said. “I would never have dreamed that 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 was staying with a co-worker after she was arrested twice. The co-worker said he left around 10 pm in his black Mercedes-Benz.
Smith’s phone was a key piece of the puzzle.
The night he went missing, he called Lisa, his three boys, his sister, and Cade.
“We knew she was the last person to talk to him,” Labbe said. “What do we need to know, who is this chicken?”
Smith met Cade at a rehab facility in 2008. Smith was at the facility after dealing with pain medication for his back injury.
Investigators say the two were having an affair until Smith allegedly ended it in 2010. But after her name showed up in his phone records the night he went missing, they knew they had to interview her.
Cade, who was emotional during the interview, told investigators she did not know what happened to Smith after they had contact on May 1, 2012.
‘a duck is a duck’
When investigators were at the house, Cade Creech’s husband, an ex-offender on parole, drove up, saw police and suddenly left.
Creech, who was involved with narcotics, was someone police wanted to interview, Labbe said, noting his criminal background and the idea that he might be “sorry that his this man’s wife.”
“Say what you will. A duck is a duck,” Labbe said.
“If I see a duck, and it looks like a duck, it walks, talks like a duck, I don’t know, it could be a —-. Yes, we looked at it hard right away.”
Police were able to determine that Smith and Cade’s phones were placed near Creech’s residence in the area of ”lover’s lane” on the night of May 1. Creech’s phone ping quickly joined them.
“At that point, we pretty much knew something bad had happened,” Labbe said. “This is murder.”
In June 2012, authorities searched the couple’s home, seizing items such as cell phones and computers, according to the Los Angeles Times.
That same year, Creech was named as a person of interest in the case. At the time, he was serving an eight-year sentence at Men’s Central Prison in LA County on drug charges.
In February 2013, Smith’s Mercedes-Benz was found in a storage facility in Simi Valley, California. The car was found because Creech was being investigated for a drug bust.
“The condition of the vehicle combined with the statements of cooperating witnesses indicate that he was killed,” said Lt. Dave Dolson at a press conference.
“At this time, the evidence believes he was murdered.”
Tourists find the remains of Gavin Smith in a shallow grave
In May 2014, Smith was officially declared dead.
The judge who issued the death certificate gave him May 1, 2012, the night he went missing.
“He died the night he went missing,” investigators said in a statement at the time.
“He was a remarkable man, tall, fit and, I think it’s interesting and tragic to think that he’s going to lose anywhere.”
Months later, on October 26, 2014, hikers discovered Smith’s remains in a shallow desert grave in the Angeles National Forest.
He was about 70 miles from where he was last seen.
The test
In January 2015, the district attorney filed murder charges against Creech and a grand jury indicted him a few months later.
Creech’s trial began in 2017, with prosecutors describing Smith’s murder as “an act of almost monstrous brutality — almost unspeakable violence.”
Meanwhile, Creech’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Irene Nuñez, called her client’s actions self-defense.
Cade’s testimony showed that she met up with Smith the night she disappeared. Her husband, Creech, found their location and followed them, sneaking up behind them and began beating Smith.
Cade pleaded with Creech to stop him before fleeing in his car. Creech continued to bludgeon Smith to death. The county coroner testified at the trial that Smith’s head was crushed on both sides.
Creech then stored Smith’s Mercedes-Benz in a friend’s garage for a short time before moving it to the storage unit. He traveled out to the desert where he buried Smith’s body.
Creech was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. He was later sentenced to 11 years in prison. Cade was not charged in exchange for her testimony.
‘I was in love with Gavin’s life – it was lost’
When Smith’s family received the 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 know that Smith had not deliberately abandoned the family.
“My sons and I are devastated and this has been the hardest 10 and a half months of our lives – being without him. We love it. He is the love of my life and the father of my children and he is gone. It’s a tragedy,” said Lisa.
“It’s a big thing for the rest of the world to know that he hasn’t left us. He would never have done that. We knew from the beginning that something terrible had happened because he wouldn’t do this.”
Smith, born and raised in Los Angeles, was a star basketball player in high school and at UCLA. He worked as a stuntman before he broke his back, but his dream was to become an actor. He appeared in small roles in films, incl Glitzbut he 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 landed at 20th Century Fox’s distribution department, where he helped distribute films including Avatar and the original Star Wars trilogy.
“He loved being in the movie industry,” said his sister Tara, who described her brother as “larger than life” with a smile that “went on for days.”
In a 2017 interview with Date line, his wife Lisa said: “I loved Gavin’s life. He adored me. Our family was exactly what he wanted to have.
“He’s just lost.”
