CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The Charlottesville Police Department has filed a missing person report for a person of interest in a 2012 homicide case.
On June 26, 2019, the Charlottesville Police Department filed a missing person’s report for 28-year-old Erik McFadden, at the request of his mother. There is speculation that McFadden could be in Columbia.
McFadden is a person of interest in the unsolved homicide of 19-year-old Dashad ‘Sage’ Smith, who disappeared on November 20th, 2012. Smith was a part of the LGBTQ+ community.
A Charlottesville detective briefly made contact with McFadden immediately following Smith’s disappearance, but he failed to show up for a scheduled interview with police and reportedly left town. McFadden has not been seen or heard from by detectives or family since then.
McFadden was an acquaintance of Smith, who was last seen on November 20, 2012, at approximately 6:30 p.m. in Charlottesville. McFadden and Smith were planning to meet that evening, but there is no information as to what happened afterward. Smith vanished, and detectives believe McFadden was the last person to see Smith, and that he has information vital to this case.
Initially, Smith’s case was classified as a missing person’s case, but the department reclassified the case as a homicide in November 2016. Detectives, local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies have spent months identifying and going through evidence, interviews, and witness statements. The case remains unsolved.
McFadden attended Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania, from August of 2009 to April of 2011. Detectives believe McFadden may have traveled to, and could be living in cities such as Baltimore, Md., Joppa, Md., Lake City, S.C., Columbia, S.C., Atlanta, Ga., New York City, N.Y., Rochester N.Y., and potentially to other unknown locations on the West Coast.
Nearly seven years after the disappearance of Smith, the Charlottesville Police Department hopes to solve the case with the help of the public.
Anyone with information about McFadden’s disappearance or Smith’s homicide case should contact Detective Regine Wright at (434) 970-3381, or CrimeStoppers at (434) 977-4000.
A $10,000 reward is being offered through CrimeStoppers, and an additional $10,000 is being matched by the City of Charlottesville for information leading to an arrest in Smith’s case.
