North Seattle killing remains unsolved as year passes
"I said, 'Chris Smith is a pretty common name.' I said, 'No, you're wrong,' " she recalled. "Denial I guess is what they say. I was in denial."
Although it has been exactly a year since her husband was killed, the 32-year-old Van der Wel-Smith still feels like she's in a haze, trying to make sense of a life so drastically different than the one she had envisioned. And making it even more difficult is that police still don't know who killed Smith or why.
"It's not dried up. There are things we are looking at," said homicide Detective Mark Hanf. "It appears to be more of a targeted situation than one that is random." But Hanf wouldn't reveal why he thinks Smith was targeted.
"Nothing was done on Chris' part to cause himself to be a victim. It's not like a drug buy gone sour; he was truly an innocent victim," said homicide Detective Doug Lewis. "He was just coming home from work."
Smith, 27, had just finished a 12-hour shift as assistant manager at The Home Depot on Seattle's Aurora Avenue North.
Just around the corner from the store at 2 a.m., a woman driving behind Smith saw a tall man wearing dark clothing jump out of the passenger door of Smith's sport-utility vehicle and scale the fence into the Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery. She drove to the nearby Northwest Hospital and notified security guards, who called police.
Police officers found Smith slumped over the steering wheel, his foot still on the accelerator and the SUV spinning in circles.
Smith, who grew up in San Jose, Calif., loved to work with his hands, tinkering with remote-controlled cars and skateboards, said his mother, Deborah Tuck, of San Jose.
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"We celebrated his birthday while we were there, so we had a birthday cake for him. ... He wanted a chocolate cake," she said.
"I try to keep myself busy and try to remember some of the good things. But it's hard. Your mind can play all kinds of tricks on you."
Smith's father, Randy Smith, of Gig Harbor, has yet to accept his son's death.
"It's been a rough time. It's not something you wish upon anybody," he said. "It's one of those things that's just hanging out in the air. ... To me, it's always going to be open until when, or if, they ever get somebody for it."
Chris Smith was a manager at the Bellevue Sports Authority when he met Van der Wel-Smith, a merchandiser at the store.
"We just got along so well," said Van der Wel-Smith. "It was like I had known him for a long time. It was just one of those easy-going things."
The two started dating — going to batting cages and golf driving ranges together — and were married in May 1998 in Las Vegas, with only Van der Wel-Smith's father as a witness. A son, Sebastian, was born in September.
They bought a house in Shoreline and then traded that one for a bigger split-level in Mountlake Terrace with a garage so Smith could restore a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle.
"He was so detail-oriented. He was sanding his car by hand," said Van der Wel-Smith.
But with Smith's long hours at The Home Depot and Van der Wel-Smith working as a property manager, the two didn't see each other often enough.
"We both worked tons of hours," she said. "If I could, I'd go back and change everything about work. I would want to spend as much time with him as possible. ... The one thing about this is that I spend so much time with Sebastian. You can't take anything for granted."
After Smith's death, Van der Wel-Smith couldn't afford to keep the house and moved into her grandfather's home. But he died in November. That same month, her 9-year-old Rottweiler had a cancerous tumor removed from its leg. The dog died several months later.
Overwhelmed, Van der Wel-Smith quit her job, and she and her son moved into a Magnolia apartment.
"My Dad always said, 'No matter how bad it is, you have to smile and say it's OK because you have to have a positive attitude,' " she said. "I've been doing that for a year, but it's not getting any easier."
In June, Van der Wel-Smith packed up her car and drove with Sebastian to Beaumont, Texas.
"I couldn't get back on my feet. I was really struggling, and my Dad's been supporting me for the last year," she said. "It was just time I needed to do something for myself. But starting over has been really tough."
She picked a place where it's sunny and warm and where she knew no one. She recently found a job selling advertising for a radio station.
But lingering is still the question of who killed Smith.
"I would like to know who did it, and I'd like him brought to justice. But I don't know if I could sit in a courtroom and face that person because at this point, I just don't feel strong enough," she said.
And in the meantime, Van der Wel-Smith is directing her energies toward Sebastian.
"He understands that his Daddy is in heaven. ... He's a smart little bug. He's like his Daddy," she said. "He looks so much like Chris. ... And he's going to be tall like Chris, too."
Gina Kim: 206-464-2761 or gkim@seattletimes.com.