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Court documents shed new light on missing person case in Charlottesville

Posted at 11:31 PM, Dec 19, 2014
and last updated 2014-12-19 23:31:52-05

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WTVR) - It's been over two years since DaShad Smith was seen.

Charlottesville Police are no closer to finding the transgendered teen, but unsealed search warrants are now shedding new light on the case.

Smith was last seen on November 20, 2012 in the 500 block of West Main Street in Charlottesville. Around that same time, he had planned to meet Erik McFadden near the Amtrak station, who is considered a person of interest.

McFadden told police that the meeting never happened.

According to the unsealed court papers between December 2012 and February 2013 police executed search warrants on Smith's cell phone, computer, and social media records.

The same was done for McFadden.

Detectives fulled an email from McFadden to his then girlfriend. It was from November 30, 2012, ten days after Smith vanished.

The email says in part "I never did anything sexual with that guy and he was black mailing me, he wanted me to give him money."

The email also mentioned the alleged meeting. McFadden said "We did meet, but he had a lot of enemies. Me and him were walking and some people showed up and I kept walking."

Smith's mother said McFadden's blackmail claim is false. She also said the family has doubts about the investigation.

However, Charlottesville Police Chief, Tim Longo said he is personally committed to the efforts of continuing to keep the search alive.

If you have information on where either DeShad Smith is or Erik McFadden call police.