Nacole Smith was 14 years old when she was murdered near her home in Atlanta, Georgia. Her case remained unsolved for nearly three decades before forensic genetic genealogy helped identify her suspected killer as Kevin Arnold, who died before he could be brought to justice.
On the morning of June 7, 1995, Nacole was on her way to Ralph Bunche Middle School, where she attended eighth grade, when she suddenly remembered leaving her school project at home.
She told her sister and a friend, whom she had been walking with, that she was going to walk back to her house.
They continued walking.
Nacole took a shortcut on a dirt path through a wooded area behind her apartment complex on Childress Drive.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in 2007 that Nacole was abducted before she made it home, and she struggled with her attacker, who then pulled out a gun.
She tried to protect herself with her arm, but the bullet pierced through her hand and ripped through her brain.
Two security guards from an apartment complex nearby heard the shooting and ran into the woods, where they found Nacole dead.
That’s when they called 911.
Detective Richard Boone claimed to have “touched her [Nacole] on her neck to see if there were any signs of life, and there wasn’t any.”
He said, “She never got a chance to go to college. Took everything away from her and her family as well.”
Her body was then transported to the State’s Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy. It was revealed that Nacole had been beaten, raped, and shot twice in the face.
Nacole’s mother, Acqunellia Smith, told MSN that she heard shots ring out around 9:20 a.m. but said she “never thought it was my child it happened to.”
Acqunellia stated that when she went to the morgue to identify her daughter’s body, Nacole’s eye was swollen from being struck with the butt of a gun.
The killer also stomped on her breasts and flattened them out.
She added that Nacole had dried tears on her face, which indicated to her that she had been crying throughout the horrific attack.
“As a mother, you’re supposed to be there for your children, and I think that’s my biggest guilt that I have,” Smith said. “You’re supposed to save your kids; you’re supposed to make it alright for your kids, but I didn’t.”
WSB-TV 2 reported that Acqunellia would often take her children to school, but after they beseeched her to let them walk, she gave her consent.
She told the police that she now regrets it after what happened to her daughter.
Investigators believe a hunting- or survival-style knife was also used in the killing, as a handle was found in proximity to the victim’s body.
DNA evidence was recovered from the handle, but investigators did not immediately find a match.
Detectives thought they were close to solving Nacole’s murder case in 2004 when DNA evidence from a rape case involving an East Point teen matched the DNA found at Nacole’s crime scene.
Again, the DNA did not match anyone in the database.
It wasn’t until 2022, when detectives used forensic genetic genealogy, that Arnold was identified as the suspect.
According to Fox 5, Arnold died at a hospice in August 2021 from liver and kidney failure.
He was 49 years old, but at the time of the killing, Arnold would have been around 23 years old.
During a press conference, Acqunellia said, “Today for me was a bittersweet moment. I never imagined this person would be deceased, so many unanswered questions I had for him that I can never ask and get answers.”
“But I would never say it was closure for me because I will live for this pain for the rest of my life.”