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HOW DID SHE DIE?
After her death, speculation about a possible drug overdose quickly hit the airwaves, and a cloud of suspicion formed over Stern. A Feb. 9 autopsy immediately ruled out physical injury (such as a stab wound or lethal blow) and police searching Smith's room found no evidence of "illegal drugs, only prescription medicines," said Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger. Perper reported that there were no signs of drug injections and that there was no sign of pills in her stomach – though he stopped short of saying pills might not have been involved.
Complete results might not be available for another month or so, but revelations in the Bahamas have shifted the spotlight onto a new potential culprit: liquid methadone, a highly addictive prescription painkiller. On Feb. 12 Ford Shelley – the son-in-law of South Carolina developer G. Ben Thompson, who is fighting Smith's estate over ownership of the $900,000 Bahamas home where she had been living – revealed that he had entered the home on Feb. 9 and found liquid methadone in a refrigerator. (Lawyers for Stern say that photos of the alleged refrigerator and its contents were staged.) If Smith was indeed using methadone alone, or in combination with other prescription drugs, the effect could mirror the lethal cocktail that authorities determined killed Daniel.
