Montana elementary school speech therapist and mom-of-four, 52, is found dead in her car inside a storage container after being missing for more than a month
- Mother-of-four Sally Smith has been found dead in her car outside Great Falls
- She had gone missing on September 25 sparking a desperate search
- Her body was recovered inside a storage container two weeks later
- In a separate incident in August a Kansas pastor’s wife was also found dead in a car inside a shipping container
A mother-of-four from Montana has been found dead in her car inside a storage container after she was reported missing since September.
Sally Jane Demaris Smith, 52, went missing on September 25, sparking a desperate search led by family and friends.
She was last seen in Great Falls and was believed to have been driving to Malta area.
Her body was found over two weeks later inside her 2005 Toyota Corolla in a storage unit just outside Great Falls, police say.
Authorities have not revealed whether the death is being treated as suspicious.
Sally Jane Demaris Smith, 52, went missing on September 25, sparking a desperate search by family and friends
Her body was found over two weeks later inside her 2005 Toyota Corolla (pictured) in a storage unit just outside Great Falls
Her body was found over two weeks later inside her 2005 Toyota Corolla in a storage unit just outside Great Falls, police say
Smith worked as a speech and language pathologist at Meadow Lark Elementary School
They are set to release more information on Smith’s cause of death pending an autopsy.
Smith worked as a speech and language pathologist at Meadow Lark Elementary School.
Her family said in a statement: ‘The Smith family would like to thank the community of Great Falls, GFPD and all law enforcement who were assisting and all of the folks on social media who were determined to find Sally.
‘She was loved and adored by thousands, this we know. The overwhelming support and concern to all of the prayers is a testament of how beautiful of a person she was.’
Jill Van Heel, a fifth-grade teacher at the school where Sally worked, paid tribute to her ‘wonderful, warm’ friend who was ‘warm and wonderful and fuzzy’ even at 6am
Smith’s body was found over two weeks later inside her 2005 Toyota Corolla in a storage unit just outside Great Falls, police say
Her husband, Troy Smith, described his wife as the family’s ‘rock’.
Smith drove over 3,000 miles looking for his wife in a desperate bid to find her when she went missing.
‘I’m just going to places that had sentimental value to me, places that we’ve been, that I’ve been searching hopefully that its somewhere she might have went,’ he told the Great Falls Tribune at the time.
He has previously described Smith as a ‘beautiful person on the inside and outside’.
Jill Van Heel, a fifth-grade teacher at the school where Sally worked, paid tribute to her ‘wonderful, warm’ friend who was ‘warm and wonderful and fuzzy’ even at 6am.
Smith leaves behind her husband and four children.
In a separate incident in August a Kansas pastor’s wife was also found dead in a car inside a shipping container.
Marilane Carter, 36, left her home in Overland Park, Kansas, on August 1 to head to Birmingham, Alabama, to seek treatment for anxiety and to visit family.
Her body was found after a two-week search.
Her family are devastated at her death with her husband, Troy Smith, describing his wife as the family’s ‘rock’
A missing person’s poster for Smith is seen above