Missing
Sharon Sue Smith
Smith, approximately 1980
Date and time person was reported missing : 08/25/1980
Missing location (approx) :
Bangor, Maine
Missing classification : Endangered Missing
Gender : Female
Ethnicity :
White
DOB : 05/25/1955 (66)
Age at the time of disappearance: 25 years old
Height / Weight : 5'2, 108 pounds
Distinguishing characteristics, birthmarks, tattoos
: Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Smith may use the last names Beaudoin and/or Clark. She has a tattoo on her left hand.
Information on the case from local sources, may or may not be correct : Smith was last seen in Bangor, Maine on August 25, 1980. She worked the evening shift at the Paramount Lounge on Harlow Street that day, then disappeared afterwards. The lounge, which has since been closed, was on the ground floor of a hotel where Smith was renting a room. Authorities later discovered her room door was left open and her purse was inside.
Smith has never been heard from again. She left behind two young children; both of them were in their father's care when their mother disappeared. She had been preparing to move to Florida with her parents and five siblings.
Smith's sometime boyfriend, Franklin "George" Gilks, has been implicated in her disappearance. He allegedly told people he had broken her neck and killed her in an argument. When Smith's daughter grew up and attempted to locate her mother, she got an anonymous telephone call from someone who told her Gilks killed Smith and "things got carried away." The caller warned Smith's daughter to "leave things alone" or she could also be killed.
Police got an anonymous letter saying Smith was buried at a residence in the 100 block of New Boston Road in Hermon, Maine. Gilks had lived there as a child, and his mother and brother still live at that address. The house where Gilks grew up, a converted barn, has since been torn down.
Investigators searched the property with a cadaver dog, and the dog indicated the presence of human remains in the area where Gilks's childhood house had once been. They excavated the front yard, but found nothing of interest.
Gilks died in 2008. Smith's children's father is also deceased, and their oldest child died when he was teens, but her daughter is still hoping for answers in her case. Since her disappearance she hasn't used her Social Security number, and both investigators and Smith's family believe she is dead.
Other information and links : ncy
Bangor Police Department
207-947-7382
September 2021 updates and sources
The Bangor Daily News
Bangor Police Department
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are not known. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2�5% of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
Several organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and imAge at the time of disappearance: s of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
October 12, 2004. January 26, 2019; middle name added, Distinguishing characteristics, birthmarks, tattoos
: updated.
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