Twenty Gastonia families have waited years to find out who killed their loved ones.

That's the number of unsolved city homicide cases more than five years old, according to the Gastonia Police Department's website. People were killed and investigators were called to the scene of a crime to begin work on identifying a killer. Finding that suspect, though, has proven an elusive task.

The Gazette is revisiting these cases in an attempt to shine new light on old investigations and see if any new information has been collected as the years have passed.

Jayelynn Jarrett Smith



Death: Sept. 9, 2005

Age: 28

Cause: Blunt force trauma to the head

Background: A pedestrian found Jayelynn Jarrett Smith's body in the woods on East Second Avenue in Gastonia, near where she lived on the 300 block of South Avon Street.

Smith was bashed in the head there with a blunt object and left to die. More than a decade later, Terrie Moore is left with countless unanswered questions about why someone would end her young sister's life.

Moore said Smith was a prostitute who struggled to fight off addiction. She was a joy to be around, but the drugs clearly had a hold of her, Moore said.

"She was on crack real bad," Moore said.

Smith grew up in a tough environment. Her parents were alcoholics, she quit going to school in the fourth grade and her sister caught her sniffing gas at 14, according to a 2009 article in The Gazette.

Smith married a man in Georgia when she was 14 and eventually had three sons. Her lifestyle and a court order kept her from spending much time with the children.

She had just gotten out of jail four days before her death.

Smith's death was featured on the website of the former FOX crime show "America's Most Wanted," and the governor's office offered a $5,000 reward for information that could lead to the conviction of Smith's killer. But neither have produced answers Moore desperately seeks.

"I have doubts. I have a lot of doubts," Moore said. "Nothing has happened in 11 years. I don't know."

Suspects?

Nobody has been arrested in Smith's killing, though in 2009, a Gastonia Police detective told The Gazette that police were seeking information pertaining to a suspicious person walking from the woods or a vehicle parked close to where Smith was slain.