Former medical examiner O.C. Smith has died
He was charged, tried for staging his own bomb attack in 2002, found to have mental disorder
A former Shelby County medical examiner who was tried for staging his own bomb attack in Memphis, has died. He was 66.
O.C. Smith passed away on Tuesday, the Salem Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Atoka, Tennessee, confirmed. On June 1, 2002, Smith was found wrapped in barbed wire with a homemade bomb hanging around his neck in a county morgue stairwell.
Archives from The Commercial Appeal describe a months long investigation that first pointed authorities in the direction of a religious extremist that had once threatened Smith as the perpetrator of the attack. Smith told police he had also been sprayed in the face with a chemical agent.
He had several cuts and bruises along with minor burns to his face, but was otherwise uninjured.
In the following months after the attack, Smith’s case was even featured on the America’s Most Wanted television show.
The appearance, according to the archives, generated several tips from the public, which never panned out.
“We’re confident we can solve the case,” said Gene Marquez, resident agent in charge of the federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office in Memphis said in the early months following the incident. “We’re going to need some help from the public. It’s still our priority investigation right now.”
Not long after Marquez’s statement, authorities began to suspect Smith staged his own attack, and eventually charged Smith with lying to federal prosecutors about the homemade explosive device found around his neck.
Attorneys for Smith attempted to fend off “a tragic rush to judgment,” according to the archives, but as rumors circulated that Smith staged his own attack, then County Mayor A.C. Wharton moved forward with a plan to replace Smith.
Smith was tried in 2005 for charges related to the allegedly staged attack. During the trial, prosecutors insisted Smith had a mental disorder that compelled him to seek attention.
The trial resulted in a mistrial, and Smith was never charged again.
WMC-TV5 reported that funeral services for Smith are pending at the Munford Funeral Home in Millington, but the funeral home would not confirm any arrangements.