A Pennsylvania man whose decomposed body was found months after he was reported missing died from an arrow to the head, authorities revealed this week.
Goldie Smith, who’d been missing since September 9, 2021, was found dead in July in a wooded area behind the 800 block of North Front Street in Steelton, according to the Dauphin County Coroner’s Office.
The coroner’s office determined Smith died of a “penetrating arrow wound to the head” on or around Sept. 6, 2021 — the day he was last seen, spokesman Brett Hambright said. Smith’s manner of death is listed as undetermined.
Hambright said the coroner’s office was unable to determine whether Smith died in the same place he was found.
Representatives from the Dauphin County Coroner’s Office couldn’t recall ever seeing another death caused by an arrow to the head, according to Hambright.
District Attorney Fran Chardo said it’s possible Smith’s wound was self-inflicted, and because of this, he said investigators could not figure out whether his death was a homicide or suicide. No bow was found at the scene, he said.
Chardo said the investigation has not produced any leads.
“Right now we’ll keep it open, but we don’t have any indication of someone wishing to do him harm,” he said.
Smith, 38 at the time of his disappearance, had last been seen on the 500 block of North Second Street in Steelton, police said.
A Smith family member told PennLive in November 2021 that she feared a friend of Smith’s set him up to take the fall for an incident the two were involved in before Smith went missing. She said Smith told her about people following and threatening him, or shining lights in his windows on the 300 block of Swatara Street.
Steelton police said last November that foul play was not suspected.
“It’s been too long for him to be missing,” the Smith family member said at the time. “Every time something happened he’d call me and tell me. [He’s] not going to get up and just leave, and not tell me where he’s going.”
Smith is survived by two young children and an adult son.
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