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Death on the Tracks Episode Six: Lawyer One Step Closer to The Truth - FITSFiles Season Finale
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- [00:01]
Lisa Melendez
Have you ever noticed how the line between truth and lies can be so thin, so delicate, yet amazingly complex? It's like staring into a foggy mirror where the reflection of reality becomes distorted by the fog of deceit. Lies start off as mere whispers, hardly noticeable, like a gentle breeze that ripples the surface of a serene lake. But as they accumulate, lies create an intricate maze that shrouds the path to the truth. Like shadows in the twilight, lies stretch and elongate, concealing what was once clear and vivid. It's a subtle dance of deception, one falsehood leading to another, weaving an intricate tapestry of half truths and distorted facts until the genuine reality becomes almost unrecognizable. And the most treacherous aspect of this intricate play between truth and lies is that often the teller of the lie becomes entangled in their own web of deception. The stories they've spun begin to contradict, like a house of cards teetering on the brink of collapse. Lies, like vines, creep and intertwine, obscuring the path that leads to the actuality. We become so engrossed in the fiction we've crafted that the simple, unknown, unadulterated truth becomes an elusive and distant stranger. But it's essential to remember that the truth, no matter how shrouded it may be, is like a steady, unwavering light in the midst of this fog. It may take effort, perseverance, and courage, but it's worth the journey to clear away the fog of lies and reveal the the brilliance of the truth. In a world where boundaries between fact and fiction are blurred by the subtle art of deception, our quest for the truth becomes a noble endeavor, a struggle to peel back the layers of untruths and rediscover the clarity that lies beneath. Lisa Melendez has been searching for the truth for over five years. Years. Praying for answers to the questions that have haunted her every night as she lays her head on the pillow. What happened to her son, Daniel Reed Smith, on that steamy August night in 2018? How did he end up dead on a remote section of railroad tracks in Dorchester County? Why does nothing about either his injuries or the stories told by his friends add up? There are people who hold the truth about the night D.J. died, individuals who have specific knowledge of the series of events that include his murder and leaving him on the tracks. The lies have already begun to unravel. The fog of lies told is already beginning to lift, allowing the light to shine through.
- [03:14]
Will Folks
Welcome back to Fitz Files, your new home for true crime and corruption. Wherever you download podcasts, I'm your Host founding editor Will Folks of FitzNews.com previously on Fitz Files. Our team introduced you to a new investigation, Death on the the Story of Daniel Reed DJ Smith of Dorchester County, S.C. after receiving an independent review of DJ's autopsy and cause of death, the Fitz team, along with attorney Tucker Player, went down to Dorchester county to view the location on the tracks where DJ's body was found. Viewing the location in person was a critical next step in telling this story and in the battle that lies ahead for DJs family as they seek accountability in the death of their son. If you missed the last episode in which we recap that visit, we'd encourage you to go back and take a listen. Once again, as DJs family demands answers, fights for justice, and seeks real accountability, our team is taking this journey with them, searching for the same things ourselves, searching for the truth. Here again, our producer and lead investigator, Jen Wood and her interview with attorney Tucker Player.
- [04:35]
Jen Wood
So I am here today with Tucker Player, who is a Columbia based civil litigation attorney who focuses on corruption cases. He's quickly becoming one of my favorite attorneys to work with, follow, talk to about cases because there is just no shortage of corruption in South Carolina. So Tucker, we met during that you're representing clients in the probate cases in Florence and Darlington county. And you know, as, as we were working through some stuff, you know, I realized, you know, what a passion you have for cases that involve corruption and you agreed to go on out to the railroad tracks to look at the scene where Daniel Reed Smith's body was found on August 11, 2018. We've been covering that story on our Fit Files podcast and we, you know, just, we keep trying to figure out what happened because the investigation started, you know, it didn't start right away after his body was found. It started nine days later with Dorchester County Sheriff's Office. And then eventually Sled was called in to take the reins due to some conflicts of interest. And Eric Melendez, DJ's father, was an investigator with the Fifth Circuit or First Circuit Solicitor's Office. So they also conflicted it out to the the 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office. So it just like so many different agencies were involved and looking through, you know, the 250 page FOIA of the investigation that we got back from the 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office, we quickly realized things, you know what Eric and Lisa Melendez were telling us that things weren't adding up. And we, you know, DJ's body, the way it was found, the injuries that he had didn't align with the conclusion that it was an accidental death by railroad train hitting him. So we went out to Dorchester county to take a look at the scene and you went along with us. And thankfully you do have some experience with train accident litigation. So it's interesting to have you along. What were your thoughts going like when you first got to the location where his body was found?
- [07:07]
Tucker Player
Somebody went through an awful lot of trouble to get it there. There's no way if he's walking down the tracks and you kind of have to go back to all the different theories that have been tossed out there by the different parties. He was not killed by a train. Any seems to me with common sense would know that. But obviously, you know, we have a medical example seems to indicate that and then that they dropped it because it was an accident or it was a suicide. And none of that makes any sense. You know, you don't have to have technical expertise when you realize the time of day that this happened. Where he was, there is no way he did not see a train coming for at least, you know, three quarters of a mile. It's a straight shot. There are no lights anywhere. The only light would have been the gigantic one on the front of the train. And the train is coming through two crossings. And every time a train comes to the crossing, they are required to ring their bell and blow their horn a certain amount of times. I can tell you from experience they're not the best at doing that. But if there is a time when the conductor is going to be paying attention to the tracks, it's when he's going through two crossings that are in close proximity. If there's a dude standing on in the middle of the tracks trying to kill himself, you're going to see him and he's going to explode when you hit him. And you're going to stop train and take and call the necessary authorities. I know the railroad said they didn't have cameras on four of the trains, but they had conductors. And I've done enough with train accidents that if that train was traveling anywhere above 25 miles an hour, he's a spot. He's not a body with a couple of crushed bones internally. There's no way now is I think there was the issue with brain tissue that we never found. And, you know, unless he was laying on the tracks with his head over a rail, it doesn't make sense that there wasn't more trauma to the rest of the body. And more importantly, where are the brains?
- [09:37]
Jen Wood
Right.
- [09:37]
Tucker Player
The location of the items that he supposedly dropped on the tracks are inconsistent. What I saw, and I know the Melendez think it may have been a four wheeler. That doesn't make sense when you're talking about when we, the number of potential suspects that I'm kind of leaning towards at this point, it was the dudes with the truck. And when you, when you have a full size truck, you can ride down railroad tracks fairly easily because the rails run on the inside of your tires, but they don't touch, so you can't really deviate off the tracks. You're, you're kind of riding the rails. And when we located the different crossings, you know, I, I think you take the medical examiner's report, he was killed most likely by blunt trauma from motor vehicle. I think D.J. was walking. I think the guys chased him from the party, ran him down, and then they had to do something with the body and they figured, you know, make it look like a trainer. Everybody saw him walking, make it look like an accident, and they went, put him in the back of a truck, drove down the tracks and they could have done it within five minutes. And I think that's what happened. And when you get into the statements that were in the sled file from the different people that were at the party, there is a definite group of people whose stories do not match, are highly suspicious, and had what we later determined they had some of DJs stuff that he would not part with, and that means that it was taken from him. And considering all these people were with him on the night that he died and they have his stuff, I don't know, that seems a little suspicious to me. But the ultimate problem that we have with DJ is he's, in the words of succession, he's not a real person, not a real person involved. He's, you know, he's a thing, not a person. There's no political pressure, there's no money to make them pay attention to this. There wasn't any media coverage. There are allegations of drugs involved. All of these factors that make it less palatable for, you know, to, to find a victim and gain sympathy in the public. It, you know, he's, he's not somebody they're concerned about in terms of their priorities. And I think that's why he fell through the cracks with their investigation. But when you couple, when you look at the medical exam, well, the independent medical examiners report that none of that, none of that surprised me. I mean, that's what I expected because I've seen lots of train accidents over the years and people who have the Benefit of a motor vehicle between them and the train do not come out of it as well as DJ did. And when camera shows that his body was between the tracks and when Norfolk Southern's own liability guy says there's no way the train killed him, but that's what they go with. It doesn't make any sense to me. And there was a lot of hanky panky with law enforcement in Dorchester once Eric started poking around. And that is one of the biggest signs of corruption. You want to shut somebody up who's trying to get justice, you're trying to cover something up. And we're going to get to the bottom of that, I can assure you.
- [13:16]
Jen Wood
So in terms of the, you know, I've listened to the out like hours of interviews. Yeah, I have the audio. And a couple of things struck me. One of the big. One of the biggest things that as a mom bothered me is, you know, in a lot of the interviews, when they started out the interview, they would tell the person who, you know, obviously is somebody they're interested in, you know, person of interest. I don't. I don't know if that's even the right term, but one of the people who was with DJ that last night, they would tell them, you know, we're here because, you know, Daniel's mom is not happy with the investigation. And I was like, how do you. Like, it just seemed unprofessional, the approach. Like, it just. It bothered me. And then there were a lot of things, you know, when you go through all of these different statements, like you said, they don't align. There's no clear timeline. Everybody's contradicting each other. And there was no effort made to figure out where these individuals were that night. You know, no cell phone data was pulled, no subpoenas were issued for other people's cell phones to see where they were. I. You did not see any geofence warrants. I just. I feel like there's so much more could have been done to figure out what really happened after DJ walked out of that house.
- [14:36]
Tucker Player
Nrp, Not a real person involved. He was going through the motions. His. When he begins an interview that way, he either has no idea what he's doing as an investigator or he has. It's not at the top of his praise. Going through the motions. Even if you're going through the motions, you don't tell the people you're going through the motion. That's moronic.
- [14:58]
Jen Wood
Right.
- [15:00]
Tucker Player
And it's hard for me to believe that he did that. He conducted what I would call a good face invest good faith investigation. Because when you read the statements and they all say, I wasn't there, you know, I'm glad I left. They all seem to reference this incident that nobody, nobody saw but knew it happened. And there's no follow up. And they all say, I'm here. No, I was here. No, I was here. They just went out to get gas. Well, it didn't show up until the next morning. And was there a rug replaced at this home? Why was it taken up and new varnish placed down? I mean, ride by, this ain't some place that's fancy. I mean, right. They're not worried about aesthetics. But then there's conflicting stories about who removed the carpet and who put the varnish down and why it was done. And there's no follow up. I'm just like, oh, I guess they're lying, right?
- [15:59]
Jen Wood
Like when you, when you put the, pull the carpet up and put the varnish down, did you see anything? I mean, just not. None of it makes sense. So the Melendez family, I think, I think Daniel had the benefit of having a family who was knowledgeable enough to know that things weren't adding up. And I'm sure there's a lot of people that aren't. But they've retained you to help them get some sort of movement in this closed investigation. What can you do as an attorney? What are your plans?
- [16:36]
Tucker Player
Well, I tend to be stupid and do stuff without getting paid. We, we do have an arrangement for them to, you know, to pay as we go along, and I'll work with them any way I can, but it takes money. I mean, essentially, you're in situation where the state screwed it up, as they did in the O.J. case. But you always have. You can bring a civil action, and that's what we're going to do. Right now. We're trying to go through the information and the interviews, documents that we have to see if we have enough to name the people that we think were involved. And right now I've got three in my head that I feel confident we have more than a justifiable. We have enough information to file a lawsuit and to see if these people had any responsibility with DJ's death. And that's our, you know, that's what I'm doing for them.
- [17:36]
Jen Wood
So would that be a wrongful death lawsuit you would file?
- [17:39]
Tucker Player
Yes.
- [17:40]
Jen Wood
Okay. And then that would give you some power to pull them in and do your own line of questioning, right?
- [17:48]
Tucker Player
Correct. I would be able to depose everybody involved, including the Investigators and the sheriff of Georchester County.
- [17:56]
Jen Wood
Okay. Do you, have you, has this ever been done where you're used civil, like civil litigation in South Carolina to push forward a criminal investigation?
- [18:10]
Tucker Player
And I, I know we don't have any control over what they do, you know.
- [18:15]
Jen Wood
Right.
- [18:16]
Tucker Player
We're hoping to make enough noise that there will be enough public pressure on the authorities to go back and relook at this case. But if they don't, then at least they can find some solace in a jury coming forth and saying these people were responsible for his death, even though they can't carry any criminal penalties.
- [18:37]
Jen Wood
Right. It's kind of like the OJ Case in, in reverse, correct?
- [18:41]
Tucker Player
Well, no, it's the civil OJ Case where they said they're going to take what the state tried to do and prove it. That was a lesser burden of proof in a civil case. But the main thing is, from my review of these interviews that were done by law enforcement, it was, you know, they don't have, they do have the power. I mean, if you lie to a cop, it's a crime. But this particular investigator didn't seem to be very assertive or interested in following up on the, on the definitive, definitive inconsistencies in the statements between these parties. And the one thing that everybody knew is they were with Daniel the night he died. And their stories don't match. And they all reference something happened to Daniel. No, I don't think any person interviewed believed Daniel was killing himself or he was killed by accident on the tracks. That's not what they seem to intimate. What they seem to intimate is somebody did something, but it wouldn't me. That's what, Right. That's not a case you can close to me.
- [19:50]
Jen Wood
And, and it's closing it and deeming it accidental rather than, you know, saying it's a cold case. Does that, like, benefit their investigative numbers, their outcomes?
- [20:05]
Tucker Player
No, I, I, I think there's a non nefarious reason for it, which is why I'm here. The, the parents are at a disadvantage until the authorities close the criminal case because they're not allowed access to the information and the interviews. I mean, that's, that's how I became involved is once Eric Melendez, the stepfather, got the file and said, look at all this. This doesn't make sense. You know, the evidence doesn't match what they're ruling or what their final determination was. And it's put us at a disadvantage in terms of what information we're going to be able to gather. I mean, I don't think anybody's going to have geodata location information that we're going to be able to access from five years ago. But we'll do what we can. You know, we'll dig what documents, we'll find what documents we can to prove what we can. But I think the main focus of the wrongful death suit is to put the people that we feel were responsible in the hot seat and see how they survive. And I don't think they're going to survive very well.
- [21:18]
Jen Wood
Okay, that makes sense. So do you have a timeline when you plan to start? Is that.
- [21:25]
Tucker Player
You know, I plan to file the lawsuit before the end of October. Okay. I need to sit down with Eric and figure out how many named parties we're going to sue, which I feel confident right now with three. He may disagree with who I believe the main suspects are, but there will definitely be some John does to be identified because this was. I doubt this was the act. The. An act limited to just three people. I think there were more people that knew, more people who had maybe an aiding and abetting aspect to it. But the first. The first thing we'll do is try and figure out who the other John does are involved in the situation and start following up on the investigation that, you know, Sled did. But the main thing to me is the medical examiner said he wasn't killed by. I mean, our medical examiner said he wasn't killed by a train. The train people said he wasn't killed by a train. But somehow the coroner found that he was killed by a train. And there may be some issues of a conflict of interest in that particular arena that I am going to pursue rather aggressively.
- [22:45]
Jen Wood
Okay.
- [22:46]
Lisa Melendez
Like the Fitz news team and the Melendez family player has ideas about what happened the night DJ died.
- [22:53]
Tucker Player
I'm pretty sure they got in a fight. Daniel left Steve, and his buddies got in his truck, ran his ass down. Maybe they were just trying to scare him. Maybe it was an accident. But then they got a dead body who they take back to Steve's. And my recollection of us driving was the first crossing is right around the corner from Steve's. And they drove down, dropped him, then ran up to the. The crossing up there by Omar. What was the guy's name, the property?
- [23:27]
Jen Wood
Hugo.
- [23:28]
Tucker Player
Hugo then ran up to Hugo's crossing and got off. And, you know, it looks like he was, you know, out on the tracks. And I think why they picked that particular place is a fundamental misunderstanding of how much room you have on the tracks.
- [23:43]
Jen Wood
Right.
- [23:44]
Tucker Player
Because it looks like when you're standing there, you, you're dead. If a train's coming, you know, because the, the ballast is so steep on either side. But I know from my years working defending csx, it's not as, you know, you can avoid the train if you just have two or three feet. And he had more than that. I mean, you and Dylan scared the out of me because I thought y'all getting ready to fall down the cliff, but, you know, it, it wouldn't. He wasn't gonna fall to his death if he got off the tracks. And it just, none of it makes sense. The entire idea that it was an accident or suicide is just so stupid. It, it makes me think somebody's covering something up. Really.
- [24:33]
Jen Wood
Right.
- [24:34]
Tucker Player
It is just phenomenally stupid.
- [24:36]
Jen Wood
And why, why, why are you, why, why won't you do this investigation?
- [24:42]
Tucker Player
Well, that's what has me interested. Yeah. That's what I'm going to dig to find.
- [24:47]
Jen Wood
Yeah, I, yeah, I think.
- [24:50]
Tucker Player
And here's the thing. All of these people are of the same social cast and, and collective, not a real person involved. So, you know, there's one person that has a name that links back to a family in Dorchester that, that I'm going to put, I'm going to pay particular attention to because if there is a cover up or, you know, someone asking, hey, let's not dig too hard over here, it's because of that. It's not because these individual people have power, right, or notoriety or money. It's not. They're all in the same boat. They're basically considered usable or disposable people. These, these are all disposable people, which, you know, with law enforcement it does not. It's your job and it shouldn't matter, but. Right, it does. Money, Money rules everything in our society.
- [25:49]
Jen Wood
So money talks, walks. Well, thank you so, so much for going with us and for talking to me today because I really, I'm, I'm excited to follow, follow this as it works its way through the court system. I think it's going to be fascinating legally and I'm hoping, I'm hoping at the very least it makes police agencies pay more attention to, you know, do your job.
- [26:28]
Will Folks
You've been listening to Fitz Files, a true crime and corruption podcast written, directed and produced by fitznews.com we're the team that broke the Murdoch Murders crime and corruption saga and the Cheer Incorporated sex abuse scandal. Wide open. I'm founding editor Will folks, and along with producer and lead investigator Jen Wood, special projects director Dylan Nolan, researcher Callie Lyons and the rest of our team, we are bringing you this series of investigative reports in which we uncover layers of truth lurking beneath the surface, offer exclusive interviews and insights, provide critical background and context, and reveal previously unreported details. We also wanted to share some additional news on the podcast front. This will be our final scripted episode of the first season of Fitz Files. Please keep subscribing and sharing this podcast though, as we will be sharing additional unscripted interviews and roundtable discussions. As we prepare for our second season, we will continue to follow the still unfolding stories that we've covered on this podcast, including the upcoming murder trial and the Rose Petal murder in Greenville, South Carolina. We will also bring the investigation into DJ Smith's death in Dorchester to a conclusion. If you appreciate independent journalism, support our work by subscribing to fitznews.com there you can review our original reporting, browse case files, and be the first to receive breaking news on all the stories we cover. Your support makes everything we do possible. Your subscription helps us hold those in power accountable, so please subscribe today. That's F I T S N E W Dash com, and while you're at it, please like us on the podcast platform of your choice and consider leaving a review.