Missing Man Found In Allegany Woods: Howard County Police

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — The body of a man who was reported missing from Howard County last summer has been located. Remains that were found in Allegany County at the end of February have been identified as those of the missing man.

David Gipson Smith, 28, was reported missing from Howard County in August 2017, police said. The New Jersey resident had been visiting an acquaintance in Maryland at the time of his disappearance.

Police said Smith disappeared Aug. 6 and his family reported him missing Aug. 12 when he had not returned home.

A hiker found his remains in Green Ridge State Forest in Flintstone on Feb. 25, Maryland, police said.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner identified him based on his dental records but has not been able to pinpoint the time of his death.

In a feature on Dateline that aired in late September, Smith's family members said they were concerned because he had grappled with addiction and was rebuilding his life. He had gone to visit a woman in the Howard County area in Maryland but when he arrived, she said he could not stay with her, according to his relatives.

He knew the woman from Right Turn of Maryland, where he had undergone treatment in 2015, his father said on the podcast The Vanished. The woman, who was in her late 30s, lived in Catonsville and had invited him to visit for a couple of days but "she wound up going to a concert and was not available," his father said, so she introduced him to an Ellicott City woman in her 40s who had a place where he could stay.

The woman reportedly drove him in her car to a 22-acre property on Woodbine Road that her family owned, and he left his car at her house. There was no shelter on the wooded property, which contained a stream and some ride-on lawnmowers, his parents recalled on the podcast; they drove down from New Jersey, they said, in an attempt to understand what happened to their son.

A search party involving a dive team and a helicopter with infrared technology looked for Smith on the premises to no avail. Police said in August that neighbors were interviewed during an area canvass and nobody had reported seeing him.

Anyone with information about David Gipson Smith is asked to contact the Howard County Police Department at 410-313-STOP or HCPDcrimetips@howardcountymd.gov.

RELATED: Human Remains Found In Green Ridge State Forest

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Pictured, a missing person flyer was posted in September 2017 on Frederick Road in Catonsville, Maryland, offering a reward for information in the case of David Gipson Smith. Photo by Elizabeth Janney.