Twenty-one years after 23-year-old Tiona Smith was found stabbed to death in a Gwynn Oak neighborhood, Baltimore County Police still have no one in custody and are once again asking the public for help. Smith left her job at a McDonald’s the night of Nov. 5, 2005, climbed into a car with strangers in Baltimore, and was found dead the following morning on Fox Meadow Road.
According to CBS Baltimore, Smith clocked out of a McDonald’s in Cockeysville at about 10:45 p.m. that night. WMAR-2 News, however, has reported that she left work at a McDonald’s in Catonsville around the same time, and the discrepancy between the two accounts of her workplace has never been resolved in the reporting on her case.
From there, the known timeline of her final hours comes into sharper focus. Smith boarded an MTA bus and got off at Eutaw and Fayette streets in Baltimore, the station reports. A witness told police that a small four-door car carrying three men pulled up to her at that intersection, that one of the men called her by name, and that she eventually got into the vehicle.
Found the Next Morning in Gwynn Oak
Smith was found dead the next morning in a residential neighborhood in Gwynn Oak, on Fox Meadow Road, per the same CBS Baltimore account. Investigators said she had trauma to her head and upper body, and a report from the Medical Examiner found she died from multiple stab wounds, the station notes. FOX Baltimore reported that the Medical Examiner ruled her death a homicide due to multiple sharp-force injuries.
No arrests have ever been made in the case, CBS Baltimore has reported in its coverage of Smith’s mother continuing to push for answers. The killing has remained an open cold case for more than two decades, with the identities of the three men described by the witness never made public.
Police Renew Public Appeal
The Baltimore County Police Department used its official social media account to revisit Smith’s case this week, writing that anyone with information should contact the department at 410-887-4636. The post, shared under the hashtag #JusticeForTionaSmith, laid out the same bare facts that have defined the case since 2005: a young woman leaving work, a car full of strangers, and a body found the next day.
For now, the few known details, where she worked, who called her name at that Baltimore intersection, and who was in that car, remain unresolved questions that investigators are hoping someone in the community can finally answer.
