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Nacole Smith's assault and murder took place in the mid-'90s, but it took way longer for the dead girl and her family to receive any sort of closure or justice. The spine-chilling case took place in Atlanta, Georgia, and the perpetrator remained unpunished for his entire lifetime, even committing another, if not many more, similar crimes.
This case will also be the subject of Hulu's upcoming Cold Case Files: DNA Speaks, which focuses on cases that took major technological advancements to reach their ultimate resolutions. The long-drawn mystery has some disturbing details that would intrigue even the most veteran true crime fans.
Five important facts from Nacole Smith's murder
1) Nacole Smith was a total stranger who happened to cross paths with a predator
14-year-old Nacole Smith became a victim of a horrifying crime by sheer luck. There is nothing to indicate that the perpetrator knew her or chose her specifically. She was on her way to school with her older sister when she realized she had forgotten an assignment. She went back via a shortcut trail to get it but never made it out on the other side.
2) The murder was most likely a result of the assault
While it was never proven or confessed because the police never reached the perpetrator alive, it was widely believed that Kelvin Arnold committed the murder to assault the young girl. This was further proven because Kelvin Arnold assaulted another girl sometime later.
3) Betty Brown's assault opened the doors to the resolution of Nacole Smith's murder
With no links and little physical evidence, Nacole Smith's case dragged on for years and lost much of its spark. But a sudden resurgence happened when Betty Brown, a 13-year-old girl in East Point, Georgia, was brutally assaulted by a man.
She soon gave a description of the man to the police, and physical samples were also collected from her. Surprisingly, these samples matched that of the perpetrator in Nacole's case.
4) Advancements in technology were one of the major reasons for this case's resolution
Apart from the physical sample obtained from Nacole Smith's body, there was nothing that the police could link the case to. But this was until there were some ground-breaking advancements in technology.
With more tech available, the police started laying groundwork using ancestral genealogy DNA. This was similar to the Golden State Killer case. The Atlanta Police Department hired the same genetic genealogist that the Golden State Killer task force used and slowly made a breakthrough in this case.
The police allegedly found a second cousin twice removed from Kelvin and used him to pinpoint the perpetrator.
5) Kevin Arnold was already dead when the police reached him
As if by cruel fate, the killer had already died a year before the police reached him. He reportedly died from kidney and liver failure in August 2021. Arnold was 49 years old at the time. Despite this, the authorities tested his DNA and made sure that Kevin Arnold was actually the perpetrator.
Nacole’s mother, Acquanellia Smith, said:
"I never imagined this person to be deceased. So many unanswered questions that I had for him that I could never ask or get answers [to]. I would never say it was closure for me because I’ll live with this pain for the rest of my life."
Hulu's upcoming Cold Case Files: DNA Speaks will cover this case in detail.
