Ira Jean Smith, a 38-year-old Black woman, was found murdered on March 7, 1985, in a Fort Lauderdale motel room. Her body was wrapped in a blanket and concealed in a closet. Smith was known to be a sex worker and her death initially went unsolved.

In 1991 Donald Leroy Evans was arrested in Louisiana for the abduction and murder of a child. After that arrest he confessed to numerous other killings, including Smith’s, giving details not publicly known. A fingerprint of Evans matched one recovered at Smith’s crime scene. Evans was tried and convicted in 1995 for the murder of Ira Jean Smith and given a life sentence; he was also convicted and later sentenced to death in Mississippi for other murders.

Does anyone have memories of Smith or information about her life or the motel where she was found?