Donald Dale Red Smith, 60, is one of 25 men murdered and buried in orchards near Marysville–Yuba City, Sutter County, during the spring of 1971. Court charging documents place his killing between April 30 and May 11, 1971; an August 22 date appears in some accounts but is not supported by the criminal record. Smith’s remains were recovered during the May–June 1971 excavations of shallow graves on the Kagehiro and Sullivan ranches along the Feather River.

The deaths shared a distinctive pattern: many victims suffered chopping or hacking injuries to the head and stab wounds to the upper left chest. Evidence tying labor contractor Juan Vallejo Corona to the burial sites included meat-market receipts and bank deposit slips bearing his name, witness sightings, tire impressions, and items seized from his home and vehicles such as knives with human blood, a bolo-style blade, and a ledger listing names and dates. Corona was indicted on 25 murder counts, convicted by a jury in 1973, retried after an appellate reversal, and convicted again in 1982.

Smith’s personal life remains largely obscure in surviving accounts. If anyone knew Donald Smith, his work, or where he lived or traveled in early 1971, please share information that could flesh out who he was.