Good Samaritan saves Khava

Emmylou Harris sang “The sun is slowly sinking, the day’s almost gone, still darkness falls around us, and we must journey on,” lyrics to  “Darkest Hour Is Just Before Dawn.”

This much can be said for the family of Samuel Deward Smith, who lost his life in the early morning of July 26 at Chewalla Lake. But a miracle happened the next day. As the pieces began to fall in place in the investigation, a suspect was identified in Smith’s drowning death, and the mystery of what happened to his gentle shepherd/collie, Khava, was unraveled.

A Good Samaritan, Amelia Lovorn, was driving down I-55 when she looked over to the shoulder and saw what appeared to be a stray animal sitting in the grass. She passed mile marker 183 and was about two miles down the road when she had second thoughts.

“I told Mama, let me hang up the phone and call Scott Richard (a friend living near Winona),” she said.

She made the call and continued on to Jackson where she serves on an appraisers’ board for Gov. Phil Bryant. She owns City Realty in Olive Branch, a 25 year-old business started by her father.

It was July 27. Khava had been apparently hit by a car. Khava is the only thing the Smith family has to hold on to as a memory of their brother/son.

Later that day back in the Southaven area, Lovorn called about the dog and offered to pay $200 for Khava’s treatment at  a veterinarian’s clinic in Winona. If the pet’s owner could not be found she would take the dog in.

In the age of social media, Khava’s family, the Smiths, was located. They had posted a $2,000 reward for her return. Lovorn, after receiving a call from the Smiths, said she will donate the reward money to an animal shelter.

Rachel Smith, Samuel’s sister, tells how Khava was located - the Khava miracle. She’s Samuel Smith’s oldest sister who wrote their version of Khava’s rescue for her bereaved mother Beth Smith of Florida.

On July 24, in the evening, Samuel Smith called his sister to say hello and to make sure she’d be in town in Nashville, Tenn. He asked her if he and Khava could come stay on his way to North Carolina. Samuel and Khava had been working on farms together over the past year, learning how to grow food and care for animals.

Samuel’s destination was Wild Roots Homestead, Hot Springs, North Carolina, where he intended to learn outdoor survival skills such as trapping, and how to forage for edible plants.

“He was an interesting kid,” Rachel said.

They talked again on Wednesday morning, July 26, and he said he would be in Nashville by the end of the week.

Sheriff Kenny Dickerson believes Rachel could be the last person Samuel Smith spoke with before he died. Smith’s decomposing body was spotted July 29.

“I said, Great! So what are you guys (Samuel and Khava) doing today?” Rachel Smith said.

“Well, we are at Chewalla Lake down here in Mississippi. I think we’re going for a walk around the   lake and I’m gonna see if I can find any edible plants,” Samuel told his sister.

She laughed.

“All right, just let me know when you’re on your way here. I love you,” she said.

“Love you, too. Sounds good,” he said.

The weekend came and went, so Rachel called her mother to say she had not heard from Samuel. They began to worry.

Samuel’s dad, Dale Smith, called the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department August 1 and asked them to go to the lake and see if they could find Samuel. Perhaps his car battery had died or maybe his cell phone had died. Sheriff Dickerson told the father the tragic news.

In the mid-morning of Saturday, July 29, Sheriff Dickerson had received a call from fishermen on the levy at Chewalla Lake saying they thought they saw a body in the edge of the water. Dickerson hooked up his boat and he and his deputies left for the lake. They found Smith’s body lying in shallow water face-up near the bank in a bend of the lake.

His body was sent to Jackson for autopsy and for fingerprinting for identification.

Fingerprinting showed the body to be that of Samuel Deward Smith, 19.

“Instead, the worst fear you could ever imagine became a reality,” Rachel said. “They found my brother and he wasn’t alive. There was no sign of Samuel’s truck or anything else he owned. And Khava was nowhere to be found in the park.”

As Dickerson and law enforcement in Mississippi and Louisiana teamed up to locate a suspect in Louisaina where Samuel Smith was believed to have been because of a newspaper on the bank from Alexandria, Louisiana, the Smith family and extended family began to share an image of Khava on Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit.

The Smiths offered a reward. Sheriff Dickerson posted pictures of Khava in places in the county and provided a photo for the newspapers and other media.

“Two weeks passed, and the image amassed thousands and thousands of shares, but we still didn’t know where Khava was,” Rachel said.

Sheriff Dickerson issued an arrest warrant for Joshua L. Fletcher, 31, of Natchitoches, La., the man identified as a suspect by photographs taken in video at Lake Center Grocery July 26. The missing pickup was also seen in video taken in the parking lot. Law enforcement contacted officials in Louisiana and Fletcher’s family members and acquaintances positively identified him as the person in the video at Lake Center Store. His family had reported him missing to authorities in Louisiana about the time that Smith and Fletcher are believed to have left Louisiana for North Mississippi.

Yet, Khava was nowhere to be found locally in Marshall County.

Later Khava was found and veterinarian Daniel Hill of Winona had her. She was safe. One of his employees had posted a picture of Khava on social media as well.

Sheriff Kenny Dickerson sent Maj. Kelly McMillen Monday, Aug. 14, to Winona to pick up Khava. Rachel Smith arrived the next day and Khava was on her way to Nashville by 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Khava had been at Hill’s office since July 27, the day after Fletcher’s photograph was captured on video at Lake Center Grocery.

The same day, July 27, Lovorn was driving  near Grenada when she saw Khava on the roadside. Khava was taken to Hill’s office.

On August 14, someone at Dr. Hill’s office saw Khava’s photo on Facebook that was shared. She called Sheriff Dickerson who called Beth Smith, Rachel’s mother. She sent Rachel to come to Holly Springs from Nashville to pick up Khava.

Lovorn asked the reward money go to a rescue shelter outside of Memphis and Beth and Dale Smith will present the check to them.

Meanwhile, Beth Smith said Khava is expected to undergo surgery soon. The veterinarian in Florida thinks Khava may have a broken leg.

“Our family wants to thank Amelia, all those in the Holly Springs community who took time to go search for Khava, the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department and all those who were so compassionate and sympathetic to share our posts on social media,” Rachel said.

“We also ask that everyone continue to keep our family in your thoughts and prayers. Khava’s rescue is a sliver of light in what is otherwise a completely and abysmally dark sky over our lives.

“Samuel was an incredible person. The world was a better place with his gentle, thoughtful and curious soul here in it. We will miss him tremendously for the rest of our lives.”

The Dale and Beth Smith family includes Ray, 34; Rachel, 28; Esther, 25; Sarah Beth, 22, and Samuel, and Ray Moore.

In the right place at the right time

Lovorn was surprised about two weeks later after making her call to her friend Scott to learn the rest of the story.

“It makes you wonder if you did something small every week, it could bring such joy when something terrible has happened,” Lovorn said Monday. “To be honest, you see stray animals everywhere and I was passing at 75 miles an hour and I see a dog laying in the grass beside the road.

“But I thought about it two miles down the road.”

That is all Lovorn did.

Ryan Smith, an officer in the Winona area, found the dog and got in touch with animal control and Khava was taken to the veterinarian.

“When I came back to Winona I got out and walked and the dog was gone,” Lovorn said. “I got to Batesville and I called Winona and ask how much money did they need?

“Ryan posted it on Facebook and in a few days, I see the post on Facebook that they are looking for Khava, and I didn’t even realize it was the dog.”

“It all came together as a miracle because of people who didn’t mind doing something.”

Lovorn was shocked to receive a call from the Smiths and to learn that they had lost a son and a dog.

“I did so little, a very minute part in the total event,” Lovorn said. “It is too wild of a story to even believe. I was just stunned. They were such nice people and I was speechless. This could have fallen apart if anyone didn’t act. It is an amazing story. It reminds me there are good people out there.

“Out of something so terrible, you have all these people coming together. I’m absolutely thrilled.”

The most surprising thing is that Samuel Smith was at a campground in Arkansas when he found Khava, abandoned, Lovorn said.

“He actually rescued that dog,” she said.