The Joseph Smith Case, Pt. 1: Hell Is Real

Season 2 of Kentucky Case Files begins with a case that state authorities consider closed — but Joseph Smith's family does not.

On the night of March 5, 2021, 25-year-old Joseph Smith was fatally shot in the parking lot of a small grocery store in Upton, Ky. The man who shot him admitted to it, claiming self-defense. No one was ever arrested. No one was ever charged.

Hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele spent months independently investigating the case, filing open records requests with authorities and obtaining crime scene photographs, police records, and recorded interrogation footage — because there was almost nothing in the public record to rely on.

What they found raises questions that Smith's family says have never been answered. The first interview with the admitted shooter was conducted by a state trooper who knew him personally — and was not recorded. And according to Smith's relatives, police never meaningfully reached out to people who knew him.

Along a busy stretch of Interstate 65 near Mammoth Cave, a billboard reads "HELL IS REAL" — a warning about eternal damnation. For Joseph Smith's family, those words mean something else entirely.

This is Part 1 of a four-part investigative series. Kentucky Case Files obtained records through the Kentucky Open Records Act. The admitted shooter claimed self-defense. No charges were filed.

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Keywords: Kentucky true crime, Kentucky Case Files, Joseph Smith, Upton Kentucky, Hardin County, self-defense shooting, Kentucky State Police, open records, wrongful death, true crime podcast, Kentucky podcast, small town crime, gun laws Kentucky, Season 2

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