1831
North Canton began in 1831 as New Berlin, so named because most of its residents were German.
about 0:05:29The story
North Canton, Ohio, is a small city of 17,884 people in Stark County, about 25 minutes from Akron and north of Canton. Brett W. 'Bubba' Smith was born there on June 10th, 1974, the son of Judy and Ronald Smith. Epileptic and bipolar, with a speech impediment that made some neighbours think him slow, he was remembered as a gentle, friendly man who played percussion in the school band, graduated from Lake High School in 1993, loved music, fishing and computers, and took his four-year-old niece to McDonald's every week. In 2008 he moved into lot 81 on Balsam at the Evergreen Mobile Home Park, in a trailer he was constantly remodelling.
He played football at Canton's McKinley High School and graduated in 1986. On February 13th, 1987, he married Laura Seacome in Niagara Falls; they divorced two years later. On June 19th, 1993, he married Leslie Phillips, with whom he had two children, and the family moved to Georgia before the marriage ended in 1999. In 2008 he moved into lot 94 on Cedar at the Evergreen park, next door to Brett Smith.
On September 6th he was fired from Dimensions 3 hair salon.
On October 3rd, 2008, Brett's disability payment arrived. He withdrew $1,182 in cash, bought several packs of Marlboro Lights, had lunch with his mother at the Mall Food Court in Jackson Township, shopped at Walmart and arranged to come to her house for dinner. The Hansons later saw him in Brett's doorway in a heated argument.
Brett never arrived for dinner. On the morning of October 4th his mother found his car outside the trailer and smelled a smoky odour, but got no answer; when she returned at 6.30 p.m. the police declined to force entry. Neighbour Chris Connley crowbarred the door open. Inside they found the oven on, blue and white paint splashed through the kitchen and hallway, and Brett's headless body in the bathroom with a knife in its chest. His head was in the oven, wrapped in burnt newspaper and cloth and roasting. His fingers and thumbs had been cut off and scattered, his body wrapped in plastic and painted, his wallet emptied, and a broken silver bracelet lay on the floor. The autopsy found rib fractures, a fractured hyoid bone and blunt force trauma: he had been beaten and strangled.
On October 4th he had cashed a $100 bill at Vulcart's party store and bought Bud Ice, rolling papers and a snack cake, and he had cut Whitney Gould's hair at the European Spa with a cigarette behind his ear, leaving without his pay cheque. In August 2009 Chad Long, removing carpet at Susan Lockard's house, found two black trash bags in a duct: clothing, boots, a nine-millimetre handgun, paint, bleach, Brett's blood and the matching sock.
His lawyers offered his Marine service, PTSD, bipolar diagnosis and addictions in mitigation. He turned to Judy Smith and apologised; she said she had never before been in touch with evil. Brett's sister Alicia did not believe the apology was sincere, while his mother said justice had been done.