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Carlie Jane Brucia (16 March 1992 – 1 February 2004) was a preteen girl from Sarasota, Florida. Her abduction and subsequent murder drew worldwide news coverage after being captured on an outdoor surveillance camera.<

Victim
Carlie Jane Brucia was born to Susan Nancy Schorpen and Joseph "Joe" Brucia Jr., in Nassau, Long Island, New York. Between 1993 and 1995, her parents divorced; Schorpen and her daughter moved to Sarasota, Florida, where Schorpen's parents lived, while Brucia Jr. remained in Long Island. In 1998, Schorpen married Steven Kansler, Brucia's stepfather, who was said to view Brucia like his own daughter. Brucia had a younger stepbrother and a younger half-brother, Leif Dillon Schorpen.

Brucia initially attended Brentwood Elementary School in Sarasota, where she was described as "a normal youngster on a typical developmental curve." At the time of her death, she was in sixth grade at McIntosh Middle School, where she was described as popular and well-liked by her peers. During her summer and winter vacations, she would visit her paternal family in Long Island.

Schorpen, Brucia's mother, had struggled with drug addiction since age 13. She had been arrested multiple times since Brucia's birth, including an arrest for attempting to purchase cocaine in 1995 and for domestic violence in 1999; between 1996 and 2004, there were at least 12 documented police calls to Brucia's residence. Brucia apparently did not discuss this with her father; Brucia Jr. later said that would have sought custody had he been aware.

Prior to her abduction, Brucia's home life had grown somewhat tense: by January 2004, Schorpen and Kansler had separated, and Brucia felt Schorpen was being unnecessarily harsh towards her, once commenting that Schorpen "[had] never been all that nice" to her. The night before she disappeared, Brucia shared with her friends that she occasionally wanted to run away, and pushed a pen into her leg, causing herself to bleed. She also disliked the increasing amount of attention she was getting from boys and men, complaining to a family friend on the day of her abduction that men "were always looking at her."

Perpetrator
Joseph Peter Smith (17 March 1966 – 27 July 2021) was an auto mechanic living in Sarasota. Having grown up in "a rough neighborhood" in Brooklyn, he moved to Florida in 1985, at 18 years old. By 19, he had developed a heroin addiction. Back surgery had left Smith with a distinctive walk.

Smith co-owned Saurus Auto with his friend Ed Dinyes. In March 1993, he married Julie Thornton; the couple divorced in 1996, and he married Luz Castrillion (whom he reportedly nicknamed Lucy)< later that year. Smith and Castrillion had three daughters, and neighbors described Smith as a doting father.

While Smith did not seem to know Brucia or her family, both Smith and Susan Schorpen frequented Nick's Bar, a Sarasota bar close to the site of Brucia's eventual abduction. This would later lead to rumors that the two knew each other, a claim they both denied.

In the months leading up to Brucia's murder, Smith was plagued by drug addiction, poor mental health, and marital tension. Castrillion told his probation officer in August 2003 that he had held a knife to his neck while threatening suicide,. In August 2003, Smith, having spent the night on cocaine, went to a hospital emergency room at around AM reporting thoughts of suicide. This led him to be placed in inpatient psychiatric treatment for two weeks, during which Castrillion insisted he move out and he lost his job at Saurus Auto. After Smith left inpatient treatment, he moved in with his friend Jeffrey Pincus and Pincus's wife Naomi. <

Criminal history
In April 1993, a month after his marriage to Thornton, Smith allegedly struck a 21-year-old woman in the face with a motorcycle helmet. He was arrested and subsequently charged with aggravated battery. The following year, both Smith and Thornton were arrested on domestic violence charges; the charges were later dropped.<

On July 1, 1997, Smith purchased a steak knife at a local convenience store and concealed it in his shorts. He then unsuccessfully attempted to lure a woman to his vehicle, claiming that he could not start his car, but was stopped and arrested by police after receiving an anonymous tip.

Smith was again arrested in November 1997 on kidnapping and false imprisonment charges. According to the police report, he had allegedly grabbed a 20-year-old woman in Bradenton and threatened to "cut her" if she resisted or screamed. The woman pulled free and fell back into the street; a van stopped and several witnesses exited the vehicle, at which point Smith fled the scene. After his arrest, Smith reportedly claimed it was "a misunderstanding" and that he had been trying to keep the woman from walking into traffic.< A jury trial acquitted him of the charges, citing insufficient evidence.

At the end of December 2003, while Smith was still on probation, he failed to pay $170 to the Sarasota courts.< His probation officers requested a judge sign an arrest warrant, which was declined by Judge Harry Rapkin, as there was no indication Smith had deliberately not paid. Rapkin later told media sources that he had no evidence to suggest Smith posed a danger, and could not have jailed Smith had he simply been unable to pay.<

Disappearance
On Saturday, January 31, 2004, Brucia spent the night with her friends Danielle Lothridge and Michelle Jones at Lothridge's house. Lothridge lived on Lalani Boulevard with her mother Connie Arnolds and Arnolds' roommate Ron Choquette. Arnolds was out with Schorpen for the night, so Choquette supervised the girls during the night and took them to McDonald's the following morning. He later left for work, leaving the girls at Lothridge's house.

Before February 1, Smith had apparently believed that he and Castrillion were going to reconcile. However, on February 1, Castrillion told Smith over the phone that she wanted a divorce. Smith asked to borrow Pincus's car—a yellow 1992 Buick station wagon—for 15 minutes, saying that Castrillion was "driving him crazy."

At about 4 PM, Smith deliberately overdosed on heroin and cocaine in an attempt to take his life. < Smith then went to visit Christine Montalvo, a friend who lived on Stokes Drive not far from Lalani Boulevard. Smith provided Montalvo with a clutch for her car; Montalvo noted Smith to be "quiet and friendly." He left after 5 PM.

Around 6 PM, Brucia decided to walk home from Lothridge's house, as the two lived only about a mile apart. She reassured Arnolds that her mother had given her permission to walk home, though this was not the case. She left Lothridge's house between 6:10 and 6:15 PM, wearing jeans and a red top, and carrying a pink vinyl backpack that contained clothes, CDs, and a purse with cash.

It is believed that Smith, who had left Montalvo's house at some point after 5 PM, intended to return home until he saw Brucia, after which point he began following her with the intent of abducting her. Both Brucia and Smith made their way to Evie's, a business complex also housing a car wash. Evie's was closed due to the Super Bowl, but pedestrians commonly cut through the parking lot of the car wash to shorten their walk. < Smith drove the station wagon into the car wash parking lot at 6:18 PM, deliberately parking out of Brucia's sight, < and waited until about 6:20 PM. At this point, Brucia entered the parking lot, intending to use it as a shortcut.

At 6:21 PM, Smith began approaching Brucia. Brucia tried to avoid interacting with Smith, looking down and stepping away from him;< grabbed her arm, and spoke to her briefly, while apparently gesturing to or reaching for something in his back pocket. Brucia pulled her arms to her chest and turned her upper body away, but otherwise did not struggle or cry out. Smith then led Brucia away, still holding her arm. The full exchange was captured by a motion-activated security camera located behind the car wash.

It is unclear where Smith went after abducting Brucia, as neither Smith nor the station wagon were seen for several hours after the abduction. He went back to Montalvo's home around 8 PM and spoke with Montalvo's son about repairs to the woman's vehicle. He also attempted to call his brother John, but John did not pick up due to the two recently falling out.

According to Pincus's testimony, Smith did not return with the station wagon until about 7:30 AM the next morning, freshly groomed and wearing different clothes. Though he appeared to be in a good mood, Pincus noted he did not seem concerned about how long he had been gone; Pincus, a coworker of Smith's, and a friend of Smith's from rehab also observed that Smith was behaving oddly. The car's odometer showed that Smith had driven 300 miles, and the interior had sustained significant damage: the rear seat had been folded back, the back of the front seat showed scuff marks and looked as though it was kicked in, and the backseat windows were "smudged". When Pincus asked about the damage, Smith reportedly did not have an answer.

February 1–2: Early police efforts and discovery of footage
After Brucia left for home, Arnolds called Schorpen to confirm that Brucia had permission to walk home. Schorpen told Arnolds that she and Kansler had not given her permission. Kansler immediately began looking for his stepdaughter, but by 7:30 PM, he still had not found her.< He returned home and reported to Schorpen that he was unable to find Brucia. At this point, Schorpen called the police.

Sarasota police initially declined to issue an AMBER alert, believing Brucia might simply be a runaway. Her family and friends did not believe the girl to be the type to run away, and asked the police to search for Brucia; they agreed.

At noon on Monday, February 2, authorities used bloodhounds to trace Brucia's path. The dogs were able to lead them to Evie's Car Wash, upon which they lost Brucia's scent. Mike Evanoff, the owner of the car wash, became aware of the search and offered to check the previous night's surveillance footage; upon doing so, he discovered the footage of Brucia's abduction. Evanoff provided the footage to the police, who released it to the media.< Officials released an official AMBER Alert for Brucia at 7:30 PM on Monday.

Using the footage from the surveillance video, Sarasota police determined that Brucia's abductor was in his 20s or 30s, had tattoos on both arms, and wore a mechanic uniform that appeared to have a three- or four-letter name on the breast. They did not believe others were involved in the kidnapping. Investigators and family friends stated that Brucia did not appear to know her abductor, and members of Brucia's family were unable to identify the man in the security footage.

Authorities set up a hotline for information on Brucia's abduction.< Both Kansler and Choquette were initially viewed as suspects, but the men were cleared shortly after.

February 3: Arrest of Joseph Smith and local search efforts
Multiple people reported Smith as a suspect, including Jeff and Naomi Pincus, neighbors, coworkers, and Ed Dinyes and his wife Lynn.

Smith denied any knowledge of Brucia's disappearance.< When detectives asked about his whereabouts, he said he had returned home around 6:30 PM after having visited his brother. He was shown an image from the surveillance footage, to which he said the man in the video "looks like me, but it's not me."

Smith agreed to a search of the house and vehicle.< The only visible evidence within the house was a set of mechanic uniforms belonging to Smith. However, a search of the car turned up a needle, cocaine, and several spoons that appeared to have been used for narcotics. < The detectives called Smith's probation officer, and he was arrested at 1:24 PM on charges of drug possession and violating his probation.<

Investigation of the Pincus' home and a nearby field did not reveal a body. The station wagon was impounded, and forensic evidence was taken from the station wagon as well as inside the home.<

February 4–5: Continued search efforts
By February 4, the abduction case had garnered significant attention. NASA assisted the Sarasota police department by enhancing the security footage, in hopes that it would reveal more detailed information about Brucia's abductor, but these efforts were ultimately unsuccessful. While there was no formal search effort, the Sarasota police department reported many volunteers independently searching for Brucia, offering to distribute fliers, or ask how they could assist the search efforts;< some of these volunteers lived in different counties or states.< Members of Brucia's Girl Scout troop assisted in the efforts, passing out fliers informing the public of the case.

An anonymous company offered a $25,000 reward for information on Brucia's whereabouts, doubling it to $50,000 just a day later.

After Smith's arrest, authorities reported they were receiving far fewer tips.

While there was still no formal search effort, local search efforts continued, with investigators encouraging the public to search for Brucia's backpack.

By the time the hotline was shut down, almost 800 tips had been shared with authorities.

Confession by Smith
On February 4, Smith's brother John spoke to FBI agents at the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office. Though the brothers were reportedly not on good terms at the time of Smith's arrest, John agreed to speak to Smith about the case, believing that Smith would be unlikely to volunteer information about Brucia on his own.

Both John and Patricia Davis, the mens' mother, visited Smith at the Sarasota County Jail on February 5. While there, Smith allegedly told the two that while under the influence of drugs, he had raped Brucia and forced her to perform oral sex on him. Smith did not yet confess to the murder, instead stating that he "may have" killed her and left her behind a church. Aware that there was a financial reward for information on Brucia, he reportedly asked John to locate the girl's body, collect the reward, and start a trust fund for Smith's daughters. Davis exited the room after about 45 minutes; John exited after about an hour and 15 minutes, reportedly telling investigators that Smith "came close, but didn't say anything."

After leaving the sheriff's office, Davis and John attempted to search for Brucia's body, but were unable to locate her. However, after the two returned home, Smith called John from jail. John believed his phone was wiretapped, and called investigators, asking what to do. John, Davis, and three authorities traveled to the Central Church of Christ, where Smith had admitted to leaving Brucia's body.

Smith then called John again, telling him where he had left Brucia.

Discovery of Brucia
Brucia's body was discovered between 12:45 and 1 AM on Friday, February 6, 2004, < hidden underneath foliage behind the Central Church of Christ—about two to three miles away from where Smith had kidnapped her. She had been stripped from the waist down, with the exception of one sock. Her top had been pushed up to expose her chest, and the back was stained with semen, which a DNA test matched to Smith. The girl's remaining clothes and pink backpack were not at the scene; Smith would later admit to disposing of them in various dumpsters. Markings on her wrists suggested she had been bound, and a ligature marking on her neck indicated she had been strangled from behind, likely with a cord or a shoelace. Scratches on her left hip and abrasions on her right leg and side corroborated Smith's statement that she had been dragged, and bruises were found on her shin and inner thigh. As Brucia had been dead for several days, her body had begun decomposing, preventing investigators from conclusively determining whether she had been sexually penetrated.

Authorities informed Schorpen and Kansler at 3 AM, and later informed the broader community at 7:10 AM. The police initially reported to the public that Brucia was dead and declined to share further details,< though Sheriff Bill Balkwill vowed in a public press release that Smith "will pay the ultimate price for what he did to her."< Smith was first charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder,< receiving an additional charge of capital sexual battery on February 21.

Brucia's body was cremated, with her ashes divided between her mother and father.

Subsequent confessions
After Brucia's body was recovered,. Officials recorded

Legal proceedings
The prosecution included Debra Riva, Dennis Nales, Craig Schaeffer. Adam Tebrugge represented Smith.

Pre-trial
Though Smith had a hearing scheduled for February 8, 2004, he waived his right to it and did not attend.< He was acquitted of drug possession on September 17, 2005, before the trial for Brucia's murder began.

Tebrugge initially sought a gag order, which Owens denied.

The widespread publicity of the case raised concerns that the court would not be able to pick an unbiased jury, and that the trial would have to be held in Naples rather than Sarasota.< By the time of the hearings, public outcry had settled enough that it was not considered necessary to move the trial.<

Sealing of photos and video
Evidence in the case included photos and videos of Brucia's body at the crime scene, as well as autopsy photos. While Florida had made autopsy photos private in 2001, this did not apply to autopsy photos used as evidence in a criminal case.< In June 2004, Brucia Jr. requested that photos of Brucia's body not be released into the public record for "peace of mind." Owens agreed to the request, sparking a series of appeals by law firms and media groups. Though the appeals were briefly successful,< the ruling was quickly reversed. The graphic nature of the material, Owens stated, ; public availability would violate the privacy of Brucia's family and result in "undue harm and emotional distress."

During the trial, the court chose to present images and footage to the jury using a TV screen facing away from the general public. After the material was presented in court, Tebrugge stated that Owens had acted correctly in withholding the materials from the public.

Trial
The trial began on November 7, 2005.

Forensic investigators testified that they lacked hard evidence of Brucia having been sexually assaulted: some damage to her body tissue could have resulted from decomposition, and swabs of her body tested negative for semen.< An ultraviolet light examination of the station wagon also did not indicate the presence of bodily fluids. However, they all testified that the condition of Brucia's body—with missing clothes, legs bent into an unnatural position, and various injuries—highly suggested Smith had raped her.< Medical examiner Dr. Russell Riva stated that damage to Brucia's pelvic region, while inconclusive, was consistent with damage caused by sexual assault;. Additionally, FBI forensic investigator Jennifer Luttman testified that a semen stain was found on the back of Brucia's shirt.

Tebrugge did not offer a closing argument.

Smith had prepared a. However, Judge Owens did not allow him to read it, as Smith's statement would be required to undergo cross-examination.<

Conviction and sentencing
On November 17, 2005, after deliberating for five hours, the jury voted 10-2 to convict Smith of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and sexual battery.<

Tebrugge argued that Smith should be sentenced to life in prison, rather than the death penalty. .< Riva rebuked this argument, as Smith had been able to recount the details of the crime to his relatives.

At a hearing in February 2006, Smith told the judge he did not recall the events following his suicide attempt, including his rape and murder of Brucia.

Later appeals
At the time of Smith's sentencing, Florida law permitted a judge to issue the death penalty, but this was struck down a decade later in the US Supreme Court case Hurst v. Florida. The state's revised procedures required that a jury unanimously rule in favor of the death penalty. Smith appealed his sentencing in 2017,

Reactions and aftermath
Rapkin, the judge who did not sign the arrest warrant for Smith, reportedly received harassment and death threats for not jailing Smith. He chose not to run for reelection in 2004, instead retiring from his position.

Some sources attribute media attention to the surveillance footage of Brucia's abduction, which the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said was the first time security footage "so vividly" capturing an abduction. However, others have criticized the media coverage as a case of missing white woman syndrome.

Memorials
Following the discovery of Brucia's body, multiple public memorial services were held at churches. Makeshift memorials were built at Evie's and Brucia's home in Sarasota. Schorpen and Kansler organized a private funeral in Sarasota, while Joe Brucia held a private service in Long Island.

Shortly after Brucia's body was found, prisoners from the Manatee County jail offered to build a memorial, eventually settling on building a butterfly garden at McIntosh Middle School. The butterfly garden, named "Carlie's Secret Garden", was built in April 2004 and scheduled for dedication on April 30, 2004.

The Central Church of Christ hosted a memorial service for Brucia the day after the jury recommended Smith receive the death penalty. A memorial garden to Brucia was later built behind the church; a plaque containing some of her ashes was placed where her body had been found.

Joseph Brucia founded the Carlie Brucia Rescue Fund, providing financial support to families whose children had been abducted. Similarly, Matthew Barbis—a cousin of Brucia's—launched the nonprofit Rose Brucia Educational Foundation to educate children on how to avoid abductions.

Legislative efforts
Brucia's death led to calls for stricter probation laws, as many people (including Brucia's father and Dinyes) believed that Smith's history should not have allowed him to remain on probation. In March 2004, Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) sponsored a federal bill titled "Carlie's Law". The law would have placed stronger rules on sex offenders who had been released on parole and

After the murder of Jessica Lunsford in 2005, state representative Mark Foley proposed federal legislation imposing stricter laws on sex offenders, known as the Children's Safety Act of 2005. Segments of the bill were taken directly from Carlie's Law. Later rebranded as the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, the bill passed the House and Senate and was signed into law in 2006.<

Later years
Schorpen struggled extensively with drug abuse after her daughter's death, receiving repeated accusations of theft and multiple arrests on charges of possession and prostitution. She died of a heroin overdose in 2017, at 47 years old.

Smith was found dead on July 26, 2021. His cause of death was not released to the public at the time.

McIntosh Middle School held a rededication of its memorial garden on May 16, 2022, after an extensive restoration by students of Suncoast Technical College.

In popular culture

 * Pop rock musicians Aly & AJ wrote and recorded the song "I Am One of Them" in the wake of Brucia's abduction. The track appears on the deluxe edition of their album Into the Rush.
 * A dramatized version of Brucia's abduction was featured in season 7 of the American true crime show See No Evil, in the episode "Come Home Carlie".
 * A dramatized version of Brucia's abduction was featured in season 7 of the American true crime show See No Evil, in the episode "Come Home Carlie".