Andrew David Smith and Melissa Dymond-Demetrowitz murdered Shawn Patrick Armstrong, prosecutors said. (Mugshots: Charlotte County Jail)
The other shoe has dropped for two people who were found driving a dead man’s truck two days after allegedly killing him.
A grand jury in Charlotte County, Florida, indicted Andrew Drew Smith, 32, and Melissa Dymond-Demetrowitz, 34, for murdering Shawn Patrick Armstrong, 49, prosecutors announced on Thursday. The two have been locked up at the local jail since mid-September on related but less serious charges.
The state’s attorney’s office in the 20th judicial district said that the duo conspired between Sept. 8 and 13.
“The victim was shot to death on or about September 13, 2022,” prosecutors said. “The victim was lured to a wooded area and murdered in Southern Charlotte County. His body was then put in his own vehicle.”
They allegedly drove Armstrong’s body in his truck — a Silverado — to Lee County, where they hid his remains beneath palm fronds in a wooded area.
Authorities previously released the affidavit in the September arrests. Dymond-Demetrowitz, who was initially charged with evidence tampering and accessory after the fact of a capital felony, allegedly admitted to deputies that she saw Smith shoot someone. That victim’s name was redacted from those documents, but it is apparently Armstrong.
According to the affidavit, which has been reviewed by Law&Crime, Dymond-Demetrowitz told deputies details about what happened on Sept. 13 between herself, Smith, and the unnamed victim, although this part of the document is heavily redacted.
Dymond-Demetrowitz told deputies that the three of them were driving together and eventually pulled over onto a gravel road. Smith parked the truck, at which point he and the victim allegedly got out of the vehicle and started arguing at the rear of the truck. Dymond-Demetrowitz allegedly said that this argument spanned three hours.
At one point, she told officers that she heard — gunshots — from outside. She stepped out of the vehicle to find the victim dead on the ground with two apparent gunshot wounds to his chest, documents said. There was a large amount of blood. Dymond-Demetrowitz allegedly said that she helped put the body in the truck out of fear for her safety.
“Melissa initially believed that the truck (and [redacted] body) were left in the [parking] lot until the next day, but then Melissa detailed going with Andrew to Fort Myers to get rid of the body of [redacted],” the affidavit said wrote. “Though Melissa was unable to advise of the address where [redacted] was taken, she was able to detail Andrew driving them to a ‘church.’ Melissa detailed Andrew driving through wooded paths behind the church with the truck and traveling through deep flooded paths. The truck reached an extensively flooded area deep within the paths.”
Smith and Dymond-Demetrowitz first popped up law enforcement’s radar days after they allegedly killed Armstrong. Deputies said they had pulled over Smith, who is believed to have been drunk while behind the wheel of Armstrong’s truck, on Sept. 15. Dymond-Demetrowitz was allegedly in the passenger’s seat at the time. Deputies allegedly found an open container of alcohol on the floor of the car, as well as cocaine and fentanyl.
Deputies also reportedly noticed that there was blood on a cooler located in the bed of the truck, as well as blood or a “blood like substance” that appeared to have pooled on the right side of the truck bed.
At the time, Smith was arrested for DUI and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription.
Armstrong’s death apparently became known when a woman identified as Smith’s fiancee reported a disappearance.
The September affidavit against Dymond-Demetrowitz showed that this woman on Sept. 16 reported that a man, whose name is redacted from documents, was missing and possibly killed. The woman said she attempted to call someone whose identity is redacted from the affidavit, but Dymond-Demetrowitz picked up. The defendant allegedly asked her to speak in person at a Knights Inn. When the witness got there, Dymond-Demetrowitz, upset, told her that someone named “Drew” shot a person three times in the truck, documents stated. They drove behind a church and buried his body in a body pasture, the defendant allegedly told Smith’s fiancee.
She also reportedly told the witness that police arrested Smith while in the truck after they buried the victim, documents said. Smith tossed the murder weapon out the truck window into a bush during the chase, Dymond-Demetrowitz allegedly said.
According to the witness, Dymond-Demetrowitz said that Smith texted her before his arrest to get the gun from the bushes. Asked by investigators why Smith would have wanted to kill the victim, the witness speculated that it was over money, the redacted affidavit said.
“[The witness] further disclosed that [redacted] had attempted to rape her in July of 2022 and Andrew was upset because she was engaged to marry Andrew,” documents stated.
Dymond-Demetrowitz also said she had “all [reacted] belongings as well as bags full of Andrew’s stuff to include illegal narcotics and wanted her to take it all from the hotel room.”
The witness said she refused to take the possessions, and she left the hotel.
Investigators claim they reviewed a recorded phone call in which Dymond-Demetrowitz told another man, a jail inmate, about the victim being dead.
“They got into a fight and next thing you know that was the end of that,” she allegedly said.
Authorities claimed that a recorded jail phone conversation between Smith and Dymond-Demetrowitz on the night of Sept. 15 showed Melissa saying that the fiancee had come by her hotel room and argued with her.
“Andrew cuts off Melissa to inform her of the charges against him and she asks him ‘what about the tailgate’, Andrew says, ‘what about it there was nothing back there’ and Melissa asks if he got rid of all the stuff,” authorities wrote. “Andrew responded that he had and said “they tried to charge me with the gun that [redacted] had in the door but couldn’t because it was [redacted] truck.”
Smith and Dymond-Demetrowitz remain held without bond. They made their first appearances on Friday. They face a count each of first-degree murder with a firearm, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder with a firearm, and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
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