Inset (left): Charlotte Brandy Smith (Elizabethtown Police Department). Inset (right): Aaron "Daine" Smith (Bladen-Gaskins Funeral Home & Cremation Services). Background: The Smiths' home in Elizabethtown, N.C. (Google Maps/Law&Crime).
A North Carolina woman accused of killing her husband could have her digital life scrutinized in court.
Charlotte Brandy Smith, 46, is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the 2025 death of her husband, 42-year-old Aaron "Daine" Smith. According to reporting by local NBC affiliate WECT, police found Daine Smith on his back porch with a gunshot wound to the head on the night of July 8, 2025. He died while he was being transported to the hospital.
Law&Crime's Chris Stewart obtained the 911 call made by the Smiths' neighbor, who found Daine Smith and told dispatchers that he saw Charlotte Smith flee the scene in her black Cadillac CT4.
Charlotte Smith was located in a neighboring county and arrested, but she had also made a 911 call of her own. During her call, she told dispatchers that Daine Smith had been abusing her, including sexually. WECT obtained an affidavit in which police wrote that Charlotte Smith had placed a 911 call a month earlier, on June 8, 2025, during which she said she was planning to kill her husband after luring him to a park. Charlotte Smith was reportedly committed involuntarily after that June 2025 call.
After Charlotte Smith was arrested in Montgomery County, she allegedly confessed to killing her husband.
More than a year after Daine Smith's death, investigators said they executed search warrants on 18 of Charlotte Smith's digital devices, including phones, a tablet and laptops. According to WECT's reporting on court documents connected to the case, witnesses told police that Charlotte Smith often changed phones and kept journals. Police said witnesses told them she made several calls around the time of Daine Smith's death.
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Charlotte Smith is charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bond at the Bladen County Detention Facility. She is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 10.
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