Her killing was the first of the Whitechapel murders, and it is possible she was a victim of the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, though this is considered unlikely by most modern authors.

[4] Prior to being fatally assaulted, Smith was last seen by fellow resident, 54-year-old Margaret Hayes, at 18 George Street, at approximately 12:15 a.m. on Tuesday, 3 April 1888, the day after the Easter Monday bank holiday.

According to Hayes, Smith was standing near Farrant Street, talking with a man dressed in dark clothing and a white scarf.

Mrs Russell and one of the other lodgers, Annie Lee, took Smith to the London Hospital, where she was treated by house surgeon George Haslip.

[6] Medical investigation by the duty surgeon, Dr G. H. Hillier, revealed that a blunt object had been inserted into her vagina, rupturing her peritoneum.

The inquest at the hospital, which was conducted by the coroner for East Middlesex, Wynne Edwin Baxter, was attended by Russell, Hillier, and the local chief inspector of the Metropolitan Police Service, H Division Whitechapel: John West.

[9] Walter Dew later described the investigation: As in every case of murder in this country, however poor and friendless the victims might be, the police made every effort to track down Emma Smith's assailant.

[12][13] With the exception of Walter Dew, who said he thought that Smith was the first victim of the Ripper,[14] the police suspected it was the unrelated work of a criminal gang.