On September 7, 1997, hunters in North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest found human bones, clothing, and some other items scattered in the woods near a campground.

Until the bones were found, the search for her had been concentrated in the Philadelphia area, where several sightings had been reported, although some of them may have been of a homeless woman who strongly resembled Smith.

[2] The investigation into the killing has been complicated by the unresolved question of how Smith got to North Carolina from Philadelphia, 600 miles (970 km) away, in the first place.

Philadelphia police initially considered Jeffrey Smith a suspect, casting doubt on the idea that his wife had even been to the city in the first place.

[3] The Philadelphia police, the FBI, and the Buncombe County sheriff's office continue to investigate; the case has been the subject of a segment on Unsolved Mysteries.

[2] When the couple came to Logan International Airport on April 9, 1997, to check in for their flight to Philadelphia, Judy suddenly realized that she had forgotten to bring her driver's license.

Judy told her husband she would return to their home to get it and then take a later flight; that evening she caught up to him in the lobby of the DoubleTree hotel in Center City Philadelphia where the conference was being held, apologizing for her mistake and bringing flowers.

After going back and forth between the party and the room several times, he grew concerned and informed a concierge, who began calling area hospitals.

[2] Jeffrey left the cocktail party and paid a cab driver to slowly follow the route of the Philadelphia PHLASH tourist bus, which Judy had told him she was planning to use, for any sign of her.

[2] Before Jeffrey did file a report, however, he spoke to Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell and John Perzel, a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from the city, who were both attending the conference, about what he felt was the police's dismissive attitude to his complaint.

[2] "When you look at the statistics, 85 to 90 percent of females [who are murdered] are killed by someone very close to them: a family member, spouse, boyfriend", police captain John McGinnis explained later.

[5] While Jeffrey understood and cooperated when they asked to interview his stepdaughter without him present, since she told the police he "[didn't] cheat on his taxes", he was distressed that they expressed doubt that Judy had ever been in Philadelphia to begin with.

If, they asked, Judy was the experienced traveler who had once gone to Thailand on her own to visit the family of a grateful patient, why had she forgotten her driver's license?

Jeffrey later explained in response to the Philadelphia City Paper that the rule had only been in effect for 18 months and Judy had only flown once during that time, so it was entirely possible that she made an honest mistake.

He says he never refused; he only insisted that any such test be administered by the FBI and that if he passed, the police formally request that the bureau assist with its investigation.

While there she masturbated in front of an open window, spoke to herself in tongues, and then loudly claimed "the emperor" would wire her money when she needed it to extend her stay.

[2] There were some other reports of a similar woman, also apparently disturbed, in the Penn's Landing neighborhood, a PHLASH stop and popular tourist attraction as well.

The terminal is near Philadelphia's Chinatown, and since Judy loved Chinese and Thai food she might have gone there to eat; however, no one at any of the many restaurants in the neighborhood recalled her.

An emergency room physician in Franklin, North Carolina, 65 miles (105 km) west of Asheville, saw an article about the discovery in the newspaper.

The combined $167 is consistent with the $200 Jeffrey believed Judy to have had on her at the time of her disappearance;[2] the presence of the money and her wedding ring have led investigators to conclude that robbery was not the motivation for her killing.

The woman she talked to said her husband was an attorney from Boston, attending a conference in Philadelphia, and during that time she had just decided to go to the Asheville area.

A deli owner in the same area told the Philadelphia City Paper that Judy came up to her store in a gray sedan and bought $30 worth of sandwiches and a toy truck.

[7] Investigators with the Buncombe County sheriff's office have ruled out Jeffrey Smith, who died in 2005,[3] as a suspect, since as he was morbidly obese they believe he would have been physically unable to have taken his wife's body up the slope to where it was found.

[7] Sam Constance, the Buncombe detective who investigated the case, believes Judy was not abducted and came to the Asheville area voluntarily.

Constance also did not believe Judy was killed elsewhere and dumped at the site, due to the distance anyone, even someone in the best physical condition, would have had to carry her body to dispose of it there.

It has also been suggested that she might have encountered Gary Michael Hilton, a serial killer who was later arrested and convicted of several killings on hiking trails in national forests in the southern Appalachian Mountains in 2007–8.

[citation needed] The state of North Carolina and Jeffrey combined to offer $17,000 in reward money for any information leading to the resolution of the case.