Smit retired in 1996 from the El Paso County, Colorado Sheriff's department where he had served as captain of detectives.
[3] Some of Smit's cases, such as the Grammer and Church murders, were featured on the Investigation Discovery series Homicide Hunter.
[5][6] In 1997, three months after the murder of JonBenét Ramsey, Smit was asked by the district attorney's office to come out of retirement to assist with the investigation.
After a CAT scan identified a tumor as the cause of the pain, surgeons discovered that the cancer had spread throughout his body and was untreatable.
[2] Smit died at age 75 on August 11, 2010, at the Pikes Peak Hospice in Colorado Springs due to colon cancer.