Chasing Evil: Shocking Crimes, Supernatural Forces, and an FBI Agent's Search for Hope and Justice

In 1991, Bob Hilland, a New Jersey patrolman, first encounters suspected killer John Smith when Smith reports his second wife, Fran Smith, missing; Hilland later learns Smith’s first wife, Janice Hartman, vanished in 1974. A difficult childhood in which Hilland often had to care for his younger siblings due to his father’s alcohol addiction shaped Hilland’s protective instincts, which he carried into his police work. In 1997, he joins the FBI’s New York Cold Case Squad and meets his officemate, Richie DeStano. In summer 1998, light from a gag crystal ball on a detective’s desk illuminates a binder for Fran Smith’s missing-person case, reigniting Hilland’s interest. He secures conditional approval from his supervisor and silently vows to find Janice and Fran. The decision strains his marriage to Alex, who already navigates his long hours while they raise young children.

The narrative then follows John Edward’s path. He grows up in Queens, his police officer father rejecting anything supernatural (or simply emotional) while his mother embraces it. When Edward is 15, a psychic named Lydia Clar tells him that he will become a famous medium. He studies, reads for clients, and attempts to provide limited police tips but meets with resistance. Even after the film Ghost popularizes psychic crime-solving, he refuses law enforcement work. After several years of working primarily as a phlebotomist, he becomes famous enough as a medium to pursue his psychic career full-time; by 1998, he appears on Larry King Live and radio. Hilland, newly committed to the Smith case, hears him on the air and decides to reach out.

While driving to New Jersey in the summer of 1998, Hilland hears John Edward on a morning radio show and dismisses him as a fraud. He arrives in West Windsor, where he has assembled a multi-agency meeting to revisit the Smith file, convening detectives from New Jersey, Ohio, and Connecticut. Hilland notes the lack of evidence but hopes time and improved forensics will generate new leads.

They review Smith’s history. During a 1996 interrogation in Ohio (where Smith had lived with Janice), he stonewalled and emitted a bizarre screech whenever cornered in a lie. The team reviews the timeline of Fran’s disappearance: On September 28, 1991, recovering from a broken hip and using crutches, she left her New Jersey condo with Smith. A neighbor noticed her face was flushed and blotchy. Fran’s family had urged her to confront Smith about his secret life in Connecticut with his girlfriend, Sheila Sautter. A Connecticut detective explains that Sheila later participated in a recorded call where Smith admitted failing a polygraph but claimed police would never find physical evidence linking him to Fran’s disappearance. The team also discusses a wallet photo of an unidentified woman, a sex worker named Janice Miller who visited Smith while he was living in Milford, Connecticut, and Smith’s younger brother, Michael, who appeared ready to cooperate until their grandmother, Ethel, intervened.

Hilland ends the session with a game plan: Locate Smith, build a timeline, identify the woman in the photo, and find Janice Miller. He assigns investigators to list potential sources of information. Back in New York, he begins sifting through 30 boxes of files.

Hilland enlarges the wallet photo at the FBI lab, spots a “Glamour Shots” copyright, and mails copies to the company’s New Hampshire studios to identify the woman. Days later, he and Detective Matt Dansman drive to a Connecticut women’s prison to interview Janice Miller.

Janice describes meeting Smith in 1992. He moved her into his Milford house, where he imposed strict rules, including a ban on the attic, which she nevertheless sneaked into. There, she found bags of women’s clothes of many sizes, some with tags, and a strong perfume scent. She describes Smith’s terrifying rages, nocturnal screaming, and frequent use of a high-pitched squeal when nervous. He wore a wedding ring when he took her out on September 28, the one-year anniversary of Fran’s disappearance. Janice met his family in Ohio and sensed secrets between Smith and his mother, Grace. Fearing he is capable of murder, she urges the detectives to investigate the murders of several friends of hers, also sex workers, in Bridgeport; she notes that the police were looking for “a clean-shaven white guy with glasses” (36), which matches Smith’s description.

Hilland and Dansman head for Bridgeport. During the drive, they argue over a John Edward radio segment. Hilland calls the medium a con man, while Dansman finds the readings legitimate. Hilland resolves to pursue conventional leads, propelled by Janice’s warnings.

In Bridgeport, Hilland and Dansman meet Detective Sergeant Edward Kennedy and members of a former serial killer task force. Hilland briefs them on Smith and Janice Miller’s account of women’s clothing in Smith’s attic. The detail is significant because many local victims were found naked, and their clothing was never recovered.

The task force reviews 25 cases from 1988 to 1995, noting patterns of manual strangulation and frenzied stabbing. They detail the case of Karla Storer, who was last seen entering a customer’s sedan hatchback. Her body was later found in a dumpster. Her boyfriend helped produce a composite sketch of the suspect—a white man with glasses. When Kennedy produces the sketch, Hilland sees a striking resemblance to Smith’s 1992 mugshot. Hilland also has records showing that Smith owned a matching sedan hatchback when Karla disappeared.

At home, Alex asks Hilland not to lose himself in the case. He quietly plans his next steps. The next morning, stalled in traffic, he hears John Edward again and is shaken by the medium’s accuracy in providing details about his caller’s life. Intent on finding Janice and Fran, Hilland calls Edward’s office.

Hilland and Dansman meet John Edward at his Long Island office on a strict condition of secrecy; Hilland, still skeptical, brings not only some of Fran’s belongings but also unrelated control items. Edward immediately separates the controls. Holding Fran’s glasses and brush, he states precise details about her at the time of her death, including a recent broken bone, her use of crutches, and a blow to the back of the head followed by strangulation. He locates the murder at a New Jersey storage unit, stating that Smith dismembered her and encapsulated her remains in cylinders, making recovery difficult.

Edward says that Smith has many other victims, including someone newspapers will dub the “Lady in the Box” (54), and that his crimes include necrophilia. He states that Smith’s family dynamics, particularly with his mother, feed his deception and violence. Edward identifies Michael Smith as a pivotal witness who knows what his brother did and attempted to warn women to keep away from him; however, Michael fears both his brother and the police. He places Smith in Southern California, where he is reinventing himself while remaining in contact with the woman from the Glamour Shots photo. He warns Hilland that the case will exact personal costs but says that Hilland is positioned to stop him, describing the case as a battle between good and evil.

At Hilland and Dansman’s request, Edward then calls Fran’s daughter, but it soon becomes clear that the messages he is receiving are from Hilland’s deceased family members, not hers. He gives Hilland messages to convey to both his father and mother while recounting details of his family history with such specificity that Hilland’s skepticism is shaken; the only one that perplexes Hilland is a reference to his mother’s brother, as her only sibling is a sister. Edward closes by telling Hilland he was chosen for this work.