Hey everyone and welcome back to Big Mad True Crime where we get Big Mad over True Crime.

I'm your host Heather Ashley and in today's episode you have to decide what you believe when

it comes to the total and complete disappearance of a teenage boy. Small talk sucks so let's dive in.

17 year old Mason Smith was new to the St. George Utah area and I feel like we have done so many

cases out of Utah but anyways his mom and dad who ran a tight ship to say the least had just

recently moved there from Canada about five months prior and if we're being honest

Mason was having a hard time living so far away from everything he knew all that was familiar

his five older siblings and he really just wasn't making any friends but Mason had anime.

He was super in to anime. I've done a few cases involving anime which sounds just weird when

I say that out loud but what I've learned about the culture surrounding it is that it's incredibly

emotional entertainment and it seems almost addicting to the niche of people that it attracts

watching it for hours on end if and when given the chance. You guys know that I'm not going to

lie to you and paint a picture of someone that isn't true just because they've gone missing and

Mason was no doubt a good kid but he did struggle with depression it had been a years long battle

and he had even attempted suicide once when they live back in Canada. I almost hate bringing up

anyone's psychological struggles because it always seems to trigger the suicide assumption

and I think it can cause some unintended confirmation bias from the very beginning and for those of

you who aren't familiar with confirmation bias it's when you start interpreting information in a

way that supports your already formed theories. That's one reason you have to be super objective and

keep an open mind when diving into this true crime stuff but nonetheless Mason's struggles with

depression are a real part of his story and it's the truth and the truth is all that matters here.

On the last night of August in 2015 Mason was supposed to go out driving with his dad. He still

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