When A Child Does The Unthinkable

Hot On The Case

Breanna Heim

True Crime

5 • 714 Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A killer is walking free.

In 1993, 13-year-old Eric Smith lured 4-year-old Derrick Robie into the woods and committed a crime so brutal it stunned the entire country. Nearly three decades later, Eric has been released from prison… but should he have been? Can we really gamble on a killer? In this video, we break down the shocking murder, the disturbing psychology behind it, and the controversial decision to set him free.

This is a case that forces us to ask: is true rehabilitation possible?

Or is society taking a dangerous risk?

Transcript

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0:00.0	How could someone who looked so innocent be capable of something so evil?
0:05.3	In the summer of 1993, a little four-year-old boy would vanish on the one block walk to his summer camp.
0:12.1	His body would be found later that afternoon.
0:15.3	The crime was brutal, and when his killer was found, his killer showed no remorse. And then, really not that long
0:23.7	ago, the one responsible for the death of this little innocent boy was released from prison
0:29.4	after serving less than 30 years, and many advocated for his release, claiming that he was
0:36.8	reformed and that he deserved a second chance
0:39.9	because he had committed this brutal, senseless murder of an innocent four-year-old boy
0:46.9	when he was only 13 years old himself. Today we're going to try and answer the questions.
0:53.5	Why did Eric kill? Will he do it again and can
0:57.7	we really gamble on a killer my name is bryana and i'm hot on the case
1:03.5	eric smith eric smith's life was Eric Smith.
1:13.6	Eric Smith's life was clouded with dysfunction before it even started.
1:17.9	His mother, Tammy, was already in the middle of divorcing her husband, Randy, when she found out that she was pregnant with him.
1:24.3	And Randy, he wasn't even convinced that the baby was his. A paternity test would
1:29.2	later confirm that he was the biological father of Eric, but he still refused to acknowledge
1:35.3	Eric as his child. Meanwhile, he had no problem accepting Eric's older sister Stacy as his biological
1:43.3	child. Eric was born on January 22nd, 1980.
1:47.7	During her pregnancy, Tammy had taken medicine for her epilepsy, medicine that at the time was known
1:54.6	to carry risks for fetal developmental issues. And growing up, Eric was definitely developmentally delayed,
2:02.8	and this is possibly the cause. Tammy eventually remarried, a man named Ted Smith. The family
2:10.0	was living in the small, quiet town of Savona, New York. Ted legally adopted Eric, giving him
	...

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