vestigation originally began as a local case. When police arrested Smith in November 2024, it marked the first-ever fentanyl murder arrest in Grayson County under a Texas law that went into effect in late 2023, which allows individuals to be charged with murder for supplying lethal doses of fentanyl. The case was later moved to federal court.

The criminal investigation was conducted jointly by the FBI and the Denison Police Department, with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric Erlandson and Abe McGlothin Jr. prosecuted the case.

Denison, Texas is about 73 miles north of Dallas, one mile south of the Texas-Oklahoma border.