ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Skyhawk wide receiver Smith’s daughter murdered in Michigan

Federal prosecutors say it appears that a Michigan man strangled a 2-year-old girl after he kidnapped her following a fight with her mother. The U.S. attorney’s office in Grand Rapids filed kidnapping charges Friday against Rashad Trice.

The federal complaint says Trice got into a fight with the 2-year-old’s mother in her Lansing apartment July 2. They stabbed each other before Trice fled. The complaint says he later returned to the residence and kidnapped the girl. Police discovered the girl’s body in a Detroit alley on July 5.

Smith’s father, Ajay Smith, of Detroit, is a wide receiver for the University of Tennessee at Martin. He told the Detroit News for a story published Friday that he learned about the kidnapping on Monday from the girl’s grandmother.

“At that moment, I was just in shock — like I couldn’t move because that’s not a phone call you can expect at any given moment,” he told the newspaper. “I didn’t know what to do.”
He said his coach and the university helped him fly home to Michigan that day. He called his daughter a “very smart, great, lovable young girl.”
“Her smile was so contagious,” he said. “I don’t see how anybody could ever hate that.”

A post on the UT Martin Athletics Facebook page has a link to the GoFundMe account set up for Wynter’s mother. As of Monday, over $13,000 has been raised for the family.

UT Martin Athletics said in the post, “Our hearts go out to Ajay Smith for the tragic and senseless loss of his 2-year-old daughter, Wynter.  Ajay is a wide receiver for Skyhawk Football.

A gofundme account has been established to help the family. This link shares the full details of this unthinkable tragedy. Please consider helping in anyway you can.”

The link to the GoFundMe page is available at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-family-recover-after-wynter-smiths-death?utm_campaign=p_nacp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer.