Port Hadlock: Accused killer attempted to recalculate child support while in Utah

PORT HADLOCK –Sheriff’s detectives are still trying to piece together the puzzle of events leading to Tuesday’s fatal shooting of businessman Frank M. “Skip” Smith Jr.

That puzzle may involve the renegotiating of child support and a divorce filing made one year ago today.

Ryan Neil Sorensen, 30, of Spanish Fork, Utah, has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of Smith — the well-known and popular owner of Smith’s Services towing and wrecking yard in Port Hadlock — and is being held in the Jefferson County jail.

Sorensen is Smith’s former son-in-law.

Sorensen was last seen at his Utah apartment a week ago, said his neighbor Marci Brown, who lives across the street in Spanish Fork.

On Tuesday, he walked into Smith’s Services at 10675 Rhody Drive, Port Hadlock, and emptied two 9 mm handguns into the 63-year-old Smith, investigators allege.

“Why he left Utah and what happened between Utah and the state of Washington is being investigated,” Undersheriff Ken Sukert said Thursday.

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