Amber Smith convicted of murdering her fiancé Trent Mallory

When police entered the Levering, Michigan home of Trent Mallory and his fiancée Amber Smith on March 6, 2014, they found the home to be in disarray. Clothes, books and food were thrown everywhere as if the family had been robbed. And in the bedroom, 35-year-old Trent Mallory was shot as he lay in his bed.

Smith called 911 around 10:35 a.m., claiming she was returning home after taking one son to school and the other to the doctor before stopping to eat and see her sister. When she returned home, she found the door was open.

Mallory and Smith had been together for more than five years and had one child together and another child that Mallory raised as his own.

“Trent and Amber seemed to love each other very much,” Trey Sullivan, Smith's nephew, continued Killer relationship with Faith Jenkins. “They were never officially married, but you would never have been able to tell from the outside.”

But as police dug deeper into Smith and Mallory's family and finances, they discovered their relationship wasn't as perfect as Smith made it out to be.

“Trent became increasingly aware of her financial situation,” continued JL Sumpter, detective sergeant with the Emmet Co. Sheriff's Office Killer relationship with Faith Jenkins. “He found out about unpaid loans. So he starts putting the whole thing together. We are beginning to understand why this murder may have happened.”

Police discover a motive for Trent Mallory's murder

Trent Mallory's murder wasn't the first time the family was in the news. In June 2008, when Smith's son Marshall was just a baby, they learned he needed a heart transplant. After 10 months of waiting in the hospital, he had a successful heart transplant at 18 months old. But with that health issue came hefty hospital bills, and the family had raised $10,000 to $15,000 through crowdfunding to help.

Despite the public's support, the family home was in foreclosure at the time of Mallory's murder and there was also credit card debt.

“Towards the end of their relationship, I would say four or five months, I could tell there was something wrong with Trent,” said Angela White, Mallory's sister Killer relationship with Faith Jenkins. “The fun-loving, fun-loving person that Trent was was dwindling to the point where he became more and more isolated. We still talked on the phone or whatever, but he was always working. For me, I didn’t understand why he had to work so hard.”

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Police learned that Mallory received a call from a lending company just days before his murder.

“We learned that a loan was taken out in Trent’s name and the company was actively trying to find Trent,” Sumpter said. “Trent had told them he had no idea there was a loan out there and was very upset that the loan was actually taken out in his name.”

Police soon realized the reason why Amber Smith had taken out a loan in Mallory's name without his knowledge.

“Amber loved to gamble on her phone, so she bought a lot of iTunes, and she gambled several thousand dollars on various gambling apps and other things,” Michigan State Police Detective Sergeant Mark Harris continued Killer relationship with Faith Jenkins.

“As we investigated further, it became apparent that she was not only gambling on her cell phone, but also in the casino,” added Emmet Co. Chief Deputy District Attorney Stuart Fenton Killer relationship with Faith Jenkins. “Amber spent over $25,000 at the casino about a year after the murder. That’s where all the money went.”

Amber Smith came under increasing pressure when her fiancé learned the truth.

“She had this whole underworld of gambling outside of Trent’s knowledge,” Harris said. “The situation became more and more delicate for her, so she had to find a way to escape. She had to find a way out. Any debt they had was in Trenton's name. There was nothing in her name. So if Trenton wasn’t there, it was a clean slate for them.”

Police find the gun that killed Trent Mallory in an unusual location

The coroner concluded that the weapon used to kill Trent Mallory appeared to be a .22 caliber rifle that was fired from less than a meter away from him. His approximate time of death was 9 a.m. Officers learned that Mallory ran a side business selling extra money, which often included guns. A few days before his murder, he had been in discussions about purchasing a .22 rifle. But Amber Smith said the transaction never took place and was unable to name the seller.

“It was extremely vague,” Harris said. “The interesting thing was that she could name other names, but never this person.”

Police failed to find the murder weapon when Amy Sullivan, Amber's sister, called a month after the murder to say she had made a discovery in her front yard.

“At this point the snow was melting, and as the snow was melting, [she] She thought it was the handle of the shovel, and sure enough she learned it was a .22,” Sumpter said.

Police believed it was no coincidence that the murder weapon was found in Smith's sister's garden. A shell casing found in the bed with Mallory matched the gun found in the snowbank, and a fingerprint on the gun matched Smith. The gun matched the one Mallory tried to turn over before he was murdered.

“There was a lot of snow there. “The fact that it was hidden in Amy's snowbank made sense to me based on Amber's alibi in which she described how she happened to stop there the morning of Trent's murder,” Harris said.

On April 21, 2014, Smith was charged with the murder of her fiancé.

“She didn't want the community to know that all the money she raised for her son, Marshall, was gone, and if Trent left, no one would have to know,” White said.

The jury only needed an hour to convict her of murder. Amber Smith was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Trent Mallory's parents have custody of both boys.