Photo: Mario Perez/USA Network
Evan Smith, 28, remembers a childhood filled with basketball, surfing and movie screenings with his dad,Gavin, a Hollywood studio executive and former UCLA Bruins basketball player.
“My dad and I got along swimmingly,” recalls Evan, who along with his girlfriend Kaci Campbell, is featured on the reality dating showTemptation Island, airing Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on USA Network. “He was one of my best friends. He taught me so much. I had a great childhood with him.”
When Evan was offered a basketball scholarship to the University of Southern California, his dad beamed with pride. “Even though it was to his rival school, it still made him a proud father and it made me a very proud son letting him know.”
But Evan’s life was turned upside down in May 2012 when his mother Lisa told him that Gavin, 57, seemed to havevanished without a trace, never showing up to take Evan’s younger brother to school.
Gavin Smith.L.A. Sheriff’s Office
“My dad had never, never let us down like that,” says Evan, now a personal trainer. “He’d always been there for my brothers and I. So, I knew something was wrong, I knew something was up.”
Evan never saw his father alive again. Eight months later Gavin’s bloodied car was discovered in a Simi Valley storage unit. Then, in October 2014, hikers discovered his remains in a desert grave near Palmdale, Calif.
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In January of 2015, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged body builderJohn Creechwith Gavin’s murder.
Evan Smith and Kaci Campbell.Mario Perez/USA Network
Grace says Cade and Gavin started an affair after meeting in a rehab program years earlier, where Gavin sought help for an addiction to painkillers.
Evan recalled when, after Creech learned about the affair in 2010, he and his younger brother went to Creech’s house to beg him not to hurt their dad.
“I basically just told him that I was very apologetic for his behavior, and that I promise you that my dad would never talk to your wife ever again, and I’m so sorry that he’s hurt you and your family,” Evan says.
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Evan says that after the encounter with Creech, the family had a meeting.
“I told [Gavin], if you want to have this family together, and want to have this family unit that we’ve cared for my entire life, all of us have, you’ve got to be better and you’ve got to be a man. And then I went back to USC and studied for an exam I had the next day,” Evan recalls.
But Gavin didn’t heed his son’s advice.
Evan says his father’s resuming the affair “crushed me completely.”
Today, Evan says he has forgiven his dad and is moving forward with his life.
“He just messed up,” says Evan. “He got a little lost, and I know if he was still here today that he would be so apologetic for how things finished up.”
Temptation Islandairs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on USA Network.
source: people.com
