Donald Edward Smith was 55 when he disappeared from the Whirlpool Bridge area of Niagara Falls, Ontario, on April 5, 1986. He was reported to be despondent at the time and was living with arthritis that made walking difficult. There is no publicly documented sequence of events after he was last seen; no confirmed subsequent sighting or explanation for his whereabouts has been established.

At the time he vanished Smith was described as about 5 feet 6 inches and 130 pounds with white hair. He wore a black jacket over a green-and-red plaid shirt, blue jeans, black dress shoes and blue socks. Distinctive features included upper dentures with some missing teeth, the tip missing from his left index finger, and surgical scars on both wrists—details investigators have highlighted when comparing him with unidentified-person records.

His case is listed with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police under file number 2014002313 and with the Niagara Regional Police Service as case 1986-42345. If anyone has information that could help clarify where Smith went after he was last seen, please contact Niagara Regional Police or Canadian Crime Stoppers.