The investigation into the death of a Spokane chef and mother of six has ended, for now, in a courtroom: Eli Hampshire, 30, appeared before a judge on Monday, November 2, and was ordered held on $1 million bond on charges arising from the October 26 hit-and-run that killed Smaah Adam, 46, according to court documents obtained and reported by The Spokesman-Review and summarised in a November 4 report drawing on those documents and on KREM coverage. His girlfriend, Heather Langman, was ordered held on $25,000 bond on a charge of first-degree rendering criminal assistance — in plain terms, investigators allege she helped hide Hampshire and the Ford Flex he was driving. KHQ, Spokane's NBC affiliate, reported on November 3 that Hampshire faces three charges in connection with the October 26 crash. Every charge in this story is an allegation: neither Hampshire nor Langman has been convicted of anything, and both are presumed innocent unless and until the state proves its case in court.
Source: Internews report drawing on The Spokesman-Review court documents and KREM (Nov. 4, 2026)
What happened on Maxwell Avenue on October 26
On the evening of Monday, October 26, Spokane police responded to the area of West Maxwell Avenue and North Walnut Street for a report of a vehicle-versus-pedestrian collision, the Spokane Police Department said in its October 27 release asking the public to help find the vehicle involved. Adam was standing beside her minivan and had opened the driver's-side door when she was struck and pinned against the vehicle, according to court documents reported by The Spokesman-Review. Her son ran to her and held her as she bled from the back of her head; she told him “I'm OK” and then “help me” before she was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, the documents say. Doctors found a fractured femur and pelvis, internal bleeding and severe head trauma. Surveillance video, investigators say, appears to show the Ford Flex approaching a curve, losing control and veering onto the roadside where Adam stood — and then, about three minutes later, the driver stopping to inspect the damage before leaving.
How police say the Flex was hidden — and found
According to court documents, the car had been sold to Hampshire the day before Adam was killed. When police publicly asked for help identifying a dark-coloured Ford Flex, the woman who sold it recognised it and contacted investigators; she and her fiancé then called Langman and recorded the conversation for police. In that recorded call, Langman allegedly said, “Neither one of us were driving the vehicle,” and “You can't tell the cops anything about it,” and, when her fiancé said they were “not taking the hit on this,” allegedly advised him: “Don't even say who you sold it to, just say you sold it to someone… Give it a fake name for him right now.” Those quotations are from the court documents as reported; they are the prosecution's evidence, not findings by a court.
A second tip came from Hampshire's own workplace. His supervisor at a construction company contacted police after recognising the vehicle in the public alert and told investigators Hampshire had been working on the front of the Flex and making repeated trips to a dumpster. Searching that dumpster, investigators found a headlamp from a 2013 black Ford Flex and a piece of chrome trim, court records say. A warrant for Hampshire's phone produced location data that helped trace the vehicle to a remote area of Stevens County, and the Spokane County Sheriff's Office Air Support Unit found the Flex down an embankment near Buck Creek Road — where, investigators allege, the couple had covered it with a tarp, moved it on a trailer pulled by a pickup truck, and discussed abandoning it down the embankment.
The charges, and what they mean
Hampshire faces charges of hit-and-run vehicular homicide and tampering with evidence, according to the court documents reported by The Spokesman-Review; KHQ reported three charges in connection with the crash, including vehicular homicide and a vehicular hit-and-run count. Langman is charged with first-degree criminal assistance, a Washington offence that covers allegedly helping a person who has committed a crime to hide, flee or destroy evidence. Bond was set at the pair's first court appearance on Monday: $1 million for Hampshire, $25,000 for Langman. No trial date has been reported, and no statement from Hampshire, Langman or a defence lawyer appears in the reporting so far.
Adam was an Egyptian immigrant who worked as a chef at Feast World Kitchen, a nonprofit restaurant in Spokane. The restaurant paid tribute to her after her death: “Your beautiful smile, your kindness, your generous heart, and the love you have to everyone around you will stay with us forever. Please keep Smaah, her children, and all of us who loved her in your thoughts and prayers.” Her friend Maisa Abudayha told The Spokesman-Review: “A mom of six kids, gone… Those kids lost their mom because of [a] lack of responsibility.”
Background: why hit-and-run cases turn on the vehicle
In a fatal hit-and-run, the vehicle is usually the case: paint, trim and lamp fragments left at the scene, surveillance video of the route, and the public alert that asks a whole city to look for one make and colour. Spokane police issued exactly that alert on October 27, the day after the collision, and this case shows the alert working twice over — once through the seller who recognised her own former car, and once through an employer who recognised it at a worksite. The alleged attempt to move and hide the car in another county is also why the charge sheet includes evidence tampering alongside the homicide count: prosecutors will argue the concealment is itself evidence of consciousness of guilt, while the defence can be expected to test every link — the video, the recorded call, the phone-location warrant — before any of it reaches a jury.
What happens next
Hampshire and Langman remain in custody on the bonds set Monday unless they post them, and the case now moves through Spokane County's court process: formal filing and arraignment steps, defence challenges to the phone warrant and the recorded call, and eventually either a plea negotiation or a trial date. The Spokane Police Department's original investigation file, the sheriff's air-unit recovery in Stevens County and the court documents already reported will form the public spine of the case. Awaaz Punjab will update this story when charging documents, a plea, or a trial date are made public by the court.