This Week’s Rebroadcast of “20/20” Revisits the Shocking Murder of an Arkansas Politician

A "20/20" episode that originally aired in October 2022 is set to re-air on ABC this week.
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This week, ABC will re-air an episode of 20/20 from 2022 that explores what happens when a friendship turns fatal, in the murder of a well-known Arkansas politician and businesswoman.

What’s Happening:

  • When authorities found well-known former Arkansas State Senator Linda Collins-Smith murdered outside her home, rumors began to fly. Could it have been her ex-husband, a former judge, after the pair went through a contentious divorce with millions of dollars on the line? Had Collins-Smith made a fatal enemy along her meteoric rise in state politics? Or was it someone in her inner circle?
  • This Friday, 20/20 co-anchor Deborah Roberts reports on the murder, unpacking how friends and family initially wrongly suspected ex-husband Philip Smith of murdering Collins-Smith after their divorce.
  • The program highlights the shock to the local community when police arrested Becky O’Donnell, Collins-Smith’s best friend and business manager, as she was on her way to the memorial service and explains how footage from security cameras installed by Collins-Smith ultimately led to O’Donnell’s conviction.
  • The two-hour episode features exclusive interviews with jailhouse informants who were pivotal in helping authorities prosecute the case, as well as interviews with Butch Smith and Tate Williams, the victim’s two children; Tim Loggains, O’Donnell’s ex-fiancé and a close friend of Collins-Smith; Randolph County Sheriff Kevin Bell, who led the investigation; detectives on the case; and key state senators.
  • This episode, which originally aired on October 18th, 2022, is set to re-air Friday, August 1st, 2025 (9:01-11:00 p.m. EDT) on ABC, streaming the next day on Hulu.

  • As this episode is a rebroadcast, with the original having aired almost three years ago, those who miss its replay during the network broadcast on ABC will still be able to watch it.
  • Not only is it available on Hulu, but you can also catch it on the ABC website, along with other 20/20 episodes.
  • You can find out about some of these other episodes and cases examined by 20/20 on our page, here.  

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