MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Chao Xiong Star Tribune MAY 10, 2016

Debora Kinsel was working at the Boys and Girls Club on St. Paul’s West Side a few years ago when a 10-year-old girl went missing after her ride apparently didn’t show up.

“[She] just kind of disappeared, and nobody could find [her],” Kinsel recalled recently.

It was evening. Kinsel phoned the girl’s softball coach, Catalina Adamez-Smith, who is married to St. Paul Police Chief Thomas Smith. When Kinsel drove about a mile north to the spot where the girl was rumored to have taken the bus, Smith was already there in his street clothes.

“He showed up there, the same place I was, and we found this missing kid,” Kinsel said. “He just left his home, you know?”

Smith, 57, retires Tuesday after serving nearly 27 years at the department—six of those as the chief. Community members and…