Murderous mother Susan Smith drowned her children in a lake. 30 years later, she is to be paroled

TSixty years ago, the story of a young white mother from South Carolina captured the nation’s attention when she claimed to have been carjacked by a black man who forced her out of the vehicle and drove away with her two young sons in the car.

For nine days in October 1994, the community rallied behind Susan Smith, then 23, and her then-husband David as they stood before TV cameras and tearfully pleaded for the safe return of their boys – Michael, 3, and Alexander, 14 months.

But all the while, the bodies of the two little boys lay at the bottom of a lake in South Carolina, still strapped into their car seats inside their mother’s car.

The boys’ mother knew exactly where they were at all times.

On November 3, 1994, Smith confessed that she had strapped her toddlers into their car seats, driven to a boat ramp, put her car in neutral and let it roll into the lake. She watched the car sink below the surface with her children trapped inside.

And then she leaned into racist tropes and made up a story about an imaginary black man and a made-up carjacking.

The case became a national sensation, making international headlines and spawning numerous books, documentaries and films.

Smith, now 53, is serving life in prison after a jury in 1995 decided not to sentence her to death. Under the law at the time, she was deemed eligible to seek parole after serving 30 years.

That time has come. Within days, the woman dubbed “Killer Mom” ​​could be set free.

The Case of ‘Killer Mom’

In 1994, the small town of Union, South Carolina was flooded with reporters, all chasing a terrifying story about a mother who claimed she had been abducted late at night on October 25 by a black man with a gun who sped off with her two children still inside. .

But investigators soon discovered that several details of Smith’s story were not true. Carjackers usually just want a vehicle, so they wondered why this person would let Smith out but not her children.

Smith initially told police the carjacking happened at the Monarch Mills intersection while she was stopped at the traffic light, but investigators said it would only be red if another car was waiting to cross — yet Smith had said there was no other cars nearby at the time. .

In a revised statement, Smith made only one change – that the carjacking happened at Carlisle Junction, not Monarch Hills.

Union County Sheriff Howard Wells confronted Smith with the conflicting details and informed her that undercover officers were working a narcotics investigation at that very intersection that night and yet they did not see the alleged carjacker, according to Sheriff Wells, who told her that he wanted to tell the media about the lie because her accusation had created tension in Union’s black community.

Smith eventually confessed to the murders—revealing that she put her boys in their car seats and drove to John D. Long Lake, where she let her car roll down a boat ramp and into the water.

She told investigators she had intended to kill herself with her sons because she believed the boys were better off with her and God, rather than being left without a mother — but then she got out of the car.

A reconstruction by investigators showed it took six minutes for the Mazda to submerge below the water’s surface, while cameras inside the vehicle showed water pouring in through the vents and steadily rising.

The boys’ bodies were found dangling upside down in their car seats, one small hand pressed against a window.

‘I’m not the monster society thinks I am’

Smith’s trial in July 1995 became a national sensation and a true crime touchstone despite not being televised because Judge William Howard had been concerned about the media circus surrounding the OJ Simpson murder trial, which was happening at the same time.

Prosecutors said Smith’s motive for the murders stemmed from an affair she had with a man named Tom Findlay, the son of a wealthy local business owner.

A week before the murders, Findlay wrote a letter to Smith that would become central to her case. He told Smith that while he was romantically interested in her, he did not want children, according to one Birmingham news interview with Findlay in 2005.

Authorities said at the time that greed, ambition and Smith’s desire for a relationship with Findlay pushed her to get rid of her children by murdering them.

However, Smith’s lawyers argued that she suffered a mental breakdown and intended to die with her children, but saved herself at the last minute, according to New York Times.

The trial lasted less than a week, and after less than two and a half hours of deliberation, the jury found Smith guilty of two counts of first degree murder.

Judge Howard then sentenced her to 30 years to life in prison.

“We all felt that Susan was a truly disturbed person,” juror Deborah Benvenuti told reporters after the verdict, according to Washington Post. “And we all felt that it would not serve justice to give her the death penalty.”

The boys’ father, David Smith, felt differently. He told reporters outside the courthouse at the time that he did not feel justice had been served.

The two were legally separated at the time of the murders, but David went with Smith to find their sons. Everything changed when she confessed to killing their children.

“I will never forget what Susan has done and I will never forget Michael and Alex,” he said. “My family and I are of course disappointed that the death penalty was not the verdict.”

Meanwhile, Smith has said over the years that she is misunderstood by society.

“I am not the monster society thinks I am,” she wrote in a letter to The state newspaper in 2015. “I’m far from it.”

“Something went very wrong that night,” she added. “I wasn’t myself. I was a good mother and I loved my boys. There was no motive as it wasn’t even a planned event. I wasn’t in my right mind.”

Drugs, sex and prison guards

From having sex with prison guards to violating policies and talking to a series of obsessed suitors on the outside, Smith’s time behind bars has been mired in controversy.

Smith began her sentence at the Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina, where she was hit with two violations for having sex with prison officers in 2000.

The incidents were discovered by an investigator looking into tabloid claims that Smith had been beaten.

Instead, it was revealed that Smith, who was 28 at the time, had sex with 50-year-old prison guard Houston Cagle at least four times, according to UPI. Smith was disciplined and Cagle was fired.

Because of the power imbalance, there is “basically no such thing as consensual sex between staff and inmates,” said Department of Corrections Director Doug Catoe. talking about Cagle and Smith.

In September 2000, prison captain Alfred Rowe was arrested for having sex with Smith, according to ABC News. Rowe pleaded guilty and received five years’ probation.

Smith was then transferred to Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood, South Carolina.

Smith was disciplined at least five times between 2010 and 2017 for problems including self-mutilation and drug use, PEOPLE reported.

Could Susan Smith walk free?

Smith’s parole hearing is scheduled for Nov. 20 and will be done virtually, according to the state Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services.

Parole in South Carolina is granted only about 8 percent of the time and is less likely when an inmate’s first appearance before the board, in notorious cases, or when prosecutors and victims’ families oppose, Associated Press reported. Smith falls into all of these categories.

Tommy Pope, the lead prosecutor in Smith’s trial, who is now the Republican Speaker Pro Tem of the South Carolina House, said he plans to tell the parole board that when jurors rejected the death penalty, they thought a life sentence meant the rest of her life. and that they didn’t think she could be released after 30 years.

“Now she has sugar daddies who will take care of her when she gets out. She remains focused on Susan,” Pope said.

Earlier this month, the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services confirmed to multiple news outlets that more than 127 letters have been submitted to their agency regarding Smith’s parole bid.

The letters are not publicly available, but a Smith family source said New York Post that many of them oppose Smith’s potential release and are filled with negative comments, including one saying Smith “belongs in that lake with his boys.”

‘I’m afraid she might get out’

Smith filed for divorce from David in September 1994, weeks before she murdered their children. A judge granted their divorce in May 1995, a few months before her trial began.

David has since remarried and had two more children.

He recently said he is “terrified that she could possibly get out,” but said he will do “everything in my power” to keep Smith behind bars and revealed to Court television what he would say if he came face to face with her.

“I just wanted to tell her that you have no idea how much damage you’ve done to so many people,” he said.

“I would tell her that I will do everything in my power to make sure you stay behind bars.”