by Thirty years ago the story of a young white mother from South Carolina captured the nation’s attention when she claimed she was 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 in front of television cameras and pleaded in tears for the safe return of their boys – Michael, 3, and Alexander, 14 months.
But all the while, the bodies of the two little boys were 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 all the time.
On November 3, 1994, Smith admitted that she strapped her young children into their car seats, drove to a boat ramp, put her car in neutral and let it roll into the lake. She watched the car sink beneath the surface, with her children trapped inside.
And then she leaned into racist tropes and made up a story about an imaginary Black man committing a carjacking.
The case gained national attention, made international headlines and inspired numerous books, documentaries and films.
Smith, now 53, is serving her life in prison after a jury decided in 1995 not to sentence her to death. Under the law at the time, she was considered eligible to seek parole after serving 30 years.
That time has come. In a few days, the woman known as “Killer Mom” could be released.
The Case of the ‘Killer Mom’
In 1994, the small town of Union, South Carolina was flooded with reporters, all in search of a horrifying story about a mother claiming she was carjacked late at night on October 25 by a Black man at gunpoint who disappeared with her two children. which is still inside. .
But investigators soon discovered that some details in Smith’s story were missing. Usually carters just want a vehicle, so they wondered why this person would let Smith out without his 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 have turned red if there was another car waiting to cross — but Smith said there were no other cars about at the time. .
In a revised statement, Smith made only one change – that the carjacking took place at the Carlisle intersection, not Monarch Hills.
Union County Sheriff Howard Wells confronted Smith about the conflicting details, telling her that undercover officers were working a drug investigation at that intersection that night and had not seen the alleged carjacker, according to Sheriff Wells. , told her yes. to tell the lie to the media because there was tension in the Black Union community because of her accuser.
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 the car roll down a boat ramp and into the water.
She told investigators that she intended to kill herself along with her sons because she believed the boys were better off with her and God, rather than being left without a mother – but that she had given up on the a car there.
A recreation by investigators showed it took six minutes for the Mazda to submerge, while cameras inside the vehicle showed water pouring in through the vents and rising steadily.
The boys’ bodies were found hanging upside down in their car seats, a tiny hand pressed against the window.
‘I’m not the monster I think I am’
Smith’s trial in July 1995 became a national sensation and true crime touchstone despite not being televised because Judge William Howard was concerned about the media circus surrounding the OJ Simpson murder trial, which was underway at the time. same.
Prosecutors said Smith’s motive for the murders stemmed from her relationship 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 although he was interested in her romantically, he did not want children, according to a Birmingham News interview with Findlay in 2005.
Authorities said at the time that Smith’s greed, ambition and desire for a relationship with Findlay pushed her to get rid of her children by murdering them.
However, Smith’s lawyers said she was suffering from a mental breakdown and had planned to die with her children, but saved herself at the last minute, according to The 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 in prison.
“We all felt Susan was a disturbed person,” juror Deborah Benvenuti told reporters after the verdict, according to the verdict. Washington Post. “And we all felt that justice would not be done if she was given 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 teamed up with Smith to find their son. Everything changed when she confessed to killing her children.
“I will never forget what Susan has done and I will never forget Michael and Alex,” he said. “Obviously, I and my family are disappointed that the verdict was not the death penalty.”
Meanwhile, over the years, Smith has said that she is misunderstood in society.
“I’m not the monster I think I am,” she wrote in a letter to The State newspaper in 2015. “I’m far from it.”
“Something very wrong happened that night,” she said. “It wasn’t me. I was a good mother and I loved my boys. There was no reason for it because it wasn’t even a planned event. I was not in my right mind.”
Drugs, sex and prison guards
From having sex with prison guards to violating policies and chatting with some obsessed suitors on the outside, Smith’s time behind bars has been marred by controversy.
Smith began her sentence at Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina, where she was hit with two infractions for having sex with prison guards in 2000.
An incident investigator looking into tabloid claims that Smith had been beaten discovered.
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. Discipline was disciplined and Cagle was fired.
Because of the power imbalance, “basically there is no such thing as consensual sex between staff and inmates,” Department of Justice Director Doug Catoe said of Cagle and Smith.
Then 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 the Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood, South Carolina.
Smith was disciplined at least five times between 2010 and 2017 for issues including self-harm and drug use, PEOPLE reported.
Could Susan Smith go free?
Smith’s parole hearing is scheduled for Nov. 20 and will likely be held, according to the state Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services.
In South Carolina, parole is granted only about 8 percent of the time and an inmate is less likely to appear before the board, in high-profile cases, or when confronted by prosecutors and victims’ families. Associated Press reported. Smith falls into all of those 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 sentence was life involved the rest of their lives. and that they did not think she could be released after 30 years.
“Now she’s got sugar daddies who wants to take care of her when she gets out. She continued to focus on Susan,” Pope said.
Earlier this month, the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Parole Services confirmed to several news outlets that more than 127 letters have been submitted to their agency regarding Smith’s parole offer.
The letters are not publicly accessible, but a Smith family source said The New York Post that many of them are against Smith’s possible release and are full of negative comments including one saying that Smith is “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 her 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 “scared she might get out” but said he will do “everything in my power” to keep Smith behind bars and revealed to Court TV what he would say to her he would come face to face with her.
“I would tell her you have no idea how much damage you’ve done to so many people,” he said.
“I would tell her I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure you stay behind bars.”
