Susan Smith Murders 2 Children

Susan Smith is a woman from South Carolina who was convicted of the murders of her two young children

According to court documents Susan Smith would make a phone call to police saying a black man had carjacked her vehicle with her two young sons inside. The vehicle would later be found submerged in John D Long Lake. A Nationwide search was conducted before Susan would admit there was no carjacking and she had driven into the lake allowing her two sons to drown, three-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander

Susan Smith would be arrested and ultimately convicted of the double murder. Smith would be sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for thirty years. She is eligible for parole in 2024

Susan Smith Now

Location: Leath

Susan Smith Case

Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman who notoriously drowned her two young sons in 1994, is no longer corresponding with the long-distance boyfriend she met while in prison, according to media reports.

Susan Smith, 51, began writing a divorced man in his 40s last year, but the relationship has since soured, a Smith family member told People.

“Yeah, that fizzled out,” the family member said. “They are no longer corresponding. It’s over.”
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The unidentified man, who works in construction, has two adult children and lives just outside the state capital of Columbia, wrote Smith after watching a documentary about her, the magazine reported earlier this year.

“We’re going to have amazing chemistry in person,” Smith wrote in two letters reviewed by People. “I can’t wait to build a life with you. Leave the past mistakes behind and start fresh, just you and me.”

She is eligible for parole in 2024.

Smith became one of the most notorious prisoners in South Carolina history after she was convicted of killing her two young sons, Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months. She initially told investigators a Black man had carjacked her and taken off with the boys still inside the vehicle.

Days later, she made a tearful plea on national television for their safe return.

“Your mama loves you so much,” she said during one news conference.
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However, her recollection of the events began to unravel when she admitted there was no carjacker and that she let her car roll into a lake with the boys strapped into their car seats.

The revelation shocked the country and turned her into a much-hated figure at the time. She was secretly dating a man who didn’t want children, providing a motive for the killings, authorities said.

She was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison. During her decades behind bars, Smith has faced disciplinary action for several infractions, including drug use, self-mutilation and having a sexual relationship with a prison guard, People reported.

In a 2015 letter to The State newspaper, she claimed she was misunderstood and that she intended to kill herself, not her sons.

“I am not the monster society thinks I am,” she wrote. “I am far from it.”

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

The magazine said Smith has behaved herself in recent years in hopes that she will be paroled in 2024.

“I don’t think she’s got a snowball’s chance in hell of getting paroled in 2024,” the family member told People. “I think he realized that too. She’s exactly where she needs to be.”

https://www.foxnews.com/us/susan-smith-south-carolina-killing-sons-boyfriend

Susan Smith Video

Susan Smith Case: The 1994 Murders of Michael and Alex Smith

On October 25, 1994, Susan Smith told police a Black man in a toboggan hat carjacked her Mazda at a red light in Union, South Carolina, and drove away with her two little boys strapped in the back seat. For nine days, America watched her tearful pleas on television. Then the story collapsed.

Smith confessed she had rolled the car into John D. Long Lake herself, with 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex inside. It became one of the most infamous maternal filicide cases in modern American history — not just for the crime, but for the racial hoax that fueled a nationwide manhunt. 

Thirty years later, in November 2024, Susan Smith faced her first parole board. She was 53. She said God had forgiven her. The board voted unanimously to keep her in prison. 

This is the full case file.

Who Is Susan Smith? Early Life in Union, SC

Susan Leigh Vaughan was born September 26, 1971, in Union, South Carolina. She grew up in a small mill town where family names and church ties mattered. 

Her childhood was marked by trauma that would later dominate her trial:

• Her father died by suicide when she was 6
• At 15, she alleged sexual abuse by her stepfather, Beverly Russell, which he later admitted in court testimony during her trial 
• She married David Smith young, and their relationship was described as tempestuous, with multiple affairs on both sides 

By 1994, Susan was 23, working at Conso Products, and a student at USC-Union. She had two sons: Michael Daniel Smith, born October 10, 1991, and Alexander Tyler Smith, born August 5, 1993. 

October 25, 1994: The Night at the Lake

Around 9:15 p.m., Susan Smith stopped at a red light in Union. She later told police a young Black man with a gun forced his way in, ordered her to drive, then threw her out and sped away with the boys. 

What she actually did, according to her confession and investigators, was drive to a boat ramp at John D. Long Lake, put the car in neutral, release the emergency brake, and let her 1990 Mazda Protegé roll down the ramp and into the water. 

A re-creation showed it took about six minutes for the car to sink, with cameras inside capturing water pouring through the vents and rising steadily. Divers found Michael and Alex still strapped in their car seats, heads hanging downward, one small hand pressed against the glass. 

Nine Days of Lies: The False Carjacking

Susan Smith initially reported she had been carjacked by a Black man. For nine days she made televised pleas, while David Smith stood beside her. 

The story played into a centuries-old racist trope of Black men as a danger to white women, and it stoked 1990s fears about crime. Police pulled over Black motorists across the region searching for a fictitious suspect. 

Investigators grew suspicious because:

• Carjackers want the car, not children. Why let the mother out but keep the kids?
• The traffic light where she claimed to stop would only be red if another car was present, yet she said the road was empty
• She had covered her tracks too well — she expected the car to be found quickly, but when it wasn’t, the pressure mounted 

On November 3, after nine days, detectives re-interviewed her. She recanted and confessed to drowning the boys. 

The Motive: A Man Who Didn’t Want Kids

Prosecutor Tommy Pope argued the motive was brutally simple: Susan Smith was having an affair with Tom Findlay, the wealthy son of the owner of Conso Products, and he had ended it.

In a letter recovered from the submerged car, Findlay wrote: “There are some things about you which aren’t suited for me, and yes, I am speaking about your children… The fact is, I just don’t want children”. 

Smith’s defense, led by David Bruck and Judy Clarke, said this was not cold calculation but a botched suicide by a mentally unstable woman rejected by the man she loved. They pointed to her history of depression, childhood sexual abuse, and borderline personality traits. 

Prosecutors countered that Smith chose a man over her children. Pope told the jury: “She chose the love of a man over the love of those boys… Letting go of the emergency brake was like pulling a trigger”. 

The Trial: July 18-28, 1995

The trial in Union became a national sensation.

Key players:

• Judge: William Howard
• Prosecutor: Solicitor Tommy Pope
• Defense: David Bruck, Judy Clarke

The prosecution showed the jury the in-car video re-creation, described the boys screaming for their father as the car filled, and emphasized the nine-day hoax.

The defense called Jenny Ward, a caseworker, to detail the stepfather abuse, and put Beverly Russell on the stand, who sobbed and said, “I want you to know you do not have all the guilt in this tragedy”. 

Judy Clarke argued: “The love of Susan Smith for those two boys was unbelievable… She made that decision with a confused mind and a heart that has no hope”. 

The jury deliberated just 2.5 hours. Guilty on two counts of murder. 

During the penalty phase, the same jury spared her the death penalty, influenced by her traumatic background. On July 28, 1995, she was sentenced to life in prison. She would be eligible for parole after 30 years. 

Life Behind Bars at Leath Correctional

Susan Smith entered the South Carolina Department of Corrections and has been housed primarily at Leath Correctional Institution near Greenwood. 

Prison life has been turbulent:

• In 2000, two guards were punished for having sex with Smith
• She placed a personal ad on WriteAPrisoner.com in 2003
• Records released under FOIA showed she regularly exchanged texts and calls with men, some who knew her crime, some who didn’t. One man told her he’d use her sons’ birthdays to play Powerball 
• She was disciplined for giving contact information for family to a documentary producer who discussed paying her 

Her institutional record became a key issue at parole.

Parole Denied: November 20, 2024

Susan Smith’s first parole hearing came 30 years to the month after the murders. South Carolina grants parole in only about 8% of cases, and less in notorious first appearances. 

Appearing by video link, Smith, now 53, said: “I know what I did was horrible… I would give anything if I could go back and change it”. She asked for mercy because God had forgiven her. 

About 15 people spoke against her, including:

• David Smith, who wore photos of Michael and Alex on his lapel. He said, “She changed my life for the rest of my life that night… I’m asking that you please, deny her parole today” 
• Prosecutors Tommy Pope and Kevin Brackett, who argued the crime traumatized the state and nation, and that her hoax led to wrongful stops of Black men 

Her attorney called it a case about “the dangers of untreated mental health” and noted she had no prior criminal history. 

The board voted unanimously to deny parole. She is eligible again every two years. David Smith said he will attend each hearing “to make sure Michael and Alex aren’t forgotten”. 

Where Is Susan Smith Now in 2026?

As of June 2026, Susan Smith remains incarcerated at Leath Correctional Institution in South Carolina, serving two concurrent life sentences. She is 54 years old.

She will have her next parole eligibility in November 2026. Given the unanimous 2024 denial, her low institutional disciplinary record being offset by the notoriety and family opposition, legal analysts expect another denial unless significant new evidence of rehabilitation emerges.

She has no internet presence of her own, but prison correspondence continues to be a source of public records requests.