The Most Hated Mother in America Eligible for Parole Later This Year

On October 25, 1994, South Carolina mother, Susan Smith captured the nation’s attention by pleading to the public on television stations across the country. She begged for the safe return of her children, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander after she claimed that she was carjacked and the suspect drove away with her sons still inside the vehicle.

For nine days, Susan and her estranged husband, David tearfully asked for the public’s help in finding her children and returning them safely to their family. Following the nationwide search for the boys and an intensive police investigation, Smith finally admitted that she had not been carjacked and she knew exactly where her children were.

They were at the bottom of John D. Long Lake, still strapped into her car.

Who Was Susan Before She Was a Murderer?

Susan Lee Vaughan was born September 26, 1971, in Union, South Carolina. She was the youngest of three children and the only daughter to Linda and Harry Vaughan. When Susan was seven, her parents divorced, and her father committed suicide. This affected Susan greatly, who after her father’s death became sad and distant.

It was only weeks after her parents’ divorce that her mother remarried a local businessman. They moved into Bev Russell’s home in one of the swankier subdivisions of Union. During her teenage years, Susan was well-liked, energetic, and a good student. She even received the “Friendliest Female” award during her senior year of high school.

However, despite the carefree exterior, Susan concealed a dark secret. When she turned 16, her stepfather, Bev, began molesting her. She confided in her mother and the Department of Social Services. This resulted in Bev being forced to leave the home for a short period of time.

After several family counseling sessions, he was allowed to return. This meant that the sexual abuse also returned. Susan was chastised by her family for making the abuse public knowledge. Her mother was more concerned over the embarrassment of such a scandal than protecting her own daughter.

During her senior year, Susan got a job at the local Winn-Dixie and became sexually active with three men, a married man who worked at the store, a younger co-worker, and Bev. When Susan became pregnant and had an abortion, the married man broke off their relationship.

Susan responded by attempting suicide from overdosing on aspirin and Tylenol. While being treated at the hospital, she admitted to a previous suicide attempt when she was 13 years old.

Susan Becomes a Wife and Mother

Susan began dating co-worker and high-school friend, David Smith. After realizing that she was pregnant, she and David decided to get married.

Susan and David’s first son, Michael Daniel Smith was born on October 10, 1991. As much as they loved their child, he could not fix what had already become a rocky marriage. Susan often turned to her mother for financial help and David found his mother-in-law to be meddlesome, especially in how they parented their son.

David and Susan separated in March 1992 and tried to patch things up time and time again. This lasted for seven months when Susan announced that she was pregnant again. They borrowed money, bought their own home, and tried again to be a family. Susan, however, became even more distant than before and consistently complained about her pregnancy.

In June 1993, David turned to another woman to try and ease his feeling of loneliness and isolation in his marriage. Susan and David once again reconciled after the birth of their second son, Alexander Tyler. Three weeks after his birth, however, Susan and David called it quits. Even though they were no longer together, they both still seemed to be caring and loving parents to their boys.

Susan’s New Life

After their final separation, Susan no longer wanted to work in the same place as David and took a job as a bookkeeper at Conso Products. Eventually, she was promoted to the position of executive secretary for the president and CEO of the Conso company, J. Carey Findlay.

With the promotion came a new life for Susan. Because of her position, she became exposed to affluent people and how the wealthy lived. She was also introduced to her boss’s son, Tom Findlay.

Susan and Tom began dating in January 1994, however, Susan and David got back together in the spring. They stayed together for a few months, but Susan finally told David that she wanted a divorce. She started dating Tom again in September and began visualizing her new life.

Things Turn Sour

In October, Susan and David officially filed for divorce. In addition, Susan’s new love, Tom Findlay broke up with her via a letter. He explained that their backgrounds were too different, that he did not want children, nor to raise her children, and that she did not act like a self-respecting woman. He referred to an episode in which Susan kissed a friend’s husband while they were all in the hot tub together at Tom’s father’s estate.

Findlay wrote: “If you want to catch a nice guy like me one day, you have to act like a nice girl. And you know, nice girls don’t sleep with married men.”

Although heartbroken over Tom’s rejection, Susan’s narcissistic character pushed her to try and gain his attention back by confessing to him that not only was she still in a sexual relationship with her stepfather, Bev, but that she had also had an affair with Tom’s father. Needless to say, the plan did not work out in Susan’s favor and Tom wanted nothing else to do with her.

Not only was Susan a narcissist, but she was also wildly obsessive. On October 25, 1994, she was controlled only by the thoughts of her failed relationship with Tom. She became very upset, left work, and picked up her children from daycare.

She stopped and talked with a friend for a while, and then, in a last-ditch effort to win Tom back, stopped at his office. She tried telling him that the details she confessed to him were all lies, but Tom didn’t care to see Susan.

Mother or Monster?

Around 8 p.m. that evening, Susan strapped her sons into their car seats and drove around the area. She claims she had thought about driving to her mother's home, dropping off the children, and then killing herself, but decided against it.

Instead, she drove to the boat ramp at John D. Long Lake, placed the car in drive, and got out of the car, releasing the brake. She watched as her car with her two children asleep in the backseat submerged under the water.

Smith then ran to a nearby home and knocked on the door. When the homeowners came to the door, she frantically told them that a black man had carjacked her and taken her car with her two boys inside. She said that after stopping at a red light, the man jumped into her car with a gun.

She stated that he ordered her to drive around and then to stop and get out of the car. He told her that he would not hurt the children and drove away with her boys screaming for their mommy.

Friends and family immediately rushed to the sides of her and David, to comfort them during this terrifying time. Susan went on television and tearfully begged for the return of their children as David stood at her side, completely distraught.

The event was shared on television across the country, even the world. Mothers everywhere had their heartstrings pulled by this young mother who appeared so desperate to be reunited with her children.

The Truth Comes Out

During the investigation, Susan and David were routinely asked to take part in a polygraph test. David passed. Susan did not. The story was even featured on the popular TV series “America’s Most Wanted”. Tips flooded the Union County Sheriff’s office and searches were continuously being executed in the area.

On November 2nd, Susan and David made another televised plea for their children’s safe return and Susan failed yet another polygraph test. Investigators even searched her residence.

One of the main inconsistencies that caused investigators to begin turning their attention to Susan more as a suspect than as a grieving mother was when she stated that she stopped at a red light on Monarch Mills Road yet saw no other cars on the roadway.

The investigators knew that the traffic light on Monarch Mills Road was always green and only turned red if there was a vehicle approaching from a cross street. If there were no other cars on the roadway, Susan would have had no reason to stop at a red light.

Nine days after Michael and Alex were reported missing and the entire nation dedicated their lives to searching for these adorable little boys, Susan’s confession rocked the resolution of everyone who had heard her pleas.

On November 3, 1994, after an interview on CBS This Morning, Susan met with Sheriff Wells who blatantly told her that he no longer believed her story about the carjacking. When he explained how he knew that she was lying, Susan asked Wells to pray with her.

She then began to cry and described exactly what transpired the day that her children went missing. She explained that she initially wanted to kill herself and her children but got out of the car at the last minute, sending her sons into the water alone to die.

The Discovery

After Susan’s confession, Sheriff Wells wanted to locate the boys’ bodies before notifying the press. When divers entered the spot that Susan gave them, they found the car upside down with the children still strapped in their car seats.

One diver said that he saw one of the children’s hands pressed against the window. They also located Tom Findlay’s break-up letter to Susan. An autopsy confirmed that both boys were alive when they went into the water.

Susan’s Defense

After her arrest, Susan wrote David a letter stating that she was “sorry” and complained that no one was considering her feelings. David almost felt sympathy for Susan until he found out the specific details surrounding his son’s deaths.

During Susan’s trial, her lawyers focused their defense on the details of her terrible childhood, describing her trauma and sexual abuse. They insisted that mental illness took over this otherwise “normal” mother, which is why she committed the heinous act.

The prosecution focused on Susan’s narcissism and trend for doing whatever she needed to do to get what she wanted. In this case, Susan would gain sympathy from her ex-boyfriend Tom Findlay, and without her children in the picture, she thought that they would get back together and live “happily ever after”.

During the trial, Susan was typically unemotional except for the few times that she sobbed and shook her head when the names of her sons were said.

In only two and a half hours, the jury found Susan Smith guilty of two counts of murder. She was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison, even though David suggested the death penalty. She will be eligible for parole in 2025. She could be released from prison when she is 53 years old.

Michael and Alex Smith were buried together as they died together. The brothers share a casket in the Bogansville United Methodist Church cemetery.

***Story previously published on Medium.com by the author***