On October 25, 1994, Susan Smith, 23, of Union, South Carolina, murdered her two young sons, three-year-old Michael and fourteen-month-old Alexander, by strapping them into their car seats and letting the vehicle roll off a boat launch into John D. Long Lake.
Now, she is up for parole on November 4, 2024.
When she fled to a nearby house and later spoke to the police, Smith initially reported that she had been carjacked by a black man at the intersection of Monarch Mills, and that the carjacker had driven Smith’s car away with her two sons inside still. The story ignited a massive search for the Smith boys, and David and Susan Smith pleaded on television multiple times for their sons to be safely returned to them.
Soon, however, police began to suspect Smith wasn’t telling the truth. They recorded several discrepancies in her story – including that in a later statement, she told investigators that the intersection at which she had been carjacked was Carlisle. This was a crucial change in Smith’s story.
They also discovered that the friend Smith had claimed she was going to visit on the night of the supposed carjacking hadn’t been home that night, and as to her original claim that she had stopped at a red light at Monarch Mills, that was false because she had also stated she was the only driver at the intersection. Additionally, she couldn’t have been at Carlisle, because police were carrying out a drug investigation there that night and had seen no sign of a man fitting Smith’s description.
Finally, after nine days and the discovery of Susan Smith’s car 122 feet from the shore of John D. Long Lake, submerged and containing the bodies of Michael and Alex, she confessed to killing them.
Smith told county sheriff Howard Wells that she had meant to die along with her children. She stated she had felt that her sons were better off if they all died and went to be with God; she also talked about the affair she was having with a wealthy local man. Prosecutors quickly came to believe she had murdered Michael and Alex out of desire to be with this man, given that days before the murders he had broken off their affair, saying he didn’t want any children.
In 1995, Smith was ultimately convicted of her sons’ murders and was sentenced to life in prison. She was diagnosed with dependent personality disorder as well as severe depression.
Smith will be asking for parole this month with a hearing on November 20, but it is very unlikely she will receive it, based on her conduct in prison. In 2000, two correctional officers at the Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Facility were charged after having intimate relations with Smith. In 2010 and again in 2015, she was disciplined for having narcotics/marijuana in her cell. And just recently, she was disciplined by the South Carolina Department of Corrections for communicating with a filmmaker with intent to make money.
There is speculation that these incidents, but most of all her recent misbehavior because of how close to parole eligibility she was when it occurred, may hinder Smith’s chance at being granted parole. And many say that because of the nature of her crime, even if these incidents weren’t on Smith’s prison record she wouldn’t have a chance of getting parole at all.
November 4 will be a pivotal day for Susan Smith, her ex-husband David, and their families, as well as anyone else in Union affected by the tragedy.
Sources:
- https://www.wyff4.com/article/local-history-arrest-parole-killer-susan-smith/62028246
- https://abcnews.go.com/US/revisiting-killer-mom-susan-smiths-1994-case-seeks/story?id=113753002&scrlybrkr=c0f3cb10
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Smith
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependent_personality_disorder
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_depressive_disorder
- https://nypost.com/2024/10/17/us-news/south-carolina-killer-susan-smith-disciplined-behind-bars-before-parole-hearing/
