Speaker 1: For nine days in the fall of nineteen ninety four,
Speaker 1: the country watched a mother beg for the safe return
Speaker 1: of her missing sons, who she said had been taken
Speaker 1: in a violent carjacking. Police searched, the media amplified every word,
Speaker 1: and a small South Carolina town held its breath. But
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, investigators were already noticing cracks in the story.
Speaker 1: Things didn't seem to add up, and soon they would
Speaker 1: uncover one of the most heart wrenching true crime cases
Speaker 1: the country had ever seen. This is the story of
Speaker 1: Suzanne Smith.
Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked
Speaker 2: and Grim, a true crime podcast.
Speaker 1: The following podcast and material intended for a mature audience
Speaker 1: listener discretion. I think people liked the last episode.
Speaker 2: They did.
Speaker 1: They did even though it was a two parter and
Speaker 1: people hate, you know, having to listen to two parts.
Speaker 1: It went over really well.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's that they hate listening to two parts.
Speaker 2: So you have like the little weight in the that's true.
Speaker 1: That's true. Okay, I should I should clarify that it's
Speaker 1: the weight in between. Yeah, people don't like but.
Speaker 2: No, well, it was such a doozy of a case, right.
Speaker 2: I think people were like, holy frigue this, but.
Speaker 1: Even still like ok one person here on our Spotify
Speaker 1: comments they wrote, this was just so mind blowingly well told,
Speaker 1: the best episode to date. Thank you. That was a
Speaker 1: really nice comment. Thank you appreciate that. We actually had
Speaker 1: quite a few really good comments on it. And another
Speaker 1: one here that says, I have heard another podcast cover
Speaker 1: this story, but they did not do it justice like
Speaker 1: you did. Good call to divide it into two parts,
Speaker 1: even though I had to wait. Awesome job. Thank you
Speaker 1: very much. Like okay, feeling the fact that people think
Speaker 1: I did did it justice that that made me feel
Speaker 1: pretty good.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that's the goal. You did a good job. Well,
Speaker 2: thank you a real good job. You've done good? You done?
Speaker 1: How what's the saying you done did good?
Speaker 2: Yeah? You done did good, Ben, It's not even really
Speaker 2: just saying.
Speaker 1: It's just dis section of the English language, you know,
Speaker 1: breaking it down to basics. Yeah, you're done, did do good,
Speaker 1: good job.
Speaker 2: Pat yourself on the back.
Speaker 1: I will, but only if some people over on Patreon
Speaker 1: also pat themselves on the back for being so supportive
Speaker 1: and amazing. For example, we have sun Arts Megan Jared's
Speaker 1: Katie Caitlyn Post, Meghan b Caitlin Hart Soul. Thank you
Speaker 1: for telling me how to pronounce your name, by the way.
Speaker 1: Appreciate that, Wainona Togg and Christina Jordan, who all deserve
Speaker 1: that pat in the back because they signed up over
Speaker 1: on Patreon and are supporting us that way. But also
Speaker 1: they're getting that cool behind the scenes, like the pre
Speaker 1: show we just recorded and they're gonna be putting up
Speaker 1: over there soon.
Speaker 2: Would you ever pronounced that one name differently? If they haven't,
Speaker 2: hadn't had reached out.
Speaker 1: I probably would have pronounced it. How I'm sure there
Speaker 1: are people They're used to people mispronouncing it. I would
Speaker 1: have said heart Soul, heartseller, heart Soul, Okay, but it's
Speaker 1: heart soul.
Speaker 2: Huh. Yeah. Well, there there you go. That was helpful.
Speaker 1: It was helpful. Appreciate it. But we have an interesting
Speaker 1: case today.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Ben, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, I gave you a bit of an elevator pitch
Speaker 1: a little bit, and this one it's trigger warning. It
Speaker 1: involves the death of two young boys, the murder of
Speaker 1: two young boys, so trigger warning for that. But there
Speaker 1: is another interesting aspect to this case. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to divulge just yet. It is something that you don't
Speaker 1: typically see in true crime. I mean, it happens, it's
Speaker 1: just a rarity. And yeah, I think with that we
Speaker 1: should just get right into the story.
Speaker 2: Okay, I feel like my jaw is going to just
Speaker 2: be like on the ground this whole episode.
Speaker 1: Probably right, probably, But don't worry with this little rarity
Speaker 1: of true crime. I do divulge what it is here
Speaker 1: pretty quickly so you won't be on the edge of
Speaker 1: your seat too long or with me, and we'll get
Speaker 1: into the details and trust me, it's a story worth telling.
Speaker 1: For nine days, the country believed two little boys were
Speaker 1: somewhere out there, still alive. Their names were Michael and Alexander.
Speaker 1: Now Michael was three years old and Alexander was just
Speaker 1: fourteen months old. Their faces filled television screens across America.
Speaker 1: They were taped in storefront windows and pinned to bulletin
Speaker 1: boards while their mother stood before microphones with their voice
Speaker 1: breaking as she begged for their safe return. She said
Speaker 1: a stranger had taken them. According to her, it happened
Speaker 1: late at night. She was stopped at a red light
Speaker 1: when a man approached her car, opened the door and
Speaker 1: forced his way inside. He had a gun, she said,
Speaker 1: and he ordered her to drive, and she claimed he
Speaker 1: made her travel for miles before telling her to finally
Speaker 1: pull over near a rural lake. Then, she said, he
Speaker 1: pushed her out of the car and drove away with
Speaker 1: her sons still strapped into their car seats in the back.
Speaker 1: She told police she could still hear them crying, in fact,
Speaker 1: as the vehicle was driving off, with her standing there
Speaker 1: on the side of the road. Now the story it spreadfast,
Speaker 1: a carjacking involving two young children. While it felt like
Speaker 1: every parent's worst fears were suddenly made real, law enforcement
Speaker 1: launched a massive search almost immediately looking for these boys.
Speaker 1: Roadblocks were set up, flyers were printed by the thousands,
Speaker 1: and volunteers combed through wooded areas and rural roads just
Speaker 1: in case. In fact, helicopters scanned highways, and divers even
Speaker 1: checked bodies of water. The FBI joined the invent mistigation
Speaker 1: as tips poured in from across the country. At night,
Speaker 1: porch lights were left on in Union County was a
Speaker 1: quiet gesture of hope that Michael and Alexander might somehow
Speaker 1: find their way home. And as always, there was their
Speaker 1: mother Susan Smith. She became the face of the search.
Speaker 1: She appeared on national news programs with her hands clasped,
Speaker 1: eyes downcast, as she spoke directly to the man she
Speaker 1: said had taken her children. She told him she forgave him.
Speaker 1: She said that she was just asking him to leave
Speaker 1: the boy somewhere safe. The police wanted to believe her,
Speaker 1: but right from the start something felt off, and even
Speaker 1: as questions began to surface, behind the scenes, the public
Speaker 1: image remained intact. This was a grieving mother living every
Speaker 1: parent's worst nightmare. But while cameras focused on highways and
Speaker 1: wooded back roads, investigators were quietly analyzing this story from
Speaker 1: a different angle. Because details didn't quite line up, timelines
Speaker 1: slowly shifted, and the story, when examined closely, didn't behave
Speaker 1: the way real crimes usually do. Something they couldn't put
Speaker 1: their finger on. It just wasn't right. And yet still,
Speaker 1: for nine long days, the search continued because no one
Speaker 1: wanted to accept the possibility that the truth was far
Speaker 1: closer and far darker. You see, the truth was, while
Speaker 1: the nation watched and waited, Michael and Alexander were not missing,
Speaker 1: and the person who knew where they were, and what
Speaker 1: happened stood at the very center of the story, asking
Speaker 1: the world to help her bring them home. On the
Speaker 1: evening of October twenty fifth, nineteen ninety four, Suzanne Smith
Speaker 1: picked up her two sons from daycare in Union County,
Speaker 1: South Carolina. Michael Daniel Smith was three years old, energetic
Speaker 1: and very talkative, while his younger brother, Alexander Tyler Smith
Speaker 1: was just fourteen months old and still firmly in the
Speaker 1: roots teens of infancy. Both boys were secured in their
Speaker 1: car seats in the back of Susan's Burgundy nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: Mazda Protege. Now what Susan did after leaving the daycare
Speaker 1: would not become fully clear until days later, but instead
Speaker 1: of driving directly home, she spent several hours driving around
Speaker 1: Union County. Investigators would later determine that she had left
Speaker 1: work early that afternoon and appeared emotionally distressed throughout the
Speaker 1: day At the time, though no one knew where she
Speaker 1: was going or why she remained on the road for
Speaker 1: so long. As night fell, Susan turned off the main
Speaker 1: roads and drove towards a rural area just outside of town. There,
Speaker 1: surrounded by darkness and farmland sat John D. Long Lake,
Speaker 1: a quiet man made lake with a concrete boat ramp
Speaker 1: sloping into the water.
Speaker 2: There were no.
Speaker 1: Nearby businesses, no street lights, and very little traffic at
Speaker 1: that hour. It was some time after eight pm when
Speaker 1: she pulled her car up to that ramphen stopped. Michael
Speaker 1: and Alex were still strapped into their seats behind her, and,
Speaker 1: according to Suzanne's later confession, she sat in the driver's
Speaker 1: seat for several minutes. Overwhelmed and unsure of what to
Speaker 1: do with herself, she claimed, she placed the car in
Speaker 1: neutral and allowed it to roll forward slightly, and then
Speaker 1: stopped it by pulling the e brake. She repeated this
Speaker 1: action more than once, staring at the water and hesitating
Speaker 1: each time before letting the car move any further. Eventually,
Speaker 1: Suzanne stepped out of the vehicle. She stood beside the car,
Speaker 1: distraught and indecisive, before reaching back inside one final time.
Speaker 1: At that moment, she released the car's e brake, and
Speaker 1: the Masda began to roll forward on its own, descending
Speaker 1: down the ramp and rolling into the murky waters. Suzanne
Speaker 1: did not re enter the car. She did not attempt
Speaker 1: to remove her children. Instead, she watched as the vehicle
Speaker 1: moved into the water slowly and disappeared beneath the surface
Speaker 1: with both of them still inside. Little Michael and Alex
Speaker 1: remain strapped into the car seats as the car sank
Speaker 1: below the surface.
Speaker 2: I just that is the worst, the absolute worst. I
Speaker 2: just can't comprehend how that can happen.
Speaker 1: This is the situation where we have something that you
Speaker 1: don't typically see in true crime. Is a female killer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they are, you know, generally speaking, pretty rare. They're out there,
Speaker 1: for sure. We've covered many cases, but it's not your
Speaker 1: typical story. And beyond that, she killed her own children.
Speaker 2: Her own kids. Holy flying shit. I just can't even
Speaker 2: that is just you can't even remotely put yourself in
Speaker 2: that situation at all. I can't fathom that a mom
Speaker 2: could do that. Right there, two kids, they would you
Speaker 2: think they have probably been crying or something.
Speaker 1: Or oh they would have. They would have been crying
Speaker 1: because imagine the water filling up into that car. The
Speaker 1: terror of those two children would be going through and
Speaker 1: she's standing there, she would hear that. Yeah, she would
Speaker 1: probably even see some flailing in the back of the car.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're strapped in but there could have been
Speaker 1: arms going up and trying, who knows, and it would
Speaker 1: have been the worst thing in the world to have
Speaker 1: to witness. But she stood there and she did.
Speaker 2: It just got wrenching. Yes, those poor poor little angel babies. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now, after the vehicle was no longer visible, Susan turned
Speaker 1: away from the lake and she walked up the boat ramp,
Speaker 1: crossed the nearby road, and ran approximately one hundred yards
Speaker 1: to the nearest house, which had its porch light on.
Speaker 1: She then pounded on the door in a state of
Speaker 1: apparent panic. When the homeowners answered the door, Susanne told
Speaker 1: them her car had just been stolen and that her
Speaker 1: two young children were still inside, which of course was
Speaker 1: a lie. So we know the reality of what happened.
Speaker 1: But as this story unfolded for the next few days,
Speaker 1: while the reality was a little bit different, or at
Speaker 1: least painted differently.
Speaker 2: No one knew exactly yeah, for quite a while.
Speaker 1: So with her pounding on the door and claiming this,
Speaker 1: the homeowner quickly called nine one one and police officers
Speaker 1: arrived within minutes. Suzanne was visibly shaken, crying and struggling
Speaker 1: to explain what had happened. She told deputies that earlier,
Speaker 1: she'd been stopped at a red light when a man
Speaker 1: approached her car, forced his way inside at gunpoint, and
Speaker 1: ordered her to drive now. According to her, the encounter
Speaker 1: happened at an intersection on Monarch Mills Road, a stretch
Speaker 1: of highway just outside of Union County. She claimed the man,
Speaker 1: a black male, jumped into the driver's side of the
Speaker 1: car while she was stopped at the light. The gun
Speaker 1: was pressed against her side. He allegedly told her to
Speaker 1: drive and warned her not to say anything or he
Speaker 1: would kill her. So Susan and she drove for some
Speaker 1: time under his direction in the backseat. Meanwhile, Michael and
Speaker 1: Alex sat there crying and frightened over the situation. She
Speaker 1: told officers. She tried to reassure them, speaking to them
Speaker 1: while the man sat behind beside her with a gun,
Speaker 1: and eventually, she claimed, the man ordered her to stop
Speaker 1: on a rural road near John D. Long Lake and
Speaker 1: get out of the car. There, she claimed she begged
Speaker 1: to get her kids out of this car seat with her,
Speaker 1: which we clearly know was not the case.
Speaker 2: I just have to say this Lione itself is just terrible,
Speaker 2: just like going about wasting everyone's time, really and like
Speaker 2: just this panic when she actually knows what the hell happened. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's terrible.
Speaker 1: Yeah again monster right, Yeah, we say that in almost
Speaker 1: every episode because that sums up these people to the
Speaker 1: fullest extent. And that is what she is, an absolute monster.
Speaker 2: Well, because all these people are listening to her and
Speaker 2: probably sensing her like fear or whatever, and then panicking
Speaker 2: and oh my gosh, we got to figure this out.
Speaker 2: And then really she just knows what the hell happened.
Speaker 2: It's unreal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And they're probably able to put theirselves in that situation.
Speaker 1: You know what happens if it were my kids stolen, Yeah,
Speaker 1: panic instilled in them. But here she is, she's just
Speaker 1: basically like, oh no, Like I'm begging to get my
Speaker 1: kids out of the back of the car because I
Speaker 1: knew he was about to take the car, and then
Speaker 1: so from there he as so. She claims he pushed
Speaker 1: her out of the car and told her he wasn't
Speaker 1: going to hurt the children and then drove off with
Speaker 1: them still alive and strapped in the car seat. That
Speaker 1: was her version of events, when in reality it's very different.
Speaker 2: I wonder if she had that already made up before
Speaker 2: she did what she did. I think so, yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Fully think so we can discuss that maybe at the
Speaker 1: end of this episode. Yeah, a little more detail for sure.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: After allegedly being forced out of the vehicle, Suzanne said
Speaker 1: she ran to the nearest house for help and nine
Speaker 1: one one was called. Now officers immediately broadcast a description
Speaker 1: of the suspect and the vehicle. It was a blackmail
Speaker 1: driving a Burgundy Mazda Protege with two small children inside.
Speaker 1: Within a short time, David Smith, the boy's father, arrived
Speaker 1: at the scene. He found Suzanne distraught and visibly shaken.
Speaker 1: Although the couple had divorced months earlier. David stood by
Speaker 1: her side as she repeated her account to police. There
Speaker 1: was no public indication at that point that, you know what,
Speaker 1: they need to doubt her story. Now, police and investigators
Speaker 1: they treated the case with the utmost urgency. Officers quickly
Speaker 1: set up patrols across Union County and began cana sing
Speaker 1: nearby Rhodes. Information was also relayed to surrounding jurisdictions, and
Speaker 1: the assumption that guided the early response was simple but grim.
Speaker 1: Two young children had been taken by an armed stranger
Speaker 1: and every minute mattered in fact, as we know best,
Speaker 1: for the first forty eight hours of the most crucial
Speaker 1: in these situations. That same night, Suzanne gave additional statements
Speaker 1: to investigators, repeating the same basic sequence of events. She
Speaker 1: described the gun, the fear she felt, and the moment
Speaker 1: she was forced out of the car. During this officers
Speaker 1: noted that she did not appear physically injured and showed
Speaker 1: no sign of a struggle, but at the time this
Speaker 1: did not immediately raise any alarms or red flags. Trauma
Speaker 1: victims often behave unpredictably, and the priority remained, you know,
Speaker 1: finding her boys, Michael and Alex. By the end of
Speaker 1: the night, police had no confirmed sightings of that masta,
Speaker 1: no witnesses who had seen the carjacking at the intersection
Speaker 1: that Susan described, and no physical evidence to support or
Speaker 1: contradict her account. Still, nothing directly disproved her story either.
Speaker 1: By morning of October twenty sixth, nineteen ninety four, the
Speaker 1: case had moved far beyond a local emergency and into
Speaker 1: a national story. Susanne Smith and David Smith appeared together
Speaker 1: repeatedly standing shoulder to shoulder in front of cameras. Susan
Speaker 1: pleaded directly to the man that she said and claimed
Speaker 1: took her children and asking that they'd be returned safely,
Speaker 1: while lying right through her teeth. David meanwhile echoed her words.
Speaker 1: But the difference in him while he was being sincere.
Speaker 2: Lying to a stranger, you know, you can kind of
Speaker 2: understand maybe a bit more, but lying to these boys'
Speaker 2: dad too, that that is just cruelty. Yet it's like
Speaker 2: absolute finest.
Speaker 1: Well, everything she does is completely self involved. It's all
Speaker 1: for her own self, her own benefit. And as this
Speaker 1: story goes on, you'll kind of see what I'm talking
Speaker 1: about because there's more detail to go to it with that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, she's standing shoulder to shoulder with these boys dad, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he thinks they're missing when literally he's standing right
Speaker 1: next arm around holding her hand with the fucking killer.
Speaker 2: And in his mind he would never he could probably
Speaker 2: never imagine that she would do something.
Speaker 1: Like that, right exactly now, Inside Union came. The response
Speaker 1: was overwhelming. Volunteers gathered to help search churches, they opened
Speaker 1: their doors for prayer vigils. Residents left porch lights on
Speaker 1: all through the night, a symbolic gesture of hope that
Speaker 1: the boys would be brought home soon safe. The case
Speaker 1: struck a very big nerve across the country. With two
Speaker 1: very young children taken from their mother by a stranger,
Speaker 1: there was no clear trail. Everyone else was just what
Speaker 1: if it was me? How sad is this?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: These poor children. All the while, law enforcement kept expanding
Speaker 1: the scope of their search. Deputies tray Susan's reported route
Speaker 1: from the alleged carjacking site, looking for anyone who might
Speaker 1: have seen the Mazda. Investigators reviewed traffic patterns, check nearby
Speaker 1: businesses for surveillance footage, and followed up on every single
Speaker 1: tip that came in, and many were vague, some were
Speaker 1: clearly wrong, but still they had to check them, but
Speaker 1: none led to the children. The FBI joined the investigation
Speaker 1: soon too, bringing additional manpower and resources, and all those
Speaker 1: tips began pouring in, not just in the local area,
Speaker 1: but also from across the country, and sightings of the
Speaker 1: mass that were reported in neighboring states and each had
Speaker 1: to be checked, but again still nothing. At the same time, though,
Speaker 1: investigators were quietly beginning to scrutinize Susan's account more closely,
Speaker 1: while the public narrative focused on an armed carjacker detectives
Speaker 1: were tasked with testing whether her story could actually be true.
Speaker 1: So to start, they returned to Monarch Mills Road, the
Speaker 1: very intersection where Susan said that her car had been
Speaker 1: stopped at that red light when the carjacker had approached her.
Speaker 1: The area was dark, it was rural and lightly traveled
Speaker 1: at night. No one had reported seeing a struggle, a
Speaker 1: stop vehicle, or anything. But what they discovered here actually
Speaker 1: raised some questions. See, the traffic light at the intersection
Speaker 1: was not controlled by a fixed timer who was triggered
Speaker 1: by censors in the pavement, So, in other words, the
Speaker 1: light would only turn read for drivers on Monarch Mill
Speaker 1: Road if another vehicle approached from the other side. Oh
Speaker 1: but that presents a problem because Suzanne's had been very
Speaker 1: clear in her statements that she had not seen any
Speaker 1: other cars at the intersection that night. She was alone there,
Speaker 1: So if that were true, the light would not have
Speaker 1: turned red and she would never have had to stop
Speaker 1: at the red light at all.
Speaker 2: Okay, I love shit like that, things that you would
Speaker 2: just never think about, right, Yeah, you probably think you
Speaker 2: have this this amazing plan, and then it's like one
Speaker 2: tiny detail that the police are just.
Speaker 1: Like, wait a second, Yeah, that can't be true.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So basically this suggested that the event Suzanne described may
Speaker 1: not have happened at the location she claimed, or, as
Speaker 1: we already know, didn't happen at all. Now, investigators also
Speaker 1: examined the physical scene where Suzanne claims she was forced
Speaker 1: from the car. They couldn't find any tire marks that were,
Speaker 1: you know, spin out from a vehicle, and no obvious
Speaker 1: disturbed gravel from her being pushed out or or running
Speaker 1: after a car or nothing like that. No signs of
Speaker 1: a struggle or anything. Also, Suzanne herself showed no visible
Speaker 1: signs of injury despite being described well being pushed from
Speaker 1: a car. Now, it is possible to come out of
Speaker 1: that unscathe, but it's still just another question mark in
Speaker 1: the whole.
Speaker 2: Line of events, something that's not making one hundred percent
Speaker 2: sense exactly.
Speaker 1: So it raised a lot of suspicion, and so detectives
Speaker 1: began to reinterview Suzanne, asking her to walk through her
Speaker 1: story again, step by step. Now in each retelling, it
Speaker 1: contained slight changes, slight variations the length of time she
Speaker 1: claimed to be forced to drive, It shifted the direction
Speaker 1: she was facing at the intersection became unclear, and as
Speaker 1: I believe it was Abraham Lincoln, a famous quote from him.
Speaker 1: No man, no man has a good enough memory to
Speaker 1: be a successful liar. Seems the same thing as applying here.
Speaker 1: She's trying to lie, but she doesn't have a good
Speaker 1: enough memory to remember how she told lie to be
Speaker 1: accurate in the long run.
Speaker 2: Well, especially with something so large, such a large lie
Speaker 2: like this one.
Speaker 1: Exactly, And there's details that she is talking about, and
Speaker 1: it seems like she's almost over complicating some of the
Speaker 1: details too, to muddle it intentionally, like she's offering confusing
Speaker 1: statements on purpose. Now at the same time, officers notice
Speaker 1: changes in her demeanor that did not match her public appearances.
Speaker 1: In front of cameras, she cried and pleaded, and there's
Speaker 1: a lot of questions about whether there was actual tears
Speaker 1: coming out of her eyes or not, or it was
Speaker 1: just like falsified crying. But I digress. In front of
Speaker 1: the camera, she's acting like this, But away from them,
Speaker 1: her behavior was inconsistent. She could be calm, conversational, and
Speaker 1: at times oddly detached. One officer later recalled moments where
Speaker 1: Suzanne had appeared almost relaxed, even cheerful when she thought
Speaker 1: no one was paying attention. Another moment stood out to
Speaker 1: investigators too. For one televised interview, Susan appeared excited, even
Speaker 1: giddy ish about being on camera. She even turned to
Speaker 1: David and commented about the attention just before the broadcast began,
Speaker 1: and of course, as soon as the camera rolled, her
Speaker 1: demeanor shifted instantly into grief and desperation.
Speaker 2: That's really messed up.
Speaker 1: Yeah. None of these observations were enough in their own though,
Speaker 1: to accuse her of anything. You know, you need more,
Speaker 1: But still together they showed a very telling pattern. By
Speaker 1: the third day, law enforcement had shifted its focus almost entirely.
Speaker 1: While the public searched for a carjacking, well not look
Speaker 1: for that, individual investigators behind the scenes began considering the
Speaker 1: possibility that Suzanne knew more about her children's disappearance than
Speaker 1: she was admitting. So to test her credibility, officers arranged
Speaker 1: for her to take a polygraph test. Now her husband,
Speaker 1: David Smith or ex husband, I should say, took one
Speaker 1: as well, and his results showed no indication that he
Speaker 1: had any knowledge of what was happening to the boys
Speaker 1: or what had happened, but Suzanne's results, however, were inconclusive,
Speaker 1: so she was brought back for another one, and that
Speaker 1: too failed and was inconclusive. Now, polygraph results are not
Speaker 1: exactly the most reliable and are certainly not admissible in court,
Speaker 1: but for investigators they can be a useful tool. In
Speaker 1: Suzanne's case, the results did not prove guilt, but they
Speaker 1: reinforced what detectives were already beginning to suspect she was
Speaker 1: not telling the full truth, but still publicly, they continued
Speaker 1: to search for a suspect who may not even exist,
Speaker 1: which he doesn't. They also began searching bodies of water
Speaker 1: in their search grids, too, lakes and ponds close to
Speaker 1: Suzanne's reported roots, where they were beginning to be checked
Speaker 1: by dive teams. Suzanne pleaded for the safe return of
Speaker 1: her kids, with more televised interviews, more appeals, and more cries.
Speaker 1: She continued to speak directly to this imagined abductor, asking
Speaker 1: him to return Michael and Alex safely. She said she
Speaker 1: could quote feel it in her heart that they were okay.
Speaker 1: She told it the viewers that her children were strong,
Speaker 1: that their family was waiting for them, and still David
Speaker 1: stood beside her during many of these appearances, his voice
Speaker 1: steady but strained, urging the public to not stop looking,
Speaker 1: even though they were staring directly at the killer. Still,
Speaker 1: investigators questioned Suzanne, but now they were specifically looking for
Speaker 1: inconsistencies and faults in her story. Now, for clarity, these
Speaker 1: were not formal interrogations, but longer conversations meant to clear
Speaker 1: up details that sort of thing. She was voluntarily talking
Speaker 1: to them, and each time officers asked her to walk
Speaker 1: through the events again, and each time these small inconsistencies
Speaker 1: continued to emerge. At one point, even Suzanne told investigators
Speaker 1: that she had been on her way to visit a
Speaker 1: friend that night of the carjacking, but when officers spoke
Speaker 1: to that friend, they learned he had not been expecting
Speaker 1: her and was not even home at the time. When
Speaker 1: confronted by this, Suzanne of course adjusted the explanation.
Speaker 2: Of course, she did. She needs to just shut the
Speaker 2: fuck up.
Speaker 1: Really, yeah, she needs to go behind bars, is what
Speaker 1: she needs to do.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, like she just I don't know. I think
Speaker 2: it would probably be pretty easy for the police to
Speaker 2: send something is off. I don't think it took very
Speaker 2: long for them to realize something.
Speaker 1: It was almost immediately, and I believe it was like
Speaker 1: what the second day when they were at that red
Speaker 1: light testing it. It was I believe as far as
Speaker 1: I've read, the police and investigators were questioning her events
Speaker 1: almost upon hearing your story directly like, yeah, they're okay,
Speaker 1: sending out the search, they're trying to find this vehicle,
Speaker 1: the apps are going out for this guy, this suspect.
Speaker 1: Where are the kids. All that's happening, But almost immediately
Speaker 1: they're like, something's not right here.
Speaker 2: Yeah. They had a gut feeling, which yeah, I'm glad.
Speaker 2: I mean, I guess it's good that she is just
Speaker 2: digging herself this whole because you know it's going to
Speaker 2: get this.
Speaker 1: Solved, so definitely now. Detectives also paid close attention to
Speaker 1: Suzanne's language and her body language, and there were incidents
Speaker 1: where she referred to Michael and Alex both in the
Speaker 1: past tense when referring to them ooh. And this is
Speaker 1: about when the pressure from the media began to turn two.
Speaker 1: As reports began to learn about the inconsistencies in Suzanne's
Speaker 1: story and the inconclusive polygraph tests, coverage grew more skeptical.
Speaker 1: The racial element of Suzanne's accusation all also weighed heavily
Speaker 1: on the investigation. For more than a week, police had
Speaker 1: been searching for a black mail right this suspect based
Speaker 1: solely on her description, Innocent people were being questioned and
Speaker 1: pulled over in their vehicles. Tensions rose within the police
Speaker 1: for pestering the black community, and law enforcement leadership became
Speaker 1: increasingly concerned about the damage being done by a claim
Speaker 1: they no longer specifically believed to even be true.
Speaker 2: That's really not good either.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you have to remember too, the time this
Speaker 1: is in. This is in nineteen ninety four, Okay, so
Speaker 1: when there's a lot more you know what, racial tensions
Speaker 1: and things like that, especially for the area as well.
Speaker 1: So it's almost like she did that on purpose, playing
Speaker 1: up into this profile, which is even worse of a monster.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that makes her seem way worse for right now.
Speaker 1: By the ninth day, investigators decided they could no longer
Speaker 1: allow the situation to continue as it was, and Suzanne
Speaker 1: was brought in for another interview, this time more direct
Speaker 1: and more confrontational than any other ones before. The sheriff
Speaker 1: told her plainly, just flat out better story did not
Speaker 1: make sense. He explained the problems with the traffic light,
Speaker 1: he pointed out the lack of witnesses, and he even
Speaker 1: made a bold choice here and introduced a fabricated detail.
Speaker 1: He told her that undercover officers had been stationed at
Speaker 1: Monarch Mills Road at that intersection that night for an
Speaker 1: unrelated drug investigation, and that they had not seen any
Speaker 1: such carjacking. Now this was, of course, as I mentioned, fabricated.
Speaker 1: It was bait, trying to get her to believe more
Speaker 1: than what was true. So perhaps she would just spill
Speaker 1: it and confess a white lie. Yeah, and Suzanne listened quietly.
Speaker 1: At one point she asked the officer to pray with her,
Speaker 1: and afterwards she lowered her head and began to cry.
Speaker 1: She said she was ashamed, She said she was scared. Then,
Speaker 1: in a moment that changed everything, she told him something
Speaker 1: she had not said before. Quote, my children are not
Speaker 1: all right end quote. Suzanne Smith's written confession was careful
Speaker 1: and unsettling in its detail. Over two pages, she described
Speaker 1: the night of October twenty fifth, nineteen ninety four, not
Speaker 1: as a crime carried out in a moment of panic,
Speaker 1: but as a slow emotional unraveling that ended at the
Speaker 1: edge of that lake. She wrote that she had left
Speaker 1: her home that evening emotionally distraught and unsure of what
Speaker 1: to do. Instead of driving directly to her mother's house,
Speaker 1: though as she initially intended, she drove aimlessly through Union County,
Speaker 1: her anxiety building as the minutes passed. She said she
Speaker 1: felt like a failure as a wife, as a woman,
Speaker 1: and as a mother, and believed she could no longer
Speaker 1: be a good parent to both Michael and Alex. So
Speaker 1: eventually she drove to John D. Long Lake, a quiet,
Speaker 1: dark body of water north of town. There she stopped
Speaker 1: at the boat ramp, and in her confession, Suzanne claimed
Speaker 1: she initially planned to kill herself along with her children.
Speaker 1: She wrote that she put her car in neutral and
Speaker 1: allowed it to roll part way down the ramp, but
Speaker 1: stopped it. She did this more than once, each dame
Speaker 1: pulling that brake before the car could enter the water.
Speaker 1: Then she got out of the vehicle, and standing outside
Speaker 1: the car, Suzanne wrote that she was overwhelmed with fear
Speaker 1: and uncertainty. She questioned why her life felt so hopeless
Speaker 1: and why everything seemed to be falling apart. Then she
Speaker 1: said she made a final decision. She reached back into
Speaker 1: the car, released the brake, and let it go. The
Speaker 1: car rolled forward, carrying Michael and Alex still strapped into
Speaker 1: their car seats, all the way down the ramp and
Speaker 1: into the lake immediately after, before the car even sunk
Speaker 1: beneath the surface, Suzanne said she ran from the lake
Speaker 1: towards Highway forty nine and then to the nearest house,
Speaker 1: where she began screaming for help, and from that moment
Speaker 1: on she committed herself to the story of a carjacking,
Speaker 1: a lie that she would maintain for a total of
Speaker 1: nine days. In her confession, Suzanne framed her actions as
Speaker 1: an act of distorted protection. She wrote that she believed
Speaker 1: her children would be quote better off with God end quote,
Speaker 1: and that they would never be hurt again. She also
Speaker 1: expressed regret sorrow, saying that she loved her sons and
Speaker 1: never meant to hurt them, even as she described the
Speaker 1: deliberate steps that led to her their deaths. And when
Speaker 1: she was finished writing, the investigation officially shifted into a homicide.
Speaker 2: Just like that. Yeah, the investigators were probably just floored. Really, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't think they could have imagined that is what
Speaker 2: the outcome was that happened.
Speaker 1: No, I don't think so, now, mind you, there was
Speaker 1: a chance of something like this because they I mean,
Speaker 1: right after this, divers were dispatched to John D. Long
Speaker 1: Lake right with precise instructions from Susanna on where to
Speaker 1: find it, and using sonar equipment, they located the Burgundy
Speaker 1: Masda submerged approximately I think it was one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty two feet from shore in about eighteen feet of water.
Speaker 1: They searched that water already. They search waters looking for
Speaker 1: a submerged vehicle, something that could have been ditched, whether
Speaker 1: by her or potentially this quote unquote black man who
Speaker 1: carjacked me sort of situation, but earlier searches had Actually
Speaker 1: they searched this area, but they missed the vehicle because
Speaker 1: investigators believed the car would be within thirty feet of
Speaker 1: the shore and they didn't search further into the lake.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it was quite far into the lake. It was. Now.
Speaker 1: When the vehicle was pulled from the lake, Alex and
Speaker 1: Michael were found exactly where Suzanne said they would be,
Speaker 1: still strapped into their car seats in the back. The
Speaker 1: doors were locked and the boys were pronounced dead at
Speaker 1: the scene.
Speaker 2: That is just so got wrenching my heart.
Speaker 1: Yeah. With physical evidence now matching Suzanne's confession, there was
Speaker 1: no longer any doubt what had happened or who was
Speaker 1: responsible that night, Suzanne Smith was placed under arrest and
Speaker 1: charged with two counts of murder, and now investigators turned
Speaker 1: to the question that still had no clear answer why.
Speaker 1: At first, Suzanne insisted there was no motive. She claimed
Speaker 1: the deaths were the result of a mental breakdown and
Speaker 1: that she had not planned to kill her children, that
Speaker 1: everything spiraled out of control in a single night. But
Speaker 1: as detectives pressed further, a different story began to emerge,
Speaker 1: one rooted in not just an evening alone, but in
Speaker 1: the weeks and months leading up to it. The key
Speaker 1: was a letter. Suzanne admitted that in the days before
Speaker 1: October twenty fifth, she'd been devastated by the end of
Speaker 1: a relationship with a man by the name of Tom Finley,
Speaker 1: a wealthy local man that she'd been involved with after
Speaker 1: separating from David Smith. Now, Tom was the son of
Speaker 1: the owner of the textile company where Suzanne had actually worked.
Speaker 1: He came from money, status and the social world. Suzanne
Speaker 1: had felt long excluded from the relationship, however, was not
Speaker 1: what Suzanne believed it to be. Shortly before the murders
Speaker 1: of her sons, Tom sent Suzanne a letter formally ending
Speaker 1: things between them. In it, he told her plainly that
Speaker 1: he did not want children, and he didn't want to
Speaker 1: have the responsibility of raising someone else's either. He made
Speaker 1: it clear that no matter how close they'd become, their
Speaker 1: relationship would never move forward, because well, I'm Michael and
Speaker 1: Alex when it comes down to it. Now that letter
Speaker 1: is available to read, and he was very respectful in it,
Speaker 1: but he was very blunt that he did not want
Speaker 1: kids and he couldn't be in a relationship with her because.
Speaker 2: She has kids, which is a decision that he's allowed
Speaker 2: to make, right exactly, So holy frig now.
Speaker 1: Investigators would later learn that Suzanne had been deeply fixated
Speaker 1: on this rejection. Coworkers recalled that she spoke about Tom constantly.
Speaker 1: One colleague even remembered Suzanne saying outright that she was
Speaker 1: in love with him, but it could never be because
Speaker 1: because of her children.
Speaker 2: Gosh, that's really like monster right there. Yeah, even more so.
Speaker 1: On the afternoon of October twenty fifth, Suzanne reportedly tried
Speaker 1: once more to see Tom at work, but by that
Speaker 1: point he wanted no further contact, and she was escorted
Speaker 1: out of the building, visibly upset. It was after leaving
Speaker 1: work then she picked up Michael and Alex from daycare,
Speaker 1: and from there, well, she didn't go home, She just
Speaker 1: drove for hours. Investigators pieced together her movements that evening
Speaker 1: through witness statement and Suzanne's own admissions. She drove around
Speaker 1: Union County, aimlessly, stopping nowhere in particular, circling through town,
Speaker 1: with her emotional state deteriorating. By the time she reached
Speaker 1: John DeLong Lake that night, her marriage was over, her
Speaker 1: relationship with Tom was definitively finished, and the future she
Speaker 1: had imagined for herself no longer existed. Prosecutors would later
Speaker 1: argue that this context mattered deeply because they believed Suzanne
Speaker 1: did not see her children as the center of her
Speaker 1: life in that moment, but more of an obstacle to
Speaker 1: a future she desperately wanted, and removing them, in her mind,
Speaker 1: meant freeing herself.
Speaker 2: Okay, she could have just like turned over custody or
Speaker 2: something to the father, right, I mean, yeah, I could
Speaker 2: have Like that is an option and said, I, Oh
Speaker 2: my gosh, this is like the most selfish thing ever. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and who even knows if that relationship would have even worked.
Speaker 2: Maybe there could have been something else, you know, he
Speaker 2: maybe he blamed it on the kids, but there could
Speaker 2: have been way more and it would maybe not have
Speaker 2: ended up working anyway.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and she just.
Speaker 2: I know who, I mean, I could the only thing
Speaker 2: I could kind of understand, which there's nothing that you
Speaker 2: can really understand, but it was like mental health and
Speaker 2: she was just like, you know, really spiraling. And but
Speaker 2: to do this just for a potential relationship, are you
Speaker 2: freaking kidding me?
Speaker 1: You guys should see Nicole's face right now. She has
Speaker 1: the look in her face of if I could punch
Speaker 1: a bit this, Yeah, Like, this is.
Speaker 2: Just disgusting sitting here listening. I know.
Speaker 1: I told you you're probably going to be mad at me.
Speaker 2: I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at her. What
Speaker 2: the hell does she think she's? Like? Who does she
Speaker 2: think she is?
Speaker 1: She? I know, piece of.
Speaker 2: Garbage she is? Now.
Speaker 1: Suzanne denied this interpretation, though she maintained that she never
Speaker 1: killed her sons to be with Tom, insisting that her
Speaker 1: actions were driven by despair and being on the edge
Speaker 1: of suicide. Not ambition, but the timing, the letter, the rejection,
Speaker 1: the confrontation at work, and the drive to the lake.
Speaker 1: It all told the story that investigators just couldn't ignore.
Speaker 1: Suzanne Smith was soon formally charged with two counts of murder,
Speaker 1: and from the beginning, prosecutors made it very clear this
Speaker 1: would not be a routine case, and the state announced
Speaker 1: it would seek the death penalty. That decision immediately raised
Speaker 1: the stakes. Suzanne had confessed. The physical evidence was overwhelming,
Speaker 1: to say the least, and the case had already traumatized
Speaker 1: a town and captured the nation. But under South Carolina law,
Speaker 1: a confession alone was not enough to justify execution. Prosecutors
Speaker 1: would still have to prove intent, specifically that Suzanne acted
Speaker 1: with malice.
Speaker 2: They okay, I just have to say. They really need
Speaker 2: to make sure though, that there's never ever an opportunity
Speaker 2: for her to have another kid ever?
Speaker 1: Fair?
Speaker 2: Yeah, like really like that. That's the number one prior.
Speaker 1: Well, how do you take that away from someone?
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know, but it needs to be so
Speaker 2: she has to be locked up forever, I guess, because yeah,
Speaker 2: how could you ever allow someone like this to have
Speaker 2: another kid.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now the man tasked with doing this, the man
Speaker 1: tasked with trying to seek the death penalty and putting
Speaker 1: her away or whatever seeking justice that needs to be done,
Speaker 1: It would be Tommy Pope, the solicitor who would lead
Speaker 1: the case for the state. Tommy and his team began
Speaker 1: methodically rebuilding the crime from the ground up. They reviewed
Speaker 1: Suzanne's confession line by line, comparing it against physical evidence
Speaker 1: from the lake, the vehicle, and the scene where she
Speaker 1: claimed the carjacking took place. They examined everything they could,
Speaker 1: looking for proof that Suzanne had time to stop herself
Speaker 1: and chose not to. But one of the most important
Speaker 1: questions was how long the car took to sink. If
Speaker 1: the car disappeared almost instantly, it could support the defense's
Speaker 1: claimed that the events moved too fast for her to intervene.
Speaker 1: But if the car floated even briefly, it could suggest
Speaker 1: something else entirely, perhaps that she simply stood back and watched.
Speaker 1: Investigators conducted a controlled recreation using a similar mast to protege.
Speaker 1: They matched the weight of the vehicle and the placement
Speaker 1: of the car seats as closely as possible, and cameras
Speaker 1: were mounted inside to document what had happened once the
Speaker 1: car entered the water. The results were chilling. The car
Speaker 1: didn't sink right away. It floated for several minutes, approximately
Speaker 1: six minutes in total in fact, before finally slipping beneath
Speaker 1: the surface. During that time, water slowly would fill the cabin,
Speaker 1: rising very steadily, and there was ample opportunity for someone
Speaker 1: outside the car to open the doors. Maybe if they
Speaker 1: wouldn't open break a window and release the kids, or
Speaker 1: at the very least attempt a rescue, that evidence would
Speaker 1: become central to the prosecution's case. At the same time,
Speaker 1: Suzanne's defense team was taking shape. Her attorney David Bruck
Speaker 1: and Judy Clark were already well known for handling high
Speaker 1: profile capital cases. Their strategy was clear from the start.
Speaker 1: They would not dispute that Suzanne caused her son's death. Instead,
Speaker 1: they would argue that she was not acting with a
Speaker 1: clear rational mind. The defense began assembling a detailed psychological history.
Speaker 1: They documented Suzanne's father's suicide when she was six, repeated
Speaker 1: suicide attempts as a teenager, her history of depression, and
Speaker 1: the sexual abuse she said she endured at the hands
Speaker 1: of her stepfather. Psychiatrists evaluated her and diagnosed her with
Speaker 1: major depression and a dependent personality disorder, a condition marked
Speaker 1: by an extreme need for approval and fear of abandonment.
Speaker 1: Their argument was not that Suzanne was insane in a
Speaker 1: legal sense, but that she was emotionally broken and overwhelmed,
Speaker 1: incapable of deliberate malice planning. In the months leading up
Speaker 1: to the trial, both sides prepared for a courtroom battle
Speaker 1: that would decide not only Suzanne Smith's fate, but whether
Speaker 1: she would become the first woman in decades to be
Speaker 1: executed in South Carolina. Suzanne Smith's trial began in July
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety five in Union County, South Carolina, less
Speaker 1: than a year after Michael and Alex were killed. News
Speaker 1: crews descended on Union County from across the country, filling
Speaker 1: hotels or storefronts and lining the streets around the courthouse
Speaker 1: with satellite trucks. Now, the judge barred television cameras from
Speaker 1: the proceedings, concerned that the trial would become more about
Speaker 1: a spectacle than justice. But still every development was reported
Speaker 1: daily and the courtroom itself remained pact. David Smith attended
Speaker 1: the trial every day. Sitting just feet away from the
Speaker 1: woman who had killed his two sons, he listened as
Speaker 1: the case unfolded in excruciating detail. Later he would describe
Speaker 1: the experience as reopening wounds he had barely survived during
Speaker 1: the nine days the boys are missing. He had stood
Speaker 1: beside Suzanne, publicly believing her story and defending her innocence,
Speaker 1: but now he was forced to relive those days knowing
Speaker 1: the truth. The prosecution opened by laying out a straightforward narrative.
Speaker 1: Susan Smith, they argued, did not act in panic or confusion.
Speaker 1: She made a series of decisions, one after the other
Speaker 1: that ended with her son's deaths. Prosecutors walked the jury
Speaker 1: through Suzanne's life in the moment leading up to October
Speaker 1: twenty fifth, nineteen ninety four. They detailed her divorce from David,
Speaker 1: her involvement with Tom Finley, and the emotional collapse that
Speaker 1: followed when the relationship ended. The jury heard about the
Speaker 1: letter Tom sent explicitly stating that he did not want
Speaker 1: children and did not see a future with her. Prosecutors
Speaker 1: argued that this rejection struck at the core of Suzanne's
Speaker 1: identity and self worth. The state also focused heavily on timing.
Speaker 1: Suzanne did not go straight to the lake after leaving
Speaker 1: work that day. Instead, she picked up her children from
Speaker 1: daycare and drove around the Union County for hours on end.
Speaker 1: There was no emergency or immediate crisis forcing her hand.
Speaker 1: She had time alone with her thoughts, time to reconsider,
Speaker 1: time to choose another path. When she finally arrived at
Speaker 1: John D. Long Lake, prosecutor said her action showed intent
Speaker 1: rather than confusion. She drove onto the boat ramp, placed
Speaker 1: the car neutral, and let it roll forward. When the
Speaker 1: car did not immediately sink, she didn't intervene. Instead, she
Speaker 1: either watched the car sink or let it sink behind her,
Speaker 1: but either way she walked away without trying anything.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, earlier you had said six minutes. That's literally
Speaker 2: what I'm repeating in my head. That is a long time.
Speaker 1: That is a long time now, As I mentioned, investigators
Speaker 1: had recreated the event using a similar vehicle, Expert witnesses
Speaker 1: explaining that the car floated for that not approximate six
Speaker 1: minutes before submerging, and the prosecution argued those six minutes mattered.
Speaker 1: They showed that Suzanne had ample opportunity to open the doors,
Speaker 1: free her children, or at the very least attempt a rescue.
Speaker 1: But she did none of those things. Nothing. She just
Speaker 1: left the scene and then began the carjacking story. The defense,
Speaker 1: when it was their turned, did not dispute that Suzanne
Speaker 1: caused her son's deaths. They instead presented psychiatric testimony describing
Speaker 1: her long history of depression, suicide attempts, and emotional instability.
Speaker 1: Jurors heard about her father's suicide, her sexual abuse as
Speaker 1: a teenager, and diagnoses that painted her as deeply dependent
Speaker 1: on approval and terrified of abandonment. Defense attorneys argued that
Speaker 1: Suzanne intended to kill herself that night along with her children,
Speaker 1: but lost the nerve of a very last moment. According
Speaker 1: to this version of events, Suzanne's body acted against her
Speaker 1: own intention, leaving her children trapped in a tragedy she
Speaker 1: could no longer stop. In a move that surprised the prosecution,
Speaker 1: the judge then allowed the jurors to consider a lesser charge,
Speaker 1: one of manslaughter instead.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: After days of testimony, expert opinions, and emotional arguments, the
Speaker 1: case went to the jury and their deliberations were brief.
Speaker 1: After just two and a half hours, they returned with
Speaker 1: their verdict. Suzanne Smith was found guilty of two counts
Speaker 1: of murder. The guilty verdict delivered, the trial moved immediately
Speaker 1: into its most emotional charge state, the penalty phase, and
Speaker 1: one of the most powerful moments of the penalty phase
Speaker 1: came when David Smith took the stand. Speaking as the
Speaker 1: father of Michael and Alex, he described the devastation their
Speaker 1: deaths caused. He talked about the daily reality of waking
Speaker 1: up to silence, about the future his sons would never have,
Speaker 1: and about the unbearable knowledge that their lives ended in
Speaker 1: such fear. His testimony was emotional and raw, forcing the
Speaker 1: jury to confront the human cost of Suzanne's actions in
Speaker 1: a way no expert witness could. After closing arguments, the
Speaker 1: jury was sent to deliberate again, and once more, it
Speaker 1: came quickly. After approximately two and a half hours, the
Speaker 1: jury returned with its recommendation that Susan Smith would not
Speaker 1: be sentenced to death, but instead she would receive life
Speaker 1: in prison. The decision disappointed prosecutors who believed the facts
Speaker 1: just execution, and for David Smith, the verdict was complicated.
Speaker 1: While he wanted the death penalty, he later acknowledged that
Speaker 1: life in prison meant Suzanne would wake up every single
Speaker 1: day knowing what she had done. The judge formerly sentenced
Speaker 1: Susanne Smith to life in prison. Under South Carolina law.
Speaker 1: At the time, that sentence carried the possibility of parole
Speaker 1: after thirty years, a detail the jury was not permitted
Speaker 1: to consider when making their decision, but that meant that
Speaker 1: she was eligible for parole in late twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: The hearing was held by videolink, with Suzanne appearing from prison.
Speaker 1: She was fifty three years old. Her hair was still graying,
Speaker 1: her face older, but her voice, when she finally spoke
Speaker 1: it too, was still tentative and emotional. As she began
Speaker 1: her statement, she attempted to say that she was very sorry,
Speaker 1: but quickly broke down in tears, lowering her head and
Speaker 1: pausing to regain control. Quote. I know what I did
Speaker 1: was horrible and I would give everything so I could
Speaker 1: change it end quote. Members of the parole board questioned
Speaker 1: Suzanne directly. They asked her about the enormous law enforcement
Speaker 1: effort that followed her false carjacking report. Hundreds of officers, divers, volunteers,
Speaker 1: and federal agents deployed over nine days. When she asked
Speaker 1: why she continued to lie for so long, well, she
Speaker 1: just said because she was scared and didn't know how
Speaker 1: to tell them. Her attorney argued that Suzanne posed no
Speaker 1: threat to the public. He emphasized that she had no
Speaker 1: criminal history before the murders and that her actions in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four were the result of untreated mental illness.
Speaker 1: If released, he said, Suzanne had arrangements to live with
Speaker 1: her brother and continue mental health treatment under the supervision
Speaker 1: of licensed professionals. But Suzanne was not the only person
Speaker 1: who spoke that day. A large group entered the hearing
Speaker 1: room to argue against her release, and among them was
Speaker 1: David Smith. He stood quietly as others spoke, a photograph
Speaker 1: of Michael and Alex pinned to his jacket. When it
Speaker 1: was his turn, he struggled to get through his statement.
Speaker 1: His voice shook as he reminded the board what had
Speaker 1: happened and that it was not a tragic mistake, not
Speaker 1: an accident, not a result of confusion. It was a
Speaker 1: free choice, he said, quote it's just not enough, so
Speaker 1: I'm asking that you please deny her parole today end quote.
Speaker 1: David also made it clear that he planned to attend
Speaker 1: every single future parole hearing, no matter how long it took,
Speaker 1: to make sure his sons were not forgotten. After hearing
Speaker 1: all sides, the parole Board deliberated, and their decision was unanimous.
Speaker 1: Susanne Smith was denied parole. Now under state law, she
Speaker 1: will be eligible to apply again every two years from
Speaker 1: here on out, meaning as of record this episode in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, she will be applying again for parole
Speaker 1: this year. But no matter the time that passes. Here
Speaker 1: we are even decades after the murders, and Suzanne Smith's
Speaker 1: version of events has remained largely the same. She continues
Speaker 1: to insist that she intended to die that night at
Speaker 1: John D. Long Lake, and that her son's deaths were
Speaker 1: the result of a failed suicide attempt rather than a
Speaker 1: deliberate act. In letters, interviews, and statements made from prison,
Speaker 1: she's repeatedly said that she was not herself, that something
Speaker 1: quote went wrong, and there was no motive. That explanation
Speaker 1: has never sat comfortably with investigators, prosecutors, and many who
Speaker 1: have examined this case closely. From the beginning, law enforcement
Speaker 1: struggled to reconcile Suzanne's words with her actions. If she
Speaker 1: intended to die, they questioned, why did she exit the vehicle,
Speaker 1: And if panic took over, they asked why did she
Speaker 1: not attempt to rescue during those several minutes the car
Speaker 1: remained afloat, And if confusion ruled over her mind, they
Speaker 1: wonder how she was able to construct and maintain a
Speaker 1: detailed false narrative for nine days, including repeated media appearances
Speaker 1: and specific descriptions of an imaginary suspect. Perhaps most troubling
Speaker 1: to authorities was Suzanne's certainty about where the car was located.
Speaker 1: Once she confessed, divers were able to recover the vehicle
Speaker 1: only after she provided the precise location. Investigators later stated
Speaker 1: that to know that spot so accurately, she would have
Speaker 1: to stand at the water's edge and watch the car
Speaker 1: fully submerge. Despite it all, Suzanne has never publicly acknowledged
Speaker 1: that her relationship with Tom was the driving force behind
Speaker 1: the murders. She's repeatedly denied that she killed her children
Speaker 1: to pursue a life without them, even as prosecutors and
Speaker 1: jurors concluded otherwise. After the parole hearing ended and the
Speaker 1: room was cleared, Suzanne Smith returned to prison, where she
Speaker 1: remains incarcerated under the same sentence imposed in nineteen ninety five,
Speaker 1: life with the possibility of parole. For investigators, prosecutors, and
Speaker 1: the Smith family, nothing is changed with time. From the start,
Speaker 1: the case was never about uncertainty. Law enforcement doubted Suzanne's
Speaker 1: story almost immediately. The inconsistencies were not subtle even before
Speaker 1: Suzanne confessed. Investigators were searching water, not highways, not just highways.
Speaker 1: There was the possibility the carjacker could have drove the
Speaker 1: car into the lake and likely what Suzanne was hoping
Speaker 1: everyone would have believed when it was found, But still
Speaker 1: investigators suspected early on that she knew where her sons were.
Speaker 1: The confession did not reveal a shocking truth so much
Speaker 1: as confirm what police already believed, and over the decades since,
Speaker 1: nothing Suzanne has said or done has altered that core assessment.
Speaker 1: She's repeatedly described the murders as unplanned, She's continued to
Speaker 1: frame them as a result of mental illness rather than motive,
Speaker 1: and she's expressed sorrow, but often in ways that center
Speaker 1: her suffering rather than the loss of her children. Prosecutors
Speaker 1: and family members have pointed out that she's never directly
Speaker 1: apologized to David Smith, never meaningfully acknowledged the harm she
Speaker 1: caused beyond generalized regret, and her conduct in prison has
Speaker 1: further complicated her claims of rehabilitation and likely affected her
Speaker 1: possibility of parole as well. See she's had sexual relationships
Speaker 1: with guards, disciplinary violations, drug infractions, and unauthorized media contact,
Speaker 1: all while serving her sentence. For David Smith, the passage
Speaker 1: of time has not softened the memory of that week
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety four. He stood behind Suzanne while the
Speaker 1: world watched. He defended her, pleaded for their son's return,
Speaker 1: believing they were still alive, and then suddenly he learned
Speaker 1: that she was lying the whole time, a betrayal that
Speaker 1: never faded. Neither did the image of Michael and Alex,
Speaker 1: years old and fourteen months old, strapped into a car
Speaker 1: seat as water slowly filled the inside of that vehicle
Speaker 1: around them. At its core, this case is about two
Speaker 1: children whose lives ended violently and so unnecessarily, But it
Speaker 1: also exposed how easily public trust can be manipulated, how
Speaker 1: quickly fear can be weaponized, and how devastating the consequences
Speaker 1: of a lie can be when left unchecked. Smith's false
Speaker 1: claim that a black man carjacked her vehicle did not
Speaker 1: exist in a vacuum. In nineteen ninety four. The story
Speaker 1: fit neatly into long standing racial stereotypes, and it was
Speaker 1: repeated widely before law enforcement had a chance to challenge it.
Speaker 1: As a result, innocent black men in the area were stopped, questioned,
Speaker 1: and viewed with suspicion during the search. Prosecutors later emphasized
Speaker 1: that this was not a side effect of the case,
Speaker 1: but a direct result of Suzanne Smith's decision to blame
Speaker 1: a fire titious stranger rather than take responsibility. Investigators have
Speaker 1: said that element of the line made the case more
Speaker 1: than a personal tragedy. It turned it into a broader
Speaker 1: social wound, one that affected people who had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with the crime at all. For Union County, the
Speaker 1: case became inseparable from the place itself. Residents have spoke
Speaker 1: about how simply naming the location still brings up the
Speaker 1: murdering conversation, even thirty years later. It's a reminder of
Speaker 1: how one act can permanently define a community in the
Speaker 1: public eye. But for the Smith family, the legacy is
Speaker 1: far more personal. There were no graduations, no weddings no
Speaker 1: adult lives to watch unfold. Michael and Alex never became
Speaker 1: memories shaped by years of shared experiences. Instead, they became
Speaker 1: memories shaped by tragedy. For those two boys, justice is
Speaker 1: not measured in years served or privileges earned. It's measured
Speaker 1: in remembrance. And as long as their father continues to
Speaker 1: stand before parole boards and say their names out loud,
Speaker 1: the story will not be allowed to drift quietly into
Speaker 1: the past. It will remain exactly what it is. A
Speaker 1: case where the truth eventually surfaced, a lie collapsed under
Speaker 1: its own weight, and two children who never came home.
Speaker 1: And that's the story of Suzanne Smith.
Speaker 2: Who, holy molith, that's a story. Yeah, that's a story.
Speaker 2: You know. I don't even before you kind of alluded
Speaker 2: to it, it doesn't I don't get the sense that
Speaker 2: she is remorseful.
Speaker 1: I don't think so either, And I don't know why.
Speaker 2: Exactly, because I can't imagine how you wouldn't be after
Speaker 2: especially like you know, being able to reflect for so
Speaker 2: many years on what you did.
Speaker 1: I know, right, And I don't doubt. I mean I
Speaker 1: might doubt, but there is a high possibility that she
Speaker 1: was suicidal. There is a high possibility that she was
Speaker 1: having these mental struggles and that she didn't know what
Speaker 1: to do with herself. But then why did you kill
Speaker 1: your sons?
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, especially like it does seem, you know, like
Speaker 2: you had a dad that was involved with them, right,
Speaker 2: so you could you not have easily, you know, gone
Speaker 2: and let him take care of them while you figured
Speaker 2: out your shit.
Speaker 1: Exactly. She took an entire her own tragedy because her
Speaker 1: story prior to killing two innocent children is a tragedy
Speaker 1: in its own. She suffered, she did, but as I've
Speaker 1: said before, it's whatever you're going through is no excuse
Speaker 1: to harm someone else. And that's what she did. She
Speaker 1: took what she was going through and put it on
Speaker 1: her two little boys and made them suffer for it.
Speaker 2: Like, look at how many people there are in the
Speaker 2: world that can't have kids or struggle to have kids,
Speaker 2: and then you have a mom that does this discards
Speaker 2: them to two little boys.
Speaker 1: It's sickening.
Speaker 2: And I've said this before. I also just hate that
Speaker 2: like David has to potentially go and do this every
Speaker 2: two years, you know, yeah, I mean, and I mean
Speaker 2: I bet you he's very willing to fight for his boys,
Speaker 2: but that sucks for him. Yeah, it's like probably just
Speaker 2: rip opening this this wound.
Speaker 1: Right, being the band aid off in a fresh wound
Speaker 1: opening it up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right, every fricking two years.
Speaker 1: So it's a very tragic tale. Yeah, hopefully you guys
Speaker 1: enjoyed this story. Those two boys deserve to have their
Speaker 1: story told, and I'm glad that their father is out
Speaker 1: there making sure that they're not forgotten. And hopefully I
Speaker 1: can help do that here today by telling their story,
Speaker 1: and hopefully you guys enjoyed hearing it. Hopefully you can
Speaker 1: remember them. And I'm just gonna end it with that,
Speaker 1: thank you for being here, and until next time, stay wicked.