Susan Smith was born in September of 1971, South Carolina. Her parents divorced when she was six and, five weeks later, her father committed suicide. Susan kept an audiotape of his voice. She suffered so much that people perceived her as odd. She had two brothers and mother. Her mother, shortly after the tragic incident, remarried. Her stepfather, Beverly C. Russell Jr., was a wealthy local businessman. He was a prominent member in the state Republican Party and the Christian Coalition. He was divorced. Susan was a good student and people liked her. At 13, Susan attempted suicide. At 16, she said that her stepfather molested her. The family attended counseling and he moved out of the house. Still, Susan Smith claimed that sexual abused continued. She told her psychiatrist later that she accepted her stepfather’s advances. She admitted to jealousy of her mother, because of the life her mother had had with her stepfather.
When she was 17, Susan Smith worked in a supermarket. She had a relationship with a coworker and stayed pregnant. She aborted. When he broke up with her, she tried to commit suicide one more time. At that time, she was diagnosed with adjustment disorder.
Susan Smith married her coworker, David Smith in 1990. They had two sons.
The marriage was a turbulent. Both of them suspected cheating, so they separated several times and always reconciled.
The next infidelity would be the fatal one. In 1993, Susan Smith began dating Findlay, son of the boss of Conso Products, where she worked at the time. Her husband, David Smith, found out and the affair was ended, as well as their marriage. In 1994, Susan Smith and David Smith divorced. She then continued dating Findlay. But he left her after only a month, by sending her the letter. She couldn’t accept it.
In October 1994, Susan Smith was in a stranger’s Union, South Caroline home. She was crying and asking help, because an African American man carjacked her car and took her children. She claimed that she was driving with her two sons and they were stopped at a red light. He was armed and ordered her to leave the car. He promised her that he would not harm the children. He kidnapped her fourteen-month-old son Alex and three-year-old son Michael.
It became a national news. People were trying to help her. They were crying with her, while she was reading her messages to sons and their kidnapper. Her eyes were dry despite her tearful voice.
She was concerned with her appearance on television. During television interview with her ex-husband, David Smith, journalists got the information about her relationship with Findlay, and she couldn’t hide for a moment her joy for hearing his name. Friends tried to console her, but she was speaking about Findlay. She was telling what happened and investigators noticed that she was inconsistent. Susan Smith and her husband underwent polygraph tests. She didn’t pass.
When detectives interrogated her regarding the letter and their suspicions, she confessed to murdering her sons. After nine days since her sons disappeared, Susan Smith was arrested.
On October 25th, 1994, Susan Smith strapped her sons into car seats in the back seat of her Mazda and rolled the car down a boat ramp in the lake. She watched her sons as they were drowning.
It seemed that everyone cared more than the one person who should’ve cared the most.
Police discovered the letter in the car. Findlay wrote her that he didn’t want her children.
Her trial began in 1995.
Prosecution argued that she was a cold-blooded murderer, because she wanted to be in a relationship with Findlay. Prosecutor sought the death penalty. The defense expert claimed that she was struggling with depression and suicidality, because of pervasive fear of being alone. For weeks she was drinking and had sex with several men, including her stepfather who molested her and her estrange husband. She allegedly went to the lake to commit suicide, but the urge for self-preservation was stronger. They told a jury that she had dependent personality and that her need to be in a relationship with Findlay made her judgment foggy.
She was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of thirty years.
In prison Susan Smith has been accused of having sexual relations with two guards, one of whom gave an interview. He claimed that she was a great manipulator and seduced him. She was also accused of possession of marijuana and other drugs. In 2012 she tried to commit suicide by cutting her wrists and almost succeeded. Still, she was saved.
Through letters she got in contact with troubled men who have been interested in her. Allegedly, she has been speaking with them regularly.
On November 4, 2024, she is eligible for parole.
