Image Courtesy of South Carolina Dept. of Corrections
Two little boys. Strapped into their car seats. Rolled into a lake by their own mother.
That is the story of Michael Daniel Smith, age 3, and Alexander Tyler Smith, age 14 months, two children who never made it out of October 1994. Their mother, Susan Smith, let their car roll into the dark waters of John D. Long Lake in Union County, South Carolina, and then spent nine days lying to the entire nation about what she had done.
It is a case that still turns stomachs thirty years later and for good reason.
A Town, a Mother, and a Lie
On the night of October 25, 1994, Susan Smith, then 23 years old, drove her 1990 Mazda Protégé to the boat ramp at John D. Long Lake. She put the car in neutral, got out, and watched it roll down the ramp and into the water with Michael and Alex still buckled inside.
She then ran to a nearby home and told a story: a Black man with a gun had carjacked her at a red light, forced her out of the vehicle, and sped away with her sons still in the back seat.
For nine days, Susan Smith went on national television, weeping, pleading for the safe return of her children. She sat beside her estranged husband, David Smith, and together they begged a nation for help. And the nation responded. A massive search was launched. Tips poured in. Communities across the country prayed for Michael and Alex.
But the boys were never missing. They were at the bottom of that lake the entire time.
The Story That Didn’t Add Up
Investigators from the beginning had doubts about Susan’s account. One detail stood out immediately: why would a carjacker, someone who wanted the vehicle, let the mother out but leave two small children inside? It made no sense.
Union County Sheriff Howard Wells, who knew Susan personally, was the godfather to her nieces and nephews, and continued to press her. Over nine days of questioning, her story began to show cracks. On November 3, 1994, Susan Smith confessed. She told investigators where the car was. Divers went into John D. Long Lake and found it submerged just off the boat ramp. Inside were Michael and Alex, still strapped into their car seats.
The diver who recovered the car later testified at trial that he saw a small hand pressed against the window.
The Motive: A Letter and a Man
Prosecutors did not have to search long for a motive. Susan had been having an affair with Tom Findlay, the son of a wealthy local mill owner and widely considered one of Union’s most eligible bachelors. She believed Findlay was her future.
He did not feel the same way.
Just days before the murders, Findlay sent Susan a letter ending their relationship. Recovered from the submerged car, the letter made clear that while he had feelings for her, he was not willing to take on the responsibility of children. He wrote that he did not want to be a father figure.
Susan later wrote in her own confession, “I was in love with someone very much, but he didn’t love me and never would.”
Prosecutors, led by Tommy Pope, argued that Susan Smith made a calculated decision: she chose a man over her sons. Pope put it plainly: she wanted to kill her old life and start a new one.
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The Racial Dimension
What makes this case even more disturbing, beyond the murders themselves, is the specific lie Susan Smith chose to tell. She described her fictional carjacker as a Black man in a toboggan hat. In doing so, she deliberately reached for one of America’s oldest and most destructive racist tropes: the dangerous Black man threatening a white woman.
Her description triggered a frantic manhunt. Innocent Black men across the region were pulled over, questioned, and treated as suspects in a crime that never happened. Law enforcement resources were poured into chasing a ghost.
At the 2024 parole hearing, former prosecutor Kevin Brackett asked out loud, “How many Black men in red Mazdas got pulled over across the country because they were looking for those two kids and they were looking for this fictitious man?”
It is a question that deserves to sit with anyone who followed this case.
The Trial
Susan Smith stood trial in July 1995. She did not testify on her own behalf. Her defense attorneys, David Bruck and Judy Clarke, focused heavily on her mental health history and a deeply troubled background. Her father had died by suicide when she was six years old. She had attempted suicide herself at thirteen. Her stepfather, Beverly Russell, testified and admitted to sexually abusing Susan when she was a teenager, abuse that had continued even into her adult years.
The defense argued that she had intended to die alongside her children, that it was a failed suicide attempt, and that untreated depression and trauma had broken her judgment.
The prosecution countered that her behavior told a different story. Former prosecutor Tommy Pope noted at trial and again three decades later that Susan was observed laughing when the jury was out of the room and crying when they returned. He said she was excited about being on television during the search for her sons. Pope’s assessment: it had always been about Susan.
Tom Findlay took the stand and testified about the affair, the letter, and his final interaction with Susan on the day of the murders. He described her as deeply emotional and erratic in the hours before she drove to that lake.
Prosecutors also showed the jury a reenactment video of the car rolling down the boat ramp and into the water. Jurors were visibly shaken.
After just two and a half hours of deliberation, the jury found Susan Smith guilty of murder on both counts. The same jury then spared her the death penalty, sentencing her to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.
Thirty Years Behind Bars
Susan Smith has been incarcerated at Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood County, South Carolina since 1995. Her time in prison has not been without incident.
Prison records show disciplinary issues dating back to 2010, including charges related to drug use in 2010 and 2015. Two prison guards were fired after admitting to sexual relationships with Smith. She was also disciplined in August 2024 just months before her first parole hearing — after it was discovered she had provided contact information for family members and her ex-husband to a documentary filmmaker, who had deposited money into her account. Smith was found guilty at an internal prison hearing and lost her phone, tablet, and canteen privileges for 90 days.
None of it reflected the transformation her attorney would later claim she had undergone.
The Parole Hearing — November 20, 2024
On November 20, 2024, exactly thirty years and twenty-six days after Michael and Alex were killed, Susan Smith appeared before the South Carolina Parole Board via video link from prison. It was her first parole hearing, and it was public.
She spoke through tears. “I know that what I did was horrible,” she said, her head bowed. “I would give anything if I could go back and change it.” She told the board that God had forgiven her.
Her attorney, Tommy Thomas, argued she was low-risk, had no prior criminal history, had arrangements for mental health treatment upon release, and had shown genuine personal growth. He framed the case as one about untreated mental illness, not calculated evil.
Then the opposition took the floor.
Approximately fifteen people came to testify against her release. They wore photographs of Michael and Alex pinned to their clothing. Among them were her ex-husband David Smith, his family, former prosecutors, and law enforcement. David Smith stood before the board with tears on his face and said what he had needed to say for thirty years.
“God gave us free choice and she made a free choice that night to end their lives,” he said. “This wasn’t a tragic mistake. It wasn’t something she didn’t mean to do. She purposely meant to end their lives.” He added that he had never once felt genuine remorse from Susan toward him — only in rooms where it benefited her to perform it. He told the board he planned to be at every parole hearing for the rest of his life.
Tommy Pope, now a South Carolina state representative, told the board what he had believed since 1994: Susan had always focused on Susan. “She chose a man over her family,” he said.
The board voted unanimously to deny parole.
Susan Smith will be eligible again in November 2026.
Where Things Stand
Michael Daniel Smith was three years old. Alexander Tyler Smith was fourteen months old. They are buried in Union County, South Carolina, and they have not been forgotten.
David Smith has made it his mission to ensure they never are. He will be back in 2026. And the year after that, if it comes to it.
As for Susan, she remains at Leath Correctional Institution. Her next parole hearing is two years away. Whether she is ever released will depend in large part on whether the board believes her remorse is genuine or, as those who know her best have said from the beginning, it has always been about Susan. Michael and Alex deserved better. Every child does.
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Lisa Crow contributed to this article. She is a true crime junkie and lifestyle blogger based in Waco, Texas. Lisa is the Head of Content at Gigi’s Ramblings and Southern Bred True Crime Junkie. She spends her free time traveling when she can and making memories with her large family which consists of six children and fifteen grandchildren.
