Return to the Lake

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Speaker 1 tonight on dateline.

Speaker 6 So many people still think about them.

Speaker 6 I wish I could tell them.

Speaker 7 I miss you so much.

Speaker 8 Whoever has my children, please bring them home.

Speaker 9 It was the story that broke America's heart.

Speaker 10 She said a man forced her out of the car and sped off with the children.

Speaker 6 Susan is distraught. She's crying.

Speaker 11 The tears seem genuine.

Speaker 6 I believe every words come out of her mouth.

Speaker 12 Then the news no one could believe.

Speaker 14 Susan Smith has been arrested.

Speaker 16 Some of our agents were just sobbing when the car was pulled out of the water.

Speaker 9 Now, Susan Smith breaks decades of silence. Should she be released?

Speaker 18 Susan doesn't pose a danger to society.

Speaker 20 She lied and manipulated everybody.

Speaker 6 They can't let her out.

Speaker 22 Do you don't believe that Susan Smith is remotely remorseful? Right.

Speaker 24 A powerful new interview with a father whose loss still aches.

Speaker 6 You're not going to make me bitter. You're not going to make me mad at the world.

Speaker 26 You're not going to win.

Speaker 27 A mother's unthinkable crime. A father's unforgettable courage.

Speaker 30 The case of Susan Smith.

Speaker 32 Tonight, a revealing new look.

Speaker 29 I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline.

Speaker 34 Here's Craig Melvin with Return to the Lake.

Speaker 35 A manhunt is spreading across this country for a man who pulled a carjacking Tuesday night.

Speaker 23 A mother's nightmare came true in South Carolina.

Speaker 36 Tips continue to come in, but there's no sign of the 14-month and three-year-old brothers.

Speaker 39 Tonight, the tragedy that gripped a nation 30 years ago

Speaker 40 and still won't let go.

Speaker 11 Why do you think people still care so much?

Speaker 10 Because we all united with the hope that we would find those little boys.

Speaker 39 Two brothers missing for nine agonizing days, a nationwide manhunt with a heartbreaking aunt.

Speaker 46 And the mother at the center of it all, speaking out for the first time in decades.

Speaker 47 While the father continues his fight for justice, would you have been better off had the state executed her?

Speaker 26 Wow.

Speaker 6 For myself, yes.

Speaker 6 Because I wouldn't have to be dealing with what's coming up now and

Speaker 6 in the future.

Speaker 42 It all started in the tiny town of Union, South Carolina.

Speaker 52 A rural community, textiles and farming were the big businesses there.

Speaker 53 It had just a few traffic lights.

Speaker 49 Church-going neighbors would wave on their morning walks.

Speaker 55 The people here are friendly.

Speaker 57 Harold Thompson grew up in Union and is now the mayor.

Speaker 58 They're willing to help in any type of situation. You know, we got a lot of volunteers.
People get along with each other. No big problems or issues.

Speaker 60 But that all changed the night of October 25th, 1994.

Speaker 62 Around 9 p.m., a young woman banged frantically on the door of this house.

Speaker 17 Homeowner Shirley McLeod answered.

Speaker 64 She just wasn't physically able to hardly stand up and took her to the couch and asked her to tell me again what she said. And she said, he's taking my children.
He's got my children.

Speaker 66 Shirley's son immediately called 911.

Speaker 7 Some guy jumped into a red light with her car. And he's got the kids? Yes, ma'am, in her car.
I don't, she's real hysterical. Get him going, Pam.
I got two kids.

Speaker 62 The woman at the door was Susan Smith, a shy, quiet, 23-year-old brunette who worked as a secretary at a local textile company.

Speaker 46 Tiffany Moss knew her from school.

Speaker 30 What was she like in high school?

Speaker 70 She was just, you know, nothing extra popular or anything like that, but, you know, she was just your friendly high school girl.

Speaker 55 Susan and her husband David lived in Union and had two little boys, Michael, three, and Alex, 14 months.

Speaker 70 They were just your typical little boy, toddler, you know, precious,

Speaker 73 playful,

Speaker 7 sweet.

Speaker 74 But now they were missing.

Speaker 25 Sheriff Howard Wells raced to the scene.

Speaker 76 And when I walked in, Susan was seated on the sofa there in the living room.

Speaker 41 He talked to Dateline in 1995.

Speaker 76 I knew time was of the essence, and so we went right directly into the informational stage of trying to find out what had happened.

Speaker 39 Susan told him she was driving with her boys that night to visit a friend named Mitch Sinclair and stopped at a red light.

Speaker 65 She said that's when a black man suddenly accosted her with a gun.

Speaker 75 After giving her statement, Susan... Called her husband David.

Speaker 22 What do you remember about that?

Speaker 6 I remember it was around

Speaker 6 nine o'clock and Sheriff Willis said that your children have been taken and we're at the McLeod residence. You need to get here.

Speaker 75 And when you get there what do you find?

Speaker 6 Susan is

Speaker 6 in the living room and when I walk in

Speaker 6 she's just

Speaker 6 distraught. She's crying.

Speaker 79 What was she saying about what happened?

Speaker 6 That I was at a red light and that a black man jumped in the car,

Speaker 6 made me drive, and then forced me out of the car and drove off with them and still in the car.

Speaker 75 The sheriff put out an APB while David and Susan went on camera to appeal for help.

Speaker 81 I was stopped at a red light and

Speaker 81 just out of nowhere, this black guy came up and just opened the door and jumped in the car and he had a gun and

Speaker 81 He had it pointed in my side and told me to drive. And so I did.
And when I tried to ask him why he was doing this this or whatever he just told me shut up or he'd kill me

Speaker 81 so I just kept driving driving he um my babies were in the back seat and they were crying and I tried to tell him everything was gonna be okay she said she drove a few miles until the man told her to stop he told me get out and I said well can I get my children and he said no he said

Speaker 81 He said I don't have time for that and they were just crying and

Speaker 64 do you want to make a plea to if anybody sees this story or if this person is?

Speaker 81 Yes, if anybody sees anything that looks unusual. I mean, this is the black guy with two white children.
Obviously,

Speaker 81 they're not his.

Speaker 64 Do you want to make a plea as well?

Speaker 6 I just, if anybody sees anything whatsoever, please contact your local police department and inform them of anything that looks unusual, please.

Speaker 34 For Sheriff Wells, it was an all-hands-on-deck moment.

Speaker 24 He sprang into action, ordering his deputies to hunt down the carjacker and find Michael and Alex.

Speaker 76 We are hoping that he's going to be as good as his word, that he will not harm the children since he did not harm her.

Speaker 39 But what police hoped would be a quick search stretched into nine days that captivated the country.

Speaker 38 We'll take you inside the investigation with newly unearthed audio tapes.

Speaker 7 How do you feel today, Rob?

Speaker 88 Well, I feel better now that that came out, but they don't worry about everybody else.

Speaker 24 Revealing jailhouse letters and exclusive interviews.

Speaker 6 I used to sit there and look at the back of her head and think about killing her.

Speaker 22 You wanted her dead?

Speaker 26 I did.

Speaker 42 All from those nine fateful days and the unspeakable crime that left everyone asking one question.

Speaker 89 Why?

Speaker 90 Why on earth?

Speaker 23 It was intense for those nine days, but then it went thermonuclear.

Speaker 25 In the early morning hours of October 26th, deputies scoured South Carolina searching for a kidnapper.

Speaker 15 Said it was a black male driving a burgundy protege.

Speaker 7 Affirmative, he had two juveniles with him. From what I understood, these were small children.

Speaker 91 Sheriff Wells asked Susan for a more detailed description, and she was happy to comply.

Speaker 76 She came in between three and four in the morning, met with a composite artist on day one.

Speaker 40 Susan described a tall black man, 30 to 40 years old, wearing a knit hat.

Speaker 92 The sketch, it was disseminated widely

Speaker 92 throughout the state.

Speaker 25 Jeff Bailey is the current Sheriff of Union.

Speaker 53 Back then, he was a young deputy just starting out.

Speaker 92 And we were looking through files and probation pro who had a criminal history of child molestation or, you know, crimes against children.

Speaker 92 And we were trying to put that face together with pictures that we had.

Speaker 10 I was six months into my second job.

Speaker 38 As daylight broke, reporter Heather Hoops Matthews drove into work at WISTV, the NBC affiliate in Columbia, South Carolina.

Speaker 75 How did you actually hear about the case initially?

Speaker 10 I walked into the newsroom in the morning and the assignment desk said, we hear there are two children missing in Union. Grab a photographer and go.

Speaker 25 What are you hearing?

Speaker 95 What are folks saying?

Speaker 10 At that time, I remember thinking how shocking that was. You know, that's terrible.
Surely we're going to find the kids.

Speaker 96 As Heather and the other local reporters began digging around Union, They started to learn a lot more about Susan and David Smith.

Speaker 97 What were your impressions of them initially?

Speaker 10 I thought that he was very loving to her. I saw him put his arm around her and

Speaker 10 I just remember thinking how nice that was.

Speaker 42 Both Susan and David had grown up in Union in modest, church-going families.

Speaker 11 How did you meet?

Speaker 6 We were both working at a local grocery store.

Speaker 18 Winn-Dixie.

Speaker 6 Yes, Winn-Dixie. And then we just got to talking like teenagers do.

Speaker 96 Small talk soon led to dating, and the young couple married in 1991.

Speaker 91 Susan was 19.

Speaker 75 David was 20.

Speaker 6 And then Michael was born.

Speaker 6 And I was head over heels.

Speaker 6 My first son.

Speaker 42 Then came little Alex.

Speaker 99 Tell me about Michael. Tell me about Alex.

Speaker 6 Michael was the more sensitive one.

Speaker 6 His feelings would get hurt easy when you scolded him. He was very protective of Alex at the daycare.
Or even at home, Alex was more rambuckous, more mischievous.

Speaker 38 Susan later left her job at Winn-Dixie and got a position as a secretary to the CEO of a major textile company in town.

Speaker 74 David says she was an attentive mom.

Speaker 6 She always made sure they were well-dressed. Whoever was taking care of them while we were at work, she made sure they were in good hands.

Speaker 74 But not long after Alex was born, David and Susan's marriage started to fall apart.

Speaker 6 I was a lousy husband. You know, there was infidelity.
But there was, you know, infidelity on her part, too, after mine, but.

Speaker 13 You're both cheating on each other. Right.
Yeah.

Speaker 53 The couple separated in the spring of 1994.

Speaker 52 By the next fall, David had a new girlfriend, Tiffany.

Speaker 74 Yes, the same Tiffany who knew Susan in high school.

Speaker 70 We met after my first year of college when I started working at Winn-Dxie.

Speaker 70 And he was the assistant manager manager there.

Speaker 11 What drew you two to each other?

Speaker 70 Um, I just remember the day that I started, and when I walked in the door, and I saw him stocking shelves, and um, I was like, hmm.

Speaker 98 Susan had started dating someone else, too, Tom Finley, a co-worker at that textile company.

Speaker 74 But with the boys missing, David knew he had to be there to support his wife any way he could. I just want to hug him some

Speaker 8 and tell him I love him.

Speaker 24 As Susan and David got their message out to the media, deputies and volunteers widened their search to the woods surrounding Union with blood hounds on the ground and helicopters in the air.

Speaker 16 And everybody in the state of South Carolina knew about it as soon as it happened.

Speaker 48 Mark Keele is now the chief of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, known as SLED.

Speaker 75 But in 1994, He was attending law school and working as a pilot.

Speaker 39 So he joined the search team.

Speaker 16 And we were up flying the next morning and looking for that, searching for that vehicle.

Speaker 11 You're flying around South Carolina. What are you guys looking for?

Speaker 16 Where are you looking for? We started from where she was carjacked and we were flying every route that you can imagine.

Speaker 10 The manpower is overwhelming.

Speaker 42 Reporter Heather Hoops Matthews began following along with the search teams.

Speaker 10 My videographer flew in a helicopter with them as they flew over Long Lake, and I stayed down on the boat ramp.

Speaker 101 What were your folks at law enforcement saying initially to you?

Speaker 10 They said they were searching that area because it was close to where she called for help, you know, knocked on the door.

Speaker 100 As the search expanded, so did the media coverage.

Speaker 79 What happens to that small town?

Speaker 10 It was a multiplying effect. First there were six journalists, then there were 12, then there were 24, then it felt like there were 250.
The streets were lined with satellite trucks.

Speaker 23 A carjacker with a gun took her car and with it her two small children.

Speaker 15 The gunmen did not harm them or ask for money.

Speaker 10 Soon, it will be 24 hours since they last saw their mother.

Speaker 93 Union was now in a hot media spotlight, but still with no sign of those little boys.

Speaker 60 With time slipping away, police released a new bit of video to jump-start their investigation.

Speaker 43 Would it work

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Speaker 42 October 28, 1994.

Speaker 50 A Friday.

Speaker 52 Michael and Alex Smith had been missing for three days.

Speaker 61 The family released this video of Susan with the boys celebrating Alex's first birthday.

Speaker 93 What did that do for the story?

Speaker 10 I think the release of the images of Michael and Alex swiftly added to the interest in the story.

Speaker 10 And I remember watching it in the satellite truck over and over and over and thinking surely we're going to find Michael and Alex.

Speaker 103 What started as a small town carjacking is now a massive search, first spreading into four surrounding states, now nationwide. Police are receiving calls from all over, one tip every minute.

Speaker 104 It hearts, all the way to the heart, and I'm a grandmother.

Speaker 87 And I said, what if that was my children?

Speaker 106 What if it was my grandbabies?

Speaker 10 Everyone in the community came to look for Michael and Alex.

Speaker 58 People were on horseback looking for him, and they were, you know, people just looking everywhere trying to help to find these kids.

Speaker 75 While David stood by Susan, his new girlfriend Tiffany joined the search.

Speaker 99 What do you remember about that eight or nine day period?

Speaker 70 Just

Speaker 70 looking everywhere I went, looking for her car, looking for

Speaker 70 this composite drawing of this black man. Looking for Michael and Alex.
I mean, that was all I was doing.

Speaker 70 Of course, then I started having to hide out myself, too, because there were certain media that were coming after me and harassing me.

Speaker 6 Why were they harassing you?

Speaker 70 Because they had found out that I was

Speaker 70 the girlfriend and

Speaker 70 so they started wanting to talk to me and

Speaker 70 see what I had to say.

Speaker 13 Meanwhile, police blasted that sketch of the suspect everywhere.

Speaker 76 After the sketch was drawn and it was distributed, The black people of our community were our greatest asset. They came forward and told us who they thought that looked like.

Speaker 38 One officer went to the home of a man who resembled the suspect.

Speaker 76 We asked him where he was during this time, but it's so easy to check out. We checked it and he was where he said he was.

Speaker 53 A big disappointment for investigators, but the tips kept pouring in.

Speaker 85 A robbery in a nearby state.

Speaker 103 A man fitting the description of the carjacker has been spotted 100 miles north of Union in Salisbury, North Carolina.

Speaker 38 A sighting in a national park.

Speaker 76 Someone gave a report of a child crying in a national forest in North Carolina. That was going on at the same time.

Speaker 96 And a man seen running just miles from where the boys disappeared.

Speaker 4 Anything to give us a clue?

Speaker 41 All of them turned up nothing.

Speaker 75 How low could you get in those shoppers?

Speaker 16 You can get as low as you want to get. We were generally flying, you know, 300 foot above ground, up to 1,000.

Speaker 91 Were there moments where you did spot something?

Speaker 67 Where you did see something?

Speaker 16 No, I mean, we spotted cars that, you know, were the same color and that were similar, but not what we were looking for.

Speaker 75 As they continued to pursue more than 700 tips, police developed other theories about the case.

Speaker 48 Could someone who knew Susan be behind the kidnapping?

Speaker 17 They questioned friends and co-workers, including that new boyfriend of hers, Tom Finley.

Speaker 75 Family members, too.

Speaker 76 You start finding out an abduction case, a high percentage are family abductions. You have to look at family to find out what is the motivation here, why, or who would have been behind it.

Speaker 91 Investigators wondered whether Susan and David's pending divorce might have played a role.

Speaker 76 We had to look at all the possibilities of who may have been involved, of whom it would have benefited for an abduction.

Speaker 48 Including David Smith.

Speaker 57 Susan had custody of Michael and Alex.

Speaker 45 Could David or someone else have conspired to have the boys kidnapped?

Speaker 76 Everyone was a suspect in this case until we could narrow it to a single individual or whatever. But anyone who may have had a motive, anyone who may have had contact with Susan, who may have been a

Speaker 76 participant or whatever, sure, we looked at everybody.

Speaker 28 Investigators gave David a polygraph test, which he passed.

Speaker 21 What did the sheriff, what did those investigators tell you privately about

Speaker 13 their theories, what they thought may have happened.

Speaker 6 I don't remember them really talking to me a whole lot after I took the polygraph and obviously passed, as they said, with flying colors.

Speaker 72 Then, suddenly, a new tip from 3,000 miles away, and this one sounded different.

Speaker 15 We're working on some very promising, exciting information right now, and that's all I'm gonna be able to say.

Speaker 24 Day six in the search for Michael and Alex Smith was Halloween, warm and sunny.

Speaker 95 But fear hung in the air in Union as parents and kids headed out to trick-or-treat.

Speaker 23 They have a tradition of trick-or-treating in the downtown.

Speaker 95 Michael Cogdo was a reporter for WYFF, the NBC affiliate in Greenville, South Carolina.

Speaker 23 That Halloween, people were hanging on to one another and one another's kids. They thought there might be a threat afoot.

Speaker 70 I think everybody should stay close for their kids.

Speaker 105 Keep an eye on them.

Speaker 53 Alongside the fear, he saw something he didn't expect.

Speaker 23 One of the things we noticed, this is a woman who has fingered a black man for this crime. And you would have thought it would have torn that town apart.
Instead, it brought people together.

Speaker 23 There was such love, blacks and whites arm in arm, hand in hand, holding on to each other's kids.

Speaker 48 On the one-week anniversary, Sheriff Wells had nothing new to report.

Speaker 15 Well, we've looked at any possible motivation for this case, and we have not developed anything concrete.

Speaker 22 What do you remember most about that period of time?

Speaker 6 The media.

Speaker 6 It was out of control. Circus.
They were camped out at her parents' house where we were staying. They were camped out at the courthouse.

Speaker 6 They would try to follow us.

Speaker 13 I grew up in South Carolina and remember the extensive media coverage and the endless waiting.

Speaker 6 I was

Speaker 99 a teenager and I, like millions of other folks,

Speaker 108 for days on end, glued to the television, trying to figure out what happened to these little boys.

Speaker 43 For you,

Speaker 78 day in, day out,

Speaker 11 the roller coaster of emotions, how did you grapple with it?

Speaker 6 I just...

Speaker 6 Got up every day and did

Speaker 6 whatever somebody told me to do. If it was to go for an interview, if it was to take a polygraph.

Speaker 41 He cooperated, hoping law enforcement would stop looking at him and find the carjacker.

Speaker 6 I guess I was trying to get more boots on the ground, as you say.

Speaker 74 The national search for Michael and Alex continued while local investigators worked their way down the list of Susan's family and friends.

Speaker 30 They focused on her relationship with Mitchell Sinclair, the man she said she was going to visit on the night of the carjacking.

Speaker 57 Sheriff Wells was especially interested in Sinclair after seeing an interview he did with a reporter for a current affair.

Speaker 6 Truth's gonna come out.

Speaker 64 What is the truth?

Speaker 70 Tell everybody what the truth is.

Speaker 110 Exactly what the sheriff

Speaker 76 says it is.

Speaker 83 Police questioned him several times.

Speaker 78 Turned out, he wasn't even home that night.

Speaker 104 Sheriff, has Mitch Sinclair now been eliminated as a suspect investigation?

Speaker 15 I'm not going to say he is any more or any less than he ever has been because we still do not have the information we need in this case.

Speaker 34 Investigators were also taking a close look at Susan as a mom.

Speaker 78 and heard nothing but good things.

Speaker 76 They never saw those children dirty. They never

Speaker 76 saw her spank her children. We never found one detrimental remark towards Susan about those children.

Speaker 57 Then on the eighth day, a true glimmer of hope.

Speaker 31 At 3.30 a.m., a call came into the command center, a sighting of a young boy who matched the description of 14-month-old Alex riding in a car with South Carolina plates.

Speaker 75 He'd been dropped off at a motel in Washington state.

Speaker 15 It's solid lead right now. If this turns out to be the lead we need, it might give us the direction we need in this case.

Speaker 25 Sheriff Wells appeared elated.

Speaker 15 We're working on some very promising, exciting information right now, and that's all I'm going to be able to say about you. Are you going to steal?

Speaker 74 Susan and David rushed to the command center.

Speaker 80 Three hours passed.

Speaker 74 The town of Union held its breath.

Speaker 53 Then Sheriff Wells addressed the press once again.

Speaker 15 Our heart soared for a while that we were close to recovering the children in this case. That did not happen.

Speaker 91 The news was crushing.

Speaker 72 The little boy abandoned in Washington State was not Alex Smith after all.

Speaker 8 It's very hard once you get your hopes up to come back and then see them dash.

Speaker 75 Soon after, what everyone hoped would be a joyous appearance by Susan and David became yet another anguished plea.

Speaker 8 I would like to say to whoever

Speaker 8 has my children

Speaker 8 that they please,

Speaker 112 i mean please bring them home i would like to take the time to plead to the american public that you please do not give up on these two little boys but almost as soon as susan and david finished their nationally televised plea

Speaker 34 the story took another turn That night, Dateline got a tip that crime lab technicians were headed to Susan's home.

Speaker 9 Our cameras captured law enforcement going into the house.

Speaker 84 They took photographs, examined paperwork, dusted apparently for fingerprints, and went into the crawl space underneath the home.

Speaker 15 Can you tell us what you're doing?

Speaker 53 The search ended about two hours later with investigators carrying several paper bags out of the house.

Speaker 34 To outsiders, It didn't look like investigators were any closer to answering the painful question, where were Michael and Alex?

Speaker 34 But for insiders, the investigation was becoming laser-focused on the only witness in the case, the woman at its center, Susan Smith herself.

Speaker 75 For more than a week, the public saw a heartbreaking scene.

Speaker 97 Two young parents pleading for their children's safe return.

Speaker 8 I want to say to my babies, your mama loves you so much.

Speaker 75 But at the command center, Sheriff Wells had been verifying Susan's story, and not everything checked out.

Speaker 76 There were questions about the traffic light. She stated she was stopped at a red light at an intersection in Monarch, and there were no other cars around.

Speaker 52 Information from the Department of Public Safety had landed on Sheriff Wells' desk.

Speaker 96 He learned there was no way that light could have turned red.

Speaker 76 That cannot be. A car has to be at the opposing light in the intersection to make the light change.

Speaker 54 Without another car, the light would stay green.

Speaker 32 The sheriff tried to keep his doubts about Susan's story under wraps, but other officers were coming to the same conclusion.

Speaker 29 What do you recall about

Speaker 17 how

Speaker 11 members of law enforcement were talking about the case?

Speaker 16 There was a lot of suspicion, I would say, as to what happened, especially after days that we had searched and looked.

Speaker 34 Chief Keel, who'd been searching for clues by helicopter, says too much of it didn't make sense.

Speaker 16 Carjackings take place often, but generally you end up finding the vehicle. So as days went by and we didn't find anything, the suspicion continued to grow.

Speaker 53 While retracing the steps Susan said she made that night, investigators discovered something astonishing.

Speaker 69 That night, you were actually having her followed.

Speaker 26 Yes.

Speaker 89 Why?

Speaker 6 Because I knew she was running around on me too.

Speaker 18 So you have your girlfriend at the time

Speaker 75 following your soon-to-be ex-wife.

Speaker 26 Right.

Speaker 11 The night that your boys go missing. Yes.

Speaker 70 So we were wanting to try and catch her so he could counter Sue. And so I had put on my PI gear,

Speaker 70 my ball hat and everything, and sat in the car watching when she left work and had watched her when she went and picked the boys up from daycare.

Speaker 74 Tiffany continued to follow her.

Speaker 46 She saw Susan make several stops with the boys in the car.

Speaker 70 Then a little bit later, she had went home. And then I saw the boys.
They were getting down out of the back seat and she had Alex on her hip.

Speaker 52 Tiffany then went to visit a friend nearby.

Speaker 13 And when she came back 45 minutes later, Susan's car was gone

Speaker 70 so i had kind of you know give up my pi search at that point

Speaker 13 investigators couldn't find any witnesses who saw where susan went that night they were becoming more and more convinced she was hiding something so they brought in sled agent peter logan a polygraph expert to meet with susan We interviewed him back in 2000.

Speaker 4 Susan Smith showed up with her family and I introduced myself to her.

Speaker 43 Agent Logan quickly built a rapport with Susan and asked her if she would agree to a polygraph test.

Speaker 30 She said yes.

Speaker 28 Then there comes a point where Susan says to you that she thought that she was probably a suspect.

Speaker 75 When she said that to you, what did you think?

Speaker 68 I said, don't worry about it.

Speaker 7 I told her not to worry about it.

Speaker 6 I was trying to like help her pass polygraph tests.

Speaker 6 I was telling her like to think about a field of daisies, an autumn autumn day in the fall to calm her down to pass the polygraph because I wanted her with us to get past that.

Speaker 13 When she first sat down with Agent Logan, he took it slowly.

Speaker 4 I realized that if Susan Smith didn't talk about this, that we may never know what really happened.

Speaker 4 So my first polygraph that I did was to determine at that time whether or not the carjacking was truthful.

Speaker 17 He didn't tell her the results.

Speaker 83 Instead, he said she'd done enough for the day and sent her home.

Speaker 24 But it didn't take long before rumors that Susan failed a polygraph circulated through the small town of Union.

Speaker 11 When you had heard that she had failed one of those polygraph tests, what did you chalk that up to?

Speaker 6 I didn't put a lot of weight into it. Because to me, she had just had her children, our children, ripped away from her, snatched from her.

Speaker 6 How in the world would she be able to pass the polygraph?

Speaker 74 Susan was supposed to come back the next day to continue the polygraph, but that didn't happen.

Speaker 4 She didn't want to come in for the interview, so I phoned her at home.

Speaker 42 Agent Logan shared with Dateline this newly unearthed tape of that call.

Speaker 113 Hello, Susan. Hey, Date.
Hey, how you doing? You doing okay?

Speaker 113 How you getting there? Well, that's good. I'm concerned about you.
Just want to know how you were doing.

Speaker 88 Well, I appreciate you calling. That makes a lot.

Speaker 32 Then he brought up a rumor he'd heard that Susan told her mom she'd failed a polygraph.

Speaker 30 He tried to reassure her, saying the results were inconclusive.

Speaker 113 Yeah, well, you know what the bottom line is, and we talked that sensitivity. Every mom who's missing her kids got sensitivity.

Speaker 53 He asked her to write down everything she could remember from that night.

Speaker 75 She agreed and said she'd meet with him again the next day.

Speaker 113 I enjoyed talking to to you and hopefully you get some little help out of it.

Speaker 88 Oh, I did. Okay.
I walked out feeling a lot better than I did when I walked in.

Speaker 113 Yeah, well that's good. That's sort of the bottom line.

Speaker 17 When Susan returned the next morning to continue a polygraph, Agent Logan gently explained that part of her story did not make sense, that the light would not have turned red.

Speaker 4 I said, is there some reason that you have not been truthful about this light? That it happened somewhere else, it could have happened somewhere else. She initially denied it.

Speaker 34 But then she said the agent was right.

Speaker 38 The carjacking had happened somewhere else, 15 miles away, in a town called Carlisle.

Speaker 4 I said, well, let's go to Carlisle. So I got her out in the car and I took her in the sled car.
I said, now you tell me exactly where you were when the carjacker came out and got in your car.

Speaker 4 And she had some hesitancy in. in actually picking out the exact location, but she did.

Speaker 13 He asked her why she didn't say it happened in Carlisle from the beginning.

Speaker 4 Her explanation at that time was that, well, I knew I shouldn't have been in Carlisle, that people would question me. Why was I in Carlisle riding around?

Speaker 66 She told him that when she was 18, she had an affair with a married man who used to live in Carlisle.

Speaker 4 She said we used to park in the woods down in this area, and that's what she went back to.

Speaker 28 By the time Susan and the agent left Carlisle, it had grown dark.

Speaker 61 So he told her to go home and write down exactly what happened at this new location.

Speaker 4 I knew at that time, in my heart, that she would probably tell us the truth, but I wasn't sure under what circumstances. She trusted me.
I thought at the time she trusted Sheriff Wells.

Speaker 25 So Agent Logan alerted Sheriff Wells that Susan had changed her story.

Speaker 30 Then they put their heads together.

Speaker 38 and came up with a plan for the next day.

Speaker 53 A carefully orchestrated dance that would lead to an unimaginable admission.

Speaker 23 There was a shockwave.

Speaker 109 It's like the place was struck by lightning.

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Speaker 107 Hey, everybody, it's Rob Lowe here.

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Speaker 42 November 3rd, 1994.

Speaker 54 For nine days, Americans had been glued to their TVs, hoping for the safe return of two young boys.

Speaker 87 It's been real difficult.

Speaker 52 That morning, Susan and David Smith appeared on the Today Show.

Speaker 87 I think what's kept me going more than anything is the lower.

Speaker 17 The public had no idea Susan had changed her story, but it was clear feelings toward her were shifting.

Speaker 95 Katie Court asked about the police search of her home the night before.

Speaker 36 Were you there at the time, and do you know what they were looking for?

Speaker 87 No ma'am, I was not there and I do not know.

Speaker 87 I did agree, sign a form for them to do that. I was aware they were going to do that.

Speaker 36 How do you all feel when you hear that some members of the public think that you might have been involved?

Speaker 87 Well, my first reaction is it hurts to know that

Speaker 87 I would be accused or even thought that I would ever do anything to harm my children.

Speaker 95 David spoke directly to his boys.

Speaker 6 Me and mommy believe that you guys are okay and that you're and that you will be coming home soon.

Speaker 6 We're not going to give up until we find you.

Speaker 78 Just hours after that interview, Susan handed Agent Pete Logan a written statement of her new version of the car jacket.

Speaker 83 Logan recorded their interview that day. How do you feel today about it? That it didn't happen there, but it happened somewhere.
How do you feel? I mean, how are your feelings today?

Speaker 83 Well, I feel bad now that that came out, but there was no doubt everybody else might know about it.

Speaker 52 Agent Logan says he could tell she was getting tired.

Speaker 75 It was time to set in motion the plan he and Sheriff Wells had worked out.

Speaker 67 He asked the sheriff to come into the interview room and explain that Susan had changed her story, pretending the sheriff didn't already know.

Speaker 4 And so we sat in there for maybe a couple minutes and discussed it. And then I left under the pretext of somebody beeping me with the idea that the sheriff would talk to her to see how he made out.

Speaker 80 Susan repeated her news story that the carjacking actually happened in Carlisle.

Speaker 54 That gave Sheriff Wells an opportunity to pounce.

Speaker 76 I told her that we had that intersection under surveillance as at a suspected drug drop site and that it could not have happened there as she said.

Speaker 54 This was a bluff.

Speaker 47 There There was no surveillance.

Speaker 76 And she says, why do you say that? And I told her, I said, there's no way, because we would have seen it.

Speaker 100 With that, Susan Smith completely lost it.

Speaker 76 She broke down, started sobbing. She crying.
She said she was so ashamed. And then she asked for my gun.

Speaker 76 And I said, why would you want to do that? And she wanted to kill herself.

Speaker 76 And I said, but why? And she said, you don't understand. My children are not all right.

Speaker 76 That was the first incriminating statement that she had made.

Speaker 74 After nine days of intense investigation, hundreds of tips, and a search that consumed the country, Susan Smith finally told the truth.

Speaker 13 She'd killed her two young boys.

Speaker 4 When I walked back in, Susan was on her knees and crying hysterically with her head in the chair.

Speaker 4 And the sheriff had told me that that she had admitted that she had let the car go in the lake with her kids in the back seat.

Speaker 24 they gave her a pen and paper and she wrote down her confession i dropped to the lowest when i allowed my children to go down that ramp into the water without me

Speaker 82 she told the sheriff where to look for her car a few hours later divers found it at the bottom of john d long lake Two small bodies strapped in car seats in the back.

Speaker 84 Sheriff Wells alerted the press.

Speaker 14 Susan Smith has been arrested and will be charged with two counts of murder in connection with the deaths of her children, Michael III and Alexander 14 months.

Speaker 23 There was a shockwave.

Speaker 109 It's like the place was struck by lightning.

Speaker 23 This thunder went over that crowd.

Speaker 104 Shock.

Speaker 21 How did you find out that she had confessed?

Speaker 6 When Sheriff Wells announced it to the public. That's the way I found out.

Speaker 39 Did you think initially maybe this was some sort of mistake, obviously?

Speaker 11 They've got the wrong person.

Speaker 90 No.

Speaker 6 My thoughts were just, what is he talking about? I didn't think it was a mistake. I didn't think it was correct.
I was just like, what is he talking about?

Speaker 75 You couldn't even get your head around it.

Speaker 99 No.

Speaker 66 The question of what happened to the boys had been answered, but why it happened would take years to untangle.

Speaker 62 A highly emotional trial would rivet the nation and have neighbors taking sides.

Speaker 75 What were people saying leading up to the trial?

Speaker 10 You know, there was the question of, do you think she should die for killing them?

Speaker 83 Family secrets would spill out, setting the stage for an emotional showdown.

Speaker 6 You don't kill your children for what happened to you. I wanted an eye for an eye.

Speaker 20 I know, but I knew it was horrible.

Speaker 71 It was a heartbreaking end to an already tragic story.

Speaker 14 The vehicle, a 1990 Mazda driven by Smith, was located late Thursday afternoon in Lake John DeLong near Union.

Speaker 14 Two bodies were found in the vehicle's back seat.

Speaker 10 I remember Willard Scott crying on the Today Show during one of the weather breaks.

Speaker 90 And I would like to wear this white rose this morning for those two sweet children. We are so, all of us emotionally involved in this story.

Speaker 21 You're sharing this information with viewers, viewers around the world as well.

Speaker 79 What was the initial reaction?

Speaker 7 Anger.

Speaker 10 People were angry.

Speaker 13 For the black community, there was added rage.

Speaker 37 Everybody's looking for a black man, and, you know, I hate that she used this as a scapegoat, you know, to cover up the incident.

Speaker 37 You know, it could have been anything else, you know, but this is the way she chose out.

Speaker 100 Susan's attempts to blame a black man inflame painful stereotypes.

Speaker 75 Union Sheriff Jeff Bailey.

Speaker 92 She deflected onto somebody else that she knew would gain attention from the media, gain attention from law enforcement. It's a black man that took these two white children.

Speaker 75 Susan's brother Scotty addressed the racial issue at a press conference.

Speaker 117 On behalf of my family,

Speaker 117 we want to apologize to the black community of Union. I'm thankful,

Speaker 117 especially to many of my black friends who called me and

Speaker 117 you know to

Speaker 117 comfort me and to tell me that they still love me.

Speaker 61 Amidst the tense climate, police drove Susan to the courthouse the day after her confession.

Speaker 23 This is no overstatement at all. There was a howling lynch mob of women waiting to see her.

Speaker 14 You need to cry.

Speaker 12 There was one woman leading that mob of outraged women.

Speaker 23 They were just outraged, black, white. And I remember she screamed at Susan, hold your head up.

Speaker 17 Hold your head up. I want to look at you.

Speaker 23 And that's when I knew

Speaker 23 this is going to fascinate the world for a long time.

Speaker 100 Three days after Susan Smith confessed to killing her sons, Michael and Alex Smith were laid to rest.

Speaker 43 Their father, David, inconsolable as he walked into the church to say a final goodbye.

Speaker 6 Craig, it throws everything out of whack.

Speaker 90 Forever.

Speaker 6 It changes everything having to bury a child.

Speaker 6 And burying two of them,

Speaker 6 that the mother killed them.

Speaker 6 I didn't know which way to go.

Speaker 95 Scores of strangers felt his pain and gathered outside the church to pay their respects.

Speaker 118 You still can't, you know, grasp and say, why would somebody do anything like that, let alone a mother?

Speaker 11 Nearly a month later, David gathered the courage to face Susan.

Speaker 6 She just casually, like you and I, sitting here, said, I'm sorry.

Speaker 76 And that was about as far as it went.

Speaker 90 Me?

Speaker 6 Craig, I would have been around her ankles begging her to forgive me if I had done what she did.

Speaker 76 That was it.

Speaker 6 That was it.

Speaker 15 That was it.

Speaker 95 Did she ask you to do anything during that conversation?

Speaker 79 Did she ask for you to testify on her behalf?

Speaker 11 Did she ask?

Speaker 6 No, no, she didn't even ask for my forgiveness.

Speaker 95 Did you ask her why?

Speaker 6 Yes, I did ask her, why did you do this? Why did you

Speaker 26 why?

Speaker 6 And she said, I don't know why, but I'm sorry.

Speaker 11 David did did not buy Susan's apology or her apparent remorse.

Speaker 74 And neither did prosecutors.

Speaker 95 They believed Susan's actions were premeditated and decided to seek the death penalty.

Speaker 57 Despite her confession, Susan pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder.

Speaker 75 What were people saying leading up to the trial?

Speaker 10 You know, there was the question of, do you think she should die for killing them? That got a lot of coverage, and there was a lot of discussion.

Speaker 95 Many in the community were uncomfortable with the idea of sentencing a person to death, especially a woman.

Speaker 11 But the young prosecutor in charge of the case, Tommy Pope, decided that shouldn't matter.

Speaker 73 I felt like Susan got treated differently than anyone else would in a similar situation. And I was determined from a justice standpoint not to let that happen.

Speaker 79 Why do you think she was treated differently?

Speaker 73 I think the problem was Susan reminded people, and I say people, us, jurors, law enforcement,

Speaker 73 she could have been your sister. She could have been your coworker.

Speaker 25 Less than a year after she killed her boys, Susan stood trial for their murders.

Speaker 1 Opening statements at the trial of Susan Smith.

Speaker 91 Once again, news crews from all over the country descended on the small town of Union.

Speaker 23 Main Street in front of the courthouse is shut down.

Speaker 53 The prosecution was ready to present its case.

Speaker 11 What did you have to prove?

Speaker 73 So in South Carolina, I always tell people a death penalty is like a murder plus. And it's a two-part trial.
First part is about guilt. The second part, if you're successful on guilt, is the penalty.

Speaker 74 Prosecutors told the jury Susan's guilt was not in question.

Speaker 75 Her handwritten confession made that clear.

Speaker 40 Then They presented their theory of why she did it.

Speaker 73 What made her kill those boys was a selfish desire, a delusional desire, but a selfish desire to be with another man.

Speaker 46 That man was Tom Finley, the wealthy coworker Susan dated after her marriage fell apart.

Speaker 75 The prosecution argued Susan was in love with him.

Speaker 45 There was just one problem.

Speaker 23 He didn't want kids.

Speaker 97 Prosecutors showed jurors a letter Tom wrote to Susan a week before she killed her children.

Speaker 38 In it, he explained why he ended their relationship.

Speaker 52 Susan, I could really fall for you, but like I have told you before, there are some things about you that aren't suited for me.

Speaker 75 And yes, I am speaking about your children. The fact is, I don't want children, and I don't want to be responsible for anyone else's children either.

Speaker 63 Prosecutors argued those words pushed Susan to murder.

Speaker 73 You say, well, why wouldn't she just give away the kids?

Speaker 73 If you give away the kids, you're a bad mother.

Speaker 73 But if the carjacker takes your kids, you're a victim. And if you're a victim, you're more likely that Tom Finley's going to come and rescue you.

Speaker 54 The prosecution argued that Susan's carjacking story was a cold calculated plan.

Speaker 13 Her failure to try and save her own sons was proof.

Speaker 73 I always tell people if she'd shown up at the house wet,

Speaker 73 injured, you know, from diving out of the car, car. If she'd gone straight to that house and said, I've done a horrible thing, you and I'd probably never be talking about it today.

Speaker 73 But she fabricated that story and put that car in the lake.

Speaker 57 Experts testified it took six minutes for Susan's car to sink

Speaker 66 and played this simulation video for the jury.

Speaker 73 You know, as it goes down and the water comes through the vents and the floorboard and it's coming up and it's coming toward that camera, and ultimately, it covers the camera.

Speaker 73 Which, I mean, even describing it makes it hard to, you know, breathe almost.

Speaker 42 Day after day, David listened to testimony about the deaths of his sons, and each day he was forced to look at the woman who killed them.

Speaker 47 As you sat there, what was going through your mind?

Speaker 6 I don't know if I should even answer that.

Speaker 47 To be honest, though.

Speaker 6 I used to sit there and look at the back of her head

Speaker 6 and then look at where the bailiffs were,

Speaker 6 the the officers were,

Speaker 6 and think about killing her.

Speaker 6 How quick could I get to her? Could I reach her before that officer reaches me?

Speaker 6 Or could I get to her before

Speaker 6 that person would jump in front of me before I got my hands on her?

Speaker 22 Yeah. You wanted her dead?

Speaker 26 I did.

Speaker 75 Of course, David never acted on those thoughts.

Speaker 11 He was hoping the state would put Susan to death.

Speaker 74 But defense attorneys would have something to say about that.

Speaker 11 They had a very different explanation for why Susan killed her children.

Speaker 18 It is a story of a really complete emotional collapse.

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Speaker 86 There are new episodes out every Thursday.

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Speaker 83 Susan Smith's lawyers had done everything they could to keep the death penalty off the table.

Speaker 85 Was there ever a plea deal offered?

Speaker 7 Absolutely.

Speaker 18 Yes, she would have pled guilty in exchange for a life sentence.

Speaker 28 Lead attorney David Bruck.

Speaker 18 And the prosecution said no and

Speaker 18 made the offer again and again and again.

Speaker 85 The defense saw just one option, lay out the case for why Susan should not be sentenced to death.

Speaker 21 When most people think about Susan Smith, it's manipulative, it's conniving.

Speaker 11 Some have described her as pure evil.

Speaker 18 Pure evil. Yeah.

Speaker 63 The time that you spent with her, preparing for her defense, what was she like?

Speaker 18 Well,

Speaker 18 a lot of what I saw was that she was just in an agony of grief and remorse and self-loathing. Grief for her children, remorse for what she had done.

Speaker 11 Out of the gate, they offered a very different explanation for why Susan Susan killed her sons.

Speaker 18 What led her to the lake is a story of mental illness. It's a story of depression.
It is a story of a really complete emotional collapse.

Speaker 82 They argued Susan wasn't homicidal that night.

Speaker 25 She was suicidal.

Speaker 83 To prove it, defense attorneys would present the details of Susan's past attempts to take her own life.

Speaker 34 Law enforcement agents were also called as witnesses to share what Susan told them.

Speaker 4 She mentioned to me that she had started down the ramp a couple times herself

Speaker 4 to commit suicide with the kids. She felt that was the best thing.

Speaker 48 Agent Pete Logan spent days observing Susan during the search for her boys.

Speaker 38 He testified he believed her account, that she tried to take her own life as well that night.

Speaker 4 She stopped both times and got out of the car. And she said, I'll never understand why I reached in and let the emergency brake go.

Speaker 23 The main thrust of her defense was sympathy, sympathy, sympathy.

Speaker 39 They told the jury Susan didn't kill her children to be with a wealthy man.

Speaker 75 To be clear, there was a wealthy boyfriend.

Speaker 47 Yes. Okay.

Speaker 21 You just maintain that it wasn't her affair with the wealthy boyfriend that led to the murders of Michael and Alex.

Speaker 18 It wasn't her desire to get back together with the wealthy boyfriend. That relationship was dead as a doornail before this crime occurred.

Speaker 46 The defense argued what happened at the lake stemmed from trauma far older than a recent breakup.

Speaker 11 It began when she was a child.

Speaker 18 She grew up in a family marked by alcoholism and violence, and finally

Speaker 18 her father did commit suicide.

Speaker 30 Susan was six when he died.

Speaker 18 He shot himself and then called 911 and screamed into the phone to get them to come and help him. That is what suicide is like.
It's not rational.

Speaker 18 People want to die and they want to live at the same time. And what she did at the lake really echoed the way her father left her when she was just a little girl.

Speaker 57 The defense hired a renowned psychiatrist to evaluate Susan and testify about her past.

Speaker 23 This is a person

Speaker 23 scarred by childhood, scarred by

Speaker 23 a disordered family, a dysfunctional family.

Speaker 53 And the defense argued those untreated scars and depression led to suicidal thoughts.

Speaker 18 She is a child at age 13, was making childish

Speaker 18 suicidal attempts with pills, and again at age 18.

Speaker 72 The last attempt, so serious, Susan, was hospitalized.

Speaker 75 While you were dating, even when you were married, did she seem like she was mentally ill at any point?

Speaker 15 No.

Speaker 68 No depression? No.

Speaker 15 No.

Speaker 22 Seemed totally normal.

Speaker 89 Yes.

Speaker 79 And when you heard that,

Speaker 75 did you think, oh,

Speaker 75 well, that might explain this, or that might explain that?

Speaker 65 Or no?

Speaker 26 No.

Speaker 26 I don't.

Speaker 15 Nothing

Speaker 6 gives you the right to kill your children.

Speaker 24 Susan's attorneys presented even more evidence to shed light on her behavior.

Speaker 83 It involved her relationship with stepfather Beverly Russell.

Speaker 18 A father who seemed to the outside world what she had lacked

Speaker 18 in her earliest years, but it turned out that he had been sexually molesting her when she was a teenager,

Speaker 18 at least at age 15, 16.

Speaker 53 Susan reported the abuse to a teacher.

Speaker 75 Social services investigated and Russell confessed.

Speaker 61 But after a closed court hearing, no criminal charges were filed.

Speaker 52 Russell did agree to move out and undergo family counseling.

Speaker 67 After Susan's arrest, it was Russell who took out a mortgage to pay for her defense.

Speaker 79 Bev Russell is quite the interesting character in all of this.

Speaker 38 He's an abuser.

Speaker 71 And by the way, he hires you to represent her.

Speaker 29 Yes.

Speaker 83 Expert witnesses testified the sexual abuse was a major contributor to Susan's depression, promiscuity, and insecurity.

Speaker 24 And it all came crashing down at that lake.

Speaker 21 You argued there was another reason that Susan snapped that night, this mounting fear that her private life was about to be exposed.

Speaker 101 What did she fear was going to come out?

Speaker 18 Well, her

Speaker 17 ex-husband,

Speaker 18 David, knew that she had

Speaker 18 had this sexual relationship with her boss, and it had also come out that

Speaker 18 this sexual relationship with her stepfather had resumed.

Speaker 83 In the year leading up to the boys' deaths, the defense told the jury that Beverly Russell had more sexual encounters with Susan.

Speaker 18 And she is exhibiting the promiscuity and the impaired judgment of an untreated incest survivor, of somebody who was left to figure out what had been done to her on her own.

Speaker 98 The defense argued Susan worried it would come out during her divorce.

Speaker 18 She was a single mother with two small children who was about to be utterly disgraced, and she could not, could not

Speaker 18 survive this. And the children could not be left alone without their mother.
And that is where

Speaker 18 the suicide idea came from.

Speaker 83 The defense had done all it could to garner sympathy for Susan Smith and rested its case.

Speaker 12 But the trial would have one more twist.

Speaker 83 At the last minute, the judge allowed jurors to consider a lesser charge.

Speaker 95 It took the prosecution by surprise.

Speaker 73 The judge decided to give an involuntary manslaughter instruction, too, which suddenly took you from murder to like five-year penalty or something.

Speaker 73 And so that was a little nervous time going to the jury in that first phase.

Speaker 61 The courtroom was on pins and needles.

Speaker 67 Would the jury spare Susan Smith's life?

Speaker 49 On July 22nd, 1995, in the sweltering heat of a South Carolina summer, summer, the jury and the Susan Smith trial started deliberations.

Speaker 79 Do you remember what it was like, Tommy, waiting for that verdict to come back from the jury?

Speaker 73 It's stressful waiting. You know, you run through your mind, would I do this different? Would I do that different? But you have to kind of let that go and just accept what comes.

Speaker 13 Were you fairly confident that they would convict her?

Speaker 6 I didn't really know either way. That was the first time I've ever been through a trial, and especially one capital murder.

Speaker 78 Just two hours later, the jury returned with a verdict guilty on two counts of murder.

Speaker 6 At least she was

Speaker 6 going to go to prison. That took some relief off of me.

Speaker 40 And right on queue, Mother Nature offered the town a bit of relief as well.

Speaker 102 The weather broke.

Speaker 23 It rained like I haven't seen it rain in a long time. It was like a cleansing in that little town.

Speaker 46 The prosecution had won the first battle, but another lay ahead.

Speaker 75 The penalty phase.

Speaker 7 Given the evidence, given the confession, given the mounting publicity, how worried were you that she was in fact going to be executed?

Speaker 18 I thought it was so clear from the facts that this was a murder-suicide attempt that was

Speaker 18 caused by mental illness, that she was not going to be sentenced to death.

Speaker 75 This time, the defense could call character witnesses to testify, people who knew Susan well. What was the strongest testimony that you had?

Speaker 18 I think the testimony about how much she loved those children from so many people.

Speaker 74 But the defense's most riveting testimony came from Susan's stepfather, Beverly Russell.

Speaker 25 He read from a letter he'd written to Susan after her arrest.

Speaker 75 In it, he acknowledged his sexual abuse and apologized for the damage he'd caused.

Speaker 18 Beverly Russell was a very, very flawed man, but he still saw his responsibility to Susan when this disaster struck and

Speaker 18 did what he could.

Speaker 83 But the prosecution had a completely different take and reminded the jury that Susan wasn't the victim in this trial.

Speaker 34 Her sons were.

Speaker 82 David took to the stand to share his fondest memories.

Speaker 108 How hard was that for you?

Speaker 6 That was probably probably this,

Speaker 6 I won't say the hardest day I've ever had, but

Speaker 6 it's been among the top five.

Speaker 22 What do you remember about that experience?

Speaker 6 I remember Tommy Pope just asking me a lot of questions

Speaker 6 about Michael and Alex and about mine and Susan's marriage. I remember it

Speaker 26 seemed like I cried a lot.

Speaker 23 Everybody was in tears.

Speaker 109 It was so raw.

Speaker 23 It was so powerful in its emotion, in its heartbreak, in his heartbreak.

Speaker 75 The prosecution wanted Susan to pay for the terrible agony she'd caused and hoped the jurors would too.

Speaker 53 They deliberated just two hours before agreeing on a sentence,

Speaker 13 life in prison.

Speaker 21 When the decision was read that Susan would not be executed for the crimes, What was her reaction?

Speaker 18 Well, she was relieved for her family, that her family was not going to have to go through the whole gruesome process of having a loved one executed.

Speaker 42 But David was both angry and disappointed.

Speaker 71 He still is.

Speaker 6 It wasn't an accident. She didn't kill them by mistake.
She took a life. She should have gave up her life for it.

Speaker 44 Lead prosecutor Tommy Pope says it was a hard loss to accept, but he has no regrets.

Speaker 73 I mean, I felt like we proved our case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Speaker 52 A few weeks after the verdict, Dateline's Dennis Murphy talked to five of the jurors.

Speaker 35 Why did you decide to spare Susan Smith with your vote?

Speaker 111 After we listened to everything and we got all the evidence, and

Speaker 111 I'm kind of I figured that the death family just wouldn't,

Speaker 111 that would be like a easy way out, to my opinion.

Speaker 114 Would you say you all bought the defense presentation to Susan Smith?

Speaker 103 Woman with a lot of troubles?

Speaker 111 I never went for the suicide part of it.

Speaker 103 What do you hope will happen to Susan Smith?

Speaker 6 I hope that Susan will be able to deal with herself in prison for the rest of her life knowing that.

Speaker 66 But that life sentence didn't guarantee Susan would spend the rest of her days in prison.

Speaker 75 After 30 years, she'd be eligible for parole, something David could not live with and would fight tooth and nail to prevent.

Speaker 6 She deliberately killed Michael Knox,

Speaker 6 and they can't let her out.

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Speaker 61 In the years after his boys were murdered, David Smith's heartbreak was so all-consuming, he sometimes thought about taking his own life.

Speaker 6 There were a few times.

Speaker 68 Take me back to one of those times.

Speaker 32 You went back to the lake.

Speaker 89 And what happened?

Speaker 6 I had my car lined up on the same boat ramp.

Speaker 108 No.

Speaker 6 Because I wanted to go

Speaker 6 the same place, the same way they did.

Speaker 76 But I couldn't do it.

Speaker 6 I prayed for the strength to do it.

Speaker 6 There was a time when I was on their grave

Speaker 68 with a gun in my mouth

Speaker 6 praying to God to give me strength to pull that trigger.

Speaker 26 But thank goodness he didn't do it.

Speaker 93 Susan's life sentence didn't put David at ease.

Speaker 40 She would still be eligible for parole after 30 years, and it weighed on him.

Speaker 47 Would you have been better off had the state executed her?

Speaker 26 Wow.

Speaker 6 For myself, yes.

Speaker 6 Because I wouldn't have to be dealing with what's coming up now. I mean,

Speaker 17 Craig,

Speaker 6 I know they said she had a tough life growing up, and I've never tried to make light of that. But you don't kill your children.

Speaker 6 For what happened to you.

Speaker 6 I wanted an eye for an eye.

Speaker 6 But the jury saw a difference.

Speaker 74 At first, David put the thought of Susan's potential freedom in the back of his mind.

Speaker 95 He and Tiffany, who'd remained by his side, focused on building a life together.

Speaker 75 They married in 2003.

Speaker 6 I saw how dedicated and faithful and

Speaker 6 compassionate Tiffany was

Speaker 6 through all of it and stuck by my side. So I knew that I better make that jump before I lose it.

Speaker 75 And while David didn't think he would have more kids, along came a daughter, Savannah.

Speaker 30 How does

Speaker 75 something like that change you as a father?

Speaker 79 When you lose two kids the way you lost them, how does that change you and the way you parent?

Speaker 6 For me, it was a fine balance between

Speaker 6 Being overprotective

Speaker 6 and

Speaker 6 not very protective at all. Not being part of their life because you're scared to love them because something happened to them.

Speaker 52 As for Susan, her name still made headlines periodically, mostly when she found herself in trouble.

Speaker 66 In 2000, two guards were fired and later convicted of having inappropriate relationships with her.

Speaker 97 Susan was transferred to a different prison.

Speaker 44 She was also punished several times for possessing illegal drugs.

Speaker 22 What have you heard? What have you been made?

Speaker 6 I've heard about drug abuse, had sexual relations with guards, but I would just hear it and then move on.

Speaker 74 When you heard those things, did it surprise you?

Speaker 26 No, no, not

Speaker 6 at all.

Speaker 46 Not much else was known about Susan's life in prison.

Speaker 42 And then, in 2004, Dateline producer Carol Gable wrote to Susan asking for an interview.

Speaker 40 Though South Carolina doesn't allow prisoners to do on-camera or phone interviews, Susan was allowed to write letters.

Speaker 19 Dear Carol, I received your letter and was glad to hear from you.

Speaker 78 The correspondence would continue for 20 years and give a rare look into Susan's life in her own words.

Speaker 43 When you wrote that initial letter to her, what were you hoping

Speaker 63 to accomplish?

Speaker 19 What I was hoping to do is to get some sense of her point of view. We heard lots about her.
her.

Speaker 19 Many, many people are willing to talk about her,

Speaker 19 but she hasn't spoken much about herself.

Speaker 40 Susan would end up sending more than 50 letters, some casual, others more revealing.

Speaker 19 I am not a horrible person, Carol. I'm a human being who made a horrible decision.
I grieve daily for my boys.

Speaker 60 In her letters, Susan wrote about her struggles with mental health.

Speaker 19 I cannot remember a time when I did not suffer from depression. Everyone has a breaking point, but not everyone reaches theirs.

Speaker 19 I'm not trying to offer excuses for what happened, but neither am I this mean person who harmed her children because she wanted to be with a man who didn't want children.

Speaker 30 She also said she attempted suicide three times while in prison.

Speaker 19 When they found me, there was a big puddle of blood and I'd written with my blood, let me die. Carol, I truly did want to die at that moment.

Speaker 62 As the years passed, Susan sent cards.

Speaker 66 She wrote about getting therapy, medication, and a job.

Speaker 19 Right now I'm working in the school as a tutor. I teach math to students trying to get their GED.

Speaker 65 Did you ever think, especially early on in the back and forth, that she might have an agenda?

Speaker 24 with you? Oh, sure.

Speaker 19 I mean, you always have to consider that as a possibility. But over time, she always said the same things.
It didn't change. The facts didn't change.

Speaker 53 One thing Susan can never change is what she did at the lake that night.

Speaker 74 In a recent letter, she included what she says is her best explanation for what happened.

Speaker 19 I'd never felt so completely alone as I did that night. I bit all my fingernails off.
When I got to the lake, that's when it hit me how I was going to die. Michael and Alex were asleep.

Speaker 66 She said she stopped the car from going into the lake several times before finally jumping out, and then she let it roll in.

Speaker 19 I never saw the car go into the lake. When I reached the top of the hill, I stopped and looked back, and all I could see was a dark lake.

Speaker 19 You'd never have thought that two little boys had just drowned at their mother's hand.

Speaker 53 Susan says she accepts responsibility for what she did.

Speaker 75 David disagrees.

Speaker 6 I don't think she's even to me been really sorry for what she did.

Speaker 74 You don't think she's sorry?

Speaker 6 No, not genuinely.

Speaker 53 By November 2024, Susan was 53

Speaker 46 and believed she was ready to re-enter society.

Speaker 52 She would argue as much at her parole hearing.

Speaker 25 But David would also be there fighting to keep Susan in prison.

Speaker 21 You don't think she's been rehabilitated?

Speaker 6 I don't think she'll ever be rehabilitated.

Speaker 97 The months before Susan's parole hearing were anxious times for David and Tiffany Smith.

Speaker 70 For almost 30 years, we've not worried about it. And then for six months leading up to the parole hearing, it started eating away at both of us because they could come back and say, let her out.

Speaker 75 What do you plan to say?

Speaker 6 I don't know for sure. Just speaking from the heart, nothing scripted.

Speaker 6 But I just want to tell that parole board that they can't let her out.

Speaker 66 The day finally arrived, a rainy November morning in 2024.

Speaker 75 For David and Tiffany, it was deja vu.

Speaker 70 There were cameras set up out on the lawn, everywhere.

Speaker 75 But Susan would not face the cameras outside.

Speaker 97 She appeared virtually from prison where she'd spent decades.

Speaker 28 Her trial attorney, David Brock, believes Susan should be released.

Speaker 18 Susan doesn't pose a danger to society. I don't see what...
Punishing her year after year after year in prison does to help anyone.

Speaker 11 To those who would say,

Speaker 101 Michael and Alex deserve more than 25, 30 years for their murders.

Speaker 18 Michael and Alex are beyond harm or help.

Speaker 74 Susan's parole attorney, Tommy Thomas, told the board Susan's untreated mental health issues led her to the lake that night.

Speaker 119 It doesn't take away from the horrendous nature of the crime. She knows that she's guilty.
She struggles with the guilt every day.

Speaker 24 He said Susan would live with her brother brother back in Union and try to become a counselor if granted release.

Speaker 56 I think that her motivation of being released is secondary to the primary goal of if she can maybe help some other mother

Speaker 56 who is thinking of maybe the same things.

Speaker 39 And then, For the first time since 1994, Susan Smith appeared on camera to speak speak on her own behalf.

Speaker 120 First of all, I want to say how

Speaker 120 very sorry I am.

Speaker 120 I know that what I did was horrible.

Speaker 120 And I would give anything if I could go back and change it.

Speaker 121 And I love Michael and Alex with all my heart.

Speaker 97 The board asked what she would say to the law enforcement community who worked tirelessly for nine days to find her children.

Speaker 121 I'm sorry that I put them through that. I really, really am.

Speaker 120 And I'm especially sorry to the devil that I had to find them.

Speaker 120 I wish I could take that bag.

Speaker 121 I really do.

Speaker 121 I was really, I didn't lie

Speaker 121 to get away with it.

Speaker 20 I really didn't.

Speaker 120 I was just scared.

Speaker 121 I didn't know how I could tell the people that loved them that they would never see them again.

Speaker 120 I didn't know how I could tell David he couldn't see his son again.

Speaker 46 Susan acknowledged she hasn't been a model prisoner, but claimed she's changed.

Speaker 121 I grew up and I knew that I needed to stop making dumb decisions and I did.

Speaker 120 I just I knew it was time to just

Speaker 121 grow up and do the right thing.

Speaker 120 I just made a lot of dumb choices and mistakes in here

Speaker 120 so I know I've learned from those mistakes.

Speaker 25 In closing, she begged the board for her freedom.

Speaker 120 I am a Christian and God is a big part of my life and I know he has forgiven me

Speaker 121 and it is by his grace and mercy that and I have a lot of faith and I I live by that every day.

Speaker 120 And I just ask that

Speaker 121 you

Speaker 120 show that same kind of mercy as well.

Speaker 39 But the hearing wasn't over.

Speaker 11 David and Tiffany were about to address the board.

Speaker 42 They filed into the room, flanked by family and friends, all wearing a pinned photo of Michael and Alex on their chests.

Speaker 57 Tiffany cautioned the board not to be swayed by any of Susan's arguments.

Speaker 20 All I can think about is how much she lied and manipulated everybody.

Speaker 20 And that just makes me feel like if she could do that, then whatever she's told you today, I'm sure will probably lies as well.

Speaker 89 And then all eyes were on David Smith.

Speaker 6 God gives us free choice.

Speaker 6 And she made free choice that night to end her life.

Speaker 6 This wasn't a tragic mistake.

Speaker 6 It wasn't something that she didn't mean to do. She purposely

Speaker 6 meant to end their life.

Speaker 6 I understand

Speaker 20 back in

Speaker 6 95

Speaker 6 that through the state's law,

Speaker 6 life imprisonment 30 years to life.

Speaker 6 But ultimately to me,

Speaker 6 that's only 15 years

Speaker 6 per child,

Speaker 6 her own children.

Speaker 84 it's just not enough.

Speaker 55 After three decades, Susan's fate lay in the hands of the parole board.

Speaker 61 Its decision was just moments away.

Speaker 78 After an hour of tense emotional testimony at Susan Smith's parole hearing, the decision came quickly in the end.

Speaker 20 Susan Smith is a very good person.

Speaker 17 The board

Speaker 82 denied Susan's request.

Speaker 21 By that point, she had left the Zoom hearing.

Speaker 83 Once again, David spoke to the swarm of cameras outside.

Speaker 112 Today,

Speaker 112 the committee made the right decision and

Speaker 112 denied her parole.

Speaker 70 That's how it was.

Speaker 4 You literally literally could feel

Speaker 70 and see the relief off of both of us

Speaker 67 for now susan smith remains in prison

Speaker 40 but going forward she'll be up for parole every two years

Speaker 21 every two years you don't have to deal with this yes have you made peace with her

Speaker 6 yes how just

Speaker 6 because

Speaker 6 It's going to give me another chance to stand up for Michael Alex,

Speaker 6 to defend them,

Speaker 6 and

Speaker 6 try to keep

Speaker 6 the sympathy off of her that she keeps trying to conjure.

Speaker 42 And every time he goes up to the parole board, Tiffany says she will be there with him.

Speaker 11 How hard has this been on you over the last 30 years?

Speaker 19 It's been very hard

Speaker 70 to start with. It took a while for him to trust me again

Speaker 70 because he had been betrayed so

Speaker 73 awfully.

Speaker 70 But I stuck beside him through it all to, you know, to try to win his trust, to show him that I wouldn't do anything like that.

Speaker 70 That's not who I am.

Speaker 70 And then losing Michael and Alice was a loss to me as well because I've always loved children.

Speaker 42 David and Tiffany don't live in Union anymore.

Speaker 25 They have a home near Spartanburg where David continues to get up every morning and work at a manufacturing company.

Speaker 75 How have you been able to do it? What has been the secret to not letting what happened define your life?

Speaker 6 I would say the

Speaker 6 top

Speaker 6 would be

Speaker 6 my faith in God.

Speaker 7 You know,

Speaker 6 I was mad at him for a long time. And me and him have had some heated discussions, but I never blamed him.
But the second was

Speaker 6 not letting her win.

Speaker 6 You may have took my children, but you're not going to make me bitter.

Speaker 6 You're not going to make me mad at the world.

Speaker 76 You're not going to make me take my own life.

Speaker 26 You're not going to win.

Speaker 11 Have you forgiven her?

Speaker 34 Of course.

Speaker 7 Why?

Speaker 6 Because that's the way I was taught. I had to forgive her, because it was just going going to eat me up if I didn't.
It was going to hold me back.

Speaker 75 But he says there's another painful struggle he faces daily, trying to remember his boys.

Speaker 11 It's been three decades now.

Speaker 99 Are the memories...

Speaker 63 Are they still fresh or

Speaker 21 do they fade at some point?

Speaker 6 I've never really had any

Speaker 6 memories of them since they passed. I was told by,

Speaker 6 you know, psychiatrists and stuff through the years, early on, that that was just my self-defense system.

Speaker 6 It was protecting me from myself, but that they would come back.

Speaker 6 But Craig, we're here 30 years later, as you said, and I still have very few memories of Michael Alex, and that hurts.

Speaker 99 That hurts. You want vivid memories? Yes.

Speaker 29 Of course I want to memorize them.

Speaker 6 I want to remember things I did with them.

Speaker 6 but they're not there.

Speaker 13 What do you think that is?

Speaker 21 Do you think that perhaps that is

Speaker 69 to help you on some weird level?

Speaker 6 Or that's all I can think it is.

Speaker 26 It's my own

Speaker 6 mind protecting me from myself

Speaker 6 because I still miss them so much that those memories would just hurt too much.

Speaker 6 And my own self knows that. And it's just saying, not yet, David.

Speaker 15 Not yet.

Speaker 66 In January 2025, David returned to John D.

Speaker 13 Long Lake, the place where this whole tragedy began.

Speaker 89 Stopping at the memorial the community erected for the boys.

Speaker 75 People still come here to pay their respects.

Speaker 6 Michael and Alex

Speaker 6 have touched so many hearts.

Speaker 75 The lake, he says, looks a little different.

Speaker 6 This is the first time I've been back to this lake in about 25 years.

Speaker 75 For one thing, that boat ramp that Susan used is gone.

Speaker 6 To the eyes it's more peaceful, but

Speaker 6 to the heart it's still sad.

Speaker 6 Sadness.

Speaker 80 David listened to the quiet wind blow over the lake, then shared a few final words for his little boys.

Speaker 80 I'm so sorry.

Speaker 80 But your life ended this way.

Speaker 80 I'm so sorry.

Speaker 90 It's just such a

Speaker 6 peaceful place

Speaker 6 to have such a horrific thing happen.

Speaker 6 Miss you.

Speaker 27 That's all for this edition of Dateline. And check out our Talking Dateline podcast.
Craig Malvin and Josh Mankiewicz will go behind the scenes of tonight's episode.

Speaker 27 Available Wednesday in the Dateline feed wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you again next Friday at 9 8 Central.

Speaker 29 I'm Lester Holt.

Speaker 27 For all of us at NBC News, good night.

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