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Susan Smith - Filicide · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

0:07
Speaker 1: For nine days in the fall of nineteen ninety four,
0:11
Speaker 1: the country watched a mother beg for the safe return
0:13
Speaker 1: of her missing sons, who she said had been taken
0:16
Speaker 1: in a violent carjacking. Police searched, the media amplified every word,
0:21
Speaker 1: and a small South Carolina town held its breath. But
0:25
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, investigators were already noticing cracks in the story.
0:30
Speaker 1: Things didn't seem to add up, and soon they would
0:33
Speaker 1: uncover one of the most heart wrenching true crime cases
0:37
Speaker 1: the country had ever seen. This is the story of
0:42
Speaker 1: Suzanne Smith.
0:44
Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked
0:48
Speaker 2: and Grim, a true crime podcast.
0:51
Speaker 1: The following podcast and material intended for a mature audience
0:58
Speaker 1: listener discretion. I think people liked the last episode.
1:20
Speaker 2: They did.
1:21
Speaker 1: They did even though it was a two parter and
1:23
Speaker 1: people hate, you know, having to listen to two parts.
1:26
Speaker 1: It went over really well.
1:27
Speaker 2: I don't think it's that they hate listening to two parts.
1:29
Speaker 2: So you have like the little weight in the that's true.
1:31
Speaker 1: That's true. Okay, I should I should clarify that it's
1:34
Speaker 1: the weight in between. Yeah, people don't like but.
1:36
Speaker 2: No, well, it was such a doozy of a case, right.
1:38
Speaker 2: I think people were like, holy frigue this, but.
1:42
Speaker 1: Even still like ok one person here on our Spotify
1:45
Speaker 1: comments they wrote, this was just so mind blowingly well told,
1:49
Speaker 1: the best episode to date. Thank you. That was a
1:53
Speaker 1: really nice comment. Thank you appreciate that. We actually had
1:57
Speaker 1: quite a few really good comments on it. And another
2:00
Speaker 1: one here that says, I have heard another podcast cover
2:02
Speaker 1: this story, but they did not do it justice like
2:04
Speaker 1: you did. Good call to divide it into two parts,
2:07
Speaker 1: even though I had to wait. Awesome job. Thank you
2:10
Speaker 1: very much. Like okay, feeling the fact that people think
2:13
Speaker 1: I did did it justice that that made me feel
2:16
Speaker 1: pretty good.
2:16
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that's the goal. You did a good job. Well,
2:18
Speaker 2: thank you a real good job. You've done good? You done?
2:22
Speaker 1: How what's the saying you done did good?
2:24
Speaker 2: Yeah? You done did good, Ben, It's not even really
2:27
Speaker 2: just saying.
2:27
Speaker 1: It's just dis section of the English language, you know,
2:30
Speaker 1: breaking it down to basics. Yeah, you're done, did do good,
2:35
Speaker 1: good job.
2:36
Speaker 2: Pat yourself on the back.
2:37
Speaker 1: I will, but only if some people over on Patreon
2:41
Speaker 1: also pat themselves on the back for being so supportive
2:44
Speaker 1: and amazing. For example, we have sun Arts Megan Jared's
2:49
Speaker 1: Katie Caitlyn Post, Meghan b Caitlin Hart Soul. Thank you
2:53
Speaker 1: for telling me how to pronounce your name, by the way.
2:55
Speaker 1: Appreciate that, Wainona Togg and Christina Jordan, who all deserve
3:00
Speaker 1: that pat in the back because they signed up over
3:02
Speaker 1: on Patreon and are supporting us that way. But also
3:05
Speaker 1: they're getting that cool behind the scenes, like the pre
3:08
Speaker 1: show we just recorded and they're gonna be putting up
3:11
Speaker 1: over there soon.
3:12
Speaker 2: Would you ever pronounced that one name differently? If they haven't,
3:17
Speaker 2: hadn't had reached out.
3:19
Speaker 1: I probably would have pronounced it. How I'm sure there
3:20
Speaker 1: are people They're used to people mispronouncing it. I would
3:23
Speaker 1: have said heart Soul, heartseller, heart Soul, Okay, but it's
3:27
Speaker 1: heart soul.
3:28
Speaker 2: Huh. Yeah. Well, there there you go. That was helpful.
3:31
Speaker 1: It was helpful. Appreciate it. But we have an interesting
3:36
Speaker 1: case today.
3:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Ben, Yeah.
3:40
Speaker 1: Well, I gave you a bit of an elevator pitch
3:42
Speaker 1: a little bit, and this one it's trigger warning. It
3:48
Speaker 1: involves the death of two young boys, the murder of
3:52
Speaker 1: two young boys, so trigger warning for that. But there
3:57
Speaker 1: is another interesting aspect to this case. I'm not going
3:59
Speaker 1: to divulge just yet. It is something that you don't
4:03
Speaker 1: typically see in true crime. I mean, it happens, it's
4:07
Speaker 1: just a rarity. And yeah, I think with that we
4:10
Speaker 1: should just get right into the story.
4:12
Speaker 2: Okay, I feel like my jaw is going to just
4:14
Speaker 2: be like on the ground this whole episode.
4:16
Speaker 1: Probably right, probably, But don't worry with this little rarity
4:19
Speaker 1: of true crime. I do divulge what it is here
4:21
Speaker 1: pretty quickly so you won't be on the edge of
4:25
Speaker 1: your seat too long or with me, and we'll get
4:27
Speaker 1: into the details and trust me, it's a story worth telling.
4:31
Speaker 1: For nine days, the country believed two little boys were
4:34
Speaker 1: somewhere out there, still alive. Their names were Michael and Alexander.
4:39
Speaker 1: Now Michael was three years old and Alexander was just
4:42
Speaker 1: fourteen months old. Their faces filled television screens across America.
4:46
Speaker 1: They were taped in storefront windows and pinned to bulletin
4:49
Speaker 1: boards while their mother stood before microphones with their voice
4:52
Speaker 1: breaking as she begged for their safe return. She said
4:55
Speaker 1: a stranger had taken them. According to her, it happened
4:59
Speaker 1: late at night. She was stopped at a red light
5:01
Speaker 1: when a man approached her car, opened the door and
5:04
Speaker 1: forced his way inside. He had a gun, she said,
5:08
Speaker 1: and he ordered her to drive, and she claimed he
5:11
Speaker 1: made her travel for miles before telling her to finally
5:14
Speaker 1: pull over near a rural lake. Then, she said, he
5:17
Speaker 1: pushed her out of the car and drove away with
5:20
Speaker 1: her sons still strapped into their car seats in the back.
5:24
Speaker 1: She told police she could still hear them crying, in fact,
5:26
Speaker 1: as the vehicle was driving off, with her standing there
5:29
Speaker 1: on the side of the road. Now the story it spreadfast,
5:34
Speaker 1: a carjacking involving two young children. While it felt like
5:37
Speaker 1: every parent's worst fears were suddenly made real, law enforcement
5:42
Speaker 1: launched a massive search almost immediately looking for these boys.
5:46
Speaker 1: Roadblocks were set up, flyers were printed by the thousands,
5:49
Speaker 1: and volunteers combed through wooded areas and rural roads just
5:52
Speaker 1: in case. In fact, helicopters scanned highways, and divers even
5:56
Speaker 1: checked bodies of water. The FBI joined the invent mistigation
6:00
Speaker 1: as tips poured in from across the country. At night,
6:04
Speaker 1: porch lights were left on in Union County was a
6:07
Speaker 1: quiet gesture of hope that Michael and Alexander might somehow
6:11
Speaker 1: find their way home. And as always, there was their
6:15
Speaker 1: mother Susan Smith. She became the face of the search.
6:19
Speaker 1: She appeared on national news programs with her hands clasped,
6:23
Speaker 1: eyes downcast, as she spoke directly to the man she
6:26
Speaker 1: said had taken her children. She told him she forgave him.
6:30
Speaker 1: She said that she was just asking him to leave
6:32
Speaker 1: the boy somewhere safe. The police wanted to believe her,
6:36
Speaker 1: but right from the start something felt off, and even
6:40
Speaker 1: as questions began to surface, behind the scenes, the public
6:43
Speaker 1: image remained intact. This was a grieving mother living every
6:46
Speaker 1: parent's worst nightmare. But while cameras focused on highways and
6:50
Speaker 1: wooded back roads, investigators were quietly analyzing this story from
6:54
Speaker 1: a different angle. Because details didn't quite line up, timelines
7:00
Speaker 1: slowly shifted, and the story, when examined closely, didn't behave
7:04
Speaker 1: the way real crimes usually do. Something they couldn't put
7:08
Speaker 1: their finger on. It just wasn't right. And yet still,
7:12
Speaker 1: for nine long days, the search continued because no one
7:16
Speaker 1: wanted to accept the possibility that the truth was far
7:18
Speaker 1: closer and far darker. You see, the truth was, while
7:24
Speaker 1: the nation watched and waited, Michael and Alexander were not missing,
7:30
Speaker 1: and the person who knew where they were, and what
7:33
Speaker 1: happened stood at the very center of the story, asking
7:37
Speaker 1: the world to help her bring them home. On the
7:41
Speaker 1: evening of October twenty fifth, nineteen ninety four, Suzanne Smith
7:46
Speaker 1: picked up her two sons from daycare in Union County,
7:49
Speaker 1: South Carolina. Michael Daniel Smith was three years old, energetic
7:53
Speaker 1: and very talkative, while his younger brother, Alexander Tyler Smith
7:57
Speaker 1: was just fourteen months old and still firmly in the
7:59
Speaker 1: roots teens of infancy. Both boys were secured in their
8:03
Speaker 1: car seats in the back of Susan's Burgundy nineteen ninety
8:06
Speaker 1: Mazda Protege. Now what Susan did after leaving the daycare
8:10
Speaker 1: would not become fully clear until days later, but instead
8:14
Speaker 1: of driving directly home, she spent several hours driving around
8:18
Speaker 1: Union County. Investigators would later determine that she had left
8:22
Speaker 1: work early that afternoon and appeared emotionally distressed throughout the
8:26
Speaker 1: day At the time, though no one knew where she
8:29
Speaker 1: was going or why she remained on the road for
8:31
Speaker 1: so long. As night fell, Susan turned off the main
8:36
Speaker 1: roads and drove towards a rural area just outside of town. There,
8:40
Speaker 1: surrounded by darkness and farmland sat John D. Long Lake,
8:45
Speaker 1: a quiet man made lake with a concrete boat ramp
8:48
Speaker 1: sloping into the water.
8:50
Speaker 2: There were no.
8:51
Speaker 1: Nearby businesses, no street lights, and very little traffic at
8:54
Speaker 1: that hour. It was some time after eight pm when
8:58
Speaker 1: she pulled her car up to that ramphen stopped. Michael
9:01
Speaker 1: and Alex were still strapped into their seats behind her, and,
9:04
Speaker 1: according to Suzanne's later confession, she sat in the driver's
9:08
Speaker 1: seat for several minutes. Overwhelmed and unsure of what to
9:12
Speaker 1: do with herself, she claimed, she placed the car in
9:15
Speaker 1: neutral and allowed it to roll forward slightly, and then
9:18
Speaker 1: stopped it by pulling the e brake. She repeated this
9:22
Speaker 1: action more than once, staring at the water and hesitating
9:25
Speaker 1: each time before letting the car move any further. Eventually,
9:31
Speaker 1: Suzanne stepped out of the vehicle. She stood beside the car,
9:35
Speaker 1: distraught and indecisive, before reaching back inside one final time.
9:41
Speaker 1: At that moment, she released the car's e brake, and
9:44
Speaker 1: the Masda began to roll forward on its own, descending
9:47
Speaker 1: down the ramp and rolling into the murky waters. Suzanne
9:51
Speaker 1: did not re enter the car. She did not attempt
9:54
Speaker 1: to remove her children. Instead, she watched as the vehicle
9:58
Speaker 1: moved into the water slowly and disappeared beneath the surface
10:02
Speaker 1: with both of them still inside. Little Michael and Alex
10:07
Speaker 1: remain strapped into the car seats as the car sank
10:10
Speaker 1: below the surface.
10:15
Speaker 2: I just that is the worst, the absolute worst. I
10:21
Speaker 2: just can't comprehend how that can happen.
10:25
Speaker 1: This is the situation where we have something that you
10:28
Speaker 1: don't typically see in true crime. Is a female killer. Yeah,
10:33
Speaker 1: they are, you know, generally speaking, pretty rare. They're out there,
10:36
Speaker 1: for sure. We've covered many cases, but it's not your
10:39
Speaker 1: typical story. And beyond that, she killed her own children.
10:44
Speaker 2: Her own kids. Holy flying shit. I just can't even
10:50
Speaker 2: that is just you can't even remotely put yourself in
10:54
Speaker 2: that situation at all. I can't fathom that a mom
10:57
Speaker 2: could do that. Right there, two kids, they would you
11:00
Speaker 2: think they have probably been crying or something.
11:02
Speaker 1: Or oh they would have. They would have been crying
11:05
Speaker 1: because imagine the water filling up into that car. The
11:08
Speaker 1: terror of those two children would be going through and
11:10
Speaker 1: she's standing there, she would hear that. Yeah, she would
11:14
Speaker 1: probably even see some flailing in the back of the car.
11:18
Speaker 1: I mean, they're strapped in but there could have been
11:19
Speaker 1: arms going up and trying, who knows, and it would
11:23
Speaker 1: have been the worst thing in the world to have
11:27
Speaker 1: to witness. But she stood there and she did.
11:30
Speaker 2: It just got wrenching. Yes, those poor poor little angel babies. Yeah.
11:36
Speaker 1: Now, after the vehicle was no longer visible, Susan turned
11:39
Speaker 1: away from the lake and she walked up the boat ramp,
11:42
Speaker 1: crossed the nearby road, and ran approximately one hundred yards
11:45
Speaker 1: to the nearest house, which had its porch light on.
11:49
Speaker 1: She then pounded on the door in a state of
11:50
Speaker 1: apparent panic. When the homeowners answered the door, Susanne told
11:54
Speaker 1: them her car had just been stolen and that her
11:57
Speaker 1: two young children were still inside, which of course was
12:00
Speaker 1: a lie. So we know the reality of what happened.
12:04
Speaker 1: But as this story unfolded for the next few days,
12:07
Speaker 1: while the reality was a little bit different, or at
12:10
Speaker 1: least painted differently.
12:11
Speaker 2: No one knew exactly yeah, for quite a while.
12:14
Speaker 1: So with her pounding on the door and claiming this,
12:16
Speaker 1: the homeowner quickly called nine one one and police officers
12:19
Speaker 1: arrived within minutes. Suzanne was visibly shaken, crying and struggling
12:23
Speaker 1: to explain what had happened. She told deputies that earlier,
12:26
Speaker 1: she'd been stopped at a red light when a man
12:28
Speaker 1: approached her car, forced his way inside at gunpoint, and
12:32
Speaker 1: ordered her to drive now. According to her, the encounter
12:36
Speaker 1: happened at an intersection on Monarch Mills Road, a stretch
12:40
Speaker 1: of highway just outside of Union County. She claimed the man,
12:44
Speaker 1: a black male, jumped into the driver's side of the
12:47
Speaker 1: car while she was stopped at the light. The gun
12:51
Speaker 1: was pressed against her side. He allegedly told her to
12:53
Speaker 1: drive and warned her not to say anything or he
12:56
Speaker 1: would kill her. So Susan and she drove for some
13:02
Speaker 1: time under his direction in the backseat. Meanwhile, Michael and
13:06
Speaker 1: Alex sat there crying and frightened over the situation. She
13:09
Speaker 1: told officers. She tried to reassure them, speaking to them
13:12
Speaker 1: while the man sat behind beside her with a gun,
13:14
Speaker 1: and eventually, she claimed, the man ordered her to stop
13:16
Speaker 1: on a rural road near John D. Long Lake and
13:19
Speaker 1: get out of the car. There, she claimed she begged
13:23
Speaker 1: to get her kids out of this car seat with her,
13:27
Speaker 1: which we clearly know was not the case.
13:30
Speaker 2: I just have to say this Lione itself is just terrible,
13:33
Speaker 2: just like going about wasting everyone's time, really and like
13:36
Speaker 2: just this panic when she actually knows what the hell happened. Yeah,
13:41
Speaker 2: that's terrible.
13:43
Speaker 1: Yeah again monster right, Yeah, we say that in almost
13:47
Speaker 1: every episode because that sums up these people to the
13:50
Speaker 1: fullest extent. And that is what she is, an absolute monster.
13:54
Speaker 2: Well, because all these people are listening to her and
13:56
Speaker 2: probably sensing her like fear or whatever, and then panicking
14:00
Speaker 2: and oh my gosh, we got to figure this out.
14:03
Speaker 2: And then really she just knows what the hell happened.
14:06
Speaker 2: It's unreal.
14:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, And they're probably able to put theirselves in that situation.
14:11
Speaker 1: You know what happens if it were my kids stolen, Yeah,
14:14
Speaker 1: panic instilled in them. But here she is, she's just
14:17
Speaker 1: basically like, oh no, Like I'm begging to get my
14:19
Speaker 1: kids out of the back of the car because I
14:21
Speaker 1: knew he was about to take the car, and then
14:23
Speaker 1: so from there he as so. She claims he pushed
14:26
Speaker 1: her out of the car and told her he wasn't
14:28
Speaker 1: going to hurt the children and then drove off with
14:30
Speaker 1: them still alive and strapped in the car seat. That
14:32
Speaker 1: was her version of events, when in reality it's very different.
14:36
Speaker 2: I wonder if she had that already made up before
14:39
Speaker 2: she did what she did. I think so, yeah, I.
14:43
Speaker 1: Fully think so we can discuss that maybe at the
14:46
Speaker 1: end of this episode. Yeah, a little more detail for sure.
14:49
Speaker 2: Now.
14:49
Speaker 1: After allegedly being forced out of the vehicle, Suzanne said
14:52
Speaker 1: she ran to the nearest house for help and nine
14:54
Speaker 1: one one was called. Now officers immediately broadcast a description
14:58
Speaker 1: of the suspect and the vehicle. It was a blackmail
15:02
Speaker 1: driving a Burgundy Mazda Protege with two small children inside.
15:06
Speaker 1: Within a short time, David Smith, the boy's father, arrived
15:11
Speaker 1: at the scene. He found Suzanne distraught and visibly shaken.
15:14
Speaker 1: Although the couple had divorced months earlier. David stood by
15:17
Speaker 1: her side as she repeated her account to police. There
15:21
Speaker 1: was no public indication at that point that, you know what,
15:24
Speaker 1: they need to doubt her story. Now, police and investigators
15:28
Speaker 1: they treated the case with the utmost urgency. Officers quickly
15:32
Speaker 1: set up patrols across Union County and began cana sing
15:36
Speaker 1: nearby Rhodes. Information was also relayed to surrounding jurisdictions, and
15:40
Speaker 1: the assumption that guided the early response was simple but grim.
15:44
Speaker 1: Two young children had been taken by an armed stranger
15:47
Speaker 1: and every minute mattered in fact, as we know best,
15:51
Speaker 1: for the first forty eight hours of the most crucial
15:53
Speaker 1: in these situations. That same night, Suzanne gave additional statements
15:57
Speaker 1: to investigators, repeating the same basic sequence of events. She
16:02
Speaker 1: described the gun, the fear she felt, and the moment
16:05
Speaker 1: she was forced out of the car. During this officers
16:08
Speaker 1: noted that she did not appear physically injured and showed
16:11
Speaker 1: no sign of a struggle, but at the time this
16:13
Speaker 1: did not immediately raise any alarms or red flags. Trauma
16:16
Speaker 1: victims often behave unpredictably, and the priority remained, you know,
16:21
Speaker 1: finding her boys, Michael and Alex. By the end of
16:24
Speaker 1: the night, police had no confirmed sightings of that masta,
16:27
Speaker 1: no witnesses who had seen the carjacking at the intersection
16:30
Speaker 1: that Susan described, and no physical evidence to support or
16:33
Speaker 1: contradict her account. Still, nothing directly disproved her story either.
16:40
Speaker 1: By morning of October twenty sixth, nineteen ninety four, the
16:43
Speaker 1: case had moved far beyond a local emergency and into
16:47
Speaker 1: a national story. Susanne Smith and David Smith appeared together
16:51
Speaker 1: repeatedly standing shoulder to shoulder in front of cameras. Susan
16:56
Speaker 1: pleaded directly to the man that she said and claimed
16:59
Speaker 1: took her children and asking that they'd be returned safely,
17:02
Speaker 1: while lying right through her teeth. David meanwhile echoed her words.
17:07
Speaker 1: But the difference in him while he was being sincere.
17:12
Speaker 2: Lying to a stranger, you know, you can kind of
17:15
Speaker 2: understand maybe a bit more, but lying to these boys'
17:18
Speaker 2: dad too, that that is just cruelty. Yet it's like
17:23
Speaker 2: absolute finest.
17:24
Speaker 1: Well, everything she does is completely self involved. It's all
17:30
Speaker 1: for her own self, her own benefit. And as this
17:33
Speaker 1: story goes on, you'll kind of see what I'm talking
17:35
Speaker 1: about because there's more detail to go to it with that.
17:38
Speaker 1: But yeah, she's standing shoulder to shoulder with these boys dad, Yeah,
17:41
Speaker 1: and he thinks they're missing when literally he's standing right
17:46
Speaker 1: next arm around holding her hand with the fucking killer.
17:51
Speaker 2: And in his mind he would never he could probably
17:54
Speaker 2: never imagine that she would do something.
17:56
Speaker 1: Like that, right exactly now, Inside Union came. The response
18:00
Speaker 1: was overwhelming. Volunteers gathered to help search churches, they opened
18:05
Speaker 1: their doors for prayer vigils. Residents left porch lights on
18:08
Speaker 1: all through the night, a symbolic gesture of hope that
18:11
Speaker 1: the boys would be brought home soon safe. The case
18:14
Speaker 1: struck a very big nerve across the country. With two
18:17
Speaker 1: very young children taken from their mother by a stranger,
18:20
Speaker 1: there was no clear trail. Everyone else was just what
18:23
Speaker 1: if it was me? How sad is this?
18:25
Speaker 2: You know?
18:25
Speaker 1: These poor children. All the while, law enforcement kept expanding
18:30
Speaker 1: the scope of their search. Deputies tray Susan's reported route
18:33
Speaker 1: from the alleged carjacking site, looking for anyone who might
18:36
Speaker 1: have seen the Mazda. Investigators reviewed traffic patterns, check nearby
18:40
Speaker 1: businesses for surveillance footage, and followed up on every single
18:43
Speaker 1: tip that came in, and many were vague, some were
18:46
Speaker 1: clearly wrong, but still they had to check them, but
18:49
Speaker 1: none led to the children. The FBI joined the investigation
18:53
Speaker 1: soon too, bringing additional manpower and resources, and all those
18:56
Speaker 1: tips began pouring in, not just in the local area,
18:59
Speaker 1: but also from across the country, and sightings of the
19:02
Speaker 1: mass that were reported in neighboring states and each had
19:05
Speaker 1: to be checked, but again still nothing. At the same time, though,
19:11
Speaker 1: investigators were quietly beginning to scrutinize Susan's account more closely,
19:15
Speaker 1: while the public narrative focused on an armed carjacker detectives
19:18
Speaker 1: were tasked with testing whether her story could actually be true.
19:23
Speaker 1: So to start, they returned to Monarch Mills Road, the
19:27
Speaker 1: very intersection where Susan said that her car had been
19:31
Speaker 1: stopped at that red light when the carjacker had approached her.
19:35
Speaker 1: The area was dark, it was rural and lightly traveled
19:38
Speaker 1: at night. No one had reported seeing a struggle, a
19:42
Speaker 1: stop vehicle, or anything. But what they discovered here actually
19:46
Speaker 1: raised some questions. See, the traffic light at the intersection
19:50
Speaker 1: was not controlled by a fixed timer who was triggered
19:54
Speaker 1: by censors in the pavement, So, in other words, the
19:58
Speaker 1: light would only turn read for drivers on Monarch Mill
20:02
Speaker 1: Road if another vehicle approached from the other side. Oh
20:07
Speaker 1: but that presents a problem because Suzanne's had been very
20:11
Speaker 1: clear in her statements that she had not seen any
20:13
Speaker 1: other cars at the intersection that night. She was alone there,
20:17
Speaker 1: So if that were true, the light would not have
20:19
Speaker 1: turned red and she would never have had to stop
20:22
Speaker 1: at the red light at all.
20:23
Speaker 2: Okay, I love shit like that, things that you would
20:26
Speaker 2: just never think about, right, Yeah, you probably think you
20:29
Speaker 2: have this this amazing plan, and then it's like one
20:33
Speaker 2: tiny detail that the police are just.
20:35
Speaker 1: Like, wait a second, Yeah, that can't be true.
20:39
Speaker 2: Yeah.
20:40
Speaker 1: So basically this suggested that the event Suzanne described may
20:43
Speaker 1: not have happened at the location she claimed, or, as
20:46
Speaker 1: we already know, didn't happen at all. Now, investigators also
20:50
Speaker 1: examined the physical scene where Suzanne claims she was forced
20:53
Speaker 1: from the car. They couldn't find any tire marks that were,
20:56
Speaker 1: you know, spin out from a vehicle, and no obvious
20:58
Speaker 1: disturbed gravel from her being pushed out or or running
21:01
Speaker 1: after a car or nothing like that. No signs of
21:03
Speaker 1: a struggle or anything. Also, Suzanne herself showed no visible
21:07
Speaker 1: signs of injury despite being described well being pushed from
21:11
Speaker 1: a car. Now, it is possible to come out of
21:14
Speaker 1: that unscathe, but it's still just another question mark in
21:18
Speaker 1: the whole.
21:19
Speaker 2: Line of events, something that's not making one hundred percent
21:23
Speaker 2: sense exactly.
21:24
Speaker 1: So it raised a lot of suspicion, and so detectives
21:26
Speaker 1: began to reinterview Suzanne, asking her to walk through her
21:29
Speaker 1: story again, step by step. Now in each retelling, it
21:33
Speaker 1: contained slight changes, slight variations the length of time she
21:38
Speaker 1: claimed to be forced to drive, It shifted the direction
21:40
Speaker 1: she was facing at the intersection became unclear, and as
21:45
Speaker 1: I believe it was Abraham Lincoln, a famous quote from him.
21:49
Speaker 1: No man, no man has a good enough memory to
21:51
Speaker 1: be a successful liar. Seems the same thing as applying here.
21:56
Speaker 1: She's trying to lie, but she doesn't have a good
21:58
Speaker 1: enough memory to remember how she told lie to be
22:00
Speaker 1: accurate in the long run.
22:02
Speaker 2: Well, especially with something so large, such a large lie
22:06
Speaker 2: like this one.
22:07
Speaker 1: Exactly, And there's details that she is talking about, and
22:11
Speaker 1: it seems like she's almost over complicating some of the
22:15
Speaker 1: details too, to muddle it intentionally, like she's offering confusing
22:20
Speaker 1: statements on purpose. Now at the same time, officers notice
22:24
Speaker 1: changes in her demeanor that did not match her public appearances.
22:28
Speaker 1: In front of cameras, she cried and pleaded, and there's
22:31
Speaker 1: a lot of questions about whether there was actual tears
22:33
Speaker 1: coming out of her eyes or not, or it was
22:36
Speaker 1: just like falsified crying. But I digress. In front of
22:41
Speaker 1: the camera, she's acting like this, But away from them,
22:44
Speaker 1: her behavior was inconsistent. She could be calm, conversational, and
22:48
Speaker 1: at times oddly detached. One officer later recalled moments where
22:51
Speaker 1: Suzanne had appeared almost relaxed, even cheerful when she thought
22:55
Speaker 1: no one was paying attention. Another moment stood out to
22:58
Speaker 1: investigators too. For one televised interview, Susan appeared excited, even
23:03
Speaker 1: giddy ish about being on camera. She even turned to
23:06
Speaker 1: David and commented about the attention just before the broadcast began,
23:10
Speaker 1: and of course, as soon as the camera rolled, her
23:12
Speaker 1: demeanor shifted instantly into grief and desperation.
23:16
Speaker 2: That's really messed up.
23:18
Speaker 1: Yeah. None of these observations were enough in their own though,
23:22
Speaker 1: to accuse her of anything. You know, you need more,
23:25
Speaker 1: But still together they showed a very telling pattern. By
23:29
Speaker 1: the third day, law enforcement had shifted its focus almost entirely.
23:33
Speaker 1: While the public searched for a carjacking, well not look
23:36
Speaker 1: for that, individual investigators behind the scenes began considering the
23:40
Speaker 1: possibility that Suzanne knew more about her children's disappearance than
23:44
Speaker 1: she was admitting. So to test her credibility, officers arranged
23:48
Speaker 1: for her to take a polygraph test. Now her husband,
23:51
Speaker 1: David Smith or ex husband, I should say, took one
23:54
Speaker 1: as well, and his results showed no indication that he
23:57
Speaker 1: had any knowledge of what was happening to the boys
23:59
Speaker 1: or what had happened, but Suzanne's results, however, were inconclusive,
24:04
Speaker 1: so she was brought back for another one, and that
24:06
Speaker 1: too failed and was inconclusive. Now, polygraph results are not
24:12
Speaker 1: exactly the most reliable and are certainly not admissible in court,
24:15
Speaker 1: but for investigators they can be a useful tool. In
24:19
Speaker 1: Suzanne's case, the results did not prove guilt, but they
24:22
Speaker 1: reinforced what detectives were already beginning to suspect she was
24:26
Speaker 1: not telling the full truth, but still publicly, they continued
24:31
Speaker 1: to search for a suspect who may not even exist,
24:34
Speaker 1: which he doesn't. They also began searching bodies of water
24:39
Speaker 1: in their search grids, too, lakes and ponds close to
24:42
Speaker 1: Suzanne's reported roots, where they were beginning to be checked
24:46
Speaker 1: by dive teams. Suzanne pleaded for the safe return of
24:49
Speaker 1: her kids, with more televised interviews, more appeals, and more cries.
24:54
Speaker 1: She continued to speak directly to this imagined abductor, asking
24:58
Speaker 1: him to return Michael and Alex safely. She said she
25:01
Speaker 1: could quote feel it in her heart that they were okay.
25:06
Speaker 1: She told it the viewers that her children were strong,
25:09
Speaker 1: that their family was waiting for them, and still David
25:13
Speaker 1: stood beside her during many of these appearances, his voice
25:16
Speaker 1: steady but strained, urging the public to not stop looking,
25:21
Speaker 1: even though they were staring directly at the killer. Still,
25:26
Speaker 1: investigators questioned Suzanne, but now they were specifically looking for
25:30
Speaker 1: inconsistencies and faults in her story. Now, for clarity, these
25:34
Speaker 1: were not formal interrogations, but longer conversations meant to clear
25:39
Speaker 1: up details that sort of thing. She was voluntarily talking
25:43
Speaker 1: to them, and each time officers asked her to walk
25:46
Speaker 1: through the events again, and each time these small inconsistencies
25:49
Speaker 1: continued to emerge. At one point, even Suzanne told investigators
25:54
Speaker 1: that she had been on her way to visit a
25:56
Speaker 1: friend that night of the carjacking, but when officers spoke
25:58
Speaker 1: to that friend, they learned he had not been expecting
26:01
Speaker 1: her and was not even home at the time. When
26:04
Speaker 1: confronted by this, Suzanne of course adjusted the explanation.
26:09
Speaker 2: Of course, she did. She needs to just shut the
26:12
Speaker 2: fuck up.
26:13
Speaker 1: Really, yeah, she needs to go behind bars, is what
26:15
Speaker 1: she needs to do.
26:16
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, like she just I don't know. I think
26:20
Speaker 2: it would probably be pretty easy for the police to
26:24
Speaker 2: send something is off. I don't think it took very
26:26
Speaker 2: long for them to realize something.
26:29
Speaker 1: It was almost immediately, and I believe it was like
26:31
Speaker 1: what the second day when they were at that red
26:34
Speaker 1: light testing it. It was I believe as far as
26:38
Speaker 1: I've read, the police and investigators were questioning her events
26:43
Speaker 1: almost upon hearing your story directly like, yeah, they're okay,
26:47
Speaker 1: sending out the search, they're trying to find this vehicle,
26:49
Speaker 1: the apps are going out for this guy, this suspect.
26:52
Speaker 1: Where are the kids. All that's happening, But almost immediately
26:55
Speaker 1: they're like, something's not right here.
26:58
Speaker 2: Yeah. They had a gut feeling, which yeah, I'm glad.
27:01
Speaker 2: I mean, I guess it's good that she is just
27:02
Speaker 2: digging herself this whole because you know it's going to
27:05
Speaker 2: get this.
27:06
Speaker 1: Solved, so definitely now. Detectives also paid close attention to
27:11
Speaker 1: Suzanne's language and her body language, and there were incidents
27:15
Speaker 1: where she referred to Michael and Alex both in the
27:18
Speaker 1: past tense when referring to them ooh. And this is
27:23
Speaker 1: about when the pressure from the media began to turn two.
27:26
Speaker 1: As reports began to learn about the inconsistencies in Suzanne's
27:30
Speaker 1: story and the inconclusive polygraph tests, coverage grew more skeptical.
27:36
Speaker 1: The racial element of Suzanne's accusation all also weighed heavily
27:39
Speaker 1: on the investigation. For more than a week, police had
27:42
Speaker 1: been searching for a black mail right this suspect based
27:45
Speaker 1: solely on her description, Innocent people were being questioned and
27:49
Speaker 1: pulled over in their vehicles. Tensions rose within the police
27:53
Speaker 1: for pestering the black community, and law enforcement leadership became
27:57
Speaker 1: increasingly concerned about the damage being done by a claim
28:01
Speaker 1: they no longer specifically believed to even be true.
28:04
Speaker 2: That's really not good either.
28:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you have to remember too, the time this
28:08
Speaker 1: is in. This is in nineteen ninety four, Okay, so
28:12
Speaker 1: when there's a lot more you know what, racial tensions
28:14
Speaker 1: and things like that, especially for the area as well.
28:17
Speaker 1: So it's almost like she did that on purpose, playing
28:20
Speaker 1: up into this profile, which is even worse of a monster.
28:23
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that makes her seem way worse for right now.
28:27
Speaker 1: By the ninth day, investigators decided they could no longer
28:31
Speaker 1: allow the situation to continue as it was, and Suzanne
28:34
Speaker 1: was brought in for another interview, this time more direct
28:38
Speaker 1: and more confrontational than any other ones before. The sheriff
28:44
Speaker 1: told her plainly, just flat out better story did not
28:47
Speaker 1: make sense. He explained the problems with the traffic light,
28:50
Speaker 1: he pointed out the lack of witnesses, and he even
28:53
Speaker 1: made a bold choice here and introduced a fabricated detail.
28:58
Speaker 1: He told her that undercover officers had been stationed at
29:01
Speaker 1: Monarch Mills Road at that intersection that night for an
29:05
Speaker 1: unrelated drug investigation, and that they had not seen any
29:09
Speaker 1: such carjacking. Now this was, of course, as I mentioned, fabricated.
29:13
Speaker 1: It was bait, trying to get her to believe more
29:15
Speaker 1: than what was true. So perhaps she would just spill
29:19
Speaker 1: it and confess a white lie. Yeah, and Suzanne listened quietly.
29:26
Speaker 1: At one point she asked the officer to pray with her,
29:29
Speaker 1: and afterwards she lowered her head and began to cry.
29:34
Speaker 1: She said she was ashamed, She said she was scared. Then,
29:39
Speaker 1: in a moment that changed everything, she told him something
29:43
Speaker 1: she had not said before. Quote, my children are not
29:49
Speaker 1: all right end quote. Suzanne Smith's written confession was careful
29:56
Speaker 1: and unsettling in its detail. Over two pages, she described
30:00
Speaker 1: the night of October twenty fifth, nineteen ninety four, not
30:03
Speaker 1: as a crime carried out in a moment of panic,
30:06
Speaker 1: but as a slow emotional unraveling that ended at the
30:10
Speaker 1: edge of that lake. She wrote that she had left
30:13
Speaker 1: her home that evening emotionally distraught and unsure of what
30:15
Speaker 1: to do. Instead of driving directly to her mother's house,
30:19
Speaker 1: though as she initially intended, she drove aimlessly through Union County,
30:24
Speaker 1: her anxiety building as the minutes passed. She said she
30:27
Speaker 1: felt like a failure as a wife, as a woman,
30:30
Speaker 1: and as a mother, and believed she could no longer
30:32
Speaker 1: be a good parent to both Michael and Alex. So
30:36
Speaker 1: eventually she drove to John D. Long Lake, a quiet,
30:40
Speaker 1: dark body of water north of town. There she stopped
30:43
Speaker 1: at the boat ramp, and in her confession, Suzanne claimed
30:46
Speaker 1: she initially planned to kill herself along with her children.
30:52
Speaker 1: She wrote that she put her car in neutral and
30:54
Speaker 1: allowed it to roll part way down the ramp, but
30:56
Speaker 1: stopped it. She did this more than once, each dame
31:00
Speaker 1: pulling that brake before the car could enter the water.
31:03
Speaker 1: Then she got out of the vehicle, and standing outside
31:06
Speaker 1: the car, Suzanne wrote that she was overwhelmed with fear
31:09
Speaker 1: and uncertainty. She questioned why her life felt so hopeless
31:13
Speaker 1: and why everything seemed to be falling apart. Then she
31:17
Speaker 1: said she made a final decision. She reached back into
31:20
Speaker 1: the car, released the brake, and let it go. The
31:25
Speaker 1: car rolled forward, carrying Michael and Alex still strapped into
31:28
Speaker 1: their car seats, all the way down the ramp and
31:30
Speaker 1: into the lake immediately after, before the car even sunk
31:34
Speaker 1: beneath the surface, Suzanne said she ran from the lake
31:36
Speaker 1: towards Highway forty nine and then to the nearest house,
31:40
Speaker 1: where she began screaming for help, and from that moment
31:43
Speaker 1: on she committed herself to the story of a carjacking,
31:48
Speaker 1: a lie that she would maintain for a total of
31:50
Speaker 1: nine days. In her confession, Suzanne framed her actions as
31:55
Speaker 1: an act of distorted protection. She wrote that she believed
31:59
Speaker 1: her children would be quote better off with God end quote,
32:02
Speaker 1: and that they would never be hurt again. She also
32:05
Speaker 1: expressed regret sorrow, saying that she loved her sons and
32:08
Speaker 1: never meant to hurt them, even as she described the
32:11
Speaker 1: deliberate steps that led to her their deaths. And when
32:14
Speaker 1: she was finished writing, the investigation officially shifted into a homicide.
32:20
Speaker 2: Just like that. Yeah, the investigators were probably just floored. Really, Yeah,
32:28
Speaker 2: I don't think they could have imagined that is what
32:30
Speaker 2: the outcome was that happened.
32:33
Speaker 1: No, I don't think so, now, mind you, there was
32:36
Speaker 1: a chance of something like this because they I mean,
32:41
Speaker 1: right after this, divers were dispatched to John D. Long
32:43
Speaker 1: Lake right with precise instructions from Susanna on where to
32:47
Speaker 1: find it, and using sonar equipment, they located the Burgundy
32:50
Speaker 1: Masda submerged approximately I think it was one hundred and
32:53
Speaker 1: twenty two feet from shore in about eighteen feet of water.
32:57
Speaker 1: They searched that water already. They search waters looking for
33:01
Speaker 1: a submerged vehicle, something that could have been ditched, whether
33:04
Speaker 1: by her or potentially this quote unquote black man who
33:08
Speaker 1: carjacked me sort of situation, but earlier searches had Actually
33:13
Speaker 1: they searched this area, but they missed the vehicle because
33:15
Speaker 1: investigators believed the car would be within thirty feet of
33:18
Speaker 1: the shore and they didn't search further into the lake.
33:21
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it was quite far into the lake. It was. Now.
33:25
Speaker 1: When the vehicle was pulled from the lake, Alex and
33:27
Speaker 1: Michael were found exactly where Suzanne said they would be,
33:31
Speaker 1: still strapped into their car seats in the back. The
33:33
Speaker 1: doors were locked and the boys were pronounced dead at
33:37
Speaker 1: the scene.
33:38
Speaker 2: That is just so got wrenching my heart.
33:42
Speaker 1: Yeah. With physical evidence now matching Suzanne's confession, there was
33:46
Speaker 1: no longer any doubt what had happened or who was
33:50
Speaker 1: responsible that night, Suzanne Smith was placed under arrest and
33:54
Speaker 1: charged with two counts of murder, and now investigators turned
33:58
Speaker 1: to the question that still had no clear answer why.
34:03
Speaker 1: At first, Suzanne insisted there was no motive. She claimed
34:06
Speaker 1: the deaths were the result of a mental breakdown and
34:09
Speaker 1: that she had not planned to kill her children, that
34:11
Speaker 1: everything spiraled out of control in a single night. But
34:14
Speaker 1: as detectives pressed further, a different story began to emerge,
34:18
Speaker 1: one rooted in not just an evening alone, but in
34:21
Speaker 1: the weeks and months leading up to it. The key
34:25
Speaker 1: was a letter. Suzanne admitted that in the days before
34:30
Speaker 1: October twenty fifth, she'd been devastated by the end of
34:33
Speaker 1: a relationship with a man by the name of Tom Finley,
34:37
Speaker 1: a wealthy local man that she'd been involved with after
34:40
Speaker 1: separating from David Smith. Now, Tom was the son of
34:43
Speaker 1: the owner of the textile company where Suzanne had actually worked.
34:48
Speaker 1: He came from money, status and the social world. Suzanne
34:52
Speaker 1: had felt long excluded from the relationship, however, was not
34:57
Speaker 1: what Suzanne believed it to be. Shortly before the murders
35:02
Speaker 1: of her sons, Tom sent Suzanne a letter formally ending
35:07
Speaker 1: things between them. In it, he told her plainly that
35:10
Speaker 1: he did not want children, and he didn't want to
35:13
Speaker 1: have the responsibility of raising someone else's either. He made
35:16
Speaker 1: it clear that no matter how close they'd become, their
35:19
Speaker 1: relationship would never move forward, because well, I'm Michael and
35:23
Speaker 1: Alex when it comes down to it. Now that letter
35:26
Speaker 1: is available to read, and he was very respectful in it,
35:30
Speaker 1: but he was very blunt that he did not want
35:32
Speaker 1: kids and he couldn't be in a relationship with her because.
35:36
Speaker 2: She has kids, which is a decision that he's allowed
35:41
Speaker 2: to make, right exactly, So holy frig now.
35:45
Speaker 1: Investigators would later learn that Suzanne had been deeply fixated
35:49
Speaker 1: on this rejection. Coworkers recalled that she spoke about Tom constantly.
35:53
Speaker 1: One colleague even remembered Suzanne saying outright that she was
35:56
Speaker 1: in love with him, but it could never be because
36:00
Speaker 1: because of her children.
36:01
Speaker 2: Gosh, that's really like monster right there. Yeah, even more so.
36:06
Speaker 1: On the afternoon of October twenty fifth, Suzanne reportedly tried
36:09
Speaker 1: once more to see Tom at work, but by that
36:11
Speaker 1: point he wanted no further contact, and she was escorted
36:14
Speaker 1: out of the building, visibly upset. It was after leaving
36:18
Speaker 1: work then she picked up Michael and Alex from daycare,
36:21
Speaker 1: and from there, well, she didn't go home, She just
36:24
Speaker 1: drove for hours. Investigators pieced together her movements that evening
36:29
Speaker 1: through witness statement and Suzanne's own admissions. She drove around
36:33
Speaker 1: Union County, aimlessly, stopping nowhere in particular, circling through town,
36:38
Speaker 1: with her emotional state deteriorating. By the time she reached
36:41
Speaker 1: John DeLong Lake that night, her marriage was over, her
36:44
Speaker 1: relationship with Tom was definitively finished, and the future she
36:49
Speaker 1: had imagined for herself no longer existed. Prosecutors would later
36:54
Speaker 1: argue that this context mattered deeply because they believed Suzanne
36:58
Speaker 1: did not see her children as the center of her
37:01
Speaker 1: life in that moment, but more of an obstacle to
37:04
Speaker 1: a future she desperately wanted, and removing them, in her mind,
37:08
Speaker 1: meant freeing herself.
37:10
Speaker 2: Okay, she could have just like turned over custody or
37:15
Speaker 2: something to the father, right, I mean, yeah, I could
37:18
Speaker 2: have Like that is an option and said, I, Oh
37:21
Speaker 2: my gosh, this is like the most selfish thing ever. Yeah,
37:26
Speaker 2: and who even knows if that relationship would have even worked.
37:29
Speaker 2: Maybe there could have been something else, you know, he
37:31
Speaker 2: maybe he blamed it on the kids, but there could
37:33
Speaker 2: have been way more and it would maybe not have
37:35
Speaker 2: ended up working anyway.
37:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, and she just.
37:39
Speaker 2: I know who, I mean, I could the only thing
37:42
Speaker 2: I could kind of understand, which there's nothing that you
37:45
Speaker 2: can really understand, but it was like mental health and
37:47
Speaker 2: she was just like, you know, really spiraling. And but
37:51
Speaker 2: to do this just for a potential relationship, are you
37:55
Speaker 2: freaking kidding me?
37:57
Speaker 1: You guys should see Nicole's face right now. She has
37:59
Speaker 1: the look in her face of if I could punch
38:01
Speaker 1: a bit this, Yeah, Like, this is.
38:05
Speaker 2: Just disgusting sitting here listening. I know.
38:08
Speaker 1: I told you you're probably going to be mad at me.
38:10
Speaker 2: I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at her. What
38:12
Speaker 2: the hell does she think she's? Like? Who does she
38:14
Speaker 2: think she is?
38:15
Speaker 1: She? I know, piece of.
38:16
Speaker 2: Garbage she is? Now.
38:19
Speaker 1: Suzanne denied this interpretation, though she maintained that she never
38:22
Speaker 1: killed her sons to be with Tom, insisting that her
38:25
Speaker 1: actions were driven by despair and being on the edge
38:28
Speaker 1: of suicide. Not ambition, but the timing, the letter, the rejection,
38:32
Speaker 1: the confrontation at work, and the drive to the lake.
38:34
Speaker 1: It all told the story that investigators just couldn't ignore.
38:39
Speaker 1: Suzanne Smith was soon formally charged with two counts of murder,
38:43
Speaker 1: and from the beginning, prosecutors made it very clear this
38:45
Speaker 1: would not be a routine case, and the state announced
38:48
Speaker 1: it would seek the death penalty. That decision immediately raised
38:53
Speaker 1: the stakes. Suzanne had confessed. The physical evidence was overwhelming,
38:58
Speaker 1: to say the least, and the case had already traumatized
39:01
Speaker 1: a town and captured the nation. But under South Carolina law,
39:05
Speaker 1: a confession alone was not enough to justify execution. Prosecutors
39:11
Speaker 1: would still have to prove intent, specifically that Suzanne acted
39:16
Speaker 1: with malice.
39:18
Speaker 2: They okay, I just have to say. They really need
39:20
Speaker 2: to make sure though, that there's never ever an opportunity
39:22
Speaker 2: for her to have another kid ever?
39:25
Speaker 1: Fair?
39:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, like really like that. That's the number one prior.
39:29
Speaker 1: Well, how do you take that away from someone?
39:31
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know, but it needs to be so
39:33
Speaker 2: she has to be locked up forever, I guess, because yeah,
39:37
Speaker 2: how could you ever allow someone like this to have
39:39
Speaker 2: another kid.
39:40
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now the man tasked with doing this, the man
39:43
Speaker 1: tasked with trying to seek the death penalty and putting
39:46
Speaker 1: her away or whatever seeking justice that needs to be done,
39:50
Speaker 1: It would be Tommy Pope, the solicitor who would lead
39:54
Speaker 1: the case for the state. Tommy and his team began
39:57
Speaker 1: methodically rebuilding the crime from the ground up. They reviewed
40:00
Speaker 1: Suzanne's confession line by line, comparing it against physical evidence
40:05
Speaker 1: from the lake, the vehicle, and the scene where she
40:07
Speaker 1: claimed the carjacking took place. They examined everything they could,
40:10
Speaker 1: looking for proof that Suzanne had time to stop herself
40:14
Speaker 1: and chose not to. But one of the most important
40:16
Speaker 1: questions was how long the car took to sink. If
40:20
Speaker 1: the car disappeared almost instantly, it could support the defense's
40:24
Speaker 1: claimed that the events moved too fast for her to intervene.
40:27
Speaker 1: But if the car floated even briefly, it could suggest
40:30
Speaker 1: something else entirely, perhaps that she simply stood back and watched.
40:36
Speaker 1: Investigators conducted a controlled recreation using a similar mast to protege.
40:41
Speaker 1: They matched the weight of the vehicle and the placement
40:43
Speaker 1: of the car seats as closely as possible, and cameras
40:46
Speaker 1: were mounted inside to document what had happened once the
40:49
Speaker 1: car entered the water. The results were chilling. The car
40:55
Speaker 1: didn't sink right away. It floated for several minutes, approximately
41:00
Speaker 1: six minutes in total in fact, before finally slipping beneath
41:05
Speaker 1: the surface. During that time, water slowly would fill the cabin,
41:10
Speaker 1: rising very steadily, and there was ample opportunity for someone
41:15
Speaker 1: outside the car to open the doors. Maybe if they
41:17
Speaker 1: wouldn't open break a window and release the kids, or
41:21
Speaker 1: at the very least attempt a rescue, that evidence would
41:26
Speaker 1: become central to the prosecution's case. At the same time,
41:30
Speaker 1: Suzanne's defense team was taking shape. Her attorney David Bruck
41:34
Speaker 1: and Judy Clark were already well known for handling high
41:38
Speaker 1: profile capital cases. Their strategy was clear from the start.
41:42
Speaker 1: They would not dispute that Suzanne caused her son's death. Instead,
41:47
Speaker 1: they would argue that she was not acting with a
41:49
Speaker 1: clear rational mind. The defense began assembling a detailed psychological history.
41:56
Speaker 1: They documented Suzanne's father's suicide when she was six, repeated
42:00
Speaker 1: suicide attempts as a teenager, her history of depression, and
42:04
Speaker 1: the sexual abuse she said she endured at the hands
42:07
Speaker 1: of her stepfather. Psychiatrists evaluated her and diagnosed her with
42:11
Speaker 1: major depression and a dependent personality disorder, a condition marked
42:16
Speaker 1: by an extreme need for approval and fear of abandonment.
42:21
Speaker 1: Their argument was not that Suzanne was insane in a
42:24
Speaker 1: legal sense, but that she was emotionally broken and overwhelmed,
42:28
Speaker 1: incapable of deliberate malice planning. In the months leading up
42:35
Speaker 1: to the trial, both sides prepared for a courtroom battle
42:38
Speaker 1: that would decide not only Suzanne Smith's fate, but whether
42:41
Speaker 1: she would become the first woman in decades to be
42:44
Speaker 1: executed in South Carolina. Suzanne Smith's trial began in July
42:49
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety five in Union County, South Carolina, less
42:53
Speaker 1: than a year after Michael and Alex were killed. News
42:56
Speaker 1: crews descended on Union County from across the country, filling
42:58
Speaker 1: hotels or storefronts and lining the streets around the courthouse
43:02
Speaker 1: with satellite trucks. Now, the judge barred television cameras from
43:06
Speaker 1: the proceedings, concerned that the trial would become more about
43:09
Speaker 1: a spectacle than justice. But still every development was reported
43:13
Speaker 1: daily and the courtroom itself remained pact. David Smith attended
43:17
Speaker 1: the trial every day. Sitting just feet away from the
43:19
Speaker 1: woman who had killed his two sons, he listened as
43:22
Speaker 1: the case unfolded in excruciating detail. Later he would describe
43:27
Speaker 1: the experience as reopening wounds he had barely survived during
43:32
Speaker 1: the nine days the boys are missing. He had stood
43:34
Speaker 1: beside Suzanne, publicly believing her story and defending her innocence,
43:38
Speaker 1: but now he was forced to relive those days knowing
43:41
Speaker 1: the truth. The prosecution opened by laying out a straightforward narrative.
43:48
Speaker 1: Susan Smith, they argued, did not act in panic or confusion.
43:51
Speaker 1: She made a series of decisions, one after the other
43:54
Speaker 1: that ended with her son's deaths. Prosecutors walked the jury
43:58
Speaker 1: through Suzanne's life in the moment leading up to October
44:01
Speaker 1: twenty fifth, nineteen ninety four. They detailed her divorce from David,
44:05
Speaker 1: her involvement with Tom Finley, and the emotional collapse that
44:08
Speaker 1: followed when the relationship ended. The jury heard about the
44:11
Speaker 1: letter Tom sent explicitly stating that he did not want
44:15
Speaker 1: children and did not see a future with her. Prosecutors
44:18
Speaker 1: argued that this rejection struck at the core of Suzanne's
44:22
Speaker 1: identity and self worth. The state also focused heavily on timing.
44:28
Speaker 1: Suzanne did not go straight to the lake after leaving
44:30
Speaker 1: work that day. Instead, she picked up her children from
44:32
Speaker 1: daycare and drove around the Union County for hours on end.
44:36
Speaker 1: There was no emergency or immediate crisis forcing her hand.
44:39
Speaker 1: She had time alone with her thoughts, time to reconsider,
44:42
Speaker 1: time to choose another path. When she finally arrived at
44:46
Speaker 1: John D. Long Lake, prosecutor said her action showed intent
44:49
Speaker 1: rather than confusion. She drove onto the boat ramp, placed
44:53
Speaker 1: the car neutral, and let it roll forward. When the
44:55
Speaker 1: car did not immediately sink, she didn't intervene. Instead, she
44:59
Speaker 1: either watched the car sink or let it sink behind her,
45:04
Speaker 1: but either way she walked away without trying anything.
45:09
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, earlier you had said six minutes. That's literally
45:12
Speaker 2: what I'm repeating in my head. That is a long time.
45:14
Speaker 1: That is a long time now, As I mentioned, investigators
45:18
Speaker 1: had recreated the event using a similar vehicle, Expert witnesses
45:22
Speaker 1: explaining that the car floated for that not approximate six
45:25
Speaker 1: minutes before submerging, and the prosecution argued those six minutes mattered.
45:30
Speaker 1: They showed that Suzanne had ample opportunity to open the doors,
45:34
Speaker 1: free her children, or at the very least attempt a rescue.
45:38
Speaker 1: But she did none of those things. Nothing. She just
45:41
Speaker 1: left the scene and then began the carjacking story. The defense,
45:46
Speaker 1: when it was their turned, did not dispute that Suzanne
45:48
Speaker 1: caused her son's deaths. They instead presented psychiatric testimony describing
45:53
Speaker 1: her long history of depression, suicide attempts, and emotional instability.
45:58
Speaker 1: Jurors heard about her father's suicide, her sexual abuse as
46:01
Speaker 1: a teenager, and diagnoses that painted her as deeply dependent
46:05
Speaker 1: on approval and terrified of abandonment. Defense attorneys argued that
46:09
Speaker 1: Suzanne intended to kill herself that night along with her children,
46:14
Speaker 1: but lost the nerve of a very last moment. According
46:17
Speaker 1: to this version of events, Suzanne's body acted against her
46:20
Speaker 1: own intention, leaving her children trapped in a tragedy she
46:24
Speaker 1: could no longer stop. In a move that surprised the prosecution,
46:29
Speaker 1: the judge then allowed the jurors to consider a lesser charge,
46:35
Speaker 1: one of manslaughter instead.
46:38
Speaker 2: Okay.
46:40
Speaker 1: After days of testimony, expert opinions, and emotional arguments, the
46:44
Speaker 1: case went to the jury and their deliberations were brief.
46:48
Speaker 1: After just two and a half hours, they returned with
46:50
Speaker 1: their verdict. Suzanne Smith was found guilty of two counts
46:57
Speaker 1: of murder. The guilty verdict delivered, the trial moved immediately
47:02
Speaker 1: into its most emotional charge state, the penalty phase, and
47:06
Speaker 1: one of the most powerful moments of the penalty phase
47:08
Speaker 1: came when David Smith took the stand. Speaking as the
47:12
Speaker 1: father of Michael and Alex, he described the devastation their
47:15
Speaker 1: deaths caused. He talked about the daily reality of waking
47:18
Speaker 1: up to silence, about the future his sons would never have,
47:22
Speaker 1: and about the unbearable knowledge that their lives ended in
47:25
Speaker 1: such fear. His testimony was emotional and raw, forcing the
47:30
Speaker 1: jury to confront the human cost of Suzanne's actions in
47:35
Speaker 1: a way no expert witness could. After closing arguments, the
47:39
Speaker 1: jury was sent to deliberate again, and once more, it
47:43
Speaker 1: came quickly. After approximately two and a half hours, the
47:46
Speaker 1: jury returned with its recommendation that Susan Smith would not
47:50
Speaker 1: be sentenced to death, but instead she would receive life
47:54
Speaker 1: in prison. The decision disappointed prosecutors who believed the facts
47:59
Speaker 1: just execution, and for David Smith, the verdict was complicated.
48:04
Speaker 1: While he wanted the death penalty, he later acknowledged that
48:07
Speaker 1: life in prison meant Suzanne would wake up every single
48:10
Speaker 1: day knowing what she had done. The judge formerly sentenced
48:14
Speaker 1: Susanne Smith to life in prison. Under South Carolina law.
48:17
Speaker 1: At the time, that sentence carried the possibility of parole
48:20
Speaker 1: after thirty years, a detail the jury was not permitted
48:23
Speaker 1: to consider when making their decision, but that meant that
48:27
Speaker 1: she was eligible for parole in late twenty twenty four.
48:33
Speaker 1: The hearing was held by videolink, with Suzanne appearing from prison.
48:36
Speaker 1: She was fifty three years old. Her hair was still graying,
48:39
Speaker 1: her face older, but her voice, when she finally spoke
48:44
Speaker 1: it too, was still tentative and emotional. As she began
48:47
Speaker 1: her statement, she attempted to say that she was very sorry,
48:50
Speaker 1: but quickly broke down in tears, lowering her head and
48:53
Speaker 1: pausing to regain control. Quote. I know what I did
48:57
Speaker 1: was horrible and I would give everything so I could
49:00
Speaker 1: change it end quote. Members of the parole board questioned
49:05
Speaker 1: Suzanne directly. They asked her about the enormous law enforcement
49:09
Speaker 1: effort that followed her false carjacking report. Hundreds of officers, divers, volunteers,
49:14
Speaker 1: and federal agents deployed over nine days. When she asked
49:19
Speaker 1: why she continued to lie for so long, well, she
49:23
Speaker 1: just said because she was scared and didn't know how
49:25
Speaker 1: to tell them. Her attorney argued that Suzanne posed no
49:30
Speaker 1: threat to the public. He emphasized that she had no
49:33
Speaker 1: criminal history before the murders and that her actions in
49:35
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four were the result of untreated mental illness.
49:39
Speaker 1: If released, he said, Suzanne had arrangements to live with
49:41
Speaker 1: her brother and continue mental health treatment under the supervision
49:44
Speaker 1: of licensed professionals. But Suzanne was not the only person
49:48
Speaker 1: who spoke that day. A large group entered the hearing
49:52
Speaker 1: room to argue against her release, and among them was
49:55
Speaker 1: David Smith. He stood quietly as others spoke, a photograph
50:00
Speaker 1: of Michael and Alex pinned to his jacket. When it
50:04
Speaker 1: was his turn, he struggled to get through his statement.
50:07
Speaker 1: His voice shook as he reminded the board what had
50:10
Speaker 1: happened and that it was not a tragic mistake, not
50:14
Speaker 1: an accident, not a result of confusion. It was a
50:18
Speaker 1: free choice, he said, quote it's just not enough, so
50:24
Speaker 1: I'm asking that you please deny her parole today end quote.
50:30
Speaker 1: David also made it clear that he planned to attend
50:32
Speaker 1: every single future parole hearing, no matter how long it took,
50:36
Speaker 1: to make sure his sons were not forgotten. After hearing
50:42
Speaker 1: all sides, the parole Board deliberated, and their decision was unanimous.
50:48
Speaker 1: Susanne Smith was denied parole. Now under state law, she
50:54
Speaker 1: will be eligible to apply again every two years from
50:57
Speaker 1: here on out, meaning as of record this episode in
51:00
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, she will be applying again for parole
51:05
Speaker 1: this year. But no matter the time that passes. Here
51:10
Speaker 1: we are even decades after the murders, and Suzanne Smith's
51:13
Speaker 1: version of events has remained largely the same. She continues
51:17
Speaker 1: to insist that she intended to die that night at
51:19
Speaker 1: John D. Long Lake, and that her son's deaths were
51:21
Speaker 1: the result of a failed suicide attempt rather than a
51:24
Speaker 1: deliberate act. In letters, interviews, and statements made from prison,
51:29
Speaker 1: she's repeatedly said that she was not herself, that something
51:33
Speaker 1: quote went wrong, and there was no motive. That explanation
51:39
Speaker 1: has never sat comfortably with investigators, prosecutors, and many who
51:42
Speaker 1: have examined this case closely. From the beginning, law enforcement
51:46
Speaker 1: struggled to reconcile Suzanne's words with her actions. If she
51:50
Speaker 1: intended to die, they questioned, why did she exit the vehicle,
51:54
Speaker 1: And if panic took over, they asked why did she
51:57
Speaker 1: not attempt to rescue during those several minutes the car
52:00
Speaker 1: remained afloat, And if confusion ruled over her mind, they
52:05
Speaker 1: wonder how she was able to construct and maintain a
52:07
Speaker 1: detailed false narrative for nine days, including repeated media appearances
52:12
Speaker 1: and specific descriptions of an imaginary suspect. Perhaps most troubling
52:18
Speaker 1: to authorities was Suzanne's certainty about where the car was located.
52:22
Speaker 1: Once she confessed, divers were able to recover the vehicle
52:26
Speaker 1: only after she provided the precise location. Investigators later stated
52:33
Speaker 1: that to know that spot so accurately, she would have
52:36
Speaker 1: to stand at the water's edge and watch the car
52:40
Speaker 1: fully submerge. Despite it all, Suzanne has never publicly acknowledged
52:46
Speaker 1: that her relationship with Tom was the driving force behind
52:49
Speaker 1: the murders. She's repeatedly denied that she killed her children
52:52
Speaker 1: to pursue a life without them, even as prosecutors and
52:55
Speaker 1: jurors concluded otherwise. After the parole hearing ended and the
52:59
Speaker 1: room was cleared, Suzanne Smith returned to prison, where she
53:03
Speaker 1: remains incarcerated under the same sentence imposed in nineteen ninety five,
53:07
Speaker 1: life with the possibility of parole. For investigators, prosecutors, and
53:12
Speaker 1: the Smith family, nothing is changed with time. From the start,
53:16
Speaker 1: the case was never about uncertainty. Law enforcement doubted Suzanne's
53:21
Speaker 1: story almost immediately. The inconsistencies were not subtle even before
53:26
Speaker 1: Suzanne confessed. Investigators were searching water, not highways, not just highways.
53:32
Speaker 1: There was the possibility the carjacker could have drove the
53:35
Speaker 1: car into the lake and likely what Suzanne was hoping
53:38
Speaker 1: everyone would have believed when it was found, But still
53:42
Speaker 1: investigators suspected early on that she knew where her sons were.
53:46
Speaker 1: The confession did not reveal a shocking truth so much
53:48
Speaker 1: as confirm what police already believed, and over the decades since,
53:52
Speaker 1: nothing Suzanne has said or done has altered that core assessment.
53:56
Speaker 1: She's repeatedly described the murders as unplanned, She's continued to
54:00
Speaker 1: frame them as a result of mental illness rather than motive,
54:03
Speaker 1: and she's expressed sorrow, but often in ways that center
54:07
Speaker 1: her suffering rather than the loss of her children. Prosecutors
54:11
Speaker 1: and family members have pointed out that she's never directly
54:13
Speaker 1: apologized to David Smith, never meaningfully acknowledged the harm she
54:17
Speaker 1: caused beyond generalized regret, and her conduct in prison has
54:21
Speaker 1: further complicated her claims of rehabilitation and likely affected her
54:25
Speaker 1: possibility of parole as well. See she's had sexual relationships
54:29
Speaker 1: with guards, disciplinary violations, drug infractions, and unauthorized media contact,
54:35
Speaker 1: all while serving her sentence. For David Smith, the passage
54:40
Speaker 1: of time has not softened the memory of that week
54:42
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety four. He stood behind Suzanne while the
54:45
Speaker 1: world watched. He defended her, pleaded for their son's return,
54:48
Speaker 1: believing they were still alive, and then suddenly he learned
54:52
Speaker 1: that she was lying the whole time, a betrayal that
54:55
Speaker 1: never faded. Neither did the image of Michael and Alex,
55:00
Speaker 1: years old and fourteen months old, strapped into a car
55:03
Speaker 1: seat as water slowly filled the inside of that vehicle
55:06
Speaker 1: around them. At its core, this case is about two
55:10
Speaker 1: children whose lives ended violently and so unnecessarily, But it
55:16
Speaker 1: also exposed how easily public trust can be manipulated, how
55:20
Speaker 1: quickly fear can be weaponized, and how devastating the consequences
55:24
Speaker 1: of a lie can be when left unchecked. Smith's false
55:28
Speaker 1: claim that a black man carjacked her vehicle did not
55:31
Speaker 1: exist in a vacuum. In nineteen ninety four. The story
55:35
Speaker 1: fit neatly into long standing racial stereotypes, and it was
55:39
Speaker 1: repeated widely before law enforcement had a chance to challenge it.
55:44
Speaker 1: As a result, innocent black men in the area were stopped, questioned,
55:48
Speaker 1: and viewed with suspicion during the search. Prosecutors later emphasized
55:53
Speaker 1: that this was not a side effect of the case,
55:55
Speaker 1: but a direct result of Suzanne Smith's decision to blame
55:59
Speaker 1: a fire titious stranger rather than take responsibility. Investigators have
56:06
Speaker 1: said that element of the line made the case more
56:09
Speaker 1: than a personal tragedy. It turned it into a broader
56:11
Speaker 1: social wound, one that affected people who had nothing to
56:15
Speaker 1: do with the crime at all. For Union County, the
56:19
Speaker 1: case became inseparable from the place itself. Residents have spoke
56:23
Speaker 1: about how simply naming the location still brings up the
56:26
Speaker 1: murdering conversation, even thirty years later. It's a reminder of
56:30
Speaker 1: how one act can permanently define a community in the
56:32
Speaker 1: public eye. But for the Smith family, the legacy is
56:36
Speaker 1: far more personal. There were no graduations, no weddings no
56:41
Speaker 1: adult lives to watch unfold. Michael and Alex never became
56:46
Speaker 1: memories shaped by years of shared experiences. Instead, they became
56:50
Speaker 1: memories shaped by tragedy. For those two boys, justice is
56:55
Speaker 1: not measured in years served or privileges earned. It's measured
56:59
Speaker 1: in remembrance. And as long as their father continues to
57:03
Speaker 1: stand before parole boards and say their names out loud,
57:06
Speaker 1: the story will not be allowed to drift quietly into
57:09
Speaker 1: the past. It will remain exactly what it is. A
57:13
Speaker 1: case where the truth eventually surfaced, a lie collapsed under
57:18
Speaker 1: its own weight, and two children who never came home.
57:25
Speaker 1: And that's the story of Suzanne Smith.
57:29
Speaker 2: Who, holy molith, that's a story. Yeah, that's a story.
57:35
Speaker 2: You know. I don't even before you kind of alluded
57:39
Speaker 2: to it, it doesn't I don't get the sense that
57:42
Speaker 2: she is remorseful.
57:44
Speaker 1: I don't think so either, And I don't know why.
57:47
Speaker 2: Exactly, because I can't imagine how you wouldn't be after
57:50
Speaker 2: especially like you know, being able to reflect for so
57:53
Speaker 2: many years on what you did.
57:55
Speaker 1: I know, right, And I don't doubt. I mean I
57:58
Speaker 1: might doubt, but there is a high possibility that she
58:02
Speaker 1: was suicidal. There is a high possibility that she was
58:05
Speaker 1: having these mental struggles and that she didn't know what
58:07
Speaker 1: to do with herself. But then why did you kill
58:11
Speaker 1: your sons?
58:13
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, especially like it does seem, you know, like
58:16
Speaker 2: you had a dad that was involved with them, right,
58:19
Speaker 2: so you could you not have easily, you know, gone
58:22
Speaker 2: and let him take care of them while you figured
58:25
Speaker 2: out your shit.
58:26
Speaker 1: Exactly. She took an entire her own tragedy because her
58:30
Speaker 1: story prior to killing two innocent children is a tragedy
58:35
Speaker 1: in its own. She suffered, she did, but as I've
58:38
Speaker 1: said before, it's whatever you're going through is no excuse
58:44
Speaker 1: to harm someone else. And that's what she did. She
58:47
Speaker 1: took what she was going through and put it on
58:50
Speaker 1: her two little boys and made them suffer for it.
58:55
Speaker 2: Like, look at how many people there are in the
58:57
Speaker 2: world that can't have kids or struggle to have kids,
59:00
Speaker 2: and then you have a mom that does this discards
59:04
Speaker 2: them to two little boys.
59:07
Speaker 1: It's sickening.
59:08
Speaker 2: And I've said this before. I also just hate that
59:12
Speaker 2: like David has to potentially go and do this every
59:15
Speaker 2: two years, you know, yeah, I mean, and I mean
59:19
Speaker 2: I bet you he's very willing to fight for his boys,
59:22
Speaker 2: but that sucks for him. Yeah, it's like probably just
59:27
Speaker 2: rip opening this this wound.
59:29
Speaker 1: Right, being the band aid off in a fresh wound
59:31
Speaker 1: opening it up.
59:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right, every fricking two years.
59:34
Speaker 1: So it's a very tragic tale. Yeah, hopefully you guys
59:40
Speaker 1: enjoyed this story. Those two boys deserve to have their
59:43
Speaker 1: story told, and I'm glad that their father is out
59:46
Speaker 1: there making sure that they're not forgotten. And hopefully I
59:48
Speaker 1: can help do that here today by telling their story,
59:51
Speaker 1: and hopefully you guys enjoyed hearing it. Hopefully you can
59:54
Speaker 1: remember them. And I'm just gonna end it with that,
59:57
Speaker 1: thank you for being here, and until next time, stay wicked.