Susan Smith, the South Carolina mother accused of drowning her children in 1994, will face a parole board on Wednesday. WYFF 4 is taking an in-depth look into the case in a three-part series.In the first part, we look at the disappearance of Smith’s children and the extensive search efforts that took place.(Video above: Archived video from early on in the search for Susan Smith’s kids)Around 9 p.m. on Oct. 25, 1994, Shirley McCloud was reading the newspaper in her home, which was about a quarter of a mile away from John D. Lake, when she heard a woman wailing on her front porch. McCloud turned on the porch light and found Smith crying hysterically. Smith cried, “Please help me! He’s got my kids and he’s got my car,” McCloud led Smith into her home and Smith told her, “A Black man has got my kids and my car.” 911 was called immediately after.Union County Sheriff Howard Wells had driven to the McCloud’s home and was directing the search for the Smith children.According to Smith’s false claims, she said that on Oct. 25, 1994, while stopped at the Monarch Mills red light in Union County, South Carolina, a black man armed with a gun opened the passenger door, got in, poked the gun in her side and demanded that she “shut up and drive.”About three or four miles down the road, she claimed the man told her to stop the car and get out. Smith asked to get her sons, Michael, 3, and Alexander, 14 months old, out of the vehicle, but the man said no as he didn’t have time for it.Smith stated to police that she was pushed out of the car before the man took off with her children in the car. She then ran to the closest house to get help. She told authorities she had never seen the man before the “carjacking.” On the morning of Oct. 26, Wells contacted the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to coordinate efforts to send divers to John D. Long Lake to search the waters.Throughout the day, a SLED helicopter flew over the lake and the nearby Sumter National Forest with heat sensors in an effort to find the car or the children. Divers searched but did not find anything on the bottom of John D. Long Lake in the area they searched. Union County deputies and SLED agents searched the area surrounding the lake but, despite all efforts, they came up empty.Wells arranged for a sketch artist to meet with Smith to obtain a better, more detailed description and a composite sketch drawing of the kidnapper.Smith described the man as around 40 years old, black and wearing a dark shirt, plaid jacket, jeans and a dark knit cap. On the afternoon of Oct. 26, Margaret Frierson, the executive director of the South Carolina Chapter of the Adam Walsh Center, talked to Smith’s sister-in-law, Wendy Vaughn, to offer help in the search for Michael and Alex. Frierson and her assistant, Charlotte Foster, worked with SLED to obtain pictures of Michael and Alex in an effort to print fliers describing the missing boys.Frierson explained to the family that she and Foster could be the family’s liaison with the media by scheduling interviews and providing information about the crime. Susan Smith and her now ex-husband, David Smith, stood on the steps of the Union County Sheriff’s Office and talked to the press before being questioned by SLED for six hours. Susan Smith was asked numerous times to go over the details of the carjacking.On Oct. 27, both Susan and David Smith agreed to take polygraph tests administered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The two signed and read their Miranda Rights before taking the test. David Smith’s polygraph results showed he knew nothing about the disappearance of his children, but Susan Smith’s results came back inconclusive.According to officials, when Susan Smith was asked, “Do you know where your children are?” the test showed the highest level of deception. Reportedly, Susan Smith told David Smith she did not think she did well on the test and was concerned authorities would begin to doubt her story.The FBI agent who administered Susan Smith’s test said she made “fake sounds of crying with no tears in her eyes.”Due to the results of the polygraph tests, Susan Smith was tested many times, but David Smith was only tested once.As the search continued, the presence of media grew much larger, garnering the attention of the nation. The false claims by Susan Smith also raised racial tensions as Black men and women felt pressured as the search dragged on for the children and the mysterious suspect. After Susan Smith told her story repeatedly, several inconsistencies occurred. On Oct. 27, she was interviewed three times at the sheriff’s office.During an interview with investigators, Susan Smith claimed her son, Michael, asked at 7:30 p.m. to go to Walmart on the day of the kidnapping. When questioned about this, Susan Smith admitted to suggesting going to Walmart instead. She said that she drove to Foster Park, where Susan Smith and her sons stayed until 8:40 p.m., but did not get out of her vehicle. She then claimed she went back to the Walmart parking lot to use the bright lights to find Alex’s bottle, which he had dropped on the floor of the car. According to the reports, investigators spoke to people who were working and shopping at the Walmart Susan Smith “visited,” but no one remembered seeing her or her kids. At that point, Susan Smith changed her story, stating she actually was driving around for a couple of hours with her children in their car seats. She mentioned stopping for the red light at the Monarch Mills intersection, but saw no other vehicles at the intersection where she stopped.This caused suspicions to grow among investigators as the light at the Monarch intersection is permanently green unless a car on the other street triggers the signal to change, so the light would not have been red.While Susan Smith was being interviewed, David Smith told SLED investigators that she had been dating other men. Investigators asked David Smith for names and dates, and he told them of Tom Findlay, Susan Smith’s boyfriend. The investigator questioning Susan Smith told her that authorities discovered Findlay had broken off his relationship with her because of her kids. The investigator asked Susan Smith if this played any role in the disappearance of her children.She replied, “No man would make me hurt my children. They were my life,” which implied she thought her sons were no longer alive.Later in the interview, Susan Smith was directly asked by the investigator if she killed her children, and she became enraged, slamming her fist on the table, yelling, “I can’t believe that you think I did it,” before storming out of the office where the interview was conducted.David Smith reportedly grew frustrated that the investigators focused so much attention on Susan Smith rather than searching for his sons.Wells requested the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit to give a profile of a homicidal mother, and the profile almost perfectly described Susan Smith.On Oct. 28, Wells held a press conference to say there were no solid clues in the kidnapping of Michael and Alex, but no suspects were ruled out, including Susan and David Smith.On Oct. 29, the Union Daily Times newspaper published an article about inconsistencies in Susan Smith’s story.Six days after the kidnapping of Michael and Alex on Oct. 31, the Union County Sheriff’s Office got a call from officers in Seattle, Washington, about a 14-month-old child matching the description of Alex. Officials said the child was abandoned by a man driving a car with South Carolina license plates outside a motel near Seattle. By 10 a.m. Seattle police called, confirming the child was not Alex. Following the news, another press conference was held by Wells in front of the sheriff’s office.After the press conference on Oct. 31, authorities were faced with the challenge of proving Susan Smith was guilty, as officials concluded she was lying about her involvement in the children’s disappearance.To continue the story, read the second part where we look into Susan Smith’s arrest and trial for the murder of her two sons, Michael and Alexander.
Susan Smith, the South Carolina mother accused of drowning her children in 1994, will face a parole board on Wednesday.
WYFF 4 is taking an in-depth look into the case in a three-part series.
In the first part, we look at the disappearance of Smith’s children and the extensive search efforts that took place.
(Video above: Archived video from early on in the search for Susan Smith’s kids)
Around 9 p.m. on Oct. 25, 1994, Shirley McCloud was reading the newspaper in her home, which was about a quarter of a mile away from John D. Lake, when she heard a woman wailing on her front porch. McCloud turned on the porch light and found Smith crying hysterically.
Smith cried, “Please help me! He’s got my kids and he’s got my car,” McCloud led Smith into her home and Smith told her, “A Black man has got my kids and my car.” 911 was called immediately after.
Union County Sheriff Howard Wells had driven to the McCloud’s home and was directing the search for the Smith children.
According to Smith’s false claims, she said that on Oct. 25, 1994, while stopped at the Monarch Mills red light in Union County, South Carolina, a black man armed with a gun opened the passenger door, got in, poked the gun in her side and demanded that she “shut up and drive.”
About three or four miles down the road, she claimed the man told her to stop the car and get out. Smith asked to get her sons, Michael, 3, and Alexander, 14 months old, out of the vehicle, but the man said no as he didn’t have time for it.
Smith stated to police that she was pushed out of the car before the man took off with her children in the car. She then ran to the closest house to get help. She told authorities she had never seen the man before the “carjacking.”
On the morning of Oct. 26, Wells contacted the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to coordinate efforts to send divers to John D. Long Lake to search the waters.
Throughout the day, a SLED helicopter flew over the lake and the nearby Sumter National Forest with heat sensors in an effort to find the car or the children. Divers searched but did not find anything on the bottom of John D. Long Lake in the area they searched. Union County deputies and SLED agents searched the area surrounding the lake but, despite all efforts, they came up empty.
Wells arranged for a sketch artist to meet with Smith to obtain a better, more detailed description and a composite sketch drawing of the kidnapper.
Smith described the man as around 40 years old, black and wearing a dark shirt, plaid jacket, jeans and a dark knit cap.
On the afternoon of Oct. 26, Margaret Frierson, the executive director of the South Carolina Chapter of the Adam Walsh Center, talked to Smith’s sister-in-law, Wendy Vaughn, to offer help in the search for Michael and Alex. Frierson and her assistant, Charlotte Foster, worked with SLED to obtain pictures of Michael and Alex in an effort to print fliers describing the missing boys.
Frierson explained to the family that she and Foster could be the family’s liaison with the media by scheduling interviews and providing information about the crime.
Susan Smith and her now ex-husband, David Smith, stood on the steps of the Union County Sheriff’s Office and talked to the press before being questioned by SLED for six hours. Susan Smith was asked numerous times to go over the details of the carjacking.
On Oct. 27, both Susan and David Smith agreed to take polygraph tests administered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The two signed and read their Miranda Rights before taking the test. David Smith’s polygraph results showed he knew nothing about the disappearance of his children, but Susan Smith’s results came back inconclusive.
According to officials, when Susan Smith was asked, “Do you know where your children are?” the test showed the highest level of deception. Reportedly, Susan Smith told David Smith she did not think she did well on the test and was concerned authorities would begin to doubt her story.
The FBI agent who administered Susan Smith’s test said she made “fake sounds of crying with no tears in her eyes.”
Due to the results of the polygraph tests, Susan Smith was tested many times, but David Smith was only tested once.
As the search continued, the presence of media grew much larger, garnering the attention of the nation. The false claims by Susan Smith also raised racial tensions as Black men and women felt pressured as the search dragged on for the children and the mysterious suspect.
After Susan Smith told her story repeatedly, several inconsistencies occurred. On Oct. 27, she was interviewed three times at the sheriff’s office.
During an interview with investigators, Susan Smith claimed her son, Michael, asked at 7:30 p.m. to go to Walmart on the day of the kidnapping. When questioned about this, Susan Smith admitted to suggesting going to Walmart instead. She said that she drove to Foster Park, where Susan Smith and her sons stayed until 8:40 p.m., but did not get out of her vehicle. She then claimed she went back to the Walmart parking lot to use the bright lights to find Alex’s bottle, which he had dropped on the floor of the car.
According to the reports, investigators spoke to people who were working and shopping at the Walmart Susan Smith “visited,” but no one remembered seeing her or her kids. At that point, Susan Smith changed her story, stating she actually was driving around for a couple of hours with her children in their car seats. She mentioned stopping for the red light at the Monarch Mills intersection, but saw no other vehicles at the intersection where she stopped.
This caused suspicions to grow among investigators as the light at the Monarch intersection is permanently green unless a car on the other street triggers the signal to change, so the light would not have been red.
While Susan Smith was being interviewed, David Smith told SLED investigators that she had been dating other men. Investigators asked David Smith for names and dates, and he told them of Tom Findlay, Susan Smith’s boyfriend. The investigator questioning Susan Smith told her that authorities discovered Findlay had broken off his relationship with her because of her kids. The investigator asked Susan Smith if this played any role in the disappearance of her children.
She replied, “No man would make me hurt my children. They were my life,” which implied she thought her sons were no longer alive.
Later in the interview, Susan Smith was directly asked by the investigator if she killed her children, and she became enraged, slamming her fist on the table, yelling, “I can’t believe that you think I did it,” before storming out of the office where the interview was conducted.
David Smith reportedly grew frustrated that the investigators focused so much attention on Susan Smith rather than searching for his sons.
Wells requested the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit to give a profile of a homicidal mother, and the profile almost perfectly described Susan Smith.
On Oct. 28, Wells held a press conference to say there were no solid clues in the kidnapping of Michael and Alex, but no suspects were ruled out, including Susan and David Smith.
On Oct. 29, the Union Daily Times newspaper published an article about inconsistencies in Susan Smith’s story.
Six days after the kidnapping of Michael and Alex on Oct. 31, the Union County Sheriff’s Office got a call from officers in Seattle, Washington, about a 14-month-old child matching the description of Alex. Officials said the child was abandoned by a man driving a car with South Carolina license plates outside a motel near Seattle. By 10 a.m. Seattle police called, confirming the child was not Alex. Following the news, another press conference was held by Wells in front of the sheriff’s office.
After the press conference on Oct. 31, authorities were faced with the challenge of proving Susan Smith was guilty, as officials concluded she was lying about her involvement in the children’s disappearance.
To continue the story, read the second part where we look into Susan Smith’s arrest and trial for the murder of her two sons, Michael and Alexander.
