warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.

Susan Smith’s story is one of the most disturbing cases in true crime history. In this true crime podcast-style breakdown, we explore the crime that shocked the nation

today  we’re diving deep into acase you very likely already heard of-the susan smith  case.

a mother , two young boys , a bold kidnapping and tearless  please for help broadcast across the  nation but as the days passed the pieces were not fitting together.

what was happening  behind the scenes while the world were searching, what wild backstory and tangled motives set this tragedy in motion.

and what had  the past 30 years made impossible to ignore.

hold on tight while we unravel this case  and the beyond  cold- hearted woman behind it.

on october 25th, 1994, susan smith stood in front of cameras pleading for the safe retrun of her two young sons. next to her david smith,the boys father remains supportive.he look shaken but composed.

susan told police she  had been stopped at a redlight  at an intersection in union  south carolina. when a black man with a gun forced his way into her red mazda.

she claimed the man ordered her to drive for some time before making her stop on a rural road then she said  he forced her out of the vehicle and drove off.

taking her two sons, 3 year old michael and 14 month old alex .

still strapped in their car seats with him.

pannicked and disoriented susan ran toward a nearby home frantically pounding on the door for help, a resident answered and quickly called 911.

police arrived within a minutes and immediately launched a search.

for the next 9 days, the entire nation was gripped by the  heartbreaking ordeal of a young mother pleading for her children’s safe  return.

two young children being abducted by a stranger had people on high alert.

roadblocks were set up and amber alerts were issued, while flyers of michael and alex’s faces were posted in stores and gas stations.

investigators reviewed security footage check traffic cameras and question witnesses.

but no one had seen any carjacking that night.authorities expanded their searches across union county and  beyond,countless officers, volonteers and search dogs combed through rural roads and wooded areas.

lakes and rivers were  checked but nothing turned up ,helicopters  scoured hghways for any traces of the mazda.

investigators also search crime reports of similar incidents but no cases matches susan’s story.

the case  quickly gained national  attention. networks broadcast susan’s pleas and families across the country followed  every update.

if you had  a TV on during that time it was nearly impossible to avoid the  coverage. susan’s face became a national image of a grieving mother appearing on every major news station.

news crews flooded union capturing every development,local residents helped organize community searches and businesses donated food and supplies for search crews.residents even left their porch light on in solidarity. hong the boys would be brought home safely.

FBI joined the investigation and tips poured in as susan’s public please continued.but behind the scenes ,investigators were starting to have doubts.

over the next few days they kept pushing her .digging deeper  with every conversation.

they noticed that susan’s demeanor fluctuated, at press conferences , she appeared distraught and emotional,but other times, she  seemed calm and detached, especially in private conversation with officers.

one  detective noted how susan  seemed almost  giddy about one of her sitdown television interviews.before  it began she turned to david wide -.eyed and incredulous as if exited about being on TV.

then as soon  as the camera  started rollng she shifted  into her grieving mother persona. she was reveling in the spotlight.meanwhile ,24 year old david sat beside her , shell shocked,his expression never changing.

officers also noted that susan wasn’t asking any questions about  the search for her sons.

parents of missing children usually wantedconstant updates.what was being done.had police checked new areas. did they have any leads.

but susan was uncharacteristically passive, waiting for the detectives to aproache her rather then demanding answers.

and when she was alone her behavior was even stranger. she was seen laughing and chatting casually when she thought no one was watching.

investigators noted  her mood  shifts ,how  she could go from sobbing in front of cameras to being composed in private.and speaking of sobbing, that term as being generous…

because the officers weren’t the only ones who noticed,that her tearful pleas never seemed to produce any actual tears.

and then there were the details of her story that didn’t quite add up.she claimed the carjacker force her to drive  around  for nearly an hour,before making her pull over.

but when police retraced her route,they found no witnesses, no security footage and no evidence to support her timeline.

and then there was the redlight,susan initially told police she had been stopped at a redlight on monarch mills road when  the man approached her car.

but late  at night the traffic lights were timed so a red light would only be triggered by a cross traffic and would not stay red for as long as she reported.

and no one reported seing a stranded woman or struggle at the intersection.there was also a lack of physical  evidence.

there  were no tire marks where susan claimed she had been forced out of the vehicle and the assailant sped off.

no one had seen susan’s mazda no sightings. nothing.

by the  third day of searching investigators stopped focusing on finding the carjacker and started  focusing on susan.

at first , investigators kept their suspicions quite. still treating the case publicly as an active search but behind the scene they were now gathering evidence against susan.

they started by re-interviewing her, asking her to go over her story again.slowly and in detail, each time she retold it, the timeline shifted slightly. she could not remember exactly how long the carjacker had forced her to drive.

she wasn’t sure which direction she hadbeen facing  at the red light. she said she struggled  when the man pushed her out of the car ,yet there was no injuries or signs of a struggle on her or at the scene where she claimed the incident occurred.

the more she talked,the more her story unraveled.so they had hr undergo a polygraph test.

two of them.she failed both of them.

and while non- admissible in court they revelead  in court they revealed to police that susan had something to hide.

  as the days passed those polygraph failures along with the inconsistencies in her statements would get leak to the public.

fully convinced that susan was being truthful  about the encounter david tried his best to appease her.telling her she was just failing the polygraphs because she was distraught  from all that she had been through.

he coach her  on how to relax  during  the tests.but he also noticed how she was more  worried about whether people thought she was lying than she was about their boys.

buut law enforcement saw things differently with each passing day,detectives grew even more certain that susan was lying.so they called her in for another  interrogation.

November 3, 1994

it had been 9 days since their boys had gone missing

and before her interview with police she and david sat down that morning for what would end up being their final TV interview.

then it was time for her police interview.sheriff  howard wells who also happened to be susan’s godfather,directly confronted susan about her story.

telling her that he knew she was lying about the carjacking.he pointed out that she could not have been stopped at the red light on monarch mills road if there were no other cars around.

he reminded her that she had already revised her statement to account for that inconsistency but even her backup story didn’t hold up.

then  wells revealed  something susan had not expected. he told  that uncercover officeres had been stationed  at that intersection that night for a drug investigation.

and that they did not see any carjacker. her back was  against the wall.wells told susan that he would have to go public with the truth.her fals accusation had  cause tension within union’s black community and he couldn’t allow the lie to stand.

at that moment , susan asked  him to pray with her, as the prayer ended wells looked at her and said”susan , it is time.”

she tropped her head and began to sob,repeating how ashamed she was,then a moment of  desperation she asked sheriff wells for his gun to use on herself,when he asked why she said

“you don’t  understand. my children are not all right.”

she then described thecrushing isolation that she had felt driving along highway 49 that night she had planned to take her sons to her mother’s house.but her emotional state was so overwhelming that she believed not even her mother could help her.

she spokee about her lifelong feelings of loneliness failure and despair and about her abortion and her troubled  marriage to david.

susan agreed to give a written  confession. she began carefully filling two pages she wrote in rounded script drawing little hearts when she wrote the word heart.

in her confession she explained that she had originally planned to drive into the lake alone but then she said  she believed her children would be better of with god and they would be left behind without a mother.

she wrote” i had no hope i couldn’t be a good mom anymore but  i didn’t want them to grow up without a mom. she said she was ready to go down that  ramp  into the water and i did go  part away but i stopped, i went  again and stopped.

she said she tried three times  to let the car roll into the water shifting it into neutral but each time she pulled the parking brake befor it could move forward.

then standing outside the ar and overcome with grief  and desperation,she reached in one last time and let go.

she wrote” i was  an absolut mental case,i couldn’t believe what i had done i never meant to hurt them,my children,michael and alex are with  our heavely father now and i know that they will never be hurt again.as a mom that means more than words can ever say”

the car with michael and alex strapped inside rolled forward  disappearing into the dark waters of the lake and susan walked away….

the truth about her son’s disappearance ws no longer a mystery but the darker truth behind t what led to it all was yet to unfold.

the unconfortable details begans  spilling out when detectives asked susan why she did it.

she admitted that  it revolved  around  the contents of a letter.but to understand the letter and why it mattered so much, we  first have to look back at the slow motion disaster that had been susan smith’s life up until that point.

Susan Leigh Vaughan was born on september 26th1971 in union south carolina.

when she was 6 years old ,her father harry Vaughan  died  by suicide

her mother linda Vaughan later married beverly C russell a local businessman and active member of the christian coalition.as a teenager susan reported that beverly had sexually abused her which he later admitted to.

after high school susan took a job at conso products, a textile company in union.it was  there that  she met david smith and the twobegan dating.

their relationship moved quickly and in march 1991 when susan  was 19 years old they got married.the marriage was unstable from the beginning both susan and david were  involved with extramarital affairs.

and their relationship was marked by frequent arguments and separations.

despite the turmoil they had two children together, michael in 1991 and alex in 1993.

financial struggles added to the couple’s marital problems. they lived in a modest  home in union and while both worked money was tight.

susan had expensive tastes and reportedly resented their finacial situation.susan and david separated multiple  times and in may 1994 they officially  divorced.

despite  appearing as a couple in front of the cameras,david and susan had actually been legally divorced for months.and while they remained connected through her sons ,susan  had started   moving on with her personal life.

not long after the divorce she became involved with someone new.this new relationship quickly became the center of susan’s attention and as she would reveal to investigators a key part of what to led to her boys being at the bottom of a lake.

his name was tom findlay.he was the son of at  boss a conso ,by all accounts, he was noting like david.he came from a well-known local family and had the kind of wealth and status that susan always seemed to crave.

but  by her own admission, susan was also sleeping with her boss. tom’s father.

which brings us back to her confession and that letter.

tom was justifiably not pleased that susan was sleeping with his father.that admission which susan later recanted was just one of several reasons he decided to end things with her.

he  outlined them all in a letter to her stating in part;

“you will ,without a doubt,  make some lucky man a great wife, but unfortunately,it won’t be me. we come from two different backgrounds.”

he encouraged susan to avoid getting  involved with married men,he also said;

“susan ,i could really  fall for yoy but like i told you some things are not suited for me, and yes, i am talking about the children.i do not want children and i don’t want the responsibility of your children either

,i am sure that your kids are good kids, but it really wouldn’t maktter how good they may be.the fact is ,i just don”t want children.these feelings may change one day, but i doubt it.”

his final statement to her was;

in her confession letter susan openly admitted that tom’s rejection was at heart of her despair and her deadly  decision.

she wrote:”i was i love with someone very much ,but he didn’t love me  and  never would” 

with her confession now on record, investigators formally  place susan under arrest for two counts of murder.

before making any announcements or notifying family authorities worked to confirmed susan’s statements.

they sent in divers to  locate the submerged vehicle  and the boys bodies in John D long lake.

using sonar equipment they located submerged about 122  from the shore ,resting in 18ft of water as the car was  pulled out,it became immediately clear that the two boys were still inside strapped into their carseat just as susan had described.

authorities at the scene visibly  reacted, some turning away,others appearing emotional as the reality set in.emergeny  personnel confirmed the deaths of michael and  alex smith.

once the vehicle was fully removed forensic teams bega their examination. the car doors were locked reinforcing susan’s admission that she  had  intentionally left her sons trapped inside  as the car sank.

with the vechicle and bodies recovered the case against susan susan smith is now fully confirmed with pyhiscal  evidence.,the sheriff announced susan’s arrest  but by then her confession had already been leaked to the media.

so ,david  and susan’s family found out that susan had killed   her own sons the way the rest of the world did on ttelevision.

over night susan smith became the most viral woman in the country.people who had prayed for michael and alex’s safe return were now horrified,the town of union which had rallied behind her felt  betrayed.

people  who had supported her during the search turned against her, some of her own family members even distanced themselves from her.

the media  frenzy exploded with headlines calling her a monster and the most hated mother in america when susanwas taken into custody an angry crowd was there to greet her.

but the outrage wasn’t just  about what she had done.it was also about who she had blamed. for 9 days susan had let the country believe that a black  man had  kidnapped her children at gunpoint stocking racial fears and leading  to unwarranted suspicion cast on innocent people.

her lie hit especially hard in Union a town with a long and cmplicated history of racial tension and division.

but susan’s mother linda russel felt differently,she was furious at how the media portrayed her daughter stating; we wanted susan tried in a court of law. not in the press they have brutalized her i think you all ought to be ashamed of yourselves.”

with susan’s statements on record and physical evidence recovered the full picture of her cold and calculated actions became clear.

in the days leading up to the tragic night, people around 22 year old susan noticed something was off.friend said she seemed troubled but never explained why.

co-workers said she spoke constantly about tom  findlay. on the afternoon of october 25th after arguing with tom and realizing their relationship  was over .

susan  left work early,instead of heading home,she picked her boys up from daycare,  spent the next several hours driving aimlessly around Union.by 9:00 p.m. she arrived at the quiet rural lake outside of town.

a passing driver later reported seeing susan alone in the front of her car which directly contradicted being forced to drive around with her  carjacker.

susan sat with her sons for several ,minutes sensing  something unusual michael asked

” mommy ,where are we going?”susan did not answer. susan released her car into the lake where it drifted away vefore sinking.once she sent her sons to their deaths susan did not call for help,she did not run into the water,she simply turned and walked away.

she climbed the boa ramp made her way over to highway 49 then ran about 100 yards to the nearest home with  its porch lights on.she banged on the door and told the homeowners her farbricated story.

in a quiet moment  during her finally interrogation an agent asked susan ;

” if you had one wish what would it be?” she replied ,she wished that she had never told tom findlay about her affair wityh his father”

susan smith’s trial  began on july 1oth , 1995…

while the OJ simpson trial was still dominating national headlines.

with the public already captivated by that high-profile case, susan’s trial beame another media spectacle.news outlets rented out out dozens of storefronts  for the lenght of the trial.

scaffolding was built to support camera crews and  the entire street leading up to the courthouse was linedwith media trucks.

local skating rink was turned into a temporary hotel for reporters.journalists even hid in trees and behind bushes trying to capture anyglimps of those involved.

prosecution sought the death penalty aruging that susan’s actions were premeditated, their case focused on susan’s obsession with  tom-findlay and  her desire to remove her children to win him back.

forensic experts testified that the boys were alive when the car enterd the water,tests were conducted to determine how long it would take for the car to float and then sink .

to show the jury the experience from the boys  perspective as the prosecution played a video of the car sinking reenactment attempting to get it admitted into evidence.

susan and  were observed giggling and playing-the video was successfully admitted and when it was later played for the jury , susan still sitting in the same position in the courtroom was  instead  crying.

the obvious difference between her private reaction and her public peromance reinforce what law enforcement already suspected.

that susan’s displays of emotions both before and after the crime were an act.

the defense did not deny that susan killed  her children.instead  they argued that she was mentally unstable,a psychiatrist testified that susan suffered from chronic depression and adjustment disorders.

he stated that to satisfy a need to feel wanted that susan was at the time  having sexual relations with her boss  at conso,his son tom finley, her stepfather beverly russell and her ex-husband david smith.

beverly russell took the stand an admitted his sex abuse  of susan  growing up and well beyond. after her arrest he wrote her a letter expressing his guilt and suggesting that his actions contribute to what happened.

the prosecutionb argued that beverly russell’s testimony was an attempt to shift some of the blame away from susan.

another detail entered into evidence was that susan had place her wedding dress and wedding album in the trunk of the car before it sank.

possibly  a symbolic  act of burying her past along with her sons.but also a potential indication of a premeditation.

the defense asked the jury to consider life in prison instead of the death penalty  claiming that susan acted out of desperation.not cruelty.

on july 22nd,1995 after just 2  and a 1/2  hours of deliberation the jury found susan guilty on both counts of murder.but instead of sentencing  her to death the jury recommended life in prison.thisdecision was largely influenced by testimony about susan’s mental health struggles andchildhood trauma.

however  at the time of her sentencing a life sentence did not necessarily mean life behind bars. under the law at the time a life sentence meant that the defendant would be eligible  for parole after 30 years.

but jurors were not allowed to be informed of this fact .in fact when the jury asked whether susan would be eligible for parole the judge instructed them to take a life sentence at its plain and usual meaning.

the following year  laws changed to allow jurors to be informed about a defendant’s parole  eligibility.

in a years following the loss of his  sons,david smith struggled to rebuild his life.

he wrote a book ,sharing his story in pain called “Beyond all reason.my life with susan smith”

some people saw the book as a way for him to process his grief others questioned his decision to profit from the tragedy.

david remarried and divorced twice before marrying his current wife  tiffany smith.they have built a new life together ,mostly staying out of public eye.

susan’s pattern of using people and relationships to get what she wanted continued once she was behind bars involving both prison staff and fellow inmates.

in 2000 ,it was discovered that she had  sex with a prison guard who later served 3 months in jail for the relationship.

not long after,susan became involved with capten alfred Jr the head of security at the prison .

acording to alfred susan would flirt with  him ,chat regularly and like other inmates even expose herself by dropping her towel as she passed him  after showering.

she also ratted out other inmates to gain his trust and get closer to him.eventually susan offered him oral sex, which he accepted.

afterward alfred realized that he had just broken the law and risk up to 10 years in prison.

soon after ,rumors started circulating and alfred suspected that susan had turned him in, what he thought was a one time no strings encounter became a full-blown scandal.

alfred was arrested,lost his job and  was sentenced t0 5 years probation and400 hours of community service.he was alos added  to the national sex offender registry .

where his name will remain for the rest of his life.his marriage survived but  he has been unable to find steady work since.

he believes that susan reported him to manufacture scandal that would gt her transferred to leath correctional institution a prison closer to her mother.

in the end susan  was indeed transferred and alfred loset everything.

and susan’s relationships were not limited to staff, according to a former cellmate susan has also  been in an ongoing romantic and sexual relationship with another female inmate who is black….

an ironiy not lost on people familiar with susan’s original false claims about a  black man carjacking her.

when susan was in an argument with one of her lovers her cellmate overheard susan tell the women” i killed my fucking kids,do you think i care about yours?”

that former cellmate named christy used to serve as susan’s guppy. acting asa lookout during susan’s sxual encounters.

helping her obtain drugs and covering for her. at one point susan apologized to christy for a close call that chrity had while covering for her .

to reassure her, susan promised to give her $ 300 the next day as a thank you a  huge amount to be exchanging behind bars.

but a trivial amount for susan,which leads to susan’s financial situation. according to christy money talks and susan smith had a lot of it.so ,combining her money with being a long- serving inmate susan has a lot of power behind bars.

christy commented that if she will be release,susan could live the rest of her life with the money she’s got.as for where she got so much money, susan has received a steady stream of finanial support from people  on the outside.

including through sites like right prisoner. com where she received so many messages and negative media attention that the site eventually removed her profile.

but susan still receives a seemingly endless flow of money from s trangers to men she met online and even a  documentary filmmaker who deposited money into her prison account in exchange for information.

a violation that led to  disciplinary action in 2024.

at one point a man who had fallen for susan said he planned to give her  over $ 200,000 upon her release.

one former  admire corresponded  with her for 18 months .he noted how she never asked him for anything directly but happily accepted whatever he sent.

he loved her,but after finding out she was communicating with other men he determined she probably didn’t love him. he ended their relationship .

after serving 40 years in prison susan became eligible for parole in november 2024.

from prosecutors to david smith to the correctional officers hwose life she ruined to her fellow inmates no one believed  that she had been rehabilitated or deserved release.

at her hearng she cried and expressed remorse.

susan’s traumatic display of emotion does not at all match the straightforward neutral line of questioning, her exaggerated reaction just doesn’t fit the moment.

many noticed that susan’s emotional display felt familiar that despite the constant tissue dabbing and sniffles, it was nearly  identical to the tearless  plead she had made to the nation 30 years earlier.

david smith attended the hearing and reminded the parole board that this was not a tragic accident but a deliberate act.

the parole board  unanimously agreed.susan’s parole was denied with her history of manipulative behavior and prison infractions weighing  heavily in their decisison it was reported that susan was devestaed by the result.

she remains incarcerated  at leath correction institution.her next parole hearing is scheduled for november 2026,few believe that much will change by then.

in the end one thing has stayed the same.susan smith has always looked out for susan smith from the lies she fed the public to her manipulation behind bars .every move she’s made has been self-serving.