Susan Smith

For other people named Susan Smith, see Susan Smith (disambiguation).

Susan Smith
Born	September 26, 1971 (1971-09-26) Union, South Carolina
Conviction(s)	Two counts of murder
Penalty	Life
Status	Incarcerated at Leath Correctional Institution
Spouse	David Smith (March 15, 1991 - May 1995)
Parents	Linda and Harry Vaughan

Susan Leigh Vaughan Smith (born September 26, 1971) is an American woman sentenced to life in prison for murdering her children. Born in Union, South Carolina, and a former student of the University of South Carolina Union, she was convicted on July 22, 1995 of murdering her two sons, 3-year-old Michael Daniel Smith, born October 10, 1991, and 14-month-old Alexander Tyler Smith, born August 5, 1993. The case gained worldwide attention shortly after it developed, due to her claiming that a black man stole her car and kidnapped her sons. She later claimed that she suffered from mental health issues that impaired her judgment.

According to the South Carolina Department of Corrections, Smith will be eligible for parole on November 4, 2024, after serving a minimum of thirty years. She is currently incarcerated at South Carolina's Leath Correctional Institution, near Greenwood.

The case

On October 25, 1994, Smith initially reported to police that she had been carjacked by a black man who drove away with her sons still in the car. She made tearful pleas on television for the rescue and return of her children. A Usenet chain letter circulated in the following days, asking Internet users to be on the lookout for the vehicle. However, following an intensive, heavily publicized investigation and a nationwide search, Smith confessed nine days later on November 3 to letting her 1990 Mazda Protegé roll into nearby John D. Long Lake, drowning her children inside. She allegedly wanted to discard her children so that she might resume an affair with a wealthy local man who had no interest in a "ready-made" family.

It later emerged that investigators had been suspicious of Smith's story from the beginning. From the second day of the investigation, the authorities suspected that she knew where they were. While they suspected that she'd actually killed her own children, they held out some hope that the boys were still alive. Lakes and ponds began being searched, including the lake in which they were eventually found. The reason for not finding them earlier is that the authorities thought the car could have traveled out only about thirty feet and that was the extent of the search. Later, they found out that it was about sixty feet out; this was because of its speed when it entered the lake and it drifted out on top of the water for about thirty feet. She had taken a polygraph along with her husband, David, two days after the boys disappeared. The results were inconclusive, but showed that she was lying when she said she did not know where they were. She was polygraphed during every subsequent interview with investigators, and failed that question each time. There were also no other cars near the intersection where she said the carjacking had occurred. A big break in the case had to do with her story on where she was carjacked. The particular red light at which she said she stopped is only triggered when a car is coming from the cross street. According to her, there were no other cars around so there would be no reason for her to stop at this intersection. But at last the boys were found still fastened into their car seats.

It was disclosed in her trial that Smith was molested in her teens by her stepfather, who admitted that he had molested her when she was a teenager and had consensual sex with her as an adult. Her biological father committed suicide when she was 6 years old and she very rarely had a stable home life. At 13, she attempted suicide. After graduating from high school in 1989, she made a second attempt.

At one time she was incarcerated in the Administrative Segregation Unit in the Women's Correctional Center in Columbia, South Carolina. While she has been in prison, two guards have been punished for having sex with Smith: Lt. Houston Cagle and Capt. Alfred R. Rowe Jr. Because of this she was moved to a prison in Greenwood where she is currently held, and in 2003 she placed a personal ad at WriteAPrisoner.com which has since been retracted.

See also

• Andrea Yates
• Darlie Routier
• Dena Schlosser
• Diane Downs
• La Llorona
• China P. Arnold

Books

• Rekers, George (September 1995). Susan Smith: Victim or Murderer. Glenbridge Publishing. ISBN 0944435380. 
• Russell, Linda; Stephens, Shirley (April 2000). My Daughter Susan Smith. Authors Book Nook. ISBN 9780970107619. 
• Smith, David (July 1995). Beyond All Reason: My Life With Susan Smith. Zebra. ISBN 9780821752203. 

References

• South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED); SLED Latent Print and Crime Scene Worksheet: Floatation Characteristics of 1990 Mazda Protege; May 24, 1995

External links

• U.S. News Year in Review - Susan Smith Trial - Dec. 28, 1995 - CNN
• Michael & Alexander Smith memorial at Findagrave