South Carolina killer mom Susan Smith, who drowned sons, up for release as experts sound alarm

Susan Smith, the South Carolina mother who drowned her two young sons in a lake in the 1990s, is up for a parole hearing in a month.

Smith, then 22, strapped her sons, Michael and Alexander Smith, into the back seat of her car in October 1994, and watched as she let the car roll into John D. Lake in Union County. It took six minutes for the two boys, one 3 years old and the other just 14 months, to drown.

"She spent nine days claiming that the carjacker had taken the kids and asking for help, so the search was going on," former Union County prosecutor Tommy Pope, now a South Carolina state representative, told Fox News Digital. "Truthfully, I believed she probably had [the kids] hidden somewhere just because, based on my law enforcement experience, I didn't think that a carjacker would take children."

Specifically, Smith lied to investigators and the press after killing her sons, falsely claiming a Black man had carjacked her with Michael and Alexander inside the vehicle.

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Susan Smith, pictured in a mugshot at left and as a 22-year-old in 1994 at right, has been incarcerated in South Carolina for nearly 30 years for the murder of her two sons. (South Carolina Department of Corrections)

"She was on every major station, ‘Good Morning America,’ you name it, she was doing it, and she was pleading for the kids," Pope recalled. "The one thing I saw from the beginning – I had some video footage from a local TV station that actually went to the house that she went to that night when she claimed she was carjacked. And [Smith's] husband, David, was called to the scene. And of course, he looked like someone who was just told his kids had been kidnaped. And Susan was kind of giddy about being on television. I think she really loved the attention."

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Susan Smith was convicted on July 22, 1995, of murdering her two sons, 3-year-old Michael Daniel Smith and 14-month-old Alexander Tyler Smith. (Greg Smith/Corbis)

As far as a motive, Pope said Smith was having an extramarital affair at the time with Tom Findlay, the son of a local, wealthy business owner, who wrote Smith a letter a week before the murders telling the 22-year-old woman that while he was interested in her romantically, he was not suited to raise children, as the Birmingham News reported in a 2005 interview with Findlay. 

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That letter would become a key piece of evidence in the prosecution's case.

Susan Smith was sentenced to life in prison for murdering her two sons. (William Campbell/Sygma )

"I don't think he meant to tell her to get rid of her children. I just think he was trying to break up with her because he lost interest. And I think she took it to heart because she envisioned a life of luxury with a rich person," said Andrea Peyser, a New York Post columnist who reported on the murders in 1994 and authored a book about the case called "Mother Love, Deadly Love: The Susan Smith Murders."

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Susan Smith was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after killing her two sons in 1994. (Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma)

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Meanwhile, over the course of her 30 years in prison, Smith, now 52, has reportedly engaged in a sexual relationship with prison guards, a prison source said in an interview with People in 2020.

"She's not having a horrible time behind bars."

— Andrea Peyser

Pope sought the death penalty for Smith during her trial in 1995, and he does not think she should be eligible for parole today.

"Some of the jurors, after the fact, even said they gave her life under the theory she would be remorseful and spend her time thinking about Michael and Alex. Well, she has proved from her conduct in prison that she's had sexual relations with guards, she's got Facebook friends and sugar daddies waiting for her to get out," Pope said. "She is focused on what's best for Susan, not what happened to Michael and Alex."

Peyser also does not believe Smith should be eligible for parole, given her lack of remorse or ownership for her actions during her three decades behind bars.

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Susan Smith initially claimed she was carjacked, but evidence would later reveal she killed her own two young sons, Michael and Alexander. (Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma)

"She had caused so much damage, she led to the investigation of all kinds of innocent men. It's unfair in every way. She's just a really sad and horrible person," Peyser said.

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Peyser described the town of Union as "slightly insane" at the time she was covering the case.

"She was, of course, a woman who grew up there, lived there most of her life, and the town kind of embraced her while blaming her husband, who is really blameless in this situation. So the whole thing was really horrible," Peyser recalled. 

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A Facebook page dedicated to Michael and Alexander Smith has been encouraging its followers to submit letters to the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services opposing Smith's release.