Susan Smith Drowned Her 2 Sons After Lying About a Carjacking. Inside Her Life TodayLynsey Eidell, Nicole Pomarico,
Susan SmithCredit: Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma via Getty; South Carolina Department of Corrections
In October 1994, South Carolina mother Susan Smith claimed that a Black man had carjacked her and kidnapped her children
Days later, she confessed that she’d let her car roll into a lake with sons Michael, 3, and Alexander, 14 months, inside
She began serving a life sentence for the murders in 1995 and was denied parole in November 2024
It’s been over 30 years since Susan Smith began serving a life sentence in prison after confessing to the murders of her two young children.
On Oct. 25, 1994, the South Carolina mother claimed a Black man had carjacked her, then driven off with her two toddlers still in the vehicle. Susan’s story made national news as she pleaded publicly for the safe return of her sons.
However, just over a week later, she confessed that there hadn’t been a carjacking at all. In reality, Susan drove her car to a local boat ramp and let it roll into a lake — with her sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander, strapped inside.
Susan’s alleged motive for the murders was that she was secretly dating a local businessman, Tom Findlay, who didn’t want children. In an effort to save their relationship, Susan drowned her sons. Susan, who has been serving a life sentence for the killings since 1995, claimed that she’s misunderstood.
“I am not the monster society thinks I am. I am far from it,” she wrote in a 2015 letter to The State, a South Carolina newspaper. “Something went very wrong that night. I was not myself. I was a good mother, and I loved my boys. There was no motive, as it was not even a planned event. I was not in my right mind.”
Susan was set to be eligible for parole on Nov. 4, 2024, but she was denied. Her next parole hearing is scheduled for November 2026.
Here’s everything to know about where Susan is now, from life behind bars to being denied parole.
She has been serving a life sentence since July 1995Susan Smith in the 1990sCredit: Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma via Getty
Nine days after their murders, Susan came clean about killing her two children. On Nov. 4, 1994, Michael and Alexander’s bodies were recovered.
Susan’s murder trial began in July 1995. The prosecution sought the death penalty and alleged that it was Susan’s desire for a relationship with Findlay, who did not want children, that led her to kill her two sons.
The defense, however, portrayed Susan as a woman with mental illness who intended to kill herself and her children on the night of Oct. 25, 1994 — but saved herself at the last moment, per The New York Times.
The trial lasted under a week, and the jury took less than two and a half hours to find Susan guilty on two counts of first-degree murder, The New York Times reported. The jury declined to give Susan the death penalty, instead sentencing her to life in prison. Susan, 23 at the time, would be eligible for parole 30 years later in 2024, according to The Washington Post.
“We all felt like Susan was a really disturbed person,” juror Deborah Benvenuti told reporters. “And we all felt that giving her the death penalty wouldn’t serve justice.”
However, the boys’ father, David Smith, told reporters at the courthouse that he didn’t feel justice had been served.
“I’ll never forget what Susan has done, and I’ll never forget Michael and Alex,” David said. “Me and my family, of course, are disappointed that the death penalty wasn’t the verdict.”
Two prison guards were charged with having sex with Susan Smith
Susan began her life sentence at the Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution in Columbia, S.C., on July 28, 1995. During her time at that prison, she received two infractions for having sex with prison guards.
The incidents were discovered in 2000, when Susan was 28. According to UPI, 50-year-old prison guard Houston Cagle had had sex with Susan at least four times. An investigator discovered the affair while looking into tabloid claims that Susan had been beaten. Cagle pleaded guilty, was fired and spent three months in jail, while Susan was disciplined.
Then in September 2000, a prison captain named Alfred Rowe was arrested for having sex with Susan, according to ABC News. Their encounter came to light after Susan told investigators she had sex with Rowe and he confessed. A year later, Rowe pleaded guilty and received five years’ probation.
As a result of the sexual infractions, Susan was transferred to the Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood, S.C. Prison guards there took special precautions with Susan in light of her past, never allowing her to be alone with one of them and often transporting extra prisoners with her.
“No one trusts her to be alone with a guard,” a prison source told PEOPLE in October 2019. “She spends most of her time in her cell or working her job, but when she’s being transported, there are always two guards with her, preferably a male and a female.”
She has been in trouble for drug use and self-mutilation while in prisonSusan Smith in the 1990sCredit: Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma via Getty
Susan’s disciplinary issues continued at the Leath Correctional Institution. Jailhouse records show that Susan was disciplined at least five times between 2010 and 2017 for infractions including self-mutilation, drug use and possession of narcotics or marijuana. Punishment for her infractions involved the loss of visitation, canteen and telephone privileges.
She was disciplined on drug charges twice in 2010 and once in 2015 and lost privileges for more than a year as a result. Rowe, one of the prison guards who had sex with Susan, claimed that her drug use escalated when she was transferred to Leath.
“She could no longer get the male attention that she used as a drug,” he claimed in an episode of Lifetime’s Cellmate Secrets in July 2021.
Christie Smith, Susan’s former cellmate, claimed that her “main purpose was to bring her her pills.”
“I’ve seen Susan do everything,” she alleged, in reference to Susan’s drug use. “Snort, booty bump, swallow, shoot. I’ve seen her do it all.”
She had a long-distance boyfriend from behind bars
Susan SmithCredit: South Carolina Department of Corrections
In March 2022, PEOPLE learned that Susan — who was then 50 years old and had spent more than half her life in prison — had been sending “romantic correspondence” to a man outside of the jail for over a year.
The long-distance romance began after the man — who was divorced, in his mid-40s and had two adult children — saw a documentary about Susan on TV.
He wrote her a letter, and their correspondence eventually grew to “a few letters per week,” a source told PEOPLE.
“They write letters all the time,” a family member of Susan’s told PEOPLE. “Handwritten letters about what their future will be. She’s very romantic like that, always wanting to find a happily ever after.”
Susan wrote that she wanted to “start fresh” with her boyfriend if she were ever freed from jail.
“We’re going to have amazing chemistry in person,” she wrote in one letter seen by PEOPLE. “I can’t wait to build a life with you. Leave the past mistakes behind and start fresh, just you and me.”
A relative of Susan’s told PEOPLE that the couple was even discussing marriage if she got parole in 2024.
“She’s imagining the normalcy of a married life,” the relative told PEOPLE. “She wants everything in life that she believes has passed her by. So yeah, she is talking marriage with him and thinking that she can spend the last part of her life as a wife and stepmother.”
By October 2022, however, the relationship had “fizzled out.” A Smith family member told PEOPLE, “They are no longer corresponding. It’s over.”
She was eligible for parole in November 2024
Susan Smith wipes away tears during her parole hearing in Columbia, S.C., on Nov. 20, 2024Credit: Getty
Susan reportedly focused on changing her behavior in prison, hoping to be granted parole in November 2024.
A prison source who had known Susan for several years told PEOPLE in 2020 that Susan was following prison rules to improve her chances of being released. Her disciplinary history, which included infractions for drug use, self-mutilation and sexual contact with a guard, would all factor into the parole board’s decision.
“She’s behaving herself these days,” the source said. “She knows that her parole date is four years away and she can’t get parole if she isn’t being good.”
Then, in August 2024, Susan faced more disciplinary action after she was charged with communicating with a victim and/or witness, stemming from phone calls with a documentary filmmaker, per ABC4 News. The outlet reported that in South Carolina, inmates may only write letters and aren’t allowed to conduct phone or in-person interviews. She was convicted of the violation on Oct. 3, 2024.
At her Nov. 20, 2024 parole hearing, Susan told the board that she knew “what I did was horrible.”
“I am a Christian and God is a big part of my life and I know he has forgiven me and I know that is by his grace and mercy ... And I just ask that you show that same kind of mercy as well,” she said, as reported by CNN.
Ultimately, Susan was denied parole in that first attempt.
Now that she has passed the 30-year mark of her sentence, Susan is eligible for parole every two years. Her next parole board hearing is scheduled for Nov. 19, 2026, per WYFF.
Her ex-husband David said he will do “everything in my power” to keep her behind bars
Before she murdered their children, Susan had already filed for divorce from David in September 1994. A judge granted their divorce in May 1995, a couple of months before her trial began.
Two months before her parole hearing, Susan’s ex-husband David shared on Court TV what he would say to his former wife if they came face to face.
“I would just tell her that you have no idea of how much damage you have done to so many people,” he said in September 2024. “I would tell her that in my capabilities I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure you stay behind bars.”
David has since moved on from the relationship, welcoming two more children, daughter Savannah and son Nicolas, in 2001 and 2003, respectively, per Go Upstate.
He shares Savannah with his wife Tiffany, whom he wed in 2003 after 11 years together, while Nicolas has a different mother.
“I’ve said before, I admit being a lousy husband,” David told the outlet in June 2004. “But I’ve always been a good father to my kids. I enjoy being a father very much. I mean there’s no greater love in the world than loving a child.”
At Susan’s November 2024 hearing, David asked the board to deny his ex-wife parole, believing serving 30 years was “just not enough” and that her crime was “not a tragic mistake.”
“It wasn’t something that she didn’t mean to do. She purposely meant to end their life,” he said, per a video published by WCNC. “I never have felt any remorse from her for it. She never expressed any to me. I’ve never seen it on paper.”
David added of his late children, “I miss them very much, and I love them very much. And I will be here every two years going forward to ensure that their death doesn’t go in vain.”
During a February 2025 Dateline episode, David looked back on the moment that Susan admitted to drowning their sons.
“She just casually, like you and I sitting here, said ‘I’m sorry.’ And that was about as far as it went,” he said, adding, “I asked her, ‘Why did you do this? Why?’ And she said, ‘I don’t know why, but I’m sorry.’ ”
Source: Crime
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