Highlighted Crime
Story of the Week -
On October 25, 1994, Susan Smith reported that she had
been carjacked in South Carolina by a man who took her two small children in
the backseat of her car. Although authorities immediately began searching for
three-year-old Michael and one-year-old Alex, they could find no trace of them
or of Smith’s car. After nine days of intense national media attention, Smith
finally confessed that the carjacking tale was false and that she had driven
her Mazda into the John D. Long Lake in order to drown her children.
Both Susan and her husband, David Smith, who had had
multiple affairs during their on-and-off relationship, had used their children
as pawns in their tempestuous marriage. Apparently, Susan was involved with
another man who did not want children, and she thought that killing her
children was the only way to continue the relationship.
Ironically, Smith’s murder came to light because she had
covered her tracks too well. While believing that the car and children would be
discovered in the lake shortly after the search was started, she never
anticipated that the authorities might not be able to find the car. After
living under the pressure of the media’s scrutiny day after day, Smith buckled.
She was convicted on two counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison. In a
book David Smith later wrote about the death of his children, Beyond All
Reason, he expressed an ambiguous wish to see Susan on death row because he
would never be able to relax and live a full life with her in prison.
Check back every
Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”
Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author
of six nonfiction books that includes Murder
and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949. Visit
Michael’s website www.michaelthomasbarry.com
for more information. His book can be purchased from Amazon through the
following link:
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