After high school, Susan Leigh Vaughan marries David Smith.
They have two sons, but the children don’t keep the marriage together. The Smiths separated several times. During one of these separations, Susan Smith begins dating Tom Findlay, the single son of a wealthy mill owner. Smith is planning a future with her new beau when she gets a Dear John letter from Findley. He explains that he doesn’t want an instant family.
On the night of October 25, Susan Smith knocks on the door of a house near John D Long Lake. She is hysterical when the man answers the door and tells him to call the police. She says an armed black man just carjacked her at a red light. Her two boys, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex, are still in the car. For days Susan Smith tells an ever-changing story of the carjacking.
Then Susan Smith finally admits what she has done. There never was a hijacker. She went out for a drive with her sons buckled into their car seats in the back. Feeling desperate, alone, and suicidal, she drove to John D. Long Lake and puts the car in neutral. She jumps out and watches the car sink. Scuba divers locate the vehicle with the boys in the back, still buckled into their seats.
Since Susan Smith was convicted and jailed, tabloid news reports claim Smith told prison investigators that she had four sexual encounters with Lieutenant Houston Cagle, a supervisor at South Carolina’s Women’s Correctional Institution.
Cagle admitted having sex with Smith and another prisoner. He was charged with the offenses in August 2000. The 50-year-old Cagle pleaded guilty and spent 3 months in jail. Captain Alfred Rowe also pleaded guilty to having sex with Smith and was sentenced to five years’ probation.
Now Smith’s relationship with men turns to pen pals. Several men have written to Smith over the years, with Smith looking to a life outside prison. In March of 2022, People magazine gained access to letters Smith wrote to a long-distance boyfriend. In one letter Smith wrote, “I can’t wait to build a life with you, leave the past mistakes behind and start fresh, just you and me.”
The Messenger has reportedly obtained transcripts of dozens of voice and text messages that Susan Smith traded with at least six men while serving her time in Prison. One man has gone so are as to build a fake life for Susan Smith and himself in the game the Sims also has a pet name for the convicted child killer, “Pookie.”
Joining Nancy Grace Today:
Dave Mack – CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter
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[Feature Photo: FILE – In a July 9, 1995 file photo, visitors walk down the ramp where Alex and Michael Smith were drowned in a car in 1994 in Union, S.C., by their mother, Susan Smith. Mothers kill their children in this country much more often than most people would realize by simply reading the headlines; by conservative estimates it happens every few days, at least 100 times a year. Experts say more mothers kill their children under 5 years of age than fathers. And, some say, our reluctance as a society to believe mothers would be capable of killing their offspring is hindering our ability to recognize warning signs, intervene and prevent more tragedies. (AP Photo/Lou Krasky, File)]
