Return to the Lake

Summary

Dateline NBC Podcast Summary: "Return to the Lake"

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Introduction In the gripping episode titled "Return to the Lake," NBC News delves into the harrowing true-crime story of Susan Smith, a mother whose unthinkable actions shattered a small South Carolina community and captivated the nation. Hosted by Lester Holt, the episode meticulously chronicles the events surrounding the disappearance and tragic deaths of Susan Smith's two young sons, Michael and Alex.

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The Carjacking and Disappearance (00:01 – 05:35) On the night of October 25, 1994, in the quiet town of Union, South Carolina, Susan Smith, a 23-year-old secretary, made a desperate and frantic plea at a neighbor’s doorstep. (00:01) She claimed that a black man had forcibly taken her children, driving off with them in her car. David Smith, Susan's husband, immediately responded to her distress call, conveying the shocking news to Sheriff Howard Wells.

David Smith recounts his initial disbelief and the profound impact the incident had on his life:

“It does just change your life. But speaking up for these issues helps me keep going.” (00:29)

Sheriff Wells launched a massive manhunt, broadcasting an All Points Bulletin (APB) while Susan and David publicly appealed for the safe return of their sons. The community rallied together, and the search expanded nationwide, highlighting the depth of concern and collective hope for the children's safety.

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Intensifying Investigation and Media Frenzy (05:35 – 14:34) As days turned into weeks, the search for Michael and Alex intensified, with over 700 tips flooding in. David Smith describes the relentless media coverage that put Union under a microscope:

“The media. It was out of control circus.” (23:50)

Reporters like Heather Hoops Matthews from WIS TV became embedded with search teams, uncovering more about Susan and David’s troubled marriage. The narrative began to shift as inconsistencies in Susan's account surfaced. Notably, the implausibility of her carjacking story—pointing out that the traffic light she described as red was never actually red due to the absence of opposing traffic—raised suspicions (29:06).

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Polygraph Tests and Growing Doubts (14:34 – 36:23) Investigators conducted polygraph tests to verify Susan's statements. David Smith expresses his skepticism about the validity of these tests:

“I didn't put a lot of weight into it because to me, she had just had her children, our children, ripped away from her.” (33:22)

Despite passing an initial polygraph, rumors of Susan failing the test spread, deepening doubts about her innocence. The turning point came when FBI agent Peter Logan, tasked with interviewing Susan, discovered discrepancies in her revised story. This culminated in a carefully orchestrated confrontation that led Susan to break down and confess to the horrific truth.

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Susan’s Confession and Discovery of the Bodies (36:23 – 43:58) After nine agonizing days, Susan Smith confessed to Sheriff Wells that she had indeed killed her sons and dumped the car in John D. Long Lake. Her confession was documented in her own handwriting:

“I want to say to my babies, your mama loves you so much.” (29:10)

Divers later recovered the car and the bodies of Michael and Alex, bringing an abrupt and devastating end to the nationwide search. David Smith reacted with a mix of disbelief and profound grief:

“It wasn't an accident. She didn't kill them by mistake. She took a life.” (42:27)

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The Trial and Verdict (43:58 – 66:17) Susan Smith’s trial became a media spectacle, focusing on whether her actions were premeditated or driven by deep-seated emotional turmoil. Prosecutor Tommy Pope argued that Susan acted out of a selfish desire to be with her boyfriend, Tom Finley, who did not want children. In contrast, the defense presented Susan as a victim of mental illness and past trauma, including alleged sexual abuse by her stepfather.

David Smith testified passionately, expressing his struggle to reconcile Susan’s actions with the image of the mother he once knew:

“I used to sit there and look at the back of her head and think about killing her.” (56:00)

The jury found Susan guilty of two counts of murder but sentenced her to life imprisonment instead of the death penalty, a decision that left David both relieved and deeply disappointed.

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Aftermath and Pursuit of Justice (66:17 – 84:44) In the years following the trial, David Smith sought closure and justice. He married Tiffany, Susan's former girlfriend, in 2003, finding solace and support in their relationship. Throughout the decades, Susan maintained minimal contact through letters, revealing her ongoing struggles with depression and remorse.

David's determination to prevent Susan's potential parole culminated in the 2024 parole hearing. Despite Susan's pleas for mercy and claims of rehabilitation, David fervently opposed her release:

“She deliberately killed Michael and Alex, and I can't let her out.” (69:09)

The parole board denied Susan's request, ensuring she would remain incarcerated, much to David's relief.

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Return to the Lake and Reflections (85:02 – 87:52) In January 2025, David Smith returned to John D. Long Lake, reflecting on the enduring pain and the community's memory of Michael and Alex. The site, while physically changed, remains a place of solemn remembrance:

“I'm so sorry that your life ended this.” (87:17)

David shared his ongoing struggle with the loss and the protective mechanisms his mind developed to cope with the unbearable grief:

“I've never really had any memories of them since they passed.” (85:02)

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Conclusion "Return to the Lake" serves as a poignant exploration of tragedy, loss, and the quest for justice. Through detailed narration and intimate interviews, NBC News paints a comprehensive picture of the Susan Smith case, highlighting the profound and lasting impact on those left behind. David Smith's unwavering pursuit of justice and his heartfelt reflections provide a deeply human perspective on a story that continues to resonate decades later.

Notable Quotes:

• David Smith (00:14): “I had no other option. I had to do something.”
• David Smith (03:17): “Wow. For myself, yes. Because I wouldn't have to be dealing with what's coming up now and in the future.”
• David Smith (22:08): “I don't think she's ever been truly sorry for what she did.”
• David Smith (39:08): “I am not a horrible person, Carol. I'm a human being who made a horrible decision. I grieve daily for my boys.”
• David Smith (75:12): “I don't think she'll ever be rehabilitated.”

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Closing Remarks This episode underscores the enduring trauma and the relentless search for truth in the face of unimaginable loss. "Return to the Lake" is a testament to the complexities of human emotion and the pursuit of justice, making it a compelling listen for those intrigued by true-crime stories.

Transcript

[Lester Holt]

A true crime story never really ends. Even when a case is closed, the journey for those left behind is just beginning. Since our DATELINE story aired, Tracy has harnessed her outrage into a mission.

[David Smith]

I had no other option. I had to do something.

[Lester Holt]

Catch up with families, friends and investigators on our bonus series after the Verdict. Ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with strength and courage.

[David Smith]

It does just change your life. But speaking up for these issues helps me keep going.

[Lester Holt]

To listen to after the Verdict, subscribe to Dateline premium on Apple Podcasts, Spotify [e-mail] tonight on Dateline.

[David Smith]

So many people still think about them. I wish I could tell them, I miss you so much. Whoever has my children, please bring them home.

[Lester Holt]

It was the story that broke America's heart.

[David Smith]

She said a man forced her out of the car and sped off with the children. Susan is distraught. She's crying.

[Lester Holt]

The tears seem genuine.

[David Smith]

I believe David. Words coming out of her mouth.

[Lester Holt]

Then the news.

[David Smith]

No one could believe Susan Smith has been arrested. Some of our agents were just sobbing when the car was pulled out of the water.

[Lester Holt]

Now Susan Smith breaks decades of silence should she be released? Susan doesn't pose a danger to society.

[David Smith]

She lied and manipulated everybody. I can't let her out.

[Lester Holt]

You don't believe that Susan Smith is remotely remorseful, right? A power interview with a father whose loss still aches.

[David Smith]

You're not gonna make me bitter. You're not gonna make me mad at the world. You're not gonna win.

[Lester Holt]

A mother's unthinkable crime. A father's unforgettable courage. The case of Susan Smith. Tonight, a revealing new look. I'm Lester Holt and this is D. Frank Melvin with Return to the Lake. A manhunt is spreading across this country.

[David Smith]

For a man who pulled a carjacking.

[Lester Holt]

Tuesday night.

[David Smith]

A mother's nightmare came true in South Carolina.

[Lester Holt]

Tips continue to come in, but there's no sign of the 14 month and 3 year old brothers. Tonight, the tragedy that gripped a nation 30 years ago and still won't let go. Why do you think people still care so much?

[David Smith]

Because we all united with the hope that we would find those little boys.

[Lester Holt]

Two brothers missing for nine agonizing days. A nationwide manhunt with a heartbreaking end. And the mother at the center of it all speaking out for the first time in decades while a father continues his fight for justice. Would you have been better off had the state executed her?

[David Smith]

Wow. For myself, yes. Because I wouldn't have to be dealing with what's coming up now and in the future.

[Lester Holt]

It all started in the tiny town of Union, South Carolina, a rural community. Textiles and farming were the big businesses there. It had just a few traffic lights, church going neighbors would wave on their morning walks.

[David Smith]

The people here are friendly.

[Lester Holt]

Harold Thompson grew up in Union and is now the mayor.

[David Smith]

They're willing to help in any type of situation. You know, we got a lot of volunteers, people get along with each other, no big problems or issues.

[Lester Holt]

But that all changed the night of October 25, 1994. Around 9pm, a young woman banged frantically on the door of this house. Homeowner Shirley McLeod answered.

[David Smith]

She just wasn't physically able to hardly stand up and took her to the couch and asked her to tell me again what she said. And she said, he's taking my children, he's got my children.

[Lester Holt]

Shirley's son immediately called 911.

[David Smith]

Some guy jumped into a red light with her car. And he's got the kids? Yes, ma'am, and her car. I don't.

[Lester Holt]

She's real hysterical.

[David Smith]

Get him going, Pam. I got two kids.

[Lester Holt]

The woman at the door was Susan Smith, a shy, quiet, 23 year old brunette who worked as a secretary at a local textile company. Tiffany Moss knew her from school. What was she like in high school?

[David Smith]

She was just, you know, nothing extra popular or anything like that. But she knows she was just your friendly high school girl.

[Lester Holt]

Susan and her husband David lived in Union and had two little boys, Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months.

[David Smith]

They were just your typical little boy toddler, you know, precious, playful, sweet.

[Lester Holt]

But now they were missing. Sheriff Howard Wells raced to the scene.

[David Smith]

And when I walked in, Susan was seated on the sofa there in the living room.

[Lester Holt]

He talked to Dateline in 1995.

[David Smith]

I knew time was of the essence and so we went right directly into the informational stage of trying to find out what had happened.

[Lester Holt]

Susan told him she was driving with her boys that night to visit a friend named Mitch Sinclair and stopped at a red light. She said that's when a black man suddenly accosted her with a gun. After giving her statement, Susan called her husband David. What do you remember about that?

[David Smith]

I remember it was around 9:00 and Sheriff Wells said that your children have been taken and we're at the McLeod residence. You need to get here.

[Lester Holt]

And when you get there, what do you find?

[David Smith]

Susan is in their living room and when I walk in, she's just distraught, she's crying.

[Lester Holt]

What was she saying about what happened?

[David Smith]

That I was at a red light and that a black man jumped in the car, made me drive and then forced me out of the car and drove off with them. And still in the car, the sheriff.

[Lester Holt]

Put out an APB while David and Susan went on camera to appeal for help.

[David Smith]

I was stopped at a red light, and just out of nowhere, this black guy came up and just opened the door and jumped in the car. And he had a gun, and he had it pointed in my side and told me to drive. And so I did. And when I tried to ask him why he was doing this or whatever, he just told me, shut up or he'd kill me. So I just kept driving, driving. My babies were in the backseat and they were crying, and I tried to tell him everything was going to be okay.

[Lester Holt]

She said she drove a few miles until the man told her to stop.

[David Smith]

He told me, get out. And I said, well, can I get my children? And he said, no. He said. He said, I don't have time for that. And they were just crying. Do you want to make a plea? If anybody sees the story or this person.

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[David Smith]

Anybody sees anything that looks unusual. I mean, this is a black guy with two white children. Obviously they're not his. You want to make a plea as well? I just. If anybody sees anything whatsoever, please contact your local police department and inform them of anything that looks unusual. Please.

[Lester Holt]

For Sheriff Wells, it was an all hands on deck moment. He sprang into action, ordering his deputies to hunt down the carjacker and find Michael and Alex.

[David Smith]

We are hoping that he's going to be as good as his word that he will not harm the children, since he did not harm her.

[Lester Holt]

But what police hoped would be a quick search stretched into nine days that captivated the country. We'll take you inside the investigation with newly unearthed audio tapes.

[David Smith]

How do you feel today about it? Well, I feel better now that that came out, but still worries me about it right up.

[Lester Holt]

Revealing jailhouse letters and exclusive interviews.

[David Smith]

I used to sit there and look at the back of her head and think about killing her.

[Lester Holt]

You wanted her dead?

[David Smith]

I did.

[Lester Holt]

All from those nine fateful days and the unspeakable crime that left everyone asking one question. Why?

[David Smith]

Why on earth? It was intense for those nine days, but then it went thermoc nuclear.

[Lester Holt]

In the early morning hours of Oct. 26, deputies scoured south Carolina searching for a kidnapper.

[David Smith]

Said it was a black male driving a Burgundy Protege Affirmative, and he had two juveniles with him. From what I understood, these were small children.

[Lester Holt]

Sheriff Wells asked Susan for a more detailed description, and she was happy to comply.

[David Smith]

She came in between three and four in the morning Met with a composite artist on day one.

[Lester Holt]

Susan described a tall black man, 30 to 40 years old, wearing a knit hat.

[David Smith]

The sketch, it was disseminated widely through, you know, throughout the state.

[Lester Holt]

Jeff Beeley is the current sheriff of Union. Back then, he was a young deputy just starting out.

[David Smith]

And we were looking through files and probation pro who had a criminal history of child molestation or, you know, crimes against children. And we were trying to put that face together with pictures that we had. I was six months into my second job.

[Lester Holt]

As daylight broke, reporter Heather Hoops Matthews drove into work at WIS tv, the NBC affiliate in Columbia, South Carolina. How did you actually hear about the case?

[David Smith]

Initially, I walked into the newsroom in the morning, and the assignment desk said, we hear there are two children missing in Union. Grab a photographer and go.

[Lester Holt]

What are you hearing? What are folks saying?

[David Smith]

At that time, I remember thinking how shocking that was. You know, that's terrible. Surely we're going to find the kids.

[Lester Holt]

As Heather and the other local reporters began digging around Union, they started to learn a lot more about Susan and David Smith. What were your impressions of them?

[David Smith]

Initially, I thought that he was very loving to her. I saw him put his arm around her, and I just remember thinking how nice that was.

[Lester Holt]

Both Susan and David had grown up in Union, in modest, churchgoing families. How did you meet?

[David Smith]

We were both working at a local grocery store.

[Lester Holt]

Winn Dixie?

[David Smith]

Yes, Winn Dixie. And then we just got to talking like teenagers do.

[Lester Holt]

Small talk soon led to dating, and the young couple married in 1991. Susan was 19. David was 20.

[David Smith]

Then Michael was born, and I was head over heels. My first son.

[Lester Holt]

Then came little Alex. Tell me about Michael. Tell me about Alex.

[David Smith]

Michael was the more sensitive one. His feelings would get hurt easy when you scolded him. He was very protective of Alex at the daycare. Even at home, Alex was more rambunctious, more mischievous.

[Lester Holt]

Susan later left her job at Winn Dixie and got a position as a secretary to the CEO of a major textile company in town. David says she was an attentive mom.

[David Smith]

She always made sure they were well dressed. Whoever was taking care of them while we were at work, she made sure they were in good hands.

[Lester Holt]

But not long after Alex was born, David and Susan's marriage started to fall apart.

[David Smith]

I was a lousy husband. You know, there was infidelity, but there was, you know, infidelity on her part, too, after mine.

[Lester Holt]

But you were both cheating on each other, right? Yeah. The couple separated in the spring of 1994. By the next fall, David had a new girlfriend. Tiffany. Yes. The same Tiffany who knew Susan in high school.

[David Smith]

We met after my first year of college when I started working at Winn Dixie and he was assistant manager there.

[Lester Holt]

What drew you to each other?

[David Smith]

I just remember the day that I started when I walked in the door and I saw him stocking shelves, and.

[Lester Holt]

I was like, Susan had started dating someone else, too. Tom Finley, a co worker at that textile company. But with the boys missing, David knew he had to be there to support his wife any way he could. I just want to hug him so.

[David Smith]

Bad and tell them I love him.

[Lester Holt]

As Susan and David got their message out to the media, deputies and volunteers widened their search to the woods surrounding Union. With bloodhounds on the ground and helicopters.

[David Smith]

In the air, everybody in the state of South Carolina knew about it as soon as it happened.

[Lester Holt]

Mark Keel is now the chief of the South Carolina Law Enforcement division, known as SLED. But in 1994, he was attending law school and working as a pilot. So he joined the search team.

[David Smith]

And we were up flying the next morning and looking for that, Searching for that vehicle.

[Lester Holt]

You're flying around South Carolina. What are you guys looking for? Where are you looking?

[David Smith]

We started from where she was carjacked, and we were flying every route that you can imagine. The manpower is overwhelming.

[Lester Holt]

Reporter Heather Hoops Matthews began following along with the search teams.

[David Smith]

My videographer flew in a helicopter with them as they flew over Long Lake. And I stayed down on the boat ramp.

[Lester Holt]

What were your folks at law enforcement saying initially to you?

[David Smith]

They said they were searching that area because it was close to where she called for help, you know, knocked on the door.

[Lester Holt]

As the search expanded, so did the media coverage. What happens to that, that small town?

[David Smith]

It was a multiplying effect. First there were six journalists. Then there were 12. Then there were 24. Then it felt like there were 250. The streets were lined with satellite trucks. A carjacker with a gun took her car and with it her two small children. The gunman did not harm them or ask for money. Soon it will be 24 hours since they last saw their mother.

[Lester Holt]

Union was now in a hot media spotlight, but still with no sign of those little boys. With time slipping away, police released a new bit of video to jumpstart their investigation. Would it work? Every morning, we choose how to begin our day. I think about the people at home. They tune in because they are curious. They care about their world and they care about each other. There's always something new to learn, whether a news event or a new recipe. And when we step through the morning together, it makes the rest of the day better. We come here to make the most of today. We are family. We are today. Watch the Today show with Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin, weekdays at 7am on NBC. Hey everybody, I'm Al Roker from the Today Show. Let's kickstart your wellness journey with the all new Start Today app. Everything you need for a healthier you all in one place, fitness challenges for all levels, meal plans that are easy and delicious and so much more. It's built to fit your lifestyle and our experts will guide you every step of the way. Come on, let's do this. To subscribe, download start today from the app store on your Apple device now. Terms apply. Cancel anytime through Apple under profile settings.

[David Smith]

Now they had the final answer. Or did they?

[Lester Holt]

Nothing has more suspense than a dinner Dateline mystery. And no one wants to wait to find out what happens next. That's why everyone needs Dateline Premium, where listening is always ad free. You get the whole story and nothing but the story.

[David Smith]

Or do you? Yes, actually you do.

[Lester Holt]

Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Dateline premium.com October 28, 1994, a Friday. Michael and Alex Smith had been missing for three days. The family released this video of Susan with the boys celebrating Alex's first birthday. Look, Alex, what did that do for the story?

[David Smith]

I think the release of the images of Michael and Alex swiftly added to the interest in the story. And I remember watching it in the satellite truck over and over and over and thinking, surely we're going to find Michael and Alex. What started as a small town carjacking is now a massive search. First spreading into four surrounding states, now nationwide. Police are receiving calls from all over. One tip every minute. It hurts all the way to the heart. And I'm a grandmother. And I said, what if that was my children? What if it was my grandbabies? Everyone in the community came to look for Michael and Alex. People were on horseback looking for them.

[Lester Holt]

And they were, you know, people just.

[David Smith]

Looking everywhere, trying to help to find these kids.

[Lester Holt]

While David stood by, Susan, his new girlfriend Tiffany joined the search. What do you remember about that eight or nine day period?

[David Smith]

Just looking everywhere. I went looking for her car, looking for this composite drawing of this black man looking for Michael and Alex. I mean, that was all I was doing. Of course, then I started having to hide out myself too because there were certain media that were coming after me and harassing me.

[Lester Holt]

Why were they harassing you?

[David Smith]

Because they had found out that I was the girlfriend, and so they started wanting to talk to me and see what I had to say.

[Lester Holt]

Meanwhile, police blasted that sketch of the suspect everywhere.

[David Smith]

After the sketch was drawn and it was distributed, the black people of our community were our greatest asset. They came forward and told us who they thought that looked like.

[Lester Holt]

One officer went to the home of a man who resembled a suspect.

[David Smith]

We asked him where he was during this time, but it's so easy to check out. We checked it, and he was where he said he was.

[Lester Holt]

A big disappointment for investigators. But the tips kept pouring in. A robbery in a nearby state.

[David Smith]

A man fitting the description of the carjacker has been spotted 100 miles north of Union in Salisbury, North Carolina.

[Lester Holt]

A sighting in a national park.

[David Smith]

Someone gave a report of a child crying in a national forest in North Carolina. That was going on at the same time.

[Lester Holt]

And a man seen running just miles from where the boys disappeared.

[David Smith]

Anything to give us a clue.

[Lester Holt]

All of them turned up nothing. How low could you get in those choppers?

[David Smith]

You can get as low as you want to get. We were generally flying, you know, 300 foot above ground, up to a thousand.

[Lester Holt]

Were there moments where you did spot something, where you did see something?

[David Smith]

No. I mean, we spotted cars that, you know, were the same color and, you know, that were similar, but not what we were looking for.

[Lester Holt]

As they continued to pursue more than 700 tips, police developed other theories about the case. Could someone who knew Susan be behind the kidnapping? They questioned friends and co workers, including that new boyfriend of hers, Tom Finley. Family members, too.

[David Smith]

You start finding out an abduction case. A high percentage are family abductions. You have to look at family to find out what is the motivation here, why or who would have been behind it.

[Lester Holt]

Investigators wondered whether Susan and David's pending divorce might have played a role.

[David Smith]

We had to look at all the possibilities of who may have been involved, of whom it would have benefited from.

[Lester Holt]

Abduction, including David Smith. Susan had custody of Michael and Alex. Could David or someone else have conspired to have the boys kidnapped?

[David Smith]

Everyone was a suspect in this case until we could narrow it to a single individual or whatever. But anyone who may have had a motive, anyone who may have had contact with Susan, who may have been a participant or whatever? Sure, we looked at everybody.

[Lester Holt]

Investigators gave David a polygraph test, which he passed. What did the sheriff. What did those investigators tell you privately about their theories, what they thought may have happened?

[David Smith]

I don't remember them really talking to me a whole lot after I took polygraph and obviously passed, as they said, with Flying colors.

[Lester Holt]

Then suddenly a new tip from 3,000 miles away. And this one sounded different.

[David Smith]

We're working on some very promising, exciting information right now. And that's all I'm going to be able to say.

[Lester Holt]

Day six in the search for Michael and Alex Smith was Halloween warm and sunny. But fear hung in the air in Union as parents and kids headed out to trick or treat.

[David Smith]

They have a tradition of trick or treating in the downtown.

[Lester Holt]

Michael Cogdell was a reporter for wyff, the NBC affiliate in Greenville, South Carolina.

[David Smith]

That Halloween, people were hanging on to one another and one another's kids. They thought there might be a threat afoot. I think everybody should stay close to their kids, keep an eye on them.

[Lester Holt]

Alongside the fear, he saw something he didn't expect.

[David Smith]

One of the things we noticed, this is a woman who has fingered a black man for this crime. And you would have thought it would have torn that town apart. Instead, it brought people together. There was such love, blacks and whites, arm in arm, hand in hand, holding.

[Lester Holt]

Onto each other's kids. On the one week anniversary, Sheriff Wells had nothing new to report.

[David Smith]

Well, we've looked at any possible motivation for this case and we have not developed anything concrete.

[Lester Holt]

What do you remember most about that period of time?

[David Smith]

The media. It was out of control circus. They were camped out at her parents house where we were staying. They were camped out at the courthouse. They would try to follow us.

[Lester Holt]

I grew up in South Carolina and remember the extensive media coverage and the endless waiting. I was a teenager and I like millions of other folks for days on end glued to the television trying to figure out what happened to these little boys for you day in, day out. The roller coaster of emotions. How did you grapple with it?

[David Smith]

I just got up every day and did whatever somebody told me to do. If it was go for an interview, if it was to take a polygraph.

[Lester Holt]

He cooperated, hoping law enforcement would stop looking at him and and find the carjacker.

[David Smith]

I guess I was trying to get more boots on the ground, as you say.

[Lester Holt]

The national search for Michael and Alex continued while local investigators worked their way down the list of Susan's family and friends. They focused on her relationship with Mitchell Sinclair, the man she said she was going to visit on the night of the carjacking. Sheriff Wells was especially interested in Sinclair after seeing an interview he did with a reporter for A Current Affair.

[David Smith]

Truth's gonna come out. What is the truth? Tell everybody what the truth is. Exactly what the sheriff says it is.

[Lester Holt]

Police questioned him several times. Turned out he wasn't even home that night. Sheriff, has Mitch Sinclair now been eliminated.

[David Smith]

As a suspect investigation? I'm not going to say he is any more or any less than he ever has been because we still do not have the information we need in this case.

[Lester Holt]

Investigators were also taking a close look at Susan as a mom and heard nothing but good things.

[David Smith]

They never saw those children dirty. They never saw her spank her children. We never, never found one detrimental remark towards Susan about those children.

[Lester Holt]

Then, on the eighth day, a true glimmer of hope. At 3:30am a call came into the command center. A sighting of a young boy who matched the description of 14 month old Alex, riding in a car with South Carolina plates. He'd been dropped off at a motel in Washington state.

[David Smith]

It's solid lead right now. If this turns out to be the lead we need, it might give us the direction we need in this case.

[Lester Holt]

Sheriff Wells appeared elated.

[David Smith]

We're working on some very promising, exciting information right now and that's all I'm going to be able to say. Are you going to stay?

[Lester Holt]

Susan and David rushed to the command center. Three hours passed. The town of Union held its breath. Then Sheriff Wells addressed the press once again.

[David Smith]

Our heart soared for a while that we were close to recovering the children. In this case, that did not happen.

[Lester Holt]

The news was crushing. The little boy abandoned in Washington state was not Alex Smith after all.

[David Smith]

It's very hard once you get your hopes up to come back and then see them dash.

[Lester Holt]

Soon after, what everyone hoped would be a joyous appearance by Susan and David became yet another anguished plea.

[David Smith]

I would like to say to whoever has my children that they please, I mean, please bring them home. I would like to take the time to plead to the American public that you please do not give up on these two little boys.

[Lester Holt]

But almost as soon as Susan and David finished their nationally televised plea, the story took another turn. That night, Dateline got a tip that crime lab technicians were headed to Susan's home. Our cameras captured law enforcement going into the house. They took photographs, examined paperwork, dusted apparently for fingerprints, and went into the crawl space underneath the home. Can you tell us what you're doing? The search ended about two hours later with investigators carrying several paper bags out of the house. To outsiders, it didn't look like investigators were any closer to answering the painful question, where were Michael and Alex? But for insiders, the investigation was becoming laser focused on the only witness in the case, the woman at its center, Susan Smith herself. For more than a week, the public saw a heartbreaking scene two young parents pleading for their children's safe return.

[David Smith]

I want to say to my babies, your mama loves you so much.

[Lester Holt]

But at the command center, Sheriff Wells had been verifying Susan's story, and not everything checked out.

[David Smith]

There were questions about the traffic light. She stated she was stopped at a red light at an intersection in Monarch, and there were no other cars around.

[Lester Holt]

Information from the Department of Public Safety had landed on Sheriff Wells desk. He learned there was no way that light could have turned red.

[David Smith]

That cannot be. A car has to be at the opposing light in the intersection to make the light change.

[Lester Holt]

Without another car, the light would stay green. The sheriff tried to keep his doubts about Susan's story under wraps, but other officers were coming to the same conclusion. What do you recall about how members of law enforcement were talking about the case?

[David Smith]

There was a lot of suspicion, I would say, as to what happened, especially after days that we had searched and looked.

[Lester Holt]

Chief Keel, who'd been searching for clues by helicopter, says too much of it didn't make sense.

[David Smith]

Carjackings take place often, but generally you end up finding the vehicle. So as days went by and we didn't find anything, we. The suspicion continued to grow.

[Lester Holt]

While retracing the steps Susan said she made that night, investigators discovered something astonishing that night. You were actually having her followed?

[David Smith]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

Why?

[David Smith]

Because I knew she was running around on me too.

[Lester Holt]

So you have your girlfriend at the time?

[David Smith]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

Following your soon to be ex wife.

[David Smith]

Right.

[Lester Holt]

The night that your boys go missing?

[David Smith]

Yes. So we were wanting to try and catch her so he could countersue. And so I had put on my PI gear, my ball hat and everything, and sat in the car watching when she left work and had watched her when she went and picked the boys up from daycare.

[Lester Holt]

Tiffany continued to follow her. She saw Susan make several stops with the boys in the car.

[David Smith]

Then a little bit later, she went home. And then I saw the boys. They were getting down out of the back seat, and she had Alex on her hip.

[Lester Holt]

Tiffany then went to visit a friend nearby, and when she came back 45 minutes later, Susan's car was gone.

[David Smith]

So I had kind of, you know, give up my PI Search at that point.

[Lester Holt]

Investigators couldn't find any witnesses who saw where Susan went that night. They were becoming more and more convinced she was hiding something. So they brought in sled agent Peter Logan, a polygraph expert, to meet with Susan. We interviewed him back in 2000.

[David Smith]

Susan Smith showed up with her family, and I introduced myself to her.

[Lester Holt]

Agent Logan quickly built a rapport with Susan and asked her if she would agree to a polygraph test. She said yes. Then there comes a point where Susan says to you that she thought that she was probably a suspect. When she said that to you, what did you think?

[David Smith]

I said, don't worry about it. I told her not to worry. I was trying to, like, help her pass polygraph tests. I was telling her, like, to think about a field of daisies, a autumn day in the field fall, to calm her down, to pass the polygraph. Because I want us to get past that.

[Lester Holt]

When she first sat down with Agent Logan, he took it slowly.

[David Smith]

I realized that if Susan Smith didn't talk about this, that we may never know what really happened. So my first polygraph that I did was to determine at that time whether or not the carjacking was truthful.

[Lester Holt]

He didn't tell her the results. Instead, he said she'd done enough for the day and sent her home. But it didn't take long before rumors that Susan failed a polygraph circulated through the small town of Union. When you had heard that she had failed one of those polygraph tests, what did you chalk that up to?

[David Smith]

I didn't put a lot of weight into it because to me, she had just had her children, our children, ripped away from her, Snatched from her. How in the world would she be able to pass the polygraph?

[Lester Holt]

Susan was supposed to come back the next day to continue the polygraph, but that didn't happen.

[David Smith]

She didn't want to come in for the interview, so I phoned her at home.

[Lester Holt]

Agent Logan shared with Dateline this newly unearthed tape of that call.

[David Smith]

Hello, Susan. Hey. How you doing? You doing okay? Hanging in there. Well, that's good. I'm concerned about you. Just want to know how you were doing. Well, I appreciate you calling. That. That means a lot.

[Lester Holt]

Then he brought up a rumor he'd heard that Susan told her mom she'd failed a polygraph. He tried to reassure her, saying the results were inconclusive.

[David Smith]

You know, I don't want you to misunderstand anything or anything like that. Yeah.

[Lester Holt]

So my other dad's worried me.

[David Smith]

Yeah.

[Lester Holt]

And I'm trying to try not to think about it.

[David Smith]

Yeah, well, you know, the bottom line is, and we talked that sensitivity. Every mom who's missing their kids got sensitivity.

[Lester Holt]

He asked her to write down everything she could remember from that night. She agreed and said she'd meet with him again the next day.

[David Smith]

I enjoy talking to you, and hopefully you get some little help out of it. Oh, I do. Okay. I walked out feeling a lot Better than I did when I walked in. Yeah, well, that's good. That's sort of the bottom line.

[Lester Holt]

When Susan returned the next morning to continue a polygraph, Agent Logan gently explained that part of her story did not make sense, that the light would not have turned red.

[David Smith]

I said, is there some reason that you have not been truthful about this light? That it happened somewhere else? It could have happened somewhere else.

[Lester Holt]

She initially denied it, but then she said the agent was right. The carjacking had happened somewhere else 15 miles away in a town called Carlisle.

[David Smith]

I said, well, let's go to Carlisle. So I got her out in the car and I took her in a sled car. I said, now you tell me exactly where you were when the carjacker came out and got in your car. And she had some hesitancy in actually picking out the exact location, but she did.

[Lester Holt]

He asked her why she didn't say it happened in Carlisle from the beginning.

[David Smith]

Her explanation at that time was that, well, I knew I shouldn't have been in Carlisle, that people would question me. Why was I in Carlisle, riding around?

[Lester Holt]

She told him that when she was 18, she had an affair with a married man who used to live in Carlisle.

[David Smith]

She said, we used to park in the woods down in this area. And that's what she went back.

[Lester Holt]

By the time Susan and the agent left Carlisle, it had grown dark. So he told her to go home and write down exactly what happened at this new location.

[David Smith]

I knew at that time in my heart that she would probably tell us the truth, but I wasn't sure under what circumstances. She trusted me. I thought at the time, she trusted Sheriff Wells.

[Lester Holt]

So Agent Logan alerted Sheriff Wells that Susan had changed her story. Then they put their heads together. Together and came up with a plan for the next day. A carefully orchestrated dance that would lead to an unimaginable admission.

[David Smith]

There was a shockwave. It's like the place was struck by lightning.

[Lester Holt]

A true crime story never really ends. Even when a case is closed, the journey for those left behind is just beginning. Since our dateline story aired, Tracy has harnessed her outrage into a mission.

[David Smith]

I had no other option. I had to do something.

[Lester Holt]

Catch up with families, friends and investigators. On our bonus series after the Verdict. Ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with strength and courage.

[David Smith]

It does just change your life. But speaking up for these issues helps me keep going.

[Lester Holt]

To listen to after the Verdict, subscribe to Dateline premium on Apple podcasts, Spotify, [e-mail] it was late, past midnight when.

[David Smith]

They broke into the Farmhouse. Never in a million years would you think that you'd see your parents house taped off by that yellow tape. And they said, you remember, died of being killed. They left behind a wall of blood and a clue that took a case of double murder on a long, strange trip. She looked at me and she said, I'm screwed. Murder in the Moonlight, a new podcast from Dateline.

[Lester Holt]

To listen to the latest episodes each week completely free, just search Murder in the moonlight on Amazon Music. November 3rd. In 1994, for nine days, Americans had been glued to their TVs hoping for the safe return of two young boys.

[David Smith]

It's been real difficult.

[Lester Holt]

That morning, Susan and David Smith appeared on the Today show.

[David Smith]

I think what's kept me going more than anything is the lower.

[Lester Holt]

The public had no idea Susan had changed her story, but it was clear feelings toward her were shifting. Katie Couric asked about the police search of her home the night before. Were you there at the time and do you know what they were looking for?

[David Smith]

No, ma'am, I was not there and I do not know. I did agree sign a form for them to do that. I was aware they were going to do that.

[Lester Holt]

How do you all feel when you hear that some members of the public think that you might have been involved?

[David Smith]

Well, my first reaction is it hurts to know that I would be accused or even thought that I would ever do anything to harm my children.

[Lester Holt]

David spoke directly to his boys.

[David Smith]

Me and mommy believe that you guys are okay and that you will be coming home soon. We're not going to give up until we find you.

[Lester Holt]

Just hours after that interview, Susan handed Agent Pete Logan a written statement of her new version of the carjacking. Logan recorded their interview that day.

[David Smith]

How do you feel today about that? It didn't happen there, but it happened somewhere. How you feel? How are your feelings today? Well, I feel better now that that came out, but still worries me now. And by.

[Lester Holt]

Agent Logan says he could tell she was getting tired. It was time to set in motion the plan he and Sheriff Wells had worked out. He asked the sheriff to come into the interview room and explain that Susan had changed her story, pretending the sheriff didn't already know.

[David Smith]

And so we sat in there for maybe a couple minutes and discussed it. And then I left under the pretext of somebody beeping me with the idea that the sheriff would. Would talk to her to see how he made out.

[Lester Holt]

Susan repeated her news story that the carjacking actually happened in Carlisle. That gave Sheriff Wells an opportunity to pounce.

[David Smith]

I told her that we had that intersection under surveillance as at a suspected drug drop site, and that it could not have happened there.

[Lester Holt]

As she said, this was a bluff. There was was no surveillance.

[David Smith]

And she says, why do you say that? And I told her, I said, there's no way, because we would have seen it.

[Lester Holt]

With that, Susan Smith completely lost it.

[David Smith]

She broke down, started sobbing. She cried. She said she was so ashamed. And then she asked for my gun. And I said, why would you want to do that? And she wanted to kill herself. And I said, but why? And she said, you don't understand. My children are not all. That was the first incriminating statement that she had made.

[Lester Holt]

After nine days of intense investigation, hundreds of tips, and a search that consumed the country, Susan Smith finally told the truth. She'd killed her two young boys.

[David Smith]

When I walked back in, Susan was on her knees and crying hysterically with her head in the chair. And the sheriff had told me that she had admitted that she had let the car go in the lake with her kids in the backseat.

[Lester Holt]

They gave her a pen and paper, and she wrote down her confession. I dropped to the lowest when I allowed my children to go down that ramp into the water without me. She told the sheriff where to look for her car. A few hours later, divers found it at the bottom of John D. Long Lake. Two small bodies strapped in car seats in the back. Sheriff Wells alerted the press.

[David Smith]

Susan Smith has been arrested and will be charged with two counts of murder in connection with the deaths of her children, Michael, 3, and Alexander, 14 months. There was a shock wave.

[Lester Holt]

It's like the place was struck by lightning.

[David Smith]

This thunder went over that crowd.

[Lester Holt]

Shock. How did you find out that she had confessed?

[David Smith]

When Sheriff Wells announced it to the public, that's the way I found out.

[Lester Holt]

Did you think initially maybe this was some sort of mistake? Obviously, they've got the wrong person.

[David Smith]

No, my thoughts were just, what is he talking about? I didn't think it was. I didn't think it was correct. I was just like, what is he talking about?

[Lester Holt]

You couldn't even get your head around it.

[David Smith]

No.

[Lester Holt]

The question of what happened to the boys had been answered. But why it happened would take years to untangle. A highly emotional trial would rivet the nation and have neighbors taking sides. What were people saying leading up to the trial?

[David Smith]

You know, there was the question, do you think she should die for killing them?

[Lester Holt]

Family secrets would spill out, setting the stage for an emotional showdown.

[David Smith]

You don't kill your children for what happened to you. I wanted an eye for an eye. I know that what I did was so horrible.

[Lester Holt]

It was a heartbreaking end to an already tragic story.

[David Smith]

The vehicle, a 1990 Mazda driven by Smith, was located late Thursday afternoon in Lake John delong near Union. Two bodies were found in the vehicle's backseat. I remember Willard Scott crying on the Today show during one of the weather breaks.

[Lester Holt]

And I would like to wear this.

[David Smith]

White rose this morning for those two sweet children. We are so, all of us, emotionally involved in this story.

[Lester Holt]

You're sharing this information with viewers, viewers around the world as well. What was the initial reaction?

[David Smith]

Anger.

[Lester Holt]

People were angry for the black community. There was added rage.

[David Smith]

Everybody's looking for a black man, and, you know, I hate. Did she use this as a scapegoat, you know, to cover up the incident? You know, it could have been anything else, you know, but this is the way she chose out.

[Lester Holt]

Susan's attempts to blame a black man inflamed painful stereotypes. Union sheriff Jeff Bailey.

[David Smith]

She deflected onto somebody else that she knew would gain attention from the media, gain attention from law enforcement. It's a black man that took these two white children.

[Lester Holt]

Susan's brother Scotty addressed the racial issue at a press conference.

[David Smith]

On behalf of my family, we want to apologize to the black community of Union. I'm thankful especially to many of my black friends who called me and, you know, to comfort me and to tell me that they still love me.

[Lester Holt]

Amidst the tense climate, police drove Susan to the courthouse the day after her confession.

[David Smith]

This is no overstatement at all. There was a howling lynch mob of women waiting to see her. You need to cry. There was one woman leading that mob of outraged women. They were just outraged.

[Lester Holt]

Black, white.

[David Smith]

And I remember she screamed at Susan, hold your head up.

[Lester Holt]

Hold your head up. I want to look at you.

[David Smith]

And that's when I knew this is going to fascinate the world for a long time.

[Lester Holt]

Three days after Susan Smith confessed to killing her sons, Michael and Alex Smith were laid to rest. Their father, David, inconsolable, as he walked into the church to say a final goodbye.

[David Smith]

Craig, it throws everything out of whack forever. It changes everything. Having to bury a child and burying two of them, that the mother killed him. I didn't know which way to go.

[Lester Holt]

Scores of strangers felt his pain and gathered outside the church to pay their respects.

[David Smith]

You still can't, you know, grasp and say, why would somebody do anything like that, let alone a mother?

[Lester Holt]

Nearly a month later, David gathered the courage to face Susan.

[David Smith]

She just casually, like you and I sitting here, said, I'm sorry and that was about as far as it went. Me, Craig, I would have been around her ankles, begging her to forgive me if I had done what she did.

[Lester Holt]

That was it.

[David Smith]

That was it. That was it.

[Lester Holt]

Did she ask you to do anything during that conversation? Did she ask for you to testify on her behalf? Did she ask?

[David Smith]

No, she didn't even ask for my forgiveness.

[Lester Holt]

Did you ask her why?

[David Smith]

Yes, I did ask her, why did you do this? Why did you? Why? And she said, I don't know why, but I'm sorry.

[Lester Holt]

David did not buy Susan's apology or her apparent remorse. And neither did prosecutors. They believed Susan's actions were premeditated and decided to seek the death penalty. Despite her confession, Susan pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder. What were people saying leading up to the trial?

[David Smith]

You know, there was the question of, do you think she should die for killing them? That got a lot of coverage and there was a lot of discussion.

[Lester Holt]

Many in the community were uncomfortable with the idea of sentencing a person to death, especially a woman. But the young prosecutor in charge of the case, Tommy Pope, decided that shouldn't matter.

[David Smith]

I felt like Susan got treated differently than anyone else would in a similar situation. And I was determined from a justice standpoint not to let that happen.

[Lester Holt]

Why do you think she was treated differently?

[David Smith]

I think the problem was Susan reminded people, and I say people, us, jurors, law enforcement. She could have been your sister. She could have been your co worker.

[Lester Holt]

Less than a year after she killed her boys, Susan stood trial for their murders.

[David Smith]

Opening statements at the trial of Susan Smith.

[Lester Holt]

Once again, news crews from all over the country descended on the small town of Union. Main street in front of the courthouse is shut down. The prosecution was ready to present its case. What did you have to prove?

[David Smith]

So in South Carolina, I always tell people, death penalty is like a murder plus, and it's a two part trial. First part is about guilt. The second part, if you're successful on guilt, is the penalty.

[Lester Holt]

Prosecutors told the jury Susan's guilt was not in question. Her handwritten confession made that clear. Then they presented their theory of why she did it.

[David Smith]

What made her kill those boys was a selfish desire. A delusional desire, but a selfish desire to be with another man.

[Lester Holt]

That man was Tom Finley, the wealthy co worker Susan dated after her marriage fell apart. The prosecution argued Susan was in love with him. There was just one problem.

[David Smith]

He didn't want kids.

[Lester Holt]

Prosecutors showed jurors a letter Tom wrote to Susan a week before she killed her children. In it, he explained why he ended their Relationship. Susan, I could really fall for you. But like I have told you before, there are some things about you that aren't suited for me. And, yes, I am speaking about your children. The fact is, I don't want children, and I don't want to be responsible for anyone else's children either. Prosecutors argued those words pushed Susan to murder. You say, well, why wouldn't she just.

[David Smith]

Give away the kids? If you give away the kids, you're a bad mother. But if the carjacker takes your kids, you're a victim.

[Lester Holt]

And if you're a victim, you're more.

[David Smith]

Likely that Tom Finley's gonna come and rescue you.

[Lester Holt]

The prosecution argued that Susan's carjacking story was a cold, calculated plan. Her failure to try and save her own sons was proof.

[David Smith]

I always tell people, if she'd shown up in the house wet, injured, you know, from diving out of the car, if she'd gone straight that house and said, I've done a horrible thing, you and I'd probably never be talking about it today. But. But she fabricated that story and put that car in the lake.

[Lester Holt]

Experts testified it took six minutes for Susan's car to sink and plead. Dissimulation video for the jury.

[David Smith]

You know, as it goes down and the water comes through the vents and the floorboard, and it's coming up and it's coming toward that camera, and ultimately it covers the camera, which, I mean, even describing it makes it hard to, you know, breathe, almost.

[Lester Holt]

Day after day, David listened to testimony about the deaths of his sons. And each day, he was forced to look at the woman who killed him. As you sat there, what's going through your mind?

[David Smith]

I don't know if I should even answer that.

[Lester Holt]

Be honest, though.

[David Smith]

I used to sit there and look at the back of her head and then look at where the bailiffs were, officers were, and think about killing her. How quick could I get to her? Could I reach her before that officer reaches me? Or could I get to her before that person would jump in front of me, before I got my hands on her?

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, you wanted her dead.

[David Smith]

I did.

[Lester Holt]

Of course, David never acted on those thoughts. He was hoping the state would put Susan to death. But defense attorneys would have something to say about that. They had a very different explanation for why Susan killed her children. It is a story of a really complete emotional culture lapse.

[David Smith]

Now they had the final answer. Or did they?

[Lester Holt]

Nothing has more suspense than a Dateline mystery. And no one wants to wait to find out what happens next. That's why everyone needs Dateline Premium, where listening is always ad free. You get the whole story and nothing but the story.

[David Smith]

Or do you? Yes, actually, you do.

[Lester Holt]

Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Dateline premium dot com. Hey everybody, I'm Al Roker from the Today Show. Let's kick start your wellness journey with the all new Start Today app. Everything you need for a healthier you all in one place. Fitness challenges for all levels, meal plans that are easy and delicious and so much more. It's built to fit your lifestyle and our experts will guide you every step of the way. Come on, let's do this. To subscribe, download start today from the app store on your Apple device now. Terms apply. Cancel anytime through Apple under profile settings. Susan Smith's lawyers had done everything they could to keep the death penalty penalty off the table. Was there ever a plea deal offered? Absolutely, yes. She would have pled guilty in exchange for a life sentence. Lead attorney David Ruck. And the prosecution said no and made the offer again and again and again. The defense saw just one option. Lay out the case for why Susan should not be sentenced to death. When most people think about Susan Smith, it's manipulative, it's conniving. Some have described her as pure evil. Pure evil? Yeah. The time that you spent with her preparing for her defense, what was she like? Well, a lot of what I saw.

[David Smith]

Was that she was just in an.

[Lester Holt]

Agony of grief and remorse and self loathing. Grief for her children, remorse for what she had done out of the gate. They offered a very different explanation for why Susan killed her sons. What led her to the lake is.

[David Smith]

A story of mental illness.

[Lester Holt]

It's a story of depression. It is a story of a really complete emotional collapse. They argued Susan wasn't homicidal that night. She was suicidal. To prove it, defense attorneys would present the details of Susan's past attempts to take her own life. Law enforcement agents were also called as witnesses to share what Susan told them.

[David Smith]

She mentioned to me that she had started down the ramp a couple times herself and to commit suicide with the kids. She felt that was the best thing.

[Lester Holt]

Agent Pete Logan spent days observing Susan during the search for her boys. He testified he believed her account that she tried to take her own life as well that night.

[David Smith]

She stopped both times and got out of the car and she said, I'll never understand why. I reached in and let the emergency brake go. The main thrust of her defense was sympathy, sympathy, sympathy.

[Lester Holt]

They told the jury Susan didn't kill her children to be with a wealthy man. To be clear, there was a wealthy boyfriend. Yes. Okay, you just maintain that it wasn't her affair with the wealthy boyfriend that led to the murders of Michael and Alex. It wasn't her desire to get back together with the wealthy boyfriend. That relationship was dead as a doornail before this crime occurred. The defense argued what happened at the lake stemmed from trauma far older than a recent breakup. It began when she was a child. She grew up in a. In a family marked by alcoholism and violence.

[David Smith]

And finally, her father did commit suicide.

[Lester Holt]

Susan was 6 when he died. He shot himself and then called 911 and screamed into the phone to get them to come and help him. That is what suicide is like. It's not rational. People want to die and the want to live at the same time. And what she did at the lake really echoed the way her father left her when she was just a little girl. The defense hired a renowned psychiatrist to evaluate Susan and testify about her past.

[David Smith]

This is a person scarred by childhood, scarred by a disordered family, a dysfunctional family family.

[Lester Holt]

And the defense argued those untreated scars and depression led to suicidal thoughts.

[David Smith]

She is a child.

[Lester Holt]

At age 13, was making childish, suicidal.

[David Smith]

Suicidal attempts with pills.

[Lester Holt]

And again at age 18, the last attempt so serious. Susan was hospitalized while you were dating, even when you were married. Did she seem like she was mentally ill at any point?

[David Smith]

No.

[Lester Holt]

No depression?

[David Smith]

No. No.

[Lester Holt]

Seemed totally normal?

[David Smith]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

And when you heard that, did you think, oh, well, that might explain this or that might explain that, or no, no, I don't.

[David Smith]

Nothing gives you the right to kill your children.

[Lester Holt]

Susan's attorneys presented even more evidence to shed light on her behavior. It involved her relationship with stepfather Beverly Russell, a father who seemed to the outside world what she had lacked in.

[David Smith]

In her earliest years.

[Lester Holt]

But it turned out that he had been sexually molesting her when she was a teenager at age at least. At age 15, 16. Susan reported the abuse to a teacher. Social services investigated, and Russell confessed. But after a closed court hearing, no criminal charges were filed. Russell did agree to move out and undergo family counseling. After Susan's arrest, it was Russell who took out a mortgage to pay for her defense. Bev. Russell is quite the interesting character in all of this. He's an abuser, and, oh, by the way, he hires you. Yes. To represent her.

[David Smith]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

Expert witnesses testified the sexual abuse was a major contributor to Susan's depression, promiscuity, and insecurity. And it all came crashing down at that lake. You argued there was another reason that Susan snapped that night. This mounting fear that her private life was about to be exposed. What did she fear was going to come out?

[David Smith]

Well, her ex husband David knew that.

[Lester Holt]

She had had this sexual relationship with her boss. And it had also come out that this sexual relationship with her stepfather had resumed. In the year leading up to the boys deaths, the defense told the jury that Beverly Russell had more sexual encounters with Susan.

[David Smith]

And she is exhibiting the promiscuity and.

[Lester Holt]

The impaired judgment of an untreated incest survivor, of somebody who was left to figure out what had been done to her on her own. The defense argued Susan worried it would come out. During her divorce, she was a single mother with two small children who was about to be utterly disgraced.

[David Smith]

And she could not, could not survive this.

[Lester Holt]

And the children could not be left alone without their mother. And that is where the suicide idea came from. The defense had done all it could to garner sympathy for Susan Smith and rested its case. But the trial would have one more twist. At the last minute, the judge allowed jurors to consider a lesser charge. It took the prosecution by surprise.

[David Smith]

The judge decided to give an involuntary manslaughter instruction too, which suddenly took from murder to like five year penalty or something. And so that was a little nervous time going to the jury. In that first phase, the courtroom was.

[Lester Holt]

On pins and needles. Would the jury spare Susan smith's life? On July 22, 1995, in the sweltering heat of a South Carolina summer, the jury and the Susan Smith trial started deliberations. Do you remember what it was like, Tommy, waiting for that, that verdict to come back from the jury?

[David Smith]

It's stressful waiting. You know, you run through your mind, would I do this different, would I do that different? But you have to kind of let that go and just accept what comes.

[Lester Holt]

Were you fairly confident that they would convict her?

[David Smith]

I didn't really know either way. That was first time I ever been through a trial and especially one capital murder.

[Lester Holt]

Just two hours later, the jury returned with a verdict. Guilty on two counts of murder.

[David Smith]

At least she was gonna go to prison. That took, took some relief off of me.

[Lester Holt]

And right on cue, Mother nature offered the town a bit of relief as well.

[David Smith]

The weather broke. It rained like I haven't seen it rain in a long time. It was like a cleansing in that little town.

[Lester Holt]

The prosecution had won the first battle, but another lay ahead. The penalty phase. Given the evidence, given the confession, given the mounting publicity, how worried were you that she was in fact going to be executed? I thought it was so clear from.

[David Smith]

The fact that this was a Murder, suicide attempt that was caused by mental.

[Lester Holt]

Illness, that she was not going to.

[David Smith]

Be sentenced to death.

[Lester Holt]

This time, the defense could call character witnesses to testify. People who knew Susan well. What was the strongest testimony that you had? I think the testimony about how much she loved those children from so many people. But the defense's most riveting testimony came from Susan's stepfather, Beverly Russell. He read from a letter he'd written to Susan after her arrest. In it, he acknowledged his sexual abuse and apologized for the damage he'd caused. Beverly Russell was a very, very flawed man, but he still saw his responsibility to Susan when this disaster struck and did what he could. But the prosecution had a completely different take and reminded the jury that Susan wasn't the victim in this trial. Her sons were. David took to the stand to share his fondest memories. How hard was that for you?

[David Smith]

That was probably this. I won't say the hardest day I've ever had, but it was. It's been among the top five.

[Lester Holt]

What do you remember about. About that experience?

[David Smith]

I remember Tommy Pope just asking me a lot of questions about Michael and Alex and about mine and Susan's marriage. I remember. Seems like I cried a lot. Everybody was in tears. It was so raw. It was so powerful in its emotion, in its heartbreak, in his heartbreak.

[Lester Holt]

The prosecution wanted Susan to pay for the terrible agony she'd caused and hoped the jurors would, too. They deliberated just two hours before agreeing on a sentence, life in prison. When the decision was read that Susan would not be executed for the crimes, what was her reaction? Well, she was relieved for her family, that her family was not going to have to go through the whole gruesome.

[David Smith]

Process of having a loved one executed.

[Lester Holt]

But David was both angry and disappointed. He still is.

[David Smith]

It wasn't an accident. She didn't kill them by mistake. She took a life. She should have gave up her life for it.

[Lester Holt]

Lead prosecutor Tommy Pope says it was a hard loss to accept, but he has no regrets.

[David Smith]

I mean, I felt like we proved our case beyond a reasonable doubt.

[Lester Holt]

A few weeks after the verdict, DATELINE's Dennis Murphy talked to five of the jurors.

[David Smith]

Why did you decide to speak Susan Smith with your vote? After we listened to everything and we got all the evidence, and I'm kind of. I figured that the definitely just wouldn't. That would be like an easy way.

[Lester Holt]

Out to my opinion.

[David Smith]

Would you say you all bought the defense presentation of Susan Smith, woman with a lot of trouble? I never went for the suicide part of it. What do you hope will happen to Susan Smith. I hope that Susan will be able to deal with herself in prison for the rest of her life knowing that.

[Lester Holt]

But that life sentence didn't guarantee Susan would spend the rest of her days in prison. After 30 years, she'd be eligible for parole, something David could not live with and would fight tooth and nail to prevent.

[David Smith]

She deliberately killed Michael and Alex, and I can't let her out.

[Lester Holt]

Every morning, we choose how to begin our day. I think about the people at home. They tune in because they are curious. They care about their world and they care about each other. There's always something new to learn, whether a news event or a new recipe. And when we step through the morning together, it makes the rest of the day better. We come here to make the most of today. We are family. We are today. Watch the Today show with Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin. Weekdays at 7am on NBC. In the years after his boys were murdered, David Smith's heartbreak was so all consuming, he sometimes thought about taking his own life.

[David Smith]

There were a few times.

[Lester Holt]

Take me back to one of those times. You went back to the lake and what happened?

[David Smith]

I had my car lined up on the same boat ramp.

[Lester Holt]

No.

[David Smith]

Because I wanted to go the same place the same way they did. But I couldn't do it. I prayed for the strength to do it. There was a time when I was on their grave with a gun in my mouth, praying to God to give me the strength to pull that trigger. But thank goodness he didn't do it.

[Lester Holt]

Susan's life sentence didn't put David at ease. She would still be eligible for parole after 30 years. And it weighed on him. Would you have been better off had the state executed her?

[David Smith]

Wow. For myself, yes. Because I wouldn't have to be dealing with what's coming up now. I mean, Craig, I know they said she had a tough life growing up, and I've never tried to make light of that. But you don't kill your children for what happened to you. I wanted an eye for an eye, but the jury saw different.

[Lester Holt]

So at first, David put the thought of Susan's potential freedom in the back of his mind. He and Tiffany, who'd remained by his side, focused on building a life together. They married in 2003.

[David Smith]

I saw how dedicated and faithful and compassionate Tiffany was through all of it and stuck by my side. So I knew that better make that jump before I lose it.

[Lester Holt]

And while David didn't think he would have more kids, along came a daughter, Savannah. How does something like that change you as a father? When you lose two kids the way you lost them, how does that change you, the way you parent?

[David Smith]

For me, it was a fine balance between being overprotective and not very protective at all. Not being part of their life because you're scared to love them because something happened to them.

[Lester Holt]

As for Susan, her name still made headlines periodically, mostly when she found herself in trouble. In 2002, guards were fired and later convicted of having inappropriate relationships with her. Susan was transferred to a different prison. She was also punished several times for possessing illegal drugs. What have you heard? What have you been made?

[David Smith]

I've heard about drug abuse, had, you know, sexual relations with guards, but I would just hear it and then move on.

[Lester Holt]

When you heard those things, did it surprise you?

[David Smith]

No, no, not. Not at all.

[Lester Holt]

Not much else was known about Susan's life in prison. And then in 2004, Dateline producer Carol Gable wrote to Susan asking for an interview. Though South Carolina doesn't allow prisoners to do on camera or phone interviews, Susan was allowed to write letters.

[David Smith]

Dear Carol, I received your letter and was glad to hear from you.

[Lester Holt]

The correspondence would continue for 20 years and give a rare look into Susan's life in her own words. When you wrote that initial letter to her, what were you hoping to accomplish?

[David Smith]

What I was hoping to do is to get some sense of her point of view. We heard lots about her. Many, many people are willing to talk about her, but she hasn't spoken much about herself.

[Lester Holt]

Susan would end up sending more than 50 letters, some casual, others more revealing.

[David Smith]

I am not a horrible person, Carol. I'm a human being who made a horrible decision. I grieve daily for my boys.

[Lester Holt]

In her letters, Susan wrote about her struggles with mental health.

[David Smith]

I cannot remember a time when I did not suffer from depression. Everyone has a breaking point, but not everyone reaches theirs. I'm not trying to offer excuses for what happened, but neither am I this mean person who harmed her children because she wanted to be with a man who didn't want children.

[Lester Holt]

She also said she attempted suicide three times while in prison.

[David Smith]

When they found me, there was a big puddle of blood, and I'd written with my blood, let me die, Carol. I truly did want to die at that moment.

[Lester Holt]

As the years passed, Susan sent cards. She wrote about getting therapy, medication, and a job.

[David Smith]

Right now, I'm working in the school as a tutor. I teach math to students trying to get their ged.

[Lester Holt]

Did you ever think, especially early on in the back and forth, that she might have an agenda with you?

[David Smith]

Oh, sure. I mean, you always have to consider that as a possibility. But over time, she always said the same things. It didn't change the facts, didn't change.

[Lester Holt]

One thing Susan can never change is what she did at the lake that night. In a recent letter, she included what she says is her best explanation for what happened.

[David Smith]

I'd never felt so completely alone as I did that night. I bit all my fingernails off when I got to the lake. That's when it hit me how I was going to die. Michael and Alex were asleep.

[Lester Holt]

She said she stopped the car from going into the lake several times before finally jumping out. And then she let it roll in.

[David Smith]

I never saw the car go into the lake. When I reached the top of the hill, I stopped and looked back, and all I could see was a dark lake. You'd never have thought that two little boys had just drowned at their mother's hand.

[Lester Holt]

Susan says she accepts responsibility for what she did. David disagrees.

[David Smith]

I don't think she's even, to me, been really sorry for what she did.

[Lester Holt]

You don't think she's sorry?

[David Smith]

No, not genuinely.

[Lester Holt]

By November 2024, Susan was 53 and believed she was ready to re enter society. She would argue as much at her parole hearing, But David would also be there, fighting to keep Susan in prison. You don't think she's been rehabilitated?

[David Smith]

I don't think she'll ever be rehabilitated.

[Lester Holt]

The months before Susan's parole hearing were anxious times for David and Tiffany Smith.

[David Smith]

For almost 30 years, we've not worried about it. And then for six months leading up to the parole hearing, it started eating away at both of us because they could come back and say, let her out.

[Lester Holt]

What do you plan to say?

[David Smith]

I don't know for sure. Just speaking from the heart, Nothing scripted. But I just want to tell that pro board that they can't let her out.

[Lester Holt]

The day finally arrived, A rainy November morning in 2024. For David and Tiffany, it was deja vu.

[David Smith]

There were cameras set up out on the lawn everywhere.

[Lester Holt]

But Susan would not face the cameras outside. She appeared virtually from prison, where she'd spent decades. Her trial attorney, David brunk, believes Susan should be released. Susan doesn't pose a danger to society. I don't see what punishing her year after year after year in prison does to help anyone. To those who would say Michael and Alex deserve more than 25, 30 years.

[David Smith]

For their murders, Michael and Alex are.

[Lester Holt]

Beyond harm or help. Susan's parole attorney, Tommy Thomas, told the board Susan's untreated mental health issues led her to the lake that night.

[David Smith]

It doesn't take away from the horrendous nature of the crime. She knows that she's guilty. She struggles with the guilt every day.

[Lester Holt]

He said Susan would live with her brother back in Union and try to become a counselor if granted release.

[David Smith]

I think that her motivation of being released is secondary to the primary goal of if she can maybe help some other mother who is thinking of maybe the same things.

[Lester Holt]

And then, for the first time since 1994, Susan Smith Smith appeared on camera to speak on her own behalf.

[David Smith]

First of all, I want to say how very sorry I am. I know that what I did was.

[Lester Holt]

Horrible.

[David Smith]

And I would give anything if I could go back and change it. And I love Michael and Alice with all my heart.

[Lester Holt]

The board asked what she would say to the law enforcement community who worked tirelessly for nine days to find her children.

[David Smith]

That I'm sorry that I put them through that. I really, really am. And I'm especially sorry to the divers that I had to find them. I wish I could take that back. I really do. I was really. I didn't lie to get away with it. Really didn't. I was just scared. I didn't know how I could tell the people that loved them that they would never see them again. I didn't know how I could tell David.

[Lester Holt]

Susan acknowledged she hasn't been a model prisoner, but claimed she's changed.

[David Smith]

I grew up and I knew that I needed to stop making dumb decisions, and I did. I just. I knew it was time to just to grow up and do the right thing. I just made a lot of dumb choices in mistakes and, you know, so I know I've learned from those mistakes.

[Lester Holt]

In closing, she begged the board for her freedom.

[David Smith]

I am a Christian, and God is a big part of my life, and I know he has forgiven me. And it is by his grace and mercy that. And I have a lot of faith, and I live by that every day. And I just ask that, that you show that same kind of mercy as well.

[Lester Holt]

But the hearing wasn't over. David and Tiffany were about to address the board. They filed into the room, flanked by family and friends, all wearing a pinned photo of Michael and Alex on their chests. Tiffany cautioned the board not to be swayed by any of Susan's arguments.

[David Smith]

All I can think about is how much she lied and manipulated everybody. And that just makes me feel like if she could do that, then whatever she's told you today, I'm sure were probably lies as well.

[Lester Holt]

And then all eyes were on David Smith.

[David Smith]

God gives us free choice. And she made free choice that night to end her life. This wasn't a tragic mistake, wasn't something that she didn't mean to do. She purposely meant to end her life. I understand back in 95, that through the state's law, life imprisonment meant 30 years to life. But ultimately, to me, that's only 15 years per child. Her own children. It's just not enough.

[Lester Holt]

After three decades, Susan's fate lay in the hands of the parole board. Its decision was just moments away. After an hour of tense, emotional testimony at Susan Smith's parole hearing, the decision came quickly. In the end, the board denied Susan's request. By that point, she had left the Zoom hearing. Once again, David spoke to the swarm of cameras outside.

[David Smith]

Today, the committee made the right decision and denied her parole. That's how it was. You literally could feel and see the relief off of both of us.

[Lester Holt]

For now, Susan Smith remains in prison, but going forward, she'll be up for parole every two years. Every two years. You're gonna have to deal with this.

[David Smith]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

Have you made peace with that?

[David Smith]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

How?

[David Smith]

Just because it's gonna give me another chance to stand up for Michael and Alex, to defend them, and try to keep the sympathy off of her that she keeps trying to conjure.

[Lester Holt]

And every time he goes up to the parole board, Tiffany says she will be there with him. How hard has this been on you over the last 30 years?

[David Smith]

It's been very hard. To start with, it took a while for him to trust me again because he had been betrayed so awfully. But I stepped beside him through it all to try to win his trust, to show him that I wouldn't do anything like that. That's not who I am. And then losing Michael and Alex was a loss to me as well, because I've always, always loved children.

[Lester Holt]

David and Tiffany don't live in Union anymore. They have a home near Spartanburg, where David continues to get up every morning and work at a manufacturing company. How have you been able to do it? What has been the secret to not letting what happened define your life?

[David Smith]

I would say the top would be my faith in God. You know, I was mad at him for a long time. And me and him have had some heated discussions, but I never blamed him. But the second was not letting her win. You may have took my children, but you're not gonna make me bitter. You're not gonna make me mad at the world. You're not gonna make me take my own life. You're not gonna win.

[Lester Holt]

Have you Forgiven her, of course.

[David Smith]

Why? Because that's the way I was taught. I had to forgive her because it was just gonna eat me up if I didn't. It was gonna hold me back.

[Lester Holt]

But he says there's another painful struggle he faces daily trying to remember his boys. It's been three decades now. Are the memories, are they still fresh or do they fade at some point?

[David Smith]

I've never really had any memories of them since they passed. I was told by, you know, psychiatrists and stuff through the years, early on that that was just my self defense system, it was protecting me from myself, but that they would come back. But Craig, we're here 30 years later, as you said, and I still have very few memories of Michael, Alex. And that hurts. That hurts.

[Lester Holt]

You want vivid memories?

[David Smith]

Yes, of course I want to remember them. I remember things I did with them, but they're not there.

[Lester Holt]

What do you think that is? Do you, do you think that perhaps that is to help you on some weird level or.

[David Smith]

That's all I can think it is. It's my own mind protecting me from myself because I still miss them so much that those memories would just hurt too much. And my own self knows that. And it just saying, not yet, David. Not yet.

[Lester Holt]

In January 2025, David returned to John D. Long Lake, the place where this whole tragedy began, stopping at the memorial the community erected for the boys. People still come here to pay their respects.

[David Smith]

Michael and Alex have touched so many hearts.

[Lester Holt]

The lake, he says, looks a little different.

[David Smith]

This is the first time I've been back to this lake in 25 years.

[Lester Holt]

For one thing, that boat ramp that Susan used is gone.

[David Smith]

To the eyes, it's more peaceful. But to the heart, but still, sad sadness.

[Lester Holt]

David listened to the quiet wind blow over the lake, then shared a few final words for his little boys.

[David Smith]

I'm so sorry that your life ended this. I'm so sorry. It's just such a peaceful place to have such a horrific thing happen. Ms.

[Lester Holt]

That's all for this edition of Dateline. And check out our talking Dateline podcast. Craig Melvin and Josh Mankiewicz. We'll go behind the scenes of tonight's episode, available Wednesday in the Dateline feed. Wherever you get your podcasts, we'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 Central. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night. A true crime story never really ends. Even when a case is closed, the journey for those left behind is just beginning. Since our Dateline story aired, Tracy has harnessed her outrage into a mission.

[David Smith]

I had no other option.

[Lester Holt]

I had to do something. Catch up with families, friends and investigators on our bonus series after the Verdict. Ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with strength and courage.

[David Smith]

It does just change your life. But speaking up for these issues helps me keep going.

[Lester Holt]

To listen to after the Verdict, subscribe to Dateline Premium on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or at datelinepremium.

[David Smith]

Com.