However, after a nine-day . Susan Smith murdered her young sons in 1994. In 1994, Susan Smith told a tale of being carjacked by a black man who took off with her two young sons in the back seat. By Samantha Benitz The case of Susan Smith, the woman who killed her young sons in 1994, will be explored in the upcoming Lifetime docuseries Cellmate Secrets. Susan Smith and 6 Other Women Who Have Murdered Their Children. She made a tearful plea on national television for their safe return. One day in October 1994, Susan Smiths kids, three-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander, joined her for a drive. Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma/Getty ImagesSusan Smith was convicted of murdering her children on July 22, 1995. On Wednesday, for the first time, Findlay gave his view of Smith. Findlay was one of nine witnesses Wednesday, the second day of testimony in a trial to decide whether Susan Smith lives or dies. As NYT summarized, Smith eventually confessed to taking her children to a nearby lake and intentionally "rolling her car down a boat ramp and into the "body of water. Lead prosecutor Thomas Pope painted a very different picture. Smith hid it well. But eventually, her lies came crashing down and the horrible truth about what happened to Susan Smiths children was revealed. Closing arguments in the trials penalty phase were to begin today, with jury deliberations possibly starting this afternoon. One of the revelers, Susan. Browse 35 susan smith criminal stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. The greeters at Walmart didnt remember seeing her on the night of October 25th. When it comes to true crime, some of the cases that seem to shock people the most are also the most incomprehensible. During the pregnancy, David started his own affair due to Smiths distant and irritable ways. Findlay received a salary of $214,615 last year, according to company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and he controls 53 percent of Conso's stock, a chunk valued at $24-million. In addition to Findlay, several other Conso Products employees testified. The police became suspicious of the inconsistencies in Smiths story, and facts that didnt line up. All Filters. Company business required them to travel to Atlanta, New York, London and Frankfurt, Germany. Bev was temporarily forced to move out of the family house. But their own family would prove to be an unhappy one as well. On the ninth day of the search, Susan and David appeared on all three national network morning news programs, declaring their innocence and pleading for the return of their children, Alex and Michael. "I was able to see a small hand pressed against the glass.". Reader discretion is advised. Even the media took off the sketch of the carjacker after a while. Then, learn about Alice Crimmins, the New York mom accused of killing her kids. Smith, 23, is charged with two counts of murder in the Oct. 25 killings of Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months. He urged a jury Thursday to spare her life, saying he bore some of the responsibility for Ms. Smith's crime. She gained the . Tragedy struck in 1977 when her father, Harry Ray, committed suicide. That night Susan Smith called a friend who she knew Tom was having dinner with, to ask if he spoke of her. Susan was working at the local grocery store when she began a relationship with a co-worker and high school friend named David Smith. Defense attorney David Bruck declined to preview his presentation. Susan Smith, a mother from South Carolina, was convicted of murdering her two sons by drowning them in South Carolina Lake. [Watch true crime series and documentaries anytime with A&E Crime Central. Ss for the crimes that put her in prison in the first place, she broke her decades-long silence in 2015 via a letter to South Carolinas The State. Per People, this included "self-mutilation and the use and possession of narcotics or marijuana," and as a result, each infraction cost her "loss of privileges, including loss of visitation, canteen and telephone privileges." But she changed her mind, and began driving aimlessly. And I don't want to be responsible for anyone else's children, either.". Plagued by lifelong trauma, she married David Smith at 19 to start a family of her own. All Rights Reserved. He is the elusive ex-lover who told Smith he couldnt continue their relationship because of her children, the man whose Auburn University sweatshirt Smith was wearing the night her children were killed, the man the prosecution says is the motive for Susan Smiths crime. I could never express in words how much you mean to me. Smith took the breakup badly and attempted a second suicide taking both Tylenol and aspirin together. The ex-husband of convicted child-killer SusanSmith has remarried and has two new children.David Smith appeared on C-N-N's "Larry King Live," last night. That 28-year-old witness, Tom Findlay, also wrote that he was afraid that their backgrounds -- he was a child of privilege, she a child of a mill worker who committed suicide when his wife left. (Cary Findlay . (Mrs. Smith later told him that she had fabricated that story, an apparent effort to return some of the pain that he had instilled in her, "as a joke," Mr. Findlay testified.). He also said he didnt anticipate the woman being freed anytime soon. The version Susan Smith told was a Southern gothic nightmare come true on the evening news. Her father killed himself when she was just six years old, and she tried to follow suit at age 13. Susan said she wasnt happy about her mother receiving all the male attention. For nine days, she stuck to the story that a black carjacker abducted the children on a dark, desolate stretch of country road. Tom Findlay, according to the Chicago Tribune. (Guess he hasnt seen the game tapes), US Supreme Court refuses to block Florida execution of Donald Dillbeck, Red-hot USF women close out home schedule with explosive offensive showing. Shop today After breaking up with David, Susan started working as a bookkeeper at the largest employer in the area, Conso Products. Findlay said he felt so threatened, he slept with a handgun under his pillow. On October 5, 1994, an unassuming 23-year-old woman named Susan Smith seized the national spotlight when she called police to report that her two children had been kidnapped by an anonymous Black man during a carjacking. By November Smith announced she was pregnant again and the marriage had new life in it both literally and figuratively. When Susan Smith was sixteen years old her stepfather began to treat her differently he was sexually abusing her. Meanwhile, she and her older brothers were moving into the home of their new stepfather (Bev) with their mom. In October of 1991, the Smiths welcomed their first son into the world and named him Michael. During Smiths murder trial, her stepfather, Beverly Russell, testified that he and Smith had a consensual sexual relationship two months before she drowned her sons. According to the magazine, however, the cards are stacked against her: aside from her status as a murderer, her criminal record which was obtained by People contained information which revealed Smith had "been disciplined at least five times for various infractions." This horrified Tom even more. Findlay, who The New York Times described at the time of Smith's trial as "the son of a rich industrialist," was indeed connected to the place Smith herself worked. Findlays testimony also provided another view of Susan Smiths ex-husband, David Smith. Russell was one of several relatives and friends to testify on behalf of Ms. Smith, who was convicted Saturday of rolling her car into a lake Oct. 25 with 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex strapped in their car seats. All the conspiracies about this financier, 'Dateline': The insane story behind the Chris Smith murder. Starting at a very early age, Susan Smith suffered unspeakable tragedy. The company recently donated that money to day-care centers in the area. In the letter she claimed that she intended to kill herself with her children, but she changed her plan in the final moment. 'The Susan Smith Story: A Mother's Confession' is an 'American Justice' episode that chronicles the 1994 tale of a young mother claiming that she had been a victim of a carjacking and the perpetrator had taken off with her two toddler sons still in the car. Twice in 2010 and once in 2015, she was disciplined on drug charges, losing privileges for more than a year. After Susan Smith and her ex-husband David separated for the final time around 1994, the young woman soon entered what in the beginning was a consensual relationship with a man named Tom Findlay. At thirteen Smith attempted suicide, though nobody knew. Tom Findlay is the son of Cary Findlay, president of the company. Susan Smith was convicted on July 22, 1995 of murdering her two sons, 3-year-old Michael Daniel Smith, born October 10 and 14-month-old Alexander. In October 1994, Susan Smith called South Carolina police claiming her two sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex, were kidnapped when a Black man stole her car. Susan will have a chance of parole in November 2024, and at that point shell have been behind the bars for 30 years. As her story began to unravel, Smith admitted that there was no carjacker, and that she had let her car roll into a lake with Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months, still strapped in their car seats. Inside the Julia Wendall conspiracy, Did the Island Boys break up? Following the jury's decision, David Smith, expressed his disappointment with the sentence. Murder of Susan Smith. Again, Smith tried to get Tom on her side by going to his office, and declaring what she had told him was a lie. For the unfamiliar, the murders for which Susan Smith was convicted took place in 1994, when she was 23. "I am not the monster society thinks I am," she wrote. (The racial undertones of Smith's story, which was later proven to be wholly fabricated, were also covered by newspapers like The New York Times.) Soon after the death of her father, her mother married Beverly Russell. Almost as soon as they were wed, the Smiths would begin relentlessly arguing and cheating on each other. As deeply depressed as she was that Tom had ended their relationship, she was still sexually involved with David - and with her step-father, Bev Russell. "In perspective, that is a glitzy operation for people born in Union who have never traveled beyond the emotional boundaries of Union County. As the diver's testimony took the jury under the lake and inside the car, people in the courtroom gasped, some bowed their heads, and Mrs. Smith, charged with murder for drowning her sons by allowing her car to roll down a boat ramp and into the lake, chewed her nails and sobbed without making a sound. The following year, Rowe also pleaded guilty to having sex with Smith and was sentenced to five years probation. Shes behaving herself these days, the source said. Later that year, she attempted suicide yet again. Published on July 9, 2021 11:53 AM. He was subsequently fired from his job and spent three months in jail after pleading guilty to the illicit sexual relationship. In her written confession, Susan Smith claimed that she was suicidal on the evening of October 25th. She began sleeping with her boss's son, Tom Findlay, in January 1994. Though the court of public opinion has largely sided with the prosecution, the state will have to actually consider Smiths pleas in 2024, when shell be eligible for parole. I was not myself, I was a good mother and I loved my boys. If you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit RAINN.org for additional resources. 28 year old Tom Findlay had no idea when he began a relationship with Susan Smith, who worked within his father's company, that his name would be irrevocably linked with a tragedy that horrified the state, the nation, and many around the world. The prosecution introduced the letter and Mr. Findlay's testimony to portray Mrs. Smith as selfish and malicious, a woman prepared to trade the lives of her children for a chance to reclaim him. Susan made a second attempt to kill herself after a married man ended the affair they had. A Look Back At Susan Smith The South Carolina Mom Who Killed Her 2 Young Sons . "Like I told you before, there are some things about you that aren't suited for me, and yes, I mean your children," said the letter, written on Oct. 17, just eight days before Mrs. Smith drowned her children.
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