Susan Smith Drowned Her 2 Sons After Lying About a Carjacking. Inside Her Life Today

In October 1994, South Carolina mother Susan Smith claimed a Black man had carjacked her and kidnapped her children. Days later, she confessed that she had let her car roll into a lake with her sons inside. She began serving a life sentence in 1995 and was denied parole in November 2024.

It has been over 30 years since Susan began serving a life sentence after confessing to the murders of her two young children. On Oct. 25, 1994, she claimed a Black man had carjacked her and driven off with her two toddlers still in the vehicle. Her story made national news as she publicly pleaded for their safe return.

Just over a week later, she confessed there had been no carjacking. She said she drove to a local boat ramp and let the car roll into a lake with her sons strapped inside: 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander.

Her alleged motive, as reported, was that she was secretly dating local businessman Tom Findlay, who did not want children, and she acted in an effort to save that relationship.

In a 2015 letter to The State, a South Carolina newspaper, she described herself as misunderstood, said something went very wrong that night, said she was not herself or in her right mind, said she was a good mother who loved her boys, and said there was no motive because the event was not planned.

She was set to be eligible for parole on Nov. 4, 2024, but was denied. The introduction says her next parole hearing is scheduled for November 2026.

Nine days after the murders, Susan admitted killing her children, and on Nov. 4, 1994, Michael’s and Alexander’s bodies were recovered.

Her murder trial began in July 1995. The prosecution sought the death penalty and alleged that her desire for a relationship with Findlay, who did not want children, led her to kill her sons.

The defense, per The New York Times, portrayed her as a woman with mental illness who intended to kill herself and her children on Oct. 25, 1994, but saved herself at the last moment.

The trial lasted under a week, and the jury took less than two and a half hours to find her guilty on two counts of first-degree murder, The New York Times reported. The jury declined the death penalty and imposed life in prison. Susan was 23 at the time and would be eligible for parole 30 years later in 2024, according to The Washington Post.

Juror Deborah Benvenuti told reporters the jurors felt Susan was a really disturbed person and that the death penalty would not serve justice.

Their father, David Smith, told reporters at the courthouse that he did not feel justice had been served and that he and his family were disappointed the death penalty was not the verdict. He said he would never forget what Susan had done or Michael and Alex.

She began her life sentence on July 28, 1995, at the Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina, where she received two infractions for having sex with prison guards.

The incidents were discovered in 2000, when she was 28. According to UPI, 50-year-old prison guard Houston Cagle had had sex with Susan at least four times. An investigator discovered the affair while looking into tabloid claims that she had been beaten. Cagle pleaded guilty, was fired, and spent three months in jail, while Susan was disciplined.

In September 2000, prison captain Alfred Rowe was arrested for having sex with Susan, according to ABC News. The encounter came to light after Susan told investigators she had sex with Rowe and he confessed. A year later, Rowe pleaded guilty and received five years’ probation.

Because of the sexual infractions, she was transferred to the Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood, South Carolina. Guards there took special precautions, never allowing her to be alone with one guard and often transporting extra prisoners with her.

A prison source told PEOPLE in October 2019 that no one trusted her to be alone with a guard, that she spent most of her time in her cell or working her job, and that when transported there were always two guards with her, preferably a male and a female.

Her disciplinary issues continued at Leath. Jailhouse records cited by the article show she was disciplined at least five times between 2010 and 2017 for infractions including self-mutilation, drug use, and possession of narcotics or marijuana. Punishments involved loss of visitation, canteen, and telephone privileges.

She was disciplined on drug charges twice in 2010 and once in 2015 and lost privileges for more than a year as a result.

Rowe claimed in a July 2021 episode of Lifetime’s Cellmate Secrets that her drug use escalated when she was transferred to Leath because she could no longer get the male attention she used as a drug.

Former cellmate Christie Smith claimed her main purpose was to bring Susan her pills and alleged she had seen Susan use drugs in various ways.

In March 2022, PEOPLE learned that Susan, then 50 and having spent more than half her life in prison, had been sending romantic correspondence to a man outside jail for over a year.

The man was divorced, in his mid-40s, and had two adult children. The romance began after he saw a documentary about Susan on television. He wrote her a letter, and their correspondence grew to a few letters per week, a source told PEOPLE.

A family member told PEOPLE they wrote handwritten letters all the time about their future, and described Susan as very romantic and always wanting a happily ever after.

Susan wrote that she wanted to start fresh with her boyfriend if she were freed, and a relative told PEOPLE the couple was discussing marriage if she got parole in 2024, with Susan imagining married life as a wife and stepmother.

By October 2022, however, the relationship had fizzled out. A Smith family member told PEOPLE they were no longer corresponding and that it was over.

She reportedly focused on changing her behavior in prison in hopes of parole in November 2024. A prison source who had known her for several years told PEOPLE in 2020 that she was following prison rules to improve her release chances, and that her disciplinary history for drug use, self-mutilation, and sexual contact with a guard would factor into the parole board’s decision. The source said she was behaving herself and knew she could not get parole if she was not good.

In August 2024, she faced more disciplinary action after being charged with communicating with a victim and/or witness, stemming from phone calls with a documentary filmmaker, per ABC4 News. The outlet reported that in South Carolina, inmates may only write letters and are not allowed to conduct phone or in-person interviews. She was convicted of the violation on Oct. 3, 2024.

At her Nov. 20, 2024, parole hearing, she told the board she knew what she did was horrible. As reported by CNN, she said she was a Christian, that God was a big part of her life, that she knew he had forgiven her by grace and mercy, and she asked the board to show the same kind of mercy.

She was ultimately denied parole on that first attempt.

Now that she has passed the 30-year mark, she is eligible for parole every two years. Her next parole board hearing is scheduled for Nov. 19, 2026, per WYFF.

Before the murders, Susan had filed for divorce from David in September 1994. A judge granted their divorce in May 1995, a couple of months before her trial began.

Two months before her parole hearing, David shared on Court TV in September 2024 what he would say if face to face: that she had no idea how much damage she had done to so many people, and that he would do everything in his power to make sure she stayed behind bars.

David has since had two more children, daughter Savannah and son Nicolas, in 2001 and 2003 respectively, per Go Upstate. He shares Savannah with his wife Tiffany, whom he married in 2003 after 11 years together, while Nicolas has a different mother.

David told the outlet in June 2004 that he admitted being a lousy husband but had always been a good father and enjoyed fatherhood very much.

At Susan’s November 2024 hearing, David asked the board to deny parole, believing 30 years was just not enough and that her crime was not a tragic mistake. Per a video published by WCNC, he said she purposely meant to end their lives, and that he had never felt remorse from her, never had her express it to him, and had never seen it on paper.

David added that he missed and loved his late children very much and would be there every two years going forward to ensure their deaths did not go in vain.

During a February 2025 Dateline episode, David recalled the moment Susan admitted drowning their sons: she casually said she was sorry, and when he asked why she did it, she said she did not know why but was sorry.