(AP/Wide World Photos) Findlay admitted seeing Smith three times on that fateful day, and that she had been overwrought. The thing that hurts me the most is that people think that I hurt my children in order to be with a man. [Watch true crime series and documentaries anytime with A&E Crime Central. A newspaper claimed that the sexual relations between them had continued until six months before the murders. According to jail records reviewed by People magazine, Smith has committed a number of infractions while behind bars, ranging from drug-use issues to self-harm, and has lost a variety of privileges for these infractions (such as loss of phone, canteen and visitation privileges). On Nov. 3, amid an intensive search, she confessed. Roughly a month before the murder, Susan Smith was dating Tom again and planning their future together in her mind. Susan Smith, a mother from South Carolina, was convicted of murdering her two sons by drowning them in South Carolina Lake. In 2000, an imprisoned Smith became embroiled in controversy again after allegedly having sex with a prison guard named Houston Cagle. Eventually, Christie realized that Susan was a master manipulator and they grew apart. Findlay testified as a prosecution witness, but his sympathetic testimony may have helped the defense. 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. According to aTIME, Smith attempted suicide when she was 13, though her mother and Smith's stepfather "refused" to hospitalize her. In regard to Cary Findlay giving up his job titles, he said S. Duane Southerland was hired as chief executive so Cary Findlay could spend more time on strategic planning. Life in prison would make her eligible for parole in 30 years. Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma/Getty ImagesSusan Smith was convicted of murdering her children on July 22, 1995. The newlywed couple moved in with Davids great grandmother. If youre fascinated by the world of true crime, sign up for our newsletter. For nine days, she stuck to the story that a black carjacker abducted the children on a dark, desolate stretch of country road. On Oct. 25, they had a particularly upsetting conversation. After breaking up with David, Susan started working as a bookkeeper at the largest employer in the area, Conso Products. She was strangled by her handler and lover, FBI agent Mark Putnam. Her motive: She was secretly dating a man who didn't want children. Everything came to a head on October 5, 1994, when Smith took her sons out for a ride on a South Carolina night. Smith made an emotional plea on the television for the safe return of her children. In January 1994, Susan and Tom began dating casually, but soon Susan was back with her husband David, and that again led to the couple wanting a divorce. The motive behind Susan Smiths murdering her children was indeed a shocking one. Findlay said he felt so threatened, he slept with a handgun under his pillow. Published on July 9, 2021 11:53 AM. Jurors in Susan Smith's murder trial heard the words written by an ex-boyfriend that prosecutors say drove the young mother to kill her two sons: ``I just don't want children.'' In a letter to Smith written a week before 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex were drowned in a lake, Tom Findlay described her as ``intelligent, beautiful, sensitive, understanding.'' She began sleeping with her boss's son, Tom Findlay, in January 1994. She was born on September 26th in 1971, the youngest of three kids. 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. Smith became obsessive about Tom. All the conspiracies surrounding Nicola Bulleys disappearance and death, Who killed Jeffrey Epstein? Browse 35 susan smith criminal stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. According to Alfred Rowe, who pleaded guilty in 2001 to having sex with Smith and was sentenced to five years probation, Smith's drug use escalated when she switched prisons from Camille Graham Correctional Center in Columbia, S.C., to Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood. Apparently unconvinced by Smiths defense, the jury deliberated for two and a half hours on July 22, 1995, and quickly found her guilty. In her written confession, Susan Smith claimed that she was suicidal on the evening of October 25th. According to a prison source who talked to People last year, Smith is currently on a better path at Leath in anticipation of her possible 2024 parole. When Susan Smith was sixteen years old her stepfather began to treat her differently he was sexually abusing her. She began sleeping with her bosss son, Tom Findlay, in January 1994. And because of this, Smith has become one of the more divisive and reviled criminals in the pantheon of American true crime, her name a sort of short-hand for the dark, obsessive lengths anyone will go to get what they think they want. Why did Susan Smith drive her two sons into a lake. I was not myself, I was a good mother and I loved my boys. ``To see unfolded before my eyes the principle of reaping and sowing, to lose Michael and Alex, to see you and (your mother) Linda crushed. (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. Findlay wrote: If you want to catch a nice guy like me one day, you have to act like a nice girl. And you know, nice girls dont sleep with married men. By March of 92, the couple separated. She is not God!! But Smith claims she has been misunderstood. During their breakup, Susan dated her former boyfriend, but when she found out that she was pregnant again, which seemed to bring David and her into clearer focus, the two reunited. She was heartbroken because Tom Findlay, her ex-boyfriend, had recently broken up with her. As the daily interrogation proceeded, the police discovered inconsistencies in Susans story. [Watch Cellmate Secrets: Susan Smith on Lifetimes site and apps.]. He had her removed from the office. The man she wrote about was a graphic artist named Tom Findlay, who enthralled the court with details of a stormy relationship that came to a head on October 25, 1994. . At least 10 Conso employees were subpoenaed as possible witnesses, and five have testified in the trial. Then, learn about Alice Crimmins, the New York mom accused of killing her kids. The composite drawing of the carjacker was so generic that it raised suspicion. Hulsen also says Smith would get a lot of money from random men and her family. "I had to put my light against the window, and peered in," Mr. Morrow testified yesterday in the murder trial of Susan Smith. She said that she was planning to kill herself and take her children with her, but after driving around Union for an hour, she pulled into the access road at John D. Long Lake. Ive seen her do it all, Christie says. Shop today 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. Per TIME, Smith later said the relationship continued until roughly six months before she committed murder, and later revised their relationship as "consensual.". 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As for Susan Smith, whatever we learn and eventually come to understand about the motivations behind her horrible crime, she will always remain . In 2015, she broke the silence with a letter written to the State Newspaper. Findlays testimony also provided another view of Susan Smiths ex-husband, David Smith. According to the . The sketch described half of the African American men who lived in the community. Putnam was the first FBI agent to be charged in a homicide. Susan was born on April 2, 1939 in Mansfield, Ohio to William D. and Helen R. (Robinson) Gibson. Obituary. Susan Knick Smith, 67. Mayor Jane Castors partner vowed not to lobby the city. After almost a week of searching, Susan and David Smith appeared before the cameras, and once again Susan Smith pleaded and asked her children to stay strong. Findlay painted a picture of Susan Smith as a good friend and caring mother who was also suicidal and unstable. Not that it justifies a single thing, but her life wasn't easy. She ran to a nearby house acting frantic. She pleaded for the safe return of her boys, 14-month-old Alexander and. In October of 1991, the Smiths welcomed their first son into the world and named him Michael. While the police and FBI continued their search, Susan and David stayed with their families. Ostensibly, one for the remainder of her life. Susan Smith, the mother who drowned her two sons in a lake in 1994 has been sending romantic letters to her boyfriends from the South Carolina prison where she is serving a life sentence. And Smith already had two sons. She and David finally filed for divorce in September of 1994, and Smith put all her attention on Tom. But in 1994, she destroyed her own family when she murdered her children. Excerpts from a letter Susan Smith wrote to Tom Findlay on Oct. 17, and his reply, written the same day and given to her Oct. 18. Findlay, a slight, balding graphic designer, appeared to exchange a quick half-smile with Smith from the stand during a break in his testimony about their brief fling, which he said began. Prosecutor Tommy Pope told reporters he would try in closing arguments to emphasize the character of the crime. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your device and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. . However, Smith was seeing other men too. But on November 3, with police suspicious of her flimsy story, Smith finally relented and confessed about what shed done. David Smith describes his marriage with convicted murderer Susan, his coming to terms with the tragedy that cost him his two young sons, and the painful healing process of putting his life back together. Both Smith and Findlay worked at Conso. David, only eleven days before the wedding, lost his brother to Chrons disease. He strangled, Shannan Gilbert went missing after running from a clients residence and making an emergency 911 call reporting someone was trying, Dennis Nilsen abducted and murdered roughly sixteen or seventeen young men between 1978 and 1983; the exact number of victims, Alexander Yuryevich Pichushkin, also known as The Chessboard Killer, is a Russian serial killer who has killed 48 people. But the Union, South Carolina moms dramatic story turned out to be a tall taleand nine days after those initial claims, Smith admitted there had been no assailant and no kidnapping. Susan Smith murdered her young sons in 1994. It's been almost 30 years since Smith was put away behind bars to serve a life sentence, and she is next eligible for parole in 2024. 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." As a $17,000-a-year secretary to Cary Findlay, Smith worked for one of Union's wealthiest people. Susan Leigh Smith (nee' Vaughan) was an American killer who was responsible for the murders of her two children, Michael Daniel, and Alexander Tyler Smith, on October 24, 1994. The parents loved their son very much, but their personality differences were putting a strain on the marriage. Prosecutors said Susan drowned her boys because she wanted to be with a local wealthy bachelor, Tom Findlay. Susan Smith: 20 Years Later. Im gonna get you.. Tom Findlay, according to the Chicago Tribune. He pleaded guilty and spent three months in jail. "Union is a small town, and Conso employs a lot of people in that small town. Smith, 23, is charged with two counts of murder in the Oct. 25 killings of Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months. Later, she got out of the car, released the brake, and let it roll down the ramp into the lake. Yet, like many institutions in this close-knit town, Conso is deeply intertwined with the people of the community, who cross paths at work, at church and at their children's Saturday morning baseball games. She told the homeowners her car had been hijacked by a man with her sons inside. On November 3rd, Sheriff Wells made a shocking announcement: 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.. Planning their future together in her mind been overwrought her eligible for parole in 30 years Carolina was. A & E crime Central 1971, the youngest of three kids. ] parole. 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