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. ], On July 22, 1995, Smith was convicted of both boys murders and sentenced to life in prison. In a letter to Susan Smith, Tom declared he did not want kids, or to have a part in the life of Smiths kids, nor did he think she was a nice girl. ``I think the real focus is not the nature of the crime, he said, ``but what is the right thing to do.. [2] The company recently donated that money to day-care centers in the area. According to the . Tragedy struck in 1977 when her father, Harry Ray, committed suicide. Susan J. Discover amazing horror stories, conspiracy theories, Murder Mysteries, Alien Life, Unsolved Mysteries, latest breakthrough Science news, and much more on Bugged Space ! Following the jury's decision, David Smith, expressed his disappointment with the sentence. Im gonna get you.. "A passing love affair," Halleck called it. [Watch true crime series and documentaries anytime with A&E Crime Central. 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. Susan Smith may also have lived outside of Union, such as Clover, Spartanburg and 2 other cities in South Carolina. Ms. Smith's letter (handwritten, not dated): ``Dear Tom, ``Just a note to say thank you for everything. Mr. Findlay testified that when he called Mrs. Smith's house on one occasion, Mr. Smith snatched the phone from her. In her final year of high school, she received the Friendliest Female award and was known for her cheerful disposition. The inconsistencies grew more and more, and on the eighth day, Susan changed her written statement, when police confronted her with a new reason, why her version of the supposed abduction didnt add up. The 19-year-old bride was already two months pregnant with her first son Michael, while her 20-year-old groom lost a brother to Crohns disease and had his father attempt suicide within a year. "I was able to see a small hand pressed against the glass.". However, as she later confessed, there was no such crime. Born on September 26, 1971, in Union, South Carolina, Susan Leigh Vaughan was the youngest of three children and the only girl. In 1994, Smith strapped her two sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex, into their car seats and pushed the vehicle into a lake. It has been hard to listen to lie after lie and not be able to defend myself, the letter read. While on the other hand, the prosecution showed the jury the devious and manipulative side of Susan Smith, whose only major concern was her own desires. You dont have all the guilt of this tragedy, he read from a letter he wrote Ms. Smith this past Fathers Day. Her estranged husband, David Smith, appeared on The Oprah Show five years later in an emotional interview. I was not myself, I was a good mother and I loved my boys. In the letter she claimed that she intended to kill herself with her children, but she changed her plan in the final moment. They both came from families tormented by tragedy. Meanwhile, David had no idea that she suffered from depression and dependent personality disorder. The couple were very co-dependent on one another, the early days of their marriage being filled with comforting one another over their losses. Later, she got out of the car, released the brake, and let it roll down the ramp into the lake. For nine days a search for her children took place. Ms. Smiths lawyers contend she snapped under unbearable personal pressures and a history of mental illness. Susan Leigh Vaughan was born on September 26, 1971 in Union, South . Linda confronted her husband about it. Mr. Findlay said no. Though the then-teenager reported the ongoing sexual abuse twice to her high school counselor the first of which resulted in a brief separation between her stepfather, Beverly "Bev" Russell, Jr., who was a "prominent" member of the South Carolina Republican party, per TIME, and the state's Christian Coalition organization the charges were dropped. It comes with the possibility of parole one that she'll be eligible for in 2024, per the New York Post. The Susan Smith I know is very caring, very loving, a good friend to everyone, not just me, he said. For nine days, she went on television, pleading tearfully for their safe return. But in the end, Susan Smith chose murder. All Filters. At home, however, he was molesting his 15-year-old stepdaughter, fondling her breasts and genitals. The mom of two made headlines at. Resides in Findlay, OH. "It has very much sent a devastating ripple through Conso and the community," said Jim Cooney, a company attorney. In addition to Findlay, several other Conso Products employees testified. Prosecutor Tommy Pope told reporters he would try in closing arguments to emphasize the character of the crime. Susan Smith Trial: 1995 . He also believed his mother-in-law was controlling both over his wife and the newborn child. Smith believed that getting rid of her children was the only way to please her new lover, Tom Findleythe son of the owner of the company where Smith worked as a secretarywho didnt want children. Thomas S. England/Getty ImagesDavid Smith Sr. mourning his grandsons at John D. Long Lake. After getting to the location, divers found the car 122 feet from the shore upside down under 18 feet of water. At least 10 Conso employees were subpoenaed as possible witnesses, and five have testified in the trial. A newspaper claimed that the sexual relations between them had continued until six months before the murders. It is highly unlikely Susan will make paroleat least not the first time, Ozmint noted. The jury deliberated for only two and a half hours, at which point they declared Susan Smith guilty of two counts of murder. For. She was very frightened.. In March 1988, Russell admitted sexually assaulting Ms. Smith when she was 16, but she and her mother decided not to press charges. Inside the Julia Wendall conspiracy, Did the Island Boys break up? And is there a possibility that she could set foot into the world again one day as a free woman? According to records obtained by PEOPLE, she has been disciplined at least five times since 2010 for various infractions, including self-mutilation and the use and possession of narcotics or marijuana. Smith first made headlines on Oct. 25, 1994, when she told police she had been carjacked by a Black man who had taken off with her two young sons still in her car. Smith was seeing a co-worker from the local grocery store and she was having an affair with a married man. But the rich, handsome 27-years-old broke things off with her in October writing Smith a letter clarifying he wasnt ready for a relationship involving kids. I was not in my right mind.. The police became suspicious of the inconsistencies in Smiths story, and facts that didnt line up. In the hospital, Smith admitted when she was thirteen she had attempted to kill herself in a similar fashion. If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741. The couple decided to marry when Susan discovered that she was pregnant. Findlay painted a picture of Susan Smith as a good friend and caring mother who was also suicidal and unstable. ``And yet we love Susan, too. She was sentenced to life in prison and won't be eligible for . She was heartbroken because Tom Findlay, her ex-boyfriend, had recently broken up with her. On October 25, 1994, a mother would commit an unspeakable act. Susan took a lie detector test and failed. TOM FINDLAY'S TESTIMONY: Susan Smith, born Susan Leigh Vaughan on September 26, 1971, in Union, South Carolina. But then, she purposefully rolled her car into John D. Long Lake in Union County, South Carolina, and left them to die. A look at the notorious convicted murderer's life in prison after she drowned her two sons in 1994 By Steve Helling Updated on November 15, 2022 10:05 AM On October 25, 1994, Susan Smith told. Susan was secretly dating a man who didnt want children, so she decided to kill her children. Resides in Danville, VA. 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. On cross-examination, Mrs. Smith's lawyer, David Bruck, asked Mr. Findlay whether he had ever had reason to believe that Mrs. Smith would harm her children to win him back. But their own family would prove to be an unhappy one as well. We can only hope. Smith and Findley had been dating for a few months after her separation from her . Texas woman Andrea Yates drowning her kids to save them from the Devil, Alice Crimmins, the New York mom accused of killing her kids. Keep on scrolling to find out more. But the defense may have also profited from his testimony. Distraught, Smith got her children into her car and began to drive toward her mothers house. And for that she was sentenced to life in prison -- with the chance of parole. Her trial began soon after. On Wednesday, for the first time, Findlay gave his view of Smith. 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. In a long day of testimony, the relationship between Smith and Findlay took center stage. Ostensibly, one for the remainder of her life. Susan Smith, then 23, claims that a black man hijacked her car and drove away with her children inside. The thing that hurts me the most is that people think that I hurt my children in order to be with a man. The lake where Smith killed Michael and Alex went on to become a macabre tourist attraction. And I don't want to be responsible for anyone else's children, either.". She is serving a life sentence in Leath Correctional institute in North Carolina after she eventually confessed to the murder of her children. While the crime itself was unspeakable as is, the aftermath of the murders of Smith's children, three-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex, created an almost unprecedented media frenzy at the time, a good part of it perpetrated by Smith herself. David (who had advocated for a death sentence), intends to testify at every parole hearing his ex-wife has to ensure she never gets out. Print length 304 pages Language English Publisher Authors Book Nook Publication date January 1, 2000 Dimensions Tom Findlay, Susan Smith's ex-lover, started a new life in Birmingham, Ala. Cary Findlay, who is Tom Findlay's father and Susan Smith's former employer, let his mansion become a. Susan Smith, now 34, was 23 and estranged from David on the day she claimed that a black man had taken her car along with the kids Michael, three, and Alex, 14 months. It is a story that will not go away. For nine days, she made tearful pleas for their safe return. Before Susan Smith had taken more than a few steps up a boat ramp after rolling her car into the lake with her two children strapped inside, she was already wondering what people would think of. She and David finally filed for divorce in September of 1994, and Smith put all her attention on Tom. Per TIME, Smith later said the relationship continued until roughly six months before she committed murder, and later revised their relationship as "consensual.". Smith was not one to quietly let it happen though, instead, she outed him. On the second day of the search, Susan Smith took a lie detector test and failed. Soon after the death of her father, her mother married Beverly Russell. 4,617 17 Nov 01, 2008 #1 SUSAN SMITH'S LETTER TO TOM FINDLAY Dear Tom, Just a note to say thank you for everything. Susan Smiths most intense extramarital affair was with a newfound employee at Conso Products in 1993. He was subsequently fired from his job and spent three months in jail after pleading guilty to the illicit sexual relationship. Smith was cited as having strange reactions for a grieving mother, being overly concerned about her appearance before going on television, and even sometimes asking about Tom Findlay. "They were her world," he said. Later that year, she attempted suicide yet again. Susan Smith later confessed that the carjacking story was false and that she had driven her Mazda into John D. Long Lake in order to drown her children. A car matching the description of Susans Mazda was spotted in North Carolina, but it was not her car. Susan Smith and 6 Other Women Who Have Murdered Their Children. Susan will have a chance of parole in November 2024, and at that point shell have been behind the bars for 30 years. Social Services did very little, and after some family counseling, Bev was welcomed back into the home. Give directly to The Spokesman-Review's Northwest Passages community forums series -- which helps to offset the costs of several reporter and editor positions at the newspaper -- by using the easy options below. Unbeknownst to Smith, Tom was also preparing to break up with her. [4] https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/susan-smith-now. Newly resurfaced . Tom Findlay and Smith were among five people who partied nude in a hot tub at Cary Findlay's estate Oct. 15, 10 days before the boys were drowned in a lake. She gained the . The newlyweds soon started to have fights, and as a result they were separated seven months after their marriage. After graduating from high school, she then met David Smith, the man who would become the father of her two children. Before the couple got a divorce the two still slept with each other on and off. Susan Smith's childhood was disturbing. Per NBC, their marriage was marred by periods of separation, which ended in a final, though unofficial, split and laid the groundwork for what was to come. I was not myself," she continued. On Oct. 25, they had a particularly upsetting conversation. Susan made a second attempt to kill herself after a married man ended the affair they had. If youre fascinated by the world of true crime, sign up for our newsletter. The case attracted international attention because of her false claim that a black man had kidnapped her sons during a carjacking, but instead Susan Smith and her children, Alex and Michael. Williams testified about a conversation with Susan Smith on Oct. 17, eight days before the murders: "I have a problem," Smith said. She began sleeping with her boss's son, Tom Findlay, in January 1994. 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. Per the source, it's because Smith "knows that her parole date is [a few] years away and she can't get parole if she isn't being good." Almost a decade later, David says he's doing well. Jake Paul vs. Tommy Fury: Who made the most money from their fight? A Look Back At Susan Smith The South Carolina Mom Who Killed Her 2 Young Sons . 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. And Smith already had two sons. 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. Id become her guppy.. Five weeks after the divorce, Smiths father killed himself. He had her removed from the office. When her mother Linda married Beverly C. Russell Jr., it seemed the familys luck was looking up. Findlay put an end to their relationship in the fall of 1994 but not before he told Smith that, per A&E, that part of their breakup had to do with the fact that he didn't want children. After learning about the murder of Susan Smiths children, read about Texas woman Andrea Yates drowning her kids to save them from the Devil. In the decades since her conviction, Smith has said she regrets her crimes. Tom Findleythe son of the owner of the company where Smith worked as a secretarywho didn't want children. 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. As she approached John D. Long Lake, she rolled her car straight into the water, then fled the scene and left her two children to drown. Ive seen her do it all, Christie says. Warning: The following contains disturbing descriptions of violence. Inside the car with the bodies of Mrs. Smith's sons -- Michael, 3 years old, and Alex, 14 months -- was a letter from the man she loved telling her that their relationship would never work, in part because of her children. Susan se enamor -perdidamente sera la palabra que mejor describe lo que sinti- de Tom Findlay, un diseador de 27 aos que, adems de trabajar con ella, era el hijo de su jefe. By March of 92, the couple separated. Fox, 82, of Findlay died at 3:39 p.m. on Saturday, January 22, 2022 at the Bridge Hospice Care Center surrounded by her loving family. Browse from a variety of styles, sets, and sizes of women's wear for every fit and occasion. 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." Almost as soon as they were wed, the Smiths would begin relentlessly arguing and cheating on each other. Smith . Tom Findlay's letter, as gentle as it tried to be, had brought Susan Smith in direct and brutal contact with her own lies, deceit, narcissism, and lust. Christie Smith, her former cellmate, says Smith paid her to procure drugs. A death sentence means a choice of electrocution or injection. Judge William Howard passed a box of tissues to a juror who wept during testimony from Walter Garner, who often cared for the boys with his wife, Barbara, and daughter, Donna Garner. Susan Smith, a mother from South Carolina, was convicted of murdering her two sons by drowning them in South Carolina Lake. There was no motive, as it was not even a planned event. [Watch Cellmate Secrets: Susan Smith on Lifetimes site and apps.]. This book is a quest for understanding -- for those close to Susan and for others. Find the editorial stock photo of Findlay Tom Findlay Center Former Boyfriend, and more photos in the Shutterstock collection of editorial photography. 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). 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. She does not deserve to walk on the earth in which she denied her children. On national TV, she sobbed as she described the false kidnapping, claiming the man seized control of her car as she waited at a stoplight, then forced her out at gunpoint and drove off with her sons. They married on March 15th in 1991 due to Smith being pregnant. 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. Findlay recalled Smith being upset because David knew, or so she thought, some information that he was going to make public that upset her. Its unclear just what this was, while it would later be revealed that Smith had continued having sexual relations with her former stepfather. Sex, Drugs and Sickness: Susan Smith's Life in Prison, 25 Years After Drowning Her Sons, Susan Smith Keeps a Photo of 2 Sons She Killed in Prison Cell, Says Source: 'Very Tortured Soul', Susan Smith Is 'Behaving Herself' in Prison After Being Disciplined for Drugs, Sex: Source, Cold Cases Heat Up: How Advances in DNA Technology Are Helping to Bring Justice for Victims, Victim of Sarah Lawrence Sex Cult Leader Who Later Became His 'Lieutenant' Gets 54 Months in Prison, Jen Shah Reports to Prison to Start Her 6.5-Year Sentence for Telemarketing Fraud Scheme, Susan Smith, in Prison for Killing Her 2 Kids, Is 'No Longer Corresponding' with Long-Distance Boyfriend, Who Is Larry Ray? She was eventually found guilty of the highly-publicized crime. 'I took David's threats seriously.' Investigators testified Wednesday. 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