Convicted Child Killer Susan Smith Faces Parole Hearing 32 Years After Drowning Her 2 Young Sons in Lake
Susan Smith is coming up for parole following the murder of her two young children.
Oct. 26 2026, Published 5:16 p.m. ET
Convicted child killer Susan Smith is readying her second request for parole, RadarOnline.com can report, more than three decades after she drowned her two sons in a South Carolina lake.
October 25 marked 32 years since she strapped her 14-month-old son Alex and 3-year-old son Michael into her car and let it roll into John D. Long Lake in Union County.
Susan Smith Confessed to Her Crimes
She confessed to driving her kids into a lake.
Smith was denied parole during her first hearing in November 2024 after serving 30 years in prison. She is scheduled to make a second attempt at securing her release on November 19.
The now 55-year-old drew national attention on October 25, 1994, when she reported to local police that a Black man had carjacked her and kidnapped her two children.
In reality, prosecutors said Smith killed the boys because the wealthy man she was having an affair with didn't want children.
On November 3, 1994, nine days after the boys disappeared, Susan confessed to investigators at a local church that she had drowned her sons in the lake. Her confession ended the nationwide search for the children and led to her arrest on two counts of murder.
Susan Smith's Familiar Defense
She originally blamed a Black man for 'stealing her car' before confessing to the crime.
During her subsequent murder trial, Smith's lawyers tried to argue that the mother suffered from a history of mental health struggles, including postpartum depression following Alexander's birth and two previous suicide attempts.
Attorneys for Lindsay Clancy used a similar argument at her trial for the murder of her own young children. That case resulted in a mistrial.
Smitth's attorneys also presented details of her traumatic childhood. Her father died by suicide when she was 6 years old, while her stepfather, Beverly C. Russell Jr., was accused of sexually abusing her during her teenage years.
However, despite the defense's arguments, a jury convicted Susan of two counts of murder on July 22, 1995. Although prosecutors sought the death penalty, jurors sentenced her to life in prison on July 28, 1995, with the possibility of parole after serving 30 years.
Susan Smith's Ex-Husband Wants Her to Stay Put
Her lawyers argued she was suffering from postpartum depression.
During her first parole hearing in November 2024, Smith begged for forgiveness, telling the parole board, "I want to say how very sorry I am. I know that what I did was horrible and I would give anything if I could go back and change it."
But her still-mourning ex-husband and father of the boys, David Smith, said his boys weren't the only ones affected by her heinous actions.
"She changed my life for the rest of my life that night," David said, arguing Susan should spend all her remaining days behind bars.
'She Is Where She Belongs'
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Her ex-husband does not want to see her set free.
David's not the only one who wants to see Susan die in prison. Even the woman who said she was once the notorious child killer's prison lover thinks Smith should stay locked up.
"She is where she belongs," declared former inmate Tracey Thompson, who claimed she and Smith had a relationship for four years behind bars. "She did something horrible. She belongs in jail for the rest of her life."
Thompson, a former bank robber, offered a more chilling assessment of her former sweetheart.
"I think she’s a sociopath," she shared. "You'd have to be a sociopath to do what she did!"
