Exclusive new details in the case of Susan Smith, who murdered her two young boys in 1994. Craig Melvin speaks with David Smith about his ex-wife’s recent attempt to be released from prison.Craig Melvin and Josh Mankiewicz go behind the scenes of the making of this episode in ‘Talking Dateline’Listen on Apple: https://apple.co/3Qp5q7lListen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6xSyGrJDc8FdlonPPNxwSW
Chapter 1: What happened to Susan Smith's children?
Tonight on Dateline. So many people still think about them. I wish I could tell them.
I miss you so much. Whoever has my children, please bring them home.
It was the story that broke America's heart.
She said a man forced her out of the car and sped off with the children.
Susan is distraught. She's crying. The tears seem genuine. I believe David Ward's coming out of her mouth. Then, the news no one could believe.
Susan Smith has been arrested.
Some of our agents were just sobbing when the car was pulled out of the water.
Now, Susan Smith breaks decades of silence. Should she be released?
Susan doesn't pose a danger to society.
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Chapter 2: How did the investigation unfold?
That cannot be. A car has to be at the opposing light in the intersection to make the light change.
Without another car, the light would stay green. The sheriff tried to keep his doubts about Susan's story under wraps, but other officers were coming to the same conclusion. What do you recall about how members of law enforcement were talking about the case?
There was a lot of Suspicion, I would say, as to what happened, especially after days that we had searched and looked. Chief Keel, who'd been searching for clues by helicopter, says too much of it didn't make sense. Carjackings take place often, but generally you end up finding the vehicle. So as days went by and we didn't find anything, the suspicion continued to grow.
While retracing the steps Susan said she made that night, investigators discovered something astonishing. That night, you were actually having her followed.
Yes.
Why?
Because I knew she was running around on me too.
So you have your girlfriend at the time following your soon-to-be ex-wife. Right. The night that your boys go missing. Yes.
So we were wanting to try and catch her so he could counter Sue. And so I had put on my PI gear, my ball hat and everything, and sat in the car watching when she left work and had watched her when she went and picked the boys up from daycare.
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Chapter 3: What was Susan Smith's initial story?
She stopped both times and got out of the car, and she said, I'll never understand why I reached in and let the emergency brake go.
The main thrust of her defense was sympathy, sympathy, sympathy.
They told the jury Susan didn't kill her children to be with a wealthy man. To be clear, there was a wealthy boyfriend. Yes. Okay.
You just maintain that it wasn't her affair with the wealthy boyfriend that led to the murders of Michael and Alex.
It wasn't her desire to get back together with the wealthy boyfriend. That relationship was dead as a doornail before this crime occurred.
The defense argued what happened at the lake stemmed from trauma far older than a recent breakup. It began when she was a child.
She grew up in a family marked by alcoholism and violence, and finally her father did commit suicide. Susan was six when he died. He shot himself and then called 911 and screamed into the phone to get them to come and help him. That is what suicide is like. It's not rational. People want to die and they want to live at the same time.
And what she did at the lake really echoed the way her father left her when she was just a little girl.
The defense hired a renowned psychiatrist to evaluate Susan and testify about her past.
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