Josh Mankiewicz and Craig Melvin sit down to talk about Craig’s episode, “Return to the Lake.” In 1994, the disappearance of two young brothers, Michael and Alex Smith, following an alleged carjacking in Union, South Carolina, was all anyone could talk about. The nation felt their mother’s despair as she told the harrowing story of a man who drove off with her two young boys after threatening her at gunpoint. Nine days after Michael and Alex disappeared, Susan Smith confessed to the unimaginable – she had killed her sons. Josh and Craig discuss Craig’s heartbreaking interview with David Smith about the deaths of his sons 30 years ago and his ex-wife’s recent bid for parole. Dateline Producer Carol Gable joins Josh to discuss the letters she and Susan Smith have exchanged for the past 20 years and to answer questions from social media.Listen to the full episode of “Return to the Lake” on Apple: https://apple.co/3CM39jzListen to the full episode on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/13y8ZWq4lKB5kM9ZY7Crli
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts discussing 'Return to the Lake'?
Hi, everybody. It's Josh Mankiewicz, and we're talking Dateline today with Craig Melvin. Hi, Craig. Josh, how are you, Mank? Good, and congratulations on that new non-Dateline job that you have. I see you trying to fit in around your Dateline responsibilities.
Well, you know, my primary obligation remains to Dateline. This Dateline thing, this is correct.
So this episode is called Return to the Lake, and it is about a horrifying case that everybody of a certain age, that being me, will remember. It's from 1994. It's the story of Susan Smith, who murdered her two young children.
Now, for this episode, Craig spoke with her ex-husband, David, in a very rare, very revealing interview about how this case, this loss, how it impacted him and how he is fighting to keep the woman that he once loved behind bars. Now, if you've not listened to this episode yet, it is the episode right below this one on the list of podcasts that you just chose from.
So you can go there and you can listen to it and come back here or you can go to Peacock and stream it. Now, when you come back, Craig and I will talk about the episode. Craig also has an extra clip that he wants to play for us from the chief of SLED, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, Mark Keel. And then later, we're going to be joined by a special guest.
And that is Dateline producer Carol Gable, who exchanged letters with Susan Smith for 20 years. And she's going to talk about that and also answer some of your questions about the broadcast from social media. So stick around for that. And now let's talk Dateline. You were a small child when this happened. I know that. It's not a small child.
No, you were like, you saw this, I'm thinking, through the bars of your crib.
No, I was 15.
I was 15. Okay. All right. Because I was, I think, 65 then. Shut up. Uh, I remember, I remember this story. I was actually, um, not only was I a TV reporter at this, at this stage, I was not working. I had not come to Dateline yet.
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Chapter 2: What is the story behind Susan Smith's case?
There would be some, even at that point, there would be some evidence that she was in the water. And for him, that made it even more appalling.
You know, over the years, Carol Gable, our producer, sort of kept in touch with Susan Smith and wrote her all these letters, I think knowing that this story was going to come back one day. Yeah. And you included some of those. Is Susan Smith still selling the story, you think?
Oh, no question. No question. These letters have never been shared. And you get a unique insight into what she was thinking then, what she thinks now. And I know you find this to be true with a lot of killers. There is this... clear detachment from reality that still very much exists in the letters. And I found that strange. Right.
When we come back, we will have an extra clip from the interview with the chief of SLED, Mark Keel, who remembers where he was when Susan Smith confessed to killing her two sons. You know, when I saw Mark Keel in your episode, I realized that I had interviewed him before. I immediately recognized him and his name.
And I have been racking my brain unsuccessfully, as it turns out, to try to remember what story it was that I interviewed him for. I can't remember. Now, he has not really talked about this case.
No, in part because of not wanting to give air to Susan Smith. No, in fact, this was the first time he talked about it on national television. I mean, he runs SLED now, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. We actually talked to him during the Murdoch trial, which he had also not talked about before. But during this particular case, Chief Keel, he was in law school at the time.
but he was also an amateur pilot and he was part of the search team. So he would go to class. In fact, he talked about at one point, he skipped some class to go search for these two little boys or that black guy from the sketch. And this is for him as well. This is one of those stories that really has always stayed with him. And he was there at the parole hearing in November and,
Which he never does.
This is full circle for him. I mean, he went from being like part-time on a pilot and now he's running sled and he's still on this story. Yep. Yep. We have a little bit more of Craig's interview with the chief of SLED, Mark Keel. And he remembers very well what was going on back then and in the days after. Let's listen to that.
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