Where Is Susan Smith Now? A Look At Her Life in Prison 30 Years After Drowning Her Sons

Mar. 15, 2025

Legal identity photograph of Susan Smith.Photo:Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma/Getty

Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma/Getty

In October 1994,Susan Smithcaptured national attention with a terrifying tale: The young South Carolina mother, who was 23 at the time, claimed a Black man had carjacked her, and that he had taken off with her two toddlers in the car.

The truth, however, was even more devastating. After nine days of tearful pleas for her sons’ safe return, Smith confessed that there had been no carjacking. In reality, she had driven her car to a local boat ramp and let it roll into a lake — with her sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander, strapped inside.

Smith’s alleged motive for the murders was that she was secretly dating a local businessman, Tom Findlay, who didn’t want children. In an effort to save their relationship, Smith drowned her two young sons. But Smith — who has been serving a life sentence for the killings since 1995 — insists that she is misunderstood.

“I am not the monster society thinks I am,” she wrote in a 2015 letter toThe State, a South Carolina newspaper. “I am far from it.”

She continued, “Something went very wrong that night. I was not myself. I was a good mother and I loved my boys. There was no motive as it was not even a planned event. I was not in my right mind.”

After nearly 30 years behind bars, Smith was set to be eligible for parole on Nov. 4, 2024, butshe was denied.

From her life behind bars to being denied parole, here’s everything to know about where Susan Smith is now.

She has been serving a life sentence since July 1995

Murder defendent Susan Smith departs the Union County Courthouse in Union, S.C., on Wednesday, July 19, 1995.Dave Martin/AP

Dave Martin/AP

Smith came clean about killing her two children nine days after their murder, and on Nov. 4, 1994, their bodies were recovered.

Smith’s murder trial began in July 1995. The prosecution sought the death penalty and alleged that it was Smith’s desire for a relationship with Findlay — who did not want children — that led her to kill her two sons.

The defense, however, portrayed Smith as a woman with mental illness who intended to kill herself and her children on the night of Oct. 25, 1994 — but saved herself at the last moment, according toThe New York Times.

The trial lasted less than a week, and the jury took less than two and a half hours to find Smith guilty on two counts of first-degree murder,The New York Timesreported. However, the jury declined to give Smith the death penalty — instead sentencing her to life in prison. Smith, who was 23 at the time, would be eligible for parole 30 years later, in 2024, according toThe Washington Post.

“We all felt like Susan was a really disturbed person,” juror Deborah Benvenuti told reporters. “And we all felt that giving her the death penalty wouldn’t serve justice.”

However, the boys’ father, David Smith, told reporters at the courthouse that he did not feel justice had been served.

“I’ll never forget what Susan has done and I’ll never forget Michael and Alex. Me and my family of course are disappointed that the death penalty wasn’t the verdict,” he said.

Two prison guards were charged with having sex with Smith

Smith began her life sentence at the Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution in Columbia, S.C. During her time at that prison, she received two infractions forhaving sex with prison guards.

The incidents were discovered in 2000, when Smith was 28. According toUPI, 50-year-old prison guard Houston Cagle had had sex with Smith at least four times. An investigator discovered the affair while looking into tabloid claims that Smith had been beaten. Cagle pleaded guilty and was fired. He spent three months in jail, and Smith was disciplined.

In September 2000, a prison captain named Alfred Rowe was arrested for having sex with Smith, according toABC News. Their encounter came to light after Smith told investigators she had sex with them, and he confessed. A year later, Rowe pleaded guilty and received five years probation.

As a result of the sexual infractions, Smith was transferred to the Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood, S.C. Prison guards there took special precautions with Smith in light of her past, never allowing her to be alone with one of them and often transporting extra prisoners with her.

“No one trusts her to be alone with a guard,” a prison source told PEOPLE. “She spends most of her time in her cell or working her job, but when she’s being transported, there are always two guards with her, preferably a male and a female.”

She has been in trouble for drug use and self-mutilation while in prison

Susan Smith in prison.South Carolina Department of Corrections

Smith’s disciplinary issues continued at Leath Correctional Institute. Jailhouse records show that Smith wasdisciplined at least five timesbetween 2010 and 2017 for infractions including self-mutilation, drug use and possession of narcotics or marijuana. Punishment for her infractions involved the loss of visitation, canteen and telephone privileges.

She was disciplined on drug charges twice in 2010 and once in 2015 and lost privileges for more than a year as a result. Rowe, one of the prison guards who had sex with Smith, claimed thather drug use escalatedwhen she was transferred to Leath.

“She could no longer get the male attention that she used as a drug,” he claimed in an episode of Lifetime’sCellmate Secretsin July 2021.

Christie Smith, Smith’s former cellmate, revealed that her “main purpose was to bring her her pills.”

“I’ve seen Susan do everything,” she alleged, in reference to Smith’s drug use. “Snort, booty bump, swallow, shoot. I’ve seen her do it all."

She had a long distance boyfriend from behind bars

In March 2022, PEOPLE learned that Smith — who was then 50 years old and had spent more than half her life in prison — had been sending “romantic correspondence” to a man outside of the jail for over a year.

The long distance romance began after the man (who was divorced, in his mid-40s and had two adult children) saw a documentary about Smith on television. He wrote her a letter, and their correspondence eventually grew to “a few letters per week,” a source told PEOPLE.

“They write letters all the time,” a family member of Smith’s told PEOPLE. “Handwritten letters about what their future will be. She’s very romantic like that, always wanting to find a happily ever after.”

A relative of Smith’s told PEOPLE that the couple were even discussing marriage if she got parole in 2024.

By October 2022, however, the relationship had “fizzled out.” A Smith family member told PEOPLE, “They areno longer corresponding. It’s over.”

She was eligible for parole in November 2024

Susan Smith looks toward an unidentified law enforcement officer as she departs the Union County Courthouse in Union, SC., on Friday, July 14, 1995.Dave Martin/AP

Smith was reportedly focused on turning around her behavior in prison, with the hopes of being granted parole in November 2024.

A prison source who had known Smith for several years told PEOPLE in 2020 that Smith was following prison rules to help better her chances at release. “She’s behaving herselfthese days,” the source said. “She knows that her parole date is four years away and she can’t get parole if she isn’t being good.”

However, Smith’s disciplinary history — which includes her infractions for drug use, self-mutilation and sexual contact with a guard — would also factor into the parole board’s decision.

Ultimately, Smith was denied parole, despite telling the board at her hearing that she knows “what I did was horrible.”

Now that Smith has passed the 30-year mark of her sentence, she is eligible for parole every two years.

Her ex-husband David said he will do “everything in my power” to keep her behind bars

Before she had murdered their children, Smith had already filed for divorce from David in September 1994. A judge granted their divorce in May 1995, a couple of months before her trial began.

“I would just tell her that you have no idea of how much damage you have done to so many people,” he said. “I would tell her that in my capabilities I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure you stay behind bars.”

David has since moved on from the relationship, welcoming two more children, Savannah and Nicolas, in relationships with other women in 2001 and 2003, respectively, perGo Upstate.

“I’ve said before, I admit being a lousy husband,” David told the outlet in a June 2004 interview. “But I’ve always been a good father to my kids. I enjoy being a father very much. I mean there’s no greater love in the world than loving a child.”

At her November 2024 parole hearing, David asked the board to deny her, saying that Smith serving 30 years was “just not enough.”

“This wasn’t a tragic mistake. … She purposely meant to end their life,” he said, according toABC News. “I’ve never felt any remorse from her for it.”

David added, “I will be here every two years going forward to ensure that their death doesn’t go in vain.”

During a February 2025Datelineepisode, David looked back on the moment that Smith admitted to drowning their sons.

“She just casually, like you and I sitting here,said ‘I’m sorry.’And that was about as far as it went,” he said, adding, “I asked her ‘Why did you do this? Why?’ And she said, ‘I don’t know why, but I’m sorry.’ ”

source: people.com