EP. 52 SOUTH CAROLINA - Susan Smith: America's Most Hated Mother

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Priceline presents, Go To Your Happy Price.

What's up, it's Kaylee Cuoco. When it comes to travel, we all have a happy place. You can see yourself already there. It's beautiful. It might be sunny and sandy for some, neon and urban for others, deserts or rainforests or hiking trails. With Priceline, you can get to your happy place for a happy price with deals you really can't find anywhere else. Like up to 60% off select hotels to Costa Rica or 5-star hotels for 2-star prices in Cabo. Go to priceline.com and travel to your happy place for a happy price.

I'm off to Miami. No, actually, wow, look at that. No, I'm going to Hawaii now. Ooh, Cancun looks nice. You know what? Belize looks pretty nice this time of year.

Or, mmm, Palm Springs.

Colin Browen (1:01)

The following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects.

Courtney Shannon (1:12)

Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children.

Colin Browen (1:18)

This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned.

SPEAKER_4 (1:23)

We didn't have time because they were in car seats and it was going to take time for me to get them out of the car seat. And they just told me, they said, but I won't hurt them.

But he had to go and then my big thing is they were screaming, hollering and crying. And I'm just scared that he just lost his patience or something.

SPEAKER_5 (1:43)

I plead to the guy, to the man, me and my wife, plead to him to please return our children to us safely and unharmed.

We love our children very much and we want them returned to us safe and sound. Pray even now for their safe return.

SPEAKER_6 (2:04)

Was last seen wearing a red and white striped outfit and a blue and red coat.

SPEAKER_7 (2:08)

An investigation where the suspect is unknown, where you don't know where he's liable to turn up. There's not a lot more than you can do is take the complaints, follow up on them, develop your leads, develop your suspects and rule them out one at a time.

SPEAKER_6 (2:20)

Slow moving.

SPEAKER_7 (2:21)

I can't, I have to apologize. There's nothing more that can be done for that. But like I say, it's a classic investigation that could not be run any different anywhere else.

SPEAKER_5 (2:29)

Taking care of them and that they are safe and that they will return home safely.

SPEAKER_4 (2:36)

I want to say to my baby that your mama loves you so much and your daddy and his whole family loves you so much.

And you guys have got to be strong because you are, which I just know, I just feel in my heart that you're okay. But you got to take care of each other.

Courtney Shannon (3:00)

I'm your host, Courtney Shannon.

Colin Browen (3:02)

And I'm Colin Browen.

Courtney Shannon (3:04)

And you're listening to Murder In America.

Colin Browen (4:20)

It's October 25th, 1994, in Union, South Carolina, a town nicknamed the City of Hospitality. It was a small town at the time, with a population of around 30,000, and there wasn't much commotion in Union in 1994 The biggest events in the community at the time revolved around the train tracks and the church in town. But out of its 30,000 citizens, there's one in particular that we're going to tell you about today. It was around 3:30 p.m. on that October afternoon when a young mother named Susan Smith pulled out of the parking lot of the Conso Products Company, a fabric manufacturing company where Susan worked as a secretary. She left around this time every day to pick up her two children from school. But today was a little different. You see, Susan had been going through a lot recently. Her boyfriend, Tom Finlay, had recently broken up with her. And to make things worse, Tom's father owned the company where Susan worked. So she was a little sad on this day as she drove to pick up her kids. Life in your early 20s is far from easy, and Susan was learning this the hard way. She was only 23 years old and had recently separated from her husband, the father of her two children. And when she met Tom, she felt like life had finally gotten a bit better. But now, day two were separated, and life was difficult for the 23-year-old single mother. But she does what any single parent does and continues on with her daily schedule, which includes leaving work and driving back to daycare to pick up her two boys, three-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex.