Tom Findlay is the son of Cary Findlay, president of the company. who has been on the run for 47 years, was convicted of killing 14-year-old Mary Ellen Deener in 1966. Parole could be challenging for the child killer to secure, considering that in 2000, a 28-year-old Susan Smith got busted -- and picked up an STD -- after having sex with a 50-year-old prison guard four times, the Daily Mail . She was a leader in her school's Civitan Club, which was for volunteering to help around the community, and in her senior yearbook she was titled "friendliest female". On Oct. 25, they had a particularly upsetting conversation. She began sleeping with her boss's son, Tom Findlay, in January 1994. THE CASE OF SUSAN SMITH: THEORY TO APPLICATION 1 The case of Susan Smith began on October 25, 1994. By Samantha Benitz The case of Susan Smith, the woman who killed her young sons in 1994, will be explored in the upcoming Lifetime docuseries Cellmate Secrets. The notorious married mom who coldheartedly drowned her two adorable tots in 1994 has used cash from sleazy suitors and demented murder groupies to pay off prison pals to transform her into the cellblock . They mentioned that her children had become a major handicap in Susans choice to get what she wants. Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. On top of that, Ms. Smith later said that a cause of her depression was her breakup with Conso employee Tom . "I am far from it. Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma/Getty ImagesThe funeral of Susan Smiths kids, Michael and Alexander. Defense attorney David Bruck declined to preview his presentation. He also said he didnt anticipate the woman being freed anytime soon. It's been almost 30 years since Smith was put away behind bars to serve a life sentence, and she is next eligible for parole in 2024. But as police soon began to realize, the story didn't add up. According to a prison source who talked to People last year, Smith is currently on a better path at Leath in anticipation of her possible 2024 parole. During the Smith case, Conso's strategy has been relatively straightforward: Cooperate with authorities, keep the Findlays out of the spotlight, and designate Cooney and personnel manager Sharon O'Dell to speak for the company. This horrified Tom even more. Findlay testified as a prosecution witness, but his sympathetic testimony may have helped the defense. When the murders occurred, Smiththen married to a man named David Smithwas involved in an extramarital relationship with a wealthy man who reportedly didnt want kids. Well send you all the relevant quizzes, articles, polls, and news you could want to your inbox. She would ultimately find a partner in David Smith, a fellow Winn-Dixie supermarket worker who was raised a Jehovahs Witness by strict parents. But in the end, Susan Smith chose murder. Russell was one of several relatives and friends to testify on behalf of Ms. Smith, who was convicted Saturday of rolling her car into a lake Oct. 25 with 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex strapped in their car seats. At home, however, he was molesting his 15-year-old stepdaughter, fondling her breasts and genitals. ``I think the real focus is not the nature of the crime, he said, ``but what is the right thing to do.. Garner talked of the boys as a grandfather would, describing how he let them tag along on projects in the garage, pick apples in the yard and choose storybooks he would read them. Under South Carolina law, Smith will be eligible for parole in 30 years, although the notorious nature of her crime makes it unlikely she will ever be released. But the account by Mr. Morrow, a diving expert with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources who found the car more than a week after the drownings, was only a part of a gripping day of testimony. Findlay received a salary of $214,615 last year, according to company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and he controls 53 percent of Conso's stock, a chunk valued at $24-million. In addition to Findlay, several other Conso Products employees testified. Tom was her bosss son, and rather rich. Each infraction has resulted in the loss of privileges, including loss of visitation, canteen and telephone privileges. She is not God!! Soon after the death of her father, her mother married Beverly Russell. "With all the crazy, mixed-up things that take place in this world today," the letter continued, "I just don't have the desire to bring another life into it. Findlay recalled Smith being upset because David knew, or so she thought, some information that he was going to make public that upset her. Its unclear just what this was, while it would later be revealed that Smith had continued having sexual relations with her former stepfather. The story opens with 23-year-old Susan Smith leaving her job at the Consol Products company, working as a secretary. "The company did not do anything.". Keep on scrolling to find out more. 2. The catch? According to aTIME, Smith attempted suicide when she was 13, though her mother and Smith's stepfather "refused" to hospitalize her. The case attracted international attention because of her false claim that a black man had kidnapped her sons during a carjacking, but instead. That 28-year-old witness, Tom Findlay, also wrote that he was afraid that their backgrounds -- he was a child of privilege, she a child of a mill worker who committed suicide when his wife left him -- were just too far apart. Her sentence? Findlay, 28, short and balding with a pleasant face, has been the shadowy figure at the center of the Susan Smith mystery. [2] 'He told me, 'Watch your back,'' Findlay said. They married on March 15th in 1991 due to Smith being pregnant. In 1989, Susan Vaughan told her psychiatrist that her affair with her stepfather was consensual. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. Start your free 7-day trial. A letter. Findlay told of an encounter with David Smith in March 1994, when David and Susan were separated and she and Findlay were just starting to date. My daughter Susan Smith is the story of a troubled young mother who sent her children to their deaths in a South Carolina lake almost eighteen years ago. But one of the problems complicating the search was the description Susan Smith had provided. The last time was in August, he said, two months before she drowned her only children. All the drama surrounding the duo. Eventually, Christie realized that Susan was a master manipulator and they grew apart. She was born on September 26th in 1971, the youngest of three kids. She divulged her ongoing relationship with her stepfather, Bev, and even admitted she had an affair with Toms father. Though the court of public opinion has largely sided with the prosecution, the state will have to actually consider Smiths pleas in 2024, when shell be eligible for parole. There was no motive as it was not even a planned event. According to aPeople report in 2020, a source inside the prison said that Smith is "behaving herself these days." What Made a Mother Kill Her Young Son by Dropping Him Off a Bridge? I could never express in words how much you mean to me. Apparently unconvinced by Smiths defense, the jury deliberated for two and a half hours on July 22, 1995, and quickly found her guilty. But testimony in Smith's murder trial has thrust Union County's biggest employer into the national spotlight. What Is Chris Watts Life in Prison Like? Browse 35 susan smith criminal stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. Smith hid it well. Ms. Smith's letter (handwritten, not dated): ``Dear Tom, ``Just a note to say thank you for everything. I feel no sorrow for her at all! It was later revealed that he had molested Susan when she was a teenager. As Susan Smith and Findlay talked on the phone, David Smith jumped out of the closet. I could never express in words how much you mean to me. I was not myself," she continued. But more than the physical pleasure, he said, she loved feeling close, being held. The authorities questioned both Susan and David Smith in hopes of getting some answers. Christie Smith, her former cellmate, says Smith paid her to procure drugs. Unless all 12 jurors vote for a death sentence, Ms. Smith, 23, will receive life in prison. While following other leads about the supposed black carjacker. After graduating from high school, she then met David Smith, the man who would become the father of her two children. On October 17, 1994, just days before Susan and Davids divorce papers were filed, Tom Findlay sent a Dear John letter to Susan. He had her removed from the office. Though the then-teenager reported the ongoing sexual abuse twice to her high school counselor the first of which resulted in a brief separation between her stepfather, Beverly "Bev" Russell, Jr., who was a "prominent" member of the South Carolina Republican party, per TIME, and the state's Christian Coalition organization the charges were dropped. According to the . A look at the notorious convicted murderer's life in prison after she drowned her two sons in 1994 By Steve Helling Updated on November 15, 2022 10:05 AM On October 25, 1994, Susan Smith told. Ms. Smith remained stoic during Russells half-hour on the witness stand, but he was choked with emotion. Revelations about her activity are made in Friday's episode of Lifetime's Cellmate Secrets, narrated by Angie Harmon, which airs tonight at 10 ET/9 CT. (An exclusive clip is shown below.). When it was revealed that she was lying, anger arose in both local and national African American communities. In January 1994, Susan and Tom began dating casually, but soon Susan was back with her husband David, and that again led to the couple wanting a divorce. Doctors diagnosed her with an adjustment disorder and blamed her behavior on stress. And I don't want to be responsible for anyone else's children, either.". They got married after only about a year of dating. Unbeknownst to Smith, Tom was also preparing to break up with her. She was a leader in her schools Civitan Club, which was for volunteering to help around the community, and in her senior yearbook she was titled friendliest female. 4,617 17 Nov 01, 2008 #1 SUSAN SMITH'S LETTER TO TOM FINDLAY Dear Tom, Just a note to say thank you for everything. The Tribune wrote that in a letter Findlay sent breaking up with Smith, it implied that "he broke off the affair, in part . She began sleeping with her bosss son, Tom Findlay, in January 1994. Susan Smith, a mother from South Carolina, was convicted of murdering her two sons by drowning them in South Carolina Lake. Tom Findlay's letter, as gentle as it tried to be, had brought Susan Smith in direct and brutal contact with her own lies, deceit, narcissism, and lust. Only time will tell if this will aid in keeping her behind bars for good. Per NBC, their marriage was marred by periods of separation, which ended in a final, though unofficial, split and laid the groundwork for what was to come. When Susan Smiths ex-boyfriend Tom Findlay climbed onto the witness stand Wednesday afternoon, he glanced quickly at her and smiled kindly. Smith first made headlines on Oct. 25, 1994, when she told police she had been carjacked by a Black man who had taken off with her two young sons still in her car. Refine Your Search Results. Tom Findlay, Susan Smith's ex-lover, started a new life in Birmingham, Ala. Cary Findlay, who is Tom Findlay's father and Susan Smith's former employer, let his mansion become a. "I was a good mother and I loved my boys. On October 25, 1994, a then 23-year-old married mother of two sons, Susan Smith of Union, South Carolina, rolled her car into John D. Long Lake with her boys strapped . He sent her a lot of money.. And for that she was sentenced to life in prison -- with the chance of parole. On Wednesday, for the first time, Findlay gave his view of Smith. Later, she got out of the car, released the brake, and let it roll down the ramp into the lake. Questions and issues about this case can be found in conversation across the United States. Linda confronted her husband about it. Even one of the more curious moments of their relationship -- her telling him on the day of the drownings that she had once slept with his father -- did not seem to have left him with any ill will toward her. In a letter to Susan Smith, Tom declared he did not want kids, or to have a part in the life of Smiths kids, nor did he think she was a nice girl. However, after a nine-day . Reader discretion is advised. She told the homeowners her car had been hijacked by a man with her sons inside. On that occasion, Mr. Findlay said, Mr. Smith threatened to hurt him if he ever called again. In regard to Cary Findlay giving up his job titles, he said S. Duane Southerland was hired as chief executive so Cary Findlay could spend more time on strategic planning. Divorced now and selling the brick ranch house where Smith grew up, the 54-year-old mother and grandmother who has been portrayed as cold, controlling and hard-edged is showing her emotional. UNION, S.C. Susan Smith's stepfather, who molested her as a teenager and then resumed their sexual encounters after she married, came to court Thursday to claim partial responsibility for the. Tom Findlay left Conso this year and now works as a graphic artist in another South Carolina town. When she was spared the death penalty, her husband stated on the courthouse steps, Ill never forget what Susan has done, and Ill never forget Michael and Alex. He also expressed disappointment with her sentence: Me and my family, of course, are disappointed that the death penalty wasnt the verdict.. Susan will have a chance of parole in November 2024, and at that point shell have been behind the bars for 30 years. All Filters. As the car was removed from the lake, the bodies of two children remained in their car seats, grossly deformed from being underwater too long. Michael and Alex Smith were buried together in the same casket on November 6, 1994. Susan Smith had two of her own intimate relationships starting in the summer of 1998. In October of 1991, the Smiths welcomed their first son into the world and named him Michael. She is eligible for parole in 2024. UNION, S.C. UNION, S.C. -- Visibility was only about a foot when Steve Morrow, a diver searching for a missing car, floated to the Burgundy Mazda that lay upside down in the cold water of John D. Long Lake last autumn. Roughly a month before the murder, Susan Smith was dating Tom again and planning their future together in her mind. He also believed his mother-in-law was controlling both over his wife and the newborn child. Smith took the breakup badly and attempted a second suicide taking both Tylenol and aspirin together. And we know in her right mind she would never have hurt those kids., Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. In her written confession, Susan Smith claimed that she was suicidal on the evening of October 25th. Eventually, she sent her car driving into a lake, she watched as the car with her two sons inside sank. All the conspiracies surrounding Nicola Bulleys disappearance and death, Who killed Jeffrey Epstein? Yet, like many institutions in this close-knit town, Conso is deeply intertwined with the people of the community, who cross paths at work, at church and at their children's Saturday morning baseball games. Discover amazing horror stories, conspiracy theories, Murder Mysteries, Alien Life, Unsolved Mysteries, latest breakthrough Science news, and much more on Bugged Space ! In March 1988, Russell admitted sexually assaulting Ms. Smith when she was 16, but she and her mother decided not to press charges. Not surprisingly, Smiths life in prison has been fairly rocky. Hours later, she called emergency services, frantic, and alleged that an unknown Black man had kidnapped three-year-old Michael and Alex, who had only celebrated his first birthday two months prior. Florida executes Donald Dillbeck for 1990 Tallahassee murder, Held without charge, a Miami inmates unborn child asks court for release in odd case, One step led Tampa runner, Gasparilla entrant to big weight loss, huge life gains, Hillsborough must right-size its school system | Editorial, Barnett agrees to $11.4-million in refunds. Susan Smith. A nation watches horrified as the grieving mother makes emotional pleas on television for the safe return of her two small boys, three-year old Michael, and 14-month old Alex. Era lo . In a long day of testimony, the relationship between Smith and Findlay took center stage. The physical pleasure, he said, Mr. Smith threatened to hurt him if he ever called again of problems., Tom Findlay is the son of Cary Findlay, in January 1994 time was in August he... These days. former stepfather Smith and Findlay took center stage has resulted in the loss privileges... 1989, Susan Smith claimed that she was sentenced to life in prison with! 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