Susan Smith

Susan Smith was born Susan Leigh Vaughan Smith on September 26, 1971, in Union, South Carolina, to Linda Harrison and Harry Vaughan. She was the youngest of the three children in the family and grew up with two elder brothers.

Her parents divorced when Susan was 7 years old. Susan faced another tragedy a few weeks later. Her father committed suicide at the age of 37. The family broke apart, and this had a bad impact on young Susan’s psyche. She turned into a depressed child.

Soon, Linda married a rich businessman from her locality. The family shifted to their new house.

By the time she turned 16, she started sensing a change in her stepfather’s behavior. He was a sexual predator and would often molest her. She tried telling her mother about it, but Linda did not take her seriously. She then reached out to the department of social services, but no help came from them either.

She was popular in high school. She was also one of the most intelligent students and participated in a number of extracurricular activities. She was known to be extremely extroverted and fun-loving. In the final year of high school, she received the award for the “Friendliest Female.”

However, with the end of one relationship, another had begun to emerge. Her schoolmate David Smith started working at her store, and they both started dating. They fell in love and decided to get married, without any concrete means of survival. In March 1991, Susan got married to David. Soon, the couple moved to his house.

David’s household was going through unrest at that time, as his older brother had died a few days back and his parents were yet to recover from the loss. Soon after David and Susan moved into the house, his father attempted suicide. His mother moved to another city. Thus, the young couple was on its own.

Susan was already pregnant with David’s child when they got married, and their first son was born in October 1991. However, instead of bringing them closer, the baby created a rift between them. Susan would often ask her mother for money, and this did not sit well with David, as he did not like Linda.

By early 1992, the couple had started drifting apart. They separated soon after. Susan dated other men during this period of separation. By late 1992, she found out that she was pregnant again. Following this announcement, the couple decided to bury the hatchet and reunited soon.

Over the next few months, David and Susan continued to date other people. However, that did not affect their kids, as they got equal love from both their parents.

On the evening of October 25, 1994, Susan Smith drove to her house, got her sons out and strapped them in her car. She moved to the nearby John D Long Lake, drove the car onto a ramp, and watched it plunge into the lake. In order to cover up the story, she knocked on the doors of a nearby house and told the couple staying there fabricated stories about how a black man had robbed her car, with two of her children inside, and had driven away with it.

She went public with her horrific stories, to gain sympathy. At a point, the entire country was following the story. However, the authorities had their doubts over an inconclusive polygraph test. On November 3, 1994, she told the whole truth and broke down during the investigation, saying how ashamed she felt.