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Tonight on Dateline.
So many people still think about them.
I wish I could tell them, I miss you so much.
Whoever has my children, please bring them home.
It was the story that broke America's heart.
She said a man forced her out of the car and sped off with the children.
Susan is distraught.
She's crying. The tears seemed genuine.
I believe David Ward was coming out of her mouth.
Then, the news no one could believe.
Susan Smith has been arrested.
Some of our agents were just sobbing.
When the car was pulled out of the water.
Now Susan Smith breaks decades of silence.
Should she be released?
Susan doesn't pose a danger to society.
She lied and manipulated everybody.
They can't let her out.
You don't believe that Susan Smith is remotely remorseful.
Right. A powerful new interview with a father whose loss still aches.
You're not going to make me bitter.
You're not going to make me mad at the world.
You're not going to win.
A mother's unthinkable crime.
A father's unforgettable courage.
The case of Susan Smith.
Tonight, a revealing new look.
I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline.
Here's Craig Melvin with Return to the Lake.
a manhunter spreading across this country for a man who pulled a carjacking tuesday night a mother's nightmare came true in south carolina tips continue to come in but there's no sign of the 14 -month and three -year -old brothers tonight the tragedy that gripped a nation 30 years ago and still won't let
go. Why do you think people still care so much?
Because we all united with the hope that we would find those little boys.
Two brothers missing for nine agonizing days.
A nationwide manhunt with a heartbreaking end.
And the mother at the center of it all, speaking out for the first time in decades.
While a father continues his fight for justice, would you have been better off had the state executed her?
Wow. For myself, yes.
Because I wouldn't have to be dealing with what's coming up now and in the future.
It all started in the tiny town of Union, South Carolina A rural community Textiles and farming were the big businesses there It had just a few traffic lights Church -going neighbors would wave on their morning walks The people here are friendly Harold Thompson grew up in Union and is now the mayor.
They're willing to help in any type of situation.
You know, we got a lot of volunteers.
People get along with each other.
No big problems or issues.
But that all changed the night of October 25th, 1994.
Around 9 p .m., a young woman banged frantically on the door of this house.
Homeowner Shirley MacLeod answered.
She just wasn't physically able to hardly stand up and took her to the couch and asked her to tell me again what she said.
And she said, he's taken my children.
He's got my children.
Shirley's son immediately called 911.
Some guy jumped into a red light with her car.
And he's got the kids?
Yes, ma 'am. And her car.
I don't... She's real hysterical.
Get him going, Pam.
I got two kids. The woman at the door was Susan Smith.
a shy, quiet 23 -year -old brunette who worked as a secretary at a local textile company.
Tiffany Moss knew her from school.
What was she like in high school?
She was just, you know, nothing extra popular or anything like that, but, you know, she was just your friendly high school girl.
Susan and her husband David lived in Union and had two little boys, Michael, three, and Alex, 14 months.
They were just your typical little boy, toddler, you know, precious, playful, sweet.
But now they were missing.
Sheriff Howard Wells raced to the scene.
And when I walked in, Susan was seated on the sofa there in the living room.
He talked to Dateline in 1995.
I knew time was of the essence, and so we went right directly into the informational stage of trying to find out what had happened.
Susan told him she was driving with her boys that night to visit a friend named Mitch Sinclair and stopped at a red light.
She said that's when a black man suddenly accosted her with a gun.
After giving her statement, Susan called her husband David.
What do you remember about that?
I remember it was around 9 o 'clock, and Sheriff Wells said that your children have been taken and we're at the McLeod residence.
You need to get here.
And when you get there, what do you find?
Susan is in their living room, and when I walk in, she's just distraught.
She's crying. What was she saying about what happened?
that I was at a red light and that a black man jumped in the car, made me drive, and then forced me out of the car and drove off with them and still in the car.
The sheriff put out an APB while David and Susan went on camera to appeal for help.
I was stopped at a red light and just out of nowhere, this black guy came up and just opened the door and jumped in the car.
And he had a gun and he had it pointed in my side and told me to drive, and so I did.
And when I tried to ask him why he was doing this or whatever, he just told me to shut up or kill me.
So I just kept driving, driving.
My babies were in the backseat, and they were crying.
And I tried to tell them everything was going to be okay.
She said she drove a few miles until the man told her to stop.
He told me to get out, and I said, well, can I get my children?
And he said, no. They said, I don't have time for that.
And they were just crying.
Do you want to make a plea if anybody sees this story or this person?
Yes, if anybody sees anything that looks unusual.
I mean, this is a black guy with two white children.
Obviously, they're not his.
Do you want to make a plea as well?
Just if anybody sees anything whatsoever, please contact your local police department and inform them if anything looks unusual, please.
For Sheriff Wells, it was an all -hands -on -deck moment.
He sprang into action, ordering his deputies to hunt down the carjacker and find Michael and Alex.
We are hoping that he's going to be as good as his word, that he will not harm the children since he did not harm her.
but what police hoped would be a quick search stretched into nine days that captivated the country we'll take you inside the investigation with newly unearthed audio tapes how do you feel how do you feel today about it well i feel better now that that came out but the awards made out Revealing jailhouse letters
and exclusive interviews.
I used to sit there and look at the back of her head and think about killing her.
You wanted her dead.
I did. All from those nine fateful days and the unspeakable crime that left everyone asking one question.
Why? Why on earth? It was intense for those nine days, but then it went thermonuclear.
In the early morning hours of October 26, deputies scoured South Carolina searching for a kidnapper.
Said it was a black male driving a Burgundy protege.
Affirmative. He had two juveniles with him.
From what I understood, these were small children.
Sheriff Wells asked Susan for a more detailed description, and she was happy to comply.
She came in between 3 and 4 in the morning, met with a composite artist on day one.
Susan described a tall black man, 30 to 40 years old, wearing a knit hat.
The sketch was disseminated widely throughout the state.
Jeff Bailey is the current sheriff of Union.
Back then, he was a young deputy just starting out.
And we were looking through files and probation pro who had a criminal history of child molestation or, you know, crimes against children.
And we were trying to put that face together with pictures that we had.
I was six months into my second job.
As daylight broke, reporter Heather Hoops -Matthews drove into work at WISTV, the NBC affiliate in Columbia, South Carolina.
How did you actually hear about the case initially?
I walked into the newsroom in the morning and the assignment desk said, we hear there are two children missing in Union.
Grab a photographer and go.
What are you hearing?
What are folks saying?
At that time, I remember thinking how shocking that was.
You know, that's terrible.
Surely we're going to find the kids.
As Heather and the other local reporters began digging around Union, they started to learn a lot more about Susan and David Smith.
What were your impressions of them initially?
I thought that he was very loving to her.
I saw him put his arm around her, and I just remember thinking how nice that was.
Both Susan and David had grown up in Union in modest, church -going families.
How did you meet? We were both working at a local grocery store.
Winn -Dixie. Yes, Winn -Dixie.
And then we just got to talking like teenagers do.
Small talk soon led to dating, and the young couple married in 1991.
Susan was 19. David was 20.
Then Michael was born, and I was head over heels, my first son.
Then came little Alex.
Tell me about Michael.
Tell me about Alex.
Michael was the more sensitive one.
His feelings would get hurt easy when you scolded him.
He was very protective of Alex at the daycare, even at home.
Alex was more rambunctious, more mischievous.
Susan later left her job at Winn -Dixie and got a position as a secretary to the CEO of a major textile company in town.
David says she was an attentive mom.
She always made sure they were well -dressed.
Whoever was taking care of them while we were at work, she made sure they were in good hands.
But not long after Alex was born, David and Susan's marriage started to fall apart.
I was a lousy husband.
You know, there was infidelity.
But there was, you know, infidelity on her part, too, after mine, but...
You were both cheating on each other.
Right. Yeah. The couple separated in the spring of 1994.
By the next fall, David had a new girlfriend, Tiffany.
Yes, the same Tiffany who knew Susan in high school.
We met after my first year of college when I started working at Wendixie.
And he was assistant manager there.
What drew you two to each other?
I just remember the day that I started when I walked in the door and I saw him stocking shelves.
And I was like, hmm.
Susan had started dating someone else too, Tom Finley, a co -worker at that textile company.
But with the boys missing, David knew he had to be there to support his wife any way he could.
I just want to hug him so fast and tell him I love him.
As Susan and David got their message out to the media, deputies and volunteers widened their search to the woods surrounding Union.
with blood hounds on the ground and helicopters in the air.
Everybody in the state of South Carolina knew about it as soon as it happened.
Mark Keel is now the chief of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, known as SLED.
But in 1994, he was attending law school and working as a pilot.
So, he joined the search team.
And we were up flying the next morning and looking for that, searching for that vehicle.
You're flying around South Carolina.
What are you guys looking for?
Where are you looking?
We started from where she was carjacked and we were flying every route that you can imagine.
The manpower is overwhelming.
Reporter Heather Hoops Matthews began following along with the search teams.
My videographer flew in a helicopter with them as they flew over Long Lake and I stayed down on the boat ramp.
What were your folks at law enforcement saying initially to you?
They said they were searching that area because it was close to where she called for help, you know, knocked on the door.
As the search expanded, so did the media coverage.
What happens to that small town?
It was a multiplying effect.
First there were six journalists, then there were 12, then there were 24, then it felt like there were 250.
The streets were lined with satellite trucks.
A carjacker with a gun took her car and with it, her two small children.
The gunman did not harm them or ask for money.
Soon, it will be 24 hours since they last saw their mother.
Union was now in a hot media spotlight, but still with no sign of those little boys.
With time slipping away, police released a new bit of video to jumpstart their investigation.
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a friday michael and alex smith had been missing for three days the family released this video of susan with the boys celebrating alex's first birthday What did that do for the story?
I think the release of the images of Michael and Alex swiftly added to the interest in the story.
And I remember watching it in the satellite truck over and over and over and thinking, surely we're going to find Michael and Alex.
What started as a small town carjacking is now a massive search, first spreading into four surrounding states, now nationwide.
Police are receiving calls from all over, one tip every minute.
It hurts all the way to the heart.
And I'm a grandmother and I said, what if that was my children, what if it was my grandbabies?
Everyone in the community came to look for Michael and Alex.
People were on horseback looking for them.
And they were, you know, people just looking everywhere trying to help define these kids.
While David stood by Susan, his new girlfriend Tiffany joined the search.
What do you remember about that eight or nine day period?
Just looking everywhere I went, looking for her car, looking for this composite drawing of this black man, looking for Michael and Alex.
I mean, that was all I was doing.
Of course, then I started having to hide out myself, too, because there were certain media that were coming after me and harassing me.
Why were they harassing you?
Because they had found out that I was the girlfriend and so they started wanting to talk to me and see what I had to say.
Meanwhile, police blasted that sketch of the suspect everywhere.
After the sketch was drawn and it was distributed, the black people of our community were our greatest asset.
They came forward and told us who they thought that looked like.
One officer went to the home of a man who resembled the suspect.
We asked him where he was during this time, but it's so easy to check out.
We checked it and he was where he said he was.
A big disappointment for investigators, but the tips kept pouring in.
A robbery in a nearby state.
A man fitting the description of the carjacker has been spotted 100 miles north of Union in Salisbury, North Carolina.
A sighting in a national park.
someone gave a report of a child crying in a national forest in north carolina that was going on at the same time and the man seen running just miles from where the boys disappeared anything to give us a clue all of them turned up nothing how low could you get in those chockers you can get as low as
you want to get we were generally flying you know 300 foot above ground them up to a thousand.
Were there moments where you did spot something, where you did see something?
No, I mean, we spotted cars that, you know, were the same color and, you know, that were similar, but not what we were looking for.
As they continued to pursue more than 700 tips, police developed other theories about the case.
Could someone who knew Susan be behind the kidnapping?
They questioned friends and co -workers, including that new boyfriend of hers, Tom Finley.
Family members too.
You start finding out in an abduction case a high percentage are family abductions.
You have to look at family to find out what is the motivation here, why, or who would have been behind it.
Investigators wondered whether Susan and David's pending divorce might have played a role.
We had to look at all the possibilities of who may have been involved, of whom it would have benefited for an abduction.
Including David Smith.
Susan had custody of Michael and Alex.
Could David or someone else have conspired to have the boys kidnapped?
Everyone was a suspect in this case until we could narrow it to a single individual or whatever.
But anyone who may have had a motive, anyone who may have had contact with Susan, who may have been a participant or whatever, sure, we looked at everybody.
Investigators gave David a polygraph test, which he passed.
What did the sheriff, what did those investigators tell you?
