It was October 25, 1994 in South Carolina, at eight o'clock at night when 23-year-old Susan Smith decided to put an end to what she experienced as an unwanted, suffocating motherhood that kept her captive and prevented her from freely rebuilding a romantic life. To do this, she had to get rid of what was left and what was a hindrance: her children.

She took Michael, 3, and Alexander, 1, carefully sat them in the back seat of her car, and drove for a while, focused on the letter her former lover, Tom, had written to her on Monday, October 17, and everything he said on those painful pages where he ended their relationship. A mixture of fury and anguish clouded her judgment, and she could only remember the part where Tom explained that he did not want children of his own or from someone else.

"There are things in your life that are not for me. And yes, I'm talking about your children. I'm sure they are good kids, but no matter how good they are... The fact is that I don't want to have children."

She drove down a dirt road that ended at Lake John D. Long and reached the boat ramp. She got out of the car and once outside, released the handbrake and shifted the automatic lever to Drive. There was no goodbye kiss, no screams, no tears, no last-minute regret on her part.

Michael & Alexander

The two children were sleeping when the car slid and began to slowly sink into the cold, black water of the night, illuminated only by the car's headlights. Susan covered her ears with her hands, not wanting to hear the sounds of the car submerging. She waited for about eight minutes until she saw nothing on the dark surface.

Once the car was completely out of sight, she ran to a nearby house and hysterically knocked on the door. She told the homeowners, the McClouds, what she would later repeat to the police: that while she was driving with her children in the 1990 maroon Mazda, an African-American man with a gun had attacked them when she stopped at the red light of Monarch Mills. She claimed that the man had made her drive several kilometers before getting out of the car and leaving with her crying children still inside, calling her name.

For nine very long days, Susan kept the country on high alert, crying and giving interviews, begging for her children to be returned. Investigators were a bit more skeptical.

Susan Smith

Susan made some mistakes during questioning: the red light where the African-American man was supposed to have kidnapped them, but that light only turned red if another note came up at the street crossing. Similarly, it could not be verified that she was with her friend or that she was at Walmart at 9:00 p.m., nor could she give an accurate description of the African-American man.

Sheriff Howard Wells spoke with Susan again, and through tears, she told him about the murder of her children, but claimed that she wanted to commit suicide. However, she regretted it at the last moment and got out of her car without being able to save her children. Wells ordered the car to be rescued, and it was found 36 meters from the lake shore with the children's bodies still in their seats. The autopsy revealed that the children were alive when the water reached their heads.

Susan Smith's vehicle in Lake John D. Long

David, her ex-husband, wanted to ask her the last time he saw her why she had killed their children. Her response left him stunned: "Don't worry. When I get out of here, I hope to come back to you and have more children."

After ten days of trial, on July 28, 1995, Susan closed her eyes as her sentence was read: life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after serving 30 years in prison.