Susan Smith's ex-husband says she casually apologized after killing their two sons
2025-02-15
Category: america

The ex-husband of Susan Smith, a South Carolina woman who drowned her two sons in a lake in October 1994, has revealed what his ex-wife said to him after she killed the young boys. The tragic case received renewed national attention last year after the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services in November denied parole for the now-52-year-old woman, who has been incarcerated for more than 30 years after murdering 3-year-old Michael and 14-year-old Alexander Smith. "She just casually, like you and I sitting here, said, ‘I’m sorry,' and that was about as far as it went," David Smith told "Dateline" as part of an episode set to air Friday at 9 p.m. EST. "I would have been around her ankles, begging her to forgive me, if I did what she did." David then recalled asking Susan why she killed their two sons. "She said, ‘I don’t know why, but I'm sorry," David told the show. KILLER MOM SUSAN SMITH DENIED PAROLE 30 YEARS AFTER DROWNING SONS  In October 1994, when Smith was 22, she strapped Michael and Alexander into the back seat of her car and watched as she let the vehicle roll into John D. Lake in Union County. WATCH "SUSAN SMITH, THE KILLER MOM: 30 YEARS LATER" ON FOX NATION Former Union County prosecutor Tommy Pope, now a South Carolina state representative, previously told Fox News Digital that Smith was having an extramarital affair at the time with the son of a local, wealthy business owner. FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X  Smith's lover, who wrote her a letter a week before the murders, told the then-22-year-old mother that while he was interested in her romantically, he was not suited to raise children, as the Birmingham News reported in a 2005 interview. CLICK HERE FOR MORE TRUE CRIME FROM FOX NEWS  That letter would become a key piece of evidence in the prosecution's case. SIGN UP TO GET THE TRUE-CRIME NEWSLETTER After she was denied parole during a hearing last year, Susan appeared to become emotional and cry. EX-HUSBAND OF KILLER MOM SUSAN SMITH, UP FOR PAROLE, SAYS SHE CRAVES ATTENTION AND LIKELY HASN'T CHANGED  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP "I know that what I did was horrible. … I’m sorry that I put them through that. ... I wish I could take that back, I really do. ... I was just scared," she said. "I didn’t know how to tell the people that loved them that they would never see them again. … I’m sorry, I know that’s not enough … just words, but they come from my heart." Pope, along with a former director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections and one of Smith's former lovers spoke out in Fox Nation's latest special on the case and Smith's time in prison, "Susan Smith, The Killer Mom: 30 Years Later."