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In the end he was also instrumental in blowing it apart. Soon after the murders, it came to light that Bev, as he is known, had been accused of molesting Susan when she was in high school. But it was only last season that the full, shocking extent of their sexual contact became known. In 1987, shortly before Susan's 16th birthday, sheriff's records show that Smith told her mother and a high school guidance counselor that her stepfather had fondled her breasts and put her hand on his genitals after she had crawled into his lap to go to sleep one evening. Linda Russell told the authorities that she confronted her husband, and he did not deny the accusations. For a short time, the family visited a therapist, and Bev agreed to move out of the house. But the abuse did not stop. In February 1988, Susan again complained to a guidance counselor, but in the end Linda and Susan decided not to press charges.
Now it appears that Smith may have offered several different, conflicting versions of these events. The Charlotte Observer has reported that in 1989 she told a psychiatrist that the molestation was in fact a consensual "affair" that had been going on since she was 15-one that she was happy about because she was jealous that her mother was getting all Russell's attention. The Observer also quoted unnamed sources as stating that Russell admitted to authorities that he and Smith continued to have sexual relations until as recently as six months before the murders.
Not until all Union learned of the abuse, however, did Bev and Linda split up. In February he moved in with an aunt, and in April he abruptly resigned from the state Republican executive committee, stating in part, "I'm at the point where I can hardly function as a committeeman. I wish all this would pass ... My brains are not functioning properly." In April, Russell also released the following statement: "I am responsible for and ashamed of what happened. I appreciate the fact that some of my friends and family have tried to speak up in my defense. But they don't know what I did. I am finally getting the professional help that I need."
For Smith, it seems, the attention from Russell was just one of several emotional dramas played out during her high school years. She first attempted suicide at 13, then tried again when she was 17, reportedly after a fellow employee at the local Winn-Dixie supermarket, a married man, ended their romance. This second try, an overdose of aspirin, landed her in the hospital, where doctors diagnosed her condition as an "adjustment disorder" -- an inappropriate reaction to stress.
Susan then took up with another co-worker, David Smith. The second of three children born to Barbara and Charles David Smith, a U.S. Navy veteran who twice served in Vietnam, David had his adolescent troubles as well. His mother is a devout Jehovah's Witness, but David chafed under the sect's strict rules and social isolation. "I wouldn't say David had it easy," says Christy Jennings, his first girlfriend. "I mean, for a long time [David and his siblings] kept to themselves and could only play with some of those kids out there where they were raised up." An invitation to Christy's house marked the first time David had celebrated Christmas. "It just overwhelmed him," Christy recalls. "He was just so happy." Eventually, David moved out of his parents' home to live next door with his great-grandmother.