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A week later Susan and Findlay had several conversations in which, according to Findlay, Susan was "upset because David knew, or so she thought, some information that he was going to make public that upset her." At one point when Findlay tried to calm her, according to a source close to the investigation, she lashed out at him with a familiar weapon, claiming that she had slept with a member of his family-meaning his father. Heading back to the office, she told a friend, "I've just lost the best friend I ever had." After work, she picked up her boys from day care, went to meet a friend at the Hickory Nuts bar, then returned to Conso. While the friend watched Michael outside, Susan took Alex inside. This time she told Findlay that she had made up the bit about his father just to see how he would react. Findlay, frustrated, said he would call her and asked her to leave. She did. Three hours later she drowned her children. In her confession, Smith later described her feelings that night: "I had never felt so lonely and sad in my entire life."
Now a jury must weigh the depths of her despair against the monstrosity of her crime-and the scars of abuse against her own emotional havoc. The weight they give each factor will make the difference between death for Susan Smith and life in prison.
--Reported by Lisa H. Towle/Union