Susan Smith, who is serving a life sentence in South Carolina for the 1994 murder of her two sons, had some ambitions if she was paroled and allowed to walk free — including trying to get on “Dancing with the Stars,” according to one of her former suitors.
“We would talk about opportunities once she gets out of jail,” said the suitor, who had made concrete plans to be with Smith if she was released. “We brainstormed a lot; she’d send me letters and talk about her plans if she gets paroled.”
“She thought about some sort of advice blog, or maybe prison reform, or some way that she could be active on social media,” the 60-something suitor from Michigan said. “She even asked me how she could get on ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ because she said that everyone would watch her.”
“She always thought that it would be fun to be on that show, and when they put Anna Delvey on the show, Susan felt like maybe it was a possibility,” the suitor claims.
The suitor stopped communicating with Smith after learning that he was one of many men whom the killer mom was leading on romantically.
A source inside Leath Correctional Facility told The Post that the killer mom has kept to herself since being denied parole. “She seems devastated,” the source says. “There’s been a huge change in her demeanor.”
Smith, 53, pleaded her case before a seven-member parole board on Wednesday, Nov. 20. Appearing by Zoom call from prison, she mapped out the reasons why she believed she should be released.
Only two people, her pastor and his wife, spoke in support of her. Her ex-husband, David Smith, numerous family members and people connected with the case spoke out against releasing her.
The board quickly denied her parole bid. She can reapply for parole in November 2026.
David Smith plans to stand in her way whenever she tries to get out of jail. “I’ll come back every two years,” Smith says. “That’s what I’ll do. She didn’t care about Alex and Michael. So she can stay in jail for the rest of her life. She should never get out.”
Smith was a 22-year-old mom when she became a household name for killing her sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander. In 1994, she let her car roll into John D. Long Lake in Union County, South Carolina, with her boys still strapped into their car seats.
Smith then falsely told police that a black man had carjacked her and kidnapped the tots, leading to a manhunt in which authorities went door to door among local neighborhoods that were predominantly African American.
Smith and her then-husband appeared on national news every day, pleading for the boys’ safe return.
But nine days later, Smith finally confessed that there was no carjacker, and that she had drowned her sons in the lake.
Smith’s rejection by the parole board was not a surprise to most onlookers. South Carolina only paroles 8% of parole seekers, according to the Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services.
But the notorious killer still told her suitors that she believed it might go her way. “She believed it was God’s will for her to get out,” said the suitor. “She’s such a delusional woman. Bad news, that one is.”
