By CHASE SQUIRES and RALPH GREER Jr.
Staff Writers

UNION, S.C. (10/30/94) -- Sheriff Howard Wells admitted Saturday that law enforcement is feeling some frustration as the search for two toddlers who've vanished without a trace stretched through its fourth day.

There were no new significant leads in the case Saturday, Wells said.

Wells also would not comment on newspaper reports that the boys' mother, Susan V. Smith, 23, had ned a polygrid that authorities have not ruled out anything nor have they centered their investigation on any one individual.

"We are not focusing our investigation on this family more than we are the suspect described by Mrs. Smith," Wells said.

Wells said his department has tried to dispel rumors as they have cropped up but admitted that it's only natural that residents would speculate on the outcome of the case and that rumors would be circulated.

"I've never seen a case of this type that there have not been rumors going around. In a case like this there tends to be information that's fabricated. People will cite sources they can't identify," Wells said, an apparant reference to newspaper reports about the mother's polygraph test.

As law enforcement continued to monitor phone tips and search Union County by air, local residents could only hope and pray for the safe return of Michael, 3, and Alexander Smith, 14 months, missing since their mother's car was carjacked Tuesday night.

"This is the fourth day. Time is passing by, but our hope is not diminished," Wells said. "Our frustration has grown some because with a nationwide search of this magnitude, with this kind of coverage we should find the car."

There have been no confirmed sightings of the missing burgundy Mazda Protege. Mrs. Smith told police she was at a red light by Monarch Mill, when a man jumped into her car's passenger seat, forced her to drive several miles to John D. Long Lake and made her get out of the car without her children.

Wells told the horde of reporters gathered in the courthouse parking lot Saturday night that he didn't expect to have anything new to tell them during the night.

"We're still looking for that one piece (of evidence) that will break it," he said.

All over Union County, yellow ribbons signifying the hope for the safe return of the two boys adorned car antennas, trees and doors. Residents sported photos of the boys and yellow ribbons on lapels and shirts, and local businesses posted messages of hope on their signs.

On the courthouse steps, a group of teens from Union High School held a mid-day prayer vigil for the boys.

Two churches held candle-lighting ceremonies in support of the Smith family and prayed not only for the return of the boys, but also for the soul of the man believed to have abducted them.

At a service at the Buffalo United Methodist Church, the church the family attends, more than 130 worshippers prayed for the boys. The Rev. Mark Long said parishoners should not wish ill on the abductor; rather, they should pray that he comes over to God and returns the boys.

"There are some people that would like to see this man's brains bashed in," Long said after the service. "It's difficult for them to pray for him."

During the 45-minute service, the congregation sang hymns and knelt together at the altar in prayer.

"We need to pray for the individual who has abducted these two children. It's not a matter of wanting to kill him. He needs to know God," Long preached. "This family's burdens are our burdens, but that's the way Christians should be."

A similar service was held at the Bethel United Methodist Church in Union. A parishoner there said he knew the boys' mother, Susan, and feels for her.

"I went to school with Susan," said Kevin Kingsmore. "She's your average person. She's a nice lady. She'd go out of her way for anyone."

Kingsmore said he has no doubt the mother is aching.

"Her children are her life, and when someone took them away from her, they took a part of her," Kingsmore said.

Other residents Saturday expressed doubts over Mrs. Smith's account, some finding it hard to believe a car and two children could simply vanish.

On the courthouse steps, a group of teens from Union High School held a mid-day prayer vigil for the boys.

Sheriff Wells said he has discouraged residents from starting a reward fund for the return of the boys, though many have offered.

"We think it's a bit premature for that," he said. "We want information that's based on the benefit to the children or resolving this case, not on a monetary motive."

Wells said investigators from the FBI, State Law Enforcement Division and the Sheriff's Office were fielding thousands of telephone tips from as far away as Canada and California. Investigators were also rechecking every possible lead and angle in a careful, methodical way.

"If there has been anything left out, anything we might want to add to or do over, we're going to do it, anything humanly possible," Wells said.

"I don't think there has ever been an investigation that has been run differently. I don't think anybody has ever done more than we've done at this point in time .... We want those children back at any cost."

Word of the abduction has captured the hearts of people throughout the nation and offers of help or money have come into the sheriff's department from as far away at Texas.

Offers of manpower have come from police agencies across the state and in neighboring states. Saturday two officers from Charleston came to Union to offer their assistance along with two women from Gaffney.

The outpouring of offers of help and even airplanes to search continued to come into the department Saturday night.

Today a rescue unit from Georgia and Alabama is scheduled to search wooded areas in the county on horseback in hope of finding some clue.

The unit was supposed to have been in Union Saturday but delayed their search until today because of deer hunters.

A spokeswoman for the Smith family vehemently denied a rumor that the parents were being paid by a tabloid television show for their story. "The family has already done an interview with (television show) A Current Affair. They've done several interviews on Wednesday and on Thursday and they did not receive any money for any interviews," said Margaret Gregory, a relative.

"That is a totally false rumor, and I cannot believe that someone would believe something like that."

Gregory said that Susan Smith and her husband, David, 24, have been overwhelmed by the media attention the case has received and were resting Saturday, opting to have a spokeswoman rather than do any interviews.

"They have done as many (interviews) as they can in the first two days that all this was going on, and things have just gotten to the point that they can not handle it anymore," Gregory said.

"This is a very emotional and traumatizing time, and it has been very difficult for them. They have handled what they have been able to handle."

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