By REGINALD FIELDS and RALPH GREER Jr.
Staff Writers

UNION, S.C. (11/2/94) -- Union County Sheriff Howard Wells said during an evening news conference Tuesday that statements by Mitch Sinclair were misconstrued by the media and that he did not mean what he had said on a national television program.

Wells said he had talked again to Sinclair, the man whom Susan V. Smith was on her way to visit when her car was carjacked, and that Sinclair was not a suspect.

According to Wells, who had viewed a tape of Sinclair's interview with "A Current Affair," Sinclair said: "The truth will come out ... and that it is just like the sheriff says it is."

Sinclair also told the show that he did poorly on a polygraph test he took regarding the Oct. 25 carjacking and disappearance of Michael Smith, 3, and his 14-month-old brother, Alexander Smith.

Wells said Tuesday night, that after questioning Sinclair about his statements, the 24-year-old Union man only meant that he thinks the sheriff is doing a good job in this abduction/carjacking case.

Sinclair of Monarch Mill lives less than a half-mile from where Smith was allegedly carjacked and her two toddlers abducted.

Sinclair has refused to talk to other media about his involvement.

Representatives of "A Current Affair" have de paying the Smith family for an interview, after which they too went into seclusion, speaking only through a family representative.

But Sinclair's brother, Jeffrey Sinclair, said the show offered him $1,000 Sunday for an interview for the show that aired Monday. He said he turned down the offer and did not appear on the show. He said he is not sure if his brother was offered money.

Jeffrey Sinclair came to the Sheriff's Office Tuesday, he said, to look for his brother.

"I just want him to come out and talk to the media and get the heat off my back," said Jeffrey Sinclair, who said he was questioned by police on Tuesday.

Jeffrey Sinclair said he is sure his brother had nothing to do with the disappearance of the boys.

"He talked to the TV show trying to help clear it all up. But I think those kids are dead now. There's no way they could have survived this long by themselves."

Mitch Sinclair was described as a long-time friend of Susan Smith.

After the news conference, Wells said his department is emphasizing water searches because almost every tip provided by people who have reported visions or dreams involves water.

Wells said the searches will continue today.

The sheriff said water and land searches in Lockhart and other areas of the county Tuesday failed to turn up any new evidence as to the whereabouts of the Smith boys or Mrs. Smith's Mazda Protege.

On Tuesday, divers went into the canal at Lockhart that is known locally as "the race" and which feeds water from the Broad River into the Lockhart Power Co. hydroelectric plant.

The race is deep enough to hide a vehicle. Several cars over the years have disappeared into its waters following accidents.

Bloodhounds from the State Law Enforcement Division were in Union again Tuesday, along with divers and drivers on off-road vehicles from the S.C. Department of Wildlife and Marine Resources.

A Union County landfill worker said investigators visited him last week and asked that his employees keep an eye on incoming waste.

"They asked us to watch for anything that might help," landfill supervisor Richard Putnam said. "I have been checking for tag numbers on all the vehicles that come in. And we got workers down there with the waste watching everything that comes in."

Wells was out of his office for most of the day Tuesday but declined to say Tuesday night where he was. He did say he was out checking leads.

He also said Tuesday night that because of the way the media reacted to the Smith family spokeswoman during a morning news conference Tuesday, it is likely the Smiths may appear today or Thursday to make an appeal to the abductor for the safe return of their sons.

Wells, however, said that if Susan and her husband, David, do make an appeal, they would not take any questions from the press.

Wells said the family had given interviews at the courthouse and at the home but that they were uncomfortable facing the several dozen media representatives in Union to cover the disappearance of their children.

At the Tuesday morning news conference, Margaret Gregory, the Smith family representative, appeared and read a statement from the Smiths, in which they made another plea for the children to be returned home.

Responding to reporters' questions, Gregory said emphatically that the Smiths do not know where their children are.

She again denied that the family had been paid by a television show for interviews but did not say the family had not been promised anything in the future.

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