UNION, S.C. (11/4/94) -- The world held out hope to the very end that Alex and Michael Smith would be found alive.

But Thursday night, hundreds of people gathered outside the Union County Courthouse and millions of television viewers across the nation heard what they didn't want to believe.

The 14-month-old and 3-year-old boys were found dead in the back seat of their mother's car at the bottom of John D. Long Lake. Their mother, Susan V. Smith, was charged with two counts of murder following a confession to police.

At the courthouse, people gasped and moaned when the news was announced.

"I feel like I've lost two children tonight," Julie Hart cried after hearing the news with her 3-year-old daughter standing close by.

Someone blurted out, "Let's kill her like she killed them."

Because of the emotions surrounding the case, authorities would not say where they had taken Mrs. Smith to await a bond hearing and perhaps psychological examinations.

About 7 p.m., Union County Sheriff Howard Wells, looking tired and disheartened, spoke briefly to the large, anxious crowd that had been waiting outside the courthouse for more than an hour. He read a brief statement about the mother's arrest, then was escorted away.

The nine-day search had ended. But mothers, fathers and children were left to wonder how a woman could kill her children.

"Our hearts have been with that family for nine days now, and we kept the faith that the children would turn up alive. Tonight, Union County is filled with broken hearts," Hart said. "Mothers don't kill their children in small towns like this. That happens in big places like New York. I just had to come down here and hear it for myself.

"I think she deserves an academy award for her acting," added Hart, who is a former neighbor of Mrs. Smith's estranged husband, David.

Many observers were outraged because early Thursday morning, Mr. and Mrs. Smith appeared on "CBS This Morning" and told television viewers that Mrs. Smith would never harm her children.

One day earlier, in Mrs. Smith's first public appearance in nearly a week, she told a national television audience that 3-year-old Michael had hugged her and told her he loved her just hours before the alleged carjacking on Oct. 25.

Many people felt betrayed when rumors began to circulate on Thursday afternoon that the mother had broken down and confessed to police.

"She has really made an idiot out of Union County," said Susan Justice after she heard the news about the children.

"We've never been able to have children, and people like her has them. She could have given them to people like us," added her husband, Darrell Justice.

"I never would have believed she could do something like this," said 23-year-old Howard Free Jr., who was standing in front of his family's funeral home, across the street from the courthouse.

"She was a nice person and everyone's friend," said Free, who attended school with Susan and David Smith.

"I guess in time we'll find out if they were dead before they went in the river. I just never expected this out of her," Free said.

Others in the community said they always had been suspicious of the mother's story that a gun-toting carjacker had driven away with her children.

"I said from day one she had something to do with it," said Larry LeMaster after the sheriff broke the news of the boys' deaths. "If we were back in Bible times, they'd stone her. A mother just doesn't do this to her children. She's had the whole town, the whole world, torn to pieces."

Some residents were upset that Mrs. Smith had concocted a story that featured a black man as her children's alleged abductor.

"This whole thing makes me very angry that she would point a finger at a black man. She needs to be put away for life," said Sharon Adams.

"She's a very disturbed person. I just can't imagine what kind of mother would do something like this to her own children," said Quandra Jeter.

"It's sad. Very sad," 9-year-old Marcus Foster said as he walked away from the crowded courthouse with his family.
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