By GARY HENDERSON
Staff Writer

UNION, S.C. (10/27/94) -- Susan Smith said she stood in the middle of a rural highway Tuesday night and screamed "I love y'all" as a stranger drove into the darkness with her two screaming children.

The boys, ages 14 months and 3 years, and their abductor have not been seen since that time, despite a nationwide manhunt that included helicopter searches on Wednesday.

Mrs. Smith, 23, said her nightmare began Tuesday about 9:15 p.m., when she stopped for a traffic signal in the Monarch Mills community. A man with a handgun jumped into the passenger seat of her burgundy 1990 Mazda Protege.

"I was looking out the left window, and the man opened the door and got in," Mrs. Smith said. "When I asked him what he wanted, he said, `Shut up and drive or I'll kill you."'

Mrs. Smith said her children began to cry, and 3-year-old Michael said, "Who is this man, Mommy?"

Mrs. Smith said she didn't know the man, and she believes he chose their car at random. He was out of breath, as though he had been running, when he jumped in, she said.

At the abductor's direction, she drove northeast of Union for about 4 miles. Then the man suddenly told her to stop the car. Mrs. Smith said she asked if she should pull over, but the man said for her to stop in the middle of the road.

Then he ordered her to get out of the car.

"I begged him to let me keep my children," Mrs. Smith said. "But he said, `I don't have time. I'll take care of them.' "

The man pushed her onto Highway 49 near John D. Long Lake, Mrs. Smith said, and he drove away as both children cried for their mother.

"I stood in the middle of the road and screamed, `I love y'all,' " Mrs. Smith said. "And when he was gone, I ran to a house for help."

The Union County Sheriff's Office arrived a few minutes later, and an all-points bulletin was issued for the car by 10 p.m.

Mrs. Smith was taken to her parents' home in Union, where the family gathered Wednesday to wait for word about the search.

The boys' father, 24-year-old David Smith, fought back tears as he talked about his missing children. Mr. Smith, the assistant manager a Winn-Dixie Store in Union, said he was at work when he learned his children had been abducted.

"I thought I was going out of my mind as I drove over there," Mr. Smith said. "I didn't know how to react."

The young father said Wednesday morning that he had not slept since the children disappeared. He said he can only think about his two young boys.

"Everywhere I look, I see their play toys and pictures," Mr. Smith said. "They are both wonderful children. I don't know how else to put it. And I can't imagine life without them."

Dozens of law enforcement officers converged on Union Wednesday, and friends and neighbors helped to search the area for the two boys.

Mrs. Smith said Union County sheriff's investigators and agents for the State Law Enforcement Division questioned her for about six hours Wednesday, asking her to repeat details about the kidnapping.

Investigators apologized for asking her probing questions, she said, but they told her they had to cover every possible angle in their investigation.

Mrs. Smith said she assured them that she understood.

"I told them I would never hurt my children. I've been heartbroken by this."

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