Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 4, 1994 TAG: 9411040106
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: UNION, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
Susan V. Smith, who had made tearful pleas on national television for the boys' return, was in custody and will be charged with two counts of murder, Union County Sheriff Howard Wells said Thursday.
The nine-day search for 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex, which stretched from Georgia to Seattle, ended where it began, in Lake John D. Long near where Smith told police a gunman forced her from the car Oct. 25 and drove away with the boys.
Michael and Alex died that day, the arrest warrant says.
Hundreds of volunteers had combed the area and divers had searched the lake several times in the past few days.
The identities of the bodies in the 1990 Mazda would have to be confirmed through an autopsy, Wells said. Smith was being held in a secret location Thursday night and was scheduled to be arraigned today.
Wells did not discuss a possible motive or how investigators were led to the car in the lake.
Sources said investigators discovered a letter several days ago from a man Smith was seeing. The letter said he wanted to be with her, but didn't want the children.
Investigators did not identify the man.
Wells had said earlier this week that Mitch Sinclair, a friend Smith had been going to visit on the night the children disappeared, was not a suspect.
On Wednesday, investigators searched Smith's home and took away several bags. Authorities had declined to comment on what they were seeking.
There had been reports that Smith had taken lie-detector tests and that the results were inconclusive.
Smith's estranged husband, David, was not charged in the case and it was believed that Susan Smith acted alone, investigators said.
``Our lives have been torn apart by this tragic event,'' she said earlier this week with David Smith by her side. ``I can't express how much they are wanted back home.''
Some information in this story came from Knight-Ridder/Tribune reports.
by CNB