To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (2009 ) 2/16/1999 6:23:00 PM From: nuke44 Read Replies (1) | Respond to
No the case had nothing to do with abuse, at least not that of Susan Smith. The molestation defense devised by her defense attorney resulted from an episode of sexual encounters initiated by a 16 year old Susan with her stepfather, while her mother turned a blind eye to it. As J.B.C. pointed out, I was referring to the wealthy boyfriend that had just dumped her, because he was "not prepared to take on a ready made family". Her answer to that was to drown her two young boys. By doing this she was ridding herself of her "ready made" family. What makes her crime even more grievous is the fact that she had fought tooth and nail to gain custody of the two boys and was only awarded custody of them because she was the mother. Rather than solve her immediate problem by granting custody of the two boys to her ex-husband, who by all accounts was a loving father, if immature husband, she preferred that they die. That way, she came out on top all the way around. She could resume her relationship with the boyfriend,(at least in her own mind), she could wreak further vengeance on her ex-husband by denying him the children, and she could be the center of attention, receiving pity from the masses as the poor, grieving mother. (An FBI profiler posited the theory that Susan Smith seemed to be a perfect example of Munschhausen by Proxy syndrome a week before she confessed)
