Original subtitles

-Look. It's Mama, Michael. -Look.

Hey!

Whoever has my children...

Alex!

...please -- I mean, please

We will do anything -- anything

to get them back to us.

That's just where they belong, with their mama and daddy.

♪♪

♪♪

Welcome to "How It Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

In late October 1994,

a frantic woman appeared at the door of a family

in a small town in South Carolina.

Her story was horrifying.

She had been carjacked, and her two young boys taken.

When the news of the kidnapping broke,

the entire country became gripped by the search

to find Susan Smith's sons, Michael and Alex.

The mystery about what happened that night

turned into one of the biggest stories of the decade.

When the truth was finally revealed,

it sent shock waves around the world --

an ending that no one saw coming.

This is "How It Really Happened."

There's not one minute that goes by

that I don't think about these boys.

And I have prayed that whoever has them,

that the Lord will let them realize that they are missed

and loved more than any children in this world.

We've just got to get them home.

Reporter: Union County 911 operators received a frantic call

reporting the kidnapping of two small boys.

Jordan: The 911 phone call described

this young wife and mother, Susan Smith,

and she says that she's been carjacked

and that her two children,

a 3-year-old named Michael and a 14-month-old named Alex,

were strapped in their car seats in the back of the car.

So it's not just a carjacking. This is a kidnapping.

They were crying for their mama.

You know, it felt really terrible to know

that I couldn't get back there and get them, you know?

Eftimiades: Susan had run to the nearest neighbor's house

and showed up at the door completely hysterical,

and they were the ones who called 911.

[ Siren wailing ]

There was total pandemonium.

I mean, she was saying her children had just been abducted,

and they were on the phone with the sheriff's department.

They were calling family members.

David: I just received a phone call at work

that Michael and Alex were missing.

Susan was hysterical, and I couldn't understand her.

And I just wanted to get to where she was at

and find out what was going on.

I would probably say that drive is

a, typically, 25- to 30-minute drive.

You know, it didn't take me probably even half that

to get to where she was at.

When I walked in, Susan was sitting on the couch.

She immediately stood up and started, like,

to collapse in my arms.

She was very distraught. She was very upset.

Well, I was concerned about her, and, of course, I was concerned

about where Michael and Alex were.

I just remember that I was told

that she was sitting at a red light.

Reporter: 23-year-Old Susan Smith was driving to a friend's house

about 9:00 last night when she stopped at this intersection

and, suddenly, a man appeared in her car.

In the back seat, Smith's two boys,

3-year-old Michael and 14-month-Old Alexander.

The media finds out about it. A reporter named Cynthia Barnes,

who worked for a Spartanburg news outlet called WSPA

did an interview with Susan and David.

It was at this traffic light at Monarch Mills

that Susan says the man jumped in her car.

Susan: I was stopped at a red light, and just out of nowhere,

this black guy came up, and he just opened the door

and jumped in the car.

And he had a gun, and he had it pointed in my side

and told me to drive, and so I did.

And when I tried to ask him why he was doing this or whatever,

he just told me to shut up or he'd kill me.

So I just kept driving, driving.

And my babies were in the back seat, and they were crying.

Michael's 3, and he's very smart.

He knew something was wrong.

He directed Susan to go down the road

that leads out to John D. Long Lake,

and that's when he made her get out of the car.

And he told me, "Get out."

And I said, "Well, can I get my children?"

And he said no. He said...

[ Sniffles ] He said, "I don't have time for that."

And they were just crying and...

And then he continued down the road

with, you know, Michael and Alex still in the car.

When he let me go, he took off,

I just dropped to the ground and just cried and screamed

and, you know, hollering for somebody to please help me.

And then I just got up and started running,

just screaming, you know,

"Somebody, help me, help me," you know?

And then I got to this lady's house,

and she called the police,

and they were there in a matter of minutes.

[ Sirens wailing ]

Police are called immediately.

An all-points bulletin is put out for this car.

Everybody's looking for this car.

This is a 1990 Mazda Protege.

The license plate is a South Carolina registration --

GBK-167.

He didn't ask for money, he didn't harm her,

and he said he would not harm the children.

We hope he's as good as his word.

I got the call from headquarters

that there'd been a kidnapping, a carjacking.

We spent most of the night trying to run down,

did anybody see anything whatsoever out of the ordinary?

Nobody had seen anything. Nobody heard anything.

And she was on TV, begging to bring her kids back.

If anybody sees anything that looks unusual,

I mean, please contact somebody

'cause I am just so heart-sick over it.

I mean, I miss them so much.

It was heart-wrenching.

We were hoping that the kids were alive

and somebody would see it on TV.

It's just a tragedy. I mean, I just -- I can't --

I just can't believe I'm going through it.

And I just hope and pray for their safe return to me.

And David Smith is there,

and he looks like the proverbial deer in the headlights.

David: I didn't know what I was gonna do.

It's very difficult. It's very, very hard.

It's unimaginable.

I just remember trying to stay positive.

I just had to get Michael and Alex back.

I really thought that when it got daylight,

that they would find them just in a heartbeat, but no.

We would like to believe

that he is not going to hurt these children.

Paschal: It was something that literally made

the hair on the back of my neck stick up.

♪♪

Reporter: It is a mother's worst nightmare.

[ Crying ] I can't even describe what I'm going through.

I mean, it's -- my heart is just so -- it just aches.

Her two children, 3-year-old Michael

and 14-month-old Alex, were kidnapped, she says,

following a carjacking in rural South Carolina Tuesday night.

Kids disappeared.

Everyone wanted to know what happened to those kids

in Union, South Carolina.

Two little children -- they were so young.

If anybody sees anything whatsoever,

please contact your local police department.

Please.

And I think it just grabbed everybody's heart

when they saw the pictures.

All I'm doing's just praying and just keeping my faith

that they're gonna be okay.

She looked like a frightened doe.

Her eyes were just wide open.

I sat down and asked her if she was okay, and I said,

"Oh, why didn't you lock your doors?"

Stewart: We got a call that there'd been an abduction

of two children in Union, South Carolina.

We sent a crew of agents in there and a forensic artist,

tried to get a good sketch of the person

who allegedly committed this crime.

I received a phone call that the kids were missing

and that there was a carjacker.

Well, I went to Union to do a composite sketch

of this individual.

When I first met Susan, she was very unassuming.

She had her hair pulled back with a scrunchie

and had an oversize sweatshirt.

She had had an opportunity to see the carjacker.

She described him as a black male

wearing what we often call a stocking cap,

and he had on a plaid shirt.

Reporter: Based on Mrs. Smith's description,

the suspect is a black male in his 20s or 30s

wearing a plaid shirt, blue jeans,

and a blue toboggan-style hat.

He was last seen in the Smith car,

a 1990 maroon Mazda Protege.

♪♪

We have worked all throughout the night,

receiving telephone information.

S.L.E.D. Agents and investigators from this office

are now going out, and they are running down every lead

that we received overnight.

Harris: Everybody wanted to know where the kids were,

what are we, law enforcement, doing to try to find those kids.

What we were trying to do

is to locate the kids and get them alive.

And that was our goal, and that was our purpose.

Reporter: Law-enforcement officers and volunteers

comb the woods near the reported abduction site.

We're about 150 feet, I think, from where she was put out.

Charles: Everybody was looking for the kids.

We had people sweeping through the woods --

you know, everybody 10 feet from everybody else.

They're looking for anything that can give them a clue

to what happened -- shoes, clothes.

Some of our helicopters would go up there every day

and circle, looking.

And the Department of Natural Resources had the dive team.

Reporter: Crucial evidence may be underwater.

-See it? -Yeah.

Reporter: That's what divers believe.

Harris: We went to John D. Long Lake.

They call that Black Bottom down there.

Anything over 6 inches in front of you, you can't see.

It's just muddy water and slick bottom.

That's about it. There's nothing else down there.

No rocks, a few beer cans. That's about it.

And then there was reports from time to time

that the kids had been seen,

and there was, you know, leads that were coming in.

Should be in this area here where...

Reporter: Searchers, including the head

of the state law-enforcement division,

have been focusing their efforts along Highway 49.

But there have been reports the car was seen this afternoon,

west of here, in Greenville County.

We would hear things, all these sightings.

Harris: Somebody had seen something in a gully.

We had to look.

We've run criminal histories on suspects,

on people who are on parole or probation within the area.

So far, we haven't developed a solid suspect there.

Harris: I talked with some of the leaders in the black community.

They wanted good law enforcement.

They wanted us to check out everything.

I know a couple of guys that were questioned

and stuff like that, but, yeah, the police had to do

what they had to do, too.

Wells: My heart goes out to the family in this case,

but I can't get those children off of my mind

because they're so young.

The investigation into the abductor is secondary

to the welfare of those children.

I asked Susan, "What do you think should happen

to the person that did this?" And she paused, and she said,

"I feel like when the sun comes up,

they'll find my children,

but I know how they can get to you when they've been crying."

Susan: They were screaming, hollering, and crying, and --

and I'm just scared that he just lost his patience

or something, you know?

I don't -- I don't know. I... [ Sniffles ]

There's something about that statement

that literally made the hair on the back of my neck stick up.

That's the first time I felt they were in danger.

Reporter: He is still on the loose.

According to authorities, he may have crossed state lines.

How long can the search go on?

Until the boys are found. That's what the sheriff says.

But I had to get them back.

Hey, boy.

Hey, boy.

You being a good boy. Mama's proud of you.

I can't sleep. I can't eat.

[ Crying ] I can't do anything but think about them.

Susan Smith's worst nightmare began 48 hours ago.

While waiting at a stoplight in a small town

in South Carolina with her two young sons in the back seat,

an armed carjacker forced his way into her car,

pushed her out. The boys are still missing.

Michael is 3. Little Alex is 14 months old.

It's terrifying, a carjacking with two small children.

Any parent could put him- or herself in that situation.

Please, let's find these kids.

Let's find the car abandoned somewhere,

a random phone call saying,

"You can get the car here, your children are fine."

We wanted these boys to be found.

During that time, to put a little context into it,

there were a lot of very high-profile

missing-child cases --

Megan Kanka, who Megan's Law is named after,

Amber Hagerman, which brought in the Amber Alert.

And this one definitely immediately rose

to a whole different level.

You commonly hear about a single disappearance,

but two children is different.

David: I plead to the guy, to the man.

Me and my wife plead to him

to please return our children to us, safely and unharmed.

We love our children very much,

and we want them returned to us safe and sound.

It's hard to do the interviews.

But we were just concerned with finding Michael and Alex.

Reporter: At the boys' home, meantime, an officer remains on the scene,

presumably to receive a hoped-for phone call

from the suspect.

The boys' toys wait unused in the driveway.

Jordan: Susan Smith was just 23 and David 24

when their children went missing.

They started a romance,

both working at the local grocery store.

Susan Vaughan, as she was born, hadn't really known David Smith

that well when she was in high school.

David: Susan was very well-known in high school.

She was very popular.

You know, she was very attractive.

I'd always see her, and then she got a job

at the same grocery store in Union.

And, you know, that's how we met,

and I just fell head over heels for her right from the get-go.

They started dating, and then after a while,

she became pregnant, and they got married.

David: When I found out Susan was pregnant,

that was, uh... joyful, but terrifying.

You know, it was unexpected,

and I didn't know how I was gonna support a family.

But I was -- I was so happy.

I just knew that somehow it was --

it was gonna be okay.

When Michael was born,

from the moment I first held him,

I knew he was part of my heart.

I enjoyed, you know, watching him change

and watching him discover,

you know, his hands and his feet and...

You know, and it was -- it was fantastic, being a dad.

Susan was a great mother from the beginning.

[ Baby crying ]

[ Laughs ]

It's about good.

[ Crying continues ]

Huh?

Unfortunately, you know, our marriage --

the good times were very short-lived.

Right from the start, their relationship was volatile.

They both cheated on each other, and one of the neighbors said

you could just see him moving furniture in and out

and you never knew if they were together or if they had split.

And at one of those good moments in their marriage,

Susan gets pregnant again.

And this produces their second son, named Alex.

David: Getting pregnant with Alex was unexpected.

We both were very scared

because we were struggling already with our marriage.

But then there was so much enjoyment with Michael,

and we knew it would just now be times two.

Go for it! Go for that cake!

Look! Mmm, mmm! Get into it.

Ooh, there's your toy.

Cool! Don't look.

When Alex was born,

I mean, Michael -- he became,

you know, very protective of Alex right from the start.

Unfortunately for me and Susan,

our marriage was degrading rapidly.

David and Susan were estranged. They had split up.

They were getting divorced.

I asked her, I said, "How are you and David doing?"

She said, "We're separated, and I do have a boyfriend.

In fact, this is his sweatshirt."

After me and Susan separated, I still spent as much time,

you know, with Michael and Alex as I could.

They were always excited when I picked them up.

And I won't say that they were sad when I dropped them off,

because they weren't, you know?

They loved their mom, too.

ButI [ Chuckles ]

I know I was a lousy husband, but I was -- I was a good dad.

I was a great dad.

[ Laughs ] That feel good?

These two precious boys, who they loved,

are now missing, and no one knows where they are.

David: Susan and I were staying at her parents' home because,

even though we were separated,

I wanted us to be together in case

any of the law-enforcement agencies needed us.

It would just be quicker for us if we were together.

Our 911 center has received a call from a subject stating

that these two young boys from down in South Carolina

may be in the area here where we're located now.

Reporter: The reported sighting of a man

roughly matching the description of the suspect in a wooded area

10 miles from the reported abduction didn't pan out,

despite an intensive search.

Charles: We got every policeman in the country

looking for that guy and that car and those kids,

and nobody's ever found hide nor hair of any of them.

Susan: And they've got people everywhere looking for them.

I mean, you know, you can hear the helicopters in the air.

And, but they haven't seen anything.

It's crazy.

O'Dell: I don't know.

We just tried everything that we could know to try.

Jordan: But as the days wore on,

we know that the chances of Michael and Alex

being found alive were extremely low.

The report is nationwide.

Anytime you put out a report on a missing vehicle,

it goes nationwide.

The sheriff himself had press conferences

like twice daily to keep the media up to date.

It was like a circus.

There has been no breakthrough

since the last time I talked with you.

Harris: Would be hundreds of people

that listened to the press conferences

to hope that we had something that we could follow up on.

This is the hardest type of abduction case to work

because we have not developed a definite suspect

in this case as of yet.

Right now, we do not have anything

but an incident location.

Jordan: We wanted these boys to be found,

and I remember eating in the shopping mall

and seeing two little kids who looked like her kids

and hoping against hope that maybe it was them.

Reporter: How long can the search go on?

Until the boys are found. That's what the sheriff says.

But he knows that as the days turn into a week and longer

without any promising developments,

the intensity of the search will fade, as will hope.

Sheriff Wells and I were talking back and forth

on a minute basis.

Reporter: Law-enforcement authorities say

they are looking at all possibilities.

We left that interview, and I was thinking,

"Nah, he's got to be mistaken about that."

That's when the suspicions absolutely started to rise.

I want to say to my babies

[sobs] that your mama loves you so much,

and your daddy and this whole family loves you so much.

I just feel in my heart that you're okay.

Welcome back.

While the country held its breath,

waiting for news on the whereabouts

of young Michael and Alex Smith, searchers scoured the area,

looking for the boys and their kidnapper.

Three days into the search,

there was no trace of the suspect or the car.

People were continuing to worry

and beginning to wonder what really happened to those boys.

Reporter: The eyes of the world are on this case.

Man: It's turned this place upside down.

I mean, Union's never seen anything like this.

Klaas: Two little boys having been kidnapped,

and just leaving this poor mother stranded

by the side of the road.

The whole country was looking in on Union, South Carolina,

and was invested in the recovery of those two boys.

Reporter: A command center at the sheriff's department

in Union, South Carolina, is taking calls on the case

around the clock from all around the country.

In town, posters of the children adorn the storefronts.

Yellow ribbons call for their return.

Wherever they are, God loves them,

and we want them back.

Wells: We've had another day of aerial search,

water search, a horseback patrol,

to try to develop leads in this case.

Reporter: Searchers don't know what happened.

All they know is, somewhere, there has to be evidence

of the missing boys and the car.

Time is passing by. Our hope is not diminished.

Our frustration has grown some

because of a nationwide search of this magnitude,

with this type of coverage, we could find the car.

Weshould

Not only is it possible -- that's my hope right now.

If he's still driving around, that gives us more opportunity

to find the vehicle and the children.

The entire United States was very focused on this case.

They wanted the answers, and they wanted these boys found.

When there's a high-profile case,

a lot of times people, to show support,

who have been through the same thing, will reach out.

And Marc Klaas, of course, has his own organization

and has done a tremendous amount

after the murder of his daughter.

Reporter: Polly Klaas was abducted at knifepoint from her bedroom

the night of October 1st,

as she and two girlfriends overnighted at her house.

Klaas: We started the KlaasKids Foundation

to keep Polly's memory alive.

And in the ensuing years, we have been involved

in thousands of cases of missing kids.

I did get a call from David's grandfather, Jim Martin.

He lived in the San Francisco Bay Area

and was very well aware, I guess,

of who we were and what we were doing.

He asked me if I could get involved

in David's case somehow.

I called the Polly Klaas foundation to see

if there was anything I could do.

I just want the kids back.

Now, simultaneously with that,

I was also working with a television production company

at the time on missing-child cases,

and they asked me almost immediately

if I would fly to South Carolina

and do something with the Smith case.

And working with David's grandfather,

we had arranged to do an interview with David and Susan.

When I showed up for that interview,

I was told that it wasn't happening.

They weren't talking to anybody.

They just had this woman talking to the cameras.

I have a statement here, written by Susan and David,

and I want to read this to you.

Reporter: Their parents initially made a few pleas last week

for the return of their children,

but have since avoided the public.

Instead, a spokesperson now speaks for them.

Within a few days, they kind of shut down

and had a family spokesperson, Susan's cousin,

speak on their behalf instead.

It is so hard to explain how much we love

those two little boys and how much we miss them.

The hardest part is not knowing where they are.

When you have a missing child in your family,

you're much better getting rid of this woman

who's speaking on your behalf

and getting out in front of the cameras yourself.

Your children's best spokesperson is you.

David and Susan have been through a tragedy

that is unimaginable to most of us.

And it has just been extremely difficult for them

to be able to gather the emotional strength

they need to face this.

You would expect desperate parents

to do whatever needed to be done.

So, for them to stonewall America at this point --

that started to lead to some suspicions.

There were so many things that didn't really make sense.

Susan had reported that she had been carjacked.

She had been driving along with her kids in the car.

The black man ran up to her at a stoplight,

forced his way into the car,

and forced her to drive down Highway 49 towards the lake,

and forcing her out of the car, leaving the kids in the back.

Most carjackers who would take a car

not realizing there are children in the back seat

will immediately abandon that car.

They understand that turns it into a kidnapping.

There's a reason they call them a carjacker --

'cause they're looking for the car.

In the hierarchy of carjacker needs,

you know, you have the car, you may have money.

You could perhaps have the female --

you know, the adult female.

He in no way abused her,

touched her, molested her in any way at all.

While they were driving, her purse was in the floorboard

next to his feet.

He asked for no money. He did not go through her purse.

Pope: Nowhere in that hierarchy do you see taking children.

This is not adding up.

The rumblings started.

People began to look at Susan Smith in a whole new way.

Klaas: We started doing some interviews,

and we ultimately found something

that turned out to be very relevant.

And it was with the neighbor across the street

from the little home that Susan lived in with the boys.

And she had said that she had left home,

I believe, at 8:30 that night.

And he goes, "Oh, no, no, no.

She left much earlier than that.

She left probably at 6:00 or 6:30."

And we asked how he knew that, and he said,

"Well, I saw her leave. I watched out the window."

I was thinking, "Nah, he's got to be mistaken about that,"

but it turns out he was right-on.

Eftimiades: Susan changed her story multiple times.

When they asked her what she had been doing that night,

she had different accounts.

One of them was that she was going to visit a friend.

Susan: He lives in Monarch,

and it wasn't far from where the red light was.

I only had maybe a mile to go, if even that long, and --

but I didn't make it.

But when they checked with the friend, he wasn't expecting her.

She had never gotten to the friend's house.

We questioned the friend and found out he wasn't at home.

He wasn't even home that night.

So then she changed and said that she had been

in Walmart, walking around.

But then they checked at Walmart,

and no one remembered seeing her.

And this is a small town, and people know each other.

David: All the little details, all those discrepancies --

you know, I didn't really put any thought

into that kind of stuff, because this is what my wife,

Michael and Alex's mother, told me had happened.

I believed her 100%.

There were just so many nagging questions

about her version of the story.

The number-one thing that bothered investigators

was that intersection where she said the carjacking occurred.

That could not have happened where she said that it happened.

That's when the suspicions absolutely started to rise.

I was stopped at a red light, and just out of nowhere,

this black guy came up

and he just opened the door and jumped in the car.

Pope: She was saying she was sitting at a traffic light

when the carjacker gets into her car.

And on Highway 49, the light stays green all the time

for traffic 49 east to west.

The only time it turns red on 49

is when another car comes up to it.

So there would have been a witness.

I talked with Susan at the sheriff's office --

"Well, tell me about the other car."

She said, "It was no other car."

I said, "Are you sure?" She said, "I'm positive."

She insisted, "There were no other cars.

There were no other witnesses. It happened just like I said."

I knew there was something wrong with her answer.

Law-enforcement authorities say

they have no good, credible leads yet.

They are looking at all possibilities,

including the possibility

that the mother might not be telling the truth.

Reporter: David and Susan Smith have been questioned again by the sheriff.

They kept interviewing Susan.

I was thinking all along,

"If she doesn't tell us what happened,

we may never find out."

Reporter: Halloween '94 in Union, South Carolina.

The children take to the streets downtown with their parents.

Trick or treat!

Christopher: I talked to some kids.

A couple were literally scared because they knew

that something had happened to some other kids.

Reporter: Michael and Alex Smith,

missing since last Tuesday evening

in a reported carjacking.

They haven't been seen since.

We're trying to find a motive for this crime.

We have had no ransom demand. We have had no revenge motive.

Jordan: As the case wore on, tensions were very high

because there were no breaks, there were no leads.

What makes it unusual is the fact that most kidnappings

don't occur as a result of a carjacking.

People were demanding answers.

We do not have a car. We do not have the children.

We do not have a suspect.

We have telephone tips, reports matching descriptions.

We have information coming in from friends,

from relatives, from psychics, from general crackpots,

but we've got to go through all of it.

Man: We will have a prayer for Michael and Alex.

Brackett: Everybody wants to believe

that these kids are out there somewhere,

and if we just look hard enough and keep the pressure up,

we're gonna find them.

Stewart: You have to do everything you possibly can

within your power and within your capability.

And we began working on the family situation,

to see what, if anything, was going on there.

Brackett: When you're conducting an investigation

into something like this,

you always have to explore along every possible avenue.

You can't just focus on one and just say,

"Well, she must be telling the truth."

You have to sit there and go, "What if?"

I haven't ruled out anyone as a suspect.

We would meet with law enforcement.

Reporter: David and Susan Smith have been questioned again by the sheriff.

They had interviewed me early on

and given me a polygraph and ruled me out.

But they kept interviewing Susan.

We've had questions about her story.

That's why we've talked to her more than one time.

When the sheriff kept bringing her in for more interviews,

and her story just never stayed the same.

She took several polygraph tests.

Stewart: We had an FBI polygraph examiner.

He would interview her, then polygraph her on what she said.

The first day, I didn't do any polygraphs at all.

I talked to her.

She was a little bit hesitant to start with.

I asked her to recite some of the exact details

of the guy getting in the car,

and she said that, "I've already repeated it.

I'd rather not repeat it now."

And that makes you think, "Well, is she being honest about it?"

And that's why the next day

I ran the polygraph for the first time.

Polygraph examinations are a very important tool

in the tool box for investigators.

We're not actually trying to figure out what the truth is.

We're trying to figure out what the deception is.

Logan: Generally, I like to go right to the heart of the problem.

Are you intentionally lying about the carjacking?

Are you intentionally lying about that black man

taking your children?

Essentially, trying to find out

if she was being honest about what happened.

Physiologically speaking, you have certain things

that manifest if you lie --

breathing, what we call the galvanic skin response,

and the cardio activity.

And, well, generally, those three things will tell you

if she's being deceptive or being truthful.

David: I remember having discussions with her

on how to pass these polygraphs --

you know, not that I've got some kind of expertise,

but when she's having a tough question,

to maybe think of something that would,

you know, kind of calm her back down.

Because I wanted them to get past her

and get more focus on, you know, finding Michael and Alex.

And when Susan is hooked up to a polygraph machine,

which she voluntarily did three different polygraph tests,

she failed every single one of them.

Logan: And we in the polygraph section don't call people liars.

We call them -- that she was deceptive in her responses.

I am just so heart-sick over it.

I mean, I miss them so much.

I've been around long enough to realize

that I like to trust my polygraph charts.

She was not telling the truth.

And I was thinking all along,

"If she doesn't tell us what's going on

and what happened, we may never find out."

Reporter: Early in the day, the sheriff reported a break in the case,

a possible sighting of one of the boys in Washington state.

I never gave up hope.

Updating our top story, a dramatic development today

in the disappearance of two little boys.

Reporter: The mother and father are arriving at this point --

David and Susan Smith.

-♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ -It was a happy birthday

for little Alex Smith just about two months ago --

his first birthday,

and he celebrated with his older brother, Michael.

Now, almost like they fell off the end of the Earth,

they have disappeared.

Their mother, Susan, reported last Tuesday night

that they had been carjacked by a stranger.

But local newspaper reports now indicate

that she was given a polygraph test

and results proved inconclusive.

Police could tell that she was

answering their questions with deception.

She had something to hide.

They wouldn't talk to me. They had shut down, really.

They weren't talking to anybody.

Everyone needs to understand that Susan and David

have been put through such an emotional tragedy right now,

and it's very difficult for someone to come out here

and face this onslaught of media that has descended upon them.

They had been so standoffish for so long,

for reasons that were incomprehensible to me.

For many armchair criminologists,

the introduction of a family spokesperson

automatically breeds suspicion.

David: All the media attention -- it was all overwhelming.

But I also knew that we needed their help desperately.

Reporter: As you can see, we are in the midst of a live news conference.

A bit of chaos at this point, but we are now awaiting --

we are now awaiting the family.

The mother and father are arriving at this point --

David and Susan Smith.

I knew the more news outlets that were there

would get the word out, would help try to find them.

Reporter: After six days of seclusion, David and Susan Smith appeared

at the county courthouse in Union

to again plead for the return of their children.

I just wanted to get them back, whatever it took.

I would like to say to whoever has my children

that they please --

I mean,please, bring them home.

That's just where they belong, with their mama and daddy.

Police may have their suspicions about Susan Smith,

but their job is to investigate the story

that she has told them.

Christopher: Criminal specialists said,

"Well, the kids could be anywhere by now."

There was a lot of leads coming in from all over the country.

Wells: The new developments in the case

are being checked out as we speak.

They are turning out not to be as promising

as first anticipated.

Reporter: In Macon, Georgia,

officers and deputies searched a cemetery

and the surrounding area after a 60-year old resident

reported he saw a burgundy Mazda similar to the missing car.

The tipster said the vehicle's South Carolina license plate

had two numbers that matched the Smiths' plate.

The FBI questioned him and his family extensively last night,

and I really don't know

if this has anything to do with South Carolina or not.

It's just something you got to do.

There had been one false alarm, where there was a child

that matched Alex's description in another state,

and they were very excited about it.

Reporter: Early in the day, the sheriff reported a break in the case --

a possible sighting of one of the boys in Washington state.

I was hoping that was the one

that we've been waiting on so long,

that was going to give us our direction,

to give us some breathing room that the children were okay

and that we could possibly recover them

and get them back home.

Our hearts soared for a while that we were close

to recovering the children in this case.

That did not happen.

The entire nine days that we were looking

for Michael and Alex,

my only concern was getting them back.

David: Please do not give up on these two little boys.

Continue to look for this car, our children,

and for the suspect himself,

that you continue to keep your eyes open.

I never gave up hope.

Continue to pray for me and my wife and for our family.

But most of all, that you continue to pray

for Michael and Alex,

that you pray most of all for them

and that they are being taken care of and that they are safe.

Tell your mama hey. You look at mama.

Yeah. Mama, hey.

-Tell her hey. -Look!

David: I couldn't accept, in my mind's eye,

any other outcome but them coming home.

I didn't even consider, you know,

something worse happening to them.

It just seems so unfair

that somebody could take such two beautiful children.

Jordan: As time went on and the boys weren't recovered,

we started looking very carefully at Susan Smith.

Charles: And the police knew from the get-go

that her story had a big hole in it.

They didn'tsay about that.

There was just too many things that didn't add up.

Jordan: How many carjackers are coming up in rural America

in the middle of the night and taking a Mazda

and forcing the mom out and taking these two little kids?

Wells: We've followed every lead.

We've had people go in every other state

where there's been a tip,

and as none of those have developed,

we've come right back here

'cause this is where the incident occurred.

The truth is going to come out.

Paschal: I talked to the sheriff, and I said,

"I have reason to believe that Susan's not telling the truth."

She was having a relationship with a young man.

She just told me that she was so ashamed,

that she was so ashamed.

Reporter: A dramatic development today

in the disappearance of two little boys.

After nine days, she told the sheriff what really happened.

We're going to make a brief announcement.

You could just hear this gasp in the crowd.

I'll never forget that.

Brackett: Just a horrifying moment of realization

that this is really happening.

My life had just -- as I knew it, had just stopped.

I had no idea what to do from that point on.

After nine long days and an extensive

cross-country search for Michael and Alex Smith,

there was finally a break in the case.

The boys had been found.

But the circumstances surrounding their disappearance

and recovery would shock the world

and shake young David Smith to his core.

Betrayal, deception, and discovery,

in Part Two of "How It Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper. Thanks for watching.