Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman who notoriously drowned her two young sons in 1994, is no longer corresponding with the long-distance boyfriend she met while in prison, according to media reports.
Smith, 51, began writing a divorced man in his 40s last year, but the relationship has since soured, a Smith family member told People.
"Yeah, that fizzled out," the family member said. "They are no longer corresponding. It's over."
The unidentified man, who works in construction, has two adult children and lives just outside the state capital of Columbia, wrote Smith after watching a documentary about her, the magazine reported earlier this year.
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"We're going to have amazing chemistry in person," Smith wrote in two letters reviewed by People. "I can't wait to build a life with you. Leave the past mistakes behind and start fresh, just you and me."
She is eligible for parole in 2024.
Smith became one of the most notorious prisoners in South Carolina history after she was convicted of killing her two young sons, Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months. She initially told investigators a Black man had carjacked her and taken off with the boys still inside the vehicle.
Days later, she made a tearful plea on national television for their safe return.
"Your mama loves you so much," she said during one news conference.
However, her recollection of the events began to unravel when she admitted there was no carjacker and that she let her car roll into a lake with the boys strapped into their car seats.
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The revelation shocked the country and turned her into a much-hated figure at the time. She was secretly dating a man who didn't want children, providing a motive for the killings, authorities said.
She was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison. During her decades behind bars, Smith has faced disciplinary action for several infractions, including drug use, self-mutilation and having a sexual relationship with a prison guard, People reported.
In a 2015 letter to The State newspaper, she claimed she was misunderstood and that she intended to kill herself, not her sons.
"I am not the monster society thinks I am," she wrote. "I am far from it."
"Something went very wrong that night. I was not myself," she continued. "I was a good mother and I loved my boys. There was no motive as it was not even a planned event. I was not in my right mind."
The magazine said Smith has behaved herself in recent years in hopes that she will be paroled in 2024.
"I don't think she's got a snowball's chance in hell of getting paroled in 2024," the family member told People. "I think he realized that too. She's exactly where she needs to be."
