The FBI Killer - Susan Daniels Smith

March 4, 2024

In this episode, Payton and Garrett dive into the case of Susan Smith. Initially drawn into cooperation with the FBI as an informant, Susan soon discovers that her involvement might ultimately risk her life.

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AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to an Oh No Media podcast. Hey everybody,welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Payton Moreland, and I'm Garrett Moreland, and he's the husband. I'm the husband.

Hope everybody is doing good. Just a reminder, if you'rewatching on Apple, please hit the follow button. If you're watching on Spotify,there should be a follow button or a subscribe button as well. It helps us outa lot. Also, I think we have officially finished our merch sales, and I hopeyou all loved it so much. This is definitely one of my favorite designs we'vedone, and I got a lot of good feedback, so I hope you guys all like it. Allorders should be sent out by now. Thank you guys so much.

Okay, before we get to Garrett's 10 seconds, I wanted toremind you that this Thursday, well, every Thursday, but also this Thursday, wewill be streaming on Twitch at 5:30. Now, if you don't know what Twitch is oryou think it's just something that people play video games on, it is astreaming platform. It is used for video games, but it's also used for chattingand hanging out and lots of other things. So Garrett and I get on there, weshow you true crime footage, interrogation videos, police body cam—you see thevideo, you see us. We talk with the chat, we have entire conversations aboutit. If you've never been on Twitch, I would highly suggest it. It is such a funnight. So again, every Thursday, 5:30 PT.

And then just kind of hopping into my 10 seconds here, wewent to the Olivia Rodrigo concert last week. When does this come out? Yeah,last week was a good time. I surprised Payton last second. We were in Arizonahanging out, warm weather. Other than that, just kind of making videos for youguys. Go and check it out.

Alright, our sources for this episode are "The FBIKiller" by Aphrodite Jones, The New York Times, The New York Post, TheCinnamon Holic, The Tampa Bay Times, Screenrant.com, The Mountain Eagle.com,Grunge.com, The Lineup.com, Biller.com, and Wikipedia.

So I want you to close your eyes and imagine yourself inthis scenario, Payton. Not the time to laugh, keep going. Garrett's closing hiseyes and he's really imagining it. You're in your 20s, living in a small townin the middle of nowhere, America. It wasn't literal. You said close your eyesand I was trying to get everyone involved. Oh, okay, everyone close your eyes,unless you're driving.

Okay, you're in your 20s, living in a small town in themiddle of nowhere, America. You don't have much money, and every day is prettymuch the same routine. You take care of your partner, you raise the kids, youcook, you clean—the usual grind. When suddenly, you're approached by someonenew in town. They say they're an agent for the FBI, and they need your help asan informant. Even better, they'll offer you $5,000 for your time and effort.Is the job dangerous? Sure, you're ratting out big-time criminals to the FBI.But is it worth it all for a little cash and kind of a little bit of excitementin your dull life? Okay, you can open your eyes now.

Well, in the 1980s, a bored housewife named Susan DanielsSmith certainly thought so. Only she didn't get to walk away from the jobscot-free, as one would hope. Instead, she got herself in a little too deeponce starting this new venture, to the point that it eventually cost her herlife. And not for the reasons you might suspect.

For today's case, we're headed to a tiny town in Kentuckycalled Freeburn, a place so remote that in 2020, the population was still only296 people. But in the 1960s, this was where a little girl named Susan Danielsand her family called home. Susan was the fifth of nine kids. Her father, likemost patriarchs in the area, made his living working the coal mines, anindustry that wasn't exactly thriving at the time but still helped pay thebills, at least until a terrible injury forced him out of work, leaving thefamily to survive off of welfare checks alone. This made Susan and hersiblings' upbringing a little more complicated than her parents would havehoped, with two kids to a bed, a little black and white TV with only threestations, and the only source of heat coming from a small coal stove. Life inthe Daniels household was a little tense, right? It's not like we are in 2024where you can find a job online. And yeah, you don't have to worry about that.

But despite having to go to school in hand-me-down clothesand worn shoes, Susan was very popular. She loved to read and learn. She hadplenty of friends. She managed to stay pretty well-adjusted. And in 1977, whenshe turned 15, she found that knight in shining armor that would sweep her offher feet, rescue her from her cramped, meager existence, or so she thought. Hisname was Kenneth Smith, and in reality, he was hardly the Prince Charming Susanhad been dreaming of. Seven years her senior, Susan was enamored with Kenneth.He had his own trailer, motorcycle, he wore cowboy boots, and smokedcigarettes. And to really solidify his bad boy image, the 22-year-old Kennethwas also known as the local drug dealer around town. Alright, Kenneth, the wayto really set your expectations high. Well, I mean, this is a small town. Yes,he's got the cowboy boots, he smokes cigarettes, and she's 15 and he's 22, andhe has his own trailer. That's a big difference, so she's enamored. And itwasn't long before Kenneth had convinced Susan to drop out of high school andhelp him run his business, dealing everything from PCP to cocaine, acid, andmarijuana.

Right away, Susan became addicted to the thrill of gettinghigh and making money while doing it. For the first time in her life, she hadcash for new clothes, jewelry, makeup, you name it. And then in February 1981,when Susan was now 20 years old, she and Kenneth finally eloped. Susan didn'ttell her family. It was just them and the pastor. But Susan knew her familywouldn't approve of the marriage, and she was head over heels for Kenneth.Nothing was going to stand in the way of her being with him forever, a bondthat was further solidified in March of 1982 when the couple welcomed theirfirst child into the world, a little girl named Miranda. But it wasn't allpuppy dogs and roses for the couple from then on out.

Shortly after giving birth, things got more challenging forSusan and Kenneth. Now with a kid, the couple was no longer in the business ofdealing drugs. Kenneth had gotten a job working construction, but after fallingfrom the roof of a building, he was in bad shape, unable to continue hisduties. Oh, that's kind of... I don't want to say impressive, but that theyjust stopped dealing, yeah, and now are working. But then it's like thesepatterns repeat, right? Because her dad got injured on the job, and now herhusband's injured on the job.

So obviously Kenneth turned to pain pills to help him cope,particularly after learning he didn't qualify for disability benefits. Instead,the Smiths found themselves on welfare, which meant Susan had returned to thesame domestic situation she tried to escape as a teenager. Fed up withKenneth's refusal to find new work, the 23-year-old Susan petitioned fordivorce in 1984, and their marriage was officially dissolved a year later, inMarch 1985. But by that point, Susan and Kenneth had rekindled their flame. Shewas now pregnant with their second child, and while the two stayed divorced onpaper, they continued living together under the same roof, raising their twoyoung kids together.

It was around this time that someone new moved to PikeCounty, Kentucky, and it wouldn't be long before they caught Susan's eye andupended her life entirely. Now, his name was Mark Stephen Putnam. He was a27-year-old, clean-cut New England boy who'd been raised Catholic byblue-collar parents. He was an athlete and a bookworm. Mark had graduated fromthe University of Tampa with a degree in criminology and a dream of joining theFBI. Shout out to all our blue-collar workers, by the way. You're going to saycriminologist? No, none. He pursued immediately after college, landing himselfa desk job at an FBI office in New Haven, Connecticut, in the summer of 1982.From there, Mark watched and observed other agents, quietly looking for ways toclimb the ranks. Finally, in 1986, he took the exams for the FBI Academy andpassed with flying colors, which was supposedly a rare transition, a pretty bigleap to go from desk jockey to full-fledged agent.

So this was a huge deal for Mark. By that point, he hadmarried a woman named Kathleen Pontelli and settled down, adding a little girlto their family. But now the Putnams would have to relocate closer to the FBIAcademy in Quantico, Virginia, which Kathy didn't mind. She was happy to stayhome and raise the kids while Mark continued to climb the ladder at work. Soover the next 16 weeks, Mark busted his behind, going through rigorous trainingexercises, exams, formal interviews, polygraphs, and drug tests to ensure hewas FBI material.

By October 6th, 1986, Mark had successfully graduated andwas handed his gold badge. Six months later, he was given his first assignment.In February of 1987, he was told he'd been selected to run the tiny Towersoffice in a small town in Kentucky called Pikeville. That doesn't sound like ajob; that kind of sounds like they were punishing him, M. Cop. Yeah, there he'dbe investigating everything from public corruption to drug trafficking to astring of robberies that were happening around the area. So now that kind ofcatches you up with Mark's life, and then Susan and Kenneth's life.

So now Pikeville, which was a 45-minute drive, from Susan'shometown of Freeburn. So, Pikeville might have been a little bit bigger thanFreeburn, was a heck of a lot different than what Mark was obviously used to upNorth. For starters, there was a huge income gap between the people that livedin the town, primarily because of the declining coal industry. You had about ahundred people who were all the higher-ups of the coal mines, who were livingin mansions around town, while there were about 11,000 different mobile homesset up around the area that housed the working class. Okay, so it was a biggerarea, yeah, it was a big area with a disparity this large.

It was no surprise that the county had fallen victim torampant crime, particularly an unusually high number of bank robberies, whichbrings me back to Mark's first major assignment after Kentucky and WestVirginia State Police struggled to find the culprits. Mark, with the FBI, wasbrought on to take a closer look at the case, one he was certain involved thesame group of repeat offenders. All of the robberies were performed in asimilar fashion using the same weapons, stolen vehicles, and ski masks. And itdidn't take long for Mark to lock in on one major suspect, a newly releasedex-convict who just served time for armed robbery named Carl "CatEyes" Lockheart.

Now, Cat Eyes had just finished his 18th sentence. Cat Eyes,and while he was still on probation, it hadn't stopped him from going about hisold ways. As it turns out, Cat Eyes wasn't hiding from the law; he was stayingwith some old friends not far from Pikeville, Susan and Kenneth Smith.Remember, Susan, Kenneth used to be in the drug scene. Cat Eyes got put away 18years ago, but now he's staying with them. In fact, Susan liked having Cat Eyesand his girlfriend Sherry around; they were always helping out around the houseand offered to pay them rent. Plus, Kenneth was nicer; he was less emotionallyabusive towards Susan whenever they were around. They knew Cat Eyes was back tohis old habits, hearing that he'd recently stolen 18 grand from a bank in Kentucky.But that didn't cause any issue for Kenneth and Susan, who had a sorted historyof their own. What they didn't realize was that this also made them a targetfor FBI surveillance. I mean, if the guy who they think is doing the robberiesis living in your house, the FBI is going to be sitting in their little car, intheir black suits, outside watching you. Also, he's robbing from banks, notlike he's robbing 7-Elevens around Kentucky, which is bad, but it's way worse.Well, you're just going to get slushies, exactly.

Suddenly, Mark Putnam and his partner Bert Hatfield foundthemselves sitting in vans outside the Smith's home. So now we have our twoparties, and they have now met together outside the home, okay, or climbing themountain above their house to watch their comings and goings with a pair ofbinoculars. Still, they found nothing they could work off of. And that's whenBert came up with a plan. Why not see if Mark could recruit Kenneth or Susan,the owners of the home, as an informant?

At first, Kenneth did seem like the better choice. He'd beenarrested before; he had a criminal record that could stand to be expunged.There was something for Kenneth to gain by ratting out on his friend. So, inthe summer of 1987, Mark set up a meeting with Kenneth to see if he could gethim to cooperate. But when Kenneth handed over a list of demands, including aweekly salary from the FBI, Mark quickly abandoned the plan. Instead, hefigured he might have an easier time getting Kenneth's ex-wife, Susan, to playalong. Remember, they're actually divorced on paper, but they're livingtogether.

So, a few weeks later, Mark called Susan to meet him in ahospital parking lot just a few minutes outside of Freeburn. Kennethaccompanied her that day but watched from outside the car as Susan climbed in,shut the door, and introduced herself to Mark. Now, immediately upon lockingeyes with Susan, Mark, our FBI agent, was caught a little off guard. This wasnot the kind of woman that he pictured to be using as an informant. Susan wasattractive, she was put together, she was magnetic. Kenneth watched as the twoseemed to be flirting, laughing, and chatting for far too long in the car. Ohno, Mark. But inside that car, Susan also expressed her concerns about theinformant job. She'd heard of other people who were working for the feds aroundFreeburn, and they never got paid. But even if she did collect the money shewas promised, she knew it would be a matter of life or death if Cat Eyes caughther. She wondered aloud to Mark if the risk was worth the reward. But Mark wasconvincing, and Susan realized if the job meant spending more time with thishandsome FBI agent, then maybe it could be a good idea after all.

I feel like for me, if I was in that situation, it wouldhave to be a lot of money, yeah, like enough money to where I don't know, youknow what I'm saying? I do think at this point, though, Susan's just a littleunhappy with her life, and like, yeah, whatever, where she has now ended backup.

So after a few more minutes of conversation, Susan finallyemerged from the vehicle and told Kenneth they'd reached an understanding, andshe was now the one on the FBI's payroll. Alright, over the next severalmonths, Susan and Mark would meet two or three times a week to exchange intel.Susan shared details like Cat Eyes had gotten a new shotgun that she believedhe would use for his next robbery, or that she'd spotted ski masks in with hislaundry. She even feigned interest in Cat Eyes' endeavors, getting him to chatfor hours about how he pulled these robberies off, all details she then sharedwith Mark the next time they met.

But before long, it wasn't just information that Mark andSusan were exchanging at these meetups. They were also swapping saliva,exchanging DNA, as their relationship grew. Susan and Mark snuck off to remotelocations where they talked about their personal lives before and after rippingeach other's clothes off. Wait, isn't Mark married too? Yes. Oh, and kids? Ohyikes. So, while it's not entirely clear when their partnership turnedromantic, sex became a regular occurrence during their meetings, which wasobviously a huge no-no in the FBI. Having sex with your informant was a reasonfor dismissal, but Mark didn't seem to think he'd ever get caught.Top of FormBottom of Form

While mixing business with pleasure, Mark got theinformation he needed to move in on Cat Eyes. By September 1987, on the 10th,Cat Eyes and an unknown accomplice arrived at the First National Bank ofPikeville in Belur, Kentucky. They walked out those doors with over $112,000 incash. But Cat Eyes had no idea that Mark and his FBI team had gotten to thebank the day before and instructed the bank teller to place a red dye pack inwith the cash, all thanks, of course, to the intel of Susan.

But a week later, Cat Eyes stupidly went to another bank andtried to exchange some of that dyed cash for other bills, and that's when hewas caught by police, and they had all the evidence they needed, 'cause theyhad set it up. So by January 1988, Cat Eyes was in court facing charges forthat as well as several other robberies. Man, if you're robbing a bank, like,I'm going for millions, I know, not like 10, 20, $30,000, have millions there,though. Maybe, I guess. I don't know. I'm sure they used to keep a lot. I knowthey have safes and stuff. I'm sure it's way different now though. And the starwitness for the prosecution at his trial was, of course, Susan Daniels Smith.

On the 28th of that month, Cat Eyes was sentenced to 57years in federal prison. But afterwards, Susan was more concerned than ever nowthat Cat Eyes knew she was the one who ratted him out. Wait, how would he know'cause she testified against him at trial? Oh, I thought she could just do itanonymously, like she could rat on him and set everything up and then not haveto go to trial. Nope, yikes. There was a good chance the news had obviouslyspread to his accomplices, like she might be messing with the wrong people.Suddenly, Susan was inquiring about witness protection programs to both anattorney and Mark Putnam. Only Mark convinced her to stick around; her workwasn't over yet. He could use her for other stings around the area.

Now, obviously, that wasn't the only reason Mark kept Susanaround. Whenever his wife would travel north to see her family, which waspretty often, Mark invited Susan over to his home for a little rendezvous.There were times when Mark told Susan he planned to leave Kathy and be with herfull time. And while Susan believed his lies, falling head over heels for Markover the next year, the truth was Mark knew how valuable an informant likeSusan was. She was helping him make major busts around town, which he saw as away to continue to climb the ranks of the FBI, maybe even score a transfer tosomewhere more coveted. And as long as he had his sights set on that goal, hewasn't going to let Susan out of his grip. So he was telling her whatever hethought she needed to hear. But Susan didn't see it that way. She told a fewfriends about the affair, including her sister Shelby, who was starting toworry that Susan might be getting into this a little too deep. Well, also,Mark's kind of playing her. Oh, yeah, yeah, he's maybe has feelings for her,but in reality, he just wants to move up in the ranks, and he's playing her,yeah. Shelby repeatedly asked Susan if she was worried about one of thesecriminals eventually coming back to get her. After all, she was puttingpowerful people behind bars and then testifying against them in court. How longcould she really hide behind the protection of the FBI for, especially in asmaller area?

Susan though she felt confident, she felt safe, even inMark's care, at one point saying, "I could go back to dealing drugs if Iwanted to," and Mark told me if I got caught, he'd get me out of it. Plus,it didn't hurt that Susan was making more money than she'd ever made before,with about $5,000 a sting. Susan was racking up plenty of cash to redecoratethe house, cook her family elaborate meals at Christmas; she even purchasedMark an expensive tracksuit. For the record, he got her nothing for Christmas.

I don't know if the FBI ever comes to me to be an informant,like, you got to be offering me like a million dollars a sting. No, I'm out. Iam not getting involved. I'll do it for a million dollars a sting. I will bethe biggest rat, and I will eat all the cheese.

But over time, Susan's behavior became a bit much for Mark,and like, we obviously saw this coming. She began calling his house andspeaking with his wife, Cathy, for hours on end. And I'm not sure who Susantold Kathy she was, maybe a coworker of Mark's, but I do know that Kathy,fairly lonely in the Pikeville area, was beginning to become happy with her newfriend Susan, talking about everything from their kids to their health issues.So, she kind of like blackmailing Mark in a way. Like, I've now created thisrelationship with your wife, and I could tell her at any point what we'redoing. At one point, Susan allegedly even confessed to Kathy that she might bemadly in love with Mark, her husband, but Kathy didn't take the commentseriously. She thought she was just joking. Except things didn't stop there.Susan cut her hair short to have it look exactly like Kathy's. And comeFebruary 1989, just a few weeks after Susan's 27th birthday, she learnedsomething that would change the entire dynamic between her and Mark. She waspregnant with his child. Kathy was pregnant? No, I mean Susan was pregnant.Holy crap.

Okay, so terrified of what Kenneth would do if he found outthe baby wasn't his, Susan packed her things and moved in with her sister,Shelby, while she sorted the entire ordeal out. Yeah, with a confirmation ofher pregnancy from a doctor, Susan finally decided in mid-March that it wastime to deliver Mark the news. And let's just say Mark was less than thrilled.Where is Susan's ex-husband in all this? She's still living with him, so hedoesn't know that she's having this affair. So when she's pregnant, he justassumes that it's his baby. She hasn't told him she's pregnant yet. Got it.

So she tells Mark she's like, "Hey, I'm pregnant withyour baby," and he denies that the child is his, conveniently for him. Hesaid he was actually in the process of being transferred out of Pike County asthey speak. So she comes and she's like, "I'm pregnant," and he'slike, "And I'm leaving. I am getting transferred." But it wasn'tbecause Mark had gotten a fancy promotion like he wanted. He and his familywere moving because they claimed they were getting death threats called totheir house. Whether or not these threats were true is unclear. Many think thiswas just Mark and Cathy's way of getting the heck out of Pike County, since shewas miserable there and he had gotten himself in too deep with his informant.

Regardless, by the spring of 1989, the Putnam family waspacking their bags for Mark's new post. It was in Miami, Florida, and guess whosuddenly became cagey, dodging Susan's calls after the move? Mark, of course,which devastated Susan, as you can imagine. She's pregnant with his child. Shebecame reclusive, depressed, and tensions between her and Kenneth were runninghigher than ever. In fact, after he discovered she was pregnant in May 1989, Susanpressed charges against him for terroristic threatening. Without Mark in townto protect her, Susan felt like a sitting duck. Plus, she's now pissed at Mark,particularly because when she did get a hold of him, he was still denying thathe was the father of their child. I was going to say Mark Mark's baby'sliterally inside her stomach, yeah, and she's just alone, and well, he left.He's like, "Ah, good luck, bye," yeah, left her in the hands ofKenneth who's now pissed at her for being pregnant with someone else's child,and he refused to do anything to support her or the new baby.

But he eventually made Susan a deal. He had to come north toPike County in June to tie up a couple of loose ends. They could get togetherand talk while he was there. Then just a few days before Mark's return, one ofSusan's fears became a reality. Cat Eyes's ex-girlfriend, Sherry Justice, cameto Susan's sister's house and she smashed Susan's car windows. And when Susanapproached her, Sherry supposedly attacked her. Now remember, Sherry and CatEyes were living with Susan and Kenneth, so not only did she betray Cat Eyes,she betrayed Sherry who was living with her and kind of a part of her family.Sherry ripped Susan's blouse and cut her leg with a broken piece of glass, andafterwards, Susan insisted she needed witness protection more than ever, somethingshe planned to speak to Mark about when he finally arrived back in town on June5th, 1989.

On the evening of Thursday, June 8th, Susan had spent thenight at Mark's hotel room, seemingly working things out with her old lover.Her sister, Shelby, spoke to her twice that day, and Susan said she'd find away back to Shelby's house either tonight or tomorrow. But the following day,Susan still hadn't gotten home to Shelby's. Don't tell me that Mark, thefreaking FBI agent, just killed her. You mean killed his ex-lover who'spregnant with his baby? Yes, and then she doesn't show up the following day, andby June 11th, with no word from Susan, Shelby called Kenneth to see if she'dsomehow just ended back up at Kenneth's house, even though that wasn't whereshe was living; she was living with her sister. But Kenneth claimed he hadn'tseen or heard from her in a while.

Finally, on June 16th, Shelby called the local police tosay, "Hey, I think my sister, Susan Daniel Smith, the informant for theFBI, is missing." Naturally, one of the first people the police look intois Cat Eyes and Sherry. She had just attacked her, yep, neither of which offerany solid leads to police. Remember, Cat Eyes is behind bars, and while Sherrydid allegedly attack Susan just a few days before her disappearance, policedon't pursue her heavily as a suspect, and I'm not exactly sure why. Perhapsshe had an alibi, or as Kenneth later told police, Susan may have made theattack up to garner sympathy from Mark when he arrived, because Sherry deniedthis entire altercation altogether.

Either way, it wasn't long before police refocused theirattention on Kenneth. Not only did he have a history of physically abusingSusan, she'd recently pressed those charges against him back in May when hethreatened violence against her after finding out she was pregnant. It's notKenneth. Now, naturally, police are going to question anyone who's seen Susanin the hours and days before she disappeared as well, which in this caseincludes Mark Putnam. Remember, she told her sister that's where she was, andhe supports the theory that Kenneth might have had something to do with Susan'sdisappearance.

When they bring him in for his interview, Mark said he'dheard that Susan's informant work had caused a lot of problems between her andKenneth at home. He also said that Kenneth called his house multiple times tothreaten him as well after suspecting the two were having an affair. Mark alsoconfessed that right before he left for Florida, Susan did tell him she wasseveral months pregnant, only she didn't say who the father was. Regardless,this was dangerous territory for Mark, who is now basically admitting to policethat he had an affair with his informant and who's also now, I mean, missing asuspect.

Now when people go to track down Kenneth for furtherquestioning, they claim he's nowhere to be found and they tell Shelby this iswhat's holding up their investigation. Until they can question Kenneth and rulehim out as a suspect, there's not much else they can do. He's their main personof interest, which sucks, because as you're telling me the case, it's obviousthat Mark's involved, but police, he's an FBI agent, and I'm sure they don'thave the whole case and story like you're presenting it to me right now, right?So different context clues and so forth, but it's obviously Mark.

So Shelby is like, "Okay, Kenneth is your main personof interest and you can't find him, but this sounds a little ridiculous becauseKenneth wasn't hiding from them. He was easily traceable. He was still livingin the Freeburn area. In fact, while they were searching for Kenneth, he wasunder house arrest wearing an ankle monitor for a drunk driving charge. If heventured more than 150 ft outside of his home, the bracelet would have alertedthe police. For him, I mean, easy alibi.

So at this point, Shelby's wondering what's going on here.Like, they're saying the reason they're not really investigating my sister'sdisappearance is because they can't find Kenneth, but Kenneth is on housearrest at home. So how come police can't find him? And to go along with that,why aren't they really investigating Mark Putnam? They haven't asked him totake a polygraph. They aren't posting Susan's picture on television. Instead,Shelby keeps getting told that the state police are working with the FBI andany media coverage could muddle their investigation. There we go. And that'swhen Shelby begins to wonder maybe there's a reason they aren't looking veryhard for her and maybe it's because Susan was actually placed under WitnessProtection. What? Holy, that's not what I was thinking at all. So no way, okay,I don't even know what. I'm not going to say anything. We're just going to keepgoing. Okay, keep going, keep going.Topof Form

It's logical for her to be like, "Okay, they're notlooking into Mark. He's an FBI agent, so maybe that makes sense if she wasreally placed in Witness Protection Program." When nothing had progressedin the investigation by mid-November, this was the family's prevailing theory,mainly because there were a number of Freeburn people who claimed they had seenSusan alive and well outside the Freeburn area.

Then around Thanksgiving of that year, a friend of Susan'snamed Josie Thorp gets the strangest phone call. It was a woman who had calledher house claiming to be Susan, asking about Kenneth and her kids. Now,allegedly, the woman also told Josie that she hadn't contacted Shelby becauseshe'd been wearing her jewelry when she left town, and she didn't want her tobe upset. Also, why wouldn't the kids go with her? That's a little sus.

But here's the real kicker: the woman told Josie she'd lefta garbage bag of clothes at Shelby's house, which Josie could have becausethey'd fit her the best, and there was a bottle of bright orange nail polishthat she'd left there that Josie might like as well. So, this is very specific,right? Like, if this isn't Susan on the phone, why is she telling her friend,"Oh, go to my sister's house, you can take some of my stuff"? Like,"I haven't talked to Susan, or I haven't talked to Shelby." Well,when Shelby hears this, she thinks, "Oh my gosh, like, my sister isalive," because she knows these details. She used to tease the heck out ofher for wearing that hideous orange nail polish, so who other than Susan wouldknow it's at the house? Josie said these calls happened about four or fivetimes over the next several weeks, and that the voice did sound like Susan's.The woman also referenced a porcelain swan she'd once given Josie, whichfurther convinced her it was her old friend, but the woman never stayed on thephone very long and always hung up when asked where she was.

So, eventually, Josie and Shelby called the police togetherand told them about the calls. They're like, "Hey, we know that she's amissing person, um, but we think that she's calling the house, like, we wouldjust like to make sure it's her," and that's when they came up with aplan: install a recorder to Josie's phone to tape the conversations and see ifthey can track the call. But right after they put the plan in motion, the callsfrom Susan stop entirely. Josie never hears from her again.

Okay, so Christmas passed that year with no word from Susan,which again made Shelby question whether or not her sister really was alive.Even if she was hiding out somewhere, she felt certain Susan would send themsome sign that she was okay. By February, the police had finally wrangledKenneth into their offices for a polygraph, where the results came backinconclusive. Still, officials felt like he was telling them the truth, that hewas in no way involved with his ex-wife's disappearance.

But soon their attention had turned to a new suspect,someone no one originally had wanted to consider at first, Mark. But the moretime passed, the more suspicions they had for Mark Putnam, and that's becauseMark had not only kept a secret affair with an informant from the FBI, but hehad been extremely dodgy about taking a polygraph himself.Top of FormBottom of Form WhenKentucky State Police called him repeatedly that February to return to town foran exam, he was evasive and refused to cooperate. But the real kicker came inMay 1990 when the state police looked into the car Mark had rented during histrip down to Pikeville that last June when he last saw Susan. They learned thathe'd returned the car early to Hertz because the windshield had gotten crackedwhen a truck dropped coal along the highway. Only they're not buying thisstory.

So on May 16th, several agents from the FBI and detectivesfrom the Kentucky State Police fly down to Miami to confront Mark at his officethere, and come the 18th, he's finally cornered into taking a long overduepolygraph test. And surprise, Mark fails miserably, which yes, of course, he'sprobably lying, but it doesn't mean anything. And I think you know the obviousreason here if you're wondering like I was, like, okay, if they were eventuallygoing to suspect Mark, why did it take so long? Like why were they sitting hererunning circles around Kenneth? And the obvious answer is they didn't want toquestion one of their own. Like, why would you want to think that it's one ofyour own who's done this? But at this point, they really have no choice.

So then on May 22nd, Mark hires a lawyer. This is afterfailing the polygraph. He hires a lawyer and then resigns from the FBI. Oh man.Despite there being no body and not one shred of concrete evidence againstMark, the guilt had been eating away at him so badly that he could no longerkeep the truth a secret. On June 4th, 1990, almost a year to the date that helast saw Susan Smith, he told the FBI he had a confession to make. He hadkilled Susan and left her in a ravine just 9 miles outside of Pikeville. Wow, Idid not see him confessing. That surprises me. I thought there's nobody heprobably could have gotten away with it because he was in the FBI. Wow.

So FBI and Kentucky State Police followed Mark's directionsto the exact site where he supposedly left Susan's body. And after severalhours of searching the overgrown brush, two men found a human skull just a fewfeet away from the rest of a decomposed skeleton. A gold necklace foundalongside the remains was confirmed to be the jewelry Shelby had lent Susan. Itappeared Mark Putnam was to blame after all. She wasn't in witness protection.Yeah. And when asked to recall the final night of Susan's life, here's whatMark said:

On the evening of June 8th, Susan arrived back at his hotelroom at around 10:30 p.m. After which, they continued discussing the matter ofher pregnancy. According to Mark, Susan raised her voice and he was worriedabout others overhearing. So he asked her to go for a ride so they could havemore privacy. Mark said it was during that drive that Susan threatened toexpose him if he didn't agree to help her out with the child, saying she'd tellhis wife everything, the FBI, she would tell basically anyone who would listen.She was willing to risk his family and his career to get the support shebelieved she deserved. Eventually, he parked the car at Peter Mountain Creek,close to Susan's home, where the argument escalated.

He claimed that Susan then slapped him, which sent him intoa rage. Mark reached over to the passenger side of the car and began stranglingSusan, even climbing on top of her to increase his grip. It was during thisstruggle that Susan fought with every ounce she had, at one point kicking thewindshield and causing that dent that forced Mark to return the vehicleprematurely. She is pregnant with his baby. This is horrible. But after severalminutes, Susan stopped breathing, and Mark thought she was just unconscious.Again, this is according to him. That's what every killer says that stranglessomebody.

In reality, she had stopped breathing for good, and in apanic, he says he tried to do mouth-to-mouth, and when that didn't work, heplaced her body in the trunk of the rental car. Went back to the hotel, and ataround 6:30 a.m., he went to meet with a colleague before a full day of work.For the entire day, Susan's body remained in the trunk until that evening whenMark was finally finished with his duties. He drove around Pike County,searching for a desolate place to leave her behind, eventually coming to thatravine not far from her home. It was a gruesome end at the hands of the oneperson Susan Smith had trusted the most, the man she believed would protect herfrom all the bad guys in the world, when in reality, he was the most lethal oneof all.

On June 20th, 1990, Susan Daniel Smith was finally laid torest on a hillside beside her grandfather's house in West Virginia. Followingthe confession, Mark's lawyer worked out a generous plea deal for an ex-FBIagent. He would face 16 years behind bars. What? 16 years? In the state ofKentucky, Mark would not be facing charges for fetal homicide as there were nolaws against it at the time. Okay. And as far as I'm aware, the police neverfigured out who that woman was that made those calls to Josie Thorp's housethat Thanksgiving in 1988. It was probably someone Mark just hired or didn'thappen. I mean, you just never know. Okay, yeah, that's true.

Mark was released on good behavior in 2000. He served 10years of his 16-year sentence. He was only 41 years old. Killed gets out in 10years, moved life, he still had his entire life ahead of him. Yeah, but hiscareer in law enforcement was dead as a doornail. From now until he dies, Markwill carry two shameful legacies with him. Not only is he a cold-blooded killerwho murdered his lover and his baby, he's the first-ever FBI agent to becharged and convicted of murder. What a loser, man. And that is the story ofSusan Daniel Smith, whose literal killer is out living life. That's crazy thathe's out. Horrible that she died. That's tragic.

I can't believe he's out in 10 years, all because she wanteda little child support. Also, I don't believe his story. I don't either. Imean, it was premeditated. He came back into town to kill her. Yeah, he justdidn't want to deal with her anymore. Yeah, that's ridiculous. She wasrightfully so chasing him down, saying, "Hey, I have your baby in mytummy. Like, we need to figure something out. Like, what do you want to doabout this?" And he was just like, "I want to get rid of you. Like,I'm tired of this." That's ridiculous. It's so awful.

All right, you guys, that is our case, and we will see younext time with another episode.

I love it.

And I hate it.

Goodbye.

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