Smith Held Without Bail in Deaths of Her Sons : Crime: She is jeered by angry townspeople outside South Carolina courthouse. ‘You’re a baby murderer!’ one woman shouts.

Susan Smith’s boyfriend didn’t want a ready-made family. So investigators say she drove to a lake, and with her two little boys still buckled in their safety seats, sent the car rolling into the murky water.

Then she walked away.

On Friday, townspeople jeered her as she was led into court in handcuffs.

“Hold your head up! You’re a baby murderer!” one woman shouted at Smith after nine days in which she had insisted the boys were abducted by a carjacker who forced her out on a lonely road.

Her lawyer waived the bail hearing and Smith never appeared in court. She was taken to a prison near Columbia where a spokeswoman said she would be kept in isolation for her safety.

The 23-year-old secretary was arrested Thursday and charged with murder in the drownings of 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander. Prosecutor Thomas Pope said he may seek the death penalty.

Smith confessed and led authorities to the car submerged in John D. Long Lake, where divers had unsuccessfully searched for her burgundy 1990 Mazda, investigators said. The bodies were found in the back seat.

Sheriff Howard Wells said an autopsy indicated the boys were alive when the car plunged into the lake on Oct. 25.

“Her whole world was crashing,” a law enforcement source told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. “She caught her husband in adultery. She was having a relationship with another guy and he was breaking it off. He had told her he wasn’t ready for a ready-made family.”

Tom Findlay, 27, said in a statement through his lawyer that he broke off their relationship Oct. 18.

“I was not ready to assume the important responsibilities of being a father,” he said. That was not the only reason, he said, and, “At no time did I suggest . . . that her children were the only obstacle in any potential relationship with her.”

He and Smith worked at Conso Products, where Findlay was a graphic artist, his lawyer, James P. Cooney III, said. Findlay’s father is company president.

Findlay went to police early in the investigation with the letter and was not a suspect, the law enforcement source said. However, Smith was suspected almost from the beginning because of inconsistencies in her story.

One was that she said the carjacking happened while she was stopped at a traffic light with no other cars around, but the light required another car to turn it red, the source said.

She also told police she had been at a Wal-Mart in the hours before the abduction, then changed that to say she was just driving around.

Smith’s lawyer, David Bruck, would not discuss a possible defense strategy or other aspects of the case. All he would say about Smith was that “she is heartbroken.”

Smith and her estranged husband, David, had issued tearful pleas on national television for the return of their children, but her story began unraveling late last week when she failed the first of two lie detector tests.

During the investigation, Wells downplayed speculation that she was the culprit. Sources speaking on condition of anonymity said police had feared Smith might commit suicide and take the secret of the children’s whereabouts to her grave. Authorities said they did not believe her estranged husband or others were involved.

Throughout the ordeal, Smith had maintained that a black man took her car and children at gunpoint. The allegation strained relations between blacks and whites in this town of 10,000.

Outside the courthouse Friday, spectators shouted at Smith, who covered her face with her manacled hands as she was led into the courthouse. Police had to hold back a crowd of about 100 people who surged forward as she arrived.

The case has left many in this town heartbroken. Many residents stood by her right up until her confession was announced, including neighbor Alice Valentine.

“I just hope they were asleep or something and didn’t know the horror of dying alone in that car,” said Valentine who answered her door red-eyed and crying Friday morning. “I’m just stunned and disappointed in the mother. Evidently they were in the way of what she wanted to do with her life.”

She recalled holding Alex on her last visit to the Smith home while their mother cooked dinner.

“He was always such a happy fellow. He’d always break into a smile every time you said anything to him,” Valentine said.

Funerals for the boys will be held Sunday.