By RALPH GREER Jr.
Staff Writer

UNION, S.C. (10/27/94) -- Despite an intensive effort by area law enforcement agencies, the whereabouts of two brothers abducted during a Union County carjacking remained a mystery late Wednesday.

The Tuesday night kidnapping of Michael and Alexander Smith, ages 3 and 14 months respectively, is the first known carjacking in Union County and set off an intensive search in the Upstate and parts of North Carolina.

The youngsters were riding in car seats in the back of a car driven by their mother, Susan Smith, 23, of Toney Road, when a man jumped into the passenger side of her car.

At the time, Mrs. Smith was stopped at a traffic light on East Main Street at the intersection of the Highway 49 and 215 connector at Monarch Mill.

Sheriff Howard Wells said the man was armed with a pistol and ordered Smith to shut up and drive or he would kill her.

But after hours of searching -- and sending an all-points bulletin to law enforcement agencies nationwide -- officials had few clues to the children's and their abductor's whereabouts.

"This is the worst thing I've ever experienced," said Bev Russell, the boys' grandfather.

"This is heavy on the whole family. We've experienced death in our family, but never anything like this. I don't want to know any bad news either."

The first 48 hours are critical in this kind of search, said Ben Ermini said, director of case management for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Though law enforcement has a theory that the chances of finding missing children diminish over time, "we don't look at it thaway at the center After the man jumped in Mrs. Smith's car, he made her drive along Highway 49 east, eventually forcing her out of the car near John D. Long Lake, about 10 miles east of Union.

He would not let her get her children, Wells said, and Mrs. Smith ran to a nearby house and called police.

An immediate search failed to locate the car or the children.

Local police were joined by about 50 agents from the State Law Enforcement Division, FBI, Wildlife and Marine Resources, Probation and Parole and Highway Patrol Troopers along with two helicopters and a small airplane that searched county roads looking for the Smith car.

"We are going to do what we can to recover these children. They are our main concern. We believe this man's primary concern Tuesday night was getting a vehicle. He seemed to have needed a car in a hurry," Wells said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon that was attended by SLED Chief Robert Stewart and FBI Agent Rod Kicklighter.

"Everything that can be done is being done," Wells said.

When asked if any family member was suspected, Wells said that law enforcement is focusing on suspects outside the family and the investigation is proceeding as reported.

But Wells said officials are not ruling out anyone.

Word of the abduction was passed along to truckers along the interstates and highways, and Wells said a trucker reported seeing a car fitting the description of the Smith vehicle just inside the state line in Anderson County.

"A helicopter was dispatched immediately as well as the Highway Patrol but they were unable to turn up anything," he said.

As each hour passed police were concerned if the children were still in the custody of the man or someone else. Extra people were staffing the phones at the Union County Sheriff's Department; phone calls with tips about the incident were steady throughout Wednesday.

Wells said a shift change was taking place at Monarch Mill at the time of the incident. Officials checked parking lot surveillance cameras but they did man getting into Mrs. Smith's car.

A tape from an in-store camera in a York County convenience store has been sent to SLED headquarters in Columbia to attempt to get a better picture of a man fitting the description of the suspect, who reportedly purchased $10 in gas from the store Tuesday night.

The store is in Sharon on Highway 49 about 30 miles north of Union.

The 3-year-old boy, Michael, was wearing white jogging pants, a green-and-blue long-sleeved striped shirt and a light blue outercoat with a teddy bear on it, officials said.

The 14-month-old boy, Alex, was wearing a red-and-white striped one-piece suit with a blue-and-red striped outercoat.

A composite drawing of the suspect describes the man as being a black male, 20 to 30 years of age, 5 feet 9 inches to 6 feet tall and wearing a dark blue toboggan cap, jacket and blue jeans. The composite, printed in flyers by Stevens Publishing Co., was distributed Wednesday throughout Union County including Union High School.

In all, Stevens Publishing printed 7,500 fliers for distribution -- one containing a picture of the brothers and of the family's 1990 burgundy Mazda Protege and one containing the composite drawing. The license number of the car is GBK 167.

"I would not believe the outpouring from the people this has caused," said Mike Stevens, owner. "Word got out that we were printing the fliers and we have had a continual stream of people coming by all afternoon."

About 200 volunteers met Wednesday night at the Monarch Elementary School to distribute the fliers throughout the county and surrounding areas.

"People have been very helpful through this whole thing," said David Smith, the boys' father.

The abduction of the children has attracted more media attention than Union County has ever received. Crews from seven television stations in the Carolinas along with reporters and camera operators from at least four newspapers maintained a watch outside the courthouse throughout the day Wednesday.

Wells said he had received calls from the Today Show in New York and from America's Most Wanted offering their assistance.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was notified of the Union County case Wednesday, and they are working with law enforcement officials.

They are hoping to receive an overnight delivery of photos of the children and the composite sketch of the suspect today. (Thursday)

From that, they will create a poster that will be distributed through CompuServe and broadcast by facsimile to 45 state clearinghouses and 1,600 law enforcement agencies across the nation.

The center has helped recover children who have been missing for as long as 17 years, said Ermini, the center's director of case management.

"We are working actively, doing whatever we can, not only for the law enforcement, but also for the family while they go through this."

A representative of the Adam Walsh Resource Center in Columbia, which is affiliated with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, will visit the Smith family today to offer assistance, Ermini said.

Anyone having information is asked to call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 or the Union County Sheriff's Office number at 429-1612.

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