By GARY HENDERSON
Staff Writer

UNION, S.C. (10/27/94) -- As word spread Wednesday of the abduction of two toddlers, the people of Union County formed private search parties and prayer chains in hopes that the children would be found safe.

The Tuesday night carjacking and kidnapping of the two youngsters from their mother frightened residents in this county of 31,000.

"This makes me scared," said Susie Bridges, 46, from her car near the law enforcement command post at the county courthouse Wednesday. "Nothing like this has ever happened in Union County."

Susan V. Smith, 23, told police Tuesday night that a man jumped into her car at a traffic light near Monarch Mills and ordered her to drive away. About 4 miles down the road, Smith said the man ordered her out of the car and sped away with her two children.

Police immediately launched a massive search for 14-month-old Alexander Smith and his brother, 3-year-old Michael.

But the children had not been found by late Wednesday.

The little boys' mother and father, relatives and friends gathered to wait for information about the search at the home of the boys' grandparents, Bev and Linda Russell.

While the family waited, their friends and neighbors got in their cars and drove all over the Upstate and into North Carolina, looking for any sign of the missing children. Others searched on foot in the area near John D. Long Lake where the children disappeared.

"I was out looking all night, and I'll be going back out again," Walt Garner said. "If I'm just standing around, I feel helpless."

Garner said his daughter, Donna, and the boys' mother have been friends since they were small children.

"I was holding these two children in my lap Monday night," Garner said as tears flowed down his face. Overcome with emotion, he couldn't say any more.

"I don't know why he didn't give her them babies," Garner's friend, Scott Silver, said of the kidnapper. "These are not rich people. There's no ransom or anything in it for him -- nothing but trouble."

By 10 a.m. Wednesday, satellite trucks from seven television stations and reporters from newspapers all over the Carolinas had converged on the Union County Courthouse.

At a Wednesday afternoon news conference, Union County Sheriff Howard Wells said his office had received calls from the major television networks and the television show "America's Most Wanted."

As reporters and photographers moved through the community Wednesday, citizens often stopped them to ask whether the children had been spotted.

Bystanders also clustered along the sidewalk in front of the courthouse and watched the army of local, state and federal officers come and go from the command center.

Kevin Kingsmore, a 23-year-old graphic artist from Union, worked throughout the morning to design a flier that he said would be handed out by volunteers all over the Upstate.

"I've been out looking all afternoon," said 27-year-old Wendy Fowler, holding a stack of Kingsmore's fliers. "I'm doing everything I can. I've prayed for these children all day."

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