Shirley Crask, who created a memorial to Alex and Michael Smith at John D. Long Lake, has placed a basket of stones nearby with the message, "Free Stones. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Crask says she now supports Susan Smith. Photos by Mike Bonner. (7/14/95 -- 134K, 119K)

By GARY HENDERSON
Staff Writer

UNION, S.C. (7/15/95) -- A woman who left a memorial for Alex and Michael Smith at John D. Long Lake last fall returned Friday. This time, Shirley Crask left a metal container of stones among the flowers.

Attached to the container, which she calls a "basket," is a sign that reads, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

"In the beginning I felt the hate for Susan," Crask said. "I was sitting at the table one day and called my mom in North Carolina, and I told her it feels like I had eaten some grease."

But Crask said after the media began reporting some of the turmoil in Smith's life, she changed her mind. In the months after Smith's arrest, reports surfaced about her two suicide attempts, her father's suicide and her step-father's fondling of Smith.

In the spring of '86, when Smith was 14, a school psychologist recommended she enter a depression study at the state mental hospital, but her family didn't follow through.

"If all these people hadn't did all these things to her she could have coped with life," Crask said.

Last fall after Smith confessed to drowning her sons in the Union County lake, Crask asked two Department of Natural Resources officers to help her with a memorial to 14-month-old Alex and 3-year-old Michael.

The men helped her attach a large, color photograph of the boys to a wooden structure, which has become the focal point for memorials left to the boys.

Crask, who writes to Smith "at least once-a-week," said she wished people would also view the photograph as a symbolic reminder of the wrongs that Smith has suffered.

Friday morning, Kate Ball from Wellesley, Mass., came to the lake to help her deal with what she saw on television last fall from Union.

"I felt bad for the children when I saw it on the news," said Ball, as she placed a red rose near the container of stones Crask had left. "It was so sad."

Crask said she was in an abusive situation once with an employer and that's why she empathizes with Smith. Crask said she writes the 23-year-old Smith letters of encouragement.

"Sometimes I just tell her about the bunnies that are eating up my garden," Crask said.

Crask received a "sweet letter" from Smith's lead lawyer, David Bruck, thanking her for her friendship to Susan.

"He told me Susan gets all my letters and hopes I understand why she can't answer them."

Crask spoke as she entered the courthouse for the fifth day of jury selection in the Smith double murder trial. She said it was the first time she had traveled from her farm near McConnells to attend the court proceedings.

A photograph of Smith was pinned to Crask's upper left chest. Below the photograph was a hand-written prayer.

"Lord protect her and keep her close to your heart and forgive the `would be' Christians who are not willing to forgive her."

Crask believes Smith should be found innocent by reason of insanity when the trial ends.

"Then, if she goes for treatment and gets out of this, she is welcome to come live with me."

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