Susan Smith was an American FBI informant. She was strangled by her handler and lover, Agent Mark Putnam. Daniels is the first known murder victim of an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Early life
Susan Daniels Smith was born in 1961 in Matewan, West Virginia, to Sidney "Sid" Daniels, an unemployed and former coal miner, and Tracy Daniels, a housekeeper. Susan was the fifth of nine children. Her parents moved to Freeburn, Kentucky, when Susan was an infant. She studied at Freeburn grade school, but dropped out in 7th grade, because of financial problems within her family.
Events
Background
In 1977, Susan met Kenneth Smith, a local methamphetamine, PCP, and cocaine dealer, who was 22 at the time she was 15. They married in the late 1970s, and soon after, because of drug problems, Kenneth went to jail for a brief time, after being arrested on November 27, 1979. By the mid-1980s, Susan had given birth to two children. However, the couple started to have a conflicted relationship, highly compromised by drug abuse, and Susan and Kenneth eventually divorced, although they kept sharing their home with each other and their children.
Daniels' early contact
In 1987, a FBI agent named Mark Putnam began his first investigation in Pikeville, Kentucky. His aim was to arrest a famous 32-year-old ex-convict and bank robber, Carl Edward "Cat eyes" Lockhart. A local sheriff's deputy, Albert "Bert" Hartfield, recommended Susan Smith, his longtime friend, to visit Mark to earn extra income and to help him with the case. Susan and Mark met in the spring of 1987, and they began a constant contact about information of the upcoming Lockhart's criminal plans. Lockhart was apprehended in December 1987. In January 1988, Lockhart was sentenced to 57 years in federal prison for charges of robbery, and Susan received $5,000 for her contribution to the case.
Affair and Murder
According to Putnam, their contact began to decline as the Lockhart's case was closed. However, Susan insisted on continuing a relationship, and by mid-1988, they had gotten into an active sexual relationship. In December 1988, she allegedly stopped using contraceptives to intentionally get pregnant. Mark, however, was aware the affair could damage his career and his family, and in early 1989, he signed a petition to be transferred from Kentucky to Florida, to focus on other cases. Still, in mid-1989 he had to return to complete an unrelated investigation. When he reached Kentucky, Susan contacted him about her pregnancy and claimed the baby was his. On June 8, 1989, Putnam took Daniels in his rental car to a clearing zone, and after a brief discussion and threats by both sides, they began to fight. At that time, Putnam strangled and killed Daniels and placed the body in the trunk of the car. The next day, he dumped the body along an old coal mining road. Putnam left Kentucky and returned to his family in Florida. Three days later, Daniels was reported missing by her sister, Shelby Ward. In 1990, the investigation into Daniels' death became a FBI matter, as Putnam was under suspicion for her disappearance. Putnam underwent a polygraph exam, which he failed. He subsequently confessed, pleaded guilty to strangling Daniels, and told authorities where to find the body. That same year, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Murderer
Mark Steven Putnam is a criminologist and former FBI agent. He is the first FBI agent convicted of murder. He studied at the University of Tampa, where he received a major in criminology. In October 1986, Putnam graduated from the FBI Academy and shortly after, married Kathy Putnam, the daughter of a wealthy real estate developer. Despite being sentenced to 16 years in prison, Putnam served only 10 years due to good behavior, and was described as a "model inmate". In 1998, his wife Kathy died from organ failure due to alcoholism. Putnam was released from prison in 2000, at age 41. He moved to Georgia, remarried, and was working as a personal trainer in 2016.
