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Susan Daniels Smith: ‘Betrayed’ — Mark Putnam, FBI Killer Of Pregnant Informant Found Dead In Pikeville, Kentucky, Subject Of New Crime Series On ID

By Traciy Reyes
Published on: 09:26 PST, Aug 24, 2016

Susan Daniels Smith, aka Sue Smith, the Pikeville, Kentucky, informant who was killed by her married lover, FBI Agent Mark Putnam, will have her story discussed again for the first time in many years on Betrayed, the new Investigation Discovery crime series. In the premiere episode titled, “No Escape,” detectives find the body of a naked woman and learn that the woman may be the missing informant who disappeared a year earlier.

FBI Agent’s Sex Affair With Informant: He Made Her Fall In Love, Then Dumped Her — Literally

It’s an old case that happened in 1989. People may remember it especially since a movie was made about it in the 1990s titled Betrayed By Love. Susan Daniels Smith went missing in 1989 at the age of 28. Her worried sister, Shelby, with whom she had a close relationship knew that the last person her sister was going to see was FBI agent Mark Putnam. Putnam had become involved in a risque sexual affair with Susan Daniels Smith, who by all accounts was from the rough side of town. The affair was hot, heavy, and extremely passionate. And Susan Daniels Smith didn’t hold out on the details with her sister.

Shown here is Mark Putnam–the first FBI agent in history to be convicted of a homicide. [Photo by Ed Reinke/AP File]
Trouble Comes Back To Town

Mark Putnam had met Susan Smith while she was a police informant regarding some of the drug and bank robbing activities going on in Kentucky. By all accounts, Susan Smith fell head over heels for the FBI agent.

He was a man with a big secret. Mark Putnam, who had a wife and children, lived his life as a happy family man but was steaming up the sheets with Sue Smith in hotels whenever he had the chance.

Eventually, Susan Daniels Smith became pregnant and Mark Putnam wanted to distance himself from Smith before the affair could ruin his marriage. Putnam had become cool in his attitude toward her, something that worried Susan greatly as she desperately tried to hold onto him. Sadly, after he came back to town and agreed to meet with Susan Smith, he strangled her and threw her nude body down a ravine.

From the beginning, Susan Smith’s sister, Shelby, knew in her gut that Mark Putnam had killed her sister, according to Philly.

“They used her and they killed her and they dumped her out like a bag of garbage.”

For a whole year, Susan Daniels Smith (Sue Smith), who was four months pregnant, was missing. When her body was finally found, Mark Putnam confessed to killing her, reported the LA Times.

“In his written confession, Putnam said he strangled Smith in a fit of rage because she was threatening to tell his wife and superiors that she was carrying his child. Putnam, who already had been transferred to Miami, dumped the body off a coal mine road in the eastern Kentucky hills and returned to his wife and two children. A year later, apparently racked by guilt, he offered to lead authorities to her body. In exchange, he was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter.”

Mark Putnam Is Out Of Prison

Mark Putnam was the first FBI agent to be convicted of murder. He spent time in prison but was released in 2000 after serving 10 years. According to Lexington Herald-Leader, he is possibly working in the Georgia area as a personal trainer. The affair with Susan Smith ruined his marriage.

  • His wife, Kathy, died years ago at the age of 38 from heart problems. It is believed that the affair broke her heart.
  • In addition to the old 1994 movie about the case, there is also another movie that is in the works.

Since the murder, two books have been written about Susan Daniels Smith’s sad story: Above Suspicion by Joe Sharkey and The FBI Killer by Aphrodite Jones. By the way, if you can get your hands on the movie Betrayed By Love, you’re in for a tearjerker. It tells a mighty sad tale.

Investigation Discovery’s Betrayed is produced by Trigger Street Productions, All3Media America, and Giant Pirates Entertainment, according to Broadway World. To watch this riveting story, catch Betrayed, which premieres just after ID’s The Perfect Murder, tonight at 9 p.m. on Investigation Discovery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0DZ0UtgTu0

[Image via Militarist/Shutterstock]

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