Susan Hendricks slaughtered family - A detailed case overview

A woman named Susan Hendricks was convicted of orchestrating the murder of four of her family members. The tragedy took place on October 14, 2011, in the quiet town of Liberty, South Carolina.

The quadruple murder was later featured in episode 24 of Oxygen’s Snapped season 23, which aired on July 29, 2018. The episode depicted how Susan Hendricks planned the crime, and ultimately pleaded guilty to the murder of her two sons, her ex-husband, and her stepmother.

Oxygen is re-airing the episode today, August 10, 2025, to bring Susan's crime story to television screens.

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Susan Hendricks' crimes: Four murders in South Carolina

The Hendricks family was found murdered in South Carolina (Representative image via Getty)

On October 14, 2011, the Pickens County Police Department received a call reporting two dead bodies in the Liberty neighborhood of South Carolina, as per Reuters. When officers arrived at the crime scene, they found the dead bodies of four members of the Hendricks household.

Only Susan Hendricks was alive. Her eldest son Matthew was found dead with a single gunshot wound to the head, while Susan's stepmother, 64-year-old Linda Burns, was also discovered dead in her bed under a cover.

Susan's ex-husband, 52-year-old Mark Hendricks, was also found shot dead and it appeared that the younger boy, 20-year-old Marshall, tried to escape, but he could not. His body was discovered outside on the front porch. He was reporedly shot multiple times.

According to CBS, Susan Hendricks claimed that it was Matthew who had shot the three other victims before killing himself. She reportedly told the police that the night before the killings took place, the family had gathered to pray because Matthew was upset about people forgetting his birthday.

Susan even presented a note to the police claiming that her 23-year-old eldest son had written it before killing everyone else and then committing suicide. While experts claimed that the letter was indeed penned by Matthew, authorities suspected that the note was written at an earlier time. It was kept and used by Susan Hendricks to support her staged murder-suicide story, CBS reported.

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The motive behind the crimes and Hendricks' arrest related to it

Susan Hendricks was arrested for the murder of her family (Representative image via Getty)

Despite Susan's claims, the police heavily suspected that Susan was behind the murders, not Matthew. She was eventually arrested on October 23, 2011. According to NBC News, the police discovered multiple wills and life insurance documents scattered in her motel room.

It was found that she had visited a printing shop days before her arrest to have the executor of her will changed - from her sister to her brother, per CBS. Moreover, her sister, Evelyn Burns, also told investigators that Susan had casually mentioned over the phone that Matthew had killed himself, which made Burns suspicious.

Other relatives close to the family also claimed that Susan had a volatile temper and she had at times fired shots at her sons’ feet in anger. Authorities finally determined that there was a financial motive behind Susan's crimes. The Hendricks family insurance was somewhere between $680,000 and $700,000, and Susan was the sole beneficiary, as reported by CBS.

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Susan Hendricks pleaded guilty to the murders

Nearly ten days after the shooting, Susan was arrested in 2011, and in April 2013, she entered a plea of guilty but mentally ill. However, nine months after her arrest, Susan had attempted suicide by overdosing on 40 mental health pills. According to CBS, she had also left a note that read:

“I’ll be okay with Mark and the boys. See ya another day.”

Susan Hendricks' crime is depicted in an episode of Snapped (Representative image via Getty)

Susan's psychiatrist, David Price, testified that she had suffered sexual abuse from both parents and others, leading to the development of multiple personalities, per Daily Mail. Following her arrest, 600 photographs from the investigative files were also made public, which had images of the crime scene at the Hendricks home, as reported by Fox News.

The photographs showed the Hendricks’ bedroom in clean and orderly condition, complete with a disco ball she said she used for dance exercise. However, the rest of the home was in disarray. There was even a family portrait pinned to the kitchen wall beside a fly swatter.

Susan Hendricks is serving a life sentence in the South Carolina Department of Corrections without the possibility of parole.

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Catch the case on Oxygen today.