UNION, South Carolina -- A distraught mother who for nine days stuck to a story that her two young sons had been kidnapped at gunpoint in a carjacking was to be arraigned Friday on charges of murdering the children.


Susan Smith, 23, was arrested soon after she confessed and police found her car, with the bodies of her two children inside, submerged in a lake near Union, South Carolina.


Union County Sheriff Howard Wells told reporters the mother would be charged Friday with the murders of Michael, three, and his 14-month-old brother, Alex.


Wells' terse announcement ended a nationwide search for the boys that began Oct. 25, when Smith reported a black man armed with a gun jumped into her car and forced her to drive to the outskirts of town.


Smith had told police the man then forced her out of the car, driving away with her sons in the back seat.


Residents of Union were stunned by Smith's arrest. The search for the missing toddlers had riveted the community, as hundreds of policemen and volunteer searchers fanned out to search throughout the region.


"A lot of people supported the mother at first," said Graham Williams, news editor of the local newspaper, The Daily Times. "They wanted to believe her story. As time went on, more and more people became skeptical."


Reports began surfacing last weekend that Smith had failed a lie detector test, and authorities turned up no clues to support her tale of a carjacking.


Wells offered no motive in the tragedy. But CNN reported that police had found a letter from Smith's boyfriend in which he reportedly said he wanted to be with her but did not want "any kids around." Smith is separated from her husband, David, who police say is not suspected of involvement in the murder.