Texas stepmother Laura Day picture-perfect life masked a shocking criminal past of bigamy and murder

A Texas stepmother who was sentenced to life without parole following the death of her six-year-old stepson, who drowned while under her care, was confronted by the little boy’s father a week before his death about a murder she had committed thirty years earlier.

Laura Day, 57, was convicted of capital murder in 2013 following the October 2012 death of young Taylor Syring, but unbeknownst to her husband, David Syring, she had also been convicted of killing an ex-boyfriend three decades earlier in 1982.

When confronted, Day explained it as a case of mistaken identity saying that it wasn’t her, but the facts gave police pause for thought and the suggestion that she might be capable of murder once more. 

Day is now behind bars for Taylor’s killing but she is speaking out in her first television interview and maintaining her innocence, claiming the little boy’s death at a Texas beach was simply an accident. 

Speaking from jail, Day has given her version of events in an attempt to have her side of the story be told. 

‘A tragic accident happened. I tried to save him,’ she told ABC News. 

Texas housewife Laura Da yis speaking out after being sentenced to life in prison without parole for the drowning death of her six-year-old stepson, Taylor Syring, in 2012

Six-year-old Taylor drowned on a beach trip with stepmother Laura Day

Day said she picked Taylor up from his school in Corpus Christi.

‘He said he wanted to have a picnic on the beach. It was a spur of the moment decision,’ Day explained.

The pair picked up towels and swimsuits before driving to a secluded stretch of sand noting she put a lifejacket on the little boy before taking it off because it was irritating him.  

‘It was giving him a rash, clearly. I said, “If you can show me that you’re OK and you feel safe enough to dive under the waves and you feel comfortable, then I’ll let you swim and play in the shallow water, without your lifejacket,” said Day.

Within an instant, she claims Taylor disappeared.

Day claims the little boy, pictured in his younger years, had wanted to go to the beach that day

Day claimed that she took of the little boy’s life jacket because it was giving him a rash. She turned around for a brief moment and said that he had disappeared beneath the waves

‘At first, I didn’t understand. I thought maybe he’d dived under the waves and he was swimming, but then I realized he didn’t surface and I ran in the water to where he was and he was gone… And then I saw him floating, face down.

‘I tried to get the water out of his lungs. And it just wasn’t coming out. I didn’t know why. I panicked. And I was disoriented. I wasn’t thinking clearly,’ she said.

But instead of calling 911 for help, she drove Taylor who was unconscious to a hospital 12 miles away. By the time the pair arrived, Taylor was dead.

Investigators questioned Day’s story from the outset believing it to be suspicious she took the boy to a hospital because she ‘thought paramedics would take too long to get to the beach.’

A nearby firehouse with firefighters and EMTs were just three miles away. 

Police also found it strange that despite Day knowing CPR, she decided not to perform it on her stepson that day.

Three days later, Day was arrested on child endangerment charges.

Taylor’s father, David Syring, met Laura Day as the pair embarked on an affair together. He stood by her during her trial but a decade on feels that jail is now the right place for her

Upon digging a little deeper, investigators found that Day had been having an affair with Taylor’s father, David Syring and had been married for just two months at the time of his death. 

The pair got married relatively quickly, once David had divorced his ex-wife, Kelly Syring, Taylor’s birth mother.

Kelly had insisted a clause be inserted into the divorce decree that overnight guests would not allowed around Taylor unless David was married to them.

So, just three months after his divorce, David married Laura Day. 

‘I didn’t handle things properly with the way our relationship ended, but there was issues, because it seemed like Kelly wanted to make it hard, especially for Laura,’ David Syring said to ABC. ‘Laura was afraid that, given my close bondness to Taylor, that I would eventually one day maybe go back to Kelly.’

Speaking from jail, Day says she was never jealous of David Syring’s relationship with his ex-wife or that they shared a child together. 

Laura Lee Day, is pictured at her January 2013 murder trial in Corpus Christi, Texas

Day was sentenced to life without parole on a capital murder charge after her six-year-old stepson drowned while in her care during a beach outing in October 2012

‘I was very secure in my relationship with David at the time. I was not jealous of anybody.’ Day even said she loved Taylor like he was her own child.

But investigators recorded phonecalls where Day could be heard asking Syring if he loved her more than his ex-wife.

‘Despite, you know, me telling her, over and over, that I was there with her,’ said David Syring. ‘She wanted it to just be us.’

Day said she loved Taylor like he was her own child.

On the day of Taylor’s death, while at the Corpus Christi Police Department for questioning, David Syring mentioned to cops that he had only found out one week earlier how Day had been connected to a series of crimes, including another murder. 

Day had told him that ‘it was not her.’ 

‘I took her word for it… she gave me an explanation as to these circumstances. And gave me explanations that seemed believable and plausible,’ said Syring. ‘And I believed her.’

Taylor’s birth mother, Kelly Syring had insisted a clause be inserted into the divorce decree that overnight guests would not allowed around Taylor unless David was married to them

Mom, Kelly Syring shares a meal and a loving look with her son, Taylor

The murder, in May 1982, saw 17-year-old Laura dating James Kendall, a 21-year-old college student from in Laguna Beach, California. 

When Kendall ended the relationship, Day shot and killed him before turning the gun on herself.

She told investigators that she was a victim of abuse and acting in self-defense.

Investigators could never find any evidence that Kendall had been abusive. 

Day pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to the California Youth Authority rather than prison.

After her release, Day changed her last name and remarried several times managing to rack up a litany of other crimes including convictions for theft, fraud, burglary and bigamy.

After Day was charged with child endangerment over Taylor’s death, she posted $50,000 bail and came home within 24 hours but David Syring said she was acting ‘strange’.  

‘Laura was just trying to get back to life as usual. Trying to figure out whatever it would take to keep me happy. Talking about the possibility of us packing up and moving, and going to Florida. Trying to get me to get past my feelings, trying to get me back to acting normal, which seemed a little strange to me. I mean just so sudden.’

A break in the case occurred when a witness, Rene Ruiz, seen right,  approached police who claims that Day seemed in a hurry to leave the beach and waved at him as she did so

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But then a break in the case occurred when a witness, Rene Ruiz, approached police who claims that Day seemed in a hurry to leave the beach and waved at him as she did so.

Day was charged with capital murder in addition to the earlier child endangerment charges in January 2013.

A drowning expert decided to look into conditions on the day of Taylor’s death and found several anomalies. 

‘When Laura Day stated that Taylor Syring’s body sunk, and then popped up 50 yards to the right, the problem was that was the wrong direction. Based on the conditions and the wind and everything else that day, it would’ve gone left and not right,’ said former prosecutor Brittany Jensen. 

‘It is highly improbable that she would have been able to locate him quickly, unless she was right next to him. Everything was all lies.’  

Day was found guilty of first-degree capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole following a six day trial.

At the time, her husband, David Syring, was convinced his wife was still innocent. 

Another drowning prevention expert has said that the waves at the beach could have gone the other way.

‘Depending on the direction the waves are coming, the long shore drift can go in either direction and that’s a common factor on most beaches,’ said John Fletemeyer. ‘It certainly could explain why the little boy was 50 yards down the beach.’  

Day is now hoping the Texas Court of Criminals will allow her to have a new trial after a drowning expert back her version of events 

Day is now hoping the Texas Court of Criminals will allow her to have a new trial.  

Syring and Day are now divorced with him believing that justice prevailed. 

‘I believe that this is probably the worst punishment for her. To be in prison. She has never said sorry for what she’s done. I feel so stupid to have been this naïve and to have stuck by her as long as I did, said Syring.

‘I was so wrapped up in, tangled up in all of this, that so many things, so many red flags, escaped me. I don’t know if it was just, you know, the trauma of losing my son, I don’t know if it was her being a great manipulator. I can’t explain it.’

20/20 airs Friday, June 3 (9-11pm EDT), on ABC, and the next day on Hulu.