Laura Day on 20/20: Padre Island Drowning and Prison Interview

Laura Day is the Texas stepmother whose 2012 drowning of her six-year-old stepson at a Padre Island beach was re-examined in the ABC “20/20” episode “Wave of Deceit,” which first aired June 3, 2022. She was convicted of capital murder in 2013 and is serving life in prison without parole. The episode drew attention because Day had a hidden criminal past under earlier names, including a prior murder conviction in California when she was 17.¹

What Happened at Padre Island

On October 5, 2012, Laura Day picked up her stepson, Taylor Syring, from school in Corpus Christi and drove to a secluded stretch of beach near Bob Hall Pier on Padre Island. She told investigators they had decided on a picnic and that she wanted to avoid crowds.¹²

By Day’s own account, she put a life jacket on Taylor and then removed it because it was giving him a rash. She let him swim in shallow water, turned away briefly, and when she looked back he was gone. She said she found him floating face down about 50 yards away.¹

What she did next became central to the prosecution’s case. Day did not call 911. She did not perform CPR, even though she knew how. She loaded the unconscious boy into her car and drove roughly 12 miles to a hospital, later telling investigators she thought paramedics would take too long to reach the beach. A Corpus Christi fire station sat less than three miles from the spot. Taylor was pronounced dead at the hospital.¹

Laura Day’s Hidden Criminal Past

The “20/20” episode leaned heavily on what investigators uncovered about Day after Taylor’s death. Born Laura Lee Feist, she shot and killed her 21-year-old boyfriend, James Kendall, in Laguna Beach, California, in May 1982, when she was 17. She said she had acted in self-defense against an abusive partner, but investigators found no evidence supporting her claims of abuse. She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and served six years of a 17-year sentence in the California Youth Authority.¹³

After her release she changed her name and picked up more convictions. In 1993, in Baltimore, she was convicted of bigamy for being married to two men at once and received six months of probation with court-ordered counseling. In 1995 she was convicted of burglary for stealing a $3,000 engagement ring and commemorative plaques from neighbors, and of malicious burning for torching her own car for insurance money. She drew five years for the burglary and two for the arson, with all but six months suspended.³

Former Laguna Beach police officer Jason Kravetz appeared on the episode to provide background on the 1982 killing.⁴

The Rushed Marriage and Warnings David Syring Missed

David Syring, Taylor’s father, began an affair with Day in May 2012 while still married to Taylor’s mother, Kelly. After the Syrings’ divorce, David and Day married in Las Vegas about three months later. David has said the wedding was rushed to satisfy a morality clause in his divorce decree that barred non-spouse overnight guests from being around Taylor. He and Day had been married for roughly two months when Taylor drowned.¹

One week before the drowning, David found Day’s criminal records in an online search. When he confronted her she denied the records were hers, and he found her explanations “believable and plausible.” He later said “so many red flags” had escaped him and that he felt “tangled up” and unable to tell whether he was being manipulated. Recorded jail calls captured Day pressing him on whether he loved her more than his ex-wife. David described her on “20/20” as a “great manipulator” who tried to isolate him: “She wanted it to just be us.”¹⁵

Why the Jury Called It Murder

Day was arrested three days after Taylor’s death, initially on child endangerment charges. In January 2013, prosecutors elevated the charges to capital murder and added counts of injury to a child and abandoning or endangering a child. They declined to seek the death penalty, which made the sentence, on conviction, mandatory life without parole.¹²

Former prosecutor Brittany Jensen, who tried the case and appeared on “20/20,” argued the drowning was deliberate. Several pieces of evidence carried that argument:

Day told police she had gone home for towels and swimsuits before the beach. Investigators found Taylor’s school clothes still in her car, and later jail calls confirmed she never went home.¹
A drowning expert testified that wind and wave conditions that day would have pushed Taylor’s body to the left, not 50 yards to the right where Day said she found him. The expert called it “highly improbable” that she could have located him as described unless she had been in his immediate vicinity the whole time.¹
Witness Rene Ruiz testified that as Day drove off the beach with Taylor unconscious in her car, she waved and smiled at him.¹
Kelly Syring described Day as “emotionless” at the hospital: “She was standing there. Just not doing anything. Not crying. Nothing.”¹
Prosecutors introduced Day’s 1982 California murder conviction and jail calls in which she voiced possessive jealousy over David’s ex-wife, which they argued spoke to motive.¹

The defense argued the drowning was a tragic accident and that no caretaker can watch a child every second at a beach. Drowning prevention expert John Fletemeyer testified for the defense that “long shore drift” can move in either direction and that the conditions “certainly could explain why the little boy was 50 yards down the beach.”¹

After a six-day trial in June 2013, a Nueces County jury convicted Day of capital murder, injury to a child, and abandoning or endangering a child. The 214th District Court sentenced her to mandatory life without parole.²⁶

What Laura Day Said From Prison

“20/20” interviewed Day in prison, and she maintained the drowning was an accident. “A tragic accident happened. I tried to save him,” she said. She described finding Taylor face down and trying to clear his lungs: “It just wasn’t coming out. I didn’t know why. I panicked. And I was disoriented.” Asked about the 1982 killing in California, she declined to talk: “I’m not supposed to talk about that. My attorney told me not to.”¹

The episode, titled “Wave of Deceit,” originally aired June 3, 2022, with an encore broadcast on July 5, 2024. It featured David Syring, Kelly Syring, Jensen, and Kravetz alongside Day’s prison interview.⁴

Where the Case Stands Now

Day remains incarcerated and continues to serve life without parole. The Texas Court of Appeals affirmed her conviction on August 11, 2016, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused her petition for discretionary review on December 7, 2016. Subsequent habeas petitions have also been denied.⁶⁷

David Syring and Day are divorced. He initially believed her and hired an attorney to help with her defense, but his view shifted. “I believe that this is probably the worst punishment for her. To be in prison,” he told “20/20.” Day wrote to him from prison until 2019, when he stopped answering. He said she has never apologized for Taylor’s death. According to the reporting, Day has since found a new boyfriend through a prison pen-pal service.¹⁵

Kelly Syring described feelings of grief, forgiveness, and anger on the episode. “I have forgiven Laura,” she said. “That doesn’t mean she needs to come out of jail. She gets to spend the rest of her life in a jail cell. Miserable.” She also faulted her ex-husband: “I blame him, too. This is partly his fault. He knew about her past.”¹

1
ABC News. Laura Day Speaks on Drowning Murder of Stepson
2
Caller-Times. ABC’s 20/20 Re-Examines 6-Year-Old’s 2012 Padre Island Drowning
3
Houston Press. Laura Lee Day Charged in Connection With Drowning of 6-Year-Old Stepson
4
Detroit Press. 20/20 Uncovers How a Texas Stepmother’s Picture-Perfect Life Masked a Shocking Criminal Past
5
ABC 7 News. Laura Lee Day Speaks on Drowning Murder of Stepson
6
vLex. Day v. State, No. 13-13-00338-CR
7
Judy Records. Day v. State, Petition for Discretionary Review