Dead in a road, inconsistent injuries and Murdaugh family murmurs: What happened to Stephen Smith?
Stephen Smith was just 19 when his body was found in the middle of a road in Hampton County, South Carolina, in July 2015.
His death was ultimately ruled a hit and run – but it’s a version of events investigators, Smith’s family and members of the local community have never believed.
Along with inconsistencies in the scene and victim’s body, there was also the fact that one name repeatedly cropped up during the investigation: Murdaugh.
Six years later, that name would shoot to international attention when the family patriarch Alex Murdaugh murdered his wife Maggie and son Paul in a brutal double homicide.
In February, Murdaugh was convicted of their murders and sentenced to life in prison. He is also awaiting charges over a vast financial fraud scheme and other deaths tied to the family are now back under the spotlight once more.
For almost eight years, Smith’s mother Sandy has fought to get answers over her son’s death.
Now, his body is set to be exhumed after she raised over $65,000 through a GoFundMe to pay for an independent exhumation and autopsy following Murdaugh’s conviction.
Here’s what we know about the case:
Mysterious death
Smith, a 19-year-old openly gay teenager and nursing student, was found dead in the middle of a road in Hampton County back on 8 July 2015.
His body was found not far from the Murdaugh family’s Moselle estate where Maggie and Paul were murdered six years later.
He had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and his car was found around three miles away down the road.
His death was officially ruled a hit-and-run.
Yet, police reports revealed that the scene, and some of Smith’s injuries, were inconsistent with being struck by a car.
The victim’s family – and investigators who worked on the initial case – have long doubted this version of events but the case was closed.
Ties to the Murdaugh family
There have long been murmurings in the community that a “Murdaugh boy” may have been involved in Smith’s death.
In the initial case, the Murdaugh name came up 40 times in documents, reported Live5News.
Smith had been a classmate of Buster Murdaugh – Alex and Maggie Murdaugh’s eldest and now only surviving son – and there were rumours that the two had been in a relationship around the time of his death.
Earlier this month, when Murdaugh was led out of the courthoyse after being sentenced to life for Maggie and Paul’s murders, a bystander shouted that “Buster is next” for “justice” – an apparent reference to the Smith case.
Investigators have not announced any connection between the Murdaugh fanmily and Smith’s death.
Case reopened
On 7 June 2021, Murdaugh gunned down his wife Maggie and son Paul on the affluent family’s sprawling 1,700-acre estate in Islandton.
This propelled the Smith case into the spotlight once more.
Just days after the murders, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) – the agency probing the murders – announced that it was reopening an investigation into Smith’s death based on information that had come to light during the investigation into Maggie and Paul’s murders.
It is not clear what information prompted the launch of the investigation into Smith’s death and no further details have been released over the course of the last 21 months.
In January 2023, SLED only said it had “made progress” in the case.
Exhumation and autopsy
Following Murdaugh’s conviction, Ms Smith launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to pay for his body to be exhumed and an independent autopsy conducted.
“We feel it’s critical to seek a new goal - an independent exhumation and autopsy - and we’re launching Justice for Stephen N. Smith with that immediate goal in mind,” the fundraiser said.
“While the state can elect and fund an exhumation and new autopsy, it is our understanding that it would be carried out at MUSC, where his death was initially classified as hit-and-run despite no evidence to support it.
“We need a new, unbiased look at his body and an accurate determination of his cause of death based on facts. There was no debris in the road, and his injuries were not consistent with a hit-and-run.”
The family was seeking $7,000 for the independent autopsy and with help paying for a private medical examiner at a rate of around $750 per hour.
As of Monday morning, more than $65,000 has been raised taking the Smith family well beyond the goal.
In an update, Ms Smith thanked supporters for their contributions and said the family plans to begin the exhumation “immediately”.
“I could not have imagined when we began this fundraiser that it would take off the way that it did,” she wrote.
“Thank you for not allowing Stephen’s story to be swept under a rug. We will pursue the exhumation immediately and provide updates along the way.”
Ms Smith and her new attorneys – Bland Richter LLP founders Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter – are set to give a press conference to update the public on Monday morning.
