South Carolina law enforcement is targeting two possible persons of interest in the 2015 murder of gay teen Stephen Smith, who was found dead just miles from Alex Murdaugh’s former hunting property.
local news website FitsNews has named the two people as Patrick Wilson and Shawn Connelly, both 25, citing sources with the South Carolina Division of Law Enforcement.
DailyMail.com has contacted SLED for comment on the new revelations. Stephen Smith was found dead in the middle of a two-lane highway in Hampton County on July 8, 2015. His car with the gas cap missing and his wallet still inside was found a short distance away.
According to the FitsNews report, Connelly and Wilson, both teenagers at the time, were living in Hampton County when Smith was killed.
Stephen Smith (right) and his mother Sandy (left). His family have long believed that he was murdered, as Stephen’s body reportedly had no injuries from the torso down and no car parts were found at the scene.
The article, which was written by the website’s founder, Will Forks, alleges that five months after Smith’s death, Wilson’s stepfather, Darrell Williams, said his stepson told him that Connelly “beat and killed Stephen Smith.” “.
Williams, in turn, notified the police. Williams later told investigators that Wilson had moved and he didn’t know where he lived.
When efforts to locate him stalled, Williams said Alex Murdaugh’s brother, Randy, initially told him to call the police.
It has long been speculated that Buster Murdaugh, Alex’s eldest son, was somehow involved in Smith’s death, including allegations that the pair had a sexual relationship.
The deceased was Buster’s tutor at school and the two played on the same baseball team for a time.
These unsubstantiated rumors about my relationship with Stephen and his death are false. I unequivocally deny any involvement in his death, and my heart goes out to the Smith family,” Buster said in a statement earlier this month.
The FitsNews report goes on to say that at the time of Darrell Williams’ phone call to police, Wilson was facing attempted murder charges that were later dropped by a judge who was described as “serving the Murdaughs.”
Additionally, within 12 months of Smith’s death, both of Connelly’s car accident lawsuits were dismissed by “pro-Murdaugh judges,” according to the website.
Online records show that Connelly has a lengthy criminal history in South Carolina.
His charges range from multiple traffic violations, including DUI, domestic violence, hunting without a license, illegally killing an antlerless deer and purchasing alcohol while underage.
A memorial to Smith, erected at the site where he was found dead in Hampton, South Carolina, in 2015.
Police suspected that he had been shot, but his death was ruled a hit-and-run.
Wilson has been on a charge since his attempted murder charges were dropped, in 2017 he was charged with a boating offence.
There is no current evidence linking Stephen Smith’s death to the Murdaugh family, lawyers for the mother say.
State investigators, who are also looking into Smith’s death, have been quiet about taking up the case around the same time police said Murdaugh killed his wife and son. He’s serving a life sentence for those murders.
But the lack of evidence has not stopped the speculation. And that attention in turn helped Sandy Smith raise more than $87,000 in less than two weeks through Go Fund Me. Her goal was $15,000, enough to pay for the exhumation of her son’s body and to perform a private autopsy.
“It’s important to me because I love my son and because I couldn’t protect him, I’m going to fight for him,” Sandy Smith told reporters Monday when her lawyers announced the private investigation.
The police officer who discovered Smith’s body did not think it was a hit-and-run, but the pathologist who did the autopsy theorized that Smith was struck in the head by the side mirror of a passing truck and failed to stop.
Buster Murdaugh and his girlfriend Brooklynn White walk into the Colleton County courthouse in South Carolina in February for her father’s double murder trial.
Maggie Murdaugh is seen with her husband Alex and their sons Buster (right) and Paul (left)
In Monday’s statement, shared by Alex Murdaugh’s trial attorney, Jim Griffin, Buster called the claims “baseless.”
Police said it appeared he ran out of gas and was walking for help, but attorney Eric Bland, who represents the Smith family, said Smith did not make any calls on his cell phone and that his shoes, which were tied loosely, they were still on. His feet. People hit by cars often find themselves without their shoes due to the force of the accident.
Smith’s family believes that his injuries, including head injuries and a dislocated and bent arm behind him, indicate that he was beaten to death and thrown onto the road.
No skid marks were found on the road and no debris such as broken glass or mirror parts was found nearby, said Ronnie Richter, another attorney for the Smiths.
State agents took up the case in 2021, although they have never said why they decided to do so or whether it is related to information found during the investigation into the deaths of Alex Murdaugh’s wife and son.
Troopers often investigate traffic deaths in South Carolina, where state troopers often investigate other crimes.
The head of the State Law Enforcement Division, Mark Keel, reached out to Smith’s new attorneys to ask if they would share any new information they find through the autopsy or any other investigation, the agency spokeswoman said, Renee Wunderlich.
“We believe it was murder,” Keel said. The state newspaper earlier this month. We don’t think it was a hit-and-run.
Investigators believe people may be more willing to speak up now that the murder trial is over, said Bland, an attorney for the Smith family.
The first step of the private investigation will be to obtain permission from a judge to exhume the body of Stephen Smith. Backing from state agents would likely help that request.
Bland also hopes that private investigators will be able to collect and analyze data from Smith’s cell phone and the people he was communicating with to piece together who he was dating and what he was doing not only just before his body was found, but also in the weeks prior to his death. .
‘Stephen had to live a secret life. Being young and gay in the Lowcountry was not an easy thing to do,” Bland said.
Smith and Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster, went to the same high school, sparking rumors that the Murdaugh family was involved in his death.
Richter went out of his way this week to say they have no evidence that Buster Murdaugh was involved in anything with Smith.