The body of a South Carolina teenager whose death in 2015 came under renewed interest following the Murdaugh murders has been exhumed and will now be re-examined.
Stephen Smith, 19, was found dead in the middle of a road in Hampton County. He went to school with Buster Murdaugh, the surviving son of Alex Murdaugh – who was found guilty of murdering his wife Maggie and son Paul last month.
Smith, who was openly gay, was initially said to have died in a hit and run. But after the flurry of interest in the Murdaugh case and rumors that Smith and Buster Murduagh had a sexual relationship, Smith’s case was reopened in June 2021.
On March 23, his death was declared a homicide and his mother Sandy launched a GoFundMe to pay for the exhumation of his body.
The campaign has now raised $188,000 and on Friday his body was removed from Gooding Cemetery in Hampton County.
photos obtained by TMZ show the disturbed grave. A new autopsy will now be performed.
Stephen Smith’s grave is pictured after the excavation, in an image obtained by TMZ
Stephen Smith was found dead on the road in Hampton County. His body was exhumed Friday
Stephen Smith (right) and his mother Sandy (left). His family has long believed he was murdered – as Stephen’s body reportedly had no injuries from the torso and no car parts were found at the scene
Eric Bland, the lawyer representing the Smith family, said they will not comment on the dig.
“We have been hired to exhume Steven and perform a second autopsy and that is what we intend to do,” he tweeted Saturday.
“We are not law enforcement officers. We will work with SLED and any subsequent research, but it’s their research because they have tools and things available to them that we can’t do.”
He added: “Justice is coming and I don’t think anything can stop that.”
Last week, Bland said Smith’s phone is now unlocked.
“I think the case will be solved by phone evidence or computer evidence, both before and after the murder,” he said
“We intend to take a fresh look at this case as if we were walking to the crime scene for the first time.
“SLED has his cell phone and they cracked it,” he told The Hampton County Guardian.
“And they have the tablet and are working to crack it.”
The Smith family pressures detectives to track down a rape kit, which was lost after Stephen’s death.
Sandy Smith has urged police to investigate ties to Buster Murdaugh.
Buster Murdaugh issued a statement last month stressing that he had nothing to do with his classmate’s death.
“These unfounded rumors about my involvement with Stephen and his death are false,” he said.
“I unequivocally deny any involvement in his death, and my heart goes out to the Smith family.”
A tribute to Smith erected on the site where he was found dead in 2015 in Hampton, South Carolina
Police suspected he had been shot, but his death was ruled a hit and run
Smith was found dead just a few miles from Alex Murdaugh’s former hunting estate.
Local news website FitsNews has named two people — Patrick Wilson and Shawn Connelly, both 25 — as potentially interesting, citing South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) sources.
According to the FitsNews report, Connelly and Wilson, who were both teenagers at the time, were living in Hampton County when Smith was killed.
FitsNews alleges that five months after Smith’s death, Wilson’s stepfather, Darrell Williams, said that Wilson had 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 did not know where he lived.
When efforts to locate him stalled, Williams said he was instructed by Alex Murdaugh’s brother, Randy, to call the police.
Stephen Smith, who was 19 at the time of his death in July 2015
Maggie Murdaugh is seen with husband Alex and sons Buster (right) and Paul (left)
In the statement from Jim Griffin, Alex Murdaugh’s attorney, Buster called the allegations “baseless”
The paper reported that both Connelly and Wilson were well known to police, and that Wilson was charged with murder, which was dropped.
Online records show that Connelly has a long criminal record in South Carolina, including multiple traffic violations, DUIs, domestic violence, hunting without a license, unlawfully killing an antlerless deer, and purchasing alcohol as a minor.
The trooper who discovered Smith’s body didn’t think it was a hit and run, but the pathologist who did the autopsy assumed Smith was hit in the head by the side mirror of a passing truck that wouldn’t stop.
Police said he appeared to have run out of gas and was seeking help, but Bland said Smith did not call on his cell phone and his shoes, which were loosely tied, were still on his feet.
Due to the force of the wreck, people are often hit by cars without their shoes.
Smith’s family believe his injuries, including a head injury and a dislocated arm bent behind him, indicate he was beaten to death and fell on the highway.
Bland also hopes that the private investigators can collect and analyze cell phone records of Smith and the people he communicated with to reconstruct who he associated with and what he did, not only just before his body was found, but also in the weeks leading up to his death. dead. .
Stephen had to live a secret life. Being young and gay in the Low Country wasn’t easy,’ Bland said.