Steps Toward a Resolution of Stephen Smith’s Enigma: A New Autopsy for a Disgraced Lawyer and the Murdaugh Family

The family of a teenager who was found dead eight months ago near the hunting estate of a disgraced South Carolina attorney plans to have his body exhumed for an autopsy.

Stephen Smith’s death was initially ruled an unsolved hit-and-run, but his mother has rejected that suggestion and says she hopes the new autopsy will help answer questions about what really happened to her son.

“Our family is so very grateful to all of you who came together to help us in our fight for justice for Stephen,” Sandy Smith wrote on a GoFundMe page that had raised more than $60,000 to pay for the exhumation.

The Murdaugh family was sentenced to life in prison in June of this year for killing their two children, but no connection has been made by authorities about Smith’s death. Murdaugh has appealed his convictions.

SLED announced in June 2021 it was opening the investigation into Smith’s death based on information learned while probing the murders of Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh and her son Paul Murdaugh earlier that month. It has not given any details into what was found.

Though he’s been convicted of the two murders, Murdaugh still faces a slew of other criminal charges related to alleged financial crimes, some of which the former lawyer admitted to on the stand during his trial.

Both witnesses and investigators mention the name of Alex Murdaugh in the initial investigation of his murder, including the name of his surviving son, Buster.

During one audio interview of a witness, then-Trooper Todd Proctor says, “Buster was on our radar. … The Murdaughs are aware of that. It’s not clear why he was on their radar. Neither he nor anyone else has been charged in the case.

Murdaugh denied any involvement in Smith’s death and requested the media to stop publishing defamation comments and rumors about him.

There was no debris, skid marks, or injuries consistent with someone being struck by a vehicle, as noted in the highway patrol’s MultiDisciplinary Accident Investigation Team report.

Notes from investigators in the case file say that “according to family, Stephen would never have been walking in the middle of the roadway” and that he was “very skittish.”

The vehicle was found three miles away, with the gas tank open and the gas cap hanging out, according to the report. The battery of the vehicle was functional but the car wouldn’t start.

A Memorino of a Man, and an Insider’s Analysis of Smith’s Execution and His Relationship with a Victim

Bland said that their job was not to find out who did it. We do not do criminal cases, what we are trying to do is give a mother answers.

The investigation will also involve looking at Smith’s life, Bland added, and what kind of communication the teen had and who he was associating with in the days before his death. Bland said anything that was learned would be shared with law enforcement.