Timeline: The mysterious dying of Stephen Smith in Murdaugh nation

Whereas investigating the murders of Alex Murdaugh‘s spouse Maggie and son Paul in June 2021, the South Carolina Regulation Enforcement Division (SLED) stumbled throughout a clue in one other mysterious dying — that of Stephen Smith, a 19-year-old who’d been discovered useless on July 8, 2015. His dying was dominated successful and run though investigators on the scene discovered no proof of 1, and the case had gone chilly till SLED’s discovery after the Murdaugh murders introduced it again to life. SLED introduced it could be renewing the investigation into Smith’s dying, sparking new theories and reviving previous rumors.  

SLED has by no means mentioned what it discovered that led them again to Stephen Smith, however by way of stories and interviews discovered within the 2015 case file 48 Hours pieced collectively what occurred within the authentic investigation by the South Carolina Freeway Patrol. 

The story of Stephen Smith’s dying begins along with his ultimate dialog along with his mom, only a week earlier than his dying.

July 1, 2015: An uncommon dialog

Sandy Smith says the final time she noticed her son Stephen was July 1, 2015, when he visited her home. Stephen was a nursing scholar on the time and was shuttling between the houses of his mother and father, who lived aside. Sandy says Stephen advised her one thing that day that now provides her pause. 

“He advised me that he was goin’ on a fishin’ journey, deep sea fishin’,” Sandy advised “48 Hours.” What appeared odd, in line with Sandy, was that Stephen mentioned he was taking the journey with “a distinguished particular person.” To today, Sandy would not know who that distinguished particular person might have been, and Stephen by no means mentioned. 

Regardless of the mysterious alternate, Sandy says her final day along with her son was joyful. As he left her home, she warned him of an oncoming storm and advised him to textual content her when he arrived at his vacation spot. “So, when he made it, he texts me and says, ‘I made it protected, Mother. Mama, I really like you.'” Sandy says these have been Stephen’s final phrases to her.

July 8, 2015 | 3:59 a.m.: A physique within the roadway

On July 8, 2015, an area man was on his strategy to work within the early morning hours when he seen somebody mendacity within the street — within the location indicated by the pink sq. within the picture above. Involved, the person known as 911 at 3:59 a.m. Officers have been dispatched to the scene and located Stephen deceased within the roadway, blood pooling round his head. 

What precisely had occurred to Stephen? Freeway Patrol brokers famous that there was not one of the proof you may sometimes discover on the scene of a automobile accident. Officers noticed no particles within the roadway, skid marks or accidents in keeping with somebody being struck head-on by a automobile. What they did see was a big wound to Stephen’s head. It was so vital that the incident report notes, “After checking the physique, it seems that the sufferer had been shot.”  

Thomas Moore, a retired lieutenant with the South Carolina Freeway Patrol and an on-scene supervisor for the Smith case, advised “48 Hours,” “The consensus once I obtained there, speakin’ with the coroner, the primary phrases out of his mouth was, ‘This isn’t successful and run. It is a homicide.'”

July 8, 2015 | Early morning hours: Stephen Smith’s automobile discovered

Not lengthy after Stephen’s physique was discovered officers found his automobile, as nicely. It was pulled over on the aspect of the street almost three miles away, with the gasoline cap hanging off.  “In all of the years I’ve labored, a automobile sittin’ on the aspect of the street with the gasoline cap off is — just isn’t regular,” former Lieutenant Thomas Moore says. “I believed it was staged.”  

So, had Stephen run out of gasoline and determined to stroll down the street searching for assist? Or was this really a staged crime scene? It appears from the case file that there have been extra questions than solutions that July morning.

July 8, 2015 | Later that morning: “The largest shock”

Whereas officers have been nonetheless on the scene on the morning of July 8, 2015, Sandy tuned in to an area radio present on her strategy to work. The host mentioned a physique had been discovered on a rural street, and Sandy acknowledged the placement. It was near Stephen’s father’s home.  

“So, I known as [Stephen’s sister] and requested her if every thing was OK,” she advised “48 Hours.” “And he or she mentioned, “‘Mama, did Stephen stick with you final evening? As a result of he did not come residence final evening.'” After which my abdomen dropped, and I knew it was him.” Sandy ultimately acquired affirmation: the physique discovered within the street was her son.  “I misplaced it then,” Sandy says. “It was simply the largest shock of our life.”  

July 8, 2015 | 12:30 p.m.: The post-mortem: not a gunshot wound

At 12:30 p.m., as Sandy mourned, Stephen was taken for an post-mortem. Although officers initially believed Stephen had been shot as a result of manner his wound appeared on the scene, the health worker performing the post-mortem discovered no proof of a bullet and got here to a special conclusion. 

“It’s the opinion of the pathologist that the decedent died of blunt head trauma sustained in a motorized vehicle crash during which the decedent was a pedestrian struck by a automobile,” the physician wrote. In easy phrases: Stephen wasn’t shot, he was struck by a automobile whereas strolling within the street.  

To Sandy, that conclusion did not sound correct. She says Stephen was cautious and would by no means have been strolling in the midst of the street so late at evening. One thing appeared fishy, and she or he was decided to search out out what had actually occurred to her son.

July 17, 2015: Unsubstantiated rumors

Quickly after Stephen’s physique was discovered, Hampton County Guardian managing editor Michael DeWitt says rumors began spreading within the Lowcountry. “All people is aware of everyone,” he advised “48 Hours” of Hampton’s small-town environment.  

It was very true that everybody knew the Murdaugh household. Alex Murdaugh was a distinguished lawyer, and three generations of Murdaugh males had held the highest prosecutor job within the circuit for almost a century. It was pure, Sandy says, for all roads in Hampton to result in the Murdaughs. “Something occurs,” she says, “the Murdaugh identify comes up.” 

Quickly the identify appeared within the Stephen Smith case file. On July 17, 2015, a recorded interview signifies that the Freeway Patrol was knowledgeable of a rumor circulating about Buster Murdaugh, Alex Murdaugh’s oldest son. The story officers heard in follow-up interviews was that Buster had supposedly been in a automobile with another boys that evening, once they noticed Stephen within the street and struck him with an object.  

Numerous variations of the rumor circulated locally, many pointing to Buster Murdaugh’s purported involvement. However there isn’t any public proof that Buster or any Murdaugh had something to do with Stephen’s dying, and Buster himself has since contested the claims. 

“These baseless rumors of my involvement with Stephen and his dying are false,” he mentioned in a press release launched by way of his father’s lawyer in 2023. “I unequivocally deny any involvement in his dying, and my coronary heart goes out to the Smith household.” 

The case file signifies that investigators made a name to Buster in 2015, however there isn’t any report of any investigator having spoken to him.  

Dec. 18, 2015: A doable lead

The Buster Murdaugh rumor wasn’t the one story the South Carolina Freeway Patrol heard. In line with the case file, on Dec. 18, 2015, a Freeway Patrol officer was made conscious of one other tip known as in by a person named Darrell Williams.  

Williams advised police that his stepson, a younger man named Patrick Wilson, had come over to his home and advised him a narrative involving his good friend Shawn Connelly. Wilson mentioned Connelly advised him he’d been driving  drunk and had hit one thing he thought may’ve been a deer, then returned to the world the subsequent day and noticed regulation enforcement on the scene. 

Although the case file signifies makes an attempt have been made to search out Wilson and Connelly, there isn’t any report of officers ever talking to both of them. Wilson had no remark to 48 Hours.  Messages to the Hampton’s County Sheriff’s Workplace, Williams, and Connelly haven’t been answered. Sandy Smith says she requested Shawn Connelly level clean if he killed Stephen, and he advised her he didn’t. 

2016: The case goes chilly

For causes which are unclear, in 2016 Stephen’s case went chilly. Regardless of the health worker’s opinion that Stephen had been hit by a automobile, former Freeway Patrol Lieutenant Thomas Moore nonetheless believes the case was not an unintentional hit and run, however a homicide. He feels the case went chilly as a result of the Freeway Patrol was not geared up to deal with that kind of investigation alone. 

“The case definitely went chilly on our half. Lotta frustration,” Moore tells “48 Hours.” “From the start I felt like we have been investigating a case that … we do not deal with. We’re not murder investigators.” 

Moore additionally says, “I do not suppose it ever went chilly for Sandy Smith.”  

Sept. 28, 2016 | A plea for out of doors assist  

On Sept. 28, 2016, fed up with the shortage of progress in Stephen’s case, Sandy Smith wrote to the FBI.  

“I used to be simply lettin’ ’em know that, , my son was murdered and there isn’t any progress,” Sandy says. “And simply, “Please assist. Simply please assist me.””  

Her letter was answered. Sandy says brokers got here to her residence, and so they have been later capable of unlock Stephen’s telephone. “[The agent] mentioned there was a whole lot of fascinating data within the telephone that wanted to be checked out,” Sandy says. “There’s somethin’ in that telephone that no person needs on the market.” 

However Sandy says native and state companies did not pursue the data. And regardless of her finest efforts, the case would stay chilly. 

June 7, 2021 | The Murdaugh murders

On June 7, 2021, Maggie and Paul Murdaugh have been discovered useless on the kennels at Moselle, the household’s nation property. It was one other Hampton County tragedy – although this time, there was little doubt that it was homicide. It was investigated from the beginning by the SLED.

June 22, 2021 | SLED steps as much as the plate

On June 22, 2021, lower than a month after the Murdaugh deaths, SLED made an announcement nobody was anticipating. “SLED has opened an investigation into the dying of Stephen Smith,” a spokesperson advised the media, “based mostly upon data gathered in the course of the course of the double homicide investigation of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh.” 

Nobody however SLED is aware of precisely what data it found in the course of the Murdaugh case that pointed them again towards Stephen Smith. However the announcement gave Sandy hope that there may lastly be progress in her son’s case. 

“I hate that one thing unhealthy needed to occur for him to be introduced again up, , dropped at the sunshine,” Sandy says, including: “He deserves justice identical to Paul and Maggie and everyone else. He deserves justice.” 

March 19, 2023: A robust workforce in Sandy Smith’s nook

Two years handed. Even with SLED’s involvement, there did not appear to be any progress in Stephen’s case as SLED centered its sources on investigating Alex Murdaugh. However on March 19, 2023, high-powered South Carolina attorneys Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter introduced their agency can be representing Sandy within the Stephen Smith dying investigation.  

“Ronnie and I are like arsonists. We began the hearth,” Eric Bland says. He and Richter labored with Sandy to get Stephen’s case again within the public eye, within the hopes of elevating consciousness to realize what had been considered one of Sandy’s objectives for years: getting a brand new post-mortem for Stephen, whose method of dying was nonetheless unclear. 

“Our sole aim was to begin the hearth,” says Bland, “To rekindle the curiosity in Stephen’s dying. And what that entailed was us having the ability to get permission to exhume his physique and have a second post-mortem carried out.”

March 31, 2023: Stephen Smith’s physique exhumed

On March 31, 2023, Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter helped Sandy Smith obtain her aim of exhuming Stephen’s physique so one other post-mortem could possibly be carried out. It was an emotional day for Sandy, who says it was joyful for her to see a longtime aim realized.

April 1, 2023: A brand new, unbiased post-mortem

Dr. Michelle DuPre, a former investigator and forensic pathologist who’s carried out greater than 3,000 autopsies, was employed by Bland and Richter to supervise Stephen’s new post-mortem on April 1, 2023. Although outcomes of the post-mortem weren’t publicly shared, in an unique interview, DuPre tells “48 Hours” what she noticed about Stephen’s accidents.  

“There was blunt trauma,” she says, pointing to a spot on a mannequin as pictured within the picture above. “He had a couple of seven-and-a-half inch laceration on the best aspect of his brow that went from his eyebrow to in regards to the center of his head.” 

She was capable of dispel among the confusion surrounding Stephen’s dying that occurred within the authentic investigation. “At one level, there was regarded as a gunshot wound,” she says, “We are able to definitively say that there was not.” She additionally would not consider Stephen’s physique was staged, saying, “We do not consider that he was positioned there. We consider that … no matter occurred, occurred proper there.”

Might 16, 2023: Dr. Kenny Kinsey shares his findings

Bland and Richter additionally employed Dr. Kenny Kinsey, a criminal offense scene skilled and star prosecution witness within the Murdaugh homicide trial, to conduct an unbiased investigation into Stephen’s dying. On Might 16, 2023, he advised CBS Information’ Nikki Battiste about his findings.

“I am as near a level of scientific certainty as I’ve ever felt,” says Dr. Kinsey. He believes Stephen was struck within the head by one thing hanging off of a automobile touring at excessive velocity. “It is a gamut of issues it might’ve been,” he says, “Nevertheless it was likely affixed to that automobile or secured on that automobile.” A aspect mirror on a truck, for instance, can be believable.

“So, a hit-and-run, however an atypical hit-and-run?” Battiste asks.  

“Yeah,” says Dr. Kinsey, “Very atypical.”  

All the data gathered by Dr. Kinsey and Dr. DuPre has been turned over to SLED for his or her ongoing investigation

Sept. 28, 2023: Stephen Smith’s goals stay on

In September 2023, Sandy Smith introduced the creation of the Stephen Nicholas Smith Memorial Scholarship. As acknowledged on the web site for the Neighborhood Basis of the Lowcountry, “the mission of the Stephen Nicholas Smith Memorial Scholarship Fund is to offer annual scholarship help for certified college students with monetary want.” 

Stephen’s goals of changing into a health care provider have been tragically minimize brief. He was buried in his scrubs along with his stethoscope, Sandy says, “every thing he wanted.”  

Now Sandy hopes this scholarship in his identify will present alternatives for youths like Stephen trying to pursue their objectives by way of greater schooling. 

2023: Hope for justice  

SLED’s investigation into Stephen Smith’s dying has up to now yielded no new public data, and it is unclear how a lot progress has been made. Sandy’s attorneys verify a grand jury was empaneled and has issued subpoenas.  

Sandy hasn’t given up hope. She has supplied a $30,000 reward for any data resulting in an arrest in Stephen’s case and urges anybody who is aware of something about his dying to return ahead. When you have any data on the dying of Stephen Smith, e mail SLED at suggestions@sled.sc.gov right this moment.