What do Stephen Smith’s accidents inform in regards to the SC teen’s dying? New findings revealed.

Years earlier than disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh was convicted for the murders of his spouse and son, there was one other thriller in Murdaugh nation — the dying of Stephen Smith, a 19-year-old homosexual man whose physique was discovered in the course of a rural street on July 8, 2015. The health worker dominated it successful and run.

For years, his mom Sandy Smith wished a second opinion, satisfied Stephen’s dying was no accident.

“There was no automobile particles, no damaged headlight … paint scrapes or something,” Hampton County Guardian editor Michael DeWitt Jr. tells “48 Hours.”

The case went chilly till the murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh introduced it again to life.

Pissed off by an absence of solutions, Sandy Smith is working with a staff of attorneys and consultants to search out out what occurred to her son. “48 Hours” has obtained unique entry to the findings of an impartial investigation into Stephen Smith’s unsolved dying.

“The accidents can inform us a lot about what occurred,” says Dr. Michelle DuPre, a former investigator and forensic pathologist who oversaw the examination of Smith’s physique. DuPre spoke to “48 Hours” contributor and CBS Information nationwide correspondent Nikki Battiste. Simply as vital as what they discovered, DuPre says, is what they did not discover.

A SON’S LAST WORDS TO HIS MOTHER

Like his mom Sandy, Stephen Smith was born a fighter.

Sandy Smith: He was a preemie. He weighed two kilos, 12 ounces. And —

Nikki Battiste: A twin?

Sandy Smith: Yeah, a twin.

Born at 27 weeks together with his sister Stephanie, Sandy says Stephen could not breathe on his personal. After a number of months, she was advised he won’t make it, and she or he was lastly allowed to carry her child for the primary time.

Nikki Battiste: How was that second?

Sandy Smith: Oh my gosh, it was amazin’. … it was purported to be my goodbye. However he began breathin’ on his personal.

Nikki Battiste: ‘Trigger he felt you?

Sandy Smith: Yeah. … That is why he was my coronary heart.

Sandy by no means dreamed she’d at some point be combating for solutions in her son’s dying.

Nikki Battiste: How would you describe … the journey that you’ve got been on for justice?

Sandy Smith: It has been a tough journey – simply dwelling daily and combating daily.

On July 8, 2015, Stephen was discovered useless on a rustic street in Hampton County. It is the identical county the place three generations of Murdaugh males had held the highest prosecutor job for practically a century. The Murdaughs nonetheless loomed massive over small-town life.

Nikki Battiste: Alex Murdaugh coached Stephen’s baseball staff at one level?

Sandy Smith: After they have been little … I feel Stephen was like … 7 or 8.

Stephen and Stephanie have been additionally classmates of Murdaugh’s older son Buster earlier than Stephen went to nursing college with goals of at some point changing into a physician.

Sandy Smith: He wished to be a physician … but it surely was dearer … so he simply began with nursing college.

Sandy Smith: He beloved dealin’ with medication … he simply beloved it.

Nikki Batiste: You should have been so proud.

Sandy Smith: Oh, I used to be.

However as a substitute, Sandy says these goals have been buried along with her son.

Nikki Battiste: You determined to bury him in his scrubs?

Sandy Smith: Scrubs. Dr. Stephen Smith. He had the whole lot he wanted in his pockets. He had his stethoscope and the whole lot he wanted.

Stephen had simply accomplished a semester of college and was taking summer season lessons, shuttling backwards and forwards between his dad and mom, who lived aside. He had visited Sandy every week earlier than he was killed.

Sandy Smith: A storm began brewin’. … I advised him that he wanted to rush up and get again to his dad’s home … So when he made it he texts me and says, “I made it protected, Mother. Mama, I like you.”

Sandy says these have been Stephen’s final phrases to her. Days later she would hear the information that may alter the course of her life.

Sandy Smith: July eighth I used to be on my method to work, and I used to be listenin’ to an area radio station … and I heard that they’d discovered a physique.

Sandy known as her daughter Stephanie immediately.

Sandy Smith: She mentioned ‘Mama, did Stephen stick with you final evening? As a result of he did not come house final evening.” … After which my abdomen dropped, and I knew it was him.

Sandy says Stephen’s father Joel went to the sheriff’s workplace for affirmation that it was Stephen. That is when she says they acquired a name.

Sandy Smith: I used to be on the telephone with Joel the entire time whereas we have been waitin’ for the sheriff to return out. And that is when Joel requested me to carry on as a result of Randy Murdaugh was callin’…

Randy Murdaugh is Alex Murdaugh’s older brother and had been representing Joel Smith in a employee’s comp case. However now, he was calling about Stephen.

Sandy Smith: When Joel bought again on the telephone, he mentioned Randy … requested if that was our Stephen … and that … he wished to assist professional bono.

Nikki Battiste: Did you suppose it was unusual that Randy provided to assist professional bono?

Sandy Smith: Effectively, I did … However Joel thought it was a pleasant gesture.

Later that morning Sandy says she was shocked once more as she drove previous the scene the place Stephen’s physique had reportedly been discovered.

Sandy Smith: There was Alex and Randy standin’ on the other aspect of the street.

Nikki Battiste: Murdaugh?

Sandy Smith: Murdaughs.

A couple of minutes later, Sandy says Randy Murdaugh known as once more.

Sandy Smith: And requested if that was me that handed by. … He mentioned, “I want you’da stopped so I coulda’ met you.”

Randy Murdaugh declined our request for an interview. However by means of his lawyer he supplied a written assertion to “48 Hours,” by which he mentioned:  

“I used to be not conscious of Stephen’s dying till Joel advised me…They wished my involvement, and I contacted regulation enforcement on their behalf.”  

Randy Murdaugh mentioned he went to the scene with a non-public investigator after assembly with Joel and Stephanie, including: 

“Claims that I visited the scene of Stephen’s dying with my brother, Alex, are false.” 

Joel Smith handed away three months after Stephen. However Stephanie and Sandy advised “48 Hours” they by no means requested the Murdaughs for assist. And there have been different issues about Stephen’s case that did not sit effectively with Sandy from the second the Sheriff confirmed the physique was Stephen’s. At first he advised them Stephen had been shot.

Nikki Battiste: What have been you pondering?

Sandy Smith: Who would shoot him? … It made no sense. … I misplaced it then. … I left my job and simply drove again to Hampton … And we simply mourned collectively. We simply could not perceive why or who…. it was simply the most important shock of our life.

Inside hours, Stephen’s explanation for dying was immediately modified to successful and run.

Thomas Moore: Towards the evenin’ time we have been contacted by the sheriff’s workplace … after his post-mortem there was not any sort of bullet or bullet fragment present in his head … as a result of his physique was discovered within the roadway it was bein’ dominated successful and run.

Retired South Carolina Freeway Patrol Lieutenant Thomas Moore was the on-scene supervisor.

Thomas Moore: I used to be advised that the health worker … made that rulin.’ I reached out to her. … It turned a bit of bit heated. … “Give me a solution medically … that may lead you to consider he was hit by a automobile.” … there was no medical cause.

Nikki Battiste: Did you see any indicators of a hit-and-run?

Thomas Moore: No, ma’am … none. … any sort of particles — any kinda glass, automobile components … piece of plastic, something that appears like it might be associated to a automobile.

Additionally uncommon for a hit-and-run, Stephen’s clothes was intact and his sneakers, which have been loosely tied, have been nonetheless on.

Thomas Moore: Typically garments are torn … or unraveled and sneakers have come off.

And Stephen’s automobile keys and cellphone have been in his entrance pocket, unhurt. And, Moore says, Stephen’s physique appeared staged.

Thomas Moore: His physique was layin’ … prefer it had been positioned in a sure place — not what you’d usually see and … it seemed like someone had hit him within the head with some kinda’ object.

In the meantime, Stephen’s pockets was nonetheless in his automobile, which investigators discovered three miles away with the doorways locked and the fuel cap hanging open.

Thomas Moore: In all of the years I’ve labored – a automobile sittin’ on the aspect of the street with the fuel cap off … isn’t regular. … I believed it was staged, like his physique was staged within the roadway.

Sandy says she questioned if Stephen may need been the sufferer of a hate crime.

Nikki Battiste: Did you suppose it was probably due to his sexuality?

Sandy Smith: I did suppose that … I do know he was teased rather a lot at college, however … he nonetheless held his head excessive.

However Sandy says within the days main as much as his dying Stephen was fearful about his security. He’d known as his sister Stephanie for assist the day earlier than he was killed.

Sandy Smith: Stephanie mentioned … the battery cable was loosened on his automobile. … So she had met him … after which she tightened the battery cable, and she or he requested him to get out of the automobile and assist her. And he mentioned, “no, I am not getting out.”

Nikki Battiste: Like he was scared?

Sandy Smith: Proper.

However he by no means mentioned why.

Regardless of what Lieutenant Moore felt have been suspicious circumstances, he says as soon as Stephen’s dying was dominated successful and run, it turned the Freeway Patrol’s job to resolve the case, as a substitute of the Hampton County Sheriff’s Workplace or SLED — the South Carolina Regulation Enforcement Division.

Thomas Moore: I felt just like the case, for lack of a greater phrase, was bein’ pawned off on us. … It doesn’t matter what we mentioned, we have been gonna be those investigatin’ that case. … As we have been gettin’ began sure names began comin’ up.

Nikki Battiste: Which names?

Thomas Moore: Murdaugh.

RUMORS SWIRL OF MURDAUGH INVOLVEMENT

Quickly after Stephen Smith was killed, Hampton County Guardian managing editor Michael DeWitt says he started listening to persistent rumors throughout city.

Nikki Battiste: What are the rumors?

Michael DeWitt: That at the least one Murdaugh baby was in a automobile with different boys and allegedly, someone within the automobile … struck the younger man with a baseball bat and killed him.

Sandy says those self same rumors hit her doorstep as quickly as Stephen’s physique was taken for an post-mortem.

Sandy Smith: It made no sense to me.

Nikki Battiste: At any level did you suppose that somebody within the Murdaugh household was concerned?

Sandy Smith: Effectively, the longer it went on, the extra I used to be asking myself questions. … However I simply could not discover the connection … a robust household, and then you definitely bought Stephen, who was simply Stephen.

Sandy could not assist however suppose again to her final dialog with Stephen every week earlier than he was killed.

Sandy Smith: Someone was messaging him rather a lot.

Sandy Smith: He advised me that he was goin’ … deep sea fishin’. … he mentioned, “Key West.” And I mentioned, “Effectively, who’re you goin’ with?” He mentioned, “Effectively, I can not let you know.”

Nikki Battiste: Did that make you pause?

Sandy Smith: Yeah. … He mentioned, “You would be shocked. … it is kinda, like, a outstanding individual.” After which all I might say was, “Effectively, I hope you’ve enjoyable.”

Sandy says Stephen had turn into extra secretive the final couple of weeks. However it by no means crossed her thoughts he is likely to be speaking a couple of Murdaugh.

Liz Farrell: The unique rumor was that Stephen was planning to go away with Buster Murdaugh and his household … That they have been collectively romantically.

Liz Farrell is the author and co-host of the “Murdaugh Murders” podcast.

Liz Farrell: There isn’t any proof of that that we all know of.

And “48 Hours” discovered no proof to assist the rumors.

Retired Freeway Patrol Lieutenant Thomas Moore says the mere point out of the Murdaughs made it tough to get assist from native businesses.

Thomas Moore: We … tried at hand that case file over to the sheriff’s workplace, and so they bodily wouldn’t take it from our hand.

Michael DeWitt: The Murdaugh identify was nonetheless very highly effective, very well-connected in regulation enforcement. And the rumors instructed, effectively, the native cops aren’t going to dig into it.

As an alternative, the case was dealt with solely by the Freeway Patrol’s Multi-disciplinary Accident Investigation Workforce —  MAIT — which makes a speciality of complicated automobile crashes.

Thomas Moore: The MAIT staff was from out of city. … And — we wished exterior eyes concerned on this.

The Murdaugh identify seems dozens of instances in MAIT’s 2015 case file, which “48 Hours”  obtained by means of a Freedom of Info request. In his audio notes, Corporal Michael Duncan makes it clear he does not suppose Stephen’s dying is successful and run.

CPL. MICHAEL DUNCAN: There is no such thing as a physique trauma apart from to the top space. … Doesn’t look like, in my view, struck by automobile.

One other investigator, Todd Proctor, goes additional.

TODD PROCTOR: Usually you do not see the Freeway Patrol working a homicide, and that is what that is.

He hints at a battle of curiosity for the native sheriff’s division.

TODD PROCTOR: There is a cause why Hampton County Sheriff’s Division isn’t dealing with this … And I am going to depart it at that.

On this interview with Proctor, native teen Taylor Dobson shares an in depth model of that story about a number of younger males in a truck.

TAYLOR DOBSON: I heard that these two, perhaps three younger males have been in a automobile. They have been using down 601, noticed the automobile on the aspect of the street, I assume noticed the boy strolling. Um, they turned again round. … and caught one thing out the window.

He presents a reputation reluctantly.

TAYLOR DOBSON: He goes by Buster Murdaugh.

Dobson says he grew up with Buster.

TAYLOR DOBSON: Type of out of character to who I knew. … it is simply strictly rumour from all I do know.

Proctor reassures him the Murdaughs are already conscious authorities need to communicate with Buster.

TODD PROCTOR: They know that he is on our radar.

TODD PROCTOR: Matter of truth, I talked to certainly one of their guys yesterday and advised them, you understand, I’ll speak to Buster right here quickly, you understand? They usually mentioned, “OK, that is tremendous.”

However based on the case file, a name to Buster Murdaugh in October 2015 was by no means returned, and In December, following a front-page story within the Hampton County Guardian, MAIT acquired a tip known as in on the course of Randy Murdaugh, Buster’s uncle.

A person named Darrell Williams known as a Hampton Police Officer to report the tip, which concerned two teenagers — Shawn Connelly and Patrick Wilson. In a recorded telephone name, the officer relays to Corporal Duncan what Williams advised him.

OFFICER: Darrell known as me and he mentioned … Patrick come over right here to the home. … He mentioned … that Shawn Connelly was drunk and hit one thing … he went again the subsequent day to see what it was he had hit. And he seen a whole lot of police on the market …

OFFICER: Patrick was crying, telling him. And after he bought completed telling the story, he walked exterior his home and threw up.

CPL. MICHAEL DUNCAN: … Did he go into any element about the way it occurred? …

OFFICER: Supposedly he had … mounted his mirror … one of many mirrors up on the truck.

The aspect mirror story matched Stephen’s unique dying certificates. For causes which are unclear, there isn’t a report of Duncan or Proctor ever chatting with Connelly or Wilson.

Wilson had no remark to “48 Hours.” Messages to the Hampton County Sheriff’s Workplace, Williams and Connelly haven’t been answered. Sandy Smith says she requested Shawn Connelly point-blank if he killed Stephen.

Nikki Battiste: And he mentioned?

Sandy Smith: He mentioned, “No, ma’am I didn’t … I offer you my phrase, I promise you, I by no means killed your son.”

Nikki Battiste: Do you consider him?

Sandy Smith: Yeah.

Nikki Battiste: If he lied to you — if that seems to be the case –

Sandy Smith: It will not be the primary time I am lied to … however you understand. Should you did it, it’s essential pay.

In September 2016, fed up with what she calls the shortage of an investigation, Sandy started a letter-writing marketing campaign that included the FBI.

Nikki Battiste: What did your letter say?

Sandy Smith: I used to be simply lettin’ ’em know that … my son was murdered and there is not any progress bein’ finished. And I feel it had somethin’ to do with the Murdaugh household … And please assist, simply please assist me.

Sandy additionally advised the FBI she believed somebody was intentionally making an attempt to derail the investigation.

Nikki Battiste: Did you ever get a response from the FBI?

Sandy Smith: I did. … and I had two brokers come to my home.

She requested them to unlock Stephen’s telephone, and so they did.

Nikki Battiste: Are you aware if … anybody truly was capable of learn Stephen’s textual content messages, or see the place he may’ve been primarily based on cellphone proof?

Sandy Smith: What I heard from the FBI agent … there was— a whole lot of attention-grabbing info within the telephone that wanted to be checked out.

However she says that did not immediate native or state authorities to pursue the case additional.

Sandy Smith: There’s somethin’ in that telephone that no person needs on the market.

By late 2016, the investigation into Stephen Smith’s dying went chilly.

Nikki Battiste: What do you suppose it took for Stephen’s case to lastly get the eye it deserves, that you just wished?

Sandy Smith: Someone else needed to die.

A NEW LOOK A STEPHEN SMITH’S COLD CASE

The murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh in June 2021 induced a seismic shift in small-town Hampton and gave Sandy Smith a lifeline she desperately wanted.

Sandy Smith: It took this … to get Stephen’s identify again on the market so someone would begin payin’ consideration.

In an odd accident, whereas investigating the murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, SLED introduced it had came upon a brand new lead in Stephen’s dying and could be taking on the case. They didn’t say what that proof was.

Nikki Battiste: It looks as if all roads result in the Murdaugh household round right here.

Sandy Smith: Sure.

Nikki Battiste: Is that coincidence, is there a cause for that?

Sandy Smith: Round right here it is pure.

It will be one other two years whereas authorities centered on getting a conviction in opposition to Alex Murdaugh. However Sandy now has a high-octane authorized staff in her nook.

Ronnie Richter: After eight years of ready to your flip … Sandy Smith lastly simply had sufficient.

Eric Bland: Ronnie and I are like arsonists. We began the hearth.

Ronnie Richter and Eric Bland are representing Sandy professional bono.

Eric Bland: Our sole aim was … to rekindle the curiosity in Stephen’s dying.

They usually turned up the warmth on SLED. In March 2023, SLED publicly acknowledged it was treating Stephen’s case as a murder.

The identical week, Buster Murdaugh launched an announcement by means of his father’s lawyer, saying:

“… These baseless rumors of my involvement with Stephen and his dying are false. I unequivocally deny any involvement in his dying, and my coronary heart goes out to the Smith household …”

Eric Bland: These phrases are actually in cement. … I take him at his phrase that he had nothing in any respect to do with Stephen’s dying.

Fairly than previous rumors, Bland and Richter say they’re specializing in a brand new investigation made potential by $130,000 in GoFundMe donations from Sandy’s supporters.

Ronnie Richter: The assets have been made out there for us to do some non-public investigative work that is gonna begin with … hiring … a pathology staff.

They have been additionally in a position have Stephen’s physique exhumed, one thing Sandy had wished for years. 

Ronnie Richter: Our main perform proper now’s to have a real impartial set of eyes have a look at it and inform us, as soon as and for all, what actually occurred to Stephen Smith.

In April 2023, Dr. Michelle DuPre, a former investigator and forensic pathologist who’s carried out greater than 3,000 autopsies, oversaw the examination of Stephen’s physique.

Dr. Michelle DuPre: The accidents can inform us a lot about what occurred.

Nikki Battiste: And on this case they did?

Dr. Michelle DuPre: They did.

DuPre says the post-mortem confirmed Stephen died from a single blow to his brow, severely fracturing his cranium.

Nikki Battiste: That is a giant gash.

Dr. Michelle Dupre: That is seven-and-a- half inches, nearly. … there could be one other gash on this posterior space from hitting the pavement so arduous.

Nikki Battiste: It actually break up his cranium.

Dr. Michelle Dupre: It break up his cranium.

They have been additionally capable of put to relaxation some rumors, together with the one which Stephen had been overwhelmed with a baseball bat.

Nikki Battiste: It wasn’t a baseball bat?

Dr. Michelle DuPre: No. … these sort of accidents would trigger one thing that we name sample accidents, and we do not see that right here. … It is a linear fracture — in addition to that is right here (factors to a diagram of the top).

Simply as vital as what they discovered, DuPre says, is what they did not discover.

Dr. Michelle DuPre: We did not discover fractures of any a part of the physique, apart from the top. … There was a bit of street rash, which you’d anticipate.

Nikki Batiste: Any indicators of a wrestle?

Dr. Michelle DuPre: No.

Nikki Battiste: Any indicators of a beating?

Dr. Michelle DuPre: No.

Nikki Battiste: Any accidents under his head apart from the street rash?

Dr. Michelle DuPre: None in anyway.

She says that eliminates the chance Stephen was hit by a automobile head-on. DuPre says the findings additionally refute early theories that Stephen’s physique may need been staged.

Nikki Battiste: Had been you capable of decide whether or not Stephen was struck and fell, or he may need been struck, after which positioned there?

Dr. Michelle DuPre: We do not consider that he was positioned there. We consider that … no matter occurred — occurred proper there.

Dr. Kenny Kinsey agrees.

Nikki Battiste: You suppose he was killed proper right here?

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: Proper there.

A criminal offense scene knowledgeable and star prosecution witness within the Murdaugh homicide trial, Kinsey labored with DuPre to research Stephen’s case. He says the proof on the scene is evident.

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: That is an enormous quantity of blood. And if he had that form of harm some place else, it would not be that uniform.

On account of their delicate nature, “48 Hours” created variations of the crime scene photographs by which the blood and physique are proven as graphics.

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: The amount of blood, the course of the circulate within the street, after which the course of all … the – the blood on his individual — led me to … the one conclusion.

Kinsey’s satisfied an object connected to a automobile touring at excessive velocity induced the one deadly blow to Stephen’s head.

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: No matter hit him was quick and it was massive.

Nikki Battiste: So successful and run, however an atypical hit and run?

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: Yeah, very atypical. 

Successful and run with no automobile particles on the scene. It is a conclusion nobody was anticipating.

Nikki Battiste: How assured are you that you understand what occurred to Stephen Smith that evening?

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: I am as near a level of scientific certainty as I’ve ever felt.

What nobody can say with certainty is whether or not Stephen’s dying was unintentional or not. However, nonetheless, Richter factors out, he was left there to die.

Ronnie Richter: Somebody left him in that situation, within the roadway. … And — and that … is a really severe felony.

Stephen’s physique was discovered about three miles from his automobile. Kinsey tried to retrace his steps.

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: I wished to stroll each potential path that Mr. Smith could have taken.

Stephen’s household has all the time insisted if Stephen had automobile hassle, he would have felt safer strolling by means of the woods.

Nikki Battiste(strolling alongside the street with Kinsey holding a flashlight): So, the place was Stephen’s automobile?

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: Stephen’s automobile was situated — should you have a look at this gate right here, it was not grown up then, you possibly can entry that gate. However on this space … actually near the woods.

However to chop by means of the woods, Stephen would’ve needed to scale a fence that was 8 ft tall.

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: And from what I perceive from interviewing neighbors, it has been there for effectively over a decade.

Kinsey theorizes Stephen was strolling alongside the street, making an attempt to flag somebody down for assist.

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: He’s strolling this course within the — within the lane dealing with site visitors. … no matter was connected to the automobile or hanging off of the automobile … every time it struck Stephen … he went down in — on this space considerably on this line (mendacity within the street as Stephen was discovered).

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: The automobile that struck Stephen was coming towards him similar to that automobile within the — {photograph}.

Nikki Battiste: Like this?

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: Sure, goin’ that course.

Kinsey says the proof suggests the motive force noticed one thing within the street and altered lanes.

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: And someday earlier than it struck Stephen, I consider it become the oncomin’ lane …

That is when he says an object from the passenger aspect struck Stephen.

Nikki Battiste: What sort of object might it’s?

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: It could possibly be something. It could possibly be a ladder … hangin’ off the again of — a piece truck. It could possibly be a prolonged aspect mirror … the steel sort that you just see on some farm automobiles or some bigger automobiles.

That state of affairs matches up with the tip from 2015 involving Patrick Wilson and Shawn Connelly, which Kinsey calls believable.

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: That actually could be potential … that may be one of many locations I might begin.

SLED has saved its investigation near the vest, however Bland and Richter say a grand jury was empaneled and issuing subpoenas.

Eric Bland: They’re honing in on particular people. And I feel there’s about 5 or much less that SLED believes has info relating to Stephen’s dying.

We do not know who these people are. In an interview on Fox Nation in August 2023, Buster Murdaugh once more denied the rumors of his involvement.

BUSTER MURDAUGH (on Fox Nation): I by no means had something to do together with his homicide and I by no means had something to do with him on a bodily stage of — of any regard.

He additionally supplied an alibi.

BUSTER MURDAUGH (on Fox Nation): The evening Stephen was killed I used to be at our Edisto Seaside home … with my mother and brother.

INTERVIEWER (on Fox Nation): With your loved ones? 

BUSTER MURDAUGH (on Fox Nation): With my mother and brother. 

Sandy’s staff says it is turned over all of its findings to SLED. However Kinsey says it is nonetheless going to take somebody coming ahead.

Nikki Battiste: Someone is aware of?

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: Oh, they know. Sure, ma’am.

ALEX MURDAUGH’S FINANCIAL CRIMES

As a grand jury zeroes in on potential suspects in Stephen Smith’s dying, the authorized wrangling hasn’t slowed down for Alex Murdaugh.

Michael DeWitt: You have bought native expenses. You have bought state expenses. … the authorized civil instances are gonna go on for years.

ALEX MURDAUGH (in courtroom Nov. 17, 2023): I’m responsible, sure sir.

On Nov. 17, 2023, Alex Murdaugh agreed to a plea deal that encompasses all the state monetary expenses he confronted for defrauding and stealing thousands and thousands from purchasers and regulation companions. He had already pleaded responsible to 22 federal conspiracy, wire fraud, and cash laundering expenses.

Nikki Battiste: Alex preyed on the weak whom he additionally thought would by no means work out his schemes.

Eric Bland: Right. … It is individuals which are on the worst instances of their lives. … the place you want a lawyer to be the perfect for you, not the worst for you.

Maybe none extra so than Alania and Hannah Plyler, who are actually represented by Bland and Richter.

They have been simply 12 and eight once they survived a lethal crash as a result of a defective tire that killed their mom and 14-year-old brother in 2005,  and have become the youngest of the monetary victims to whom Murdaugh admitted he lied and stole from when questioned at his homicide trial.

CREIGHTON WATERS: Who have been the Plylers?

ALEX MURDAUGH: They have been two younger ladies from uh, Columbia.

CREIGHTON WATERS: What loss did they endure? Who died?

ALEX MURDAUGH: Uh, their mom. Their mom did.

Nikki Battiste: He solely talked about your mother.

Alania Spohn: Yeah, that bothered me.

Hannah Plyler: That harm.

Alania Spohn: You do not do not forget that a 14-year-old was killed in that wreck? … Alex … bought an excellent paycheck off of my brother’s dying.

Each ladies are actually moms, and Alania is a detective with the Lexington County Sheriff’s Workplace.

Alania Spohn: Since all of this has come out … there is a lotta ache that is nonetheless there.

Alania was sufficiently old to recollect the main points of the final street journey she and her sister would ever take with their mother and brother.

Alania Spohn: My brother and I had gotten into an argument … I wished to start out sitting within the entrance seat. … so we fought about it and fought about it. … And at last, mother was like, “You recognize what? … Justin’s gonna experience on the best way to Columbia. And on the best way again house … Alania will get to experience up entrance.” And I used to be so pleased.

Alania and Hannah, who have been nonetheless sitting within the backseat, survived the crash.

Nikki Battiste: You should take into consideration that on a regular basis.

Alania Spohn: I do. … I truly had a lotta guilt for a number of years.

That guilt is one thing she says she’s realized let go, as she recounts her and her little sister’s harrowing survival.

Alania Spohn: We hadn’t been on the street too lengthy. … Hannah was sleeping. … And I used to be listening to Usher. … And I bear in mind mother sayin’ … “Lanie, you awake?” And so I bear in mind pullin’ my headphones down. I mentioned, “Yeah, mother.” … inside seconds I heard this loud pop. … After which I instantly heard my mother scream … I seemed out the window, and my Usher CD was spinning on a tree limb.

Their mom Angela and brother Justin died immediately. Alania realized she was trapped and could not transfer and needed to ship Hannah for assist.

Alania Spohn: I mentioned, “I would like you to get outta the automobile and I would like you to go to the highest of the hill to the interstate.”

Nikki Battiste: And also you’re solely 12.

Alania Spohn: I am 12. Proper. … so many issues might’ve went worse.

Hannah, 8 years previous, climbed as much as the interstate.

Hannah Plyler: There was an 18-wheeler. And I used to be capable of flag him down. …And I feel by that time, an ambulance … got here. … and so they had taken me to the hospital.

Alania waited alone till the hearth rescue staff arrived and lower her out of the wreckage. She watched as they eliminated her mom and brother.

Alania Spohn: And so I watched them put them in a black physique bag.

She was then airlifted to a hospital and would wish quite a few surgical procedures.

Nikki Battiste: What was the second like whenever you have been capable of see one another once more after that?

Alania Spohn:  I bear in mind it. I bear in mind … hugging her and thanking her for not dying, for not leaving me.

Hannah Plyler: After which from there I used to be simply within the hospital mattress with you.

Alania Spohn: You could not maintain us aside.

The sisters say they have been handed round to reside with relations.

Alania Spohn: We did not have a bed room.

Nikki Battiste: You simply had one another.

Alania Spohn: We simply had one another. Yeah. … We lived outta little plastic bins.

When a household buddy referred the Plylers to Alex Murdaugh, he promised to vary all of that.

Nikki Battiste: Do you bear in mind the primary time you met Alex Murdaugh?

Alania Spohn: Yeah … I bear in mind when he walked in. … he appeared actually smug … like a bulldog.

Hannah Plyler: Tall, nearly intimidating in a way.

Alania Spohn: He advised us … “They took your loved ones from you. And we’re gonna make this proper. They’re gonna pay.”

To 2 younger ladies who had misplaced the whole lot, Murdaugh appeared bigger than life.

Alania Spohn: I all the time felt at peace once I bought to speak to Alex … individuals listened to him … You would inform there was a lotta management there.

Nikki Battiste: How did he earn your belief?

Alania Spohn: Actually together with his phrases. … he was a clean talker. And … he made you are feeling particular.

However as soon as the case settled, the particular remedy stopped.

Alania Spohn: He just about checked out. … he had defined that the case … had settled. … We gained — massive cash.

Ronnie Richter: Alania’s case settled for $4.7 million, you understand … Hannah’s for proper at $3 million. That cash was then entrusted to Russell Laffitte.

Laffitte was the CEO of Palmetto State Financial institution in Hampton and shut buddy of Alex Murdaugh, who’d hand-picked Laffitte to handle the funds as conservator till the ladies turned 18.

Michael DeWitt: So these two very rich, outstanding males … principally assist themselves to those children’ piggy financial institution.

Any cash they wanted needed to be accredited by Laffitte and a choose.

Alania Spohn: Even when it was a greenback, we needed to have a receipt for it.

Nikki Battiste: If you and Eric took on their case, what did you uncover?

Ronnie Richter: Russell was making loans to Alex … Alex could be overdrawn $50,000, $100,000, $300,000 in his private account, and he wanted cash to cowl these shorts.

Richter says that at Murdaugh’s course, Lafitte transferred practically $1.5 million from the Plylers’ cash to Alex Murdaugh and himself.

Michael DeWitt: When it got here time for these younger women to show 18, the cash was purported to be there. So Alex needed to exit and steal new cash from completely different purchasers and put that cash again.

Murdaugh was by no means charged for Hannah and Alania’s case. However Lafitte was convicted on federal expenses for his position.

Eric Bland: However, nonetheless, there’s that toll of how do you belief going ahead … individuals have been put ready of belief on their behalf once they have been simply kids. After which, to be taught as an grownup that, your entire time … they noticed you as nothing greater than a checkbook.

Whereas the Plylers can start to heal Sandy Smith nonetheless waits for her day of reckoning.

Michael DeWitt: All this sweeping drama, there’s solutions and there is closure for everyone else, however not for Sandy Smith. … It is time to put the highlight on Stephen Smith.

A MOTHER’S FIGHT FOR JUSTICE

Months after his blockbuster trial, convicted double assassin Alex Murdaugh and the “crime of the century” are nonetheless Hampton’s largest sights.

Michael DeWitt: Nearly day-after-day someone’s coming by taking an image of the regulation agency or using out to Moselle taking photos. … they only cannot get sufficient.

The Murdaugh craze was on full show at an public sale for the household’s private objects from their Moselle property. The notorious leather-based sofa set the place Alex testified he took a catnap whereas his spouse and son have been murdered offered for $30,000.

And Maggie’s canine Bubba, who helped prosecutors show Alex was truly on the crime scene, has turn into an area people hero.

Michael DeWitt: If that … rambunctious yellow lab hadn’t been … doing what … labs love to do, chase birds … we’d not have solved this case and we’d not have gotten a conviction.

Alex Murdaugh’s voice calling Bubba was caught within the background of cellphone video Paul took minutes earlier than he was killed.

Michael DeWitt: Bubba and the opposite canines on the kennels … they have been witnesses to a really horrific occasion.

Bubba now lives a quiet life with the Murdaugh’s housekeeper. In the meantime, Alex Murdaugh is serving two life phrases in a maximum-security jail.

Nikki Battiste: Do you suppose Alex Murdaugh nonetheless thinks he can attempt to play the system —

Ronnie Richter: 100%.

Now, Murdaugh’s attorneys are hoping their newest movement will probably be a get-out-of-jail-free card.

DICK HARPOOTLIAN (to reporters) We’re centered on getting him a brand new trial.

In September 2023, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin introduced their movement for a brand new trial primarily based on allegations of jury tampering by the Colleton County Clerk of Courtroom Becky Hill.

JIM GRIFFIN: What we now have filed at present … supported by sworn testimony of jurors, is that the clerk of courtroom had improper non-public communications with the jurors.

They argued that Hill violated Murdaugh’s proper to a good trial when she allegedly advised jurors to not be fooled by his testimony and to observe his physique language, as Alex was about to take the stand.

In a signed affidavit, Hill denies all the protection allegations. And voluntary statements from a majority of the jury assist Hill’s account. Richter and Bland say even a brand new trial cannot save Alex Murdaugh.

Eric Bland: If the homicide conviction’s overturned, then you’ve … the monetary crimes.

In accordance with the plea take care of prosecutors, Murdaugh could possibly be sentenced to just about 30 years for the state expenses alone.

Ronnie Richter: So sure, there is a theoretical universe by which Alex Murdaugh might see the solar once more, but it surely’s theoretical solely.

Eric Bland: It is like rearranging … the — the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Ronnie Richter: It is futile.

Michael DeWitt: Should you have been to put in writing a made-for-TV Southern authorized drama … you could not have finished a greater job than this.

DeWitt writes about it in his e book, “The Fall of the Home of Murdaugh,” which he ends with Stephen Smith.

Michael DeWitt: It is form of … attention-grabbing … and tragic that the oldest story … stays unsolved. … Fixing his homicide … I feel would be the finish of … this sweeping saga.

As SLED continues its investigation of the Smith case behind closed doorways, what investigators discovered after the Murdaugh murders stays the topic of intense hypothesis.

Nikki Battiste: Do you’ve any thought what the brand new proof which may be introduced to the grand jury is?

Eric Bland: No. Uh, I do know that SLED has Stephen’s telephone. I do know that they’ve Stephen’s pill.

May Stephen’s telephone reveal the id of the outstanding individual with whom he advised Sandy he deliberate to go deep sea fishing?

Eric Bland: That’ll be attention-grabbing … what SLED has discovered and what the grand jury’s going to find out … whether or not the individual that he was going to go away with deep sea fishing, um, had something to do together with his dying or his data of his dying.

Nikki Battiste: How has this struggle for justice been?

Sandy Smith: Oh, it has been an extended street. However it’s price it.

Sandy is conserving the religion and conserving Stephen’s reminiscence alive. She just lately established a university scholarship in his identify.

SANDY SMITH ANNOUNCEMENT :We’re beginning this scholarship fund, so different kids will not have it as arduous as Stephen did.

And she or he’s providing a $30 thousand reward for info resulting in an arrest.

Sandy Smith Announcement: Now it is your flip that if you understand one thing, that you just say one thing.

Nikki Battiste: What do you miss most about Stephen?

Sandy Smith: (Sighs) I miss the whole lot about him.

Nikki Battiste: What do you suppose Stephen would consider your struggle and the place we’re at present in his case?

Sandy Smith: He’d say, “Oh Mama, you’d try this for me?”

Nikki Battiste: Yep.

Sandy Smith: Yep, I might. Again and again.

When you have details about the Stephen Smith case, please e-mail ideas@sled.sc.gov

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Produced by Gayane Keshishyan Mendez. Emma Steele and Dena Goldstein are the sphere producers. Ryan Smith is the event producer. Richard Fetzer is a area producer.Ken Blum, Gregory Kaplan, Michelle Harris and George Baluzy are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.