Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.
“A Death in Murdaugh County” episode of 48 Hours will air on ID on Sunday, May 26, 2024, at 10 p.m. ET. It follows the murder of Stephen Smith and how the case went cold despite several leads that ended up nowhere in the past many years.
Stephen Smith was a 19-year-old nursing student from Hampton, South Carolina. He was found dead in the middle of the Sandy Run Road in South Carolina in the early morning hours of July 8, 2015. His car reportedly ran out of gas around three miles away from where the victim was found, as per a report by People Magazine. Although the police initially claimed that he might have been shot, the death was later ruled a road accident. Smith’s mother, however, was determined that her son was murdered.
The case then went cold in 2016. During the initial investigation by the South Carolina Highway Patrol, the Murdaugh family, a powerful family that was known to own a law firm, was named several times. However, none of the Murdaughs were interrogated in relation to Stephen Smith’s murder.
In March 2023, Alex Murdaugh of the Murdaugh family was found guilty of murdering his wife, Margaret, and his son, Paul. The investigation of the double homicide led the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to reopen Smith’s murder case. Per ABC News 4, authorities did not reveal details of the evidence that led to the case being reopened.
Buster Murdaugh, another son of Alex Murdaugh, was reportedly a classmate of Stephen Smith. According to ABC News, Buster Murdaugh claimed that the connections between Smith’s murder and the Murdaugh murders were baseless rumors.
What did Stephen Smith’s autopsy reveal?
An autopsy was conducted after Stephen Smith was found dead. It revealed that the victim died of blunt force trauma to the head. According to the report, he was not shot as was assumed at the crime scene. It was rather indicated that he was hit by a vehicle and killed. However, his mother, Sandy Smith, was unconvinced of the findings of the report. She had been wanting to conduct an exhumation ever since, as per a report by CBS News.
According to NPR, when Stephen Smith was first found, his loosely tied shoes were still on his feet even though getting hit by a car is likely to leave victims of accidents without their footwear. The road also did not have any skid marks confirming a car wreck. The victim reportedly did not make any phone calls from his cell phone.
On March 31, 2023, Stephen Smith’s body was exhumed to perform another autopsy. The results of the independent autopsy were not revealed to the public. People Magazine reported that the autopsy that was performed over 8 years after Smith was killed was a success. Subsequent to the autopsy, Sandy Smith announced that she would be allocating $35,000 as a reward for anyone with information leading to an arrest in the case. The amount was collected through GoFundMe.
However, Sandy Smith’s lawyers stated that there wasn’t any evidence that connected the Murdaughs to Stephen Smith’s death.
The 48 Hours episode “A Death in Murdaugh County” will air on ID on Sunday, May 26, 2024, at 10 p.m. ET.
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