Crime among the Murdaughs: the son guilty of the mysterious murder of Stephen Smith?

The investigation into the death of Stephen Smith resumes with a vengeance. In March 2023, the family of the 19-year-old young man, found dead on July 8, 2015 in South Carolina, United States, announced that they had collected enough donations to carry out the exhumation of the body and an independent autopsy. “While the state could elect and fund an exhumation and re-autopsy, we understand it would be performed at MUSC, where his death was originally classified as a hit-and-run despite no supporting evidence. Smith’s relatives announced. We need a new, unbiased look at his body and an accurate determination of his cause of death based on facts. There was no debris on the road and his injuries were not consistent with a hit-and-run.”

With this new part of the investigation, the relatives of Stephen Smith hope to determine the precise circumstances of the death, the investigation having never made it possible to do so. As a reminder, the young student was found dead on a road in Hampton County, with a gash on his forehead, a dislocated shoulder and numerous injuries to his right hand.

Buster Murdaugh at the heart of suspicion

At the time, rumors swelled about the possible involvement of the Murdaugh family, a powerful dynasty at the head of a renowned law firm already suspected of being linked to several murders. The investigation had not made it possible to prove this implication, but the family of Smith wishes today to dig this track. Indeed, Buster, the eldest son ofAlex Murdaughsentenced in March 2023 for the murder of his wife and son Paulwas one of the victim’s classmates. It is said that the latter would have attacked Smith with a group of friends, before his influential family stifled the affair.

In 2015, multiple witnesses said they saw a group of youths driving down Highway 601 the night Stephen Smith died. Rumor has it that Buster Murdaugh and his friends saw Smith broken down on the side of the road and came back to attack him. Strangely, shortly after Smith’s body was discovered, Buster’s uncle, Randolph Murdaugh, reportedly called the victim’s mother to offer to take over the legal proceedings surrounding his son’s death. Pro Bono. Was this a clever way to hide the truth? Case to follow.