Stephen Smith's body exhumed in Murdaugh-linked homicide investigation

Publish date: 2024-06-09

The body of Stephen Smith, a South Carolina teen whose unsolved 2015 murder has gained new traction thanks to the Alex Murdaugh case, was exhumed over the weekend, the family’s lawyer confirmed.

Smith’s body was removed from his grave, re-examined in a second autopsy and returned to his final resting place, attorney Eric Bland tweeted Sunday.

The 19-year-old was found dead, with head trauma, on the side of a road in Hampton County on July 8, 2015 in what investigators at the time ruled a hit-and-run.

Sandy Smith holds a photo of her late son, 19-year-old Stephen Smith in Hampton, S.C. AP

Last month — nearly eight years later — the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) reclassified his death as a homicide after investigators found “new evidence” about the teenager’s final moments in the course of their probe into the 2021 murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh.

“I now believe that Stephen can really rest at ease because SLED and our team are going to do everything possible to find out just how he died,” Bland said in his tweet.

Stephen Smith’s body was exhumed after his death was ruled a homicide. Sandy Smith/GoFundMe

He also announced that the late teen’s mother Sandy Smith is offering a $35,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for her son’s death.

The money was raised as part of a GoFundMe for the distraught mother.

Much of the more than $100,000 raised was used to fund the exhumation and private autopsy of Smith’s body.

More than $100,000 raised was used to fund the exhumation and private autopsy of Smith’s body. Sandy Smith/GoFundMe

Smith’s mysterious death gained renewed attention after the closely watched trial of patriarch Alex Murdaugh for the shooting deaths of his son and wife on the family’s property.

Smith’s body was found laying in the street not far from the 1,700-acre estate and the teen was a high school classmate of Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son Buster.

Sandy Smith linked Buster — who was rumored to have had a romantic relationship with Smith, who was gay — to her son’s murder in a letter she sent to federal investigators in 2016.

She also said local law enforcement botched the investigation.

Buster has denied the “vicious rumors” that he was involved in Smith’s death.

Investigators are reportedly eyeing two other men, who were also teens in 2015, as potential suspects.

“Stephen for many, many years I can only imagine was not so much at peace in his grave,” Bland said in a video posted on Twitter. “He probably was pounding on his coffin to anybody who could hear ‘I was not hit by a car but I was intentionally killed.’ And now we’ve told him we hear his voice.”

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