South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson speaks to the media following the sentencing of Alex Murdaugh outside the Colleton County Courthouse on March 2, 2023, in Walterboro, SC
Chris Carlson/AP
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Chris Carlson/AP
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson speaks to the media following the sentencing of Alex Murdaugh outside the Colleton County Courthouse on March 2, 2023, in Walterboro, SC
Chris Carlson/AP
COLUMBIA, SC (AP) — A second autopsy was completed over the weekend on the exhumed body of a teenager found dead nearly eight years ago on a South Carolina road, according to the family’s attorney, after the -public attention surrounding the murder trial of Alex Murdaugh increased the mother’s search for answers in the unsolved case.
The mother’s attorneys said there is no evidence linking Stephen Smith’s death to the Murdaugh family, and state investigators have remained tight-lipped since taking the case around the same time. time that police said Murdaugh killed his wife and son.
But speculation following the recent life sentence of the lawyer since landed for those murders helped Sandy Smith raise more than $87,000 to have her son’s body re-examined in an investigation that the South Carolina Division of Law Enforcement said has never been closed since the agency opened it in June. 2021.
Attorney Eric Bland, who is representing the family, said in a statement on Sunday that this weekend was a “sweet time” and a “trial.” With the second autopsy completed and the investigation underway, Bland said Stephen can “really rest easy”.
“Stephen for many, many years, I can only imagine, was not so at peace in his grave,” Bland said in a video. “He was probably pounding on his coffin, saying, to anyone who could hear, ‘He wasn’t hit by a car, but he was killed intentionally.’ And now we have said that we listen to his voice.”
Bland’s law firm announced Monday that Sandy Smith is offering a $35,000 reward for information leading to the identification and conviction of someone responsible in her son’s death. The announcement directed people to contact the South Carolina Division of Law Enforcement with any tips.
South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel has assigned extra regional agents to the homicide investigation in hopes that informed parties may be more willing to speak up now, according to a press release on the 22 of March.
Sandy Smith has been maintaining that her son’s death was not an accident but the result of a brutal beating. Bland said being young and gay in the South Carolina Lowcountry couldn’t have been easy for Stephen Smith.
The 19-year-old nursing student was found dead with head injuries and a dislocated arm bent behind him in the middle of a two-lane Hampton County road on July 8, 2015. Police said he appeared who was walking for help after he passed out. of gas. His car was found not far from the body with the gas cap removed and his wallet still inside.
The responding trooper did not think it was a hit-and-run. The medical examiner who performed the initial autopsy theorized that his head was struck by the side mirror of a moving truck that did not stop.
Bland said Stephen Smith made no calls on his cell phone, and his loosely tied shoes remained on his feet. The force of car wrecks often leaves people stranded without their shoes. The road also had no skid marks or nearby debris, according to Ronnie Richter, another attorney for the Smiths.
Stephen Smith went to the same high school as Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster — leading to rumors that the Murdaugh family was involved in Smith’s death. Richter emphasized last week that the legal team has no evidence linking the death in any way to Buster Murdaugh, who recently denied any involvement amid claims he called baseless.
