“Being gay in the lowcountry is not easy, he had to live a secret, careful life,” he said.Īs well as Smith’s behaviours not matching, his injuries also did not suggest he was struck by a vehicle, Mr Bland added. He also wouldn’t have left his wallet in his car, she said, and would have called his twin sister for help.īecause he was openly gay in the lowcountry, Mr Bland said that Smith “had to be cautious” and had to have something of a “secret life”. Ms Smith said that her son was a cautious person who would not have walked three miles along the road if his car broke down – especially given a route through the fields would have been quicker to get home. Smith was “apparently placed in the middle of the roadway” after his death, he said.
“While it appeared he had broken down and walked for help, he never called for help from his cellphone he had on his body,” said Mr Richter. Smith’s car was also left three miles down the road with the gas cap removed.
Stephen Smith was found dead in a road back in 2015 (Sandy Smith/GoFundMe) There were no skid marks around his body, no vehicular debris, and Smith’s loosely tied shoes were still on his feet – all evidence which casts doubts on him being struck and killed by a vehicle. Smith’s body was found at around 4am on the morning of 8 July 2015 in the middle of Sandy Run Road in Hampton County. The circumstances surrounding Smith’s death do not fit with the official account of how he died – nor with Smith’s habits and behaviours, said Mr Richter. Mr Bland said that a new autopsy could “heed a different conclusion that maybe he was killed somewhere else”.
“We think he did not die on that road that night,” he said, adding that they “don’t expect it to be vehicular manslaughter”. In the briefing, Mr Bland revealed that they believe the 19-year-old died in a different location before his body was moved to the Sandy Run Road where it was then discovered. Speaking at a press conference on Monday morning, Ms Smith’s attorneys Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter announced plans for an independent investigation after the GoFundMe had topped $65,000 in a matter of days. The Murdaugh name repeatedly cropped up during the initial investigation and a new state probe was opened into Smith’s death just days after the June 2021 murders of Maggie and Paul.įollowing Murdaugh’s murder conviction earlier this month, Smith’s mother Sandy Smith launched a GoFundMe campaign to help to pay for her son’s body to be exhumed and for an independent autopsy to be carried out – as she continues to fight for justice over his death. Smith had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and his car was found around three miles down the road from his body.Īt the time, his death was ruled a hit-and-run – a ruling that his mother, investigators on the original case and members of the local community have long disputed. Stephen Smith, a 19-year-old openly gay teenager and nursing student, was found dead in a road in Hampton County, South Carolina, in the early hours of 8 July 2015 – just 15 miles from the Moselle estate where Alex Murdaugh murdered his wife Maggie and son Paul six years later. The family of a teenager who died in mysterious circumstances in 2015 have said they believe he was killed “somewhere else” before his body was “placed” in the middle of a road close to the infamous Murdaugh family’s home.
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