Stephen Smith: Mother of teen found dead near Murdaugh family estate speaks out about cold case battle

LOWCOUNTRY, SOUTH CAROLINA: 19-year-old Stephen Smith was discovered dead on a county road near the Murdaugh family estate in July 2015 with a severe fracture to his skull. His death was quickly ruled as a hit-and-run by the medical examiner, to the disbelief of his mother, Sandy Smith, as well as the South Carolina Highway Patrol.

When Alex Murdaugh, scion of the Murdaugh legal dynasty, reported finding the bodies of his son Paul and wife Maggie in June 2021, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) released a statement that read, "SLED has opened an investigation into the death of Stephen Smith based upon information gathered during the course of the double murder investigation of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh."

Sandy, who had been fighting for years to keep her son's case from fading away, reportedly told CBS that the reopening of the case "was the happiest day of my life."

When a correspondent from the media house asked her, "What do you think it took for Stephen's case to finally get the attention it deserves, that you wanted?" Smith sharply replied, "Somebody else had to die."

Stephen Smith's death was reclassified as a homicide in 2021

Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of the double murders of his wife and son after a six-week trial. Attorneys Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter, who were representing several victims of Murdaugh's alleged multimillion-dollar financial scams, then announced that they were representing Smith pro bono.

With a high-profile legal team in her corner and GoFundMe donations of more than $130,000, Sandy was able to arrange an exhumation of Stephen Smith's body to conduct an independent autopsy.

Conducted by Dr Michelle Dupre, the new autopsy discovered that Stephen was killed by a single fatal blow to the head.

Sandy Smith asked the FBI to crack open her son's phone in 2016

When the CBS correspondent asked Smith if anyone had been able to read Stephen's text messages, or seen where he might have been using his phone, she replied, "What I heard from the FBI agent is there was a lot of interesting information in the phone that needed to be looked at."

However, the authorities did not want to pursue the case further back then, allowing it to turn cold.

"There's something in that phone that nobody wants out there," Sandy reportedly told the correspondent.

"All I want is peace and knowing what happened to my son. He's my world and I will fight until the end," she added.

Speculations surrounding Stephen Smith's death

Stephen, who was openly gay, was rumored to be in a relationship with Buster Murdagh, the eldest and only surviving son of Alex Murdaugh.

Another rumor suggests that Buster and his friends hit Smith in a homophobic attack, according to The Sun.

All rumors have been subsequently denied by Buster, and his then-influential father had allegedly thwarted any probe connected to the claims.