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With Murdoh in the national spotlight, Smith’s family launched a GoFundMe campaign earlier this month to raise enough money to exhume the teen’s body for its own autopsy. The fundraiser quickly picked up momentum and in less than two weeks he had raised nearly $65,000, far exceeding his family’s goal of $15,000.
“Thank you for keeping Steven’s story from being covered up. We will be conducting an excavation soon and will provide updates along the way,” Smith’s mother, Sandy, wrote in an update Thursday.
Smith’s death, like other deaths surrounding the wealthy Murdow family in rural South Carolina, was marked by bizarre circumstances and narrative shifts.
Shortly before 4:00 am on July 8, 2015, a man called 911 and reported a dead body lying in the middle of the building. Sandy Run Road, according to the timeline of the investigation reported by South Carolina outlet FITSNews. The deep hole in Smith’s head (which authorities initially thought was a gunshot wound) and the “defensive wound” on his hand led authorities to believe he was standing at the scene of the murder.
However, the turnaround took place about seven hours after the investigation, and an autopsy classified Smith’s cause of death as “blunt head trauma sustained in a motor vehicle accident.” No bullets or shrapnel were found, so we assumed he had hit his head in the truck’s mirrors.
But the Smith family did not believe Stephen was hit by a car, pointing to early investigative reports. Records obtained by News 13 “showed no vehicle debris, skid marks or injuries consistent with someone being run over by a vehicle,” investigators wrote.
Officials working on the case also expressed concern. A month after he killed the teen, coroner Ernie Washington told lead investigator Todd Proctor that he disagreed with the autopsy results, according to documents obtained by The Island Puckett. Proctor, who retired from his patrol on the South Carolina Highways in 2021, shared similar doubts in an interview with Fox His News that same year.
“There was no evidence that this was a hit-and-run or that a vehicle was involved,” he told the news network. It seems that
Investigators gleaned a lot of information about Smith’s death, but the case was eventually brought under control.In June 2021, Murdow was seen with his wife Maggie and youngest son Paul outside the family’s sprawling hunting lodge. until he shoots
A murder would rekindle the mystery. On June 23, 2021, the South Carolina Department of Law Enforcement announced it would open an investigation into Smith’s death “based on information gathered during the Paul and Maggie Murdough double murder investigation.”
The Island Packet reported in 2021 that the Murdo family’s name was mentioned at least nine times in investigative reports on Smith’s death. Smith was a classmate of Alex Murdau’s eldest son, Buster, according to the state-run newspaper.
Alex Murdau’s attorney, Dick Harputrian, did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
Murdoh’s ruling earlier this month has given Sandy Smith hope that her family can also receive an answer to the death of a loved one.
In a statement after Murdeau was sentenced to life in prison, Sandy said, “I know first-hand the pain and frustration of being in the dark about how a member of my family was killed in prison.” I hope one day the same thing happens to my Stephen.”
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