Stephen Smith's body has been exhumed after investigation into his death re-opened during Murdaugh case
The body of Stephen Smith, who died in 2015, has been exhumed. Smith was found dead on a road near the South Carolina property of the Murdaugh family in 2015, and the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh prompted officials to reopen the investigation into Smith's death.
Smith's mother, Sandy Smith, recently started a GoFundMe and hired lawyers to pay for the investigation, saying she believes her son was murdered. While officials initially said Smith was hit by a car, they have since said they are treating his death as a homicide, the State Law Enforcement Division in South Carolina, known as SLED, said earlier this month.
Eric Bland, one of the Smith family's attorneys, posted about the exhumation Sunday on Twitter, saying he and his law partner, Ronnie Richter, thanked all of those involved.
My partner, Ronnie Richter, and I, as attorneys for Sandy Smith, and on behalf of Steven Smith, would like to thank everyone who contributed in the Exhumation, Transporting Stephen, protecting and guarding Stephen while he was being re-examined, and the second autopsy being done,…
— Eric Bland (@TheEricBland) April 2, 2023
"A tremendous amount of planning went into this past weekend by a lot of people including the funeral home, coroner, DHEC, the excavators, doctors Dupre, Schultz and Haney and at least 12 SLED Officers," Bland wrote. "The biggest thanks goes to SLED Chief Mark Keel because without him this could not have gone on without a hitch. Chief Keel gave me his word and followed through on it. I also would like to thank many of you in the press who had a suspicion what was going on, but did not press me further."
He also thanked those who helped comfort Sandy Smith, "who was seriously grieving for her son."
"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 wrote.
Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, part of the prominent Murdaugh family, were found dead on their family's property in 2021. Alex Murdaugh, Maggie's husband and Paul's father, was convicted of the murder early this month during a high-profile trial that gained widespread attention. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Since Smith's death in 2015, rumors had swirled in their small town that Alex Murdaugh's older son, Buster, and Paul were potentially involved in the death, but no charges were brought against anyone in the family, and no suspects were named.
As the investigation into Smith's death ramped up earlier this month, Buster Murdaugh released a statement, saying: "This has gone on far too long."
"These baseless rumors of my involvement with Stephen and his death are false. I unequivocally deny any involvement in his death, and my heart goes out to the Smith family," he said in part.
During a news conference earlier this month, Bland said he and Richter were "going to hire experts who are going to come into this case with a fresh set of eyes, with an open mind, without any preconceived conclusions, being objective and wherever the facts go."
He added that they would request to have the body exhumed if they found evidence that Smith did not die from a hit-and-run in the middle of the road, as once stated by police, but somewhere else. He said pre- and post-death communications between "different people could yield some information."
The renewed investigation is "not an Alex Murdaugh 2.0 or any Murdaugh 2.0," he said. "This is a Stephen Smith 2.0. It's all about Stephen."
"Our job is not to find out who did it, that's not what we do. We're not law enforcement, this is not a criminal case," the lawyer said, adding that they're just trying to help Smith's grieving mother find answers about her son's death.