A lot happened between the morning in 2015 that 19-year-old Stephen Smith was found lying in the middle of the road and the day—almost eight years later—that authorities confirmed they were investigating his death as a homicide.
"As a mother there's questions that I need to ask," his mother, Sandy Smith, said March 20 on TODAY. "And there's questions I need answers to." She said she didn't know who's responsible, "but I want to find out why you did it and who you are."
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) opened a new investigation into Stephen's death in June 2021, days after Paul Murdaugh, 22, and his mother Maggie Murdaugh, 52, were found shot to death, stating that the move was "based upon information gathered during the course of the double murder investigation."
Authorities have yet to say what that information was, nor have they implicated any member of the Murdaugh family in what happened to Stephen, but it wasn't the first time that the two names had been associated: The 2015 case file first unearthed by FITSnews two years ago contained dozens of mentions of Paul's older brother, Buster Murdaugh.
Then and since, Buster has denied having anything to do with what happened to Stephen, calling speculation that he was involved in his death "vicious rumors." He has never been named as a suspect or charged with any crime.
Meanwhile, his father, Alex Murdaugh, was sentenced to life in prison last month for the murders of wife Maggie and son Paul. (He has maintained his innocence and his attorneys filed a notice of appeal days after he was found guilty of murder on March 2.)
But the investigation into Stephen's death continues. On April 3, his family announced $35,000 reward for information or a tip that leads to an arrest in the case.
What happened to Stephen Smith?
Early on the morning of July 8, 2015, Smith was found lying facedown in the middle of Sandy Run Road, a two-lane stretch cutting through rural Hampton County, S.C., according to a report compiled by the South Carolina Highway Patrol Multi-Disciplinary Accident Investigation Team (MAIT). The report said that a passing driver had called 9-1-1 at 3:57 a.m.
Smith's vehicle, a yellow 2013 Chevrolet Aveo, was parked off of Highway 601 roughly three miles away, the car's gas tank door open and the gas cap dangling, per a 2015 SLED report obtained by local NBC affiliate WIS. The Aveo's battery was functioning but the car wouldn't start, the report noted. Investigators stated in the report that they believed Stephen had been walking home when the incident occurred.
But from the beginning, not everyone was on the same page about what they were looking at. And his family told investigators that the nursing student, who had been on his way home from a night class at Orangeburg Technical College, would never have been walking in the middle of the road.
"I saw no vehicle debris, skid marks, or injuries consistent with someone being struck by a vehicle," South Carolina Highway Patrol Cpl. D.B. Rowell wrote in the original July 8, 2015, incident report obtained by NBC News. "The victim's shoes were loosely tied and both were still on. After consulting with MAIT, we see no evidence to suggest the victim was struck by a vehicle."
Smith's phone and car keys were in his pocket, and there was also no glass or debris in the road by the body, according to investigators.
The SLED report also noted what looked like a "defensive wound" on Smith's left hand and injuries to his left arm and head, per WIS. "A hole in the skull was located above the victim's right eye," the report stated. "It was still unclear at this time whether the hole as caused by a projectile."
Why was Stephen Smith's death originally called a hit-and-run?
Dr. Erin Presnell, the pathologist who performed Smith's autopsy in 2015, determined cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head from being hit by a motor vehicle. She speculated in her report that the fatal injury could have been inflicted by a vehicle's mirror.
The manner of death was listed as "undetermined" (as opposed to being ruled an accident or a homicide).
In a MAIT report obtained by FITSnews, South Carolina Highway Patrol investigator Todd Proctor detailed a July 22, 2015, exchange with Presnell, writing that she "had no evidence" other than Stephen being found in the road to conclude he was hit by a car. "She asked why we did not think it was a vehicle strike and I explained to her that we had no evidence of this individual being struck by a vehicle."
Proctor also asked the pathologist if the head trauma could have been caused by a baseball bat, according to his notes in the report. She said no, he wrote, but then when asked if a bat being held out the window of a moving vehicle could have caused the same injury, she said, 'Well, I guess it's possible.'"
She also called her findings "preliminary," the report continued, and told Proctor that it was up to him to figure out what, exactly, hit Stephen.
Proctor also noted in the MAIT report that Hampton County Coroner Ernie Washington—who, per the report, was among the investigators who saw Stephen's body at the scene of the incident—told him on Aug. 18, 2015, that he disagreed with the conclusion that Stephen was hit by a moving vehicle.
(Presnell, who is now director of the pathology department at the Medical University of South Carolina, has not commented on the renewed scrutiny of her findings in the Smith case, but another doctor she helped train told The State last week that coroners are the ones who speak publicly and pathologists don't usually comment on cases unless they're called to testify in court.)
How did the Murdaugh family get connected to the Stephen Smith death investigation?
From the beginning, Stephen's parents Joel and Sandy Smith had their doubts about the official explanation for their son's death.
"It just doesn't make sense to me," Sandy told Bluffton Today in November 2015. "He was struck in the head by a truck mirror? I just can't see that happening, he would have got out of the way. The reports state that he was walking in the middle of the road and was found 2.7 miles away from his car. The way his body was laying in the road, with his arm dislocated and bent back behind his body, I just don't believe that he was struck by the mirror of a vehicle."
In the recent Netflix docuseries Murdaugh Murders, Will Folks of FITSnews recalled getting a tip after Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were killed to check out the highway patrol report from Stephen's death. As Folks soon learned, the name Murdaugh was noted at least 40 times by authorities in the months following the incident, including a mention in the original patrol report.
Former Wade Hampton High School science teacher Sam Crews recalled in Murdaugh Murders that Stephen tutored Buster a bit, and both he and Paul's former girlfriend Morgan Doughty said in the series that there were rumors at the time that the teens, who both graduated in 2014, might have been more than friends. Which, according to Morgan, wouldn't have sat well with the rest of the Murdaughs.
"Stephen was in the process of discovering himself and his sexuality," mom Sandy told Bluffton Today in 2015. "He was gay."
Describing what she had heard from people purporting to know what happened to her son, Sandy continued, "They took him from his car; everybody knew his car because he had the ugliest little 'banana' in town. These boys were coming from a baseball game and I think that they were right behind him, so when he had to pull over, they were right there. I just don't believe my son would have been walking in the middle of the road like that. He would have seen headlights coming and got off the road. It just doesn't make any sense. The worst part is that some of the individuals responsible were Stephen's classmates."
Also in Murdaugh Murders, Hampton County Guardian reporter Michael Dewitt recalled hearing in the months following Stephen's death that the powerful Murdaugh family was somehow involved and had put pressure on authorities to go with the hit-and-run theory. (Alex and other family members have denied trying to influence outcomes of law enforcement investigations.)
According to documents obtained by FITSnews, Sandy alleged in a letter she wrote to the FBI dated Sept. 28, 2016, that the investigation had been "deliberately derailed."
"The Murdaughs are probably the most prominent family in Hampton County," Sandy wrote. "Stephen had on more than one occasion mentioned to friends and his twin sister that he was involved romantically with someone from a prominent family in the county who was hiding his sexuality. He said it would shock people to know this person was gay. We suspect this could be the young man Stephen was referring to, though he never named him."
What has Buster Murdaugh said about the Stephen Smith case?
"I have tried my best to ignore the vicious rumors about my involvement in Stephen Smith's tragic death that continue to be published in the media as I grieve over the brutal murders of my mother and brother," Buster said in a March 20 statement to NBC News. "I love them so much and miss them terribly."
He continued, "I haven't spoken up until now because I want to live in private while I cope with their deaths and my father's incarceration."
Saying he had been "targeted and harassed" by the media, he concluded, "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."
Randy Murdaugh, Alex's older brother, told the New York Times after his sibling was convicted of murder that the family is focused on supporting Buster.
What has happened since authorities called Stephen Smith's death a homicide?
"This is what I've been fighting for, and I'm finally getting it," Sandy told CNN's Anderson Cooper March 22 after authorities confirmed Stephen's death was being investigated as a homicide. "I'm open to the evidence and the only dispute I had was that it was not a hit-and-run. That's what I've been saying from the beginning. I felt my son was murdered."
Lawyers for the Smith family said at a news conference that they had "no knowledge at all about Buster or the Murdaughs having anything to do with this right now. We're starting with a fresh set of eyes."
SLED said in a statement obtained by NBC News that "the goal has been to find out how Mr. Smith died and find the person(s) responsible for his death." Additional agents had been assigned to the case "in the hopes that those who may know what happened to Mr. Smith are more willing to speak freely now than they may have been in 2015 or 2021."
SLED Chief Mark Keel went a step further, telling The State, "We do believe it was a murder. We don't believe it was a hit-and-run."
The Smith family subsequently raised enough money through a GoFundMe to have Stephen's body exhumed and a new autopsy performed earlier this month. They have not yet shared any findings. After the fund reached $43,000, Sandy expressed thanks on the site to all of their supporters for "not allowing Stephen's story to be swept under a rug."
And with investigators now focused on her family's case, she told NBC News, "It's Stephen's year."