What do Stephen Smith’s injuries tell about the SC teen’s death? New findings revealed.

Years before disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was convicted for the murders of his wife and son, there was another mystery in Murdaugh country — the death of Stephen Smith, a 19-year-old gay man whose body was found in the middle of a rural road on July 8, 2015. The medical examiner ruled it a hit and run.

For years, his mother Sandy Smith wanted a second opinion, convinced Stephen’s death was no accident.

“There was no vehicle debris, no broken headlight … paint scrapes or anything,” Hampton County Guardian editor Michael DeWitt Jr. tells “48 Hours.”

The case went cold until the murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh brought it back to life.

Frustrated by a lack of answers, Sandy Smith is working with a team of lawyers and experts to find out what happened to her son. “48 Hours” has obtained exclusive access to the findings of an independent investigation into Stephen Smith’s unsolved death.

“The injuries can tell us so much about what happened,” says Dr. Michelle DuPre, a former investigator and forensic pathologist who oversaw the examination of Smith’s body. DuPre spoke to “48 Hours” contributor and CBS News national correspondent Nikki Battiste. Just as important as what they found, DuPre says, is what they didn’t find.

A SON’S LAST WORDS TO HIS MOTHER

Like his mother Sandy, Stephen Smith was born a fighter.

Sandy Smith: He was a preemie. He weighed two pounds, 12 ounces. And —

Nikki Battiste: A twin?

Sandy Smith: Yeah, a twin.

Born at 27 weeks with his sister Stephanie, Sandy says Stephen couldn’t breathe on his own. After several months, she was told he might not make it, and she was finally allowed to hold her baby for the first time.

Nikki Battiste: How was that moment?

Sandy Smith: Oh my gosh, it was amazin’. … it was supposed to be my goodbye. But he started breathin’ on his own.

Nikki Battiste: ‘Cause he felt you?

Sandy Smith: Yeah. … That’s why he was my heart.

Sandy never dreamed she’d one day be fighting for answers in her son’s death.

Nikki Battiste: How would you describe … the journey that you’ve been on for justice?

Sandy Smith: It’s been a hard journey – just living day by day and fighting day by day.

On July 8, 2015, Stephen was found dead on a country road in Hampton County. It’s the same county where three generations of Murdaugh men had held the top prosecutor job for nearly a century. The Murdaughs still loomed large over small-town life.

Nikki Battiste: Alex Murdaugh coached Stephen’s baseball team at one point?

Sandy Smith: When they were little … I think Stephen was like … 7 or 8.

Stephen and Stephanie were also classmates of Murdaugh’s older son Buster before Stephen went to nursing school with dreams of one day becoming a doctor.

Sandy Smith: He wanted to be a doctor … but it was more expensive … so he just started with nursing school.

Sandy Smith: He loved dealin’ with medicine … he just loved it.

Nikki Batiste: You must have been so proud.

Sandy Smith: Oh, I was.

But instead, Sandy says those dreams were buried with her son.

Nikki Battiste: You decided to bury him in his scrubs?

Sandy Smith: Scrubs. Dr. Stephen Smith. He had everything he needed in his pockets. He had his stethoscope and everything he needed.

Stephen had just completed a semester of school and was taking summer classes, shuttling back and forth between his parents, who lived apart. He had visited Sandy a week before he was killed.

Sandy Smith: A storm started brewin’. … I told him that he needed to hurry up and get back to his dad’s house … So when he made it he texts me and says, “I made it safe, Mom. Mama, I love you.”

Sandy says those were Stephen’s last words to her. Days later she would hear the news that would alter the course of her life.

Sandy Smith: July 8th I was on my way to work, and I was listenin’ to a local radio station … and I heard that they had found a body.

Sandy called her daughter Stephanie right away.

Sandy Smith: She said ‘Mama, did Stephen stay with you last night? Because he didn’t come home last night.” … And then my stomach dropped, and I knew it was him.

Sandy says Stephen’s father Joel went to the sheriff’s office for confirmation that it was Stephen. That’s when she says they received a call.

Sandy Smith: I was on the phone with Joel the whole time while we were waitin’ for the sheriff to come out. And that’s when Joel asked me to hold on because Randy Murdaugh was callin’…

Randy Murdaugh is Alex Murdaugh’s older brother and had been representing Joel Smith in a worker’s comp case. But now, he was calling about Stephen.

Sandy Smith: When Joel got back on the phone, he said Randy … asked if that was our Stephen … and that … he wanted to help pro bono.

Nikki Battiste: Did you think it was strange that Randy offered to help pro bono?

Sandy Smith: Well, I did … But Joel thought it was a nice gesture.

Later that morning Sandy says she was surprised again as she drove past the scene where Stephen’s body had reportedly been found.

Sandy Smith: There was Alex and Randy standin’ on the opposite side of the road.

Nikki Battiste: Murdaugh?

Sandy Smith: Murdaughs.

A few minutes later, Sandy says Randy Murdaugh called again.

Sandy Smith: And asked if that was me that passed by. … He said, “I wish you’da stopped so I coulda’ met you.”

Randy Murdaugh declined our request for an interview. But through his attorney he provided a written statement to “48 Hours,” in which he said:  

“I was not aware of Stephen’s death until Joel told me…They wanted my involvement, and I contacted law enforcement on their behalf.”  

Randy Murdaugh said he went to the scene with a private investigator after meeting with Joel and Stephanie, adding: 

“Claims that I visited the scene of Stephen’s death with my brother, Alex, are false.” 

Joel Smith passed away three months after Stephen. But Stephanie and Sandy told “48 Hours” they never asked the Murdaughs for help. And there were other things about Stephen’s case that didn’t sit well with Sandy from the moment the Sheriff confirmed the body was Stephen’s. At first he told them Stephen had been shot.

Nikki Battiste: What were you thinking?

Sandy Smith: Who would shoot him? … It made no sense. … I lost it then. … I left my job and just drove back to Hampton … And we just mourned together. We just couldn’t understand why or who…. it was just the biggest shock of our life.

Within hours, Stephen’s cause of death was suddenly changed to a hit and run.

Thomas Moore: Toward the evenin’ time we were contacted by the sheriff’s office … after his autopsy there was not any type of bullet or bullet fragment found in his head … because his body was found in the roadway it was bein’ ruled a hit and run.

Retired South Carolina Highway Patrol Lieutenant Thomas Moore was the on-scene supervisor.

Thomas Moore: I was told that the medical examiner … made that rulin.’ I reached out to her. … It became a little bit heated. … “Give me an answer medically … that would lead you to believe he was hit by a car.” … there was no medical reason.

Nikki Battiste: Did you see any signs of a hit-and-run?

Thomas Moore: No, ma’am … none. … any type of debris — any kinda glass, car parts … piece of plastic, anything that looks like it may be related to a vehicle.

Also unusual for a hit-and-run, Stephen’s clothing was intact and his shoes, which were loosely tied, were still on.

Thomas Moore: Generally clothes are torn … or unraveled and shoes have come off.

And Stephen’s car keys and cellphone were in his front pocket, unharmed. And, Moore says, Stephen’s body appeared staged.

Thomas Moore: His body was layin’ … like it had been placed in a certain position — not what you would typically see and … it looked like somebody had hit him in the head with some kinda’ object.

Meanwhile, Stephen’s wallet was still in his car, which investigators found three miles away with the doors locked and the gas cap hanging open.

Thomas Moore: In all the years I’ve worked – a car sittin’ on the side of the road with the gas cap off … is not normal. … I thought it was staged, like his body was staged in the roadway.

Sandy says she wondered if Stephen might have been the victim of a hate crime.

Nikki Battiste: Did you think it was possibly because of his sexuality?

Sandy Smith: I did think that … I know he was teased a lot at school, but … he still held his head high.

But Sandy says in the days leading up to his death Stephen was worried about his safety. He’d called his sister Stephanie for help the day before he was killed.

Sandy Smith: Stephanie said … the battery cable was loosened on his car. … So she had met him … and then she tightened the battery cable, and she asked him to get out of the car and help her. And he said, “no, I’m not getting out.”

Nikki Battiste: Like he was scared?

Sandy Smith: Right.

But he never said why.

Despite what Lieutenant Moore felt were suspicious circumstances, he says once Stephen’s death was ruled a hit and run, it became the Highway Patrol’s job to solve the case, instead of the Hampton County Sheriff’s Office or SLED — the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

Thomas Moore: I felt like the case, for lack of a better word, was bein’ pawned off on us. … No matter what we said, we were gonna be the ones investigatin’ that case. … As we were gettin’ started certain names started comin’ up.

Nikki Battiste: Which names?

Thomas Moore: Murdaugh.

RUMORS SWIRL OF MURDAUGH INVOLVEMENT

Soon after Stephen Smith was killed, Hampton County Guardian managing editor Michael DeWitt says he began hearing persistent rumors all over town.

Nikki Battiste: What are the rumors?

Michael DeWitt: That at least one Murdaugh child was in a vehicle with other boys and allegedly, somebody in the vehicle … struck the young man with a baseball bat and killed him.

Sandy says those same rumors hit her doorstep as soon as Stephen’s body was taken for an autopsy.

Sandy Smith: It made no sense to me.

Nikki Battiste: At any point did you think that someone in the Murdaugh family was involved?

Sandy Smith: Well, the longer it went on, the more I was asking myself questions. … But I just couldn’t find the connection … a powerful family, and then you got Stephen, who was just Stephen.

Sandy couldn’t help but think back to her last conversation with Stephen a week before he was killed.

Sandy Smith: Somebody was messaging him a lot.

Sandy Smith: He told me that he was goin’ … deep sea fishin’. … he said, “Key West.” And I said, “Well, who are you goin’ with?” He said, “Well, I can’t tell you.”

Nikki Battiste: Did that make you pause?

Sandy Smith: Yeah. … He said, “You’d be surprised. … it’s kinda, like, a prominent person.” And then all I could say was, “Well, I hope you have fun.”

Sandy says Stephen had become more secretive the last couple of weeks. But it never crossed her mind he might be talking about a Murdaugh.

Liz Farrell: The original rumor was that Stephen was planning to go away with Buster Murdaugh and his family … That they were together romantically.

Liz Farrell is the writer and co-host of the “Murdaugh Murders” podcast.

Liz Farrell: There’s no evidence of that that we know of.

And “48 Hours” found no evidence to support the rumors.

Retired Highway Patrol Lieutenant Thomas Moore says the mere mention of the Murdaughs made it difficult to get help from local agencies.

Thomas Moore: We … tried to hand that case file over to the sheriff’s office, and they physically would not take it from our hand.

Michael DeWitt: The Murdaugh name was still very powerful, very well-connected in law enforcement. And the rumors suggested, well, the local cops aren’t going to dig into it.

Instead, the case was handled solely by the Highway Patrol’s Multi-disciplinary Accident Investigation Team —  MAIT — which specializes in complex vehicle crashes.

Thomas Moore: The MAIT team was from out of town. … And — we wanted outside eyes involved in this.

The Murdaugh name appears dozens of times in MAIT’s 2015 case file, which “48 Hours”  obtained through a Freedom of Information request. In his audio notes, Corporal Michael Duncan makes it clear he doesn’t think Stephen’s death is a hit and run.

CPL. MICHAEL DUNCAN: There is no body trauma other than to the head area. … Does not appear to be, in my opinion, struck by vehicle.

Another investigator, Todd Proctor, goes further.

TODD PROCTOR: Typically you don’t see the Highway Patrol working a murder, and that’s what this is.

He hints at a conflict of interest for the local sheriff’s department.

TODD PROCTOR: There’s a reason why Hampton County Sheriff’s Department is not handling this … And I’ll leave it at that.

In this interview with Proctor, local teen Taylor Dobson shares a detailed version of that story about several young men in a truck.

TAYLOR DOBSON: I heard that these two, maybe three young men were in a vehicle. They were riding down 601, saw the car on the side of the road, I guess saw the boy walking. Um, they turned back around. … and stuck something out the window.

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