Plans to exhume the body of a 19-year-old murdered near the Murdaugh family residence in South Carolina have given his mother hope that a new autopsy will solve his mysterious death.
Stephen Smith died in July 2015, but his mother Sandy has long disputed the officially recorded cause of death, a hit-and-run, and claimed he was murdered.
The inquest into his death was reviewed in 2021 after the murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, for which husband and father Alex was convicted on March 3.
The South Carolina Division of Law Enforcement said it began investigating the case “based on information gathered during the course of the double murder investigation,” but gave no further details.
Sandy said she would “seek exhumation immediately” after raising $40,000 through a GoFundMe page to pay for an independent exhumation and autopsy.
“While the state can choose and fund an exhumation and a new autopsy, we understand that it would take place in [the Medical University of South Carolina]where his death was initially classified as a hit and run even though there was no evidence to support it,” he wrote on the page at the time.
But the exhumation, which must first get the green light from a judge, is just the beginning of an exhaustive process that involves re-examining how Smith’s body was handled during the initial investigation more than seven years ago, the leading forensic expert said. Joseph Scott. morgan.
Stephen was found with a large gash on the right side of his forehead in the middle of the road three miles from his car.
He also had a dislocated shoulder and cuts to his left hand, according to police reports.
Police initially declared the death “appeared to be a homicide,” but an autopsy conducted the same day he was found dead ruled that he had been the victim of a hit-and-run.
How the body was handled in the crucial hours after it was found makes all the difference, Morgan told The Post.
“There are so many things you can miss out on,” he said when contacted by phone. “That’s why we treat all deaths as homicide until proven otherwise, particularly traumatic deaths.”
Whether Smith’s body was sufficiently embalmed could also play a role, he said.
Morgan, who co-hosts a true crime podcast called “Body Bags,” also questioned whether investigators performed X-rays on Smith’s body before his burial, and the ability to re-examine Smith’s clothing from the night of his burial. death, and emphasized the importance of both.
“Did you have any kind of x-rays of your body?” she asked. “If they did, maybe that’s something they could go back and revise those movies they made, compared to what they have now. Maybe they’ll go in and discover something else that otherwise wouldn’t have been found.”
When asked about the possible presence of foreign DNA, Morgan said any molecular evidence would be “out the door” from the time Smith’s body was cleaned by funeral home staff.
The process of performing an autopsy examination on an exhumed body is further complicated by environmental factors, such as the possible presence of insects or water in the subterranean environment, Morgan continued.
“Many people think they just dig a hole and put a coffin in it,” he said, speaking of a burial. “That’s not how it happens.”
A concrete coffin is then sealed, essentially making it “a box within a box,” Morgan added.
But “problems arise” if water can get in, he added.
“That’s one of the things they’re going to fight against: the elements related to this, we’re talking about seven years of rain and drought and all these different things that affect the area,” he said.
The quality of the coffin can affect how well protected the body will be.
“There are still insects that will get in there, they will damage the body,” he said. “Then you can have things like mold.”
However, Morgan added, investigators will still be able to fully examine Smith’s remains.
“They’re going to have to do full-body X-rays and look at everyone, from head to toe, every element involved,” he said, “and look for any trauma that may be present, in the smallest sense. of that word.”
The coroner’s initial report determined that Stephen suffered a head injury when he was struck by the mirror of a passing truck, The Associated Press reported.
Police reportedly believed that he was walking on the road because his car had run out of gas at the time.
However, a SLED spokesperson said in a statement to The Post that they have “progressed the investigation into the death of Stephen Smith, however this investigation remains active and ongoing.”
Murdaugh was once considered a prominent name in South Carolina politics before the murders of Maggie and Paul unraveled a web of financial crimes and allegations of cover-ups dating back years.
Alex Murdaugh received two life sentences for the murders of his wife and son.
Since then, the Murdaugh family is alleged to have been involved in at least three other deaths in the community, including that of Smith.
According local news site FITSnewsthe Murdaugh family name was mentioned “more than 40 times during the course of the investigation,” though police never formally questioned any family members.
The same site reported that local rumors had circulated that Alex’s surviving son Buster had been somehow involved in the death, but this was never included in the police notes.
Buster has never been named by police as a suspect in the incident or charged with any crime.
Speaking to The Post on Friday, Morgan said investigators re-examining Smith’s remains should “collect everything they can collect before returning his mortal remains to the ground.”
You’ve already taken the trouble to exhume the body,” he went on. “Why not push full court, do everything you can do?”
with olivia land
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