A youngster killed in a hit-and-run close to the property belonging to convicted assassin Alex Murdaugh can have his physique exhumed.
The physique belongs to Stephen Smith, who was killed in 2015 in what seemed to be a hit-and-run accident close to the notorious Murdaugh property. In line with NBC Information, brokers with the South Carolina Legislation Enforcement Division (SLED) mentioned that Alex Murdaugh’s conviction for the double homicide of his spouse and son has renewed curiosity in a number of mysterious deaths within the space, Stephen Smith being chief amongst them. Smith’s mom, Sandy, raised $43,000 on her GoFundMe web page pretty rapidly so as to exhume the physique of her son.
SLED mentioned it could be additional investigating Smith’s dying “based upon information gathered during the course of the double murder investigation.” Per NBC Information:
Investigators mentioned in 2015 that it appeared Smith, 19, was hit by a automobile whereas standing exterior of his automobile after it had run out of gasoline, reported NBC affiliate WCBD in Charleston. The incident occurred in Hampton County, about 15 miles from the Murdaugh property referred to as Moselle.
Initially, Smith was discovered with a “defensive wound” on his hand, based on an investigator’s report obtained by The Island Packet, and a murder investigation was opened. Nonetheless, the case turned jumbled when a medical expert later wrote in a report that Smith’s reason for dying was the results of being struck within the head by a automobile mirror, a part of an obvious hit-and-run.
However neither glass nor particles from a automobile had been discovered the place Smith’s physique was situated or within the fast space, The Island Packet reported.
Alex Murdaugh provides testimony throughout his homicide trial on the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, SC, on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. (Grace Beahm Alford/The Put up And Courier by way of AP, Pool)
South Carolina Freeway Patrol investigators declare that they obtained ideas saying that Alex Murdaugh’s one surviving son, Buster, had some connection to Stephen Smith’s dying. The 2 graduated from the identical highschool in Hampton County in 2014.
Sandy Smith believes that her son didn’t die by a hit-and-run and that he could have been overwhelmed primarily based on the best way his physique appeared. She additionally referred to as for an unbiased exhumation and post-mortem, believing that the unique medical facility falsely characterised her son’s dying as a hit-and-run “despite no evidence to support it.”
“We feel it’s critical to seek a new goal – an independent exhumation and autopsy – and we’re launching Justice for Stephen N. Smith with that immediate goal in mind. While the state can elect and fund an exhumation and new autopsy, it is our understanding that it would be carried out at MUSC, where his death was initially classified as hit-and-run despite no evidence to support it,” mentioned the GoFundMe web page.
“We need a new, unbiased look at his body and an accurate determination of his cause of death based on facts. There was no debris in the road, and his injuries were not consistent with a hit-and-run,” it added.
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