The 2015 demise of Stephen Smith is being investigated as a homicide, officers have showed, years after the youngster`s frame become located on a rustic avenue close to the house of disgraced South Carolina lawyer and convicted assassin Alex Murdaugh.
The State Law Enforcement Division in South Carolina, referred to as SLED, agreed Smith’s bloodless case ought to be probed as a homicide, lawyers Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter, of the litigation organization Bland Richter, which formerly introduced that they may be representing Smith’s own circle of relatives, stated in statements on Tuesday. A spokesperson for SLED later showed that improvement to CBS News.
“Bland Richter Law Firm is proud to announce that when an incredible disclosure telecellsmartphone name with South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) Chief Mark Keel, that the demise of Stephen Smith is now taken into consideration a HOMICIDE, a stunning declaration after 8 years of being proclaimed a dual carriageway vehicular manslaughter,” the lawyers stated in a information release, including that Bland Richter and SLED will be “combining efforts, sharing facts and assets because the nation movements ahead with exhuming Stephen Smith’s frame and its next investigations.”
In a separate assertion shared on Twitter, Bland and Richter stated their organization is “dedicated to locating out what sincerely happened, and getting the peace and justice the Smith own circle of relatives deserves.”
Smith become located lifeless on a rural avenue in Hampton County, close to the Murdaugh own circle of relatives’s estate, in 2015. Although it become cautioned that the 19-year-vintage become killed in a hit-and-run, questions on the occasions surrounding his demise lingered lengthy after the preliminary probe and have been revived amid the countrywide interest paid to the notorious double homicide of Maggie Murdaugh and Paul Murdaugh in June 2021.
A “forty eight Hours” document on Smith’s demise stated that the nation dual carriageway patrol firstly cautioned the youngster had died “from blunt pressure trauma on his head,” despite the fact that government continually disagreed approximately whether or not his accidents have been constant with a vehicular strike. When Smith’s frame become discovered, his yellow Chevy become located approximately 3 miles from the web website online together along with his pockets nevertheless internal and the automobile’s fueloline hole unscrewed, which led nation police to signify in the beginning that Smith skilled automobile problem and began out on foot down the street earlier than being hit, “forty eight Hours” reported.
However, doubt some of the nation law enforcement officials who spoke back may be heard on at the least one audio recording, wherein an officer says “not anything seems to be a vehicular accident” whilst discussing Smith’s demise. His case become reopened in 2021 as proof become accrued at some stage in the following research into the deaths of Maggie and Paul on the Murdaugh own circle of relatives estate.
A assertion launched Wednesday afternoon with the aid of using SLED states the investigative enterprise had furnished assets for however now no longer carried out the preliminary 2015 research, and had in no way closed the case it opened in 2021.
“Progress has been made, and SLED’s research is lively and ongoing. Since the start of SLED’s research, the purpose has been to discover how Mr. Smith died and discover the person(s) chargeable for his demise,” the discharge states.
SLED Chief Mark Keel has assigned extra dealers to the case, in line with the discharge.
Alex Murdaugh become convicted on March 2 with the aid of using a South Carolina jury of killing each his spouse and youngest son withinside the grotesque murders, and exposure surrounding the research and crook trial fueled preceding suspicions and rumors linking the Murdaugh own circle of relatives to different unsolved deaths of their community. A Netflix documentary collection analyzing the collection of deaths lower back interest to Smith’s case.
Smith’s own circle of relatives asked that his frame be exhumed with the goal of present process an impartial autopsy. The own circle of relatives released a GoFundMe marketing campaign in advance this month to elevate cash for the process, which Smith’s mom, Sandy Smith, stated should price as a great deal as $7,000.
“We want a new, impartial study his frame and an correct willpower of his reason of demise primarily based totally on facts. There become no particles in the street, and his accidents have been now no longer constant with a hit-and-run,” Sandy Smith wrote in an outline that seemed at the GoFundMe page. The marketing campaign has garnered greater than $87,000 withinside the few weeks because it have become stay online, a ways surpassing its unique purpose of $15,000.
Smith attended excessive college with the surviving Murdaugh child, Buster Murdaugh, who launched a assertion this week approximately the research into his demise.
“I even have attempted my great to disregard the vicious rumors approximately my involvement in Stephen Smith’s tragic demise that stay posted withinside the media as I grieve over the brutal murders of my mom and brother,” Murdaugh stated withinside the assertion. “I love them a lot and pass over them terribly.”
