Dying of Stephen Smith, Buster Murdaugh's highschool classmate, now thought-about a murder

The loss of life of Stephen Smith, a highschool classmate of Buster Murdaugh whose physique was discovered in the midst of a South Carolina street in 2015, is now being investigated as a murder after his physique was exhumed.

Smith's loss of life was initially dominated a hit-and-run, however after the exhumation, the South Carolina Regulation Enforcement Division (SLED) stated there have been no indications that's how his loss of life might have occurred. Smith was a 19-year-old nursing scholar when his physique was found in Hampton County on July 8, 2015.

ALEX MURDAUGH'S SON DENIES INVOLVEMENT IN DEATH OF STEPHEN SMITH AS BODY EXHUMED FOR PRIVATE AUTOPSY

Smith's household introduced final week that their son's physique can be exhumed after investigators reopened an investigation into his loss of life based mostly on data from the murders of Alex Murdaugh's spouse, Maggie, 52, and son, Paul, 22. Authorities haven't introduced a connection between Smith’s loss of life and the Murdaugh household.

Two weeks after Maggie and Paul had been killed in June 2021, SLED reopened Smith's case based mostly on data realized from the Murdaugh case. Nonetheless, they didn't present any particulars as to what prompted them to make that call.

Alex Murdaugh, previously a distinguished South Carolina lawyer, was convicted of Maggie and Paul's deadly shootings on March 2, practically two years after their deaths in 2021, and sentenced to life in jail with out parole. His trial lasted 28 days, with prosecutors specializing in highly effective circumstantial proof regarding his further 99 monetary misconduct expenses as a main motive for the murders. He has appealed his convictions.

Alex Murdaugh's eldest son, Buster Murdaugh, 26, has strongly denied any involvement within the loss of life of Smith.

"I've tried my finest to disregard the vicious rumors about my involvement in Stephen Smith's tragic loss of life that proceed to be revealed within the media as I grieve over the brutal murders of my mom and brother. I really like them a lot and miss them terribly," Buster Murdaugh stated in a assertion through legal professional Jim Griffin, who represented his father. "I have never spoken up till now as a result of I need to reside in non-public whereas I address their deaths and my father's incarceration."

"I unequivocally deny any involvement in his loss of life, and my coronary heart goes out to the Smith household," he continued.

Nonetheless, throughout interviews from the preliminary SLED investigation into Smith's loss of life, the Murdaugh household title is talked about dozens of occasions by each witnesses and investigators, in keeping with CNN.

"Buster was on our radar. … The Murdaughs know that," then-trooper Todd Proctor stated.

Regardless of the Murdaugh title being talked about greater than 40 occasions within the investigation of Smith's loss of life, no Murdaugh member of the family was ever questioned. The explanation for the title being addressed so voluminously could possibly be chalked as much as the next proof compiled through the investigation.

A member of the Smith household advised the South Carolina Freeway Patrol (SCHP) that Randy Murdaugh, Alex Murdaugh's brother, had contacted Smith's father on the day of his loss of life and stated he would tackle Smith's case "freed from cost," per FITSnews.

In the identical interview, the Smith member of the family reportedly advised troopers that the primary time she went to the shop after Smith's loss of life, folks approached her and alleged that Buster Murdaugh was accountable. Neither the provide from Randy nor the tip about Buster had been included within the written case notes, in keeping with the South Carolina information web site.

The investigation stays energetic.