What do Stephen Smith’s injuries tell about the SC teen’s death?

Years earlier than disgraced South Carolina lawyer for the murders of his spouse and son, there was one other thriller in Murdaugh nation — the demise of , a 19-year-old homosexual man whose physique was discovered in the midst of a rural street on July 8, 2015. The medical expert dominated it a success and run.

For years, his mom Sandy Smith needed a second opinion, satisfied Stephen’s demise was no accident.

“There was no car particles, no damaged headlight … paint scrapes or something,” Hampton County Guardian editor Michael DeWitt Jr. tells “48 Hours.”

The till the murders of Paul and introduced it again to life.

Pissed off by an absence of solutions, Sandy Smith is working with a staff of legal professionals and specialists to seek out out what occurred to her son. “48 Hours” has obtained unique entry to the into Stephen Smith’s unsolved demise.

“The accidents can inform us a lot about what occurred,” says Dr. Michelle DuPre, a former investigator and forensic pathologist who oversaw the examination of Smith’s physique. DuPre spoke to “48 Hours” contributor and CBS Information nationwide correspondent Nikki Battiste. Simply as necessary as what they discovered, DuPre says, is what they didn’t discover.

A SON’S LAST WORDS TO HIS MOTHER

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

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

Nikki Battiste: A twin?

Sandy Smith: Yeah, a twin.

Born at 27 weeks along with his sister Stephanie, Sandy says Stephen couldn’t breathe on his personal. After a number of months, she was informed he may not make it, and she or he was lastly allowed to carry her child for the primary time.

Nikki Battiste: How was that second?

Sandy Smith: Oh my gosh, it was amazin’. … it was alleged to be my goodbye. However he began breathin’ on his personal.

Nikki Battiste: ‘Trigger he felt you?

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

Sandy by no means dreamed she’d sooner or later be preventing for solutions in her son’s demise.

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

Sandy Smith: It’s been a tough journey – simply residing day-to-day and preventing day-to-day.

On July 8, 2015, Stephen was discovered useless on a rustic street in Hampton County. It’s the identical county the place three generations of Murdaugh males had held the highest prosecutor job for practically a century. The Murdaughs nonetheless loomed giant over small-town life.

Nikki Battiste: Alex Murdaugh coached Stephen’s baseball staff at one level?

Sandy Smith: After they have been little … I feel Stephen was like … 7 or 8.

Stephen and Stephanie have been additionally classmates of Murdaugh’s older son Buster earlier than Stephen went to nursing college with desires of sooner or later turning into a health care provider.

Sandy Smith: He needed to be a health care provider … nevertheless it was dearer … so he simply began with nursing college.

Sandy Smith: He beloved dealin’ with medication … he simply beloved it.

Nikki Batiste: You need to have been so proud.

Sandy Smith: Oh, I used to be.

However as a substitute, Sandy says these desires have been buried along with her son.

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

Sandy Smith: Scrubs. Dr. Stephen Smith. He had every part he wanted in his pockets. He had his stethoscope and every part he wanted.

Stephen had simply accomplished a semester of faculty and was taking summer season courses, shuttling backwards and forwards between his dad and mom, who lived aside. He had visited Sandy every week earlier than he was killed.

Sandy Smith: A storm began brewin’. … I informed him that he wanted to rush up and get again to his dad’s home … So when he made it he texts me and says, “I made it secure, Mother. Mama, I like you.”

Sandy says these have been Stephen’s final phrases to her. Days later she would hear the information that may alter the course of her life.

Sandy Smith: July eighth I used to be on my approach to work, and I used to be listenin’ to a neighborhood radio station … and I heard that that they had discovered a physique.

Sandy known as her daughter Stephanie straight away.

Sandy Smith: She stated ‘Mama, did Stephen stick with you final evening? As a result of he didn’t come house final evening.” … After which my abdomen dropped, and I knew it was him.

Sandy says Stephen’s father Joel went to the sheriff’s workplace for affirmation that it was Stephen. That’s when she says they obtained a name.

Sandy Smith: I used to be on the cellphone with Joel the entire time whereas we have been waitin’ for the sheriff to return out. And that’s when Joel requested me to carry on as a result of Randy Murdaugh was callin’…

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

Sandy Smith: When Joel obtained again on the cellphone, he stated Randy … requested if that was our Stephen … and that … he needed to assist professional bono.

Nikki Battiste: Did you assume it was unusual that Randy provided to assist professional bono?

Sandy Smith: Effectively, I did … However Joel thought it was a pleasant gesture.

Later that morning Sandy says she was shocked once more as she drove previous the scene the place Stephen’s physique had reportedly been discovered.

Sandy Smith: There was Alex and Randy standin’ on the alternative facet of the street.

Nikki Battiste: Murdaugh?

Sandy Smith: Murdaughs.

A couple of minutes later, Sandy says Randy Murdaugh known as once more.

Sandy Smith: And requested if that was me that handed by. … He stated, “I want you’da stopped so I coulda’ met you.”

Randy Murdaugh declined our request for an interview. However via his lawyer he offered a written assertion to “48 Hours,” by which he stated:

Randy Murdaugh stated he went to the scene with a non-public investigator after assembly with Joel and Stephanie, including:

Joel Smith handed away three months after Stephen. However Stephanie and Sandy informed “48 Hours” they by no means requested the Murdaughs for assist. And there have been different issues about Stephen’s case that didn’t sit nicely with Sandy from the second the Sheriff confirmed the physique was Stephen’s. At first he informed them Stephen had been shot.

Nikki Battiste: What have been you pondering?

Sandy Smith: Who would shoot him? … It made no sense. … I misplaced it then. … I left my job and simply drove again to Hampton … And we simply mourned collectively. We simply couldn’t perceive why or who…. it was simply the largest shock of our life.

Inside hours, Stephen’s reason for demise was out of the blue modified to a success and run.

Thomas Moore: Towards the evenin’ time we have been contacted by the sheriff’s workplace … after his post-mortem there was not any sort of bullet or bullet fragment present in his head … as a result of his physique was discovered within the roadway it was bein’ dominated a success and run.

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

Thomas Moore: I used to be informed that the medical expert … made that rulin.’ I reached out to her. … It turned a little bit bit heated. … “Give me a solution medically … that may lead you to imagine he was hit by a automotive.” … there was no medical cause.

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

Thomas Moore: No, ma’am … none. … any sort of particles — any kinda glass, automotive components … piece of plastic, something that appears like it might be associated to a car.

Additionally uncommon for a hit-and-run, Stephen’s clothes was intact and his sneakers, which have been loosely tied, have been nonetheless on.

Thomas Moore: Usually garments are torn … or unraveled and sneakers have come off.

And Stephen’s automotive keys and cellphone have been in his entrance pocket, unhurt. And, Moore says, Stephen’s physique appeared staged.

Thomas Moore: His physique was layin’ … prefer it had been positioned in a sure place — not what you’ll usually see and … it seemed like any person had hit him within the head with some kinda’ object.

In the meantime, Stephen’s pockets was nonetheless in his automotive, which investigators discovered three miles away with the doorways locked and the gasoline cap hanging open.

Thomas Moore: In all of the years I’ve labored – a automotive sittin’ on the facet of the street with the gasoline cap off … will not be regular. … I assumed it was staged, like his physique was staged within the roadway.

Sandy says she puzzled if Stephen may need been the sufferer of a hate crime.

Nikki Battiste: Did you assume it was presumably due to his sexuality?

Sandy Smith: I did assume that … I do know he was teased so much at college, however … he nonetheless held his head excessive.

However Sandy says within the days main as much as his demise Stephen was anxious about his security. He’d known as his sister Stephanie for assist the day earlier than he was killed.

Sandy Smith: Stephanie stated … the battery cable was loosened on his automotive. … So she had met him … after which she tightened the battery cable, and she or he requested him to get out of the automotive and assist her. And he stated, “no, I’m not getting out.”

Nikki Battiste: Like he was scared?

Sandy Smith: Proper.

However he by no means stated why.

Regardless of what Lieutenant Moore felt have been suspicious circumstances, he says as soon as Stephen’s demise was dominated a success and run, it turned the Freeway Patrol’s job to unravel the case, as a substitute of the Hampton County Sheriff’s Workplace or SLED — the.

Thomas Moore: I felt just like the case, for lack of a greater phrase, was bein’ pawned off on us. … It doesn’t matter what we stated, we have been gonna be those investigatin’ that case. … As we have been gettin’ began sure names began comin’ up.

Nikki Battiste: Which names?

Thomas Moore: Murdaugh.

RUMORS SWIRL OF MURDAUGH INVOLVEMENT

Quickly after Stephen Smith was killed, Hampton County Guardian managing editor Michael DeWitt says he started listening to persistent rumors throughout city.

Nikki Battiste: What are the rumors?

Michael DeWitt: That at the least one Murdaugh baby was in a car with different boys and allegedly, any person within the car … struck the younger man with a baseball bat and killed him.

Sandy says those self same rumors hit her doorstep as quickly as Stephen’s physique was taken for an post-mortem.

Sandy Smith: It made no sense to me.

Nikki Battiste: At any level did you assume that somebody within the was concerned?

Sandy Smith: Effectively, the longer it went on, the extra I used to be asking myself questions. … However I simply couldn’t discover the connection … a strong household, and then you definitely obtained Stephen, who was simply Stephen.

Sandy couldn’t assist however assume again to her final dialog with Stephen every week earlier than he was killed.

Sandy Smith: Any individual was messaging him so much.

Sandy Smith: He informed me that he was goin’ … deep sea fishin’. … he stated, “Key West.” And I stated, “Effectively, who’re you goin’ with?” He stated, “Effectively, I can’t let you know.”

Nikki Battiste: Did that make you pause?

Sandy Smith: Yeah. … He stated, “You’d be shocked. … it’s kinda, like, a outstanding particular person.” After which all I might say was, “Effectively, I hope you’ve enjoyable.”

Sandy says Stephen had grow to be extra secretive the final couple of weeks. But it surely by no means crossed her thoughts he may be speaking a couple of Murdaugh.

Liz Farrell: The unique rumor was that Stephen was planning to go away with Buster Murdaugh and his household … That they have been collectively romantically.

Liz Farrell is the author and co-host of the podcast.

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

And “48 Hours” discovered no proof to assist the rumors.

Retired Freeway Patrol Lieutenant Thomas Moore says the mere point out of the Murdaughs made it troublesome to get assist from native businesses.

Thomas Moore: We … tried at hand that case file over to the sheriff’s workplace, and so they bodily wouldn’t take it from our hand.

Michael DeWitt: The Murdaugh title was nonetheless very highly effective, very well-connected in legislation enforcement. And the rumors recommended, nicely, the native cops aren’t going to dig into it.

As a substitute, the case was dealt with solely by the Freeway Patrol’s Multi-disciplinary Accident Investigation Staff —  MAIT — which focuses on advanced car crashes.

Thomas Moore: The MAIT staff was from out of city. … And — we needed exterior eyes concerned on this.

The Murdaugh title seems dozens of occasions in MAIT’s 2015 case file, which “48 Hours”  obtained via a Freedom of Info request. In his audio notes, Corporal Michael Duncan makes it clear he doesn’t assume Stephen’s demise is a success and run.

CPL. MICHAEL DUNCAN: There isn’t any physique trauma apart from to the pinnacle space. … Doesn’t look like, for my part, struck by car.

One other investigator, Todd Proctor, goes additional.

TODD PROCTOR: Sometimes you don’t see the Freeway Patrol working a homicide, and that’s what that is.

He hints at a battle of curiosity for the native sheriff’s division.

TODD PROCTOR: There’s a cause why Hampton County Sheriff’s Division will not be dealing with this … And I’ll depart it at that.

On this interview with Proctor, native teen Taylor Dobson shares an in depth model of that story about a number of younger males in a truck.

TAYLOR DOBSON: I heard that these two, perhaps three younger males have been in a car. They have been using down 601, noticed the automotive on the facet of the street, I suppose noticed the boy strolling. Um, they turned again round. … and caught one thing out the window.

He presents a reputation reluctantly.

TAYLOR DOBSON: He goes by Buster Murdaugh.

Dobson says he grew up with Buster.

TAYLOR DOBSON: Type of out of character to who I knew. … it’s simply strictly rumour from all I do know.

Proctor reassures him the Murdaughs are already conscious authorities wish to communicate with Buster.

TODD PROCTOR: They know that he’s on our radar.

TODD PROCTOR: Matter of truth, I talked to one in every of their guys yesterday and informed them, you recognize, I’m going to speak to Buster right here quickly, you recognize? They usually stated, “OK, that’s advantageous.”

However in response to the case file, a name to Buster Murdaugh in October 2015 was by no means returned, and In December, following a front-page story within the Hampton County Guardian, MAIT obtained a tip known as in on the path of Randy Murdaugh, Buster’s uncle.

A person named Darrell Williams known as a Hampton Police Officer to report the tip, which concerned two teenagers — Shawn Connelly and Patrick Wilson. In a recorded cellphone name, the officer relays to Corporal Duncan what Williams informed him.

OFFICER: Darrell known as me and he stated … Patrick come over right here to the home. … He stated … that Shawn Connelly was drunk and hit one thing … he went again the following day to see what it was he had hit. And he seen a variety of police on the market …

OFFICER: Patrick was crying, telling him. And after he obtained completed telling the story, he walked exterior his home and threw up.

CPL. MICHAEL DUNCAN: … Did he go into any element about the way it occurred? …

OFFICER: Supposedly he had … mounted his mirror … one of many mirrors up on the truck.

The facet mirror story matched Stephen’s authentic demise certificates. For causes which can be unclear, there isn’t any file of Duncan or Proctor ever talking to Connelly or Wilson.

Wilson had no remark to “48 Hours.” Messages to the Hampton County Sheriff’s Workplace, Williams and Connelly haven’t been answered. Sandy Smith says she requested Shawn Connelly point-blank if he killed Stephen.

Nikki Battiste: And he stated?

Sandy Smith: He stated, “No, ma’am I didn’t … I provide you with my phrase, I promise you, I by no means killed your son.”

Nikki Battiste: Do you imagine him?

Sandy Smith: Yeah.

Nikki Battiste: If he lied to you — if that seems to be the case –

Sandy Smith: It received’t be the primary time I’m lied to … however you recognize. For those who did it, that you must pay.

In September 2016, fed up with what she calls the dearth of an investigation, Sandy started a letter-writing marketing campaign that included the FBI.

Nikki Battiste: What did your letter say?

Sandy Smith: I used to be simply lettin’ ’em know that … my son was murdered and there’s no progress bein’ carried out. And I feel it had somethin’ to do with the Murdaugh household … And please assist, simply please assist me.

Sandy additionally informed the FBI she believed somebody was intentionally making an attempt to derail the investigation.

Nikki Battiste: Did you ever get a response from the FBI?

Sandy Smith: I did. … and I had two brokers come to my home.

She requested them to unlock Stephen’s cellphone, and so they did.

Nikki Battiste: Have you learnt if … anybody truly was in a position to learn Stephen’s textual content messages, or see the place he would possibly’ve been primarily based on cellphone proof?

Sandy Smith: What I heard from the FBI agent … there was— a variety of fascinating data within the cellphone that wanted to be checked out.

However she says that didn’t immediate native or state authorities to pursue the case additional.

Sandy Smith: There’s somethin’ in that cellphone that no person needs on the market.

By late 2016, the investigation into Stephen Smith’s demise went chilly.

Nikki Battiste: What do you assume it took for Stephen’s case to lastly get the eye it deserves, that you simply needed?

Sandy Smith: Any individual else needed to die.

A NEW LOOK A STEPHEN SMITH’S COLD CASE

The murders of Paul and in June 2021 induced a seismic shift in small-town Hampton and gave Sandy Smith a lifeline she desperately wanted.

Sandy Smith: It took this … to get Stephen’s title again on the market so any person would begin payin’ consideration.

In a wierd accident, whereas investigating the murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, SLED introduced it had came across a brand new lead in Stephen’s demise and could be taking up the case. They didn’t say what that proof was.

Nikki Battiste: It looks as if all roads result in the Murdaugh household round right here.

Sandy Smith: Sure.

Nikki Battiste: Is that coincidence, is there a cause for that?

Sandy Smith: Round right here it’s pure.

It could be one other two years whereas authorities centered on getting . However Sandy now has a high-octane authorized staff in her nook.

Ronnie Richter: After eight years of ready in your flip … Sandy Smith lastly simply had sufficient.

Eric Bland: Ronnie and I are like arsonists. We began the fireplace.

Ronnie Richter and Eric Bland are representing Sandy professional bono.

Eric Bland: Our sole objective was … to rekindle the curiosity in Stephen’s demise.

They usually turned up the warmth on SLED. In March 2023, SLED publicly acknowledged it was treating .

The identical week, via his father’s lawyer, saying:

Eric Bland: These phrases at the moment are in cement. … I take him at his phrase that he had nothing in any respect to do with Stephen’s demise.

Reasonably than previous rumors, Bland and Richter say they’re specializing in a brand new investigation made potential by $130,000 in GoFundMe donations from Sandy’s supporters.

Ronnie Richter: The assets have been made accessible for us to do some non-public investigative work that’s gonna begin with … hiring … a pathology staff.

They have been additionally in a position have , one thing Sandy had needed for years.

Ronnie Richter: Our major operate proper now could be to have a real impartial set of eyes take a look at it and inform us, as soon as and for all, what actually occurred to Stephen Smith.

In April 2023, Dr. Michelle DuPre, a former investigator and forensic pathologist who’s carried out greater than 3,000 autopsies, oversaw the examination of Stephen’s physique.

Dr. Michelle DuPre: The accidents can inform us a lot about what occurred.

Nikki Battiste: And on this case they did?

Dr. Michelle DuPre: They did.

DuPre says the post-mortem confirmed Stephen died from a single blow to his brow, severely fracturing his cranium.

Nikki Battiste: That’s an enormous gash.

Dr. Michelle Dupre: That’s seven-and-a- half inches, nearly. … there could be one other gash on this posterior space from hitting the pavement so arduous.

Nikki Battiste: It actually cut up his cranium.

Dr. Michelle Dupre: It cut up his cranium.

They have been additionally in a position to put to relaxation some rumors, together with the one which Stephen had been overwhelmed with a baseball bat.

Nikki Battiste: It wasn’t a baseball bat?

Dr. Michelle DuPre: No. … these sort of accidents would trigger one thing that we name sample accidents, and we don’t see that right here. … It is a linear fracture — in addition to that is right here (factors to a diagram of the pinnacle).

Simply as necessary as what they discovered, DuPre says, is what they didn’t discover.

Dr. Michelle DuPre: We didn’t discover fractures of any a part of the physique, aside from the pinnacle. … There was a little bit street rash, which you’d count on.

Nikki Batiste: Any indicators of a wrestle?

Dr. Michelle DuPre: No.

Nikki Battiste: Any indicators of a beating?

Dr. Michelle DuPre: No.

Nikki Battiste: Any accidents beneath his head apart from the street rash?

Dr. Michelle DuPre: None in any way.

She says that eliminates the likelihood Stephen was hit by a automotive head-on. DuPre says the findings additionally refute early theories that Stephen’s physique may need been staged.

Nikki Battiste: Had been you in a position to decide whether or not Stephen was struck and fell, or he may need been struck, after which positioned there?

Dr. Michelle DuPre: We don’t imagine that he was positioned there. We imagine that … no matter occurred — occurred proper there.

Dr. Kenny Kinsey agrees.

Nikki Battiste: You assume he was killed proper right here?

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: Proper there.

A criminal offense scene knowledgeable and star prosecution witness within the Murdaugh homicide trial, Kinsey labored with DuPre to investigate Stephen’s case. He says the proof on the scene is evident.

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: That’s a large quantity of blood. And if he had that sort of harm elsewhere, it wouldn’t be that uniform.

Attributable to their delicate nature, “48 Hours” created variations of the crime scene photographs by which the blood and physique are proven as graphics.

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: The amount of blood, the path of the circulate within the street, after which the path of all … the – the blood on his particular person — led me to … the one conclusion.

Kinsey’s satisfied an object hooked up to a car touring at excessive velocity induced the only deadly blow to Stephen’s head.

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: No matter hit him was quick and it was giant.

Nikki Battiste: So a success and run, however an atypical hit and run?

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: Yeah, very atypical.

Successful and run with no car particles on the scene. It’s a conclusion nobody was anticipating.

Nikki Battiste: How assured are you that you recognize what occurred to Stephen Smith that evening?

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: I’m as near a level of scientific certainty as I’ve ever felt.

What nobody can say with certainty is whether or not Stephen’s demise was unintended or not. However, nonetheless, Richter factors out, he was left there to die.

Ronnie Richter: Somebody left him in that situation, within the roadway. … And — and that … is a really critical felony.

Stephen’s physique was discovered about three miles from his automotive. Kinsey tried to retrace his steps.

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: I needed to stroll each potential path that Mr. Smith could have taken.

Stephen’s household has at all times insisted if Stephen had automotive hassle, he would have felt safer strolling via the woods.

Nikki Battiste(strolling alongside the street with Kinsey holding a flashlight): So, the place was Stephen’s automotive?

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: Stephen’s automotive was positioned — when you take a look at this gate right here, it was not grown up then, you possibly can entry that gate. However on this space … actually near the woods.

However to chop via the woods, Stephen would’ve needed to scale a fence that was 8 ft tall.

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: And from what I perceive from interviewing neighbors, it’s been there for nicely over a decade.

Kinsey theorizes Stephen was strolling alongside the street, making an attempt to flag somebody down for assist.

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: He’s strolling this path within the — within the lane going through site visitors. … no matter was hooked up to the car or hanging off of the car … at any time when it struck Stephen … he went down in — on this space considerably on this line (mendacity within the street as Stephen was discovered).

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: The car that struck Stephen was coming towards him similar to that car within the — {photograph}.

Nikki Battiste: Like this?

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: Sure, goin’ that path.

Kinsey says the proof suggests the driving force noticed one thing within the street and altered lanes.

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: And someday earlier than it struck Stephen, I imagine it became the oncomin’ lane …

That’s when he says an object from the passenger facet struck Stephen.

Nikki Battiste: What sort of object might it’s?

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: It might be something. It might be a ladder … hangin’ off the again of — a piece truck. It might be a prolonged facet mirror … the steel sort that you simply see on some farm automobiles or some bigger automobiles.

That state of affairs matches up with the tip from 2015 involving Patrick Wilson and Shawn Connelly, which Kinsey calls believable.

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: That actually could be potential … that may be one of many locations I might begin.

SLED has stored its investigation near the vest, however Bland and Richter say a grand jury was empaneled and issuing subpoenas.

Eric Bland: They’re honing in on particular people. And I feel there’s about 5 or much less that SLED believes has data relating to Stephen’s demise.

We don’t know who these people are. In an interview on Fox Nation in August 2023, Buster Murdaugh once more denied the rumors of his involvement.

BUSTER MURDAUGH (on Fox Nation): I by no means had something to do along with his homicide and I by no means had something to do with him on a bodily stage of — of any regard.

He additionally offered an alibi.

BUSTER MURDAUGH (on Fox Nation): The evening Stephen was killed I used to be at our Edisto Seaside home … with my mother and brother.

INTERVIEWER (on Fox Nation): With your loved ones?

BUSTER MURDAUGH (on Fox Nation): With my mother and brother.

Sandy’s staff says it’s turned over all of its findings to SLED. However Kinsey says it’s nonetheless going to take somebody coming ahead.

Nikki Battiste: Any individual is aware of?

Dr. Kenny Kinsey: Oh, they know. Sure, ma’am.

ALEX MURDAUGH’S FINANCIAL CRIMES

As a grand jury zeroes in on potential suspects in Stephen Smith’s demise, the authorized wrangling hasn’t slowed down for Alex Murdaugh.

Michael DeWitt: You’ve obtained native prices. You’ve obtained state prices. … the authorized civil instances are gonna go on for years.

ALEX MURDAUGH (in court docket Nov. 17, 2023): I’m responsible, sure sir.

On Nov. 17, 2023, that encompasses the entire state monetary prices he confronted for defrauding and stealing thousands and thousands from shoppers and legislation companions. He had already pleaded responsible to 22 federal conspiracy, wire fraud, and cash laundering prices.

Nikki Battiste: Alex preyed on the weak whom he additionally thought would by no means determine his schemes.

Eric Bland: Right. … It’s folks which can be on the worst occasions of their lives. … the place you want a lawyer to be the most effective for you, not the worst for you.

Maybe none extra so than Alania and Hannah Plyler, who at the moment are represented by Bland and Richter.

They have been simply 12 and eight after they survived a lethal crash resulting from a defective tire that killed their mom and 14-year-old brother in 2005,  and have become the youngest of the monetary victims to whom Murdaugh admitted he lied and stole from when questioned at his homicide trial.

CREIGHTON WATERS: Who have been the Plylers?

ALEX MURDAUGH: They have been two younger women from uh, Columbia.

CREIGHTON WATERS: What loss did they undergo? Who died?

ALEX MURDAUGH: Uh, their mom. Their mom did.

Nikki Battiste: He solely talked about your mother.

Alania Spohn: Yeah, that bothered me.

Hannah Plyler: That harm.

Alania Spohn: You don’t keep in mind that a 14-year-old was killed in that wreck? … Alex … obtained an excellent paycheck off of my brother’s demise.

Each girls at the moment are moms, and Alania is a detective with the Lexington County Sheriff’s Workplace.

Alania Spohn: Since all of this has come out … there’s a lotta ache that’s nonetheless there.

Alania was sufficiently old to recollect the main points of the final street journey she and her sister would ever take with their mother and brother.

Alania Spohn: My brother and I had gotten into an argument … I needed to begin sitting within the entrance seat. … so we fought about it and fought about it. … And eventually, mother was like, “ what? … Justin’s gonna journey on the way in which to Columbia. And on the way in which again house … Alania will get to journey up entrance.” And I used to be so glad.

Alania and Hannah, who have been nonetheless sitting within the backseat, survived the crash.

Nikki Battiste: You need to take into consideration that on a regular basis.

Alania Spohn: I do. … I truly had a lotta guilt for a number of years.

That guilt is one thing she says she’s realized let go, as she recounts her and her little sister’s harrowing survival.

Alania Spohn: We hadn’t been on the street too lengthy. … Hannah was sleeping. … And I used to be listening to Usher. … And I bear in mind mother sayin’ … “Lanie, you awake?” And so I bear in mind pullin’ my headphones down. I stated, “Yeah, mother.” … inside seconds I heard this loud pop. … After which I instantly heard my mother scream … I seemed out the window, and my Usher CD was spinning on a tree limb.

Their mom Angela and brother Justin died immediately. Alania realized she was trapped and couldn’t transfer and needed to ship Hannah for assist.

Alania Spohn: I stated, “I want you to get outta the automotive and I want you to go to the highest of the hill to the interstate.”

Nikki Battiste: And also you’re solely 12.

Alania Spohn: I’m 12. Proper. … so many issues might’ve went worse.

Hannah, 8 years previous, climbed as much as the interstate.

Hannah Plyler: There was an 18-wheeler. And I used to be in a position to flag him down. …And I feel by that time, an ambulance … got here. … and so they had taken me to the hospital.

Alania waited alone till the fireplace rescue staff arrived and minimize her out of the wreckage. She watched as they eliminated her mom and brother.

Alania Spohn: And so I watched them put them in a black physique bag.

She was then airlifted to a hospital and would want quite a few surgical procedures.

Nikki Battiste: What was the second like whenever you have been in a position to see one another once more after that?

Alania Spohn:  I bear in mind it. I bear in mind … hugging her and thanking her for not dying, for not leaving me.

Hannah Plyler: After which from there I used to be simply within the hospital mattress with you.

Alania Spohn: You couldn’t preserve us aside.

The sisters say they have been handed round to reside with members of the family.

Alania Spohn: We didn’t have a bed room.

Nikki Battiste: You simply had one another.

Alania Spohn: We simply had one another. Yeah. … We lived outta little plastic bins.

When a household good friend referred the Plylers to Alex Murdaugh, he promised to alter all of that.

Nikki Battiste: Do you bear in mind the primary time you met Alex Murdaugh?

Alania Spohn: Yeah … I bear in mind when he walked in. … he appeared actually boastful … like a bulldog.

Hannah Plyler: Tall, nearly intimidating in a way.

Alania Spohn: He informed us … “They took your loved ones from you. And we’re gonna make this proper. They’re gonna pay.”

To 2 younger women who had misplaced every part, Murdaugh appeared bigger than life.

Alania Spohn: I at all times felt at peace once I obtained to speak to Alex … folks listened to him … You can inform there was a lotta management there.

Nikki Battiste: How did he earn your belief?

Alania Spohn: Actually along with his phrases. … he was a easy talker. And … he made you’re feeling particular.

However as soon as the case settled, the particular remedy stopped.

Alania Spohn: He just about checked out. … he had defined that the case … had settled. … We received — huge cash.

Ronnie Richter: Alania’s case settled for $4.7 million, you recognize … Hannah’s for proper at $3 million. That cash was then entrusted to Russell Laffitte.

Laffitte was the CEO of Palmetto State Financial institution in Hampton and shut good friend of Alex Murdaugh, who’d hand-picked Laffitte to handle the funds as conservator till the women turned 18.

Michael DeWitt: So these two very rich, outstanding males … principally assist themselves to those youngsters’ piggy financial institution.

Any cash they wanted needed to be accepted by Laffitte and a choose.

Alania Spohn: Even when it was a greenback, we needed to have a receipt for it.

Nikki Battiste: Once you and Eric took on their case, what did you uncover?

Ronnie Richter: Russell was making loans to Alex … Alex could be overdrawn $50,000, $100,000, $300,000 in his private account, and he wanted cash to cowl these shorts.

Richter says that at Murdaugh’s path, Lafitte transferred practically $1.5 million from the Plylers’ cash to Alex Murdaugh and himself.

Michael DeWitt: When it got here time for these younger women to show 18, the cash was alleged to be there. So Alex needed to exit and steal new cash from completely different shoppers and put that cash again.

Murdaugh was by no means charged for Hannah and Alania’s case. However Lafitte was convicted on federal prices for his function.

Eric Bland: However, nonetheless, there may be that toll of how do you belief going ahead … folks have been put able of belief on their behalf after they have been simply youngsters. After which, to be taught as an grownup that, your entire time … they noticed you as nothing greater than a checkbook.

Whereas the Plylers can start to heal Sandy Smith nonetheless waits for her day of reckoning.

Michael DeWitt: All this sweeping drama, there’s solutions and there’s closure for everyone else, however not for Sandy Smith. … It’s time to place the highlight on Stephen Smith.

A MOTHER’S FIGHT FOR JUSTICE

Months after his blockbuster trial, convicted double assassin Alex Murdaugh and the “crime of the century” are nonetheless Hampton’s largest sights.

Michael DeWitt: Nearly on daily basis any person’s coming by taking an image of the legislation agency or using out to Moselle taking footage. … they only can’t get sufficient.

The Murdaugh craze was on full show at an public sale for the household’s private gadgets from their . The notorious leather-based sofa set the place Alex testified he took a catnap whereas his spouse and son have been murdered bought for $30,000.

And Maggie’s canine Bubba, who helped prosecutors show Alex was truly on the crime scene, has grow to be a neighborhood folks hero.

Michael DeWitt: If that … rambunctious yellow lab hadn’t been … doing what … labs love to do, chase birds … we would not have solved this case and we would not have gotten a conviction.

Alex Murdaugh’s voice calling Bubba was caught within the background of cellphone video Paul took minutes earlier than he was killed.

Michael DeWitt: Bubba and the opposite canines on the kennels … they have been witnesses to a really horrific occasion.

Bubba now lives a quiet life with the Murdaugh’s housekeeper. In the meantime, Alex Murdaugh is serving two life phrases in a maximum-security jail.

Nikki Battiste: Do you assume Alex Murdaugh nonetheless thinks he can attempt to play the system —

Ronnie Richter: One hundred percent.

Now, Murdaugh’s attorneys are hoping their newest movement might be a get-out-of-jail-free card.

DICK HARPOOTLIAN (to reporters) We’re centered on getting him a brand new trial.

In September 2023, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin introduced their movement for a brand new trial primarily based on by the Colleton County Clerk of Court docket Becky Hill.

JIM GRIFFIN: What we have now filed at the moment … supported by sworn testimony of jurors, is that the clerk of court docket had improper non-public communications with the jurors.

They argued that Hill violated Murdaugh’s proper to a good trial when she allegedly informed jurors to not be fooled by his testimony and to look at his physique language, as Alex was about to take the stand.

In a signed affidavit, Hill denies the entire protection allegations. And voluntary statements from a majority of the jury assist Hill’s account. Richter and Bland say even a brand new trial can’t save Alex Murdaugh.

Eric Bland: If the homicide conviction’s overturned, then you’ve … the monetary crimes.

In accordance with the plea cope with prosecutors, Murdaugh might be sentenced to just about 30 years for the state prices alone.

Ronnie Richter: So sure, there’s a theoretical universe by which Alex Murdaugh might see the solar once more, nevertheless it’s theoretical solely.

Eric Bland: It’s like rearranging … the — the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Ronnie Richter: It’s futile.

Michael DeWitt: For those who have been to write down a made-for-TV Southern authorized drama … you couldn’t have carried out a greater job than this.

DeWitt writes about it in his e-book, “The Fall of the Home of Murdaugh,” which he ends with Stephen Smith.

Michael DeWitt: It’s sort of … fascinating … and tragic that the oldest story … stays unsolved. … Fixing his homicide … I feel would be the finish of … this sweeping saga.

As SLED continues its investigation of the Smith case behind closed doorways, what investigators discovered after the Murdaugh murders stays the topic of intense hypothesis.

Nikki Battiste: Do you’ve any concept what the brand new proof that could be introduced to the grand jury is?

Eric Bland: No. Uh, I do know that SLED has Stephen’s cellphone. I do know that they’ve Stephen’s pill.

Might Stephen’s cellphone reveal the identification of the outstanding particular person with whom he informed Sandy he deliberate to go deep sea fishing?

Eric Bland: That’ll be fascinating … what SLED has came upon and what the grand jury’s going to find out … whether or not the individual that he was going to go away with deep sea fishing, um, had something to do along with his demise or his information of his demise.

Nikki Battiste: How has this battle for justice been?

Sandy Smith: Oh, it has been a protracted street. But it surely’s value it.

Sandy is preserving the religion and preserving Stephen’s reminiscence alive. She not too long ago established a university scholarship in his title.

SANDY SMITH ANNOUNCEMENT :We’re beginning this scholarship fund, so different youngsters received’t have it as arduous as Stephen did.

And she or he’s providing a $30 thousand reward for data resulting in an arrest.

Sandy Smith Announcement: Now it’s your flip that if you recognize one thing, that you simply say one thing.

Nikki Battiste: What do you miss most about Stephen?

Sandy Smith: (Sighs) I miss every part about him.

Nikki Battiste: What do you assume Stephen would consider your battle and the place we’re at the moment in his case?

Sandy Smith: He’d say, “Oh Mama, you’ll do this for me?”

Nikki Battiste: Yep.

Sandy Smith: Yep, I might. Again and again.

When you’ve got details about the Stephen Smith case, please electronic mail [email protected]

Alex Murdaugh’s request for a brand new trial for the homicide of his spouse and son was denied earlier this 12 months. In July, he requested the South Carolina Supreme Court docket to assessment that call.    

Produced by Gayane Keshishyan Mendez. Emma Steele and Dena Goldstein are the sector producers. Ryan Smith is the event producer. Richard Fetzer is a area producer.Ken Blum, Gregory Kaplan, Michelle Harris and George Baluzy are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.