The body ofStephen Smithhas been exhumed for a second autopsy as part of the murder investigation into the 2015 death of the South Carolina teenager, his mother’s attorney has said.
Smith’s death was initially ruled a hit-and-run after the 19-year-old was found lying in the middle of a dark country road with deep gashes to his forehead on July 8, 2015.
On June 22, 2021, the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED)reopened an investigationinto Smith’s death “based upon informationgathered during the course of thedouble murder investigationofPaul and Maggie Murdaugh.” However, the spokesperson did not specify what information led them to take the action.
Sandy Smith, the teenager’s mother, has maintained her son wasnot a hit-and-run victim, however.
Stephen Smith.Facebook
Eric Bland, Sandy Smith’s attorney, said Sunday that Smith was exhumed this past weekend for asecond autopsy. “I now believe that Stephen can really rest at ease because SLED and our team are going to do everything possible to find out just how he died,” he said in a statement on Twitter.
“I cannot thank SLED enough for making Sandy’s dream of exhuming Stephen and having a second autopsy be done become a reality and her pleas regarding Stephen for the last eight years to finally be heard. The state of South Carolina spent a significant amount of money this past weekend, ensuring a smooth and orderly exhumation.”
“Sandy and I both believe that this was a murder,” former Smith family attorney Mike Hemlepp told PEOPLE in 2022. “Whoever did this to Stephen should go to prison.”
It also emerged that a rape kit was conducted on Smith shortly after he was found on a Hampton County road to gather any relevant physical evidence left at the scene.
Stephen Smith’s headstone.Courtesy Suzanne Andrews
Cpl. Michael Duncan, the former supervisor of the South Carolina Highway Patrol, told NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfield that arape kit was conducted on Smith— representing the first time in Duncan’s career that a rape kit was ordered in connection with a traffic incident.
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“I did not have an understanding of why it was being ordered,” Duncan told Banfield. “We were not notified until later that it had been ordered. So no, I have no answers for you as to why they would have ordered a rape kit for what would be suspected as a hit-and-run, which it wasn’t, but I will never understand that.”
Bland confirmed to PEOPLE that a rape kit was performed, but was not tested. The attorney has also told PEOPLE he believes authorities will discover that Smith’s death was a hate crime.
“It could be that a bunch of thug kids decide, ‘Hey, we’re going to beat up the gay kid,’ or it was somebody who felt that Stephen was going to out them,” he shared. “Stephen had told his mother that he was dating somebody of prominence. He was very secretive about his lifestyle. He wasn’t secretive about the fact that he was gay, but he respected the boundaries of people who he had relationships with.”
On Monday morning, Sandy Smith announced through the family’s attorneys that she is allocating a $35,000 reward from moniesraised from a GoFundMefor information leading to arrest in connection with Stephen’s death.
PEOPLE has contacted SLED for comment.
source: people.com
