What Happened to Stephen Smith? All About the Teen's Mysterious 2015 Death and Its Alleged Connection to the Murdaugh Scandal By Lynsey Eidell and Samantha Stutsman

To this day, no arrests or convictions have been made in connection with Stephen Smith’s 2015 death.

Smith, a 19-year-old nursing student from Hampton, S.C., was found dead in the early morning hours of July 8, 2015. He was discovered lying in the middle of a dark country road — three miles away from where his car had run out of gas — with deep gashes on his forehead, several local news outlets reported. Authorities initially believed he was the victim of a hit-and-run.

Smith’s case was first investigated by the South Carolina Highway Patrol before going cold in 2016, according to South Carolina outlet FITSNews. However, in June 2021, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) announced that they were opening an investigation into his death “based upon information gathered during the course of the double murder investigation of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh.”

“We’ve been waiting on this forever,” Smith’s mother, Sandy, said at the time. “Stephen’s always been put on the backburner. It’s like nobody’s looking for answers. Stephen’s had no justice.”

Since the investigation into Smith’s death was announced, Alex Murdaugh — Maggie’s husband and Paul’s father — was found guilty of the shooting deaths of his wife and son. He was sentenced to two life sentences for the murders.

On March 21, 2023, Smith’s death was officially ruled a homicide by SLED. The reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for Smith’s death was increased to $50,000 in January 2025.

Here’s everything to know about Stephen Smith’s mysterious death in 2015.

Smith was found dead on July 8, 2015

In the early morning hours of July 8, 2015, Smith was found dead in the middle of a dark Hampton County road. He had a 7.25-inch gash on the right side of his forehead, as well as a partially dislocated right shoulder and cuts and bruises on his right hand, according to FITSNews. His car was located three miles away, with the gas cap unscrewed and his wallet still inside.

According to the Hampton County Guardian, Smith was on his way home from a night class at Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College, where he was studying nursing, when his car ran out of gas on Highway 601. Authorities believe he then began walking home along Sandy Run Road, a claim his family disputes.

“Stephen never would have been walking in the middle of the roadway,” the family told investigators, saying he was “skittish,” per CNN.

Authorities initially thought Smith suffered a gunshot wound to the head

A detailed timeline of the events immediately following Smith’s death, done by FITSNews, revealed that authorities initially believed Smith had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. South Carolina Highway Patrol officers stated that “there was a possible gunshot wound to the victim’s head” and that the “death appeared to be a homicide.”

Smith’s case file stated that, at the scene of the incident, Hampton County Coroner Ernie Washington referred to Smith’s head wound as a “gunshot wound,” pointed to the bullet’s entry point, and referred to the death as a homicide. The deputy coroner present, Kelly Greene, also verbally affirmed that it was a homicide to the SCHP officers present.

However, a search for cartridge cases on the morning of Smith’s death turned up empty, according to the case file. SHCP officers returned to the scene the following day, July 9, to hunt for any evidence within 100 yards of where Smith’s body was found — but there was nothing. Smith’s autopsy also found no bullet or fragments.

Smith’s death was ruled a hit-and-run in 2015

Despite the initial belief that Smith’s head injury was the result of a gunshot wound, his death was ruled a hit-and-run by Dr. Erin Presnell at the Medical University of South Carolina, according to FITSNews. The autopsy, which was conducted at 12:30 p.m. on July 8, 2015, found that Smith had died from blunt head trauma from a motor vehicle crash.

“In light of historical information and the autopsy findings, it is the opinion of the pathologist that the decedent died as the result of blunt head trauma sustained in a motor vehicle crash in which the decedent was a pedestrian struck by a vehicle,” the autopsy read, according to FITSnews.

SCHP officers were apparently skeptical of the hit-and-run ruling from the beginning, according to Smith’s case file. Dr. Presnell reportedly told an SCHP officer that no glass fragments or any other evidence from a motor vehicle were found on Smith. A search of the scene at Sandy Run Road also found no debris or tire marks consistent with a motor vehicle crash, the case file read, and Smith was found with his loosely tied shoes still on his feet and his clothes “appeared untouched,” FITSNews reported.

In March 2023, after reexamining the evidence, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) determined that Smith’s death was a homicide.

Smith was later given a second autopsy

In March 2023, Smith’s family announced that they’d raised enough money through a GoFundMe campaign to have the deceased exhumed and a new autopsy conducted.

Soon after Smith’s death was officially ruled a homicide by SLED on March 21, 2023, his body was exhumed and given a second autopsy.

On April 4, 2023, the new autopsy was declared “a success” by forensic expert Dr. Kenneth Kinsey, who was hired as a private investigator by Sandy’s legal team.

“I do know it was a success; they say they did collect evidence, it was very good documentation, and everybody was upbeat about the information that was collected,” Kinsey told NewsNation. “And that’s not always the situation when you exhume someone after so many years.”

The Murdaugh name was mentioned “more than 40 times” in the investigation of Smith’s death, but no Murdaughs were ever formally accused of wrongdoing in Smith’s case

In the initial investigation into Smith’s death, the Murdaugh name — a powerful local family known for their longstanding law firm — was mentioned dozens of times as possibly being connected to Smith’s death, per FITSNews outlet. However, no member of the Murdaugh family was ever questioned in Smith’s death and no charges were ever filed.

The Murdaugh family was first mentioned in relation to Smith’s death on July 17, 2015, FITSNews reported in their detailed timeline of the days following the discovery of his body. A member of the Smith family told the SCHP that Randy Murdaugh, Alex’s brother, had contacted Smith’s father on the day of his death and said he would take on Smith’s case “free of charge.”

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In the same interview, the Smith family member told the SCHP that the first time she went to the store following Smith’s death, people approached her and alleged that Buster Murdaugh — Alex’s oldest son and a classmate of Smith’s — was responsible. FITSNews reported that neither the offer from Randy nor the tip about Buster were included in the written case notes.

From that point on, the Murdaugh family name was brought up “more than 40 times throughout the course of the investigation,” FITSNews stated. Additionally, more than half of the people interviewed during the investigation mentioned hearing about rumors of Buster’s possible involvement in Smith’s death. However, Buster was never brought in for questioning.

In March 2023, Buster publicly denied having anything to do with Smith’s death.

“I have tried my best to ignore the vicious rumors about my involvement in Stephen Smith’s tragic death that continue to be published in the media as I grieve over the brutal murders of my mother and brother,” he said in a statement released through his attorney, Jim Griffin. “This has gone on far too long. These baseless rumors of my involvement with Stephen and his death are false. I unequivocally deny any involvement in his death, and my heart goes out to the Smith family.”

There were several theories about Smith’s death

During the course of their investigation, the police encountered several theories about how the 19-year-old nursing student died. The notes from the case file, as reported by FITSNews, shed light on many rumors that were floating around the area in the weeks following Smith’s death.

In one such instance, a friend of a relative of Smith’s told police she received a text asking, “Were Buster [Murdaugh] and Stephen together?” The friend told police she said no, and the person who sent the text told police that he had simply “heard the rumor.”

Another individual told police that “certain young men” were riding down Highway 601 the night Smith died, saw him broken down and turned around. The young men then “stuck something out the window,” the individual stated, that ended up hitting Smith and killing him. The individual also told police in a face-to-face meeting that one of the men in the car was allegedly Buster, but that all of the information he provided was only “hearsay.”

Despite the rumors, police never named anyone as a suspect in the death of Smith. Additionally, the accusations made in those interviews were never proven.

Sandy Smith asked the FBI for help in her son’s case and accused authorities of a “cover up”

In September 2016, more than a year after Smith was discovered dead, his mother, Sandy, wrote a letter to the FBI asking for help with the case, according to FITSNews.

“My family is in desperate need of your help,” Sandy reportedly wrote in her letter. “My 19-year-old son, Stephen Nicholas Smith, was murdered on July 8, 2015, in Hampton County, South Carolina. It has been apparent from the first week of this investigation that authorities are covering up critical evidence, and we no longer know who to trust.”

Sandy went on to describe several issues she had with the investigation into her son’s death, including the changing theories on how he died, discrepancies in the 911 log and authorities’ failure to gain access to Smith’s phone. She also disputed the autopsy claim that her son was hit by a car.

“This investigation is being deliberately derailed,” she concluded. “We need someone to hold the investigators accountable and access Stephen’s phone.”

The FBI wasn’t the only group Sandy reached out to in regard to Smith’s case. She told Carolina News and Reporter that she also wrote letters to South Carolina’s governor and crime television personality Nancy Grace, asking them to look into her son’s death.

The investigation into Smith’s death was reopened in June 2021

On June 22, 2021, SLED reopened an investigation into Smith’s death “based upon information gathered during the course of the double murder investigation of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh.” However, the spokesperson did not specify what information led them to reopen the investigation.

In a statement obtained by PEOPLE, Sandy said that she was grateful for SLED and the Attorney General’s office providing “some closure” in the deaths of Paul and Maggie — and she hoped for a similar result in Smith’s death.

“While the many questions about my son’s death remain, this action gives me hope that we will get justice for my Stephen,” she said.

A lawyer for the Smith family, Mike Hemlepp, told PEOPLE, “I know there are people who know what happened to Stephen. The old way of doing business in Hampton does not exist anymore. There’s a bright light being shone on that county. And anyone who knows anything needs to come forward.”

An organization called #StandingforStephen was founded in Smith’s memory

Susanne Andrews, an accountant from Columbia, S.C., founded the group #StandingforStephen in October 2021 with the initial goal of helping Smith’s family raise money for a headstone.

“My son will be 18 in November, and I just couldn’t imagine in six years that no one had come to Stephen’s mom’s aid for memorializing her son,” Andrews told PEOPLE. “That no family, no community, no friends, no one had come to help her try to get a headstone. This is about a child that deserves to be memorialized and commemorated, and a mother to have support that she hadn’t had.”

The group raised more than $40,000 for Smith’s headstone, which was placed on his gravesite at a vigil held in July 2022, and for a scholarship in Smith’s name. Andrews also started a Change.org petition for South Carolina to sign a hate crime bill into law. (Smith was gay, although there has been no evidence to indicate that his death was a hate crime.)

Smith’s death was ruled a homicide in 2023

Nearly eight years after Smith was found dead, his death was ruled a homicide by SLED. Authorities determined his cause of death on March 21, 2023, according to the Bland Richter Law Firm.

“We have a chance to right eight years of wrongs, and we intend to do just that,” said attorney Eric Bland in a press release.