Death of Stephen Smith, Buster Murdaugh’s high school classmate, now considered a homicide

The death of Stephen Smith, a former high school friend of Buster Murdaugh, has been re-investigated and is now confirmed to be a homicide. Smith’s body was found in the middle of a South Carolina road in 2015 and was initially ruled as a hit-and-run. However, after the exhumation of his body, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) said there were no indications that suggested his death had resulted from a vehicular accident.

When Smith’s body was originally discovered, he was a 19-year-old nursing student, and the incident was investigated by SLED. Because of the murders of Alex Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, 52, and son, Paul, 22, the investigation was reopened, and Smith’s body was exhumed. Nonetheless, no one has yet linked the death of Stephen Smith to the Murdaugh family.

After the murders of Maggie and Paul in June 2021, SLED reopened Smith’s case, but they did not provide any information regarding what prompted the decision. Buster Murdaugh, the eldest son of Alex Murdaugh, has firmly denied any relation to the death of Smith.

When interviewed during the initial SLED investigation into Smith’s death, the Murdaugh family name was mentioned repeatedly by both witnesses and investigators, according to CNN. Despite being mentioned over 40 times, no Murdaugh family member has been questioned or identified.

As the investigation into Stephen Smith’s death progresses, the Murdaugh family will undoubtedly attract a lot of attention.