Episode 35: Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies, I'm your host Julie Mattson. This week I want to talk about Stephen Smith's death. I know that those of you who listened to the Alex Murdaugh episode a couple of weeks ago are familiar with Stephen Smith, he was the young man, 19 years old, that was found dead in the middle of a rural road, not really anything indicative of a hit and run. However, when his autopsy was done at the Medical University of South Carolina, his death was determined to be vehicular manslaughter. Eight years later, it's being investigated as a homicide, with all eyes on Buster Murdaugh. Listen in to hear more about the investigation...
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0:06 Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies.
0:08 I'm your host, Julie Mattson.
0:10 Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly true crime podcast with spine tingling, unusual and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner.
0:24 Do I have some stories for you?
0:26 Are you ready?
0:30 Hey guys, I'm coming to y'all this week from Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
0:35 I am attending the advanced homicide investigation conference.
0:39 We are at the Hilton and I love Gatlinburg.
0:44 It's very touristy, but it's very kid friendly.
0:48 I highly recommend this for a family vacation.
0:51 There are kids everywhere.
0:53 I know a lot of the people that are attending the conference brought their families and they're actually having a good time going to all the candy shops and funnel cakes and arcades and all the things that there are to do in the area.
1:07 We actually took a trip in our rental car through the Smoky Mountain National Park yesterday afternoon when we first got here and drove into North Carolina, which was absolutely beautiful.
1:20 The weather here is gorgeous.
1:22 There are people everywhere.
1:24 I would love to go hot through the park.
1:26 We didn't have time, but we are wanting to see a bear.
1:31 I don't know why that we want to see a bear in its natural habitat.
1:36 And we were told today in the conference that it would not be unusual to see a bear on the street in downtown Gatlinburg.
1:44 Not really quite sure that I would be prepared for that confrontation, but we did read up on what to do.
1:51 So we're prepared.
1:53 Anyway, love this area, love the view from my hotel and you can actually see that on my Instagram and also my Facebook page.
2:04 I am excited about tomorrow tomorrow.
2:08 They are gonna cover the Casey Anthony trial.
2:11 She was the mother of Kale who was found in Florida deceased.
2:19 I'm interested to hear the details of that trial.
2:22 Still am not quite sure how she was found not guilty, but maybe they can give us some information that I haven't been privy to in the news media.
2:35 But what I wanted to talk about this week is Stephen Smith's death.
2:40 And I know that those of you who listened to the Alex Murdaugh podcast a couple of weeks ago are familiar with Stephen Smith.
2:48 He was the young man, 19 years old.
2:51 He was actually found in the middle of a rural road.
2:56 He was going to nursing school.
2:58 He was found July 8 of 2015 and it appeared that he had run out of gas.
3:03 A tow truck driver found his vehicle with what was a dark rail road found his wallet inside and the gas cap open and then his body was actually found three miles away in the middle of the road.
3:18 Now, there were no skid marks scene, not really anything indicative of a hit and run.
3:25 However, when his autopsy was done at the Medical University of South Carolina, his death was determined to be vehicular manslaughter.
3:36 And at the time, no suspects were apprehended.
3:40 Eight years later, it's being investigated as a homicide as it should have been from the very beginning and not a hit and run so much as a beating or a shooting or some other form of death.
3:56 So sled which is a South Carolina law enforcement division opened an investigation into his death in June and this is after Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were shot at the family's hunting estate there in South Carolina.
4:13 They reopened the case after notes from the Highway Patrol indicated that it wasn't believed to be a hit and run.
4:21 They think now that he was killed somewhere else and then placed in the road originally when his death was ruled a hit and run.
4:31 It kind of stumps me as to how that happened because I know that our forensic pathologists who are super thorough, actually visit with law enforcement.
4:42 They want to see the report and the injuries have to be indicative of what they suspect before they're gonna just make a ruling.
4:54 So if there was no like glass on the body.
5:00 The injuries really didn't indicate that he had been hit by a car.
5:05 But somehow the forensic pathologist still ruled it vehicular manslaughter, believing that someone had struck him in the road and then just left him there.
5:15 That stumps me a little bit.
5:17 I have to say that that never would have happened at our office.
5:21 Our doctors do not guess.
5:24 And I don't know, you know, was the doctor swayed by the Murdaugh family because we do know that Randy Murdaugh actually told Stephen Smith's father the day he died that he would take the case for free.
5:40 Evidently, the Murdaugh name was mentioned more than 40 times as far as possibly being involved in the murder.
5:48 But for some reason, Buster was never brought in for scheduling.
5:52 Now he says that the allegations are baseless rumors and he, he is saying that he has been harassed and targeted by the media and actually denies any involvement whatsoever.
6:06 But gosh, Sandra Smith, you gotta love her y'all.
6:10 She actually started to GoFundMe.
6:13 And right now it's at $108,890.00.
6:18 The purpose for the GoFundMe was to actually get the funds to have his body exhumed and do a private autopsy.
6:26 She also believed this was not vehicular manslaughter that he was killed and his body was dumped there so good for her for pushing for further investigation.
6:36 Now, Smith, he was a former classmate of Buster.
6:40 And you remember Buster is a son of Alex who was sentenced to life in prison for killing his younger son and wife back in 2021 apparently a rape kit was done on Stephen.
6:52 And we're hearing this in the news now that would have been done at autopsy for whatever reason, which is not normal.
7:01 If they really suspect that someone's hit by a vehicle, somebody believed that this death was not a hit and run or the rape kit most likely would not have been done.
7:14 Now, as a sexual assault nurse, we did not do postmortem exams.
7:20 The doctors do those on autopsy because discomfort is not an issue at that point and they can be much more invasive when they're collecting the evidence.
7:29 His toxicology screen was negative.
7:32 So we do know that Stephen Smith did not have any drugs or alcohol in his system.
7:37 At the time of his death, it appeared that he had run out of gas and was walking to a gas station which again his wallet was left in his car.
7:47 So nothing matched up to his original autopsy findings.
7:52 And again, if the rape kit was indeed collected, it wasn't tested.
7:58 Now here in Texas as a sexual assault nurse, we had what we call non reportable exams.
8:05 So and of course, you could not do a non reportable exam on a child.
8:09 It was not an option, those had to be investigated, but on an adult over 18, if they chose, they could have evidence collected and it could be put in storage for up to three years to be tested later if they decided to report it to the police.
8:27 This was done many times by some of my patients who were assaulted by a family member and maybe were unsure about whether or not they actually wanted the test to be done to prove that they had been sexually assaulted by a family member because they didn't want to disrupt the family dynamics or for whatever reason.
8:49 And we really didn't ask because it didn't matter the fact was that they didn't want to report it.
8:55 We collected the evidence anyway, we got their story.
8:58 Anyway, it was all sealed up in the kit sent to the crime lab.
9:03 The information on how to obtain testing was given to the patient.
9:09 What they would have to do is reach out to law enforcement if they decided they wanted the kit tested.
9:15 And then at that point, law enforcement would call the crime lab and have them pull the kit and actually do the testing.
9:22 So if this rape kit was done and not tested, it is in a crime lab or at the medical examiner's office somewhere in North Carolina waiting to be tested.
9:36 But if it was done, then there was a suspicion somewhere by someone that he could have been assaulted.
9:45 I actually ran across a letter which again, Sandra Smith amazing woman.
9:53 She actually wrote a letter to the FBI and this was back in 2016 in September.
10:01 And this murder happened in 2015.
10:03 So she wrote a letter to the FBI and she stated basically that she needed their help because Stephen was murdered on July 8th of 2015 in Southampton Carolina.
10:16 And that it was apparent that the authorities were covering up some critical evidence.
10:22 Of course, at this point, the family doesn't know who to trust, you know, who's on your side.
10:27 Why is the medical examiner ruling the death?
10:30 Something that it obviously wasn't, what's going on?
10:34 Why are the Murdaugh's bugging the family to try to use them as their attorneys for free?
10:39 So, Steven's father who's now deceased and mom were originally told that Stephen had been shot after running out of gas early in the morning and getting out of his vehicle that he had been shot later that day.
10:56 According to Sandra's letter, they were told that it was a hit and run.
11:0 1And finally, investigators determined that he was actually beaten.
11:05 So he was supposedly violently attacked.
11:09 They had to actually rebuild his face for the funeral.
11:12 So apparently they had an open casket and as funeral homes do, they can work miracles to make people look normal or close to normal for viewings.
11:24 Now, the investigators wanted the family to continue to tell everyone that it was a hit and run because they didn't want the people that did this to Stephen to know that they were looking for them.
11:41 But there had been no suspects named.
11:44 And again, Buster had never been brought in for questioning.
11:48 The family got a call from, again, Randolph Murdaugh, who actually said that he heard of the case and was interested in working pro bono as a liaison between the family and the investigators.
12:03 Stephen's dad said, ok, they were unsure though why the Murdaugh's wanted to help them and they weren't sure how he found out so quickly.
12:13But after a few interactions, apparently, Randolph Murdaugh stopped returning the family's calls, Stephanie who is Stephen's twin sister.
12:23 According to Sandra's letter was approached several times by peers telling her that Murdoch's nephews were responsible that solicitor Murdaugh, who we're talking about Randolph, which would have been Buster and possibly Paul as a family.
12:39 It was really suspicious to them that Murdaugh took such immediate interest in the case and then became unreachable.
12:48 But now apparently, and I'm reading through this, but Chris, the older brother was actually approached by a man.
12:55 He didn't know who told him that he was present when Stephen was murdered and witnessed everything.
13:03 And he said that Buster Murdaugh, who graduated from high school with Stephen, actually beat Stephen to death with a baseball bat. And he said it was because Stephen was gay, which in fact, he was, they said that they were out smashing mailboxes.
13:20 They came upon Stephen and Buster seized the opportunity to beat him.
13:25 At that time, Stephen had actually told this guy that Buster threatened to kill him if he ever spoke up.
13:33 I guess, apparently there was a suspected relationship between the two of them.
13:39 Sandra, it looks like, actually reviewed the 911 call that came in and found that it was suspicious to her that officers in the area, which was an extremely rural area who didn't patrol that part of the town frequently were coincidentally patrolling there at five AM.
14:02 And so she felt like that maybe they were there because they already knew that Stephen was there and the Murdaugh's told them and wanted them to kind of beat everyone else there.
14:15 The Murdaugh's of course, very prominent family in Hampton County, Stephen had apparently on more occasion mentioned to friends and his sister that he was involved romantically with someone from a prominent family.
14:29 The family also was supposedly hiding this person's sexuality.
14:34 This person that Stephen was in a relationship with, he said that it would shock people to know that this person was gay and they think that the person that he was referring to was Buster, although he was never named.
14:48 Now, there were, I guess since the murder, very suspicious.
14:54 Again, in Sandra's letter said that Buster had gotten rid of his old vehicle, which is the vehicle that they were traveling in that night.
15:03 When this happened, there was no blood spatter at the crime scene even though it appeared that Stephen had actually been beaten brutally and moved to this site.
15:18 So they believe that the DNA was in Buster's old vehicle, which he has since gotten rid of.
15:23 She said that, you know, of course, it appeared that he didn't leave his vehicle willingly because his wallet was in there.
15:29 So it was obvious he didn't just leave to go try to get gas.
15:33 Also, Stephen was very skittish and would not have walked down a dark road by himself.
15:42 There was a lot of reasons why Sandra questioned what happened and rightly so it became a highway patrol investigation because he was placed on the roadway.
15:53 It would repeatedly get to a certain point and then investigators would bow out.
15:59 So is she just knew that it wasn't being investigated like it should have been, she was approached by a gentleman claiming to know about the criminal case and said that it was swept under the rug to protect a member of the Murdaugh family.
16:13 She wasn't surprised at all because she, she knew pretty much what had happened, but no one in the law enforcement community there was trying to help her solve the case.
16:26 So she contacted the governor with a plea for help and basically told the story just like it was and said that solicitor Murdaugh and his family have not been investigated and Buster has not been investigated.
16:43 She said that this person implicated Buster as the murderer.
16:49 They just think that Solicitor Murdaugh's influence was extended to the pathologist at the initial autopsy.
16:58 The deputy coroner who were both present for the autopsy and they've gone on record actually to say that there was no mention of a car striking Stephen.
17:10 She insisted, I guess on ruling it a hit and run despite the fact that the injuries nor the crime scene supported that finding.
17:18 So no skid marks, no vehicle debris, no glass at the scene.
17:25 And the I guess medical examiner actually confirmed to the investigator that she found no fragments on the body to suggest hit and run.
17:35 And that it was not possible that a vehicle struck just his head, which we obviously know that that can't be possible.
17:42 She was gonna change the report to read, however, he wanted it apparently.
17:47 Now, Sandra in this letter was asking the FBI for help.
17:51 She included some documents that she wanted them to know about and like I said, good for her.
17:59 The death was ruled a homicide and this was on March 21 of 2023.
18:04 And this was by a pathologist who performed the private autopsy thanks to Sandra Smith standing up for her son and trying to find the truth.
18:16 So evidently, he did have hemorrhages.
18:20 He had cerebral contusions, he had right temporal lobe fracture, extensive skull fractures, abrasions and contusions on both of his arms.
18:31 He had blood in his airways.
18:34 And again, it was ruled a homicide.
18:37 So good for her.
18:39 Where is the rape kit?
18:42 That is just the sexual assault, forensic nursing, forensic death investigator question of the week for me, was it done on autopsy?
18:52 Has it been tested?
18:53 Have we just not been given the results?
18:56 Which could very likely be the case?
18:58 I'm super curious of the results of that but of course, if this was done by Buster and he was with friends at the time, the friends are saying that he was beat with a baseball bat, it's just suspicious.
19:15 I mean, if this family, apparently as we have seen very prominent, have a lot of connections have a lot of money.
19:25 It's just fishy.
19:26 So my question is, where's the rape kit?
19:29 And Sandra Smith, I mean, she is amazing for standing up for her son trying to do what's right?
19:36 You know, a lot of people wouldn't do that because they just don't want to go up against prominent people.
19:41 They're worried about rocking the boat.
19:43 Thank goodness she's not.
19:45 She's standing up for him and doing what's right.
19:48 There are so many things that were overlooked in this case.
19:51 I'm anxious to see anything new that comes out about it and I will definitely keep you informed as soon as I hear about it.
20:00 Thank you so much for joining me today on Pushing Up Lilies.
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