SC attorney clarifies Murdaugh ties to Stephen Smith’s death. What he said
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The attorney representing the family of Stephen Smith, who died in 2015, clarified a statement he provided to a South Carolina TV station about the Murdaugh family’s connection to Smith’s death.
Charleston-based attorney Andrew Savage, in a statement to The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette, elaborated about his firm’s private investigation into Smith’s death. Smith’s death also is under investigation by the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division.
“I have never participated in a television or audio interview about the death of Stephen Smith. Never,” the statement said. “I did issue a cautionary statement in writing two weeks ago to a news outlet that it may be erroneous for the media to focus solely on a linkage to the Murdaugh cases.
“Our investigation has not been able to eliminate other possibilities. Not to thoroughly investigate all potential persons of interest would be irresponsible.”
As of Thursday afternoon, Savage was not available to elaborate on what his investigation has found.
The prominent Murdaugh family’s ties to Smith’s death have been called into question in recent weeks after Savage told a TV station there may be other suspects in the investigation unconnected to the Murdaughs. Theories about the family’s possible connection to the teenager’s death renewed this summer after the still-unsolved murders of Paul Murdaugh and his mother, Maggie.
Savage’s statement further builds upon an article published Oct. 27 by ABC News 4 that quoted Savage saying that speculation the Murdaugh family was involved in Smith’s unsolved death may be untrue.
“There are suspects we have in sight that are unconnected to Murdaugh,” Savage told the station. “The focus any in the media have on Murdaugh may be unfounded.”
Savage, ABC News 4 reported, provided the statement as his reason for denying a request by a reporter to interview Smith’s mother.
The station later clarified that Savage was specifically referring to Paul Murdaugh’s connection to Smith’s death. The story said a private investigator hired by Savage had uncovered “other potential suspects.”
ABC News 4 executive producer Drew Tripp, who wrote the article, said that Savage’s new statement was accurate.
“We feel we correctly portrayed context and circumstances of his statements to us, and stand by our reporting,” he said.
The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette have independently verified that a private investigator named Steven Peterson is working with Savage to investigate Smith’s death.
In late June, two weeks after Paul and Maggie were found shot to death, SLED announced it had opened an investigation into Smith’s death “based upon information gathered during the course of the double murder investigation.”
Police documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show that the S.C. Highway Patrol, which was the lead agency in charge of investigating Smith’s death in 2015, unsuccessfully chased rumors tying the Murdaugh family to the case, but never actually interviewed family members about their alleged involvement.
The documents show that Smith, then 19 years old, was found dead in the early morning hours of July 8, 2015, along a rural road near Hampton. Smith had a head wound consistent with being shot, the coroner explained in a report.
After his autopsy, however, Smith’s death was ruled a hit-and-run. The forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy hypothesized he could have been struck in the head by the mirror on a large truck.
South Carolina Highway Patrol officers investigating the case doubted that.
“There’s just no physical evidence. We got evidence on the body but no physical evidence,” Highway Patrol Cpl. M. E. Duncan explained to Smith’s twin sister in a July 17, 2015, interview. “Like I said, I will say ‘hit-and-run’. ... I don’t even want to call it that. It’s more a ‘death investigation.’ [It] could be a homicide, could be a voluntary, involuntary [manslaughter].”
Highway Patrol Lance Cpl. Todd Proctor, who at the time was tracking rumors that the Murdaughs were involved, was more frank.
“He didn’t get hit by no car,” Proctor told one person he interviewed.
“I’m not saying whoever did this murdered him,” Proctor said, because murder has to be premeditated. It may have been an accident that was covered up, he theorized.
Smith’s case eventually went cold, and investigators did not find any suspects related to his death, according to police notes.
In a June interview with a reporter, Sandy Smith, Stephen’s mother, said she thinks that her son was beaten somewhere and placed on the road.
The afternoon after Stephen’s body was found, Sandy said she heard rumors that the Murdaugh family was involved in her son’s death. But neither she nor investigators have ever confirmed that.
The Murdaugh family name appears at least nine times in S.C. Highway Patrol notes during the investigation into Smith’s death, according to the agency’s investigative report.
Police have announced no suspects or arrests connected to Smith’s death.
This story was originally published November 4, 2021 at 1:49 PM with the headline "SC attorney clarifies Murdaugh ties to Stephen Smith’s death. What he said."
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