Alex Murdaugh’s son denies involvement in death of Stephen Smith as body exhumed for private autopsy
Rachel Schilke
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Buster Murdaugh, son of now-convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh, is denying any involvement in the death of Stephen Smith, his high school classmate who was found dead in the middle of a South Carolina road in 2015.
The young Murdaugh said the “baseless rumors” surrounding his role in Smith’s death have “gone on far too long.”
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“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. I love them so much and miss them terribly,” Buster Murdaugh said in a statement via attorney Jim Griffin, who represented his father. “I haven’t spoken up until now because I want to live in private while I cope with their deaths and my father’s incarceration.”
“I unequivocally deny any involvement in his death, and my heart goes out to the Smith family,” he continued.
His statement comes after Smith’s family announced last week that their son’s body would be exhumed after investigators reopened an investigation into his death based on information from the murders of Alex Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, 52, and son, Paul, 22.
Alex Murdaugh, formerly a prominent South Carolina lawyer, was convicted of their fatal shootings on March 2, nearly two years after their deaths in 2021. His trial lasted 28 days, with prosecutors focusing on powerful circumstantial evidence relating to his additional 99 financial misconduct charges as a primary motive for the murders.
Two weeks after Maggie and Paul were killed in June 2021, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, or SLED, reopened Smith’s case based on information learned from the Murdaugh case but did not provide any details.
“SLED has made progress in the death investigation of Stephen Smith,” the agency said in a statement to CNN on Sunday. “However, this investigation remains active and ongoing.”
The body of Smith, 19, was found on the road on July 8, 2015. He suffered blunt force trauma to the head, and his death was initially ruled a hit-and-run by a pathologist, per CNN. However, the state highway patrol’s Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team determined “no vehicle debris, skid marks, or injuries consistent with someone being struck by a vehicle.”
As of Monday morning, Smith’s family has raised over $65,000 to put toward the exhumation and a private autopsy after the family learned he would be exhumed at MUSC, the same place where his death was ruled a hit-and-run.
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“We need a new, unbiased look at his body and an accurate determination of his cause of death based on facts. There was no debris in the road, and his injuries were not consistent with a hit-and-run,” Smith’s mother, Sandy, wrote on a GoFundMe page, adding that the family believes “2023 is Stephen’s year.”
“It is a huge expense, but we are hoping that with your support we can make this happen and finally get the answers we need,” she continued.