Her son was pursuing a nursing career at the time of his death. In a news conference Monday morning, Bland said his firm was not charging legal fees for their work on the case, and that the funds would go toward paying for the exhumation - which he said can cost between $10,000 and $25,000 - and hiring expert witnesses, who he said can charge up to $600 or $700 an hour.Īny donations that are left after the exhumation and autopsy are completed would go toward a scholarship fund to help college students pay for books, Sandy Smith added. She said Friday that she last spoke with SLED investigators about three weeks ago and will be getting help with her son's exhumation from lawyer Eric Bland, who is also representing Satterfield's sons. Sandy Smith has also maintained that there is more to what happened to her son than a hit-and-run and believes he was beaten by the way his body was found in the road. His case has garnered attention with the public's fascination of the Murdaugh saga and was included in recent docuseries on HBO Max and Netflix.įamily and friends of Smith shared their concern for him as an openly gay teenager in a largely conservative region. No member of the Murdaugh family has been directly named as being involved in Smith's death. Courtesy Sandy Smithīuster Murdaugh and Smith reportedly graduated in 2014 from the same high school in Hampton County.

Stephen Smith, right, with his mother, Sandy Smith. State investigators have declined to discuss the case. One investigator attempted to contact Buster, but it's unclear the extent of any conversation that took place. Meanwhile, South Carolina Highway Patrol investigators said they received tips that Paul Murdaugh's older brother, Buster, may have been connected. However, the case became jumbled when a medical examiner later wrote in a report that Smith's cause of death was the result of being struck in the head by a car mirror, part of an apparent hit-and-run.īut neither glass nor debris from a car were found where Smith's body was located or in the immediate area, The Island Packet reported.

Initially, Smith was found with a 'defensive wound' on his hand, according to an investigator's report obtained by The Island Packet, and a homicide investigation was opened.

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