Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - BOMBSHELL TROUBLE FOR ALEX MURDAUGH: Teen Stephen Smith Death is Homicide

Episode Date: March 22, 2023

It has taken eight years but teen Stephen Smith's death will finally be investigated as a homicide. The Smith family has never believed that the 19-year-old's death was a hit and run as determined by a previous investigation. In just a week, the South Carolina mom raised more money through a GoFundMe account than what is needed to pay for the exhumation of Smith's body. Now, all that's needed is court approval. South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) Chief Mark Keel notified Smith's attorneys that the agency now officially considers Smith's death a murder. Smith's body was found miles away from his car and lying in the middle of the road. At first, responders thought he had been shot in the head, but the death was designated as a hit-and-run.  Joining Nancy Grace today:  Eric Bland - Attorney for Sandy Smith & Gloria Satterfield’s sons- Founder/Partner  Bland, Richer, LLP Attorneys at Law; Twitter: @TheEricBland; Co-host of ‘Cup of Justice’ podcast. Ronnie Richter - Attorney for Sandy Smith, Satterfield family, and other victims of Alex Murdaugh; Partner, Bland Richter Law Firm; Twitter: @BlandRichterSC Caryn Stark - Psychologist; Twitter: @carnpsych Chris McDonough - Director At the Cold Case Foundation, Former Homicide Detective, & Host of YouTube channel, ‘The Interview Room’ Dr. Michelle DuPre - Former Forensic Pathologist, Medical Examiner, & Detective: Lexington County Sheriff's Department; Author: "Homicide Investigation Field Guide" & "Investigating Child Abuse Field Guide;" Forensic Consultant  Blair Sabol - Investigative Reporter for Live 5 News in Charleston, SC, Twitter: @BlairSabolTV See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Bombshell out of South Carolina. In the last hours, the inquiry into the death of teen boy Stephen Smith has turned into a homicide investigation. That's right. For all these years, the teen found not too too far from Alex Murdoch's Moselle hunting lodge has been deemed to be a hit and run. That has changed.

In the last hour's repeat, that inquiry has turned into a homicide investigation. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thanks for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. Joining me right now is Ronnie Richter, partnering with Bland Richter, who is spearheading the effort to have Stephen Smith's body exhumed for a private autopsy. Ronnie, thank you for being with us. Ronnie, what happened? My partner Eric Bland and I received a call from Chief Mark Keel. He is the top cop in the state of South Carolina in charge of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to tell us that if we are proceeding with the exhumation

of Stephen Smith's body to try to prove to SLED that this was not just a hit and run, that we did not have to do that, that they don't view it as a hit and run. They view this as a homicide and they are committed to this investigation and they are dedicating resources to investigate the truth behind the death of Stephen Smith. The body is still going to have to be exhumed for an autopsy to find the truth about his injuries. But this whole thing has taken eight years. It did take eight years. And that is a matter of frustration with Sandy Smith, as you might imagine. But it appears what happened is this investigation got lost between two agencies in

South Carolina. Was it a vehicular death which falls under highway patrol? Was it a murder that falls under sled? We think that's where the investigation first got derailed. And what happened after that was that virtually all of our resources in the state were devoted to the Murdaw murder investigations for a period of time. So I think that we were run thin for a while. Justice is slow and it's frustrating when it's not your turn, but we are reassured that this investigation is real, that it's ongoing, and that the resources are being devoted to it now. Take a listen to this. Hampton County 911, where's your emergency?

Hello, I just turned down a fucking real road. I see somebody laying out. What road are you listening in? the highway that you're on? I know it's Crockerville Road. You just know it's Crockerville Road? Yeah. Hold on just a second. And which way are you headed? Okay, I'm going back where the code is, are you going to Horsesprung?

Uh-huh. Yeah. Okay, you're on that road just before you get into Crockettville? 10 o'clock will be there to make that right. That's where everything starts. Right there with the discovery of the body of this young teen, Stephen Smith. Not too far from Alex Murdoch's hunting lodge, one of his three homes,

the body found out in the road, in the middle of the road, badly injured. Stephen Smith dead. Let's take a listen to more of that 911 call. And is it in the road or on the side of the road? In the road.

Yeah. Uh-uh. All right. What's your name and call that number uh my name is ron caper okay all right mr capers can i get a phone number for you uh i don't know if no officer informed but you can call this number back i'm going to work okay but this is a good number to reach you back at yeah okay all right we'll get an officer headed out that way to see what's going on She called me back. I was going to work. Okay, but this is a good number to reach you back at? Yeah. Okay, all right. We'll get an officer headed out that way to see what's going on.

Okay, but if you made it to the road, I ain't moving or nothing like that. But somebody's going to hit him. They stopped. Uh-huh. Somebody's going to hit him. All right, we'll get an also headed out that way. A stranger calling 911 concerned that another vehicle, a big truck or a car, will run over the body of Stephen Smith laying out in the road. With me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now as Alex Murdoch waits in his jail cell to be assigned to a CI, State Correctional Institute in South Carolina, he cannot be happy about news that in the coming

days, Stephen Smith's body is going to be exhumed and a private autopsy will happen. Let's don't put the cart before the horse. Joining me right now is high-profile lawyer out of South Carolina, Eric Bland, first representing the Gloria Satterfield family, another victim that loses her life there at the Moselle Hunting Lodge, also representing the Stephen Smith family and Stephen Smith's mother's pursuit of justice. Eric Bland, thank you for being with us.

He's also co-host of Cup of Justice podcast and you can find him at blanrichter.com. Eric, you know, just this morning, I dropped the children off to school, and I was asking them, okay, who has PE? Now they call it body con, okay? It's not PE anymore. Yeah, body conditioning. They run like rabbits and lift weights. Body con. And I'm saying who has PE first and who has track practice and who's going to go to the school tutorial in math at 3 o'clock. Can you imagine? See, that's where my head is.

And this mom, Stephen Smith's mother, is still trying to find out, why is my son dead? Tell me about Stephen Smith's mother as she is inching forward to the actual exhumation, digging up the body of her son, another thing I can't even imagine. What is her frame of mind, Eric? Well, I mean, she's an extraordinary woman. If all my clients were as articulate as she is and had her sense of kindness, it would make my job a lot easier. You've heard her talk on TV. She's a mother who wants answers.

I mean, it's been eight years of paralysis. She knows that the odds are that Stephen did not die on Sandy Run Road, that he may have died somewhere else. If it was a hit and run, and it turns out to have been a hit and run, there is somebody that has knowledge of that. And there's a criminal who killed somebody and drove away, which is a crime in any state in this country. She just wants some answers so she can get peace. This is not about money. There's no threats of civil suits. The GoFundMe, which gave us the money to be able to afford this process, is 100% of these proceeds are going directly into the investigation in the exhumation.

I'm giving my legal time for free in the exhumation process and supervising the investigation. Objection beyond the scope of the question. Okay. With me, high profile lawyer, Eric Bland. Again, let's don't put the cart before the horse. I want to get to Blair Sable, investigative reporter, Live 5 News, Charleston. He's been on the story from the beginning. Blair, thank you for being with us. You just heard the 911 calls. Could you describe for our viewers and listeners the stretch of road where Stephen Smith's body was found?

It's very nondescript. It's in the middle of Hampton County. If you've been out in that area, and I'm sure a lot of folks kind of drove through, if they had attended the recent Murdoch trial, it's just a very long highway. It's two lanes. There's fields on either side. There's not a lot going on there.

How far is it from Moselle? It's very close. It's just a few miles away. When I was doing coverage pre-trial, we were, you know, going around to all the significant locations and we actually drove from Moselle to the Stephen Smith or the road where he was found and it's 30 minutes maybe. Did you say 30 or 3. 30. Eric Bland, what can you tell me about the stretch of road? Anything in addition to what Blair told us? It's country as country can get, Nance. It's dark.

There's not a lot of homes in between each of the homes. There's no landmarks. From Alex's place in Mizzellell the nearest convenience store is nine minutes so if you're stuck out there if you have to walk out there it's it's a lonely scary place and steven with the lifestyle that he lived was a very careful young man you know being gay in the low country in 2015 was not the most popular thing in the world. It took courage. And so he was very careful where he walked, where he traveled. So that's one of the things that is perplexing to, obviously, Sandy and us is, why would he leave his wallet in his car if it ran out of gas?

Why wouldn't he have made some phone calls along the way on the walk? He would have called his twin sister, Stephanie, who is extremely, extremely close with you have twins. So, you know, how twins rely on each other. He would have called her and said, look, come get me. I'm out of gas. She would have said, stay there. He would have walked through the woods. There's a path that he would have taken that Sandy Smith said he would not have taken that route in the road. So there's just more questions than answers. And when you have more questions and you're a mother,

you can imagine what that does to you over eight years. Eric Bland, he did have his cell phone with him? Yes, he did. Hi, guys. Nancy Grace here. Our friends and partners at Fox Nation have an exclusive new movie out right now, Murder for Sale. In this new original movie, real estate agent Violet Becker is devastated when her best friend and fellow real estate agent dies at an open house. Violet is suspicious about the circumstances of the death and sets out to investigate. She soon finds herself in unfamiliar territory as she uncovers shocking

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Go to FoxNation.com now to watch. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, joining me is Chris McDonough, director of the Cold Case Foundation, former homicide detective, has handled well over 300 homicides, and he is the host of a YouTube channel, The Interview Room. You can find him at coldcasefoundation.org. Chris, you and I have both driven this road and have very carefully gone over the terrain. Now, driving at night in that area

where Stephen Smith's body was found, there are no street lights, there are no street lights. There are no red lights, no caution lights, nothing. It's pitch black. Think of cutting off all the lights at night in a room and shutting the door, no windows. Pitch black. When I was driving back and forth to the trial, I would see 30 or 40 deer going by. You could just kind of like images of them because it was so dark. I couldn't make anything out. And that was an issue at trial

with Alex Murdoch, him driving 80 MPH from his mother's house at Almeida back to Moselle where Maggie and Paul were murdered at 80 miles an hour. Why? So what is your take on where the body was found? This is really important, Chris. A hundred percent, Nancy. And you have felt that environment just as you've described. The first thing that's critical in this particular case here is what we would call the POI, right?

The point of impact. And, you know, if you take into an account of this young man, you know, hypothetically walking down the middle of the street, he's got a cell phone with him. That's one thing, but that cell phone also has a flashlight on it. And, and that evening, it had to have been, you know, at 4 o'clock in the morning as when he's discovered, but I think the coroner said time of death is approximately 3 a.m. So at 3 a.m., this young man who knows the terrain, as his mom says, would have taken a shortcut. The question is, why is he in the middle of the road? And then secondarily, you're going to see a car coming for miles on that road. Oh, yeah. Because, you know,

when I was driving it and I drive it many times at night, Chris, there was hardly anybody on the road. And it wasn't 3 a.m. when I was driving, but it was late at night, 11 1 a.m because i had a five hour drive to get there and i wanted to eat supper with twins before i left so i didn't even leave until eight o'clock at night and if there was a car coming as rare as that was you could see it miles away yeah absolutely and i and i actually went out there to that spot and I wanted to get a sense of what that environment was. There's a cornfield on one side. There's a single house right near where the body is, where the body allegedly was. And the interesting thing about it on that, back to the original point in your question, Nancy, was the point of impact or where this body ended up was right in the middle of the highway. And if it's a motor vehicle accident and, you know, there's a high velocity, that's going to move the body to one side of the road or the other.

Not dead center into the middle of the road. That is very, very highly unlikely to occur. I have a question, Nancy. Jeff and Eric Bland. So Chris, you are 100% correct that the body would not release and remain in the center of the road. There obviously would be bumper marks

or something on Steven. But one thing that does concern me, and I'm going to be a contrarian here because I'm just learning the case. You guys know so much more of it than me. Admittedly, I just got involved. The amount of blood that leaked out of his head onto the road, doesn't that trouble you if he was killed somewhere else? Yeah, it troubles me. Let's talk to Dr. Michelle Dupree, forensic pathologist, medical examiner, former detective, and author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide.

She literally has written the book. Okay, Dr. Dupree, jump in. So I understand your concern about the amount of blood on the roadway, and that's a valid concern but given the set of circumstances I'm not sure that that is something that we would really need to hang our hats on again you know we need to look at the total situation the totality of the circumstances if he was killed somewhere else and then moved that could explain that but also depending on the actual injury itself a lot of times head injuries do bleed profusely.

But again, depending on the injury, it may bleed inside. And so we don't really know what was actually found at the scene. Here's a question that my producer, Jackie, has long had if the body if steven's body is left in the middle of the road really looking staged of course that's not enough to go on the fact that it looks staged wasn't left there with the intent that someone else would hit the body guys take a listen to our friends at w c s c somebody out at W-C-S-C. Somebody out there knows something. It's July 8th, 2015. A driver on his way to work calls 911 to report a body lying in the middle of the street on Sandy Run Road.

The victim turns out to be 19-year-old Stephen Smith, a shy teen, but a funny and outgoing one to his inner circle. Smith was openly gay in the small rural South Carolina town he grew up in. The blunt force trauma to his head appears as a possible gunshot wound to the first responders on the scene, but the coroner's office later rules his death a hit and run. He also has injuries to his left arm and left hand.

So the first responder to you, Blair Sable, joining us, investigative reporter for Live 5 News, the first responders thought he'd been shot in the head? Yeah, they actually did a gunshot residue test to follow up on that. Turns out it wasn't the case, but that's how bad the injuries were to his head. They literally thought he had been shot. When you say that's not the case, you mean there was no gunshot residue around the wound? No, he did not test positive for gunshot residue. Okay, let's hear more about the circumstances surrounding the discovery of his body from our friends at WCSC. Smith's car was found about three miles away on Bamberg Highway. It won't start, but investigators find his wallet inside. The gas cap

also unscrewed. His family reports he would have never left the car, calling him skittish. And his twin sister, Stephanie, also tells authorities that her brother had become very secretive about two weeks prior to the incident. And more. Documents show investigators fielding tips about the Murdoch family in the days and months following his death. The first tip comes in early August, suggesting swirling rumors of a relationship between Smith and Buster Murdoch, Alec Murdoch's eldest and now only surviving son. An investigator also fields a tip about another possible suspect, but that tipster tells them he passed along the information at the request of a well-known family patriarch, former solicitor Randy Murdoch. Andrew says in the record she has, the Murdoch name is mentioned 40 times.

Where there's smoke, there's fire. There has to be something to it. Eventually, the leads dried up and the case went cold. Okay, back to you, Blair. What is this about former solicitor Randy Murdoch? Now, this is Alex Murdoch's brother. Information is passed along by Randy Murdoch? Essentially, in addition to the rumor that gets fielded by authorities about Buster being in a relationship with Stephen, there's also a tip that gets submitted to authorities about Randy Murdoch, I believe, or one of the Murdochs, telling someone to tell authorities about something. Even though seemingly on the surface, there's no relation between the Murdochs and the Smiths. Eric Bland, isn't it true that I believe it was Randy Murdoch coached Stephen Smith on a Little League team on which Buster Murdoch also played?

Is that right? I believe there was some Little League or youth baseball connection. And they were classmates as well. As far as. Yes, they were. As far as Randy Murdoch involvement. My understanding from a number of sources, and I know Sandy has said this on TV, so I'm not revealing attorney client privilege. She said that he had called her husband, Joel, on the phone and offered his services and maybe had shown up at the accident scene and then called Sandy later on in the morning, the following morning, and offered his services to represent. You mean represent the Stephen Smith family in a wrongful death case.

Got it. Yes. I'm not saying he was trolling. I'm not going to use that word. No, because that is unethical and disallowed under the attorney bar rules. Blair Sable, what do we know about any of the Murdoch showing up at the scene of Stephen Smith's body being found? It's not noted in any of the investigative files. There's so many rumors swirling around this case. So right now, that's a rumor that we have yet to confirm. Guys, take a listen to more about skid marks, about vehicle debris.

Were there any? Listen. More than seven years have passed since, and the mysterious details of his final hours have weighed on his mother, Sandy Smith, and the rest of the family. It's draining. Suzanne Andrews has become a close friend to them in their time of need. The family rejects the hit-and-run theory. South Carolina Highway Patrol's initial investigation finds no vehicle debris, skid marks, or injuries consistent with someone being struck by a vehicle. A heated discussion between trooper Todd Proctor and pathologist Dr. Aaron Presnell reveals that the death was ruled this way because Smith was found in the road. Blue paint chips are found on Smith's clothes but cannot be traced to a specific make or model.

Okay, let me understand. Dr. Michelle Dupree joining me from South Carolina. So the COD, cause of death, vehicular homicide, was because he was found in the road? Nancy, that's unheard of, actually. We certainly don't base the cause of death on that. We base it on our findings in the autopsy and, again, the surrounding circumstances. I can't explain that. Is that true, Eric Bland, in the autopsy report, the COD, vehicular homicide, because he's found in the road? I mean, if I set him up at the dining room table in your house, would they say he died of poisoning at high T? I mean, if I set him up at the dining room table in your house, would they say he

died of poisoning at high tea? I mean, that doesn't even make any sense. Correct. And that also shaped the investigation, Nancy. As Dr. Dupree knows, the highway patrol investigated the death and they don't have the resources that their mate department obviously thought it was a fatality, a traffic fatality, but they don't have the resources. If it was deemed a homicide that didn't take place on the road, then it would be within fledged jurisdiction. And we know that the resources that they have, there are many FBI. And so there was the conflict of who should be the investigative agency. And when you're having that kind of conflict, a lot of things get lost in the shuffle.

Okay, I'm trying to understand something. Eric Bland, where did you get your intel that a Murdoch showed up at the scene? Sandy Smith has said that on national TV. Jack, could you confirm that, please? Randy Murdoch has not denied that. Ah, okay. Now, let me ask you,

Karen Stark is joining me, renowned psychologist out of Manhattan, crime and trauma expert. You can find her at KarenStark.com. Karen with a C. Karen, I want you to take a listen to Stephen's mother. Listen. Oh, my gosh. We've been waiting on this forever.

Sandy Smith wakes up every morning thinking about her son Stephen and her years-long search for answers. And they said he was shot in the head and then it turned out it was a hit and run and then he was beat up and so the story just kept changing. Stephen Smith's body was found along Sandy Run Road in Hampton County in July of 2015. The official cause of death at the time was that Smith died of a hit-and-run. I just couldn't believe it but he when they told me hit and run I said that's impossible because Steven wouldn't have been walking in the road to start with. He would have cut through the woods. He would not have been in the highway.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Karen Stark, a psychologist, joining us. Karen, the other morning I came in the kitchen just before I hopped in the car to take the twins to school. And I went, whoa, Lucy didn't. I made John David's breakfast, but Lucy likes to make her own organic breakfast. You know, like you might see it on a picture on Instagram. It's beautifully arranged. So me just slinging out some scrambled eggs is not going to work. So I walked in.

I went, whoa, whoa, whoa. Did Lucy not have breakfast? Where's the toaster? Because she always takes it out and gets her organic wheat bread and then puts egg whites and pesto on top of it and leaves all the stuff out, all the stuff to clean and put away, which is fine. She's in a hurry. And David said, she put it away this morning because I asked her to.

See, I knew that something was wrong. Because every morning, God bless my little angel, leaves her toaster for me to see. If somebody told me that my son, John David Lynch, was out walking up and down I-75, I'm like, no, that did not happen. That's what the mother is saying. It's called routine evidence. I don't mean standard, typical evidence. I mean evidence of a routine. She says, Stephen Smith, my son, would not have been walking down the middle of this dark country road at night.

He would have called somebody if he ran out of gas or he'd take the shortcut through the woods. This did not happen. Weigh in, Karen Stark. Well, I know it's not hard evidence, Nancy, but this is the mom. And as you said, moms know, mothers know their children. And that's pretty clear that if she's saying that her son would not have been walking down that road. And if you put that together with the fact that there's no glass, there's no he's in the middle of the road. And we all know that you get hit by a car. How do you wind up exactly in the middle of the road? And I just think it's suspicious that they originally said blunt trauma force. and then all of a sudden it gets changed to a hit and run.

And we know that this family has done a lot to change the rulings. They did a lot of nefarious things when it came to cases. So I think we have to trust the instincts seriously of this mother who really knows her son. You were hearing our friends at WYFF take a listen to Katie Beck. Sandy Smith has been pushing for answers in the death of her son, Stephen. The 19-year-old was found dead in 2015 in what state investigators originally called a hit and run on a rural road in Hampton County, South Carolina. As a mother, there's questions that I need to ask and there's questions I need answers to. Smith believes the initial findings may have been wrong and that someone murdered her son and staged it to look like an accident. It's a case that's never been solved. But as authorities looked into the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdoch,

they say information came to light, prompting them to reopen Smith's investigation. To Blair Sabol joining us from Live 5 News, number one, what are the blue specks on Stephen Smith's body? And number two, what do you believe was found in the double murder investigation of Alex Murdoch's wife and son, Maggie and Paul, that led to the reopening of Stephen Smith's case? Sure. And Nancy, that's a great question and something I think not just myself is wondering, but everyone has been asking since that trial ended. But to your first question, I mean, it's really what are the police saying? They're not saying anything at this point. The only word we've gotten from SLED

is active and ongoing and there has been no information about what exactly was that piece of information that reopened this case. What about the blue specks on his body? Do we know what they were? I believe the investigative documents alluded to those being paint chips. And there was an attempt by investigators to try and match that to a specific make and

model, but they never conclusively were able to what that was. Okay, that's total BS, Chris McDonough. Yes, and so something to consider here is if there's a secondary crime scene somewhere. Talk plain English. You're not talking to a bunch of detectives at the NYPD. Got it, got it. So if there's another place where these injuries occurred, then the first thing to consider is the type of weapon.

If a baseball bat is utilized, those specks of paint could be coming from that particular weapon. So that is one consideration. I mean, McDonough, guys, send the chips to Quantico. They can tell you at one glance, and I'm looking down like I'm looking through a microscope. There's a fleet of scientists at Quantico that can say, oh, that's off a car. Oh, that's off a baseball bat. Guys, we're talking about microscopic specs. These are not like big paint chips where you can say, oh, yeah, that's definitely a paint chip. We don't know what they are. And the only way to tell that, I mean, you're going to go on a wild goose chase if you're trying to match it up to a car. And it's actually from a baseball bat, as Chris McDonough has pointed out. So what's the deal,

Eric Bland? Why can't we get the paint chips, whatever they are, the specs tested? Well, I mean, look, you certainly have been on Creighton's side. So would you release information on your investigation? H-E-double-L-N-O. And I know you're talking about Creighton Waters, the lead prosecutor in the Murai case. So you're saying we don't know yet. You don't know if it's been sent off for testing. What is the evidence, Nancy?

Was it phone evidence that they found during the investigation of the Myrtle murders? Was there something on someone's phone? We don't know that instigating cause for them

to reopen the investigation. And we don't know what the grand jury has done. We know that they are no longer in panel. So we don't even know what they've done over the previous two years. Well, let's just think this whole thing through. Could have been cell phone data.

Right. That was uncovered during the investigation because they probably looked at. There was also a laptop recovered from Paul's room. Is this Dr. Dupree? It is. There was a laptop recovered from Paul's room. Are you sure? Paul's room. I'm pretty sure. Youupree? It is. There was a laptop recovered from Paul's room. Are you sure? Yeah.

Paul's room. I'm pretty sure. You know what? You may be right about this. And speaking, because it could be cell data. It could be information from Paul's laptop. It could be as they're speaking to potential witnesses in the double murder trial that someone mentioned something about the Stephen Smith trial. I mean, do you see how connected the double murder trial was to the Mallory Beach case?

Why do we assume there was no similar connection to the Stephen Smith case? Now, much has been made about an alleged relationship between the surviving Murdoch son, Buster Murdoch, and the deceased teen, Stephen Smith. Take a listen to our cut 10. This is Anne McGill. His mother launching her own private investigation into her son's death. Smith was found dead in the middle of Sandy Run Road from a supposed hidden run. His mother, Sandy, doesn't

believe that's the truth. Stephen was an openly gay teen in rural Colleton County, in rural Hampton County. Lawyers Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter, the family lawyers, say they've already raised more than $65,000 to exhume Stephen's body. They need court permission before that process can begin. And take a listen to Katie Beck in our cut seven. Smith's death has also received renewed attention from a recent Netflix docuseries about the Murdoch murders and other cases with potential ties to the once prominent family. In multiple interviews, locals discussed rumors of an alleged relationship between Stephen and Buster Murdoch. There were so many rumors swirling around that Buster and Stephen were intimate together. Being gay in the Murdoch family would have been looked down upon. And as the in the wake of all of these allegations swirling, Take a listen to our cut eight.

Buster Murdoch has never been charged with any crime in the case. And for the first time this morning, he's denying any involvement, telling NBC News exclusively in a statement. I've 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 Murdoch, who took the stand in his father's trial, adding these baseless rumors of my involvement with Stephen and his death are false. I unequivocally deny any involvement in his death and my heart goes out to the Smith family. Okay, to you, Eric Bland, who is helping Stephen Smith's mother, Sandy, in her process. As

you just heard, she's already raised nearly $70,000 on her own on a GoFundMe, and Bland is helping her navigate the legal system. You've got to have a court order to exhume a body. You just can't go down to the cemetery and start digging. It doesn't work like that. That is tampering with the corpse. So she's got to go through legal channels to make it happen. Eric Bland, now Buster Murdoch, is speaking out denying any connection to Stephen Smith, or at least a connection that's been alleged in that being

that they're in a relationship. Did he speak too soon? Should he have broken his silence? I can't advise him on what he should have done. At this point, I don't know that there's any connection with Buster Murdoch. And so at this point, Buster's, you know, trying to grieve the loss of his mother and his brother and I guess come to grips with the fact that his father's a heinous murderer that's going to be serving double life without parole. I don't have any knowledge of any connection between Buster and Stephen Smith. My job is to

get this body exhumed, hire people that can tell me what happened. And then if there is that secondary accident incident scene, as Chris talked about, then facts will take care of themselves and the matter will progress. And I'll put it in law enforcement's hands. I want to work with law enforcement. I want to give them everything we got that we obtained. I don't expect that they're going to share with what they have. And if we have enough information that they should go forward, the facts are going to go where they go. I'm not going to sit here, though, and impugn Buster Murdoch without any evidence. I just don't I don't have it. Well, first of all, saying that someone is gay is not impugning them

because being gay, the last I checked, is not a crime. Number one. But number two, there's no evidence that that's true other than, you know,

rumors and gossip. Every time I walked into or around the Carlton County Courthouse, I would be besieged by different people, not necessarily court personnel, no, but people that were interested in the case and were saying this. That doesn't make it true. That is not allowed in a courtroom. In fact, if you try to bring in some allegation like that, some claim, and it's shown to be false, then you're the idiot for trying to bring in false information. And it goes so far to, you know what, take a listen to our cut 12, our friends at WCSC. The son of convicted

murderer Alec Murdoch has made a statement for the first time regarding the 2015 death of Stephen Smith. A statement this morning from Buster Murdoch reads, I unequivocally deny any involvement in his death and my heart goes out to the Smith family. This comes after the death of 19-year-old Stephen Smith, who authorities say was hidden killed by a vehicle just 15 miles from the Murdoch's home. Murdoch asked that his name be removed from media coverage of Smith's death, as he has not officially been connected to that case. Now, we saw at trial when Alex Murdoch had told a lie about being in the kennels at the time, or just before the time of the murders, that was his undoing. I'm telling you, that lie when he took the stand was his undoing.

Many people would argue that Buster should not speak out. Well, he has. He was a classmate of Stephen Smith's. I believe they played on a baseball team together. He says that is the end of his knowledge of this case. Nancy, let me short circuit it for you. Yes. They are itching for a defamation trial.

The Murdaws and Buster are itching for some kind of defamation charge to be brought, a complaint against someone who is going to say something about Buster that may impugn his character. Take a listen to this. Smith's death has also received renewed attention from a recent Netflix docuseries about the Murdoch murders and other cases with potential ties to the once-prominent family.

In multiple interviews, locals discussed rumors of an alleged relationship between Stephen and Buster Murdoch. There were so many rumors swirling around that Buster and Stephen were intimate together. Being gay in the Murdoch family would have been looked down upon. And more. Buster Murdoch has never been charged with any crime in the case. And for the first time this morning, he's denying any involvement, telling NBC News exclusively in a statement, I've 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 Murdoch, who took the stand in his father's trial, adding, These baseless rumors of my involvement with Stephen and his death are false. Buster Murdoch, who took the stand in his father's trial, adding, Well, let's just fix that right now. There is no evidence that Stephen Smith was in a relationship with Buster Murdoch. And while he's grieving the murder of his mother and his brother, now he feels he's got to defend himself in another case. Let's just do one thing at a time. Let's get the body exhumed. Let's find the true cause of death and then move forward

and leave Buster Murdoch alone. Ronnie Richter, I just keep thinking about Stephen Smith's mother, Sandy. Sandy Smith, as you might imagine, this is a mother grieving, looking for answers. She was told eight years ago that her son was killed in a hit and run, and everything inside of her told her that was not true. And so after eight years, finally, to get a call from the state's top cop to say, we believe in you, we believe in this case, and we're devoted to getting to the truth of what happened to your son. It was a seminal moment for Sandy Smith. She is elated. She's reassured.

And she's reinvigorated to see that justice is finally done for Stephen. Ronnie Richter, let me understand. What will the progression of the Stephen Smith case be now? Well, we don't control what SLED is doing, but we do control what we're doing. And we intend fully to go forward with the exhumation of Stephen's body, to have that independent autopsy done that we've talked about, to answer the first question, which is the first domino, which is what, what happened to Stephen Smith? It's only after we get past that first domino that we can start looking at the other dominoes, like who,

who, who did this to Stephen? And then the most important domino of all, why? Why would somebody do this to Sandy Smith's beautiful son? So that's the priority for us. We're devoted to see those questions to the end. Guys, with us, Ronnie Richter, partner in Bland Richter, their law firm has taken it upon themselves pro bono to help Stephen Smith's family in their search for the truth about what happened to Sandy's son, Stephen. I mean, wouldn't you want to know? Can you imagine all these years being tortured with the belief that the true cause of his death had been covered up? Back to you, Ronnie Richter.

Again, thank you for being with us. How soon do you think the exhumation can take place? You still have to get court permission. It's going to be a process. And that process starts with coordinating through a local funeral home that, that petitions the coroner's office for a permit for the disinterment, the transportation and the reinterment of a body. Now, if the coroner's office is unwilling to issue that permit, the court is a backstop, and we've got the ability

to go to court and get a court order directing it. Now, once we have that permit in hand, the process is having Stephen's body transported to the ultimate location where this autopsy is going to take place. And I can tell you that we've been blessed to be reached out to by local and national experts who've done this before. And our job right now is to pick the very best team possible. I don't care where in the country we have to send this body, but we're going to have it done right, and we're going to have it done right the first time. We wait as justice unfolds. Goodbye.

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