Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Stephen Smith Homicide Reopened: 'DREAM TEAM ASSEMBLED, SEE PHOTOS'

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

Stephen Smith's family is close to answers about his death as attorneys work to get approved to exhume Smith's body.  Smith's death was originally designated a hit-and-run, but something uncovered in the Alex Murdaugh double-murder investigation prompted the South Carolina Highway Patrol to reopen the investigation. Crime scene photos have been released by SLED and some graphic crime scene photos were leaked. What can we learn from them? Also, new information has been released concerning a rape kit reportedly performed on Smith during his autopsy. Where is it now?   Joining Nancy Grace Today Eric Bland - Attorney for Sandy Smith & Gloria Satterfield’s sons; Founder/Partner- Bland Richer, LLP Attorneys at Law; Co-host of ‘Cup of Justice’ podcast; Twitter: @TheEricBland Dr. Michelle Joy - Forensic, Clinical, and Academic Psychiatrist; Author: “An Illustrated History of the Insanity Defense" Dr. Michelle DuPre - Former Forensic Pathologist, Medical Examiner and Detective: Lexington County Sheriff's Department; Author: "Homicide Investigation Field Guide" & "Investigating Child Abuse Field Guide;" Forensic Consultant Chris McDonough - Director At the Cold Case Foundation, Former Homicide Detective, Host: "The Interview Room" on YouTube Brian Darr - Senior Forensic Engineer & Tire Expert- U.S. Forensic Jennifer Wood - Director of Research at FITSNews.com; Twitter: @IndyJenn_  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. In the last hours, we have obtained crime scene photos, and yes, we are also calling it a crime scene, from the early morning discovery of the body of teen boy Stephen Smith. And we're going to go through those with you today. What, if anything, can we learn from these photos. At the same time, we learned that at the time, a rape kit was ordered for teen boy Stephen Smith. Why? In an alleged hit and run, would a rape kit be ordered on a young male teen? This as the items belonging to Alex Murdoch and his family have been auctioned off on the block, bringing in millions.

And in that treasure trove were photos that have been saved digitally. Personal family photos. All the while, the appeal is being tooled as we speak. Alex Murdoch wants out of jail. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. For those of you that don't remember or have not heard it, Stephen Smith's 911 call in the middle of the night. Listen. And is it in the road or on the side of the road? It's in the road.

Oh, it's in the road. Yeah. Uh-oh. All right. So what's your name and call that number? My name is Ryan Capers. Okay. All right, Mr. Capers, can I get a phone number for you?

Uh, let's see, I don't know if I'm off the phone, 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. Okay, but if you leave this road, I ain't moving or nothing like that. But, um, somebody's going to hit him, they'll stop nothing like that. But somebody's going to hit him. It's dark.

Somebody's going to hit him. All right. We'll get it off the headed out that way. I only wondered if that was not the intention, to leave Stephen Smith's body dead in the very middle of the road, a back road in South Carolina, no streetlights, no lighting nearby, so it would get run over again. Was that the intention? I've driven those roads, and they are as dark as you can imagine.

If I were not in my car, I wouldn't have been able to see my hand in front of my face. But take a listen to WCSC and the former South Carolina Highway Patrol supervisor. 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. As many accident investigations that I've done along with the team, we've done several pedestrian where they're hit by cars.

And I've never seen wounds like this that come from a car. And it was evident, and with other evidence that was there and that we saw, looked at with the body. And all in totality, it did not make sense why they were calling this a traffic accident. And why, on this particular occasion, was a rape kit ordered in a hit and run? Take a listen to Fox 8. No, I have no answers for you for why they would order a rape kit for what would be suspected as a hit and run, which it wasn't. Retired South Carolina Highway Trooper Michael Duncan says he was headed to the scene where Stephen Smith was found but was later called off, something he still finds confusing. I did not have an understanding of why it was being ordered. We were not notified until later that it had been ordered.

The rape hit hours after Smith's death. The latest development days after SLED announced it would treat the death as a homicide. Smith family attorney ronnie richter says the question now can the test be located now what the results of the rape kit showed i have no idea nor do i know if that evidence was preserved and is still available today but i do know that it was gathered am i the only one that just heard i don't know if I can find the rape kit? Can the rape kit be located? I have covered cases that were 50 years old and older where DNA from a rape kit was used to crack a cold murder.

Locate the rape kit was used to crack a cold murder. Locate the rape kit. Joining me is Jennifer Wood, Director of Research at FitNews.com. You can find Jennifer on Twitter at IndieGen underscore. Jennifer, it's great to have you on. You know, Fit has been on this from the very beginning. Fits. Jennifer, what do they mean if they can locate the rape kit?

It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. First, that they even took one and what they claim to have a hit and run. And second, that it just disappeared. So we're talking about evidence. Where's the chain of custody? Where is where did this end up? I'm just overwhelmed. You know, let me first go to renowned forensic pathologist, medical examiner, and lucky for us, detective and author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide. This woman literally wrote the book. We're also going to be joined by Eric Bland, who has led the crusade along with

Stephen Smith's mother to have his body exhumed these years later to find the truth, which is a cry in shame that the mom has to go on GoFundMe and raise money to find the truth about her son's death. For eight years, she's been screaming into the wind my son was murdered my son was murdered and finally somebody hears it um you know dr michelle dupree with me and this is her jurisdiction she's joining us from south carolina a rape kit on a hit and run now that tells me there was something about this body that led them to believe they should do a rape kit. I'm just going to be blunt. Were Stephen Smith's pants pulled down? Were they on backwards? Was he missing underwear? Were his underwear on backwards? Was there blood or abrasion, visual abrasions around his rectum?

What would lead out of the blue on a hit and run on a young male? What would lead to a rape kit? Nancy, as you know, we do sexual assault kits on many victims, male and female. But under these circumstances, yes, this is unusual. To me, I think it more speaks to maybe the uncertainty of the pathologist that this may not have been a hit and run and therefore just covering her bases. But I can't explain it for a hit and run. Okay, wait.

Whoa, whoa, wait. So you find a guy in the street and he's fully clothed and it's a hit and run. It's obviously a hit and run. Where there's skid marks. There's glass on the ground. You can tell from his body. There are paint particles off the car on him. You're telling me you do a rape kit on that?

No, Nancy. I said that this is unusual to do a rape kit on something like this. We do them on males and females for other reasons. But in this case. Well, you started saying, well, we often do rape kits on men and women. We do. To make it seem that this was SOP, standard operating procedure. But it's not.

I know that much, and I'm just a JD. It's not, depending on the circumstances, depending on where that body is found and other circumstances surrounding that death. We often do them on those victims. In this case, however, if we do suspect that it really is a hit and run, no. That's very, very unusual. But what this leads me to believe is that perhaps the pathologist ordered this to cover the basis because maybe she wasn't quite so sure that this was really a hit and run. Well, the pathologist is digging her heels in on why she said it was a hit and run.

She did. Eric Bland, I can smell a rat. I can smell a rat. Guys, with me, high-profile lawyer who practices all over, but is located in South Carolina geographically.

He's the founding partner of Bland Richter, attorneys at law. He is also representing Sandy Smith in her crusade for justice for her son, Stephen Smith, and the Gloria Satterfield family. As you will recall, Gloria Satterfield, a woman in the prime of her life in her 50s who had been the housekeeper for the Murdoch family for years and years and years, helped raise Buster Murdoch and Paul Murdoch, who is now dead. She ends up dead at the foot of their stairs as well. That became a focal point during the Alex Murdoch double murder trial. Eric Bland, I hear what Dr. Dupree is saying, but I am telling you, there is a rat in this.

You do not do a rape kit on a hit and run. You are correct. I think what happened is they somebody at the scene recognized Stephen and knew that he was a young gay adult male kid. And because they wouldn't have gotten to his car by the time they got to him. The 911 call went to him where he was in the road. But no one would have already gone in and looked in the car. Remember, his wallet was in the car. So he wouldn't have had any identification on him.

So somebody had to have known it was Stephen Smith at the accident scene who have said, you know what? We got to do a rape kit. SLED was the one that gathered the evidence. Okay, now wait a minute. Eric Blanger saying, oh, he's gay, let's do a rape kit. That doesn't make sense to me either. Just because a man is gay, that doesn't mean you're going to do a rape kit. I understand, but him not having any identification on him, placed in the middle of the road where he was, angled, and just the injuries that he sustained,

somebody must have recognized him as being Stephen Smith. That's the only plausible explanation I could come up with. Okay, well, you know, I typically agree with you on a lot of things, not everything, obviously, but a lot of things. But just because you say, that's Stephen Smith. Let's do a rape kit. That's a non sequitur. Oh, I plead guilty. I threw some Latin at you.

It doesn't follow. That doesn't make sense. For instance, I see Jackie walking to the studio and I say, you know what? I'm calling 911 because I think you just did a grand larceny. That doesn't even make any sense. He's Stephen Smith. Let's do a rape kit. No. N. O. There was something wrong with that body. There was something wrong with the way his pants were on, his underwear was on, something around his private parts or his mouth. Something made them do a rape kit because a rape kit, correct me if I'm wrong, Dr. Dupree,

is not standard operating procedure unless you have a reason to suspect it should be done. That's right, but again, we look at that totality of circumstances. And as Eric said, you know, this is a unknown homosexual young man found in the middle of the road. A lot of people, even at the scene of the crime do not believe this is a hit and run there is suspicion from the very beginning yes yeah and nancy if uh is this chris mcdonough speaking yes ma'am hey chris uh guys chris mcdonough is joining us director of the cold case foundation former homicide, host of the YouTube channel, The Interview Room, where I first found him back on the Koberger case.

And you can find him at coldcasefoundation.org. Go ahead, Chris. So, Nancy, a lot of folks have been commenting about this hit and run situation in terms of his shoes getting knocked off, et cetera. But if we take a closer look at the shoes. Go ahead. Let's talk about the shoes. What do you

see okay so if we look at the bottom of the shoes we see wet mud and dried mud on the side that tells us if you go to the top of the shoe and on the bottom if there's a smooth part of that mud it's very smooth if you zoom in on it and if you look at that and then compare that wait a minute wait a minute we're on the bottom of his left shoe the entire the entire shoe bottom has mud all over it i see that it's compact it's so compacted it's covering up the tread i see it yes ma'am and so if you go towards the top there of the front of his foot, you see where it's smooth. Yep. Now, that is really interesting, because if you look at the texture of the point earlier, I would submit to you these shoes are a huge clue to that secondary area of where the, which we would call the first crime scene, potentially. You know what?

You just are giving me so much information. And you're right. Because wherever he walked, he definitely left a shoe tread. He absolutely, because you can see on the bottom of his foot. That's pretty brilliant, Chris McDonough. That's a great observation. You're taking something that seems ordinary and you have now gleaned a very important clue. If we look at the top of the shoe as well, it appears to be wet in the front and dried in the back on both of those shoes. So there has to be a water source somewhere around these shoes.

Okay, what about it, Eric Bland? I think Chris is spot on. I think that they're looking at the wrong crime scene. I think the crime scene happened somewhere else, whether it happened where his car was evidently broken down or made to look broke down. That is where the crime scene was. I would like to have known where their tire tracks were taken, not just Stephen's tracks, but did a car

pull up behind because they would have had to stop to push the car or put it over there where it was or hit him where he was. So for me, I'm totally agreeing with Dr. Dupree and with Chris. I think that there was enough evidence there, like you talked about the abrasions in the rectum area or blood seeping or body fluid seeping, enough that somebody put two and two together and said, we know this kid. There's no identification on him, which is really strange at four o'clock in the morning. Somebody must have ordered the rape kit. As I told you, SLED gathered the evidence, but it was Highway Patrol that conducted the investigation and corresponded with the path out.

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Join us now for Children of Serial Killers, a Nancy Grace investigation streaming exclusively on Fox Nation. Go to foxnation.com to watch. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I'm just putting it out there. If they've lost the rape kit, we're screwed. But another technical legal term, but Eric Bland, I've had a lot of cases and I recall one in particular. The murders happened when I was in law school by the time I finished

law school finished a clerkship with a judge finished my time in the antitrust division at the Federal Trade Commission and made it to the DA's office and tried cases for a couple of years and had gone all the way up to the 11th Circuit and come back down for a retrial when I I went to go find the evidence, you know what I found, Bland? I found one x-ray. I had no idea what it meant. And a hat that said, Kiss My Bass.

Oh, my goodness. That was all the evidence that was found. Why? Because the evidence room had moved twice during that time and evidence had been lost. I was lucky to find the hat, frankly. As it turned out,

it was an important piece of evidence. That said, you can try a case without the original evidence. You can, but wouldn't it be great to have that rape kit? So it sends shivers down my spine. Jennifer Wood, director of research, Fitznews.com, who's been all over the Murdoch case since the very beginning. Fantastic coverage. Jennifer, so would it be Highway Patrol or would it be SLED that submitted the rape kit? So it looks like, I mean, looking at the chain of custody, it looks like the SLED agent had the rape kit last. Oh, boy. When I hear somebody say, who had it last? That sounds like me

with the twins. Okay. Who saw it last? That is not scientific at all. So Nancy, typically the pathologist is going to perform the rape kit. Yeah. They will then start that chain of custody and turn it over to law enforcement. Our rape kits here in South Carolina all go to SLED, and they're kept there until hopefully needed at some point in time. You know what? That's why I love you. That, amongst so many other things. Online, on Twitter, they love you, Dr. Dupree,

because apparently of your hair. But I love you because of the smart things you say all the time. So you're telling me at the medical examiner's office in South Carolina, rape kits go to SLED. Whether Highway Patrol initiated the investigation or not, rape kits go to SLED. Is that right? Well, I'm telling you, yes, the pathologist, the physician is the one who performs the rape kit. Then turns it over to law enforcement, either local law enforcement or whoever is attending the autopsy at the time. It eventually winds its way up to SLED because that is a state laboratory that does the DNA testing for rape kits in our state.

Well, there you go. I've got an idea where Jennifer Wood is going to be this afternoon. I heard somebody else breaking in. Hey, Eric. Eric. Yeah. Hey. Yeah.

Eric, I want to go to listen to Brian Darr with me, senior forensic engineer, expert with forensics. You can find him in many places, but one is TireExpert.com. He has done so many reconstructions. He knows how to find the evidence my fear brian dar is based on what chris mcdonough has found on the bottom of the shoes of stephen smith we may never get that evidence now if they didn't do footprint evidence like we just did in coburg remember the shoe prints that were found inside the crime scene where the four young students were murdered, there was a footprint.

Remember? Correct. It was taken immediately. But I didn't hear anything about footprints or tire tracks being taken around Stephen Smith's car where it was abandoned. Yeah, documentation is key. I mean, if they didn't document that

because they didn't suspect it at the time, it would be very, very difficult to obviously find it now. What do you make of what Chris McDonough said about the bottom of Stephen Smith's shoes? They're definitely muddy. Very good observation. And it's packed in, Dar. That mud is. I would agree.

Yeah. He left some very good prints. And from what we can see in these crime scene photos, they're not there on the road. The road is blacktop. Let's look at the photos, guys. We've got 17 photos to look at. Everybody with me? The first one is Stephen Smith's bright yellow car.

Do you see that, Eric Bland? I do. It's right on the side of the road. Right there. That is where he could have left those prints. When he got out, see the soil right there? And you can, oh my goodness, look to the passenger side of the car. Are those tire tracks right there?

I can't tell. Right to the right. Yeah, yeah. Of the front passenger side.'m wondering if go ahead jump in you know what we could be done uh here nancy still if they still have the shoes they can scrape that mud and get a botanist in there and see if that vegetation area or the mud area is consistent with the mud on the bottom of those shoes we i did that in a case uh a body dump in the in a in a it was a mountain and we took all the air filters out of

the guy's car and matched it to the um area the vegetation area So it's still possible they could connect his shoes back to that car, to your point, around that side of the car if that's in play. The only problem we don't, I don't know where the clothes are, if they have the clothes. I'm supposed to find that out from SLED. If they have Steven's clothes, the tan shorts, the black shirt, and all that he was wearing. Dr. Michelle Joy is with me, forensic clinical and academic psychiatrist, author of An Illustrated History of the Insanity Defense. And you can find Dr. Michelle Joy at West Philly Morbid Art. Dr. Joy, thanks for being with us. What must this be doing to Stephen Smith's mother as she's hearing discussions about, oh, did they lose

the rape kit? Did they even keep the clothes? I mean, it just so marginalizes her son's life. I mean, entirely. And just building on the comment that I think you had made earlier, that she had been trying to get attention to this matter, you know, for years, there was never really, you know, an appropriate grieving process or sense of closure yet. And then all of this coming up that there's these loose ends that they might have been treated appropriately, but just wasn't. There are all these kind of things that have happened in the past that she might not ever know or she might in some sense, but I think it's re-traumatizing an already traumatic situation that she never healed from. It's one long extended loss with repeat insults over and over is how I'm

seeing it. To just think about the rape kit. Wow. Who saw it last? That just stops me in my tracks. That is so off standard procedure. Who saw it last? There is a very intricate chain of custody attached to evidence from a crime scene. I'll give you an example. I had a guy who's a serial killer, but we could get him on one murder and that's all it took. I needed his DNA. Guess what? The homicide detective, who's a great detective, for some reason did not sign the back of the manila folder when he sealed it with the DNA inside and took it to the crime lab. I realized it a week before trial. One week. One week. We went straight back to the jail. I watched them take the DNA at the jail through a glass window.

The defendant was just looking at me. I looked right back at him. He could rot in hell. And drove with the investigator back to the crime lab and had it redone. Same result. But that said, you can lose a case that way. Who saw it last? Guys, let's go to the next picture because this is so desolate.

And I want Dr. Joy to weigh in on this. It's across the street from Stephen Smith's yellow car. It's a huge cornfield. Has anybody ever been in the middle of a cornfield? You can't see anything. You can't find your way out. That's why they make mazes out of them at Halloween time. You go in the cornfield and try to find your way out. That's why they make mazes out of them at Halloween time. You go in the cornfield and try to find your way out. That's not fun. The twins and I only went

berserk when we went to a cornfield. Eric Bland, you're familiar with this stretch of road. This is right across the street from where Stephen Smith's car was found, right? Correct. What a desolate night that must have been, Dr. Michelle Joy. It's 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. He runs out of gas across from this cornfield. He had a cell phone, Dr. Joy. Why not use a cell phone instead of leaving his ID behind and setting out on foot? Exactly. None of that makes sense with the facts that we have.

And just looking at that second photo there, I mean, there's almost an eerie cinematic quality to it. And this is that day, right? So just imagining, you know, this person leaving on foot to, in any sense, think that would be right for getting gas, getting help, you know, anything. We have no prior history that he wasn't making sense at the time or had any kind of break of his cognition or emotions that he was acting irrationally. We have none of that evidence that would say, oh, he made this odd decision at this time. And just looking at that picture, you just really get a sense that that is not the decision that a functional, rational person would make to leave without an ID, without a phone on that stretch of road and jackie here wants to know how you're going to buy gas without your wallet or your or any money hey jennifer wood uh joining us from fitsnews.com was the scene around his car processed was there blood there did he have a cell phone on him and was it cracked jennifer so his cell phone was on him it was not cracked um i do believe they did do some processing of the scene around the car i mean just based on

looking at the crime scene photos i mean they did have it taped off um but to the extent of whether or not they did tire track impressions shoe impressions i i don't believe they did because sandy said afterwards that she went back and alerted them that she had seen some shoe prints eric bland what can you tell me about stephen smith telling friends or family just before his death that he was going deep sea fishing with someone that was loaded that had a lot of money, and he couldn't say their name? Yeah, you are stating exactly what Stephanie and Sandy, Stephanie and his twin sister said. Stephen was very secretive.

Stephen did not talk about his, you know, friendships with other men. It just wasn't something that Sandy pressed. He did. He did tell her a week and a half before the murder that he was going to go fishing with a very prominent person is the word he used. Prominent. And Sandy did inquire and said, who is it? And he said, I can't tell you, you may find out in due time. And, uh, you know, I think when I meet with chief Keel, there, a lot came off of his phone and they're, they're about to crack, I think his tablet, his iPad. And chief Keel told me that there was typical things that you would expect from a 19-year-old sexually active young man.

So that means either heterosexual or homosexual. Look, it's a different age for us. But 19-year-olds evidently share photos of body parts and stuff like that. That's what I took from what Chief Keel told me that they've gathered from the phone. So I think this case is going to be solved by phone evidence, by computer emails, both pre and post death,

I think is going to indicate a lot. So you're saying that there's a tablet and a phone in play? Yes. Tablet, you mean an iPad? Yeah, I don't know whether it's an iPad or another type of tablet. Hey, listen, again, Eric Bland, I know you run in rarefied circles there at the Bar Association. But again, this is not high tea at Windsor Castle.

People send nudes to each other, right? Don't care. I only care if I can identify the last few nudes sent to Stephen Smith. Remember, let me just give an example. Michael Jackson, one of the young boys could identify his penis because of

discoloration in his groin area. Anybody remember that or is it just me? I do. So if there is a body part on steven smith's phone that can be identified to a living person they're in trouble i'm just telling you that right now especially if it was around the time of his death guys the next photo uh oh hey so they've already tapped into it eric Blam, we don't need somebody from the Secret Service like we had to do in Murlock to get into Paul's phone. No, we've given a phone is cracked.

We've given what we think would be his code for the tablet. I'm told by Chief Keel that they're getting close. They've had it on a cycle. And evidently, if you try to crack your code and 15 times, yeah, there's a shutdown. There's a shutdown period, but they you try to crack your code 10-15 times yeah there's a shutdown there's a shutdown period but they're going to crack the code he's very confident they're going to crack it and when i was writing my last book don't be a victim you know a huge percentage of people still do one two three four or one one one one or two two two two something like or their birthday yeah a lot they're going to crack it hey guys let's

look at picture number three it's just law enforcement lined up there along the highway four also but you see the desolation in the area very rural area let's continue on you also see in the next photo how far away from the woods the car would have been very close to the woods let's move forward one two three you see the scene blocked off with yellow tape now i'm curious uh let me ask jennifer joining us jennifer wood director research fits news the photo where the yellow crime scene tape is stretched across the road is that going to be where his car was found or his body was found so i it looks to me like that's where the car was found agree because in the next photo you see um two crime scene tapes yes yeah yeah yeah that's

what it's going to be i was going to say the the side of the road doesn't look as sandy as it did in the original picture, but it actually does between the grass I can see. I think you're right, Jennifer. Guys, let's move forward to a book found on the front seat in Stephen Smith's car, Human Anatomy and Physiology. Jennifer, wasn't he studying to be a nurse? Yes, he was going to Orangeburg Technical he studying to be a nurse? Yes, he was going to Orangeburg Technical College studying to be a nurse. And I believe he did have classes that night. And was coming home

from classes. The next photo, you see the interior of his car. To Chris McDonough, a former homicide detective, host of the interview room, what would you look for inside that car? Well, you would want to look for any type of evidence that would point towards a struggle and or transfer of any type, either fluid, you know, forensic. When I say forensic transfer, what I mean by that is any digital devices left inside there from a potential suspect. You want to look for any type of fingerprint evidence. A lot of times you can look on the back side of the mirror. If somebody had adjusted it, you want to see what the seat position is. If somebody drove that car and he was a potential passenger. And so those are the kind of things you want to be checking out, Hatchie. Guys, move

forward two or three photos and you get to the passenger side of Stephen Smith's car and you see the gas tank open. Does that make sense to you, Eric Bland? No, it doesn't. Because it's not even on the car side. It's not even on the road side. You know when we were growing up we had antennas that came from the hood on our cars and if you broke down you would put like a white handkerchief or something white on it but that that doesn't make sense to me um why steven would open the gas cap and do that and pull it out and leave it hanging there and you know another thing that's bothering me to jennifer wood joining us from fitz news i don't see any fingerprint dust on that none none none that's bothering me because if if i went empty i could see it on my um dash empty the red sign i don't have to go what

pull open the gas tank and smell to see if it's empty? I know it's empty. Yeah, that makes no sense. So who would have opened this up and left the screw part hanging out like that? Who? And it's not dusted. If somebody came back or tried to stage it to look like this is what happened, their prints would have been right there. Jennifer, what about it? I mean the only thing I've ever thought made sense was if somebody pulled up and offered to help him offered to give him gas. That's the only thing I can think of the only reason that it makes sense for the gas cap to be

off unless it was staged. Nancy I mean think, look how the car is perfectly aligned there off the side of the road. I would have taken my wallet if I needed gas. Right. Okay, guys, go to the next picture. See that orange that's been spray painted, an orange block in the middle of the road? Do you guys see that? Yes. What is that? What do you think that is, Brian Dar? Oh, I believe that's where they're stating the body was found. Yes, that is correct. You can see little paint dots on the asphalt. I see them. And that cooperates with the other photos that show dots being at his feet and a dot being up at his, where his head came to rest.

I see it. I see those marks, which appear to me, Eric Bland, to be his blood. Yeah, he lost a tiny amount of blood through his head. If you see the photos of Stephen on the ground and

Michelle and I have talked about that and we're not convinced that that doesn't mean that he was killed there, that sometimes you have a closed head injury and when the body is dropped, that's when it releases its blood. So the fact that he was bled out there isn't indicative that that's where the murder took place. Guys, you can see all of these photos and more at CrimeOnline.com if you want to look at them carefully and inspect them and blow them up, because when you do blow them up, you can see so much more of the detail we're talking about. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Dr. Michelle Dupree joining me, pathologist, medical examiner, former detective. Would you have expected to see more blood there? Well, certainly if it was a hit and run, yes. But given that we don't suspect that, you know, this amount of blood I think is appropriate, as Eric explained. We think that he was probably killed someplace else and dropped or staged right here in the middle of the road. You know, Dr. Michelle Joy, who is a forensic, clinical, and academic psychiatrist, guys, a psychiatrist gets a medical degree and then specializes in psychiatry. I just wonder what that one photo is doing to Stephen Smith's mother, where her son is basically reduced to a spray paint rectangle in the middle of the road.

Right. There's something I was even myself a little bit confused when I first saw it because it isn't even a typical. It's so, you know, typically in movies or whenever you see the body outline. I mean, this is really like the most dehumanized square box is all that there is. Right. And that was so long ago at this point to even be revisited so again it's the whole thing is is must be a terrible experience and to have to see these images in the news and then really a square box like you said distilled down to like the least human thing possible i remember in my fiance's murder when i took the stand in that case and i was leaving the stand i walked by uh state's council table i I took the stand in that case and I was leaving the stand,

I walked by a state's council table. I had never even been in a courtroom before. And I saw his denim shirt he was wearing that day and other pieces of evidence. And it just, I felt like I had been hit by a baseball bat because it was so impersonal. It was just, you know, scattered across the table. And it's really nobody's fault, but his whole life had been boiled down to little pieces of evidence.

In the next photo, I want to go to Brian Darr on this and everybody jump in if you've got a thought. Jennifer Woods, Brian Darr, let's start with Darr. We see his cell phone in an evidence bag. I just wonder why he wouldn't have taken the phone with him and what if anything they could gain from that what do you think well the uh i thought i had

heard someone earlier say that uh the cell phone was found oh yeah i mean that's it it was in his pocket he took that with him. The process of finding it. I mean, I wonder if we're going to learn that we've already made no calls. Did he? Did he try to call a tow truck? I mean, we're going to learn a lot from that. And to you, Jennifer Wood. Nancy, I need to break in. He did have a phone call.

Someone said he did have a phone call. It hasn't been proven. There's a guy named Mark Beckert who claims that he was having an affair with Stephen and that Stephen called him

and texted with him supposedly after he left the car. Beckert has been deemed by SLED to not be credible. His story is all over the map. They actually have a live interview with him and Duncan, and he claims that he had a relationship with Stephen. He met him at some bar in Charleston that he can't give the name on

that supposedly was open at one time. But he claims that he had a conversation with Stephen after he left the car. Guys, I want you to take a listen to our cut number four from WCSC. 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 records 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. Buster Murdoch vehemently denies any connection to the Stephen Smith case. Eric Bland, what is going to happen next? We have gotten approvals already from the funeral home all the way through the coroner. Next, we get DHEC to give approval for the exhumation.

DHEC is the Department of Health Environmental Control. They control burials. And we're confident that we're going to get it because SLED is endorsing it. So I don't think we're going to have to go to court. But the last thing we have to get is the DHEC approval. We already have, obviously, Dr. Dupree. We have... So you're putting together your own dream team, dare I use the phrase. It is a very good stable of experts i'm not part of the dream team i'm just a normal lawyer but yes i got dr michelle dupree we have a forensic anthropologist

pathologist in florida as well as we have a pathologist who's going to perform the actual autopsy and we are pleased to announce that we have dr kenny kenzie who now uh is going to be an addition to the team to do the accident reconstruction and start the investigation as if man that's great we all met kenzie on the stand during murdoch he had a home run very excited so i think we have I loved Kenzie on the stand. Man, was he great. He was awesome. We expect that all of this is going to be done by next Friday.

We wait. As justice unfolds. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.