Murdaugh Murders Podcast - MMP #87: ‘I Can’t Believe It Has Happened’: Stephen Smith’s Body Exhumed

Episode Date: April 6, 2023

First off, if you’re on social media, please please please take part in our Green Day for Justice campaign to show the Smith family your love and support. A while ago, Sandy told me that Stephen’s favorite color was green and we are requesting all listeners to post a green square in their social media profiles for the month of April.  You can find a link to the squares we are using here: MurdaughMurdersPodcast.com/Stephen. We encourage you to share JusticeForStephen.com and [e-mail] in your twitter, facebook, instagram tik tok or posts on other platforms. The body of Stephen Smith was exhumed over the weekend for an independent autopsy, and the renewed investigation into his death has finally begun in earnest. Co-hosts Mandy Matney and Liz Farrel talk to Sandy Smith about how she feels now that her longtime wish has finally been realized.  To learn more about the Independent Exhumation, Autopsy and Investigation for Stephen, click here: http://bit.ly/3JGacec We believe 2023 is Stephen's year. Thank you all again for the love and support. We all want to drink from the same Cup Of Justice — and it starts with learning about our legal system. By popular demand, Cup of Justice has launched as its own weekly show. Go to cupofjusticepod.com to learn more or click the link in the episode description to get a hot cup of justice wherever you get your podcasts! Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cup-of-justice/id1668668400 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Itp67SQTZEHQGgrX0TYTl?si=39ff6a0cc34140f3 Consider joining our MMP Premium Membership community to help us SHINE THE SUNLIGHT! CLICK HERE to learn more: https://bit.ly/3BdUtOE SUNscribe to our free email list to get alerts on bonus episodes, calls to action, new shows and updates. CLICK HERE to learn more: https://bit.ly/3KBMJcP And a special thank you to our sponsors: Microdose.com, PELOTON, Simplisafe, and others. Use promo code "MANDY" for a special offer! Find us on social media: Facebook.com/MurdaughPod/ Instagram.com/murdaughmurderspod/ Twitter.com/mandymatney Twitter.com/elizfarrell YouTube.com/c/MurdaughMurders Support Our Podcast at: https://murdaughmurderspodcast.com/support-the-show Please consider sharing your support by leaving a review for MMP on Apple at the following link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murdaugh-murders-podcast/id1573560247 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The justice system can be intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. Join us to hold public agencies accountable because we all want to drink from the same cup of justice, and it starts with learning about our legal system. With tales from the newsroom and the courtroom, Liz Farrell, Eric Bland and I invite you to gain knowledge, insight, and tools to hold public agencies and officials accountable. If you liked our Cup of Justice bonus episodes, you will love Cup of Justice shows on the new feed. Together, our hosts create the perfect trifecta of legal experience, journalistic integrity,

and a fire lit to expose the truth wherever it leads. Search for Cup of Justice wherever you get your podcast, or visit cupofjusticepod.com. I don't know if we will ever learn all of the answers surrounding Stephen Smith's tragic death, but his mother and her team of supporters have made huge progress in the last week, and we promise to keep pushing until justice is served. My name is Mandy Matney. I have been investigating the Stephen Smith case since 2019. This is the Murdoch Murders podcast, produced by my husband David Moses and written with journalist

Liz Farrell. Well, happy Wednesday. Before we get into today's episode, I have a couple important things to share. First off, if you're on social media, please, please, please take part in our Green Day for Justice campaign to show the Smith family your love and support for Stephen. A while ago, Sandy told me that Stephen's favorite color was green, and we are now requesting all of our listeners to post a green square in their social media profiles for the month of April.

You can find a link to the squares that we are using in the episode description. We encourage you to share justiceforsteven.com and tips at sled.se.gov in your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok posts. This groundswell of support will not only show the community that there is a world of support behind those who speak up, but it will also show media agencies this story is worth covering. Not because of the gory details, but because it's the right thing to do. We all want to drink from the same cup of justice, but for some, it takes a little more pressure to fill that cup.

We appreciate everyone who is given or anyone who can give to the Independent Investigation Fund. We are so grateful to all of those who can send prayers to Sandy. We appreciate every single person who can share their support with a simple green post. And also, some fun news. I recently was honored as a special guest on the podcast, Rabia and Ellen Solve the Case. Rabia is a true crime hero of mine who fought for years to get justice for a family friend,

Adnan Syed, who was wrongfully convicted in his ex-girlfriend's murder. I was so inspired by Rabia and the work she did on Adnan's case that it honestly helped shape this podcast. Check out the link to the two episodes that we did in the description. And also exciting, Liz and I both joined our friends Mandy Powers-Norrell and Sarah Ford on their new podcast, Palmetto Primetime. Sarah and Mandy are both South Carolina attorneys and are just awesome, badass women who we have been lucky to get to know in the last few years.

Y'all might remember Sarah. She represented the victims in the Bow and Turner case. Their podcast, Palmetto Primetime, is fantastic. They've interviewed key players in the Murdoch Murders trial, like Mark Tensley and Dr. Kenny Kinsey. And they also did a special two-part series on Liz and I called the Pesky Podcast Girls. Check it out and be sure to give them a follow. And now, in big news.

As you all know, Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter do not waste time. Just two weeks ago, they promised Sandy Smith when she hired them that they would get her number one goal accomplished, and that was exhuming Steven's body for an independent autopsy. And just a few days ago, they made that happen for Sandy. Last week was a whirlwind, with a whole slew of people involved, from transferring the GoFundMe money to getting expedited permission from DHEC to exhume Steven's body to coordinating between Sled for security and the new team of experts.

But Eric and Ronnie did it all in record time. As a team of Sandy's supporters, guided by the help of Sled Chief Mark Keel, we all decided that it would be best for Sandy's peace of mind and for the integrity of the investigation to keep the exhumation quiet over the weekend. Sandy didn't tell her other kids about the exhumation Friday. She was so worried about other reporters finding out, and she didn't want them to have to witness that. I spoke to Sandy about the decision to not announce the exhumation and keep it quiet

over the weekend, and I want you to hear this from her. I wanted it because, to me, that was private, and I didn't even tell my children because I did not want them going through this, and I did not want the media putting it all over TV and Facebook and everything until my family got through with our service, our private service, and then whoever wanted to come could come. But to me, that was our private time with Steven. Friday was special. Every person who attended was invited to be there, and Sandy wanted them there.

She was in control. We all arrived before dawn at the Gooding Cemetery in Hampton County, just around the corner from where Steven's body was found. The process was quick and professional. I kept looking over at Sandy and seeing this overwhelming look of relief on her face, a feeling I haven't seen on Sandy in the four years that I've known her. Friday was emotional but joyful because I knew once he got out of that ground and in that autopsy room that we were going to get some real answers.

So it was joyful and emotional. It was like a happy day. That was the first step, and we got the first step out of the way. Eleven sled agents were there to help secure the scene and preserve the investigation. It was promising and encouraging to see that much support from sled. The process of exhumation took about four hours. I watched as the sled agents, along with Dr. DePri, who was hired as a private pathologist, each go up to Sandy, look her in the eye, and tell her that they are doing everything that

they can to solve Steven's case. That was very overwhelming to see that they were asking questions and they were explaining everything. Sled was explaining to her what they were doing and she was telling Sled what was going to happen. It was amazing. It was wonderful. We were working together to get answers.

While it was joyful for her, Sandy was still on edge. She has been harassed by the media on several occasions and I was so worried during those hours that someone was going to ruin this. The media, I don't really trust the media too much because they're just looking for a story and instead of helping with Steven's story, they're actually hurting it. They're hurting my family by putting stuff out there that is private and certain people are mentioning our names and my children's names and my grandchildren's names. They had nothing to do with Steven's death, leave their privacy alone.

Sandy was clear. She was so thankful for the public's help in raising the GoFundMe money for the exhumation, but that did not mean that the public and the media earned a right to know every step of the process. She also knew that the public would question the exhumation if they didn't document it. So videographer Eric Allen was there to film the process. And I heard about some comments about Eric being out there and I said, well, Eric was there because I wanted him to film it because he's my friend and I wanted to make sure

that we had proof that everything was done accurately. Can I just say, isn't that sad that a mother has to think like that because she has been wronged so many times and she had to worry about busybodies interfering while undergoing such a private and emotional moment? I was and I looked around a lot to make sure that there was nobody stopping and but once he come out that ground and I had just this piece just went just went through my heart because I fought so long for this and it happened. It actually happened, so I was happy.

She was happy. I kept hearing Sandy saying over and over again. I've waited eight years for this and it's it happened and I'm still in shock. I can't believe it has happened, but I'm so happy that it has happened. But Sandy's sense of peace unfortunately didn't last long hours after Steven's body was exhumed and taken to Florida for an independent autopsy. People started posting photos of Steven's disrupted grave. I don't want to get into this too much, but I want you to hear this and understand how

much stress it put on Sandy and her family who all wanted to have a private ceremony for Steven's reburial after the autopsy on Sunday without a media circus. Right, and it broke my heart and then people are riding by taking pictures and putting it all over Facebook and you know, and it's just disrespectful, very disrespectful. This was family time, not public time, not media time. The goal all weekend was to get Steven's body back in the ground safely without additional headaches. Those posting about the exhumation specifically as the family asked for privacy for 48 hours

on the weekend, by the way, they took that sense of peace and control from Sandy. I'm saying all of this to remind you to please think of victims before you post anything on social media. These are real people and there are real consequences involved. But thankfully, word didn't spread too much over the weekend and Steven's family was able to have a private ceremony as his body was lowered into the ground one last time. Sunday was very emotional having to watch him go back in the ground again. It was a joy to see him come out because I knew we were getting somewhere but then Sunday

was kind of sad because, but I'm happy because now he's in his final resting place at peace. We were all there and actually it was beautiful because we were able to throw or shovel the first dirt on his own vault. That was really emotional. We'll be right back. The justice system can be intimidating but it doesn't have to be. Join us to hold public agencies accountable because we all want to drink from the same cup of justice and it starts with learning about our legal system.

With tales from the newsroom and the courtroom, Liz Farrell, Eric Bland and I invite you to gain knowledge, insight, and tools to hold public agencies and officials accountable. If you liked our Cup of Justice bonus episodes, you will love Cup of Justice shows on the new feed. Together, our hosts create the perfect trifecta of legal experience, journalistic integrity and a fire lit to expose the truth wherever it leads. Search for Cup of Justice wherever you get your podcast or visit cupofjusticepod.com. Four years ago, we interviewed a friend of Stephens who told us about how much his death

had affected her. Not only was she sad that Stephens was no longer in her life, she was heartbroken seeing Stephens twin sister Stephanie, who is always by Stephens side, where you saw one, you saw the other, she said, now walking through life alone. We were going through our notes from that interview recently, reading her words was yet another reminder of how much this case has affected the people in Stephens life and in Hampton County. Stephens friend told us this about how his murder destroyed her trust in law enforcement.

It absolutely gave me a different perspective, she said. I realized very quickly it was like they didn't care. I can only hope that they find out what happened to my friend, the gay kid, the kid with no money and no last name, he mattered to people, he was loved. I don't know how they sleep at night knowing they did this to Stephens. Those words weigh on us now more than ever. A number of people have asked us about the purpose of Stephens exhumation. If Sled Chief Mark Keele said it wasn't necessary, then why did Sandy have it done?

The answer is simple, because Sandy needed to do it for her own peace of mind. Her community had failed her, law enforcement had failed her, political leaders had failed her, the media had failed her and people who came out of the woodwork after the Murdochs were murdered, failed her. For years she has operated with the knowledge that something isn't right here. Up until this past weekend, she has had to fully rely on other people to do the right thing by Stephen and they have repeatedly let her down. Knowing what you know now about how things operate in this part of the country when it

comes to power and the law, how is a mother, any mother, who gets repeatedly told by people that her son's death was being covered up, supposed to trust anyone in that situation? Sandy needed this exhumation because she needed to know for herself what happened to her son right before he was left in the road to die like he didn't matter. We were going through the old case file over the past week and this interview in September 2015 stuck out to us. Highway Patrol spoke with someone who had information about what happened to Stephen. He heard that, quote, certain young men were riding down 601, saw Stephen broken down on

the side of the road, passed Stephen and turned around and, quote, kind of stuck something out the window and ended up hitting Stephen. He said, quote, I think that it happened. They freaked out and maybe it's just trying to get covered up at this point. He was very clear with Highway Patrol that he believed the boys were missing Stephen and did not intentionally hurt him, that it was an accident. Like Stephen's friend said, I don't know how they sleep at night knowing that they did this, knowing what happened.

And just like Judge Newman said to Alec Murdoch during his sentencing, we know Stephen must come to them in the night. We feel certain that the people responsible for this, who were there that night, whether or not they were driving, will only break free of the haunting that burdens their souls by coming forward now. Stephen's case is not going away, Sandy isn't going away, sled isn't going away, Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter are not going away, we're not going away, and the thousands of people supporting Sandy's quest are not going away.

Sooner or later, the protections that might have existed before will fall away completely and these young men will be thrown one by one to the wolves by the last one standing. That said, we talked a little bit about this on this week's Cup of Justice, but we wanted to mention it here too. There has been a lot of speculation about the so-called two persons of interest in Stephen's case. We have been asked a lot about Patrick Wilson and Sean Connolly. One thing we can say for sure is this, nothing that is being reported now is new information.

Those two names appeared in South Carolina Highway Patrol's case file in late 2015 after the Hampton Guardian ran a Thanksgiving profile of Sandy Smith. In that story, Sandy said, I know where Stephen was born, but I don't know exactly when he died. I know what his first words were, but I need to know what his last words were. I want to know who took my son from me. People need to realize that these murderers are still out there and it could be their child next.

Everybody knows what happened to my son, but nobody wants to tell me who is responsible, she said. There are too many, quote, big names involved. Sandy did not tell the paper what those names were, but a few weeks after the paper published that story, Highway Patrolman Todd Proctor got a call from his co-worker Michael Duncan, who had been on the case early on about a man named Daryl Williams, who said his stepson Patrick Wilson had told him that Sean Connolly had, quote, struck and killed Stephen Smith. According to the case file, Daryl had told Highway Patrol that Randy Murdock, who is

Alex's older brother, had told him to call them. All of this was first reported by Mandy after the murders in the summer of 2021. Also we have talked about Patrick and Sean in episodes 9, 10, 17, and 24. It's not clear why, but after Patrolman Duncan passed this on to Patrolman Proctor, no one at Highway Patrol appears to have interviewed Daryl on the record. Instead, they interviewed Hampton County police officer Nick Ginn, who was somehow connected to Daryl. Nick told them what Daryl had relayed to him.

Here is a recording of that statement, which was made on December 21, 2015. Basically Daryl called me and he said, look, he said, this is what I was told. He said, Patrick, come over here to the house. He said, he told me that Sean Connolly was drunk and hit something. He said he went back the next day to see what it was he had hit, and he seen a lot of police out there. So he talked to one of the cops and then he had left, and then he learned, I guess by media, that somebody had been killed in that same area, that's why the police were there.

So with him telling, he said that Sean called him crying, saying that that's what had happened. And then Patrick was telling Daryl, and Daryl told me that Patrick was crying, telling him, and after he got finished telling the story, he walked outside his house and threw up. And he said, Nick, this is just me thinking, he said, but I think that Patrick was with him. He said, why else would he throw up and get all upset like that because somebody else had done something. Did he go into any detail about how it happened?

Supposedly he had fixed his mirror, he had patched it, wanted to mirror us up on the truck. Notice that Nick isn't saying that Patrick said he was in the truck with Sean at the time Stephen was killed. Patrick allegedly blamed this on Sean and Sean alone. Then he allegedly threw up. If you want to know more about what the case file says as it relates to these two, we recommend revisiting those episodes I mentioned earlier. All of this was really just to say that even though this has been presented as new information,

it isn't, and it's important to know that. Why? Because it served no good purpose in putting it out there in the context of this new investigation. As we said in Cup of Justice, it was completely reckless to label Patrick and Sean as current persons of interest. Not only did it put both men and their families in danger, the Smith investigation has only just started in earnest. We talked to Sandy Smith about her thoughts on the release of Patrick's and Sean's names.

Here she is. Yeah, the rumors are in a fear and so bad that, you know, the more rumors you put out, the more sled has to go investigate the nonsense so that they could get to the real truth. But you're just tying everything up when you're giving all these false leads that are not leads at all. They didn't let it go nowhere eight years ago. What makes them think it's going to go somewhere now on that part? You know, quit putting people's names out there because Lord would not have said a name

unless they had proof and they probably would have already arrested that person. The Highway Patrol's investigation ended without any arrests, which brings us to our next point and it's a really important point. We are only talking about the Stephen Smith case now because it wasn't solved in 2015 or in any of the years after that. If Stephen's case was a hit and run involving two local young men named Patrick and Sean and if that were a provable thing back then, then those two local young men would have been arrested and the case would have been closed.

But that's not what happened. Instead Patrick, who was represented by Corey Fleming at the time, had his three attempted murder charges stemming from an incident in April 2015 reduced to assault and battery charges and then dropped all together by the 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office. Then for whatever reason and for all practical purposes, the investigation ended after that Nick Ginn interview with Michael Duncan. It was almost as if the Patrick Wilson and Sean Connolly story gave investigators a way out of continuing down a fruitless path, which brings us to today.

Sled has put new eyes on this case and we feel certain that they're not going down old paths that led nowhere. The exhumation and the independent autopsy are step one and it turns out beyond providing Sandy with peace of mind, this step was absolutely necessary to this investigation which will finally include a look at the trail left by Stephen's electronics. The autopsy was completed Saturday and will soon be in Sled's hands. We can say that gunshot wounds and suicide have officially been excluded as causes of Stephen's death, but that's about it for now.

Here's Eric Bland with more on that. Why was the autopsy necessary? It was necessary to answer the questions of the conflicting conclusions that existed amongst our law enforcing agencies at the front end of this investigation by the South Carolina Highway Patrol, by D, by Sled, and then also by Dr. Presnell and ultimately with the Certificate of Death. What ended up happening is more questions and answers arose which caused Sandy Smith to have this uncertainty about how her son was killed.

It was necessary because now Sled is doing a criminal investigation. They've taken it over, we've already discussed, it wasn't closed, it was just a cold case, and they've taken it over and so they want to approach this as if they're coming onto the scene on July 7th, 2015 and so they do that, they come on the scene, they're going to look at where Stephen was in the road, they're going to look at all the other things and they do that by looking at the pictures in the description that was done by whether it was the MADE team or some other investigatory team on that road. They're going to also look back at Stephen's car, where it was.

They're going to presumably verify did he make any phone calls as that one of the witnesses who claims he was Stephen's boyfriend, Mark, said. So they're going to do all that in the process then and autopsy would have been done. Well, that's the autopsy that we just did a week ago. So it was necessary when you have a criminal investigation for the chain of custody of Stephen and his body from the moment that it was discovered on the road at 3 o'clock in the morning, all the way through till he was buried and again he was buried last Sunday. So we're starting this investigation anew and that's why it needs to be done.

Look, if Sled was not going to open an investigation, then they wouldn't care at all about the exhumation of Stephen's body and if that was just something personal, Sandy would have done. I would gather and say that we would have been met with more resistance by the officials who had to approve us doing the exhumation. So with Sled agreeing that the cause of death was not him being hit by a car and the cause of death is homicide, it required the autopsy to be done. So yes, when we first started, I said we are going to be totally transparent. Transparent as much as I can be, it turned out now because I have been asked by Chief

Keel not to interfere with the state's investigation that they are doing a full-blown investigation. That's all Sandy Smith ever asked for, is to fully investigate it and wherever the investigation leads and whatever the conclusion of those investigations come to, as long as it wasn't a meaningful, reasonable and not result-driven investigation, she's going to be happy with the results. She's not itching to have somebody be arrested for murder if Stephen wasn't murdered, if Stephen was hit by something in a moving car, then that's what it's going to be. But the fact is, I cannot interfere with Sled's investigation because it could jeopardize

the sanctity of that investigation. Now, that doesn't mean we're not going to participate in the investigation. Chief Keel asked me because the MMP and the COJ Nation have great ideas and they give them to us all the time. Either they send them to our personal websites or they get in touch with my law firm or they get in touch with Liz Demandy and we're going to feed everything we get to Dr. Kenny Kenzie. And he's going to look at them and he has the relationship with Sled and anything meaningful he's going to transfer over to them.

We are not an investigative body, meaning COJ, meaning Blaine Richter. We don't have the authority to make people sit down. And so Chief Keel, I am confident Sandy Smith is confident that Sled is going to do the necessary investigation and he asked me not to turn that over to the public. And so I am going to honor it. Yes, it's different than what I said in the beginning, but in the beginning I did not have the confidence that Sled was going to do a full-blown investigation and now I do. Eric also asked about the damage that was done to Stephen's casket and what that means

for the new autopsy. So when Stephen was exhumed on last Friday morning, the vault had cracks in it and ground water seeped into the vault, which damaged the coffin. And inside where Stephen was buried, not to be too graphic inside the coffin, there was water. Did it affect the autopsy? Absolutely not. All three of the pathologists who did the autopsy, plus the Sled people, said it was a head-to-toe

complete autopsy. It took slides. It was, according to Michelle Dupree, one of the most comprehensive autopsies she's ever seen. So there was soft tissue left. There was so much of Stephen left that organs were left amazingly after eight years. He was significantly well-preserved. And so every possible analysis and examination on Stephen's body from head to toe was done.

So I can safely say that the water, the infiltration of the water did not compromise the autopsy that was done. Though the details of the autopsy will stay with Sled, we can say that this exhumation was worth it. And it's a good thing Sandy had the wherewithal to make it happen. We can also report that Sled is in possession of both Stephen's phone and the rape kit. We also want to note that the experts that Sandy hired have lauded Dr. Erin Pressnell for her work in the first autopsy.

They have said that her report in 2015 was very thorough and that it is, quote, unfortunate that her interactions with highway patrol officers afterward ended up reinforcing any doubts about her findings. There's something we want to note about that, by the way. Earlier today, we saw a report on law and crime that mentioned the criticism investigators and the Smith family have had about Dr. Pressnell's findings. Law and crime said the criticism was, quote, because Dr. Pressnell had labeled the death a hit and run.

That's partially correct. That criticism of Dr. Pressnell seemed to be based entirely on two things. The first was that highway patrol, the state's foremost experts on road fatalities, believed Stephen had not been hit with a vehicle, meaning they didn't believe that his head injury was the result of being hit by a car, but rather being hit by an object. An object that wouldn't have been there if not for another human being, whether or not that human being intended for Stephen to die as a result. With that in mind, highway patrols said that when they went to Dr. Pressnell for further

explanation about her findings, much to their surprise, because as they noted in the case file, they had had a great working relationship with her and MUSC, they were met with hostility. It didn't seem like they were critical about her findings as much as they were critical about how she responded to them asking for clarity. So while we're really encouraged to hear that Dr. Pressnell's report was thorough, we want to again mention that we are only talking about this case now because of how the investigation was conducted. Highway patrol didn't believe the case belonged with them.

That much is evident from the case file and from the many interviews former patrolmen have done since Sled took the case in 2021. Despite their efforts in 2015 to get someone to recognize that there was something more happening with this case, highway patrol was met with resistance. Dr. Pressnell's report was the ignition point, the catalyst. It was why the case ended up with highway patrol and not Sled where it needed to be. For generations, the people of Hampton County, the ones who aren't connected, have had a cynical view of law enforcement and the justice system for good reason.

Even many good law enforcement officers have had that same cynicism, that same feeling of helplessness when it came to applying the law to the powerful. A sense of, oh, okay, we know what's going on here and we don't like it so all we can do is ask the questions until we're told to shut up. In other words, when something starts to walk like a duck, such as Steven's investigation being with the wrong agency, they're used to it being a duck. In a corrupt system, everything starts to sound like quacking and everything starts to look like feathers.

It's the entire point of corruption with a capital C. If everything looks corrupt, then nothing looks corrupt and the truly corrupt can keep on corrupting. In this case, we really believe that law enforcement was simply criticizing Dr. Pressnell's reaction rather than her or her findings per se. They seem to be seeking answers about whether her characterization of it being hit and run would be inclusive of Steven getting hit with an object, such as an object hanging out of a window, which is what investigators were hearing happened, rather than him getting hit by a car as they were trained to investigate and just weren't seeing here.

We'll be right back. On Monday, to crank up the pressure, the Baleen Richter law firm on behalf of Sandy Smith announced a $35,000 reward for anyone who provides law enforcement with information that leads to an arrest in Steven Smith's debt. By offering a reward, Sandy is again leveling the playing field and forcing the two systems of justice in South Carolina to reconcile with each other. And here is Sandy. Absolutely excited about that.

I feel this reward is going to go somewhere. Somebody is going to give some answers and I will gladly hand deliver that reward money. But again, it shouldn't have to take this much just to get justice in South Carolina. While the system will never be perfect, the more time I spend with Sandy, the more I realize how truly unfair the system has been to her family and how Hampton is still very much divided between the haves and the have-nots. So the other day, David asked Sandy if she had any more photos of Steven that we could share.

She said that she didn't have many other photos because of what happened with the bank after Steven's dad died. Not Palmetto State Bank, I was scared to ask. Of course, the bank that funded Eliq Murdoch's shenanigans for all of those years had to be involved in the Smith story too. She said that they took the house after Steven's dad died and they threw all of their stuff in a dumpster. This was again, another shocking reminder of how tough things are for families like

the Smiths. So what happened exactly? In 2013, Steven's father Joel Smith bought a house, the one that Steven was allegedly walking home toward the night he was killed. A few months after Steven died in 2015, Steven's father Joel unexpectedly died of a heart attack. But Steven's twin sister Stephanie told us that Joel was crushed by Steven's death and that he basically died of a broken heart. She said that her dad was a big teddy bear and that they all loved him very much.

Joel's kids and Sandy, who was divorced from Joel, had trouble keeping up with payments on the home. Two unexpected funerals already put a strain on the family. So our research team dug up the house records. Joel took out a $34,000 mortgage from Palmetto State Bank to buy the house in 2013, which he bought for $32,500. So after his death, Joel's kids continued to live in the house and made mortgage payments where they could.

We have said this before, but it is so important to understand. Hampton County does not have much industry at all. Many residents have to drive more than an hour and a half to Hiltonette or Buford just to earn not much more than minimum wage. The median household income in Hampton County is just $38,000. When we say that people are hardworking in Hampton County, we mean it. Some residents have to cram into a bus twice a day to commute to the part-time jobs they've cobbled together for less than a full-time salary.

I say this so you can understand the situation that so many find themselves in because they weren't born into wealth or even just not poverty. In 2018, the smiths fell behind on the mortgage payments and on October 31st, 2018, Palmetto State Bank began the process to foreclose on their home. They owed $28,000 on their mortgage. Now in May 2019, the house went to public auction for unpaid taxes. And the bank bought it for $2,500. Sandy said that the bank emptied the house of the family's property, which included

photos of Stephen, that are now lost forever. In November 2019, the bank sold the house to a man for $15,000. And six months later, that man sold the house for $139,000. The house is now estimated to be worth around $184,000. Now we all know that the housing market has gone nuts recently. But do you still see how that math works? And do you still see how small that amount of money is compared to the six figures of debt that Elick was allowed to have?

The bank would likely say that this is because Elick's earning potential was a lot more. Which sure, but there's no denying he was given absurd amounts of latitude by the bank. They were understanding when he didn't make his payments. They tolerated his erratic behavior. They put up with his overdrafts and with his excuses. And where did that leave them? Well, in Russell's case, we know it's left him double-plugged to an outlet while apparently getting really bad advice from his inner circle about what his next legal move should be.

But still, remember how Russell LaFitte and his family insisted that Palmetto State Bank did not give Alex special treatment when they repeatedly ignored his mis-mortgage payments and allowed him to rack up millions in debt while also carrying six-figure negative balances on his checking account. Remember how we wondered if Palmetto State Bank treated every one of their customers with that much leniency? Remember how Palmetto State Bank's slogan is neighbors helping neighbors. And how Russell went on and on on Russell TV and in his testimony about how community

banking is relationship banking and his favorite part of his job is helping people. Well, Russell signed the paperwork in the Smith foreclosure complaint. So it turns out Russell apparently only liked to help some people with his lofty banking position. The Smiths, the family whose son was murdered and father unexpectedly died within a few months, they apparently did not deserve the same grace that was given to Ellic Murdoch. We have an update on Curtis Eddie Smith that we want to talk about, but first we wanted to address a few listener questions related to the Stephen Smith case.

The first is this month. Is there any way to retrieve the phone and or text logs for Stephen's phone the night he was killed? Does the phone company have a record that would show history even if it was deleted from his device? On a documentary, Stephen's sister mentioned he wasn't shy to call her for help other times when he ran out of gas. If he had a signal, it would make sense that he reached out to someone.

So the short answer to this is yes, we believe investigators might have at least part of Stephen's phone records and electronics information regarding the thought that Stephen would have called for help before walking three miles home that night. Not only is this the logical thought given that first responders found a still charged iPhone in his pocket, his family continues to maintain that it was extremely out of character for him not to call for help when he ran into car trouble. Here is Stephanie's interview with Highway Patrol on July 15, 2015, where she tells patrolman Duncan about car trouble Stephen had had on the evening before he was found dead in the

road. Did you have a gas can that you knew of that he carried in the car and didn't carry a gas can? No. The only time he carried a gas can was when he was driving the SUV because it's got mud tires on it so it don't read gas correctly and that's the only vehicle he would drive with the gas can. On the day and you may or may not know this and I'm throwing this up to you, do you know

if he had filled up earlier that day, do you know when the last time he put gas in that car? No, because at the same time he was supposed to get cigarettes from my dad, he was supposed to fill up and my dad told him fill it up $25 and then that car is good. Stephen was the type of person he didn't want to take my dad's money so he only did $10 and that would get him to Orangeburg and back unless he did a little extra. The gas cap to Stephen's tank was unscrewed and left hanging. Stephanie told us in 2019 that she didn't think Stephen would have undone the gas cap

the way it was when first responders found the car. She also told us that when she went to pick him up at the gas station to fix his battery that evening before he died, he wouldn't get out of the car because there were a bunch of guys around there with trucks. She said that's how skittish he was of the guys rolling around Hampton County. Another question we got was about the possibility of Stephen getting hit with a log from a logging truck. This was a theory that was posited after his death because there are so many logging trucks

in that area, but the theory is problematic for a few reasons. The first is that Stephen's body was not thrown, he was found on the yellow line in the center of the road, meaning he would have had to have been walking in the middle of the road when the logging truck came noisily ambling by, and to have been clipped by this errant log, he would have had to have been standing close enough to the fast moving truck that had a log sticking off its back. We're not sure how that scenario would work given how logs are loaded onto these trucks. At any rate, Highway Patrol looked into this theory and even went to logging companies

in the area to check out the trucks and talk to drivers. Now let's talk about Eddie Smith. On Monday, Curtis Eddie Smith appeared in court for a boundary and statement hearing. It's been a while since we've talked about Eddie Smith on the show, so let's do a little refresher. Eddie was arrested in September 2021 for his alleged involvement in Alec Murdoch's so-called roadside shooting. We have so much to talk about when it comes to that, by the way, so we'll unpack all

of that and more in next week's episode. Long story short, Judge Clifton Newman allowed Eddie to be released on a $250,000 bond with GPS monitoring and drug testing. In August of last year, the AG's office noticed Eddie had violated the requirements of his ankle monitoring dozens of times and his bond was revoked. He was thrown back in jail and had been working to get out since. This is why he was in court this week, to have his bond reinstated. So on Monday, Eddie and his attorneys, Jared Bouchette and Amy Zamorchev, appeared in court

and successfully argued their motion. Eddie was released from jail and is scheduled to appear in court again at the end of the month. We watched the hearing on court TV and we were shocked at how different Eddie looked. Unlike Alec, who had shrunk significantly in jail, Eddie had gained 55 pounds. His attorneys said he's had major health issues and even Judge Newman noted the difference. While Alec was bragging to his sister-in-law about doing his mountain climbers and being in the best shape of his life in jail, it looks like Eddie was sitting in a cell and

pondering just how much his life has been ruined by associating with Big Red. In our next episode, we're going to take a look at the bigger picture of Eddie's case and break down what we think happened in early 2021. So in the meantime, I want to take a moment to honor a very special MMP fan, Stephanie Truesdale. If you follow me on Instagram, Stephanie's work is familiar to you. During the six-week murder trial, Stephanie made these amazing crochet dolls of Creighton Waters, Judge Clifton Newman, Dr. Kenny Kenzie, and even Bubba and his chicken.

The dolls are truly a work of art and it was such a joy to see her work go viral and watch people support her. And in the last week, we've been lucky because Stephanie has a teacher who has been on spring break and she has made the whole Justice League in doll form, including Eric Liz in myself. The dolls have been a wonderful reminder of all the amazing people we have on our side and all the amazing people who are on Sandy's side to encourage us in this fight and to keep going.

We love you, MMP fans, and to thank you, we're going to do a fun Q&A with MMP Soka the Sun members this weekend with a special surprise guest. We'll announce details later. We appreciate you, we love you. Stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the sunlight. The Murdoch Murders podcast is created and hosted by me, Mandy Matney, produced by my husband, David Moses, and Liz Farrell is our executive editor from Luna Shark Productions. The justice system can be intimidating, but it doesn't have to be.

Join us to hold public agencies accountable because we all want to drink from the same cup of justice, and it starts with learning about our legal system. With tales from the newsroom and the courtroom, Liz Farrell, Eric Bland, and I invite you to gain knowledge, insight, and tools to hold public agencies and officials accountable. If you liked our Cup of Justice bonus episodes, you will love Cup of Justice shows on the new feed. Together, our hosts create the perfect trifecta of legal experience, journalistic integrity, and a fire lit to expose the truth wherever it leads.

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