Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #38 - Who Killed Stephen Smith Part Nine + The Murdaugh Murders Bloody Towel No One Knew About

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

It’s FOIA around and find out time again on True Sunlight Podcast! True Sunlight Co-hosts Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell unpack the latest round of records reporter Beth Braden received from Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill’s emails. In the stack of documents, Beth found memos from SLED outlining interviews with Alex Murdaugh’s siblings after Alex was finally charged with Maggie’s and Paul’s murders in the summer of 2022. Turns out there was a bloody towel found in the house the morning after the murders that no one knew about. Sorry, no one other than Lynn Murdaugh, Alex’s older sister. I know, right? Also on today’s show, Mandy and Liz do a deeper dive on a piece of evidence in the Stephen Smith case — his little yellow car that was found on the side of the road. Plus an update on Peter J. Strauss, the suspended attorney we told you about in Season 2, Episode 29, who might hold answers to the big question: Did Alex money stash money off-shore? To listen to all of our episodes with information on Who Killed Stephen Smith, visit truesunlight.com or https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4GI4ezkrlQorzy2HuyiGsu ' As mentioned in this episode, we'll be sharing most of our recent FOIA responses, MOI's, case files and creepy messages to Alex with our Luna Shark Premium Members. In February we’re offering your first month of Soak Up The Sun membership for 50% off. Join Luna Shark Premium today at Lunashark.Supercast.com. Premium Members also get access to searchable case files, written articles with documents, case photos, episode videos and exclusive live experiences with our hosts on lunasharkmedia.com all in one place. CLICK HERE to learn more: https://bit.ly/3BdUtOE. And for those just wanting ad-free listening without all the other great content, we now offer ad-free listening on Apple Podcast through a subscription to Luna Shark Plus on the Apple Podcasts App. Or become a member on YouTube for exclusive videos and ad-free episodes. SUNscribe to our free email list to get that special offer for first time members, receive alerts on bonus episodes, calls to action, new shows and updates. CLICK HERE to learn more: https://bit.ly/3KBMJcP Visit our new events page Lunasharkmedia.com/events where you can learn about the upcoming in-person and virtual appearances from hosts! And a special thank you to our sponsors: Microdose.com, PELOTON, and VUORI. Use promo code "MANDY" for a special offer! For current & accurate updates: TrueSunlight.com facebook.com/TrueSunlightPodcast/ Instagram.com/TrueSunlightPod Twitter.com/mandymatney Twitter.com/elizfarrell youtube.com/@LunaSharkMedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Media Pressure, Season 1, features the untold story of Mara Murray, hosted by Mara's sister Julie Murray. 21-year-old nursing student Mara Murray went missing from Haverville, New Hampshire on February 9, 2004, after crashing her car. Witnesses saw Mara after the crash, but when police arrived minutes later, she was gone without a trace. You have heard Mara Murray's story from so many others in the past, for the first time ever.

You will hear from those who knew Mara, many of whom have never spoken to the media before. Hosted by Mara's sister, Julie Murray, a new podcast from Sarah Turner's Voices for Justice, media pressure season one, premieres Monday, February 5th, 2024. Media Pressure features exclusive interviews and brand new information about Mara and the case that has never been shared before. After hearing countless others tell Mara's story, Julie is ready to cut through the noise

and focus on the facts of the case. Listen and follow Media Pressure on your favorite podcast player. Hi, I'm Una Chaplin and I'm the host of a new podcast called Hollywood Exiles. It tells the story of how my grandfather Charlie Chaplin and many others were caught up in a campaign to root out communism in Hollywood. It's a story of glamour and scandal and political intrigue and a battle

for the soul of the nation. Hollywood Exiles from CBC Podcasts and the BBC World Service, available now on Spotify. I don't know who killed Stephen Smith, but we are going to keep tugging at strings in this case and related Murdoch cases until we get answers. My name is Mandy Matney. This is True Sunlight, a podcast exposing crime and corruption previously known as the Murdoch Murders podcast. True Sunlight is a Luna Shark production written with journalist Liz Farrell. Hello, we have been busy and our elic is over era and I'm excited to tell you about it. After taking a few weeks off from in-person events

to heal my inner introvert, I am pumped to get back on the road again. We're heading to Columbia, South Carolina for an amazing members-only event at the Capitol City Club with special guests, Sarah Ford and Sandy Smith. Shout out to Rachel Oliver, our new Luna Shark event coordinator for planning this event and future events

across the country. We are going to be in LA, San Francisco, Napa Valley, and Maui this spring, and we would love to do a few fan events and book signings while I'm on the West Coast. If you live in those areas, we would love to hear from you for event location suggestions. Submit your ideas to lunasherkmedia.com slash new events. Also exciting? We have an entire new line of merch with a mission, with proceeds being donated to Stephen Smith Scholarship Fund.

The new line of merch includes Justice Tollmugs, FOIA Around and Find Out T-shirts, Lied Tried and Denied Stickers, and Tolias O. T-shirts. Head to the link in the description to order yours today. In the past week, we have gotten a few FOIA requests returned and they have been interesting to say the least. And really, on brand for our overall podcast theme of how the justice system simply works differently for powerful people. We are trying to get our hands on everything possible to find answers. Specifically, to the two biggest mysteries we've talked about on this podcast, the Stephen Smith case and what happened to the Murdoch money.

This is how investigations work. Pulling its strings until the yarn is untangled. It is frustrating, time-consuming, and expensive, because a lot of the leads just don't pan out. Which is why we are particularly grateful for the Lunasherk Premium community supporting our work. We wouldn't be here without y'all, and I want to again say thank you. First, let's talk about the FOIA we got back from Collison County,

in which we asked for Becky Hill's emails from various members of county staff, including her son, who was the IT director at the time, as well as production companies. Tucked away in one of Becky's emails to a production company, reporter Beth Braden found unredacted memoranda of investigation outlining interviews that Sled had conducted with Ellick Murdoch's two brothers and his sister in the summer of 2022. Shortly after Ellick was charged with murdering Maggie and Paul and more than a year after their murders.

So the first question that we ask is why? Why did Sled wait until after Elic was charged to have these interviews with the family? The most logical explanation is because new information had become available to them. But also that maybe Sled couldn't trust the family to tell the truth, so they couldn't rely on their answers anyway.

For instance, most of the memoranda of interviews, which they call MOIs, recounted what happened when Sled agents visited each family member to play the video they had discovered on Paul's phone that proved Ellic was down at the kennels that night, and after Ellic had spent more than a year telling everyone that he wasn't. Sled had this video since at least April 2022, but they chose to wait to get the family to confirm what investigators already knew to be true, that the man talking to Maggie and Paul on the video was Ellick. And, as you'll see,

that wasn't exactly an easy task. So the first MOI is from Lynn Godie's interview with sled agent Ryan Kelly on July 26, 2022, at her place of work, which is the first circuit solicitor's office in St. George, South Carolina. So this is Elix's sister, and it was disturbing. Actually, a lot about Elix's sister is disturbing, if we're being honest. She works as a victim's advocate for solicitor David Pascoe's office. Her literal job is to help victims so that prosecutors can hold their aggressors accountable.

As someone who is being paid by taxpayers to be a compassionate and friendly face for people who have been traumatized so they won't be further traumatized by the system, she made no effort to mask her own contempt for this same system when it tried to hold her brother accountable for what he did. Whether it was her helping sneak books to ELECT during the trial, continuing to disregard the court's rules about interacting with the defendants on trial, or her rolling her eyes at Judge Newman, Lynn showed exactly who she was during those

six weeks that she got a takeoff from her government job. Another thing that disturbs us is what she did the day after the murders. The day after Maggie and Paul were killed, Elix's sister, Lynn Godie, was at Moselle, at the house, and her niece, Randy's younger daughter, handed Lynn a bloody towel, and Lynn didn't give it to investigators. Instead, she had it washed. Here is David with what the agent wrote. Ms. Murdock presented Ms. Godie with a hand towel

with what appeared to be a small smear of dried blood. Ms. Murdock told Ms. Godie she located the hand towel with what appeared to be a small smear of dried blood. Ms. Murdock told Ms. Goaty she located the hand towel in the half-bathroom located on the first floor of Alex and Maggie Murdock's residence. Ms. Goaty did not associate the blood with the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdock because they occurred down at the dog kennels. Ms. Goaty had quote, no inkling, end quote, that anything found in the house would be related to the murders. Ms. Goaty did not believe at the time that the person responsible for the murders would

have had access to the main residence. Ms. Goaty believed the hand towel was either white or yellow in color. Due to the way the hand towel was folded, the red in color substance would not have been immediately obvious. After taking possession of the hand towel from Ms. Murdock, Ms. Goatee was not able to recall if she put the item in the washing machine or if she asked Murdock family housekeeper Ms. Blanca Simpson to do so. Ms. Goaty never told anyone about the hand towel and quote, did not think twice about it. Ms. Goaty advised in hindsight,

she quote, probably should have told someone. So how did sled find out about the towel, right? And why were they asking about this in July 2022? The most logical assumption would be that Randy's teenage daughter mentioned it to sled or to someone else who mentioned it to sled. A teenager clearly thought a towel with blood on it could be a significant clue in a double murder. The adult woman whose family has been in law enforcement for nearly 100 years, the adult woman who works in law enforcement herself, somehow had no inkling?

No inkling. The fact that this family was allowed back in that house directly after the murders is something the Colletin County Sheriff's Office and Sled should not only look back on with shame but should be looking back on with a critical eye so that it never happens again, no matter whose house it is. Which officers and agents allowed that to happen? And why? I mean, we know why.

Because the house was swarming with PMPED lawyers and this was, after all, the Murdochs. But systematically why? What does this say about their system? To us, it says that no one could afford to be bold. No one could afford to stand up for what was right, because they couldn't trust their own chains of command to have their backs over the backs of the Murdochs. That is what it says to us, and that is what needs to change. So yeah, good ol' girl Lynn Goaty saw a towel with blood on it and then deleted that from her mind because it didn't fit the narrative she had already decided on the day after the

murders. During that same interview, Lynn told the agent that she never suspected that Elick had been embezzling money from his clients or that he was addicted to drugs or that he had previously gone to rehab or that he had any marital issues with Maggie. She also told the agent that she knew Paul drank in quote social settings but had never seen him grossly intoxicated.

A few weeks after this interview on August 17th, 2022, Agent Kelly returned with Agent David Owen to conduct another interview with Lynn. This interview was done in Walterboro at Sled's Low Country Offices. Agents Kelly and Owen also interview Randy and John Marvin there on the same day. All three were interviewed separately.

During these interviews, the agents played the audio from Paul's kennel video and asked each sibling to identify the voices they heard. Then they played the video for them. The agents noted that all three had been told about the existence of this video during a meeting prior to Elc's arraignment on the murder charges. It's not clear if they learned about this video through Sled or through Dick and Jim.

During these interviews, each sibling was shown the blue raincoat and asked if they had ever seen it before. Here's David with what the agents wrote about Lynn's second interview. Lynn stated she heard rumors of the video and that she was told of the video, but not the content of the video. Senior Special Agent Owen played the video, only allowing Lynn to hear the audio and asked if she recognized any voices. Lynn stated she heard Paul talking to the dogs.

She heard Maggie in the background talking about the guinea or the chicken and quote, I can hear Alex. She believed she heard another person but did not know if it was another person or just something said by Paul, Maggie or Alex that she was not able to identify. Agents note, Lynn became visibly emotional during the playing of the video. The video has played a second time for Lynn and she told the agent where she couldn't identify a person at the 15 second mark. So they played it for her again. In the MOI, the agents noted that they had another audio file which had been enhanced by the FBI and

split into three files. So they played each of those for Lynn. She identified the female background voice as Maggie. She said the male background voice sounded like Alec and the third voice which had been labeled subject. She identified as Paul. You heard the equivocation, right? She IDed Maggie and Paul, but said the male background voice quote, sounded like Ellick. She didn't commit to it. After they played the clips for her, the agents showed her the blue coca-tap raincoat. She said she did not recognize it. Coca-tap, by the way, is an upscale brand of paddle sports apparel. Randy's interview with Sled was even more equivocating than Lynn's, at least at first.

Now, he was the only one of the siblings who appeared to have brought an attorney with him for the meeting. He had John Moylin from the Weich Law Firm with him. The Weich Law Firm is who has been representing PMPED throughout all of this. It's unclear why Randy thought or why PMPED might think that he needed an attorney for this meeting. Senior Special Agent Owen played the audio from the video several times for Randy. Randy wouldn't commit to what he was hearing and requested to hear the enhanced audio files.

Here's David with what the agents wrote about that interview. Randy stated he believed he heard Paul in the third clip, but there were a couple of phrases where he was not sure. It was the way, quote, he enunciated, and some were, quote, just not clear. After hearing the enhanced clips, Randy requested to hear the full clip again. The full clip was played for Randy several times. In the first of the series of clips, Randy stated that he believed he heard Alex, Maggie, and Paul.

Agents note, Randy wore hearing aids and indicated the way his hearing aids worked that he needed to be, quote, squared up on the computer. Accommodations were offered and made to assist Randy. The full clip was again played for Randy, which he identified as Paul, Maggie, and Alex. Agents showed Randy the blue raincoat, and he, too, said he didn't recognize the jacket

nor the name brand. After that, the full video was shown to Randy. He showed agents the parts of the video where he was not sure of the voices. He told the agents the part where Paul was speaking at the 17 second mark did not sound like Paul. Then he stated he was confident that the three voices were Maggie, Paul, and Ellic in the video. John Marvin was interviewed last. When Agent Owen played the audio, John Marvin identified all three voices as Paul, Maggie, and Alec. He told the agents he also thought he heard someone else talking at the 15 minute mark and at the 32 second mark. When they played the enhanced audio files for him, he again identified Maggie, Paul, and Alec. The agents noted that John Marvin became visibly emotional at the time.

When they played the video for him, he asked the agents if the fourth voice had been identified. The agents told him that Sled had not identified a fourth voice, meaning the investigators did not believe there was a fourth voice. The idea of a fourth voice is one that's been talked about a lot on social media, and it's part of what is behind the opinion that Elik had helped that night. What we hear when we replay the video is Elik's voice moving away from Paul as he goes to retrieve the chicken from Bubba's mouth. Lastly, John Marvin also told agents that he didn't recognize the coat nor the name

brand Coca-Tap. We are continuing to go through Becky's emails and we will share what we've learned in future episodes. Another Freedom of Information Act request was returned to us from the South Carolina Department of Corrections. Reporter Beth Braden submitted her routine FOIA for Alec's phone calls, iPad messages, and a list of visitors, plus any disciplinary actions against Alec. There were, surprise surprise, no records of any phone calls made by Alec that are responsive to FOIA, meaning he made calls that were either to his lawyer or SEDC decided they were too

personal to release. When agencies return your FOIAs, they're supposed to tell you specifically what statute they're using as justification for holding back each piece of information. This FOIA return didn't tell us anything specific, that there were no calls to release during the period of time that we asked for. The only visitor that Elick had through December of last year

was someone named John Culp. We don't know who John Culp is, but we do know that a Reverend John Culp spoke at Maggie Paul and Randolph's funerals. As for the messages, ugh, they are dirty and racy and unsettling. They are all from women, mostly from one woman. And from what we received back from our foyer, it does not appear that Elik is responding to the messages, at least not in a way that was back from our foyer, it does not appear that Elik is responding to the messages. At least not in a way that was responsive to our foyer.

Premium members of Lunasher can view these messages and a whole lot more from our foyer request on their premium feeds. And we'll be right back. If I asked you how many subscriptions you have, would you be able to list all of them and how much you're paying? Sometimes we don't notice the small amounts of subscriptions on our credit card bills. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that finds and cancels your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills. Some of my subscriptions, like Lunashaar Premium, are here to stay, but I was shocked to see

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That's rocketmoney.com slash Mandy. Rocketmoney.com slash Mandy. Okay, now the fun part. The part where Alec was caught having excessive pens and sticky notes in his cell during a search on October 5th, 2023. I say fun because it's a reminder that Alec is where he belongs. He's in a very restrictive place where he can't just do what he wants anymore. Also, who knew there was a limit on post-shit notes in prison?

What are they using them for? From the evidence photo included with his discipline reports and yes, I said evidence photo, it looks like Elik had about eight pens in his cell along with three opened and one unopened package of sticky notes. The photo is in black and white so you will not get to find out if like with his Capri Suns, Elik has a preference for his post-it notes color. After a sergeant with SCDC searched Elik's cell, Elik was charged with having contraband. He received a verbal warning, which he surprisingly accepted without fighting.

Now, as you know, this wasn't the only time Alec has been disciplined while in prison. On August 15, 2023, the warden received a report from the Office of the Inspector General about an interview conducted on August 9 at around 1.30pm, in which inmate Richard Murdock participated. That interview was with Fox Nation for their documentary The Fall of the House of Murdock, which aired in late August right before Dick and Jim's circus of a press conference accusing Becky Hill of jury tampering. Here's David with what's in that Worden's report. hill of jury tampering. Here's David with what's in that Word and Sirport. During the interview, inmate Murdoch's attorney,

Jim Griffin, stated he conducted an interview for the news media, which he recorded and provided to the production company. Inmate Murdoch willingly and knowingly abused his telephone privileges to communicate with news media for his own gain. It's not clear how the Office of Inspector General found out about this interview.

As you all know, prisoners' calls with their attorneys are not monitored. But there's another incident report. This one is from a day earlier when the warden says he was reviewing phone calls and came across one maid on August 9th, the same day as the interview, but about an hour after it. That call was placed by an inmate named Joshua Kelly to a number that we now know to be Jim

Griffin's cell phone. Here's David with what the warden wrote. On the call, I recognized the voice of Richard Murdoch 390394. Inmate Murdoch stated he is using someone else's pin number because his is not working. Joshua Kelly, the prisoner whose pin Eleg used, is a 37-year-old man, coincidentally also a redhead, whose prison location like Eleg's is also listed as undisclosed. He's expected to be in prison until 2027, but is eligible for parole in May.

He has two infractions on his public profile online that note two incidents in which he was caught with drugs. According to news reports, Joshua was arrested in 2019 for an incident in Florence where he allegedly shot at a crew from Duke Energy who were in the area to mark trees near power lines. Joshua pointed a shotgun at them and allegedly threatened to kill them. He was arrested after a standoff at his home and charged with three counts of

attempted murder, two counts of pointing and presenting a firearm, and one count of malicious injury. According to his prison profile, he is only serving time for pointing and presenting and discharging a weapon into a dwelling. According to the public index, two of his three attempted murder charges were dismissed and he was found not guilty of the third. Now on August 15th, after two infractions have now been documented about Alec breaking the phone rules, SCDC disciplined Alec by restricting his phone privileges for 20 days, which if you've ever looked at a prisoner's disciplinary actions online,

you'll know he got off pretty easy there. But Alec, being Elik, when he signed the form, acknowledging the disciplinary action, he selected the option on the form that says, no, I do not want to accept the sanctions listed above and request that this case be referred to a disciplinary hearing. You know that saying about how publicity hungry people would attend the opening of an envelope if it meant they could get camera time. Elic is that way but with hearings, the man loves to argue his way out of consequences. It's unbelievable.

Not only did Elic not accept the sanctions, he asked that his accuser, the warden, be president of the hearing and that he wanted a substitute counsel. Next to this on the hearing report is a handwritten note. The only thing we can make out is inmate's lawyer is requesting to be. So it looks like Alex's attorney had some asks for the prison. At Alex's hearing, which was held August 28th, he pleaded not guilty. Then he was found guilty. quite the pattern for him there. Instead of losing 20 days of phone privileges,

he now lost 30 days for the interview and 30 for using another inmate's pen. Also, they barred him from using the canteen for 30 days, which we all know must have been a real kick in the gut for him. Anyway, that is a find out situation right there. After this, the prison discovered that while Elic was awaiting his disciplinary hearing date, when he had already lost his phone privileges, Elic found a workaround. Here's David with what the warden wrote on August 24th about a call he found that an inmate made to a number that matches the main number for the Griffin law firm.

I Warden Palmer was reviewing phone calls and found a call to 803-744-0800 on August 21st, 2023, made by inmate Jacob Haslett, 381849. In the call, inmate Haslett states, quote, this is a friend of A's. He asked me to give you a call. He says his phone privileges have been taken away and he wants you to let Jay, identified as Jim Griffin, know his hearing is Wednesday. He further states that he, Murdock, wants Jay to send a letter so it can be entered into the record for the hearing. The call concludes with inmate Haslett saying, quote, he also asks for $150 on his account. The female states to let him know she will take care of it. This is a second call on August 22nd, 2023 to the same number.

Inmate Haslett, again, is delivering a message for inmate Murdoch regarding a letter from his attorney for an upcoming DHO hearing. For that, both Ellick and Jacob were disciplined. Ellick's hearing was held on September 13th. He requested that his accuser be present and that he have a substitute attorney. He pleaded not guilty and he was found guilty. Like I said, quite the pattern.

He was placed on disciplinary detention for 15 days and lost his phone privileges for another 30. This disciplinary action for some reason isn't mentioned in his public profile on the SCDC website. Now being placed on disciplinary detention means he was housed in a more restrictive unit for 15 days, which might explain the sticky notes. He got out of that disciplinary detention and felt free as a bird and was like, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna open a fresh pack of Post-its tonight, baby. Now, an interesting thing about Elec's friend Jacob.

Like Elec and Joshua, his prison assignment is also listed as undisclosed. Jacob, by the way, is 33 years old and has been in prison since 2019. His projected release isn't until 2074, and he's not eligible for parole until 2066. He's serving time for about a dozen counts of sexually abusing a minor. In 2018, Jacob was arrested after it was discovered that he had abused 14 boys within 90 days at a church daycare in North Charleston where he was volunteering. He was caught on camera molesting boys as young as three years old.

He admitted to sexually assaulting them and to taking photos and videos of them. At the time he was arrested, he was in the process of trying to adopt a child of his own, according to news reports. At Jacob's sentencing, one child's grandfather told him, You're a living example of what evil is. Over the past week, there were three Murdoch-related stories in the news that we want to mention. One was a report about Sled confirming their nearly

year-long investigation into breach of trust allegations against former Hampton County administrator Rose Dobbs and Elliot, who now works for Jasper County, another county in the 14th Circuit. Rose left her position in December 2022 amid citizen outrage over the county misspending more than $5 million that was earmarked for specific expenses, like capital improvement projects and the fire department.

I say this is Murdoch-related story because sources have told us that some people in Hampton County believe that Rose is being targeted for other reasons. Ones related to decisions she made during her tenure that perhaps adversely affected people in Ellick's inner circle. That said, we do know there are legitimate problems here and that a group of citizens has been trying to get a forensic investigation into the county's spending for more than two and a half years. We'll keep you posted if anything interesting arises from that case. Also this week, Alex alleged co-conspirators, Jerry Rivers and Spencer Roberts were sentenced to prison. Judge Clifton Newman sentenced Jerry to seven years for

seven charges that Jerry pleaded guilty to in August, including obstruction of justice, making false statements to insurers, distributing drugs and laundering money. Jerry denies ever meeting Alec, but prosecutors say he was in important contact for Curtis Eddie Smith, who was allegedly a go-between for Alec's procurement of pills. Judge Newman sentenced Spencer to eight years for a COVID-19 loan-related fraud that is not connected to Alec Murdoch. According to the Post and Courier newspaper, Spencer is still facing charges related to drugs and money laundering for his alleged

dealings with Alec. We're still working on getting the bigger picture on what Jerry and Spencer's alleged roles were in Alec's scheme and will keep you posted. Jerry and Spencer's alleged roles were in Elix's scheme and will keep you posted. Okay, our last update is about Peter Strauss. On Season 2, Episode 29, we introduced you to Peter, a held in head attorney who was suspended by the South Carolina Supreme Court in December. In this suspension, the Supreme Court dropped hints in its order that Peter had been charged with a crime. But funny enough, our reporter Beth Braden couldn't find any charges for Peter Strauss,

the millionaire attorney who specializes in asset protection. We had heard from two independent sources that Peter Strauss could be the missing link to the Murdoch money mystery. But if this is true, there have been no indications from law enforcement. However, the facts of Peter's case sure do point to some sort of significant cooperation from him. You all know how we scream over and over on this podcast about how there are two systems of justice, one for the powerful like Peter and the Murdochs and one for everyone else?

Well, the federal government just proved to us again how the system simply works differently for people like Peter Strauss. Turns out, Peter pleaded guilty to one felony count of removal of property to prevent seizures in November after the US government and his attorney came to an agreement in October. And because nothing is ever simple with these guys, even after coming to the agreement with prosecutors, the original plea he entered on November 6th was not guilty. Shortly after that, he changed it to guilty. We're not sure why or what happened there.

As a part of the deal, according to records, the government agreed to seal the indictment for three months while Peter J. Strauss was out on bond. Now, imagine you were a client of Peter Strauss all this time with your money in Peter's hands while he's out on bond facing five years for a federal felony. Or imagine you were working for Peter's company. Think about how frustrating it would be to know that this man had pleaded guilty to a federal felony because the government and the Supreme Court, quite frankly, decided to keep it quiet. We have screamed about this before, with Ellick Murdock and Cory Fleming, and how long the

Supreme Court took to disbar them, despite the mountains of evidence against them. I hate to say this, but it looks like the South Carolina Supreme Court and the Bar haven't changed a thing when it comes to how they police their own attorneys. Even after Ehrlich Murdoch and company showed the entire world how much privileged lawyers in South Carolina could get away with because South Carolina is the land of no consequences for them. Even after that, the South Carolina Supreme Court is still moving at a snail's pace to keep its own lawyers in check and to protect its citizens from being victimized by attorneys. attorneys. So, Peter played a guilty to removal of property to prevent seizure in a case that has nothing to do with Alec Murdoch, just like our sources had told us and we reported to you in Episode

29. In that episode, we told you about the DC Solar Carpoff case and the associated civil lawsuit. It was a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Paul Ed and Jeff Carpoff. The US Attorney's Office called the Carpoff case the biggest criminal fraud scheme in the history of the Eastern District of California. Between 2011 and 2018, a company called DC Solar manufactured mobile solar generator units that would serve as emergency power units for cell phone towers and for lighting at sporting events. Essentially the car pops lied to

investors about the market demand for these units. Then they covered up their lies by creating fake leasing contracts and financial statements. They ended up paying old investors with new investor money and they stopped making the units altogether but they did not stop selling leasing agreements for them. According to the US Attorney's Office, at least half of the approximately 17,000 mobile solar generators claimed to have been manufactured by DC Solar did not exist. This scheme was epic and apparently even fooled the likes of Warren Buffett and the US Treasury Department.

In December 2018, the feds executed search warrants against the carpobs and their company DC Solar, and this is where Peter got into trouble. I'll have David read the section of the press release from the US Attorney's Office. Following the execution of search and seizure warrants related to an investigation on the Karpov's company, Strauss received $11 million from the Karpov's. On December 19th, 2018, the first $5 million was transferred into Strauss' IOLTA account and thereafter distributed to various criminal defense attorneys and bankruptcy counsel and to Karpov's captive insurance funds, managed by Strauss' captive insurance management company.

Thereafter, on December 28th, 2018, Strauss received an additional $3 million used to pay for the Karpov's captive insurance fund premiums. Finally, on January 15th, 2019, the the Carpovs wired Strauss $3 million into Strauss' IOLTA account. Thereafter, the funds were co-mingled in Strauss' IOLTA account and completely spent over the next few months. By pleading guilty, Strauss admitted that by the time of the $3 million transfer on January 15, 2019, he knowingly transferred and aided and abetted the transfer of funds from Karpov to prevent and impair

the government's lawful authority to take such property into its custody and control. The defendant has agreed to pay $2,700,000 in restitution to the federal clerk of court at or before the sentencing. The car buffs have already been sentenced for their role in the scheme, 30 years for the husband and 11 years for the wife, which is yet another example of white-collar criminals who have gotten steeper sentences than Corey and Russell, by the way. Peter faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000, according to the press release. However, the press release does not mention

Peter Strauss' extremely lenient bond conditions, which we have to talk about for a minute. In November, Peter Strauss appeared before Judge Mollye Cherry in federal court for a bond hearing, where he was granted a $100,000 unsecured bond with very few restrictions. Essentially, an unsecured bond is a pinky promise to the government that you will follow the rules of your bond conditions appear before the court when you're told and if not, you will have to pay the government that money in full. You know, because the people who have been charged with federal crimes like fraud and

money laundering have such a great track record of following the rules. But not everybody can make a pinky promise to the government like Peter can with bond. I have seen this a lot over the years. The government often decides to give privileged defendants who can afford bond, unsecured bonds, or PR bonds, while the less privileged defendants often get stuck with surety bonds that they have to pay. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, an estimated 500,000 people are sitting in jail across the United States right now just because they

can't afford to pay bail. This has been something I have paid attention to my entire career, simply because it doesn't seem right. I've seen people sitting in jail for months, sometimes years, after being charged with petty crimes like walking on a highway or simple drug possession, simply because they don't have anyone in their life to pay their bail. Which I've seen sometimes is as low as a few hundred dollars. I urge y'all to look up your local county's jail log and poke through the charges of those who have been confined

for several months. For instance, I quickly found in Charleston a 63-year-old South Carolina man who was arrested and charged with credit card theft in October, who has been sitting stuck in jail ever since because he can't pay his $2,500 security bond. I get it. Guys like Peter Strauss could pay $100,000 if they needed to, and most people charged with petty crimes cannot. But in a system where we are innocent until proven guilty, why is it that we are taking people's freedom away?

Simply because they don't have the funds to afford bail. Because Peter, and people like Peter who can afford it, wasn't required to pay it. He also wasn't required to wear a GPS monitor. Peter Strauss' bond conditions were very lax. He was barred from committing crimes, possessing a gun or traveling outside of South Carolina without the express permission of his probation officer.

Oh, and there was a special note written on the bond order that said he couldn't make any financial transactions over $50,000 without permission. Which brings us to our favorite part of the show, which we are now calling the Audacity. Peter Strauss, like a true good old boy, couldn't just accept his easy bond. In December, his attorney Joseph P. Griffith Jr. filed a six-page motion to get permission for Peter to travel to Mexico. You know, the stereotypical place for US criminals to escape for his second anniversary

trip that was already planned. The motion even included a screenshot of his hotel reservation. He was staying at a tasteful but price conscious hotel, which was a short walk from the beach. Just kidding. Our boy took his multi-million dollar private plane to Playa del Carmen, where he and his wife stayed in a beachfront studio at a luxury resort where their room is currently priced at just under $4,000 a night. The audacity.

And again, you heard the part I said about private playing, right? To further separate Peter from the rest of us, his attorney mentioned in the motion that Peter has a private playing that the government can easily track while he's on his Mexican vacay as he waits to be sentenced for his federal crime.

Again, the audacity. I know. In a world where rules apply to everyone in the criminal justice system, you would think the court wouldn't just say no, but hell no. Peter has deep connections all over the world and a private plane to get there. He's got the means and motive to flee. And of course the government gave him the opportunity to go and they didn't require any GPS tracking.

Somewhere out there, Russell Lufvete's ankles just started twitching. Judge Gergel, the same judge who sentenced Corey Fleming, Russell, and soon, Alec Murdoch, is also the judge in Peter's case. By the way, right before asking Judge Gergel if Peter could go to Mexico, Peter and his attorney filed a hefty motion

asking Judge Gergel to recuse himself. The claims are interesting and Peter was able to get attorney Barbara Seymour to file an affidavit as an expert on ethics and the law. She's a well-respected attorney and a go-to for lawyers fighting complaints with the ODC. Peter claimed that because Judge Gergel got salty at two hearings in May 2019, when Judge Gergel was tasked with finding out how the car pops money got deposited into Peter's

law firm's trust account and who that money ultimately belonged to. After Peter pleaded the fifth dozens and dozens of times to questions that Judge Gurgel no doubt regarded as ones with simple answers, Judge Gurgel informed Peter that he was reporting him to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel and he recommended that Peter self-report. Additionally, Judge Gurgel referred to the U.S. Attorney's Office and a prosecutor who was president at the first hearing as quote, my US attorney's office and my US attorney. And he referred to the money trail as likely criminal or appearing to be unlawful. Gurgle gave Peter Strauss the A-O-K to travel to Mexico in January because, of course he did.

But when it came to the recusal, he was like, nah, I'm good. Now, the very annoying thing about Peter being granted permission to go to Mexico is that he used two cases to show that a precedent had already been set. US v. Golestan and US v. Ramachi. In both cases, the defendants were allowed to travel internationally for work while out on bond. But get this, the second case I mentioned used the first case as an argument as to why the second case's motion should be granted, and it worked. It's like an echo chamber of judicial privilege. It all hinges on one lenient judge's decision to allow one rich guy to do something. Then all the other rich guys jump on board and say, me too! And the judges let them through too, because, well, precedent was already said.

Of course, in response to finding out that Peter Strauss was allowed to travel to Mexico, we bought a subscription to FlightRadar24.com so we could get access to flight records for Peter's plane. Now, when Peter asked permission to go on the flight, he said it was to and from Cosmomexco from December 30th to January 4th. And here is an example of the good old boys pushing the limits even when they are already granted something absurd. According to FlightRadar, Peter's plane took off at 2.11 a.m. on December 11th, the day he was given permission to go outside of South Carolina. And what's weird, the entire flight log is listed as unknown. It doesn't

say where the plane went or how long the plane was gone, which is odd. Also, on December 30th, his plane, presumably with him on it, flew to Florida, likely to get gas, then stopped in Cancun for 7 hours before taking a 30-minute flight to Cosmow. He didn't have a connecting flight because he was in a private plane and he just got gas in Florida. So what exactly was Peter doing for 7 hours at an international hub like Cancun, while he was out on bond? We also noticed he stopped in both Cancun and Florida on his way back to Hilton Head,

and his plane has made several out-of-sates stops since then. So it's a little odd that prosecutor Emily Limehouse, the same prosecutor who put an extra ankle monitor on old Russell Lafitte didn't think of asking for at least one ankle monitor for Peter Strauss when he went to Mexico or as he awaits his sentencing. Why would Russell be considered more of a flight risk than Peter? Russell is a dopey nepo baby who absolutely could not survive in another country. In no way could he survive in a world outside of the kangaroo pouch of his father's belly.

And he didn't even have a plane. He had kids and a wife and a farm and oh yeah, an ankle monitor on his other leg. But nope, ol' Emily was like you need another one. But to Peter, he takes out his wallet to pay bond and it's like oh your money's no good here sir. Please sit down for a massage and Viva Mexico! It's actually funny when you think about it. Within the two systems of justice, one for us and one for them, there are still upgrades to be had in the one for them. Sources with knowledge of federal investigations and plea deals have told

us that the federal government granting this much leniency to Peter Strauss is a sign that he had a lot of info that they want and that he is cooperating. The kind of info that maybe Cory and Russell either didn't have or refused to give up. While Peter's charge isn't directly connected to Ellic Murdoch, we're told investigators are considering the possibility that Peter Strauss might be able to help them get some answers about where and how Ellick could have hidden his money.

Peter obviously has extensive knowledge about the complex captive insurance trade, as well as tax sheltering. And he's a low country attorney who set up shop in the 14th Circuit, home of Ellick Murdock. sheltering, and he's a low country attorney who set up shop in the 14th circuit, home of Ellick Murdoch. Also the timing of this is notable, especially when you look at the timeframe, when Ellick's

finances faced the most pressure and when he turned up the notch on his stealing in 2018 and 2019, which was around the time when Peter got into hot water for the DC Solar case. The feds have sat on the Karpov case for almost five years. Both of the Karpovs have been in prison for years now. So why deal with Peter now? Why not back then? By all outward appearances, the DC Solar case is done. So we're wondering what information Peter Strauss might have that the government

clearly wants. And we'll be right back. As we continue to cover Stephen Smith's case, we're going to take deeper dives into various parts of the investigation into his death. This week, we wanna talk with you all about the car he was driving the night he was killed, the one that was left on the side of the road with its gas cap open and hanging from the side. The car is a significant piece of evidence or it could have been.

There's no indication that investigators attempted to retrieve fingerprints from the gas cap, the steering wheel or any other part of the vehicle. There's no indication that the items found in the car were cataloged or booked into evidence other than his wallet. The even failed to notice a gate pass to an upscale gated neighborhood on Hilton Head Island.

It took Sandy noticing it and bringing it to law enforcement's attention. The whole thing is weird because at the time that law enforcement brought Steven's body to the corner, they were treating this case like a homicide. They even sent a crime scene unit to the scene of where his car was found. It wasn't until later in the day

that the case became highway patrols. So before the car was towed and taken into impound, law enforcement believed they were investigating a potential murder. In other words, Sled was in charge of the investigation at that point. According to Sled's crime scene notes from the time, they arrived at the secondary scene

where Stephen's car was found three miles away at about 9.20 that morning. They had a search warrant for Stephen's car before unlocking it with the key they found in his pocket. And they noticed footwear impressions in the dirt near the driver's door. Quote, the responding officer's shoes were compared to these impressions by special agent Burke and found to be consistent. Therefore, footwear impressions were not collected.

Sled searched the vehicle and cleared the scene within 20 minutes, releasing the car to Hampton County Sheriff's Office. A Sled agent then attended Steven's autopsy, which reminds me, there's a point we left out of our episode last week when we were talking about our issues with how Dr. Aaron Presnell handled Steven's autopsy. Remember how we told you that our primary issue and investigators' primary issue with her at the time was how she put in her report that Steven died as the result of being hit by a vehicle. It's a statement that another medical examiner would later call unfortunate. Highway Patrol did not understand how she was making that determination when his body

showed no signs of being hit by a car. When troopers asked Dr. Pressnell for clarification on that, she became angry and told them that she was told that Steven had been hit by a vehicle, and that's why she put it in her report. But the troopers asked both the deputy coroner and the sled agent who attended Steven's autopsy, and both denied ever saying that they used the word vehicle with Dr. Pressnell. They both told the trooper they said that Steven's body had been found in the road and that was it. This is important because Dr. Pressnell's classification of Steven's death is what doomed

his investigation from the start. It was a question of who was going to investigate his death. Would it be the South Carolina Highway Patrol, which has a team that specializes in accident reconstructions and death by vehicles? Or would it be SLED, which has agents highly trained in homicide investigations? It's again a question of whether this is incompetence or whether it's signs of a larger cover-up, because certainly if this is a case in which there is obstruction of justice happening, having this case investigated by the agency less capable of handling a case like this would be ideal, right? So the narrative that emerged from Stephen Stuth in 2015 was that he was driving home

late at night and had run out of gas, and instead of calling his twin sister for help on the cellphone he had with him, he attempted to walk nearly four miles to his home, leaving his wallet in the car. It's a story that never made a whole lot of sense to his family, nor to many other people who knew Stephen's personality. His family says he would never have chosen that option. He would have called Stephanie. He would have hidden until someone could have come to get him because he was afraid of people, particularly people who might harm him because he was gay.

Before moving to Varnville, Stephen and Stephanie lived on Old Salcahatchee Road. Yes, the road where Eleg Murdoch lied and said he was shot by a nice man in a truck. When they lived on that road, they didn't have any close neighbors, so Stephen and Stephanie would go for walks just to have something to do. Here's Stephanie, who spoke with us this week. We would walk up and down the road, but if we were to walk down the road, if we heard a car or saw a car, we would jump in the woods and just walk the woods until the car was gone, and then we would jump back out and walk on the road. So him just to be walking in the middle of the road, you know, not seeing or hearing a vehicle is kind of odd. They grew up in the country and they were used to walking in the dark,

regardless of how dark it was. So the idea that Stephen would be walking dead center in the middle of the road and not move when a vehicle was barreling in his direction is hard to accept as plausible. And especially when toxicology showed that he was sober. Before Stephen allegedly ran out of gas in July 2015, Stephen had only run out of gas one time before that Stephanie could remember.

We had a 1998 Ford Explorer that was on, I think it was like a maybe three and a half inch lift kit with big old mud tires. The gas gauge didn't work. So you had the basic group of gas in it like every day just to make sure you didn't run out. It wasn't really trustworthy and he ran out of gas coming from school one day, which it was maybe a little farther up from where his car was found. So this is important. When this happened to Stephen before in the other car, it was around where his car was found in 2015.

Here's what he did when he was waiting for Steschny and their father to come help him. He tucked it into like a little pathway into the woods, you know, for deer hunters. Tucked it in there. He didn't park it on the side of the road. And then of course he called me and my dad and was like, hey, I ran out of gas.

I need you to come get me. And me and my dad and was like, hey, I ran out of gas and need you to come get me. And me and my dad basically drove back and forth for a good 20 minutes while Steven sat in the woods watching us to make sure it was us. Now, in July 2015, Steven's car was a 2008 Chevy Aveo. It was a bright yellow four-door coupe with a sunroof and a missing door handle on the driver's side. It had a United States Marine Corps sticker on the back window, torn upholstery on the driver's side seat, and a jelly-bellied air freshener hanging from the window.

He got the car only near months before his death. We asked Stephanie why he chose this little yellow car, which he referred to as a banana. It was just a car we seen for sale uptown. It was reasonably priced, and it was small and convenient, because he wanted something that was decent on gas mileage, traveling back and forth from school. And that's it. I mean, he didn't really pick it because he liked the car or anything.

He just thought it was cute and would be good on gas. Stephen attended school about an hour northeast of where he lived in Varnville. It was about a 55-mile drive. Stephen was known to be a fast driver. Usually, whenever Stephanie went somewhere with him, she took the wheel. I think I let him drive like one time and I learned my lesson. She was like a NASCAR

driver. I couldn't let him drive because I probably would have broke the door handle with how bad he drove. So like we said, when Stephen's car was found in July 2015, the gas cap was off and hanging loose. He was almost home from wherever he was earlier in the night. It's plausible that he could have done some mental math and decided he had enough gas to coast home those last few miles and simply miscalculated. But why was the gas cap off and hanging loose?

Was it assigned to passing vehicles or law enforcement that the car wasn't abandoned, that it had simply run out of gas? The gas tank was on the passenger side of the vehicle. So the fact that his cap was off and loose wouldn't have necessarily been visible to those driving by. Or had Stephen undone the cap for another reason? He wouldn't have done that

unless somebody was bringing him gas. Honestly, if he did run out of gas, I don't understand why he didn't call me because I always came to the rescue when it comes to vehicle issues. So, I don't know. To me, it just seemed a little weird. Speaking of Stephanie coming to Stephen's rescue,

the only issue Stephen seemed to have with his new car was that it didn't hold oil. But the day before his death, he needed Stephanie's help solving another problem. The day before he passed, he got stuck at the gas station in Brunson. And he said his car wouldn't start. I went up there to see what was wrong and just to happen the battery cables were loose and I tightened it up, car cranked right up, we drove home, the terminals were loosened on both sides.

There's no way that it would just loosen by itself. As we've said before, Stephen was skittish around people and for good reason. The same day me having to, you know, fix his car in the parking lot at the gas station, he sat in the car the whole time while I was working on it and we were on the phone even though I was right in front of the car and he was in the car and I asked him to get out of the car because there was this well-known homeless guy like walking in our direction. I asked him to get out because I felt uncomfortable. And of course he wouldn't.

This level of skittishness though struck Stephanie as unusual, but he didn't seem too concerned about the loosened wires at the time. Stephanie believes that someone had been messing with Steven and undid his battery cables that day. We'll talk more in a future episode about what Steven's life was like, leading up to his death, and where he might have been the night he was killed. But the battery raises questions, especially for Stephanie. Was Steven being targeted? Was he being harassed? If so, by whom? And on the night he was killed was someone coming to help him. Or did someone else undo Steven's gas cap?

Again, we might never know the answer to that last question because law enforcement didn't think to take fingerprints. Not even after accusations of foul play started to rise up behind the scenes. Steven's car was a highly noticeable one. We're asking that anyone in Hampton County and beyond, who might have been in the area on the night of Steven's death, to please jog your memories. Do you remember seeing a little yellow car at a party, driving on the road, speeding down the road? Do you remember passing by his car on the side of the road? Any little detail helps, no matter how small or how unrelated you think it might be. In order to put together a puzzle, there need to be pieces. Please contact us at answersforsteven.com. If you remember seeing Stephen in his car

in or around July 2015. One last thing we want to mention is obstruction of justice. In the 2019 Boat Crash case, Eleg and his family have been accused of interfering with the investigation, but they aren't the only ones. Today, we are asking Sled DNR and any other agency where anomaly has occurred in the reporting of the boat crash, in the collection of evidence, and in following the chain of custody with that evidence. We want officials to hold the people who didn't follow procedure accountable.

In order to get Stephen's case solved, people need to trust that law enforcement will have their backs when they speak up. So law enforcement needs to step up and show those with information on what happened to Stephen, that they will not tolerate any shady and illegal behavior from their rank and file, and that they will protect witnesses. They need to stop giving the benefit of the doubt to the people on their payroll,

who have been known in the past to show more loyalty to their friends than to the laws they've sworn to uphold. If you want people to cooperate with your investigations, start showing that they can trust your agencies. Stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the sunlight. True sunlight is a Luna Shark production created by me, Mandy Matney, and co-hosted by journalist Liz Farrell. Learn more about our mission and membership at lunasharkmedia.com. Interruptions provided by Luna and Joe Pesky.