Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #40 - Who Killed Stephen Smith? Part Ten… Newly Recovered Photos Tell Us About Who He Was And Could Have Been

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

True Sunlight Podcast co-hosts True Sunlight Co-hosts Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell continue to unpack the evidence in the Stephen Smith case file. On today’s episode they take a look at the thousands of photos downloaded from Stephen’s iPhone and iPad in 2015 and explore what they tell us about Stephen’s life … and his death. Hear an interview with someone from Stephen’s past who got to witness his life in action. Plus, they take a look at the Kinsey Report — an investigation into Stephen’s death conducted by crime scene expert Dr. Kenny Kinsey, who helped put Alex Murdaugh behind jails for life last year. To listen to all of our episodes with information on Who Killed Stephen Smith, visit truesunlight.com or https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4GI4ezkrlQorzy2HuyiGsu 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

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. This episode is brought to you by Tressame. Once silky smooth hair that's still full

of natural movement, the Tressame Carrotton Smooth Weightless Collection is your simple solution. This new collection features a wide range of products from nourishing shampoo and conditioner to lightweight heat protectants and a silky smooth serum for a sleek finish. Wave goodbye to Frizz and say hello to three days of smooth hair with a Tressame Keratin Smooth weightless collection. Visit Tressame.com to learn more. I don't know who killed Steven Smith, but we recently obtained thousands of files that tell us more about who Steven was and what his life looked like around the time he died.

The more we find out about Steven's life, the closer we get to answering the big questions about his death. 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. This past weekend marked five years since the boat crashed the killed Mallory Beach. Five years since the beginning of the end of the Murdoch dynasty. Five years of investigating.

Five years of people awakening to the fact that if they don't speak up now, nothing will ever change. Five years of a fight to change South Carolina's justice system. That fight that was joined by millions around the world. Five years of peeling back layers that just kept getting worse. Five years. And we are still not done with this nightmare.

In the last week, I've been stuck in the past, flipping through on-this-day photos on my phone because of the amount of significant events that took place on this week. Eight years ago this week, I moved to Hilton Head to start my life in South Carolina. Five years ago this week, Mallory Beach was killed in a boating accident that changed life as we know it in the low country. And one year ago this week, Ellick Murdock was convicted of murder, a moment few low country locals ever imagined seeing in their lifetime. A Murdoch held to account in his own home court.

It was a big deal. And side note, Sokka to some premium members are invited to join the Luna Shark team this week as we look back through some of the most memorable moments from Ellick Murdoch's double homicide trial. The broadcast and chat will start at 11 a.m. Eastern on Thursday, February 29th. And even after all of this time has passed, as much as things change, they still stay the same. A screenshot from five years ago today just reminded me of that. It was from a source who received a text

in the days after Mallory Beach was killed and no one had been arrested. The text said, quote, DNR in the Sheriff's office is going to protect this family at all cost. Going viral is the only way Mallory gets justice. These were the types of messages that were flooding our phones that week,

sounding the alarm that we heard so clearly. And five years later, has the system really changed? On Saturday, which was the five-year anniversary of Mallory Beach's death, Beach Family attorney Mark Tinsley tweeted, Five years ago today, Mallory Beach lost her life. Five years ago today, her family waited for her body to be found, while some people in law enforcement tried to help Ellick. Five years later, those people still have badges, and SC is still second in DUI-related deaths.

Do better, demand more. Mark is right. We must do better, and we must demand more if we really want to change the system. Some of the members of law enforcement who appear to have helped ELEC and Randolph in their apparent mission to steer the investigation away from Paul not only still carry badges, but some have even switched agencies. Some have been promoted and awarded. These are men who chose to look the other way,

chose to not write down what they were hearing, chose to intentionally bungle elements of their investigations. Men who allowed the Murdoch family behind the crime scene tape, who thought about the needs of the Murdoch family above the needs of the Beach family, who forgot to turn on their body cameras or who allowed body camera footage to disappear.

They all collect salaries paid to them by taxpayers and they all will collect retirement paid to them by taxpayers and they get to continue to use their authority to make life and death decisions about the taxpayers who pay them, even though they have proven to us that some people don't matter as much when people like the Murdochs are involved. Nothing Changes Nothing Gets Better

The world saw what Ellic in Randolph tried to do in the Boe Crash case. They saw how Ellic abused his badge by waving it around the hospital, by letting it hang obscenely out of his pocket so it was visible to law enforcement and to anyone who dared to question him when he tried to enter the other kid's rooms. The civil cases that emerged from the boat crash

in the investigation into Maggie and Paul's murders showed us all what an investigation looks like when it involves a member of the Murdoch family. And five years later, we are still seeing so many similarities between the boat crash and the Stephen Smith case. In both cases, law enforcement failed to do their jobs to preserve key evidence in the initial investigation. And yet, in both cases, law enforcement has not been held to account for that.

Before we get into our recent reporting on the Stephen Smith case, let's talk about a few updates from SLED that I don't think we've reported on before. I say I don't think we've reported on before. I say I don't think we've reported on before because honestly I don't remember and we need to make this clear. When we were going through old notes this past week, we were reminded of this information and it was one of those things that we were both like, I vaguely remember this. This happens a lot when you've been covering a case for this long, not to mention a case that has included two and a half solid years of breaking news and outrageous twist and turns.

So according to our sources, Sled has accounted for every piece of evidence, meaning nothing is missing, including the rape kit that seemed to disappear into thin air, according to the case file. Also Sled has cracked Steven's phone and his iPad. All of this is encouraging. As we said in our last episode about Steven, we're going to keep telling the story of who Steven was while focusing on individual pieces of evidence. This week, we're going to start sharing everything we're learning from an initial download of Steven's iPad and phone. week, we're going to start sharing everything we're learning from an initial download of

Steven's iPad and phone. But first, we want to give an update on the investigation that was started last year by Sandy and her attorneys. This week on Cup of Justice, we talked to Dr. Kenny Kinsey, the beloved crime scene expert who helped put Alec Murdoch behind bars for murdering Maggie and Paul. If you haven't already listened to it, I highly recommend you do because it was a really great conversation. Obviously, we discussed the trial

and how it was the messy crime scene that Alec left behind at Moselle that night in June, 2021 that ended up giving him away, along with Alec's long list of relentless lies. But more importantly, we talked to Dr. Kinsey about the Stephen Smith case and his role in trying to get it solved once and for all. And we talked to him about what he found when he launched his investigation last March after he was hired by Sandy Smith and her attorneys at Bland Richter to investigate the circumstances

surrounding Steven's death. One of the elements Dr. Kinsey looked at was why Steven was found where he was on Sandy Run Road. This was a crucial question to get answered or at least to get the potential answers narrowed down to just a few. And Dr. Kinsey was able to do that. To that end, there were four basic questions

that he sought to answer. The first was, was Stephen killed at a location other than where his remains were found? The next was, was his body manipulated or moved in any way after the fatal injury but before his death? There was also, what caused the fatal injury but before his death. There was also what caused the fatal injury to Stephen and did Stephen have defensive wounds on his arms?

So there was a thought out there that Stephen might not have been injured where his body was found. The way his body was positioned, it almost looked like two people could have picked him up by his arms and legs and simply placed him in the road to make it look like he had been hit by a vehicle. For instance, there are people who have said that Steven was at a party that night

and that he was hit in the head there and then transported to Sandy Run Road to fabricate an accident scene. According to Dr. Kinsey's report, Steven's body showed no signs of defensive wounds. As you know from the initial autopsy report, Steven's right shoulder was dislocated, and it's still not clear what caused that, but as far as the scratches found on Steven's arms, Dr. Kinsey believes that the lack of consistency in the pattern on his arms would indicate that Steven got those marks from when his arms hit the road. The slight momentum from falling to the ground would be the cause of that.

Early on, when we first started looking into this case in 2019, we could see that there was no trail of blood, nothing that would obviously indicate that Steven's body had been moved. But we were told by an investigator friend of ours that the large pool of blood had the potential to cover up a short trail if say Steven were removed from the bed of a pickup truck and placed on the road directly behind it

But dr. Kinsey was able to rule this out He said he believed that Steven died in the place He was found because of a blood pattern on Steven's face that showed he was still breathing for an unknown length of time after he was still breathing for an unknown length of time after he was injured. Time and distance would have altered that pattern. For instance, if Stephen had been moved, there likely would have been a visible disruption in how those droplets presented. In Cup of Justice, Dr. Kinsey also indicated that a human only has so much blood, so adults, for instance, have an average of 10.5 pints.

After Stephen's heart stopped beating, he would have continued to lose blood through gravity if he had been transported. As it was explained to us by another source, if Stephen had been moved, he likely would have bled out before getting to Sandy Run Road. And the pooling of blood would not have been as significant.

Now, in looking at the likelihood of Stephen walking the route that he appears to have taken from his car, Dr. Kinsey went on quite a hike. He started at the location where Stephen's car was found nearly three miles away on Bamberg Highway and looked at all the way as Stephen could have gotten to the point where his body was found. In his report, he notes that there were initial reports

that Stephen may have traveled through the wooded area on the night of his death. I hate to split hairs here, but that isn't quite the case. Or rather, I want to make sure that we're clear on what investigators were specifically told in 2015. There weren't reports that Stephen would have walked through the woods in the sense that he would have skipped the roadway altogether in favor of picking his way through dense pine trees to get home from where his car was. It was more that he would have ducked into the woods and hidden or walked into the woods at that point on Sandy Run Road until it was safe to come back out. The main point is this.

His family has been clear that Stephen would not have been in the middle of the road if a car was coming in either direction. They say he would have moved immediately when he saw the car coming in the distance. As Dr. Kinsey notes in his report, despite a slight curve in the road, at the point where Steven died, he would have been able to see a car coming for two-tenths of a mile in either direction. In his report, Dr. Kinsey notes that when he was there in April 2023, the crops just west of Stephen's body were not in season and the woods that had been to the east of Stephen's body had now been clear cut. We looked at highway patrol photos from the night Stephen was killed and from the next

day and you can see that to the west of his body the field was filled with tall corn stalks, and to the east, there were rows of neatly planted pine trees with some undergrowth. According to those photos, visibility looks about the same then as it did in the spring of 2023. Meaning, Stephen would have been able to see a car coming for quite some time in either direction. If he were simply walking on the road to get home, he would have had plenty of time to get out of harm's way.

It's also super quiet on that road, which means he likely would have heard a vehicle coming in either direction. A look at the road shows that there's enough flat, grassy earth on either side to walk on instead of the middle of the road. A look at the highway patrol photos from 2015 shows us that the grass had not been recently mowed on either side, but it wasn't prohibitively tall either.

The grass was also uneven, meaning it was shorter the closer you got to the road. There appeared to be enough room to walk and not fear an encounter with a hidden snake. Also, we have to note, Stephen had his iPhone with him that night. Flashlights were standard on iPhones starting in 2013. We don't know what version of the iPhone Stephen had with him that night, but we do know that the phone he got was from Mark Bickhart, who at the time indicated to investigators that the phone was new. We will unpack the Mark Bickhart cell phone situation

in a later episode because there is a lot going on there. I should also remind you here that Steven's toxicology report showed that he had no drugs or alcohol in his system that night. This is important, especially because recently we've seen a lot of rumors out there that Steven intentionally walked in front of a moving vehicle. It is so clear that the people repeating those rumors

do not know this case. Nor do they know much about Steven at all. And we'll be right back. 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.

Okay, back to the woods. There were two mentions in the case file about Stephen and the woods. The first was on July 17th, 2015, when his twin sister Stephanie spoke with South Carolina Highway Patrol Corporal Michael Duncan. Please excuse his homophobia. He's not the typical, and I hate to put it this way, but people see people that are gay as weak. He wasn't that type. No, he was really strong. And, you know, he looked like the type of person that couldn't fight, but

when you actually... He was very scrappy then. Yeah, and they were saying how it had to...if it was an incident that he got beat or anything, that it had to have been at least three people and he had to have known them people. Because you know, he wouldn't randomly hop on a car with somebody. You know, he wouldn't, he would run in the woods for a couple miles until he found my house before. So if he was walking down the road, for instance, let me make sure I understand what you're saying. If he's walking down because he ran out of gas or whatever, the car broke down, whatever it be, walking down the road, if he saw a car come up, I mean, and on this road, you can

see good distance. He wouldn't just stand there in the road. No, he would hurry up and hop in the woods, and if it passed, he would jump back out. And if he felt that they were, you know, slowing down or something, he would get farther in the woods and keep walking until he thought it was safe enough to come out. The second mention was from a young man from Stevens High School, who Steven apparently used to hook up with.

He told Corporal Duncan that he hadn't seen Steven in more than a year, but that he'd heard some things. This interview is from August 27th, 2015. And now let me ask you this, have you heard anything strange about how Stephen died or any rumors or anything like that? Have you heard anything off the street, whether it be about Mark or anybody else? What I heard was they said he was running from somebody. Said he was running from somebody?

Yeah, he was running in the woods from a guy. Like, he was running from eight somebody in the woods. Now, did you hear that from Steven's mama? No, I heard this from my classmate. OK, all right. And did they even describe who it may have been? No, they said it was an older guy. He was running from.

And he was one of us. And we were trying to figure out who he was from and maybe he was something that he was messing with that nobody knew of and I guess he was just trying to bring them out or something like that. That's what we thought. The last part might have been hard to hear. The young man told Corporal Duncan

that he and his friends had heard Steven was being chased by an older man in the woods and that they were trying to figure out who the older man was because they thought it could have been someone who Steven had been messing around with who was worried he would be outed. Dr. Kinsey described the area between where Steven's car was found that night and where his body was found nearly three miles away as very unforgiving. According to his report, if Steven were to have entered the woods near his car and tried to get home that way, he would have soon encountered an eight-foot high steel hog fence that would have all but prohibited his passage to a cut-through road. He would have had to climb the fence, and because of the overgrowth

and the fact that he was wearing shorts that night, he would have been all cut up. Speaking of that cut-through road, it's called Corbin Road. This road would have been a little longer of a walk, but it would have kept Stephen off the main road. However, it's a long dirt road that, to Dr. Kinsey is very desolate. He said he saw no evidence of lighting that would have been on that road in 2015, meaning the best route for Stephen to have taken that night from where his car was found seems to be to walk down Bamberg Highway and then to take that right on Sandy Run Road where he was found. As to what caused Steven's fatal injury, consistent with the findings of the second autopsy, Dr. Kinsey believes that Steven was killed by

something protruding off a high-speed vehicle. He also believes that the person who hit Steven would have been aware of hitting him and that they chose to leave the scene without making an attempt to help Steven. Remember where Steven's wound was? It was on the right side of his forehead, so if you place your hand on the right side of your forehead right now, and then visualize yourself walking along the yellow line in the middle of a road, it's very difficult to understand how this happened. The injury of Steven's forehead was the point of initial impact. When he was hit, he fell to the ground

and he hit the back of his head on the concrete. What do you notice when you visualize standing on the yellow line with your hand on the right side of your forehead? The car to your right would be coming up behind you, meaning it would have hit you from behind at first. And what about the car passing you on your left? The car you're facing,

that would hit you on the left side of your forehead. This is the complicating factor here. How did a vehicle hit Stephen on the right side of his forehead? We now know that Stephen was hit by something that either was or wasn't a part of a moving vehicle or maybe it was something protruding off of the moving vehicle and we know he was killed where his body was found.

He was not moved from that location. So explain that. The way Dr. Kinsey explains it is that the driver of the vehicle would have had to cross over into the opposing lane prior to hitting Stephen. If that's the case, Stephen would have been hit by something on the passenger side of that vehicle, right? Okay. Now, Stevens walk home looks a lot different, right? Was he running from someone?

Were there people in a vehicle messing with him? Did he run into the road and attempt to turn away from the vehicle? Or was he walking in the middle of the road, refusing to move out of the way of an oncoming vehicle and got clipped when the vehicle attempted to swerve out of the way? If that were the case, why wouldn't the person have stopped? It wouldn't have been their fault, right?

Okay, maybe the driver had been drinking. Why not tell the police later? After they can no longer prove you were drinking. Why not tell the police now? After knowing that the Smith family has been suffering for this long without answers? Why not unburden your soul now? But here's the thing, everything we know about Steven, everything we're continuing

to learn about Steven, tells us no. This is not a person who would intentionally get in the way of a moving vehicle. This is not a person who would not have sought safety when he saw a car headed toward him. This was a man who was used to walking these long highways in Hampton County in the dark, who knew how to navigate these roads, and who from all indications would have called his sister or a friend to help him when he ran out of gas. He was also a man with a bright future ahead of him and a large group of friends who adored him. Liz and I have spent the past two weeks going through a CD that Sandy gave us.

That CD contains some content that the Highway Patrol says is from Steven's phone and iPad. Years ago, the highway patrol mailed Sandy this CD. Frustrated after the investigation had gone nowhere for years, she put it to the side and was unprepared to go through all of it. Some things are just too painful. Sandy shared the CD with us because she knows, unlike others, we won't post the entirety of the file online

with zero regard to the privacy of her son and to her family. She trusts that we will be thoughtful with the evidence and not do anything to compromise the case. When the investigation was reopened by Sled in 2021, an attorney, Andy Andy Savage offered to represent Sandy Smith. She handed over everything she had in the investigation to Savage's investigator Steve Peterson, including the CD.

Because at the time, Sandy trusted him, and she knew the attorney-client relationship meant the CD would remain confidential. Now, there are a lot of red flags from the get-go with Steve Peterson and Andy Savage's short involvement in this case. In the few months that Savage worked as Sandy's attorney, he essentially did three things for Sandy. One, he hired a PI who allegedly conducted a quick investigation. An investigation which sources who were interviewed during that investigation told us had an extremely

narrow focus. Two, he silenced Sandy during a time when her son's case needed momentum in the public's attention. He told Sandy she wasn't allowed to speak to the media without his permission. Not only that, he told her he would stop representing her for free if she were to speak with the media. And third, he made a statement to the media that appeared to attempt to clear the name

of the Murdochs in the case. And he made this statement before telling Sandy that he was going to say that to the media and before informing her of how he came to that conclusion. Specifically, Andy Savage told ABC 13 that quote, there are suspects we have in sight that are unconnected to Murdoch. The focus any in the media have on Murdoch may be unfounded. He said that he was basing this statement on the work done by his private investigators. Then he went on to clarify that he was referring specifically to Paul Murdoch, meaning that the suspects were unconnected to Paul Murdoch, which is a strange delineation given that

Paul had just been killed a few months earlier. Also suspicious with these two? Peterson, the PI, has continued to appear on every TV and YouTube show that'll have him, to speak about the case as if he were an insider with insider knowledge. When in reality, he hasn't been a part of this case since 2021. Sandy has repeatedly told him to stop speaking about this case as his confusing statements and shoddy conclusions are constantly causing chaos in the investigation. Oh, and remember this jailhouse phone call

where Elix specifically mentioned Andy Savage? When you're listening, try to pay attention to Elix wording when there's some over-speak from Buster. Are there still people you think about Stephen Smith, even though Andy Savage? Yeah, I mean I don't think anybody... Is there no connection to us? Yeah, I don't think anybody took the holiday. You said it would come out later.

There's no connection? No. You didn't even know they had to savage that? No. The flood has not released anything. They didn't even release a statement about what was this most recent thing? There was something, something came out not long ago talking about how there's been like a breakthrough in evidence to do with like the homicide and Sled wouldn't even come out and issue a statement saying that there has been no further evidence like gathered. Tentful.

Tentful. So personally I would not count on Sled to help in any way. Did you catch that? Elix says, did sled ever come out and say there's no connection? Ambassador says no. And then Elix says, even though they told Andy Savage that. Weird, huh? How would Elix know what sled told Andy Savage?

It's not something he read. Andy said that the PI hadn't found a connection, not that Sled hadn't. Maybe it got relayed to Elec wrong, or maybe Elec misunderstood what he was being told. Still, hearing the name Andy Savage come out of Elec Murdock's mouth, around the same time that Sandy was wondering why the heck this man was brought into her life in the first place, out of nowhere, to help her. It's strange to us. I say all of this to say that the CD is another piece of broken evidence in this case. It appears that years ago, Highway Patrol downloaded photos and screenshots from Steven's

phone and iPad, which is news to us. The download unfortunately does not contain the parts of the phone and the iPad that we need the most, and that would be the phone calls, the messages, the location data, etc. It is not a forensic download by any means. We also don't know if anyone deleted certain images at any point from the CD. However, the CD contained thousands of images, and these thousands of images all have a file number attached to them. It's not clear at what point they were assigned these numbers, but the numbers do appear to be sequential, with lots of gaps in the sequence. Meaning, photos do appear to be missing, but

we don't know why or at what point that occurred. Were they deleted back when Steven was using his phone, tablet, or after that? Given how irregular this investigation has been, we have to ask those questions. We'll be right back. Liz and I have been investigating Steven Smith's murder for almost five years now. And it just occurred to both of us how little we really know about Steven, until we forwarded through the images on the CD we were given. We've talked to dozens of people who knew Steven over the years. But the images on his phone told me about a person I really related to. A person who in another world, 19-year-old Mandy

would have been great friends with. Stephen Smith had a fantastic sense of humor. School and reading were at the center of his world. He was often frustrated with the cost of college, which is evident in the many memes he saved on his phone, like this one that said, How to pay for college in 1983, work part time and summers, maybe take out minimal loans.

How to pay for college in 2013, which one of your organs is the most valuable? What to do with your degree in 1983? Work in your field. What to do with your degree in 1983? Work in your field. What to do with your degree in 2013? Cry. Stephen was an independent thinker. Here are a few important quotes I found saved on his phone. It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not. Andre Jede I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone.

It's not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people that make you feel all alone, Robert Williams. You have to be odd to be number one, Dr. Seuss. Then, there are quotes like this one that related to Steven's situation so much. It shook me when I saw it. Years of love have been forgot in the hatred of a minute. Edgar Allen Poe. Steven read a lot, way more than I did when I was 19.

We saw hundreds of screenshots from books he was reading on his iPad, often with his favorite sentences highlighted and new words bookmarked so he would remember them in his vocabulary. Sandy has always said Stephen was studious, determined to study his way out of his small town of Hampton, South Carolina. He had a clear plan for his future, even in high school, to become a nurse long enough to afford medical school, then eventually becoming Dr. Steven Smith.

I never realized how serious Steven was and how smart he was until I spoke with Ms. Michelle, a former teacher at Wade Hampton, who I met at a brewery years ago. Ms. Michelle taught health science in Steven's junior year from 2012 to 2013. Among her many students over the years, Steven always stuck out in the best of ways.

Here is Ms. Michelle. Oh my gosh, okay, he was very mature. He was focused, he was very much in line with telling you, this is my plan because some students, well, even adults sometimes really don't have an idea of what they wanna do, but he was very focused on going to nursing school and becoming an RN and then later exploring different paths of going from there.

So he's very focused, serious, humble, but also goofy and funny, but he knew when to turn it off and turn it on. So you can't be serious all the time. He was always prepared. He was, you know, you never had to worry about him not having what he needed or his textbook or being prepared for a quiz or a test. He was one of those you picked up on very quickly as a teacher that he was wise beyond his years and also that he very smart, very smart that you know he might play it off sometimes but I just contributed

that to his focus on wanting to go to the next level and also that he enjoyed reading. Unfortunately, you just don't see students reading for leisure time like you used to. And thinking back and reflecting on this, this was the transition time of iPads and cell phones had a place, but they were not as dependent on them like they are now. So you would see an actual paperback book that he was carrying around or that, and that's something I was going to share too, that this class, I always also shared with the students

that you may not want to go in the health field, and that's okay. This class is just to explore it. So you had some students that you may not want to go in the health field and that's okay. This class is just to explore it. So you had some students that just needed, they needed a class to fill in their schedule and then you had some students like Steven that this was a means to an end. You needed this class to go to the next level. Michelle was also in charge of Health Occupation Students of America, HOSA, essentially a science club for students who are interested in future health careers from EMTs to doctors. Every year South Carolina HOSA students competed in a state conference. Michelle remembers the year that Stephen competed vividly.

Every March there was a state conference and you could send students from your chapter and we had a chapter and we would meet either before school or after school. And some of the competitions were academic and that's what Stephen was interested in, which was medical terminology. And so of course you to go on this trip,

it was a big deal because you had to make a deposit. You had to make sure the students were vested in wanting to participate. They had to have no disciplinary actions. And their teachers had to be OK with letting them out of school for two and a half days because they were going to miss their other classes. So it was a combination of different things.

But the year he went, there were about I'm trying to think about 10 to 12, but just really, really good kids and their different grades nine through 12. He participated in the medical terminology competition, which was a test. And your study, you're balancing your regular high school load of academics, but you're also having to study on your own. And that's what we would do at meetings is do prep for the competitions. I just, this always stuck out in my mind. Stephen would always come to me for extra study aids. And that's what I was referring to earlier. Now, so much of it's electronic, but back then we would have these little tubs of big index cards and put them on a little silver ring and just flip the cards over and over and over because it was it was a lot of memorization.

And then you would have to take the terms and match them to the body parts and the body systems and that sounds easy but when it's in Latin and Greek, you could just be, like I said, speaking a different language. But some kids were going, hey, I'm going on a trip. But for Stephen, you could tell he was very serious, but he was going to have a good time, too. While Stephen was a jokester, he was also very nice about it. Michelle remembered a great example from that weekend of the HOSA competition that perfectly described Stephen's

kind sense of humor. I remember we went to a Mexican restaurant. It's in North Charleston at the convention center, so we could walk everywhere and there were some restaurants across the street. And me being nervous, of course, I'm like, you know, y'all are not used to crossing busy highways. Let's make sure we, you know, hit the button so we can go across. We're not going to J walk, but we went to a Mexican restaurant and the other sponsors

and I sat at a booth and of course let the students sit at a nice big table. And I have a couple of pictures from that night, but they've they, of course, and Stephen was the root of this. Stephen or another young man, I cannot remember, but they thought it'd be funny from that night. But they Stephen was the root of t young man. I cannot reme be funny to tell the weight my birthday. And of course So out came the sombrero i

they just really thought t you know, of course it was with it and ate the ice cream and everything, but they were just real tickled that they pulled that off. Even as a high schooler, Stephen lived by the work hard, play hard mentality. As much as he joked around that night at dinner, Michelle remembers after dinner he went straight to his hotel room to study for the competition. The competition was really important for kids like Stephen, who grew up in a small town and learned in a small school district that didn't have a lot of funding.

It was their chance to shine and show themselves and their community that they could compete with the kids from the bigger fancier schools, and they could go on to do bigger things than what their hometown had to offer them. What I always told the students, and I hope they took it to heart, was health science, just like any other academic class, was there's a series of standards that come out from the State Department of Education. And I always told them, it doesn't matter what our classroom looked like. You are just as smart because you are mastering these skills like everybody else in the state. But me telling them that was one thing.

The students actually participating in these competitions and competing against the big schools from the bigger cities in South Carolina and seeing that they were on the same level. And it's just like a parent trying to tell a child, you can do this, but they could see for themselves that they could do it. So it was a real confidence booster. And also they had to dress up. They had to be professionally dressed. And so Stephen was in

a suit and he looked very sharp. And so it was just neat to see the pride. But of that group, that year, Stephen was the only one that mastered the test, so you go to the next level. And so the ones that exceeded the second level go on to the national, which he did not, but that was okay, because it showed him what he could do. His schedule at Orangeburg Tech was tough. And from the photos and screenshots,

it was clear to us that school was his priority. There were hundreds of photos of things like notes on a whiteboard in his classroom, screenshots of his assignments, photos of pages in his textbooks, photos upon photos of anatomy sketches and anatomy models, and screenshots of his schedule which was packed. In the fall semester of 2014, which was his first semester in college, he had general psychology at 8am on Mondays and Wednesdays. After that he had developmental math.

Later in the day he had medical vocab and anatomy. On Tuesdays and Thursdays his day started at 9.30 with anatomy and physiology with clinical labs later that afternoon, along with a college skills requisite. I was super proud of him going to Orangeburg Tech and just to give a little background on the technical college system. Being an REN in the state of South Carolina, some people know this, some people don't, but a two year technical college degree, you can get an associate degree of nursing, or you can go to a four year college

and get a bachelor's of science of nursing. Regardless of the academic path you choose, both sets have to take the national exam, which is called the NCLEX National Counsel Licensure Exam. So it's not like you just wake up and say, you know, I think I want to be a nurse. I'm going to go down to the technical college and take some classes.

You have to be accepted to the school first, but then you have to be accepted in the program. And since you're doing so much hands-on with patients in the healthcare system, they only take X amount of students. So I'm not sure what his class was, his admission class was. It may have been 50, it may have been 100, but that's it. So waiting lists are a very real reality in that.

So the fact that he went right out of high school because in nursing programs, you find a lot of second career people that have worked in the health care field and decided to go back. So the fact that he went straight in was really a testament to his academics and his maturity. The two year degree is comprehensive. I mean you're doing four years worth of work in two years and a lot of hands on and a lot of early mornings and late nights. And so to know that he was committed to that is extraordinary. One thing Michelle told me that really stuck out about Stephen, he had a lot of close friends. He was very confident in himself and often had a pack leader mentality. He was by no means a loner in school.

This is again important as people continue to spread baseless rumors that Stephen would have intentionally walked into a moving vehicle. Well, I'm observing from the teacher standpoint, but in the classroom, you always have those students that stick out in the leadership role. And the neat thing about that medical terminology class was that I had freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, but he easily established himself as someone that other kids, hey, what's the answer to this?

How do we do this? And I was always putting them in small groups or pairing them off and mixing them up and yes, he was a beloved member of our class. It's almost like a little community that you create every with every class and every class has a personality and he had one of his near dear good friends in there. When he passed, I went to the funeral and I remember I sat with another teacher. There were some teachers there and I walked out and I ran smack dab into his good friend in there and I was fine.

Well, I say, no, you're never fine, but I was holding myself together. But the minute I saw her, I said, you're never fine. But I was holding myself together, but the minute I saw her, I said, you were his friend. And I just lost it. I just lost it. And another young man that had been on the trip, I said, y'all were his friends.

Y'all were his friends. But I never, yes, they loved him. And you see students in the cafeteria, out in the courtyard and all, but he always had a group of kids with him. Steven was loved by so many. This has been evident in every bit of information we have reported on Stephen so far.

But even though he was loved, no one has had the courage to come forward with information about how he died. Even after all of these years later, even after so much has changed in Hampton County. We are asking that more of Steven's friends come forward, even if you don't have information about Steven's death, telling us about his life is equally as important and can open doors that we wouldn't think about in this investigation. If you knew Steven personally,

especially around the time he died and would be willing to talk with us, please visit answersforsteven.com or email mandyat please visit AnswersForSteven.com or email mandyatlunasharcmedia.com. We know that those who knew Stephen miss him all of the time and think about him and the future he could have had all of the time.

Like his teacher, Miss Michelle said. And that picture I was telling you about with the Mexican restaurant, they're all, I mean, it's just a snapshot of time from that evening where they're all in this restaurant, it was almost like a dining room table and they're all sitting around that table and you look at them and I'm like, OK, that one's a firefighter in Charleston. That one is going on to do such and such. This one is working and just seeing

they're doing their grown up things. And then the part that's missing is, you know, Steven didn't get to live his dream. This is perhaps the most stunning and saddening conclusion that has haunted us as we've learned about Steven in the past few weeks. What potential this man could have had if something different happened on July 8th, 2015.

What places he could have gone, the lives he could have saved, the people he could have helped, the difference he would have made. His life mattered. It was worth a whole lot more than the local press and the community gave him at the time of his death. Stephen had a full and complicated life

as most 19-year-olds do. He had just reached the end of his first full year out of high school, when the newness of independence was still fresh and fun, and when you're starting to get a glimpse of what being an adult is going to entail. The files we have from Steven's iPhone and iPad tell that story, and we are going to share more

of what is on there as we continue to look at what is known and not known about his life and his death. Obviously, Steven's sexuality was no secret and could end up playing a role in the why of his death. But even so, it is clear that Steven was living his truth proudly. And even though the CD doesn't tell the full story of Steven's life, it gives us a lot of insight.

The thousands of files on Steven's phone and iPad include screenshots of conversations and photos of men he was interested in and of men who were interested in him. There are a lot of memes and photos that knowing how he ended up dying could now be considered uncanny. And, there are even photos of his little yellow car when he was considering buying it,

and in the background, we could see the big PMPD building looming. Because of course. We'll talk more about all of this. We'll talk more about all of this in an upcoming episode. We do want to mention that there were no overt connections to the Murdoch family and any of the photos that we have gone through so far. We want to remind those who know what happened to Stephen Smith that now is the time to talk to Sled.

Remember, there is a $30,000 reward. Remember, most importantly, that coming forward would mean the world to his family, who deserve the peace of knowing what happened to Stephen. Remember, small details solve big investigations. 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.