Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #41 - Who Killed Stephen Smith? Part Eleven… The Voice We Have Not Heard Yet + The Colucci Case

Episode Date: March 7, 2024

On today's True Sunlight Podcast, Co-hosts Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell continue their investigation into the photos and screenshots found on Stephen Smith’s phone, learning more about what the Hampton, S.C., teen’s life was like leading up to his mysterious death in July 2015. Mandy and Liz revisit two interviews with South Carolina Highway Patrol that — with new context — shed more light on his very last night and on what evidence SLED might have to help them retrace Stephen’s steps. Plus, listeners will finally get to hear Stephen’s own voice from a video Mandy and Liz found on his iPad... Also on the show, Luna Shark is taking on a new case! This May, Michael Colucci will stand trial — again — for the 2015 murder of his wife, Sara Lynn Moore-Colucci. Michael — a wealthy, prominent and well-connected Charleston-area man — insists that his wife killed herself with a garden hose. His attorney Andy Savage (yes, that one) even suggests that she might have tripped and fallen into the hose and hanged herself. SLED Agent David Owen — remember him from Alex Murdaugh’s trial? — and the Attorney General say Michael strangled Sara to death in a fit of anger. This case features a lot of familiar themes and players from the Murdaugh trial, including the twists and turns that seem to have come right off the pages of a novel... On Tuesday, we published one of our Top Five Favorite episodes of Cup of Justice! We interviewed Emmy Award Winning Journalist and TV Host Tamron Hall. Tamron was on the TODAY Show in Mandy's early days of journalism and she deeply admired how she handled stories. So, y’all… give episode 69 of COJ a listen to learn all about her new book 'Watch Where They Hide', the attached scripted series and bias in journalism. We promise it’s a good one!  Stay Tuned, Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight...☀️ In March 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 Premiere 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

Hey, I'm Tom Power. I'm the host of the CBC podcast Q with Tom Power. I get to talk to artists from all over the world, writers, musicians, actors, directors, all kinds of creative people. And we try to have the conversations you have with really, really good friends. The conversations you have when you share a love of something,

about ideas, when you wanna hear about everything. I feel really lucky to have these conversations. Q with Tom Power, available now on Spotify. Whoa, what are you listening to this for? Wait, who's talking? You know you're driving a 2024 Ford Escape with available Alexa Bill Tim, so you can change the music. Oh yeah, Alexa, change station to 99.2.

See, purchase a 2024 Escape ST line all-wheel drive with TechPak at 3.49% APR for 72 months with down payment. That's just $267 bi-weekly. Cash value of $40,294. Plus, eligible Ford owners get $1,000 bonus. For details, visit your local Ford store or Ford.ca. I don't know who killed Stephen Smith, but we are going to keep going until we do.

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. Well hi! Phew! It has been a big week here at Luna Shark. On Tuesday, we published one of my top five favorite episodes ever of Cup of Justice. We interviewed Emmy Award-winning journalist and TV host Tamron Hall. Tamron was on The Today Show in my early days of

journalism and I always deeply admired how she handled stories. Particularly, I've always looked up to Tamron for the way that she covers true crime, with empathy and compassion and with the victims at the center of the story. Tamron's own sister was murdered years ago and she knows what it's like to be in the victim's shoes. Tamron has a new book coming out called Watch Where They Hide, the second book in her Jordan Manning series about a female journalist who digs and digs and doesn't stop, and how

the crimes that she covers weigh heavy. Liz and I told Tamron this in the conversation. This was the first book we have read in a long time or maybe ever where we felt seen as female investigative reporters. It was comforting to see Jordan Manning conflict with stories in the same way we are sometimes. The conversation was raw and validating and inspiring, and shockingly, Tamron Hall was very familiar with our work too. It is wild how the world works sometimes. So y'all please give this

episode of COJ a listen. I promise it's a good one. And speaking of books, we will be off to Tucson Arizona this weekend for the Tucson Festival of Books and I hope to see some of your beautiful faces there. Also, we are going to be in LA, San Francisco, Napa Valley, and Maui, Hawaii this spring, and we would love to do a few fan events and book signings while I'm on the West Coast. We are still brainstorming ideas for fan meetups. If you live in those areas, we would love to hear from y'all for event location suggestions. Submit your ideas to lunasharkmedia.com slash new events. We are also starting our university tour soon and we are looking to connect with colleges across the country

and maybe the world that would like to have our team speak about journalism and justice. If you are connected to a university that you think would be a good fit, please go to lunasharcmedia.com slash new events and fill out the form today. And back at home in South Carolina, we are busy. I am proud to be speaking again at the Victims Matter Rally on March 21st in front of the South Carolina State House in Columbia. The South Carolina Victims Assistance Network presents the Victims Matter Rally each year to raise awareness about the challenges faced by victims of violent crime. It provides a platform for survivors to share their stories, for advocates to speak out for

change and for community members to come together in solidarity. You can listen to South Carolina Victims Assistance Network director Sarah Ford herself on Copa Justice 69, another one of my favorite episodes. So Liz, Beth, Brayden and I have been pouring over every detail we can find in Stephen Smith's case. Every day we learn something new about this case and the people attached to it. Every week we hear new names that we hadn't heard before. I will tell you, it feels like we are getting closer to the truth every day.

But at the same time, every time I call Sandy with a question and not an answer, a little piece of my heart breaks for her. I know every time she opens up that box in her mind, she has to think about the worst time of her life. When her son was killed and no one would tell her how or why, she is always willing to help however she can, no matter how sad it makes her. If she can keep Hope alive for all of these years, we can too, and we will. Sandy knows that hope and hard work are required for eventual answers

and hopefully justice in this case. And we are doing our best here at Luna Shark to get there. Please, please, please continue making noise about Steven's case. Share these podcasts on social media. Share tips at sc.sled.gov everywhere you can. Tag and tweet other media to ask them to continue covering Stephen's story. Make it difficult for his killers and those in charge of his investigation

to go anywhere without seeing his face. Pressure breaks pipes and we can always add more pressure. Steven's story is just beginning. Remember that. That said, we have another South Carolina story we want to tell you about that is an immediate need of sunlight. The Kaloochee case just might be the craziest case you have never heard of. The case that is going to trial this spring,

even though Sarah Lynn's death occurred the same year as Steven Smith, and even though someone was charged in her death eight years ago and tried for her death six years ago. So what happened? On May 20th, 2015, 38-year-old Sarah Lynn Moore Calucci was found dead outside of the jewelry warehouse in Somerville, South Carolina that she owned with her husband, whose stepfather was a well-known and well-respected jeweler.

Sarah's husband, Michael Calucci, a man who ran with highly connected circles in Charleston, which reportedly includes members of law enforcement, told police that his wife hung herself with a garden hose. But like Ellick Murdoch, the story that Michael Kalucci told police about the circumstances surrounding his wife's death shifted several times and ultimately just didn't add up.

In fact, Ellick Murdock and Michael Colucci have a lot in common. While Ellick is a South Carolina native, Michael moved to Charleston from New York City when he was five years old, with his mother, brother, and stepfather, and five step-siblings. Despite that, like Ellick, he was well-entrenched in the good ol' boy system we so often warn the world about. In fact, Ellick and Michael both had enough connections among law enforcement and the courts that warranted the local solicitor's offices and the sheriff's offices to recuse themselves in their cases. warranted the local solicitors' offices and the sheriff's offices to recuse themselves

in their cases, leaving sled to investigate in the AG's office to prosecute the cases. Both Ellick and Michael have last names that mean a whole lot to them. Legacy, Money, and Power. In fact, Michael even changed his last name to that of his stepfather when he was 18. Some say that was Michael adopting the credibility and the esteem of Evo Colucci, credibility and esteem he had not earned on his own. Eleg and Michael share a similar past,

filled with financial chaos, allegations of drug use, and tumultuous relationships. According to sources, Michael was a man who was used to getting out of any kind of trouble he got into, and it shouldn't shock you to hear that after he was charged with his wife's murder, he had the privilege, like Alec, of being represented by one of the most expensive attorneys in the state of South Carolina. In fact, if he is guilty of killing Sarah Lynn, Michael Colucci just might possess the How to Get Away with it playbook that

Ellic and his team so closely followed or tried to. But there is one big difference between Michael Colucci and Ellic Murdoch. Michael Colucci's murder trial had a different outcome. Michael was charged with murder in May 2016, one year after his wife's death. Yep, Sled and the AG's office took an entire year to charge him, just like they did with Ellick. We are just now beginning our FOIA journey in this case and trying to get answers for our timelines. So some of the delay might have been because the recusals came in. Sled was asked to take over the case

two months after Sarah Linn's death. But the solicitor, Scarlett Wilson, didn't recuse herself until Sled had a warrant for Michael's arrest. We'll get into these recusals later. But even then, she didn't fully recuse herself, at least not according to the records that we have seen.

She basically left it up to the AG if he wanted her removed from the case and he took that option. Anyway, as we've said before, time delays only benefit the defendant. And typically, that is why they hire the big guns, to keep those delays coming. In Ellick's case, he made a big gamble. He thought he'd catch lead in the AG with a weak case by insisting that the case go to trial so quickly. And boy, was he wrong. Michael Kaluchi, represented by powerhouse attorney Andy Savage, yes, that Andy Savage, who briefly represented Sandy Smith in 2021 before she fired him.

Michael and Andy went to trial in November 2018. Andy did what Dick and Jim could not. He planted enough seeds of doubt during the eight days of testimony that resulted in a mistrial. And now, nearly nine years after Sarah's death, her family has another chance at justice. The South Carolina Attorney General's Office, yep, the same one with Big Craton Energy Waters, will be prosecuting the trial set in May. The AG's office told us that the trial is set for May 13th in Berkeley County, which is the area just outside of Charleston about an hour

northeast of Mozel. Prosecutors Joel Kozak and Kenley Abbey, both of the Attorney General's office, will be prosecuting the case. And this is where we come in. We chose to cover this case for many reasons, but chiefly, because this is a case where sunlight is not only needed, but could absolutely improve this family's chance at getting justice for Sarah Lynn. Like we did in the Murdoch case, we need the AG's office and Sled to know that we are

watching. We need them to give this case their all. If Michael Kalucci killed Sarah, it's going to take a much better effort from the state this time around. By the way, real quick about the first time around, the case was prosecuted by Megan Burch dead. She was the same prosecutor assigned to Paul Murdoch's Boe Crash case.

Megan left us highly unimpressed by not only how she handled that case, but by her performance in the courtroom. During the two hearings that were held, in both, she seemed to cede the floor to Dick Arpulian, allowing him to call the shots at all times. She also failed to mention Mallory Beach's name, which will always stick with us. Megan no longer works for the AG's office.

She left amid a shake-up around the time that Elik Murdoch was charged with us. Meghan no longer works for the AG's office. She left amid a shake-up around the time that Ellic Murdoch was charged with murder, at a time when Attorney General Allen Wilson was trying to get to the bottom of the leaks to the media that seemed to be coming from law enforcement. She reportedly went to work for none other than Representative Todd Rutherford for less than a year and now, according to her LinkedIn page, she is a public defender for the Sixth Circuit in South Carolina. As far as her performance in the Kaloochee trial, we will talk about that, and obviously a lot more in the coming weeks.

But let's just say she seemed to give half an effort. Big Crate and energy, she was not. Anyway, like Murdock, this case is wild, right out of the pages of a novel. It is twisted and deeply complicated, and there is a lot of heartbreak as the victim's family and those who love Sarah Lynn continue to push for justice. Oh, and there's more. Two years after Sarah Lynn was found dead, her mother-in-law Doris was found shot to death at the family's jewelry shop in North Charleston. Evo, Michael's

81-year-old stepfather, told police that he killed his wife. He died before he stood trial. Another thing we should mention, in 2007, Sarah Lynn's first husband, the father of her only daughter, was found dead with multiple stab wounds. His death was ruled a suicide. So who was Michael Kaluchi and how was he so connected to law enforcement that the AG's office and sled ended up taking the case? How did Michael, with a history of foreclosures serious on pay debt and evictions, how could he afford Attorney Andy Savage to not only try his case once, but now twice?

Remember, Andy Savage was the attorney that Sandy Smith hired to represent her for a short while in 2021, before she fired him for speaking to the media about Stephen's case before he spoke with her. Andy Savage is in the Dick Harputlian category of defense attorneys. He is old, he is seasoned, he is blunt, well connected, super expensive, and unafraid of making enemies while going to bat for alleged killers.

We're going to walk you through the entire case, including the spider web of connected cases and a litany of civil cases nearly nine years after Sarah lends death as the prosecution prepares for a second trial. After spending the last week diving into this case and the evidence that was presented in the 2018 trial, the question isn't just who killed Sarah or how she died, i.e. whether it was murder, suicide, or accident. How is it that Michael has been free on bond for nearly a decade when the facts of the case cost so much about him into question?

Has his privilege intervened with justice? What role does corruption, if any, an eschew justice system play in this case? While we are glad that the Attorney General's Office is retrying this case, in a world where we expect so little from our public officials, we want them to know that we are watching this time around. And so will the Lunasherk Army. We plan on broadcasting this trial in May

for Lunasherk premium members and taking y'all through every step of our investigation leading up to trial. In the meantime, let's get back to Stephen. Since last week when we first introduced the CD of downloads from Stephen Smith's iPhone and iPad, we discovered that some of the photos on there actually do contain data

such as the dates they were taken and GPS locations of where they were taken. We've spent a lot of time over the past few days going photo by photo and screenshot by screenshot to see what we could find out and reporter Beth Brayden has spent a lot of time tracking down addresses that were new to us, as well as information about the people who may be connected to those addresses. We have more work to do there in terms of piecing together all that information through more research and interviews, but we just wanted to tell you about our progress there, because as far as this stuff goes,

it's moments like this that give you hope when you discover that there are other layers to the information that you have in front of you. So before we talk more about what we've been finding out on Steven's phone and tablet, which we'll do in a future episode, we want to first talk to you about the importance of the phone itself and the confusion that surrounded it. To do that, we need to start with a man named Mark Bickhart. At the town of Stephen's death, he was 47 years old,

and in the days and weeks after Stephen's death, he claimed to be his boyfriend. Notice I said the word claimed, right? Over the past two and a half years, we've seen some people online state rather firmly that Mark was Stephen's boyfriend, giving it this sort of ominous characterization and pointing to Mark as a likely suspect, which makes sense at first.

In July 2015, Steven's own family, who had never heard of or seen Mark before Steven's death, wondered who this man was and what he might know about what happened to Steven on the road that night. And Mark didn't do himself any favors in the drawing suspicions department. In fact, he became a nuisance and seemed to be milking the role of grieving boyfriend, showing up at Steven's wake and insinuating himself onto Steven's father, Steven's aunt, and his twin sister, who ultimately went to police for help because of Mark's verbal threats against her over the phone and on Facebook. Mark has a history with drugs and a criminal history.

He described himself as a former gangbanger to police and a background check shows that since Steven's death, he's faced assault and harassment charges in other states. Mark obviously knew Steven and considered himself to be in a relationship with him, but it does not appear that Steven saw him in that same way. It's also not clear whether Mark had any interest in Steven beyond just a romantic one, meaning we don't know how Mark earned the money that he gave Steven from time to time, but he had a history with a local escort service. So was he trying to coerce Steven into the same kind of thing? He told law enforcement that he had moved to Hampton to be near Steven, but that Steven

had asked him not to do that. So one thing that was apparent from Steven's phone. Steven's financial situation weighed heavily on him around the time of his death. He was researching quick ways to earn cash, like selling those weight loss body wraps on the internet that were popular at the time. He had several screenshots on his phone

about the cost of college, screenshots of his tuition dues, and then memes about the absurd price of college courses, and even a couple of bank account statements. We aren't sure what that means, but it could explain why Steven bothered with a man like Bic Hart if he really needed money for things like a cell phone. We'll be right back. By the way, really exciting news. We have an episode of COJ coming up where Liz and I interviewed THE Tamron Hall about her new book which we love, Watch Where They Hide.

A story Liz and I can relate to a lot. As the main character is a pesky female reporter who just doesn't quit when it comes to reporting the truth and solving crimes. continue. So it's an honor excited for everyone to s like to be a reporter when this character and this told that there was not a black female protagonist written by a black female solving crime. We talked to Tamron about investigative reporting,

the problem with a lot of mainstream media, and the idea of unbiased journalism plaguing the truth. I am so pumped for this episode. Look for it on March 5th. So the big question about Mark is whether he should have been considered a suspect here. Law enforcement appears to have done a really sloppy job with Mark, at least according to the case file they released to the public. Investigators seemed really put off by him, which is so understandable,

as you'll see he is a confusing mess. And there's really no indication that they ever followed up with anything Mark was telling them about escort services, which we'll cover in a future episode. When you listen to his interview with investigators in its entirety, like we have, he really does seem to want to help them, but he can't escape the trap that is his muddled mind.

And again, we get why that would be annoying to investigators. He just doesn't think linearly. But again, there also seems to be a total lack of followup. Is that because law enforcement knew that Mark was a dead end, or did they simply drop the ball? Regardless, we do not think Mark killed Steven. And we did not get the picture that he knew who did,

at least not from that interview. He also has no known connections to law enforcement that he could have exploited back then. It's important to note that at the time of Steven's death, Mark was driving an old Lincoln sedan. Steven was killed by an object either attached to or being held out from a high-speed moving vehicle which means that the vehicle had to be high enough to inflict that kind of injury. Anyway, two weeks before Steven's death, Mark had moved from Buford to Hampton, which again, Steven had warned him against doing.

According to the Highway Patrol's interview with Mark and other reporting that we've done, Mark's life seemed incredibly chaotic and transient. And again, he has a history of drug use which he shares with investigators. And at the time of Stephen's death, he was on a very strong medication that affected his ability to stay awake and be lucid. But to protect his privacy, we're going to bleep out the name of the medication throughout the interview. So when you hear the bleep, that's what it is.

Now, Mark is an important player here when it comes to understanding the phone evidence in Steven's case. According to Mark, he is the reason that Steven had an iPhone, which he had given to Steven over a month before Steven's death. We say more than a month because we could see in the data

where Steven went from primarily using his iPad to take photos to now using his iPhone. As far as the iPad goes, according to his twin sister in an interview with Highway Patrol, Steven had had the iPad since his junior year in high school and had stopped using it as much when he got the iPhone. According to the data we've since discovered from the CD of downloads, Stephen was using iPhone 5C as early as June 5th, 2015. Prior to that, he was using a green Nokia phone, which we'll talk about that in a bit. On the night of his death, it's that iPhone that law enforcement found in Stephen Short's pocket. Two things to note about that iPhone. One is that it did have a flashlight on it, according to online specs.

This is important because there are some people out there who have conjectured that Stephen was found in the middle of the road because he was using the yellow lines to guide him in the dark. But like I said, he had a flashlight on that phone. Additionally, the moon was out that night. On the morning of July 8th, 2015, the moon rose at 1241 a.m. in Barnville, South Carolina. It was in its waning gibbous phase and at 54% illumination.

We're not clear on what the cloud cover from that night was, but again, Stephen had a phone to call his sister for a ride and that phone had a flashlight on it. Okay. So back to the chaos of Mark Bickhart. He showed up to Stephen's wake on July 11, 2015, and that's when Stephen's family learned about him. Here's Stephanie Smith's interview with Corporal Michael Duncan with the South Carolina Highway Patrol on July 17, 2015, when she talks about this encounter.

We've edited this interview just to include the parts about Mark. When he came to the wait, he popped up to nowhere and he asked my aunt, he's like, is this Steven Smith's, you know, family and everything? And my aunt said, yeah. And he was like, well, I'm Steven's boyfriend's boyfriend and he didn't he said he wasn't going into the building until his sponsor came and what got me was my dad told me to take him in there because who's Steven and I said brace yourself it don't look like him I said you know just go ahead and tell you that now he He's like, I'm fine. He stopped at the door, called somebody and said, yes, Stephen's dead. And then hung up. Didn't say nothing else.

Then we walked to the casket and he looked, he's like, what was it? I said, a hit and run. And then he was like, no, he was beat to death. And I kind of looked at him like, how would you know? And then he was like, was he sexually assaulted? I said, I don't know. You know, and then he was like was he sexually assaulted? I said I don't know you know and then he left As after the wake as he has more try to contact you again he did

The I Think the day of the funeral or maybe the day before the funeral, he called me and I didn't want to talk to him, but my cousin and my aunt told me to talk to him and my cousin was sitting there writing down everything he said, like important key points. Right. And ever since that, all of that's changed, but my mom has it, you know, in her truck. But other than that, he hasn't talked to me because he don't want to.

Stephanie told Corporal Duncan that things Mark had told her about his relationship with Stephen, about his knowledge of Stephen's life, didn't make sense when compared to everything else she knew about her brother. Stephen's never had a relationship. That's one thing that got me when this guy said I'm his boyfriend because he's not Steven's type. And because Steven liked skinny, kind of built light skin guys. And you know when this guy's like I'm his boyfriend I'm just like, you know you're more of a sugar daddy. And he got mad at me for saying that but I was just you know explaining to him and he don't want to talk to me because everything he told me about Stephen, I'm sitting here calling him a liar because.

I need to interject here and say that everything we have found on Stephen's phone backs up what Stephanie said about Stephen and his relationships. He talked to men on various apps and he had a good amount of shirtless pics from guys he was connecting with. But we didn't see any couples photos. In fact, most of the pictures we saw of Steven with other people were with his family or his girlfriends. One screenshot of a message on an app that I'm not familiar with told me a lot

about how 19-year-old Steven felt about relationships in the months leading up to his murder. This was on February 15, 2015. It was from Steven, sent to a man we haven't yet identified. Happy Valentine's Day to you. I like you a lot, a whole lot more than any guy I've talked to in a while. But I don't see you maintaining interest in me when I keep disappearing on you. I don't know why I do it.

I'm just weird like that. But I'm trying to make it easier for you to back out now. This probably seems weird and random as hell, but sorry. Like a lot of 19 year olds, Stephen appeared to keep emotional walls up when it came to serious relationships. OK, back to the interview between Stephanie

and Michael Duncan of the Highway Patrol. Can you tell me some of the things that he told you about Stephen? He told me Stephen wasn't an escort service. And I know for a fact, Steven wasn't because he never left the house like that. And I think you gotta be at least 21, I think. And he said he did it out in Charleston and he was making about 3,800 a night and stuff like that.

And he said, him and Steven met at a club. And I told him that was a lie because we only went to one club and that was club Pantherna and Charleston because it was 18 and older. And he didn't mean anybody there because I was stuck on him like glue. I wouldn't let him go anywhere. He was sitting there saying that's how he met Steven. And then he changed the story and said he met Steven at a club that closed in Charleston when Steven was like 16 And I told him that's impossible because Steven didn't have a phone at 16 Steven didn't have his license nor a car Mark said that uh him and Steven were meeting up at places and stuff like that and I told him I said no because I we we only had one car

Because I we we only had one car up until Steven started college and then that's when we got the yellow car and then we got that SUV Mark was saying that Trying to remember that's that's fine. I mean don't like I said what bad Bad good indifference. I mean, you know doesn't what somebody says doesn't make you true either. So good indifference I mean you know doesn't what somebody says doesn't make you true eat yeah he was just sitting there you know telling me how he knew Steven and what the Steven was doing he said did you know your brother smoked weed I said why would he smoke weed if he had to do a drug test for school because he had to

do one constantly and all that and he was like, I don't know. And then he said he gave Steven some money and I know that was just $200. She said he was paying the car insurance, paying for all the Steven's school stuff and that's not true because it comes directly out my dad's account except that 200 for the scrubs. He told me Steven was being harassed at school which I don't know if that's true or not because Steven would have told me and my dad of something happened at school Now were you and Steven close enough for him to tell you stuff about?

His sexual relationship with other guys was it were y'all that close enough for it. He would feel comfortable Okay, that's why he never had a boyfriend because he had trust issues. Okay. But everything like Mark was saying, I'm sitting here like, that's not my brother. And he was like, yeah, it is. So we just stopped talking. When did you talk more about that? The night after the wake, my aunt sent him to my house and

He talked to me and my dad for a little bit And that's when he was telling us all it is and he asked me if I wanted to see my brother like on his phone like proof of them together and I Shouldn't have walked into that because he showed me pictures that I didn't want to see I shouldn't have walked into that because he showed me pictures that I didn't want to see. I understand. I seen that in the executive department. It's not like I haven't seen it before, but I thought he was talking about pictures of them two together, you know, that kind of stuff. I want to point out that the photo that Mark showed to Stephanie was not one of the two of them together, but rather just a photo of Stephen. Prior to Mark ever coming over to y'all's house,

have you ever, did you know about Mark? All I knew is that there was some guy paying for Steven's phone and his phone bill. Okay. And gave him $200. Other than that, Steven didn't talk about him. Okay. So he wasn't important.

Three days before Stephanie spoke with Corporal Duncan, investigators were at Mark's house in Hampton asking him questions about Steven's death. We're going to play parts of this interview for you. It's a very frustrating interview because of how hung up investigators get on Mark's wonky memory. Several times Mark tells them, just look at my phone records if you want to know dates and times and text messages because I can't remember.

It's also very frustrating because Mark is sitting there with his phone, ostensibly the phone that has Steven's text messages still on it. It's only been a week since Steven's death. From our vantage point, it would seem that Mark could have referenced his own phone for those times and dates in the text messages. Very critical information in understanding what happened on the night Steven died. And we'll be right back. One more thing to note before we get into it. As I've told you before, there was a

warrant for Steven's phone records. For unknown reasons, Highway Patrol appears to have waited until January 25th, 2016 to file it, more than six months after Stephen's death. It's not clear if this is the only warrant investigators filed for Stephen's phone, but this one was seeking records from June 9th, 2015 through July 9th, 2015 for a phone number that we believe corresponds with his iPhone, and we're still getting more information about that. Okay, here's the July 14th, 2015 interview

with Mark Bickhart. First of all, if you would state your first and last name for me. First name is Mark, M-A-R-C. Middle name is Peter, P-E-T-E-R. Last name is Bickhart, B-I-C-K-H-A-R-D-T. Alright, let me kind of go back. You're familiar about the incident where Stephen Smith died last Wednesday. Is that correct? Yeah.

Alright, what I want you to do is is when was the last time you talked to see that night all right about what time not the text but about what time last time you talked to us you have to remember with all this I took my some time I can't remember if the call came I might just ask for a roundabout time I can't remember if it came after the text or before the text because the last call I heard I asked him on one of the calls, are you walking? Because he already told me he was running out of gas one of the calls before and I said are you walking? Because I hear cars going by and his answer to me was no

and then the call dropped and I don't remember if he called me because we were back and forth, the calls kept dropping. After the call, did you text him? I mean, I don't remember. I mean, there were texts, I mean, we had so many texts back and forth that night on me worried about him, him calling me, you know, phone service out there. And with this phone right now,

we're having issues with our phones. And half the times I don't have service. Do you remember if it was daytime or nighttime when it was going on? This is at night this is 3 a.m. okay I believe the last text if my mind calls me correct that I looked at it was 3 37 a.m. Now was he coming over here? He was supposed to be he was supposed to be on the way but from what I'm learning he was headed home. But you know I don't know. Okay so but as far as you know he was coming over here. That was what we were talking about and that's what the Texas were saying.

Okay. Any other thing anything else on them Texas about where he had been? Well earlier that day before we left to go to Walterboro to go because my friends had to go to GameStop to get a game. We went to Walmart from Walmart. We went to Arby's. Then my friends went to his cousin's house. Then my sugar dropped again. We went through the exit right when you come to from 57 to come here to Hampton. There's a horn gas station I believe it is. We went back there I got four dollars worth of gas and my friend went in to get me a Hershey bar and the girl African-American girl was was um was pulling all the garbage and everything. He may need to go to work hold on. Hey, I'm in an interview I can't talk. Alright, you gotta go to work? No, I already cut that off. Like we told you, this guy is chaotic. The weird sounds you keep hearing appear to be

text and phone calls coming in from Mark's cell phone. By the way, we briefly talked about Mark in an episode years ago, So some of this will sound familiar. So throughout the day, have you been talking with him at all? We were mainly texting up until later on. I think I did talk to him at some point. I don't remember when. I know we talked because he said he was,

I know I called him a lot of times, his signals were not good. I don't remember when, at frame, but I know we did talk and he said he was Either a text or something. He said it was about an hour hour and a half out. Okay, so Our conversation that y'all were having what was the conversation y'all were talking about mainly was he gonna come? Mainly was he gonna come um just normal boyfriend and boyfriend talk I mean we love each other yada yada yada I called him at one point I know I left messages because I didn't get him that I was we were going to Waterboro and if I think I text him the same thing because I didn't get him because I wasn't sure whether he was in school,

whether it was in work. A lot of times I'd like to text him to make sure he wasn't in school, because if he was, he could get in trouble if his phone was on. So I try to text him first. To be honest with you, the next day I was upset with him, because I, but I had later on that day,

I had a deep gut feeling something happened. For the simple reason, the phone wouldn't even take it, would go right the voicemail. Mark tells the investigators that he and Stephen just had one argument in their relationship and it was over Craigslist. What Mark describes is again, chaotic. From what we can gather,

Mark was no longer on Craigslist, but was still getting messages. He doesn't explicitly say this upset Steven. Instead, he goes on to say something he repeats several times, and something that he clearly said to Stephanie when he saw her, that he has pictures. Not in a menacing way, not in a blackmailing way, but in a way where it seems to be him trying to validate his relationship with Stephen. He says he has a lot of pictures of Stephen and that Stephen has a lot of pictures of him. As far as the downloads on the CD that we have gone through, there are no pictures that resemble Mark Bickhart on there,

and we have searched through thousands. And for the record, we should note this. The photos on Steven's phone were not explicit. They were mostly PG. Surprisingly, PG actually, considering he was a 19-year-old. But that said, Mark wants to show the investigators these pictures he says he has of Stephen.

And he starts to search the disarray around him for his tablet. These are mainly of him. That he sent me. These are mainly of him. These two are me. But he has a lot of pictures of me. And I have a lot of pictures of him.

Let me see. Yes sir. The phone that he has is my, is the phone of my service. Let me ask you this. So is the phone in your name? Yes, it's the phone I got him. It's a- You bought him the phone?

Well, the phone originally that the car accident I was in, my phone was damaged. They took the phone, they gave me a different phone and because he was getting very bad service and he's been harassed in this town, they've been messing with his lugs on the car, they've been screwing with his battery. And when you say they, who are you talking about?

I don't know. The only one that he told told me that he made it very clear to me the guy with the tattoo Darn it and I was looking for because I threw all my cases out on There's like there's you know, you guys probably don't know some of these but you know guns and roses You know guns and roses got this whole tattoo and then underneath they got the two cigarettes of you know guns and roses. You know guns and roses got this whole tattoo and then underneath they got the two cigarettes and it says guns and roses. Well it doesn't say guns and roses but it's got the two cigarettes.

I had to remember the tattoo and that's basically the tattoo that this guy's got but no and it's big, it's bigger but I can't remember where he said it was on the body. He told me that night that he heard his ankle that we were on Hilton Head Beach. He told me what the tattoo was. Okay. So the only quote-unquote date that Mark could cite for Stephanie when she asked him to tell her exactly when he went out with Stephen was this trip to the beach. Hilton Head is about an hour and a half away from Hampton and it's about 45 minutes away from Buford where Mark said he lived prior to two weeks before this interview. On the CD of

Stephen's downloads are two pictures of what appear to be a very sprained ankle. It's not clear if it's Stephen's ankle but the photo was taken at his dad's house. That photo was taken on January 10, 2015, six months before this interview. At times, Mark appears to be plucking discordant facts he thinks he knows from the air around him and trying to make sense of them in the context of the questions he's being asked. One of the things he's brought up to investigators is that after Stephen's death, he started to get unknown phone calls from the Cayman Islands threatening him, and that he continued to receive calls from Stephen's phone after Stephen's death. While trying to search for those calls, he finds a voicemail that he tells investigators is from Stephen. When they finally

get the voicemail to play, it's not Steven. It's quite clearly a call from a professional-sounding woman returning Mark's call and asking him to call her back. He tells investigators that the call came to him from Steven's phone. When they question him more about that, he asks them whether the name of the voicemail says, it's from quote, boyfriend. Yeah, they called and that was that originally it comes up. Is that where it says boyfriend? No. All right.

No, you got to hit boyfriend that the boyfriend is the one. Not that one. All right. Sorry. So you don't say anything. So literally, and with no apparent awareness of how dumb this is, Mark has investigators play a voicemail from Steven in which Steven had ended the phone call before the voicemail kicked in.

Let me ask you this next question. When the phone call dropped and he was walking, did you ever make a comment or ask him, do you want me to come get you? I couldn't come get him and that was what I was saying. Why couldn't you come get him? I didn't have enough guests and he didn't want me to come with the gas that was in the car. I didn't have gas. Okay. After that, after you dropped the phone, the last text or the last phone call, what was the last thing y'all said to one another? The last thing he said

is I'm on my way. The text, I'm not sure which one came. I believe it said I'm 30 40 minutes away Did you take some back and say anything? I believe I did but I don't know what did you say? I don't remember That's what I'm telling you was already in my body at that point It was impossible for me to go anywhere and he knew that but I'm saying to to you, it was the fact that no gas, the fact that he was kicking, he knew that. So if I, if I- Can you wait a minute? I want to get, he was not normal. And when you say not normal, what do you mean by not normal? He sounded like he was drunk.

This is where we should note that Steven's toxicology report showed that he had no drugs or alcohol in his system on the night that he died. He doesn't take drugs, he doesn't drink other than smoke weed. He sounded like he was on something. He played it off to me on the call that I was talking to him a little bit earlier before, you know, all this, that he said to me and quote, I'm tired. I've been, I've been at school and work and I'm tired. It's, and I says, I believe I said to him, it doesn't sound like tired. And he says, Mark, I'm just tired. For the next several minutes, Mark tells investigators about a yellow car with tinted windows that sometimes comes to the back of the property where he now lives.

Corporal Duncan asked him what that has to do with this situation, and Mark says he doesn't know, but that if Steven's car had tinted windows, that means he was here. Mark gets frustrated at the investigators and tells them that he will bend over backwards for them in terms of helping them. But he says that he's not the one. Then Corporal Duncan tries to get back to the night of Stephen's death and what Mark remembers about the calls

in the text. Let me start a little timeline here. All right, he died Wednesday morning, is that it, Greg? Greg. So Tuesday, let's say around six o'clock, did you take you talk to him around six o'clock, Tuesday? Whew. Whether by text or phone. We talked all the time, I mean, you're asking questions, I don't know.

You gotta remember I did heavy drugs and stuff. I'm lucky I can remember some things. It's taking me time just to put a timeline together now I mean the drugs I mean I'm lucky actually I can't even if I don't put something by the door to go out the door to go do something I have to come back 20 times again I mean I'm putting it straight out to you straightforward so you're asking me questions the phone is gonna be more answers that I could give you than I can give you on when we text. I mean, I'm being straightforward with you. I'm not going to

tell you something and be caught in a lie because I don't remember when we talked, when we didn't. We were talking and texting all the time, sir. So I don't remember time. This is when Mark and investigators started to get into it. Mark begins sharing with them this story, again, discordant details here, about a pastor who had told him and Steven that they were going to rot in hell for being gay when Mark picked up his deposits from his landlord. He talks about the time that he and Steven went to the beach and they stopped at a gas station and without establishing that anyone had mouthed off to them or said anything, told investigators

that Steven told him not to engage them, whoever them is, because it's not worth it. Then Mark begins talking about a fire that happened at one of his previous residences. He talks about kids waking him up and smoke alarms not working and wires connected to washing machines. An investigator who had not yet spoken during the interview finally does. He tells Mark that he doesn't understand how he's able to remember all these details from months ago, but not details from a week ago. Mark again explains that his medication alters his memory. To us, it's clear that Mark is remembering old details

and talking about them as though they're happening now. It's also clear that his brain just works differently. He's attached his memories to things like, it was raining that Sunday when this happened. As you can imagine, this is not something that rural law enforcement officers have a whole lot of patience for. When Mark again reminds them of his medication issues,

Corporal Duncan makes a face and Mark calls him out on it. All right, listen, if you're trying to run the phone records, it's gonna tell you, take the phone, I'm not gonna be ridiculed, I'm not gonna be ridiculed. I already got the mother telling me and making accusations. And nobody here has made no accusations. The problem I have with, is you're not

able to recall things that you say. And that, in itself, to me, is a problem. All right, all right, fine. I understand that. But you're saying you're receiving these phone calls from people who are threatening you. From the Cayman Islands, you're saying that you're receiving them from people around here.

I don't know. Did I say around here? I said that they're saying I'm gonna die. They're unavailable numbers. How do I know? You see that the phone says the came in I once. All right, but the the ones that are unavailable until phone records are pulled, I don't know where they're coming from. I will say this. I don't have anything else from point all right, but I will say this, I don't have anything else for you. All right? But I will say, if you wanna cooperate, continue to cooperate. I'm cooperating, but you're... I'm not saying you're not cooperating.

See, you're jumping to accusations just because we're asking you questions. I don't have answers. It's not that I don't like, I don't have answers. You do have answers. But I don't know... Wait a second. You say the phone's going to answer it.

Now I'm good with that. All right? But the problem is, is, is some of the things... Do you understand how many times we text? Doesn't matter. Okay. Let me ask you this. I can tell you right now.

I can tell you what my wife or anybody... I text a lot with my wife and my daughter. And I can pretty much tell you. I can't tell you every word that they say, but I can give you the logistic of the conversation and I can give you that but that's all I'm asking I'm not asking and I've told you this from the beginning I'm not asking for specifics I'm just asking to be general I come in here telling you timeline same thing I'm not asking you a lot of the Texas are

what we're gonna do or can he come by or do you want me to meet you one of the Texas and I don't remember exactly what whether it was Wednesday night but I know Tuesday or Monday night I did text him and he was coming from school or was supposed to be do you want do you want me to cook you something that's all I'm asking for on some of these Texas, did he say anything why he was walking? Like, there's something suspicious. He never said he was walking. That I said to you, I asked because I heard the tires.

Are you walking? His answer to me was no. Okay. Did he ever say anything suspicious was happening to him? That night? Yes. He did say that he felt he was being followed.

Okay. And did he give you any indication? I'm not... Like I said, this is generic. I don't... Well, if you ask specific questions, I'm going to give you what I know. I have been asking you the same questions I'm asking you now. Can I do something?

Hmm? Alright, go ahead. Can I do something? Mm-hmm. All right, go ahead. All right, the thing I'm asking is, when he said that he felt like he was being followed, did he say, you know, there's a car following me or I was in a restaurant or is that the gas station? They said he was up there, but he was up at that blinking light up there.

He says to me. That's his thing. His family said he was up at the Exxon. He said he was up. And I can't remember if you go out, like you're going out to Walther Ball, sir, there's a four-way blinking light and there's a store right to the right.

Snodder's Crossroads. I don't know where he said he was out there. They said he got cigarettes at Exxon. Now let me ask you this. Is that where he said he felt like he was being followed man? Yes, he said that he was being harassed at that store. By who? He didn't say, he said it was a couple guys in the pickup truck.

If I called correctly he said they were rednecks. But I know- Did he ever give you a description of the pickup truck? Yeah, he may or may not. He said it just had, it was big and it was tall. He didn't give me a description of the mud tires, but the last time we talked that night before the phone went down and I said to him, are you walking or not?

I called him back. What was that before? I know at one point I heard mud tires. I heard big mud tires. Big mud tires. And I- In other words, when you say you hear, hear- In the background- In the background, are you hearing what you're trying to say? Yeah, I hear the mud tires like they're coming towards him or going past him. Because they sounded loud, that they were getting louder and that I believe was the last time I talked to him. So you were asking what was going on? What are you doing? You were asking what he was doing? At one point yes I did.

He said he was coming to me. No when you when you heard there's mudties. I was going to be first I heard a semi then I heard the mudties. Right after all that, it went down. The phone went on me. So he has your speakerphone? I don't think so. So you can hear mud tires while he's on the highway? I don't know what he did.

Now Max, can you hear mud tires while he's on the phone while he's walking down the highway? I guess. I mean, if I don't know, because I know if I'm walking, you can hear a lot on the phone. It depends on how he has the phone turned on. If he has a speakerphone, yeah, but depends on how we have the phones turned on. Maybe he had a speakerphone, yeah, but if he ain't got a speakerphone, how can you hear? I don't know, I guess it's on speakerphone, but I know I can hear, you could hear certain things when I'm walking. The investigator appears to believe he has caught Mark in a lie, because he doesn't understand how Mark could hear something in the background of wherever Steven was at the time of this

call unless Steven had him on speakerphone, which has nothing to do with anything. Obviously, speakerphone would allow anyone with Steven to hear Mark on the phone, but it has nothing to do with Mark's perception of what he's hearing on his end. the two different vehicles just you don't remember about what time that was I'm not asking if you give me a minute I'm trying to put that was that was a little bit before and the call before that I heard a lot of dogs in the background like barking and I don't know I don't And I don't know where he was at that point. But um, them toddlers, that's why I went out to the scene. You know what I'm saying? So this dog's barking detail is something that did not resonate with us in 2019 or even

in let's say early 2021. In re-listening to Mark's interview with investigators, obviously it's something that sticks out now. What Mark seems to be saying here is that in a call with Steven prior to his last call with Steven when it cut out, he heard a lot of dogs barking wherever Steven was, and he does not know where Steven was. In his last call with Steven, which he had earlier said was around 3 in the morning, he says he heard mud tires and a semi-truck drive by, but also that Steven had told him he was not walking. And as he's telling investigators this, a call comes in from, he says, the Cayman Islands.

He answers it on speakerphone, and it's actually a call from Lexington Law Firm. He tells the woman he's already told her he doesn't have any money for whatever service they've previously offered to provide for him. We looked up Lexington Law Firm, and it looks like a national law firm that works on bankruptcies. It's not clear if these are the threatening Cayman Island calls that Mark says he had been receiving since Steven's death. After this, the investigators talk to him

about what he knows about the escort service that he alleges Steven had been working for, which again, we'll talk more about in a future episode. We want to note that nothing on the CD of downloads points to Steven working for an escort agency or engaging in sex work. As they wind up the interview, Mark tells them he's willing to do whatever they need, including a lie detector test.

He tells them to set it up and he'll do it. He also offers up his help in getting information from Verizon. Again, this is just one week after Steven's death. I'm telling you what I said, you want to search the car search the car right now. I have no issue with whatever you know I know and like I said, right. I'm not the one you're looking for right now You're the closest thing though. We get information It's not clear why clorbral Duncan says they already have a search warrant for Steven's phone when the only one in the case file is dated January 25th 2016 again more than six months after Stephen's death and this interview.

But it is clear that Mark is making it easier for law enforcement by reminding them that the phone is in his name. Which brings us back to the Nokia phone. Let's go back to the July 17th, 2015 interview with Stephanie Smith. In this interview, she tells Corporal Duncan about this other phone when he asks her about what forms of communication Stephen was using when he was talking to people online. He used this tablet the most and because he just recently got that cell phone because my dad bought him a phone just like this and he was texting a bunch of people and that's when Mark bought him

this phone and said he would pay for it. So the phone that he had disappeared. I haven't found it. You know, it's gone. You're talking about the phone that he had there? Yeah. Because he said he wasn't going to give it to my dad until he texted everybody and told them.

He had a new number. Yeah. Because that phone was off and he told me he was waiting on my dad to turn it back on so he could text all these people. But the phone disappeared and then he stayed with his cell phone a little bit. Corporal Duncan confirms with her that if he were chatting with guys online, he would most likely be doing it on his tablet. But Stephanie also tells him that Steven wasn't using his tablet as much and that it didn't

have a lock on it for that reason. Duncan does not ask any additional questions about the phone Steven was using before the iPhone. And here is by far the most frustrating part about this case. We see it clearly now. There were and still so many breadcrumbs to explore in Steven's case.

Just from the photos in the phone alone, did they ever access his social media accounts? What about Snapchat or his Grindr account, what about his Haywire text? The only technology related warrant we saw in Steven's entire 2015 case file was for his iPhone and they didn't file that until January 2016. Why did it take them so long to simply file a warrant? Why wouldn't they try other options?

And what about other people's devices? If Mark Bickhart had nothing to do with this, why didn't the highway patrol at least follow up with him to rule him out? There is no record of highway patrol looking through Bickhart's phone even after he offered it. And by all accounts, an older guy with issues and a criminal history who claims he was the boyfriend of the victim, you would think they would at least want to rule him out. Or even get some more insight about his Craigslist claims.

But they didn't. In fact, we found notes where Bickhart called Highway Patrol several times and they didn't appear to call him back. To our knowledge of the case file, there is no record of Highway Patrol ever getting data on who Stephen communicated with in the hours leading up to his murder. Maybe he called someone for help, maybe he texted someone about someone following him, maybe he pulled over to meet someone and something went wrong. Highway Patrol never figured that out, and it could have provided the bedrock for the investigation. We are hoping, wishing, and praying that Sled does what Highway Patrol couldn't. We hope that they use the evidence to solve this case.

We hope that they actually follow through with the leads that Highway Patrol discarded. We hope that they continue to question every name that comes up until someone says something. It has been almost a year since Sled announced that they would be focusing their efforts on DeSteven's case. Where are they? Sled needs to do something to show that they are working on this case and that they are determined to solve it. They owe that much to Sandy Smith and her family.

One last thing before we go, we're going to get into more of the finer details about what we are finding on the CD of downloads from Steven's iPhone and tablet. This was one special find that we wanted to share with you. It's something that stunned both of us. For five years now, we have been working on the Murdoch case, and through that, Stevens case. It was five years ago that we met Sandy for the first time. It was five years ago that we first saw the crime scene photos and we read Stevens autopsy report and listened to all of the interviews. We have heard so many voices talk about Steven, but we have never heard Steven's voice.

Until now. On the CD of downloads, there was video taken on May 1st, 2015, just two months before Steven died. On it, you can hear him talking to his cats. Steven, if you didn't know, really loved cats. And just like the kennel video of Paul Murdock, when he says it's a chicken, Steven is putting on a special voice that he talks to his cat with, meaning he's not talking in his regular voice.

Steven appears to be studying. According to data from the video, he is at his father's house and it is about 8am. The video starts by him whistling to his cat, who comes running to him. The cat jumps off and then Steven whistles for her to come back to him again to show that she does, in fact, respond to his whistle calls.

Whistling. Look at my baby. Taking up on me. See, I'm not lying. She's desert. If you were a friend of Stephen Smith, or if you knew him or had any photos, videos, or saved Snapchats, basically any memory of him, we ask that you email them to mandyatlunasherchmedia.com or you can text them to 240-606-3338 so that at least his family can have them. Also, if you know someone who knew Steven, we ask you that you pass on this request to

them in case they don't listen to our show. The more information we can crowdsource from people, the better our chances are of getting answers about what happened to Steven. But even more than that, the better we can help keep his memory alive for those who loved him most in this world. Stay tuned, stay pesky, stay in the sunlight. Music 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.