Murdaugh Murders Podcast - Who Killed Stephen Smith? Part Three - (S01E9)

Episode Date: September 12, 2021

While a lot of the recent Murdaugh Murders news has focused on Alex Murdaugh, we want to make this episode 9 about Stephen Smith.  Because his life mattered too.  The Murdaugh name was brought up more than 40 times during the course of the investigation of Stephen Smith’s death in 2015.  In this episode, we’ll hear SCHP patrol investigator Todd Proctor interviewing several Hampton Kids about Stephen ’s death.  And a special thank you to: The Bannon Law Group - From sitting by the fires to setting them, the Bannon Law Group has got you covered. Lauren Taylor Law - Few events are more traumatic and stressful than a divorce - let Lauren Taylor make a plan tailor made for you. Visit Lauren Taylor dot com to learn more. Gilstrap Roofing - Leading the way in quality roofing services. Spanning four generations, the Gilstrap family holds the same values today as we did back in 1935. Maven Real Estate: - Maven Realty is a full-service real estate brokerage servicing the Charleston Sc market. No transaction is too large or too small for their talented team. Special shout out to Greg Finch from the full-service Georgia law firm, Bouhan-Faligant. They are diligent, determined and care about the success of their clients. We are incredibly thankful to Caitlin Lee for our new podcast artwork and and October Genius for the enhanced theme song! For current and accurate updates: Twitter.com/mandymatney Support Our Podcast at: https://murdaughmurderspodcast.com/support-the-show Please consider sharing your support by leaving a review on Apple at the following link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murdaugh-murders-podcast/id1573560247 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We did it. I still can't believe we got this project done so fast and so well. When I'm in New York. I'm in Chicago and I'm in LA but we're making it happen in Miro together. Our best work just happens faster on Miro's collaborative online whiteboard. No more scheduling meeting after meeting for work that could happen from anywhere. Whether it's getting design feedback here. Mapping timelines or brainstorming next steps here. It all just happens on the Miro board. Exactly and it's nice not having to wait an entire day to get sign off from this guy. Hey! Well it is true. See how Miro users save up to 80 hours every year by

meeting less and doing more. Get on board at Miro.com. The first three boards are free forever. That's Miro.com. I don't know who killed Steven Smith but I know his family has waited 2,258 days to get justice and I'm determined to expose the truth and get answers for them. My name is Mandy Matney. I'm the news director for fitsnews.com and I've been investigating the Miro family for more than two years now. This is the Murdoch Murders podcast. There have been a lot of shocking developments in the strange shooting of Alec Murdoch. From my reporting it's fair to call the shooting suspicious due

to his attorney's strangely inconsistent statements about what happened on September 4th 2021. In the days following everything got weirder. Alec issued an apology and admitted to having a drug problem and admitted to having money problems. A few hours after that his law firm blamed him for misappropriating millions of dollars and he has apparently entered rehab. I say this because there's no proof he's in rehab but his lawyer who has provided lots of false statements recently claims that he is in rehab. He was also suspended from practicing law. He pretty much admitted to misappropriating millions of dollars.

Also the knife that was used to puncture Alec's tires before he was shot has been linked back to Alec Murdoch according to Fitznews sources. So it's safe to say it's been a very bad week for Alec Murdoch. A lot of people say this is like watching a dynasty fall in real time. But we're going to wait for the 911 call to come out to do a full episode on the Alec Murdoch shooting. So I recommend you guys to go to Fitznews.com for the latest crazy updates in this insane saga and today we want to talk about Steven Smith's death in this episode because his story matters too. Previously on the Murdoch murders. On June 22nd

huge news broke in this case. I was the first to report that the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division also known as SLED, the same agency investigating the Murdoch murders, opened an investigation into the Steven Smith death. SLED told me that this was based on information gathered during the course of the double homicide investigation of Paul and Maggie Murdoch. We don't know what information led them to that position but it's important to look back on the 2015 case and see what went wrong. So what happened to Steven Smith? Like the probe of the 2019 boat crash that killed Mallory Beach, the 2015 investigation and

dismissed death was chaotic from the beginning. Derailed by jurisdictional perplexity and suspicions of investigative interference. Smith was found dead just before 4 a.m. on July 8th, 2015. He was found in the middle of Sandy Run Road in Hampton County, South Carolina. Somebody go ahead and hit it. It's gone. Uh-huh. Somebody go ahead and hit it. All right, we'll get it also hit it out, didn't we? Whatever time deputies arrived, what they found was horrific. I know this because I've seen crime scene photos. Steven's face was covered in blood. The bright young nursing student

was dead. Steven had a 7-inch gash on the right side of his forehead. His head was warped by blunt force. The family kept the casket open so that people could see what was done to him. Evidence here, there's only evidence of where the body was found. There's no car parts, no any type of parts to a car, or truck, or any other vehicle. Um, a bunch of people, like, I just left the house the first official time yesterday and I went into the store and a bunch of people kept coming up to me and I was like, you know, the Murdoch boys are behind it. Because it's kind of weird. No lawyer's experience says that would be free.

You can have whatever money you want. The rumors just going around saying that everybody keeps coming up to me and saying it's Murdoch boys. This name, people associated with this name have been going around kind of kind of threatening, or putting the heat on people saying, you know, keep your mouth closed if you heard something, whatever. The person heard he was shot. Then we heard it was a hit and run, but recently, probably a week ago, a week and a half ago, I'd say something like that. I heard that these two, maybe three young men were in the vehicle. They were riding down 601, saw the car on the side of the road. I guess saw the boy walking.

They turned back around. I guess they were tending to, I don't want to say, you know, mess around with him or something like that and stuck something out the window in it, you know, hit him in, I don't know if he hit him in the head or the back or where it hit him. And then that's pretty much all I heard. I did hear names and I'm, yeah, I heard a name and that name was, he goes about Buster Murdoch. So that's where we left you. Now we're going to continue into the Stephen Smith investigation. A plucky investigator named Pod Proctor is speaking to a man who we are calling Kevin. The date is September 1st, 2015.

I've known Buster pretty much my whole life, kind of out of character to who I knew, but I did also hear from the same source that he could possibly have been on some paper drugs. So whether that's true or not, I don't know. It's just strictly hearsay from all I know. Yeah. And I hate to only be able to give you hearsay, but, well, I mean, at this point, it's kind of, you know, we'll take, we'll take whatever we can get. That's right. And I hate it because the main thing is whether that is the case or not the case, there is still somebody that lost a child, lost a brother, lost a family member and that's just not, that's not right. Did, did, did they happen to say where they were coming from?

Because the story that I got was they were coming from like a softball tournament in, you know, Walzmerl, Orangeburg or something like that. It's clear here that Proctor has talked to other people about this rumor, but it's really nowhere in the files. So where did Proctor get this information that these kids were headed from a softball game when they saw Steven Smith? What he heard was that they were coming from the Murkitt's house, which was would be in Moselle, which you have to take 601 to get from Moselle to Hampden, which is where there will be any type of food, restaurants, things like that. That's the only inclination or idea I would have as to why they were traveling that

road. Do you know what it had been, Buster driving? I would, I would have imagined so. I wouldn't, I wouldn't know, but to know Buster, usually he drove himself around. You know what I'm saying? He was always the one, they were in his vehicles. He always had friends with him in his vehicles when he was driving around. That's how it was in school. Man, it could be a whole gamut of people that, you know, the other two people that could have been in the car. Really? I really, yes sir. I have no idea. The only name that was given to me was the Murkitt name. And of course everybody's kind of shy to say, to say that out. You know what I mean? Because of, you know, we'll say power, but of the name, you know, it brings

a certain standard when you say Murkitt in Hampton County. Yeah. It was like that all through, you know, school and also it's kind of, that's why I feel like it's kind of, I don't want to say hush hush, but nobody's really. Well, and that's the thing too, is that I've heard that they have gone to certain people and told them you need to kind of keep your mouth closed. Have you heard anything like that? I mean. Again, there's no record of Proctor talking to anyone else before Kevin about this rumor. So why wasn't this reported in the file? It wouldn't surprise me just because of, I feel like they wouldn't want anything happening, their reputation or name or anything like that. This interview is over an hour long.

As you can tell, we changed Kevin's voice here and his name isn't Kevin. And we cut out a lot of pieces that mentions other names. However, we included highlights that we felt were the most important parts of this interview, especially for even the first small town, I mean, stuff like that. And that's not something that happens every day. You're in Hampton and so it's just, it's weird. Well, you know, I mean, the thing about it is, is that, you know, when you're in a small town like that, everybody there knows. And like you said, it doesn't happen often. So rumors, the story is going to eventually come out. And Buster was, was on our radar long before you were, you know, the Murdochs know that. They know that he's,

he's on our radar. So how did the Murdochs know that Buster is on their radar? What does that even mean? And why isn't that in the files? There's nothing about Buster being on their radar in the investigation files. It's very strange. He was, he's on our radar. He has been on our radar. They know that he's on our radar. Matter of fact, I mean, I talked to one of their guys yesterday and told them, you know, I'm gonna talk to Buster here soon, you know, and they said, okay, that's fine. So they're aware of it. And, you know, it's a situation of, you know, I don't have anything against them. But if it happened, like you said, I mean, if it happened, Kevin and Proctor go back and forth about why this case is different. They talk about how small Hampton is and how rumors

fly in a town like that, especially when the rumors involve the most prominent family in the county. And then Kevin starts talking about Moselle, the Murdoch family hunting lodge, where Paul and Maggie were found murdered six years later on June 7, 2021. What was the murder state through? And every party that they're out to now? Most of you know, something I was never part of. I got one out there one time. But they threw parties every weekend, every other weekend, big parties, kids from Wade Hinton and kids from Baltimore, Bannonburg, anywhere you could think of, you know, that was where the party spot was in Hampton. Yeah. A lot of fights, alcohol, drugs kind of thrown in there all at the same time.

And when I originally heard this, I was thinking of the younger Murdoch Boy Buster's little brother Paul because Paul's more the, uh, obviously a troublemaker of him. As Proctor and Kevin continue to chitchat, Kevin tells Proctor about Buster's little brother Paul. My nice name is Murdoch. I can do whatever you want in here. I can't wait to his head a lot more. Yeah, right. He was more of that type of kid. He's, I don't know how old he is now. I just remember when he was younger. So when I first heard that it was Buster, it kind of, it kind of caught me off the bar because he's never been that type of person.

But then again, like I said, once with alcohol and drugs, I'm sure things can go way out of, way out of control when you mix all that together. Yeah. So, um, Paul, is he like 15, 16, or is he like? Oh, no, I want to say he's, uh, Paul's either a junior, I think he's a junior, possibly a senior in high school. Okay. All right, so he's not, not much younger. No, he's not that much younger now that I think about it because when we were younger, but now that I think about it, he, he goes to a proper school in the original comms they were. Um, but actually he's 17. I would say probably 17 now.

Okay. Some more along that age. Yeah. Kevin asks a few questions about the investigation and Proctor says something interesting. Yeah, you know, I don't know how much you know about law enforcement and things like that, but typically you don't see the highway patrol working a murder and that's what this is. Right. There's, there's no doubt we're not classifying this as, as anything other than a murder,

you know, I mean, some people were trying to sell away, might've got hit by a call or this and that. So why is the highway patrol investigating this? The highway patrol does not investigate murders. This shows how mucked up this investigation is. There's a reason why Hampton County Sheriff's Department is not handling this, you know, and I'll, and I'll leave it at that. Yes, sir.

But, and you go back to, you know, like you said, the Murdoch name and, and, you know, their ties in that community and, and that don't matter to me. Yes, sir. You know, they don't bother me in the slightest. All right. So what we've done is we've taken the investigation out of that, you know, that, that reach and you saw the bigger thing.

That's right. That's right. Because they ain't going, they, The names are, That's right. Nothing didn't. I don't care what you got. Right.

You know, I don't care, you know, what your name is or how much money you got. You don't let it to me. So we know why the Hampton County Sheriff's Department isn't handling this investigation. Typically, a lot of small town law enforcement agencies give their big murder cases to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, which is also known as SLED, because smaller police departments don't have the resources to investigate murder. So it makes sense as to why the Hampton County Sheriff's Department didn't get this case, but why didn't the Highway Patrol give the case to SLED?

Like you're saying, I'm saying this, I can't help what the if is the truth. I'm saying this just got to, your name can't tell you but so far. I'm not saying that the Murdoch boy did it because I don't know you. Right, right. But if we're going to start throwing out names, I'm not withholding his name, you know, because of who he is. His name's going to be out there just like anybody else's name that is on my radar. And I don't care who knows it.

So during Kevin's interview, he listed a group of people who he heard the Buster rumor from. One of those people was Jack, who was previously interviewed by Duncan of the Highway Patrol. Jack is the only person to be interviewed more than once by the Highway Patrol in his investigation. He's also facing two lawsuits from the Murdoch law firm at this time. The date is September 2nd, 2015. This is Proctor calling Jack, whose real name isn't Jack, as we explained in a previous episode. Just go ahead and tell me, you know, what you heard, the version, the story that you heard. We just heard about Buster, so definitely, you heard about Buster and his name.

I just didn't know him, so he's going to like Jack, so we're going to keep talking about him. I just explained it to him. Proctor then asked Jack, where he heard the rumor, and Jack gave him names. Buster Murdoch was on our radar long before we ever got this information that, you know, I'm calling you about now. I'm out of my office, out of Charleston, okay. I don't work around Hampton, and I know that the Murdochs are highfalutin around Hampton, and you know, some people say have a lot of power or whatever, but

that name doesn't mean anything to me, okay. So my job is to find out what happened. After hanging up with Jack, Proctor calls a girl who Jack named as a person who told him about the rumor. We will call her Kayla. Kayla seems nervous to talk to Proctor, and he gives her the same spiel as he gives everybody else. Kayla then says that another guy, who we will call Isaac, said he heard that Steven was beat up

and thrown out of a truck. This is a different story from what Proctor heard previously. She then said that she doesn't know Isaac's number, but gave Proctor another contact, as he attempts to run down the rumor mill. And like I said, you're the ninth person that I've talked to so far about this, so hopefully some people are going to start talking. So if you hear anything, this is my number, you know, if you would pass on any information whatsoever.

According to the case file, Proctor has only spoken to two other people before Kayla. So where are the notes from the other interviews? Or was he lying to try to get people to talk? Next, Proctor calls Kayla's friend, who we'll refer to as Mia. Mia also seems nervous to talk, but Proctor gets right to the point. The information that was first given to me was that Buster Murdoch and maybe one or two other people were out that night and they had saw Steven's car or whatever, so they went down a road and they actually saw him walking.

And they were going to kind of play around with him, and they held something or swung something out of the car and accidentally hit him. Does any of that sound familiar to you? I do remember someone saying something about Buster Murdoch. He didn't really go into detail, because we were speaking about Buster Murdoch. So someone told me that it was Buster and I was waiting and was saying, if it's him, nothing was going to be done about it because of course he was.

If Buster had something to do with it, then I'd like to be able to prove that, but the information that I'm getting, it started out strong because I had an individual that really stepped out against the Murdochs and was willing to talk, and then it seems like as I keep, you know, continuing on trying to get other people, it's getting watered down, you know, a pretty good bit. It seems Proctor is circling the rumor and not getting any closer to the source. So they can play that chord of, oh, we care about everybody else or we never don't, you know, they care about protecting themselves.

At the end of the interview, in an attempt to get closer to the source of the rumor, Proctor asked for Isaac's number and she gives it to him. But there is no record of Proctor ever calling Isaac. In fact, according to the investigation file, the Highway Patrol didn't touch the case between September 2nd, 2015 in October 20th, 2015. So what happened on October 20th, 2015? Proctor calls Buster Murdoch, but the note said he didn't answer, voicemail full. Proctor then emails him.

There's no audio recording of his phone call. And that's it. That's the only time the Highway Patrol attempted to talk to Buster Murdoch. Fast forward to November 17th, 2015. Sandy Smith called the Highway Patrol and said she heard a rumor on the local radio station about an arrest being made in Stephen's case. Two days later, Proctor calls the radio station and interviews a host. The host really doesn't remember the rumor and doesn't take it seriously.

I'm sure some people don't like his family, I mean they're friends of mine, but I mean I'm sure they're going to try to take any shot they can take out. And that's pretty much the interview, it's a dead lead. Which brings us to November 24th, 2015. The Hampton County Guardian, the local newspaper, published a story by Matt Popovich about Stephen's death. Sandy Smith told the Guardian that she heard rumors about an older man stalking him, but she heard other rumors that she believes more. Quoting directly from the article here,

she reiterated several times her opinion that her son was killed for being gay. By several local Hampton County youths from prestigious families, which she believes have sworn to protect their children no matter what heinous crime they committed. Sandy would not give the reporter names, but she said that she believed that Stephen would not have been walking on Sandy Run Road in the middle of the night. She didn't buy the hit and run theory at all. She said boys, some of whom were Stephen's classmates, were coming home from a baseball game that night, and they took him from his car.

Quote, I hear the same story, but from different people. Everybody knows what happened to my son, but nobody wants to tell me who was responsible, she said. Two weeks later, on December 7th, 2015, the South Carolina Highway Patrol receives an anonymous tip. And I'm quoting directly from the case file here, quote, Donterio Akin, along with another black male and a white male, parentheses Murdoch, are the ones involved in death, end quote. And I'll just say right here, in this whole section, we are not changing any names because these names have already been in the media.

According to the case file, Duncan then contacted four other South Carolina troopers and advised them of the situation. One of those troopers is Todd Proctor. According to the case file, they don't do anything about this tip for a long time. And nothing happens until December 18th, 2015, when Proctor receives information from Duncan about a man named Daryl Williams, who says his stepson, Patrick Wilson, told him that Sean Connolly, struck and killed Stephen Smith. In Proctor's notes, he said that William said his stepson told him this in confidence. Proctor then attempts to go to the school where he thinks that Patrick Wilson attends,

but he's not there. And then Todd Proctor writes something very interesting in the case file, quote, Mr. Williams stated that the reason that he was passing this information along was because Randy Murdock told him to call. So that brings us to December 21st, 2015. Corporal Duncan at the Highway Patrol interviews Nick Ginn of the Hampton Police Department in reference to, quote, a tip that came in from Sergeant Barnes. This is about Patrick Wilson. So here, Duncan lists off a number, which he says is the Hampton Police Department's number. But it's not. It's not even close to the Hampton Police Department's phone number.

I looked up this number in that number is actually a local law firm's number, but it's not the Murdock's law firm. This is just really weird. And I only know this because I'm a thorough reporter. I look up each piece of every detail. This takes a lot of time. And it gets very frustrating and often leads me into dark rabbit holes with no results. But sometimes it's worth it. And it gets me closer to the truth. Ken, you got just a minute. I talked to you about that. Sure. Let me, let me get a piece of paper here. I'm at somebody else's desk right this second. Okay. That way if I need to write something, I can write it. Give me one second.

All right. Corporal, are you there? Yes, I am. All right. Some of our phones have line one. Some of them don't. All right. I understand. Basically, Darrell called me and he said, look, he said, this is what I was told. He said, Patrick, come over here to the house. He said, he told me that Sean Connolly was drunk and hit something. He said he went back the next day to see what it was he had hit. And he seen a lot of police out there. So he talked to one of the cops and then he had left. And then he learned, I guess by media, that somebody had been killed in that same area. That's why the police were there. Okay. Well, you think, you think Patrick has, does he have a criminal background as far as

that goes as well? I mean, I don't know why I'm asking. He was charged. He was charged with attempted murder. But I'm not exactly sure what the circumstances behind that was. I want to say that that was one of them times that they may have charged him a higher charge to work their way down. Yes, sir. I understand. I understand. Yeah. But I mean, do you ever have any dealings with him? I mean, he's very respectful and stuff like that. But he's a little, little shady. To recap a few weeks after a newspaper story mentioned the possibility of a prominent Hampton County family being involved with Stephen's death, Randy Murdock supposedly told this man to call the highway patrol and tell them a story that suspiciously fits into the police narrative

that is supported by no evidence. And that is that Stephen was hit by a car. Now, the highway patrol finds out that one of the kids who was supposedly involved in killing Stephen was recently charged with attempted murder. There's a lot more to the Patrick Wilson case and this interview, but we're going to save it for the next episode. Check out my story at fitsnews.com in the description for more information. There's so much to unpack in this case, and Mandy works tirelessly to expose the truth. But the truth is she works hard and she does get tired. If you believe like I do that Mandy is the best in the business, and I'm a little biased, visit MurdockMurder'sPodcast.com and click the support the show link to learn how you can help. Leave a five star review to offset the

haters. Refer an advertiser and get a finder's fee or advertise your company product or service. We can geotarget across the globe and find the right audience to suit your needs. And absolutely subscribe to fitsnews.com. Mandy and Will are revolutionizing journalism and your subscriptions are invaluable to that mission. Plus, you get awesome content every day. Huge thank you to Madison for connecting us to awesome people who are going to help us tell this story. And a big thanks goes out to Neil for helping to take the pressure off. Special thanks to Lauren Taylor, Jim and Meredith Bannon, Rick, the Guildstrap team, and Maven Real Estate. Thank you to Susanna, Todd, Ronald, Danielle, Elizabeth, and Jamie for supporting the show. And a special thanks to Jill and Jennifer

and others for the mimosas. It's going to be a great Sunday. Yeah, it is. Thank you guys so much for the mimosas. So for the latest developments on this case, visit fitsnews.com or follow me on Twitter at twitter.com slash Mandy, M-A-N-D-Y, Matney, M-A-T-N-E-Y. And don't forget to leave a five star review unless you're going to be nasty and talk about my vocal fry.