Body Of Teen Found Near South Carolina Home Of Convicted Killer Alex Murdaugh To Be Exhumed, Mother Says

The body of a young man found near the home of Alex Murdaugh will be exhumed.

Relatives of Stephen Smith said Thursday an independent autopsy of his body is planned.

Smith was 19 when he was found dead on a road in Hampton County, South Carolina July 8, 2015. Authorities at the time said he was the victim of a hit-and-run driver, but relatives say there was no supporting evidence.

“There was no debris in the road, and his injuries were not consistent with a hit-and-run,” mother Sandy Smith wrote Thursday on GoFundMe.com.

Smith died a few miles from the Murdaugh family home. Alex Murdaugh's conviction for murdering his wife and son sparked rumors that family members might be involved with that death as well.

Authorities reopened the Smith case in June 2021, as they investigated the killings of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.

“This investigation remains active and ongoing," South Carolina Law Enforcement Division spokesperson Renee Wunderlich said in a statement to WYFF-TV.

“Thank you for not allowing Stephen’s story to be swept under a rug,” Sandy Smith wrote in a GoFundMe update Friday. A fundraising effort to pay for the exhumation and autopsy had a goal of $15,000, but was close to $44,000 Friday afternoon.

Alex Murdaugh, 54, is appealing his double murder conviction. Sources tell the New York Post that he's in a maximum-security prison, so other inmates do not make him a target.