Police ordered rape kit for Murdaugh-linked Stephen Smith

Investigators probing the 2015 death of Stephen Smith ordered a rape kit examination of the victim’s body — an uncommon move for what was purportedly a traffic accident death, according to a recent report.

The 19-year-old South Carolina nursing student’s body was found near a Murdaugh family property, but despite initial officers on the scene reporting the death appeared to be a homicide, an autopsy ruled it a hit-and-run.

Mike Duncan, a now-retired corporal with the South Carolina Highway Patrol, told NewsNation it was the first time he had heard of a rape kit examination ordered for a death in a traffic collision. The examination was reportedly ordered within 13 hours of the discovery of Smith’s remains.

Asked if he had seen such a move before, Duncan said: “When it comes to traffic accidents, never.”

“This was the very first time. I did not have an understanding of why it was being ordered. We were not notified until later that it had been ordered,” he told show host Ashleigh Banfield. “So no, I have no answers for you for why they would order a rape kit for a, what would be suspected as a hit-and-run, which it wasn’t, but I will never understand that.”

Duncan, the supervisor for his unit, said his crew was called off the case around the time that the rape kit was ordered.

“I was puzzled and confused from start to when we actually got to finally pick up the case why we weren’t given the opportunity to be a part of it from the beginning,” he said.

He added that investigators “were never given any information” regarding the results of the rape kit by the time he retired.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) reopened the case into 19-year-old Smith’s death while it was investigating the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.

Disgraced legal scion Alex Murdaugh was convicted earlier this month of killing wife Maggie and son Paul.

Days later, SLED announced Smith’s death is a homicide investigation, although it has yet to disclose what additional evidence was uncovered.

The Murdaugh family name was brought up to officers many times in the early part of the investigation into Smith’s death, according to local outlet FITSnews, which also reported the family was never included in early police reports. No one from the family was ever interviewed about Smith’s passing.

Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster, was a classmate of Smith, who was gay. Buster has never formally been linked to his death and no evidence has ever been presented that associated him with it.

However, he recently released a statement renouncing “defamatory comments and rumors,” which have circulated locally since 2015 which suggested he had a secret relationship with Smith and had wanted to silence him.

“These baseless rumors of my involvement with Stephen and his death are false. I unequivocally deny and involvement in his death and my heart goes out to the Smith family,” his statement read.

Smith’s body was found in July 2015 in the middle of the road not far from the Murdaugh family’s sprawling Moselle estate with a large wound to the right side of his head.

The official police narrative of Stephen’s death he that he was struck while walking up the road because his car had run out of gas at the time. The car was discovered over three miles away from where his body was found with his wallet inside and the gas-cap open.

A coroner determined the teen likely suffered his head injury when he was struck by a semitruck’s mirror as the vehicle passed, The Associated Press reported – a theory which has since been questioned and debunked by various investigators.

A lawyer now looking into the case, Ronnie Richter recently told reporters: “There were no skid marks around his body. There was no vehicular debris found. His loosely tied shoes were still on his feet … It is our job today to launch a new investigation into this death in the hopes of finding real answers.”

Sandy Smith wrote in a 2016 letter to the FBI that the Murdaugh family quickly injected itself into the 2015 investigation, according to FITS News.

“The first call my family received after the murder was from authorities notifying us of Stephen’s death,” Smith wrote in the letter. “The second came very quickly the same morning from solicitor Randolph Murdaugh. In fact, he called my ex-husband’s cell phone as we waited in the police station for a positive identification. He said he heard of the case and was interested in working pro bono as a liaison between the family and investigators.”

She recalled how a “young man” approached Stephen’s older brother, Chris, and said “he was present when Stephen was murdered and witnessed everything first hand (sic).”

“He said that Solicitor Murdaugh’s nephew, Buster Murdaugh (who graduated with Stephen), beat Stephen to death with a baseball bat. He claimed it was because Stephen was gay,” she wrote, according to the report. “The witness said they were out smashing mailboxes when they came upon Stephen, and Buster seized the opportunity.”

Sandy Smith has since raised enough money to begin the process to have her son’s body exhumed, and has hired a legal team to head up the post-mortem investigation.

Meanwhile, Buster Murdaugh wrote in a statement earlier this week he had tried “to ignore the vicious rumors about my involvement in Stephen Smith’s traffic death that continue to be published in the media as I grieve over the brutal murders of my mother and brother.

SLED said Wednesday of their investigation: “progress has been made.”

The agency added: “From SCHP case notes it was apparent that the SCHP did not believe Mr. Smith’s death was a hit and run by a motor vehicle.”