![]() (Presnell, who is now director of the pathology department at the Medical University of South Carolina, has not commented on the renewed scrutiny of her findings in the Smith case, but another doctor she helped train told The State last week that coroners are the ones who speak publicly and pathologists don't usually comment on cases unless they're called to testify in court.) 18, 2015, that he disagreed with the conclusion that Stephen was hit by a moving vehicle. Proctor also noted in the MAIT report that Hampton County Coroner Ernie Washington-who, per the report, was among the investigators who saw Stephen's body at the scene of the incident-told him on Aug. She also called her findings "preliminary," the report continued, and told Proctor that it was up to him to figure out what, exactly, hit Stephen. She said no, he wrote, but then when asked if a bat being held out the window of a moving vehicle could have caused the same injury, she said, 'Well, I guess it's possible.'" Proctor also asked the pathologist if the head trauma could have been caused by a baseball bat, according to his notes in the report. And his family told investigators that the nursing student, who had been on his way home from a night class at Orangeburg Technical College, would never have been walking in the middle of the road. The Aveo's battery was functioning but the car wouldn't start, the report noted. Investigators stated in the report that they believed Stephen had been walking home when the incident occurred.īut from the beginning, not everyone was on the same page about what they were looking at. Smith's vehicle, a yellow 2013 Chevrolet Aveo, was parked off of Highway 601 roughly three miles away, the car's gas tank door open and the gas cap dangling, per a 2015 SLED report obtained by local NBC affiliate WIS. The report said that a passing driver had called 9-1-1 at 3:57 a.m. Then and since, Buster has denied having anything to do with what happened to Stephen, calling speculation that he was involved in his death "vicious rumors." He has never been named as a suspect or charged with any crime.Įarly on the morning of July 8, 2015, Smith was found lying facedown in the middle of Sandy Run Road, a two-lane stretch cutting through rural Hampton County, S.C., according to a report compiled by the South Carolina Highway Patrol Multi-Disciplinary Accident Investigation Team (MAIT). The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) opened a new investigation into Stephen's death in June 2021, days after Paul Murdaugh, 22, and his mother Maggie Murdaugh, 52, were found shot to death, stating that the move was "based upon information gathered during the course of the double murder investigation."Īuthorities have yet to say what that information was, nor have they implicated any member of the Murdaugh family in what happened to Stephen, but it wasn't the first time that the two names had been associated: The 2015 case file first unearthed by FITSnews two years ago contained dozens of mentions of Paul's older brother, Buster Murdaugh. "And there's questions I need answers to." She said she didn't know who's responsible, "but I want to find out why you did it and who you are." "As a mother there's questions that I need to ask," his mother, Sandy Smith, said March 20 on TODAY. A lot happened between the morning in 2015 that 19-year-old Stephen Smith was found lying in the middle of the road and the day-almost eight years later-that authorities confirmed they were investigating his death as a homicide.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |