Stephen Smith's mom vows to find son's killer - and confirms she's 'absolutely' ... trends now
Stephen Smith's mother has vowed to find his killer and said she will 'absolutely' have a new autopsy done to find out truth nearly eight years after his body was found on a rural South Carolina road near the Murdaugh property.
In a 2016 letter to the FBI that resurfaced earlier this week, Sandy Smith implicated Buster Murdaugh in her son's death and alleged he may have 'beaten Stephen to death with baseball bat' because 'Stephen was gay.'
'I felt my son was murdered, he was beaten to death, and I think it was a hate crime,' Smith said on CNN Wednesday. 'And I don't care what your name is. That has no value to me. But who -- whatever your name is, you need to be punished for what you did to my son.'
Smith has accused local authorities of 'covering up critical evidence' in order to protect Alex Murdaugh's surviving son who was alleged by some of being in a secret romantic relationship with Stephen.
The 19-year-old's suspicious death is finally being considered a homicide, SLED officials told Smith's attorneys on Tuesday.
Buster had pre-empted the homicide update by denying 'vicious rumors' that he was involved in Smith's death, with whom he was allegedly linked romantically.
Sandy Smith has been fighting for nearly eight years to get justice for her son Stephen who was found dead on a rural South Carolina road near the Murdaugh property
Smith was found dead on July 8, 2015, on a rural road not far from the Murdaugh hunting lodge that would become a bloody murder scene six years later
Stephen's death was initially ruled a hit-and-run after his body was found on the Hampton County road with blunt force injuries in July 2015.
But after his former classmate Buster's mother and brother were murdered by Buster's father Alex in 2021, Stephen's death was reinvestigated based on information gathered during that investigation.
'I have been fighting. This is what I have been fighting for,' Smith said on Anderson Cooper 360 Wednesday night. 'And I'm finally getting it. And I don't know how to explain it, but I have a little bit of peace in my heart.'
Earlier this month, Stephen's mother Sandy launched a GoFundMe to exhume his body to get a 'new, unbiased look at his body and an accurate determination of his cause of death based on facts,' the fundraiser states.
He also left his car at the roadside around three miles away, leaving his phone and wallet in the hatchback. Smith's mother Sandy said he would never have left his wallet behind and would have at least called his sister.
Despite there being 'no debris in the road' and injuries that were 'not consistent with a hit-and-run,' according to Sandy, SLED did not further pursue the case.
In their new statement released on March 22, SLED officials said at the time they had no reason to suspect anything out of the ordinary in the case.
On CNN Wednesday night, Sandy said she has believed from the beginning that her son did not die as a result of a hit-and-run crash.
When asked if she will still be planning another autopsy, she responded: 'Absolutely.'
'From the beginning, I have always said that the pathologist is a voice for the dead. And the one who finalized his death certificate, I do not believe that she gave justice to my son. She did not speak his voice -- for his voice.'
Sandy said the Murdaughs inserted themselves into their lives after Smith's death and even before he was confirmed to have been the 'hit and run' victim
PICTURED: Stephen Smith's car found along Sandy Run Road in Hampton, South Carolina
Buster Murdaugh sits with his girlfriend Brooklynn White during his father's double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, on February 23
The announcement was made by the family's lawyers, Bland Richter, on Twitter Tuesday night following a phone call with SLED Chief Mark Keel
SLED officials said this week that they would work alongside the Smiths' legal team as they exhume Stephen's body but stated a further autopsy was not necessary to establish that the boy was murdered.
On CNN Wednesday, Sandy talked about the love she had and still has for her son.
'He was my life,' she said. 'He was my world. He was mischievous. And he was just everything.'
Sandy also talked about how she worried about him because of his life choices.
'And I know -- a lot of people ask, well, how was it when he came out? And I said, he never had to come out. He never had to say: 'Hey, mom, I'm gay.'
He knew he was loved. And his choices in life was his choices. And he did not have to answer to me or anybody else of who he was.'
She added that even thought she was worried, she knew Stephen was careful.
'But it's everywhere in every
