Stephen Smith’s body exhumed and reexamined, according to family’s attorney

HAMPTON COUNTY, S.C. (WTOC) - An attorney for the family of Stephen Smith said the Hampton County man’s body was exhumed and reexamined over the weekend.

Smith was found dead on a Hampton County road in 2015. His death was originally ruled a hit-and-run, but SLED has since reopened the case.

According to a Facebook post from Stephen’s mother, Sandy, his body has been returned to the Gooding Cemetery on Sandy Run Road - the same road where Smith’s body was found in 2015.

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Sunday night, the Smith family attorney, Eric Bland, said on Twitter that Smith’s body was exhumed for a second autopsy.

SLED reopened the case in 2021, citing information found while investigating the shooting deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.

Last month, Smith’s mother started a GoFundMe to pay for a private investigation. The fundraiser’s description says the goal is to find an “accurate determination of his cause of death based on facts.”

In a video statement, Bland said he hopes this second autopsy leads to more answers in Smith’s death.

“He probably was pounding on his coffin saying to anyone who could hear, ‘I was not hit by a car, but I was intentionally killed.’ And now we’ve told him we hear his voice,” Bland said.

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