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Ten years ago, a 19-year-old nursing student named Stephen Smith was found dead in the middle of a rural road in Hampton County, South Carolina – the victim of an unmistakeably violent blow to the head. His death was quickly (and questionably) ruled a hit-and-run.
A decade later, no one has been charged in Smith’s homicide. And the people who knew and loved him are still waiting — not just for justice, but for truth.
“It’s like a head-scratching mystery,” said Susanne Andrews, a local resident who’s followed the case since the beginning. “Without transparency… there’s nothing to put it to bed. It just continues to raise more questions.”
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THE CRIME SCENE
The fatal wound — an extensive laceration to the right side of Smith’s head — clearly suggested a violent impact. But there was nothing at the scene to support the theory that the wound had been caused by a vehicle. There were no skid marks, tire impressions, broken glass or plastic fragments. There was no damage to the lower half of Smith’s body. His shoes were still on. His clothing was undisturbed.
The coroner initially suspected a gunshot wound — a notion quickly dismissed due to the absence of an exit wound or any forensic evidence of a firearm discharge. The medical examiner subsequently determined Smith’s death to be the result of a hit-and-run.
A pedestrian-vehicle accident in the middle of a rural roadway late at night made little sense to investigators who looked beyond the label. There were no signs of a struggle. But the location of Smith’s body — positioned squarely in the center of the road — appeared too deliberate, almost as if he had been placed there postmortem.
Smith’s car was found a few miles away, abandoned on the side of the road with the door unlocked and the gas cap open — suggesting he had run out of fuel in the early morning hours. What happened after Smith left his vehicle remains unknown.
Given the initial determination of a hit-and-run, the investigation into Smith’s death fell under the jurisdiction of the S.C. Highway Patrol (SCHP).
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MURDAUGH RUMORS AND A TIP THAT WENT NOWHERE
Immediately after Smith’s death, rumors began to circulate in Hampton County. And, in the absence of answers, those rumors flourished.
Multiple references to the powerful Murdaugh family were documented in the investigative files — many of them tied to rumors involving Buster Murdaugh, the son of Alex Murdaugh and Maggie Murdaugh and older brother of Paul Murdaugh. No direct evidence linked any member of the family to the crime, but the very mention of the name sparked intense speculation.
The prevailing theory which emerged from persistent local rumors suggested Smith was struck in the head with a baseball bat from a moving vehicle — possibly as a targeted attack related to his sexual orientation. Smith was an openly gay teenager in a deeply conservative, rural community where such visibility was uncommon.
Five months later, a tip was called in to the Hampton Police Department (HPD). According to the tipster, Patrick Austin Wilson, a young man from the area, allegedly told a man who was dating his mother that he and Shawn Levi Connelly were drunk when they hit something (or someone) in the road.
It’s unclear how this information was pursued by investigators. The muted lead – perhaps the most significant one in the case – was passed on to the SCHP’s Multi-Disciplinary Accident Investigation Team (MAIT). Some members of that team – like retired SCHP investigator Thomas Moore – questioned the hit-and-run assessment from the start.
Even so, the case lost momentum and went cold – and stayed that way for years – until the murders of Maggie Murdaugh and Paul Murdaugh in June 2021.
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RELATED | STEPHEN SMITH CASE FILES: THE HIGHWAY PATROL REPORT
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UNDER THE MURDAUGH INFLUENCE
The Murdaugh name was a double-edged sword for Stephen Smith’s case. On the one hand, it shifted the focus of the investigation (and the public’s attention) to uninvolved parties. On the other hand, it catapulted the case into the national spotlight – where it garnered international attention.
At the time of Smith’s death, the Murdaugh family operated as a legal dynasty in the Palmetto Lowcountry – wielding unrivaled influence over law enforcement, criminal prosecutions and politics. As the years went by and Smith’s case went cold, Alex Murdaugh began his infamous fall from grace.
As Murdaugh’s case exploded in the media, the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) – the agency leading that investigation – reopened the investigation into Smith’s death.
As Murdaugh’s double homicide trial concluded with a conviction and sentencing in March 2023, SLED announced an important reclassification – and their renewed focus on the unsolved homicide of Stephen Smith. The announcement brought with it a sense of hope that his case could be solved with the right resources. Smith’s body was exhumed for a second autopsy and while it confirmed his death was a homicide, few other details have been made public. A grand jury was convened in connection with the case, but its sealed proceedings have not resulted in any indictments to date.
More than two years later — absent any word to the contrary — the investigation seems to be stalled once again.
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AN INVESTIGATION CONVOLUTED BY RUMOR AND MEDIA EMPHASIS
Responsibility for the lack of resolution in Smith’s case extends beyond law enforcement. According to Andrews, rampant rumors and a sensationalized media spotlight also played a role in clouding the facts and distorting the narrative.
In particular, she points to the blasting of the Murdaugh name.
“They said it was mentioned 40 times — but not by 40 different people,” Andrews said. “It created this media firestorm that pulled attention away from where it should have been.”
Andrews and others believe these widely reported references so convoluted the investigation that Buster Murdaugh became the focus of misdirected commentary- and high profile documentaries which wrongfully inserted him into the story of Smith’s death. Last year, Buster Murdaugh sued multiple media companies over these portrayals – a case which is ongoing in federal court.
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PERSONS OF INTEREST
Since reopening the case, SLED has maintained a focus on two individuals: Wilson and Connelly. Wilson has been arrested on unrelated charges in recent years, but neither has been formally accused of any involvement in Smith’s death.
Despite persistent public interest – and mounting pressure from advocates and investigators – the case remains officially unsolved.
SLED continues to classify Smith’s death as an active homicide investigation. While the agency maintains there is no evidence tying the Murdaugh family to the crime, it has confirmed Wilson and Connelly remain persons of interest in the case.
Private investigator Steven Peterson, a former officer with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), has been one of the few independent voices willing to knock on doors in search of answers about Stephen Smith’s death. In an interview with FITSNews in April 2023, Peterson described pursuing what he calls “Theory B,” which involves the persons of interest.
Peterson recounted visiting the home of one of the men mentioned in early tips. After initial outreach was ignored, he showed up unannounced. The man refused to talk—yelling, threatening to release his dog, and ultimately ordering Peterson off the property.
“I told him I’d seen pictures of the damage to his truck taken the day after Stephen’s death,” Peterson said. That wasn’t true—it was a bluff. But the response was explosive. ‘He screamed, ‘I told the police that was a deer I hit!'” Peterson recalled.
“I got in my car and called SLED,” he said. “I told them: That’s your guy. This is the driver. The way he reacted—so defensive, so angry – it was not the response of someone with nothing to hide.”
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RELATED | STEPHEN SMITH INVESTIGATION: PRIVATE EYE SPEAKS OUT
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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Wilson is due in court in Hampton County on July 18, 2025 to answer for a charge of larceny arising from the theft of tools and rifles from a Varnville couple on July 16, 2022. In a case that concluded on July 9, 2025 in Greenville County, Wilson pleaded guilty to first-offense drug charges, including possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance in Schedules I–III. He was sentenced to two days time served and assessed $285 in fines and court fees.
In June 2025, Wilson was arrested on charges of shoplifting and criminal conspiracy. The conspiracy charges were dismissed by prosecutors on July 8, 2025. The shoplifting case is pending with a court date set for July 22, 2025. Wilson is currently detained in the Greenville County Detention Center.
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According to a Hampton county civil lawsuit filed May 15, 2025 on behalf of Connelly, he was severely burned on December 22, 2024 when fuel from a gas can was poured onto a burn pile.
“The gas vapors ignited, flashed back into the container, and caused an explosion,” the lawsuit claimed. “Plaintiff was sprayed with burning gasoline, resulting in catastrophic injuries.”
Connelly is being represented by Brady Thomas and Mark Tinsley in the suit against the the gas can distributor and the business that sold it to Connelly.
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A COMMUNITY LOSING FAITH
For many in Hampton County, the lack of resolution has created an atmosphere of distrust.
“If there are truly no answers, I just don’t understand how,” Andrews said. “Why is SLED not discussing it at all?”
She thinks the case has been solved – but can never be prosecuted.
“Does SLED know what happened and can’t prove it?” Andrews wondered. “Has it been solved and there is no way of proving it?”
If so, Andrews believes the engaged community members who have put their blood, sweat, and tears into the search for answers deserve a measure of accountability.
If not, Andrews questioned why after all this time the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has not been invited in.
Stephen Smith didn’t die by accident. He was walking along a rural road when he was struck—suddenly, fatally—with a single blow to the head. Ten years later, the damage done by that blow still lingers. A homicide remains unsolved. A mother still grieves. And a community still waits.
The clock is still ticking. And justice – delayed as it is – remains long overdue.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Callie Lyons is a relentless investigative journalist, researcher, and author known for exposing hard truths with heart and precision. As a journalist for FITSNews, she dives into high-profile and murky cases—like that of Mica Francis Miller— with fearless resolve and a sharp eye for detail, whether it’s tracking white-collar crime, uncovering religious abuse, or examining the often-bizarre behavior of those who believe they’re above the law.
Callie made waves with her groundbreaking 2007 book Stain-Resistant, Nonstick, Waterproof and Lethal, the first to reveal the dangers of forever chemicals, a story that helped inspire the film Dark Waters and influenced global scientific dialogue. Her work has appeared in numerous documentaries, including Toxic Soup, National Geographic’s Parched: Toxic Waters, and more recently Citizen Sleuth, which examines the complexities of true crime podcasting.
Whether she’s navigating environmental disasters or the darker corners of society, Lyons operates with one guiding belief: “Truth never damages a cause that is just.”
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6 comments
Many in The Hampton Area Knows who the ones were that Killed that Young Man!! Murdaughs Kept the lid on it for Years!
Same old Thing ALL OVER South Carolina!!
Are there any lawsuits related to false reporting about this murder? I love the first amendment, but I think we should know if somebody was reckless and disregarded their responsibility as a “journalist” and named someone as the murderer who shouldn’t have been named. I know we have this Buster Murdaugh case but is there anyone else?
If there is a lawsuit related to false reporting about this event, I feel like fitsnews could really build some credibility by breaking the story and telling us all about who is responsible for the false reporting and who should be held responsible for such falsities.
I know Will values his reputation as a journalist so I bet he would love to tell us the story and hold whoever wrote a false story about it responsible.
Callie Lyons, have you forgotten how many REAL journalists died and still do in war zones to report accurately?
Have you forgotten how many REAL journalists were courageously incarcerated instead of revealing their sources?
Callie Lyons, your shameless play on words to insinuate FALSEHOODS make you are no longer a journalist in my opinion free from false humility.
Callie Lyons, you are a washed-up has been who does no more than pander to Will Folk’s weird menage-a-trois with Mark Tinsley on one arm and Ever-Bluffing Eric Bland (“EBEB”) on the other.
What “blood, sweat and tears” did anyone in Hampton County “invest” in Stephen Smith’s story? All people did, INCLUDING Sanctimonious Sandi Smith (“SSS”) did was sit on their butts and repeat unfounded accusations.
That Thomas Moore, who has a clear grudge against everyone Murdaugh, is one of the most incompetent and unethical so-called law enforcement officers (“LEOs”) the world has ever known. He went and shamelessly harassed the wonderful, and PROVEN-CORRECT Dr. Erin Presnell to make her change her diagnosis of the death resulting from a vehicle-pedestrian collision.
The second autopsy CONFIRMED that diagnosis 100%. EBEB’s hand-selected Dr. Michelle Duprey said so on many shows including Court TV and Nancy Grace.
It was a “homicide” only to the extent that hit-and-run and suicide ARE forms of homicide, meaning ONLY not natural causes such as aging or disease.
The vehicle accident which killed Stephen Smith has been investigated more extensively than that which killed Princess Diana; yet, SSS and EBEB refuse to accept the obvious: Stephen Smith died by suicide by intentionally walking in the middle of the road into on-coming traffic because he was a broke, school-failing, teenage prostitute whose mother did not even want him living in her home but was very happy to launch a Go-Fund-Me page after his death and never disclose what she did with the money raised from that scam.
That killed-somewhere-else-and-staged-in-the-middle-of-the-road fiction is STRAIGHT OUT of the Oscar-winning movie “In the Heat of the Night.” Watch it.
Remember? At the beginning, SSS insisted that Stephen’s much older “boyfriend” did it. Then SSS realized there was no money in it and turned on the Murdaughs hoping for some money there. None came. So, SSS went to Go-Fund-Me.
You, Callie Lyons, owe to those who “invested” in that scam, and to SC’s taxpayers, to request an investigation of what was done with the G0-Fund-Me money and who authorized a second autopsy at taxpayers’ expense when there was NO REASON other than that idiotic LEO Thomas Moore and SSS’s and EBEB”s (supported by Malicious Mandy Matney [“MMM”]) to doubt Dr. Presnell’s diagnosis.
Now Will Folks is in love with Valerie Bauerleine, who should be sued by Dr. Presnell because Bauerleine FALSELY wrote in her book that “the doctor who did [Stephen Smith’s] autopsy was subsequently fired.” In fact, Dr. Presnell was NOT “subsequently fired” but promoted.
I have no confidence that FITS will run this comment of mine because he acts as if I did not exist while he copies my views and even my brilliant phrases: I have been telling him to “go coercive-control [him]self” since he started giving oxygen to that STUPID proposed coercive-control legislation. Lo and behold, he titles one of his recent posts “SCOTUS to Planned Parenthood: Go Fund Yourself” as if Will Folks were capable of that original title without being inspired by me.
You, too, Callie Lyons, go coercive-control yourself instead of shedding crocodile tears over SSS and her cohorts, MMM and EBEB.
Weird: Not only was my comment not let through, but a previous comment by another reader disappeared.
Weird, weird, weird.
In the narrow window of the day when my vision blurriness is at its mildest, I managed to visit Susanne Andrews’ X-page and read a score of her posts.
This, God willing and FITS permitting, is a LOVING invitation for her to tell the world and ME the basis on which Susanne Andrews ASSUMED that (1) Stephen Smith was murdered, (2) was murdered because he is gay, and (3) someone other than the supposed murderer(s) knows who did it and why, but is not talking.
Though she also founded something she called #StandingforStephen AND received donations to that foundation, Susanne Andrews seems to be sincere, to the point of naivety. That is why I am extending to her this invitation to engage in a FACT-based dialogue on the basis of her beliefs.
First, I give ZERO credence to Hampton County (or anyone in South Carolina except for the few Catholic priests and nuns, Coptic Orthodox faithful, and NON-reform Jewish adherents) being Bible-followers.
The same God who forbade homosexuality also forbade adultery, extra-marital (including pre-marital) sex, and even sex during menstruation AND during pregnancy.
BTW, the latter is one of the main causes of premature births, low birth weights, and early infant mortality. But it is not spoken about just as very few speak of breast-feeding being one of the best preventers of breast cancer. But these are topics for another post.
My point is that “conservative” in South Carolina (and most of America) means hating foreigners, nothing more nothing less.
Second, why does Susanne Andrews think Stephen Smith was the only gay in Hampton County? And if so, why would someone who wanted to kill him (supposedly to eradicate gayness in Hampton County) wait for Stephen Smith to be walking in the middle of the road into on-coming traffic to hit Stephen Smith in the head with a blunt object from a speeding car with such accuracy that trained polo players cannot master?
I have previously used my narrow windows of vision blurriness being at its mildest to read COVER-TO-COVER among other books, three I found very telling of why Paul and Maggie were killed and why Stephen Smith was SUICIDALLY walking into on-coming traffic in the middle of the road on a country night.
Those three books are Malicious Mandy Matney’s (“MMM”) “Blood on Their Hands,” Valerie Bauerlein’s “The Devil at His Elbow,” and Eric Bland’s (“EBEB”) “Anything but Bland.”
MMM’s most offensive hypocrisy (among the multitude that abound in her book) is pretending that her supposed Catholicism made her feel guilty after her many one-night stands. TRUE Catholicism makes you NOT engage in one-night stands in the first place, not feel guilt afterwards.
Also, TRUE Judaism makes you ABSTAIN from pre-marital sex, NOT force a WASP girl you met “at a bar after synagogue” to convert to Judaism to please your mother then sow permanent division between that girl and her brother (the seventh abomination to God’s heart according to Proverbs) then co-habit with her pre-maritally, all according to EBEB’s own book.
And TRUE journalism should have made Valerie Bauerlein NOT lie about Dr. Erin Presnell, who had made the unquestionably correct diagnosis of Stephen Smith’s cause of death. That was NO MORE “QUICK” than autopsies are done “quickly” after death and no more “questionable” than in the mouths of that idiot Thomas Moore and Sanctimonious Sandy Smith (“SSS”).
Valerie Bauerlein is NOT about REAL journalism but about selling her book and now about doing a PR job for Mark Tinsley in his new civil lawsuit against the Spivey shooters.
Really, Susanne Andrews, read those three books and tell me how am I wrong in concluding that MMM pushed for the murders of Paul and Maggie (if not orchestrated them herself) to bring renewed attention to Stephen Smith’s case, help Gloria Satterfield’s heirs snatch form Richard Alex Murdaugh (“RAM”) insurance-fraud loot to which neither RAM nor the Satterfield estate was entitled (because no dogs were involved in Gloria Satterfield’s death), and help Mark Tinsley settle the boat crash case.
LOOK AT THE RESULTS.
They pretend RAM killed Paul and Maggie to get “sympathy” for the boat crash case. BULL. The result is the opposite: The Beach estate got $20 million even though, according to Valerie Bauerlein’s book, it was Mallory Beach who pushed for more drinks and THE boat ride that night-into-day.
Why? Because after RAM’s conviction, EVERY lawyer who dares oppose Mark Tinsley or EBEB knows that said opposing lawyer’s wife and/or son COULD be killed and have the murder pinned on that opposing lawyer.
So, the supposed civil defense lawyers pay with abandon. After all, that money does not come from the civil defense lawyer’s PERSONAL pocket but from the pockets of insurance companies. And where does the insurance companies’ money from? From us the law-abiding policy buyers who see our insurance premiums rise and rise under false pretexts that such rises are due to the California fires and the Texas floods.
Again, BULL.
The insurance premium rises are due to the scams of the insurance defense lawyers and the complacency of judges who approve outrageous fraud-based insurance settlements to make BOTH plaintiffs’ lawyers and civil-defense lawyers love those judges and hire them after those judges retire from the bench.
Again, Susanne Andrews, give me FACTS to tell me how I am wrong OR join me in exposing the real scams going on.
And advocate for breast-feeding and abstinence, at least during pregnancy.
God bless
And if I provided the event, no one would consider/listen……..what I know has never ever been offered as a cause. SLED is paid off for years……IT WILL COME OUT! At least one involved is D E A D!!!
K A R M A drives one big fuckn’ bus and you’ll determine that when that bus comes for Y O U that No amount of payoff money was worth what was done and all the damn pansies covering it up!