Another new detail has been released adding even more mystery toStephen Smith’s 2015 death.
Days after the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division confirmed the agency has believed since 2021 that Smith’s death was a homicide, it also emerged that a rape kit was conducted on Smith shortly after he was found on a Hampton County road in what was initially declared a hit-and-run death.
Cpl. Michael Duncan, the former supervisor of the South Carolina Highway Patrol, toldNewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfieldthat a rape kit was conducted on Smith — representing the first time in Duncan’s career that a rape kit was ordered in connection with a traffic incident.
“I did not have an understanding of why it was being ordered,” Duncan told Banfield. “We were not notified until later that it had been ordered. So no, I have no answers for you as to why they would have ordered a rape kit for what would be suspected as a hit-and-run, which it wasn’t, but I will never understand that.”
Eric Bland, the attorney representing the Smith family, confirmed to PEOPLE that a rape kit was performed, but was not tested.
Stephen Smith.Facebook
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The release stated that on June 23, 2021, the agency opened an investigation into Smith’s death after agents from SLED “received information about his death and subsequently reviewed” the case file from the South Carolina Highway Patrol.
The SCHP did not return PEOPLE’s call for comment.
Smith was found dead on July 8, 2015. His body was located on a dark road three miles away from his vehicle. His death has now beenreclassified as a homicide.
During the investigation after Smith’s death, the Murdaugh name — a powerful local family known for their longstanding law firm — was mentioned dozens of times as possibly being connected to Smith’s death,FITSnews reported. However, no member of the Murdaugh family was ever questioned in his death and no charges were ever filed.
Last week,the family of Stephen Smithannounced on aGoFundMepage that they have raised enough money to exhume his body for an independent autopsy to determine Smith’s cause of death.
Corin Cesaric
andChristine Pelisek
Christine Pelisek
source: people.com
