Law enforcement in South Carolina are eying two potential persons of interests in the 2015 murder of gay teenager Stephen Smith, who was found dead just a few miles from Alex Murdaugh’s former hunting estate.
Local news website FitsNews has named the two people as Patrick Wilson and Shawn Connelly, both 25, citing sources from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the SLED for comment on the new revelations. Stephen Smith was found dead in the middle of a two-lane Hampton County road on July 8, 2015. His car with the gas cap removed and his wallet still inside was found a short distance away.
According to the FitsNews report, Connelly and Wilson, who were both teenagers at the time, lived in Hampton County when Smith was killed.
Stephen Smith (right) and his mother Sandy (left). His family have long believed he was murdered – as Stephen’s body allegedly did not have any injures from the torso down, and no car parts were found at the scene.
The article, which was penned by the website’s founder Will Forks, alleges that five months after Smith’s death, Wilson’s stepfather, Darrell Williams, said that he was told by stepson that Connelly ‘struck and killed Stephen Smith.’
Williams in turn notified law enforcement. Later, Williams told investigators that Wilson had moved out and he didn’t know where he was living.
When efforts to locate him stalled, Williams said that he was told to call the police initially by Alex Murdaugh’s brother, Randy.
There has long been speculation that Buster Murdaugh, Alex’s eldest son, was somehow involved in Smith’s death, including allegations that the pair had a sexual relationship.
The deceased man was Buster’s tutor in school and the pair played on the same baseball team for a time.
‘These baseless rumors of my involvement with Stephen and his death are false. I unequivocally deny any involvement in his death, and my heart goes out to the Smith family,’ Buster said in a statement earlier this month.
The FitsNews report goes on to say that at the time of Darrell Williams’ phone call to police, Wilson was facing attempted murder charges that were later dropped by a judge who was described as ‘serving at the pleasure of the Murdaughs.’
In addition, within 12 months of Smith’s death, Connelly’s two motor vehicle accident lawsuits, both of which were dropped by ‘Murdaugh-friendly judges,’ according to the website.
Online records show that Connelly has a lengthy criminal record in South Carolina.
His charges range from multiple traffic infractions, including DUIs, domestic violence, hunting without a license, unlawfully killing an antlerless deer and purchasing alcohol as a minor.
A tribute for Smith, erected at the site where he was found dead in Hampton, South Carolina, in 2015
Police were suspicious that he had been shot, but his death was ruled a hit-and-run
Wilson has one charge since his attempted murder charges were dropped, in 2017 he was accused of a boating offense.
There is no current evidence linking Stephen Smith’s death to the Murdaugh family, the lawyers for the mother say.
State investigators, who are also looking into Smith’s death, have remained tight-lipped about taking over the case around the same time police said Murdaugh killed his wife and son. He is serving a life sentence for those killings.
But the lack of evidence hasn’t stopped speculation. And that attention in turn helped Sandy Smith raise in less than two weeks more than $87,000 through Go Fund Me. Her goal was $15,000 — enough to pay to exhume her son’s body and have a private autopsy.
‘It’s important to me because I love my son and since I couldn’t protect him, I’m going to fight for him,’ Sandy Smith told reporters Monday as her lawyers announced the private investigation.
The trooper who discovered Smith’s body didn’t think it was a hit and run, but the pathologist who did the autopsy theorized Smith was hit in the head by the side mirror of a passing truck that did not stop.
Buster Murdaugh and his girlfriend Brooklynn White walk into Colleton County Courthouse in South Carolina in February for his father’s double murder trial
Maggie Murdaugh is seen with her husband Alex and sons Buster (right) and Paul (left)
In the statement Monday, shared by Alex Murdaugh’s trial lawyer Jim Griffin, Buster called the claims as ‘baseless’
Police said it appeared he ran out of gas and was walking for help, but attorney Eric Bland, who is representing the Smith family, said Smith didn’t make any calls on his cellphone and his shoes, which were tied loosely, were still on his feet. People hit by cars are often found without their shoes from the force of the wreck.
Smith’s family thinks his injuries, including head injuries and a dislocated arm bent behind him, indicate he was beaten to death and dropped on the highway.
There were no skid marks on the road or debris like broken glass or mirror parts found nearby, said Ronnie Richter, another lawyer for the Smiths.
State agents took over the case in 2021, though they have never said why they decided to do that or whether it is linked to information found during the investigation into the death of Alex Murdaugh’s wife and son.
Troopers typically investigate traffic deaths in South Carolina, where state agents typically investigate other crimes.
State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel reached out to Smith’s new lawyers to ask if they will share any new information they find through the autopsy or any other investigation, agency spokesperson Renée Wunderlich said.
‘We do believe it was a murder,” Keel told The State newspaper earlier this month. ‘We don’t believe it was a hit-and-run.’
Investigators think people might be more willing to talk now that the murder trial is finished, said the Smith family attorney Bland.
The first step for the private investigation will be getting permission from a judge to exhume Stephen Smith’s body. The backing of state agents would likely help that request.
Bland also hopes the private investigators can gather and analyze cellphone data from Smith and the people he was communicating with to reconstruct who he was hanging out with and what he was doing not just right before his body was found but also in the weeks before his death.
‘Stephen had to live a secret life. Being young and gay in the Lowcountry was not an easy thing to do,’ Bland said.
Smith and Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster, went to the same high school, leading to rumors that the Murdaugh family was involved in his death.
Richter went out of his way this week to say they have no evidence Buster Murdaugh was involved in anything with Smith.