The family of a young South Carolina man who died mysteriously just a few miles from where the famous Murdaugh family lived has said that the body will be dug up.

Stephen Smith’s family said on Thursday that they will dig up his body for an independent autopsy. This is because his death on July 8, 2015, was brought up again in Alex Murdaugh’s trial.

WYFF reported that Stephen Smith’s family said they would dig up his body for an independent autopsy after his death on July 8, 2015, came up again in Alex Murdaugh’s trial.

The move comes more than seven years after Smith, who was 19, was found dead on Sandy Run Road outside of Hampton County, not far from the Moselle estate where Alex Murdaugh shot and killed his wife and son six years later.

At the time, his death was ruled a hit-and-run. However, in June 2021, information found during the investigation into the shooting deaths of Murdaugh’s wife Maggie and son Paul led police to reopen the investigation into Smith’s death.

Authorities have never said publicly if there was a connection between Smith’s death and the Murdaugh family. However, some witnesses have thought that Buster, the older Murdaugh son and a classmate of Smith’s, may have been involved in a crime.

The move comes more than seven years after Smith, 19, was found dead on Sandy Run Road outside Haa. On Thursday, Smith’s mother, Sandy, posted on a GoFundMe page that she wanted to raise $15,000 to move forward with the exhumation and independent autopsy. It had made more than $40,000 by Friday morning.

“Our family is so thankful that so many of you came together to help us fight for Stephen’s justice. When we started this fundraiser, I had no idea that it would go as well as it did. Sandy Smith wrote in an update on the page, “Thank you for not sweeping Stephen’s story under the rug.”

This month, after Murdaugh was given two consecutive life sentences for killing Maggie and Paul, Sandy said she was glad to see the legal scion behind bars.

“That jury done excellent. They saw through the lies, and now a Murdaugh is in jail,” she told The Post.mpton County, not far from the Moselle estate where Alex Murdaugh killed his wife and son six years later.

At the time, his death was ruled a hit-and-run. However, in June 2021, information found during the investigation into the shooting deaths of Murdaugh’s wife Maggie and son Paul led police to reopen the investigation into Smith’s death.

Authorities have never said publicly if there was a connection between Smith’s death and the Murdaugh family. However, some witnesses have thought that Buster, the older Murdaugh son and a classmate of Smith’s, may have been involved in a crime.

“Now that this case is over again, they can work full-time on Stephen’s case.”

Two of Maggie Murdaugh’s college friends spoke out for the first time about the woman they say was “devoted” to her husband and two sons. This is when they heard that Smith’s body had been dug up.

Caroline Price, who was Maggie’s “big sister” in the Kappa Delta sorority at the University of South Carolina, told CBS News’ Nikki Battiste on Thursday that she “absolutely” thinks the wife and mother got lost in the fuss over her husband’s trial.

Shellie West agreed, saying, “[Maggie] was a person. She was a mother, a sister, a friend, and a daughter.”

“You know, she’s not “the murdered wife.” We don’t want that to be how people remember her.”

Maggie, whose friends called her “Magnolia,” was not as flashy as her “larger than life” husband, Price remembered.

West said she wanted people to know that Maggie “had a personality” and was “fun.”

Maggie’s sad friends’ loving memories of her are a nice change from what seemed like an endless stream of insults that were said during her husband’s trial.

At one point, Marion Proctor, Maggie’s sister, said that Alex Murdaugh had been unfaithful to his wife more than ten years ago. That evidence could not be given to the jury.

During the trial, Maggie’s autopsy photo, which showed a shotgun wound near her left ear, was leaked on a livestream. This made Judge Clifton Newman have to give a speech to the court.

Alex Murdaugh, who is 54 years old, has filed to appeal his double-murder conviction as he starts his new life at Kirkland Correctional Facility in Columbia.

Sources said earlier this month that the former lawyer is being held in the most secure area because people are afraid that other prisoners will try to hurt him.

Buster, who is 26, is said to be holed up at the Hilton Head condo of his lawyer girlfriend.