South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson talks to the media after the conviction of Alex Murdaugh exterior the Colleton County Courthouse on March 2, 2023, in Walterboro, S.C.

Chris Carlson/AP

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Chris Carlson/AP

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson talks to the media after the conviction of Alex Murdaugh exterior the Colleton County Courthouse on March 2, 2023, in Walterboro, S.C.

Chris Carlson/AP

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A second post-mortem was accomplished this weekend on the exhumed physique of a young person discovered useless practically eight years in the past on a South Carolina highway, based on the household’s lawyer, after the general public consideration surrounding Alex Murdaugh’s homicide trial boosted a mom’s seek for solutions within the unsolved case.

The mom’s attorneys have stated there isn’t a proof linking Stephen Smith’s dying to the Murdaugh household, and state investigators have remained tight-lipped since taking the case across the similar time police stated Murdaugh killed his spouse and son.

But hypothesis following the since-disbarred lawyer’s current life sentence for these killings helped Sandy Smith increase greater than $87,000 to have her son’s physique re-examined in an investigation that South Carolina Law Enforcement Division has stated was by no means closed for the reason that company opened it in June 2021.

Attorney Eric Bland, who’s representing the household, stated in a Sunday assertion that this weekend was a “bittersweet” and “trying time.” With the second post-mortem accomplished and the investigation unfolding, Bland stated Stephen can “really rest at ease.”

“Stephen for many, many years, I can only imagine, was not so much at peace in his grave,” Bland stated in a video. “He probably was pounding on his coffin, saying, to anybody 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’s legislation agency introduced Monday that Sandy Smith is providing a $35,000 reward for info resulting in the identification and conviction of anybody accountable in her son’s dying. The announcement directed individuals to contact South Carolina Law Enforcement Division with any ideas.

South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel has assigned additional regional brokers to the murder investigation in hopes that educated events is likely to be extra keen to talk now, based on a March 22 press launch.

Sandy Smith has lengthy held that her son’s dying was no accident however the results of a brutal beating. Bland has stated being younger and homosexual within the South Carolina Lowcountry couldn’t have been simple for Stephen Smith.

The 19-year-old nursing pupil was discovered useless with head accidents and a dislocated arm bent behind him in the midst of a two-lane Hampton County highway on July 8, 2015. Police stated it appeared he was strolling for assist after working out of fuel. His automobile was discovered not removed from the physique with the fuel cap eliminated and his pockets nonetheless inside.

The responding trooper did not assume it was a hit-and-run. The medical expert who did the preliminary post-mortem theorized his head was struck by the aspect mirror of a passing truck that didn’t cease.

Bland has stated Stephen Smith did not make any calls on his cellphone, and his loosely tied footwear remained on his ft. The drive of automobile wrecks typically leaves individuals discovered with out their footwear. The highway additionally contained no skid marks or close by particles, based on Ronnie Richter, one other lawyer for the Smiths.

Stephen Smith went to the identical highschool as Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster — prompting rumors that the Murdaugh household was concerned in Smith’s dying. Richter emphasised final week that the authorized staff has no proof connecting the dying in any strategy to Buster Murdaugh, who has just lately denied any involvement amid claims that he referred to as baseless.