{"id":1902600,"date":"2023-03-22T01:43:02","date_gmt":"2023-03-22T05:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/death-of-stephen-smith-buster-murdaughs-high-school-classmate-now-considered-a-homicide\/"},"modified":"2023-03-22T01:44:28","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T05:44:28","slug":"death-of-stephen-smith-buster-murdaughs-high-school-classmate-now-considered-a-homicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/death-of-stephen-smith-buster-murdaughs-high-school-classmate-now-considered-a-homicide\/","title":{"rendered":"Death of Stephen Smith, Buster Murdaugh&#8217;s high school classmate, now considered a homicide"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdeath-of-stephen-smith-buster-murdaughs-high-school-classmate-now-considered-a-homicide%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1902600&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<div class=\"RichTextArticleBody-body\">\n<div class=\"Enhancement\">\n<div class=\"Enhancement-item\">\n            <script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div id=\"Brid_79459770\" class=\"brid\" style=\"width:16;height:9;\" itemprop=\"video\" itemscope\n                 itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/VideoObject\"><br \/>\n                <meta itemprop=\"name\"\n                      content=\"'Angry' Trump focused on taking down DeSantis as expected indictment looms\"><br \/>\n                <meta itemprop=\"description\"\n                      content=\"Former President Donald Trump wants to take down Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) himself as allies rush to defend Trump against a potential indictment and condemn the man seen as his chief rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. High-profile Trump supporters are swiping at the Florida governor over his muted response as the Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s Office weighs charges against the former president in a case involving alleged hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016.\"><br \/>\n                <meta itemprop=\"duration\" content=\"PT1M51S\"><br \/>\n                <meta itemprop=\"uploadDate\" content=\"2023-03-21 18:40:49\"><br \/>\n                <meta itemprop=\"thumbnailURL\"\n                      content=\"https:\/\/cdn.brid.tv\/live\/partners\/19383\/snapshot\/1266707_th_1679424235.jpg\"><br \/>\n                <meta itemprop=\"contentUrl\"\n                      content=\"https:\/\/cdn.brid.tv\/live\/partners\/19383\/sd\/1266707.mp4\">\n            <\/div>\n<p>            <script type=\"text\/javascript\"> $bp(\"Brid_79459770\", {\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"16\",\"height\":\"9\",\"video\":\"1266707\"}); <\/script>\n        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"ArticlePage-articleBody-firstLetter\">T<\/span>he death of Stephen Smith, a former high school friend of <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/crime\/buster-murdaugh-denies-involvement-stephen-smith-murder\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buster Murdaugh<\/a>, has been re-investigated and is now confirmed to be a homicide. Smith&#8217;s body was found in the middle of a <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/south-carolina\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">South Carolina<\/a> road in 2015 and was initially ruled as a hit-and-run. However, after the exhumation of his body, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) said there were no indications that suggested his death had resulted from a vehicular accident.<\/p>\n<p>When Smith&#8217;s body was originally discovered, he was a 19-year-old nursing student, and the incident was investigated by SLED. Because of the murders of <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/courts\/alex-murdaugh-appeal-conviction-sentence-wife-son-murder\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alex Murdaugh&#8217;s<\/a> wife, Maggie, 52, and son, Paul, 22, the investigation was reopened, and Smith&#8217;s body was exhumed. Nonetheless, no one has yet linked the death of Stephen Smith to the Murdaugh family.<\/p>\n<p>After the murders of Maggie and Paul in June 2021, SLED reopened Smith&#8217;s case, but they did not provide any information regarding what prompted the decision. Buster Murdaugh, the eldest son of Alex Murdaugh, has firmly denied any relation to the death of Smith.<\/p>\n<p>When interviewed during the initial SLED investigation into Smith&#8217;s death, the Murdaugh family name was mentioned repeatedly by both witnesses and investigators, according to CNN. Despite being mentioned over 40 times, no Murdaugh family member has been questioned or identified. <\/p>\n<p>As the investigation into Stephen Smith&#8217;s death progresses, the Murdaugh family will undoubtedly attract a lot of attention. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The death of Stephen Smith, a high school classmate of Buster Murdaugh whose body was found in the middle of a South Carolina road in 2015, is now being investigated as a homicide after his body was exhumed. Smith&#8217;s death was initially ruled a hit-and-run, but after the exhumation, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1902601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[22204,22423,6201,6499,9832,17117,3924,7608,7607],"class_list":["post-1902600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-buster","tag-classmate","tag-considered","tag-death","tag-homicide","tag-murdaughs","tag-school","tag-smith","tag-stephen"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1902600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1902601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1902600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1902600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1902600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}