“Murdaugh" Episode Five | The Boy in the Road

0:13 As police investigate the double murder at Moselle, National News picks up the story and rumors starts swirling regarding an unsolved murder years prior. On July eighth of twenty fifteen, the body of Stephen Smith was found in the middle of the road in Hampton County. The case had gone cold, but rose from the ashes after another murdaw's name was revealed as continuing to come up in the initial investigation.

1:01 As police chase down leads and they apply their focus on Alex Murdall, his son, Buster is suddenly through a center stage into the newly resurfaced investigation into Steven Smith's death. Welcome to Exposed Scandalous Files of the Elite. The Boy in the Road. Hey everyone, and welcome back to Exposed Scandalous Files of the Elite. I am your host, Jim Chapman, and before we get into today's episode, I have a couple of things that I want to mention. First, I am dedicating this episode to a total badass. Her name is Casey fring Cosky and Casey sadly left this earth long before her time, but she was a total hero.

2:10 I received a message from her aunt I believe it is. And her name is Lisa, and Lisa said, Hi, I want to thank you for filling in for Kelly, and she's referencing Kelly Jennings of Unspeakable, a true crime podcast by Kelly Jennings. I produced that podcast and she is a rock star, so go check that out. Great podcast. But she said, I have been binging ever since. I also want to thank you. Ironically, I listened to the foreclosure of Graceland and heard you talk about Memorial Day. Today is the six month anniversary of losing my triple threat, Casey Frankoski brains, beauty, and one hell of a badass.

2:58 And y'all, she sent me a couple of peas pictures of Casey in a military helicopter and she certainly was beautiful. I'm sure she was very smart and definitely looked like one hell of a badass to me. Sadly, she died in a helicopter crash Army National Guard protecting Texas slash Mexico. Life Immemorial Day will never be the same. Three died and one survived, And y'all, I have a very very special place in my heart for the men and women of our Armed forces and that just really spoke to me.

3:38 I can't tell you how touched I was that she would share that with me, and I put a post on Facebook, just trying my best to honor her niece. And I want to just dedicate this episode to Casey gone way too soon. And secondly, I want to extend my thoughts and prayers to those who are impacted by the most recent hurricane, and that is Hurricane Halene, which right now, as I record this is about three hundred miles off of the coast of Florida, and it is not looking good for the people of the Panhandle of Florida and in and around that area. Forecasted to be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit the coast in recent memory, for sure, And as of the time you're going to be listening to this, it would have came and gone from Florida, and I'm sure there's going to be a lot of destruction in its path. And my prayers and thoughts are with everybody impacted. So let's get on to the episode, and this, as I said, is episode five. Then when I Wan left you last, Sled had completed their initial interview with Paul's best friend Rogan Gibson, and there was some suspicion on Alex Murdall. The story

5:11 at this point went national. Everybody was reporting on this, and a name in rumors started surfacing about a nineteen year old who was found dead on July eighth of twenty fifteen, and his name was Stephen Smith. So Stephen Smith was nineteen years old, and he was found dead in the middle of the road in Hampton County, and he had a seven in a quarter inch gaping gash on the right side of his forehead when he was found. No other injuries were present at that time. At three point fifty seven am that morning, a man called nine to one one to report seeing a white male lying in the middle of what was Sandy Run Road. Michael Bridges with the Hampton County Sheriff's Office. He responds to that scene and shortly thereafter other investigators arrived. Initially, the Sheriff's office and even the corner referred to this as a homicide. Several officers, according to reports, referred to the injury as appearing to be a gunshot wound, and there was a massive amount of blood pulled up next to Steven's lifeless body. So to give you a little background on Stephen, he was an openly gay individual, and he was described as a super nice guy, kind of shy,

6:45 a little skittish, but quite frankly. He was living in a town in the low country of Kentucky where it was a little bit scary to be openly gay, and initially the police and the resident of Hampton County thought this has to be some sort of a hate crumb. Now, as police were investigating the scene, one of the things that they made note of was the fact that his body was laying in the middle of the road, and it appeared like it may have been staged there. It was just laid out at kind of an odd angle. Not only that, but there was no damage of the scene.

7:29 If it were a hit and run, for example, you would assume you would find a broken headlight or debris of some sort in the middle of the road. None of that was present. Also, his clothes were not tattered like you would imagine if you were hit by a car. There was slight evidence of roadbrash, but nothing major, and his shoes were still on even though they were loosely tied. Now, typically, and I would go as far as to say, in almost all of hit and run, the person who got hit by the vehicle, they are almost always knocked out of their shoes. Yet Stephen's shoes were still on him, and again they were loosely tied. Investigators found that very strange.

8:16 His vehicle was found three miles from where his body was found on the side of the road, and again some things appeared kind of staged with the vehicle. For example, his gas door on the side of his vehicle was open and his gas cap was hanging out of the gas door. It honestly appeared when I looked at the pictures as if someone were intentionally trying to say, hey, this vehicle is here because I ran out of gas. Just some really strange circumstances in this case. So an autopsy is performed by doctor Aaron Pressnell and hear the highlights from that list the cause of death as Blunt had trauma due to the motor vehicle crash. She noted that seven and a quarter inch laceration on the right side of Stephen's forehead, along with bruises on both sides of his forehead. She noted that the right side of his skull had multiple fractures bruising and contusions. She noted his right eyebrow was cut, his right elbow was cut, his right shoulder was dislocated, and he had small cuts on the inside of his left arm. He also had cuts and bruises on his right hand. He had cuts on his right arm, including a six inch irregular cut on the inside of his right arm. He had some cuts on his right fingers, and he had twelve three

9:49 inch abrasions on his right arm that were deemed to be road rash. She also noted he had blood in his airways, which to me means that he was alive for some sort of time after the incident and was trying to breathe and was basically drowning in his own blood. And the autopsy report wraps up with it is the opinion of the pathologists that the victim died as the result of blunt had trauma sustained in a motor vehicle crash in which the victim was a pedestrian struck by a vehicle. So police they are investigating this and although they don't feel like this is the result of someone shooting Stephen, if it's a hit and run, somebody fled the scene and somebody's responsible for his death, and they're trying to find this person or persons. Now. One of the things that they noted in the report was when they spoke to the mother of Stephen, and she found it very strange that he was in the middle of the road because, according to her, he would never be walking in the middle of the road had he run out of gas. She described him as very skittish. But y'all, there is absolutely no evidence the police could find at this time that pointed to any sort of intentional murder.

11:17 Let's say that he was definitely hit and somebody definitely needs to pay for that, but they couldn't find a situation where somebody intentionally killed him on that scene. No evidence of that, not a piece of debris anywhere, which, if you get outside the box, maybe that is a lot of evidence because maybe someone cleaned up the scene after they hit him, not saying they necessarily hit him on purpose, but if they stopped their vehicle and he was dead on the side of the road and they cleaned up after themselves, Wow, that's you need to find that asshole. And I found this interesting looking through all the documents, that is that Stephen's wake was held on July eleventh of twenty fifteen, and it was held at People's Roadent Funeral Home in Hampton County, and the family specifically requested an open casket so that people could see what they did to him, quote unquote, his family is pissed, y'all, and rightfully so. Now. During this investigation, police interviewed a man who described himself as Stephen's boyfriend, although the family disputed that, and this man said that Stephen was harassed in his town and that people screwed with Stephen's car battery just prior to his death. He even offered to

12:48 give officers his phone and take a light detector test. And he went on to say that the night that Stephen was killed, he was harassed by rednecks in a big truck with big mud tires. What does this all have to do with the Murdalls. Well, I'm glad you asked, because in the police reports, the first mentioned of the murdalls took place. On July seventeenth of twenty fifteen. Officer Duncan of the South Carolina Highway Patrol traveled to Hampton County and he interviewed a member of Stephen Smith's family at a police substation. The family member stated that Stephen was recently acting secretive and started coming home late. Stephen's relative didn't believe the person who said they were dating Stephen and said the family was very skeptical of him when the officer brought that up. So the police ask if they have contacted or had been contacted by any lawyers.

13:53 The family member tells officer Duncan that Randy Murdall, who incidentally y'all is Alex Murdall's brother, was the second person to call Stephen's father after the corner on the day of Stephen's death. He said he would take Stephen's case free of charge. The family members said they were skeptical of Randy Murdall's offer and thought it was weird, but they accepted it. Now. It's important to note here before I go any further, that Randy Murdall was already working on a civil case with the father of Stephen Smith.

14:35 His father was suing somebody and Randy Murdall was his lawyer, so they knew each other. And Randy Murdall was already representing his father in another case, so I didn't really find this out of pocket. If you will. It kind of made sense. They already had a relationship. And I actually have Officer Duncan's notes here, and I'll read a paragraph referencing what I told you above. It says Stephen became very secretive about two weeks prior to the incident. She did not know anyone who had a problem with Stephen, and she stated Stephen had class on the seventh of July.

15:18 Also says he didn't talk about his boyfriend a lot. And then he has a note scribbled returned computer. So they must have taken Stephen's computer and downloaded information and he returned it to that family member, which I believe is his mother, if I'm not mistaken. Steven's relative also stated that she just officially left the house for the first time the day before the officers interviewing her, and she said that some people came up to her and said, did you know the murd All boys are behind it? And they specifically named Buster Murdall. And he told the officer, I'm just sitting here like why, it makes no sense.

16:05 He's never said anything bad about Stephen. He's never even been around Stephen to her knowledge. Now I'm going to read a case note by an investigator on the case with the name of Proctor. And this case note is from July twenty second of twenty fifteen, and in is in regard to the meeting he had with the pathologist regarding the autopsy results. And I think you'll find it interesting. So it reads like this, and it's dated July twenty second, twenty fifteen. He says, I went down to meet with doctor Aaron Presnell. She is the pathologist that performed the autopsy on the victim in this case. The reason I went and spoke with her was due to a preliminary report in which she stated the victim was possibly struck by a motor vehicle, which is the cause of death.

17:02 Sergeant Moore had already had, for my understanding, a heated conversation with her about this issue. The investigative team has always had a good working relationship with the pathologist, so I wanted to see if I could go down there and get some sort of clarification. As soon as I met with doctor press Now, she came in the room and started in with a negative tone, stating that I did not have a meeting scheduled and she was very busy. She stated she could not even begin speaking with me about this case without the corner's consent. I advised her that I had spoken with Corner Washington the day before, and she basically called me a liar and said she would call him right then. When I asked if she wanted me to call him from my cell phone, she backed off. I asked her why she stated that in the report, and her answer was because he was found on the road. She had no evidence other than that for the statement being put in the report. She asked why we did not think it was a vehicle strike, and I explained to her that we had no evidence of this individual being struck by a vehicle. I asked her if someone with a baseball back could do that, and she stated no. When I proved further by saying, what about someone in a moving car with a bat, she stated, well, I guess that's possible. She then asked if we found a bat at the scene as evidence.

18:33 I could see this conversation was not going to yield any positive results. As I was leaving, she stated that the report was preliminary and it was my job to figure out what it was that struck him, not hers. You can see by reading that report that there was some disagreement here on what was going on with Steven Smith and his death. So then on August eighteenth of twenty fifteen, Investigator Proctor he meets with the Corner and here is that report from Investigator Proctor when he spoke to the Corner, and it reads, I spoke to Corner Washington today in reference to the final autopsy report issued from the Corner's office. He facts me a copy of the report and told me he does not agree with the pathologist stating that the victim was struck by a motor vehicle. We discussed the fact that the report states the cause of death as blundhead trauma motor vehicle crash pedestrian versus vehicle. Then the manner of death was undetermined.

19:42 I would think the blunt force trauma would be the cause of death and the motor vehicle crash would be the manner the trauma that delivered the cause of death. The pathologists also stated in the report that in light of historical information along with the all tai, the conclusions were made to what historical information she possessed, I am unaware. I attempted to speak with doctor Presnell at an earlier date to go over that information that had been discovered throughout the investigation, and that it was ill received. The corner did tell me that the deputy Corner had gone down to the pathologist's office the morning of the autopsy and spoke with the pathologist. She has since been fired from his office. I spoke with Deputy Corner Green and Agent Burke was sled and both of them were present at the time of the autopsy. Both stated they made no reference to the pathologists about the victim being struck by a vehicle, only that he was found dead in the road. The corner stated that he had made contact with the pathologist, doctor Presnell, and she stated she would be willing to change her report to read it however he wanted it to read. Shout out to this investigator Proctor, who he's not letting it go. He thinks something don't smell right, and he's trying to get to the bottom

21:13 of things, all right, So we're going to fast forward until August seventh of twenty fifteen, and Detective Duncan from the South Carolina Highway Patrol. He calls Stephen's friend and we'll call her Brittany. Now what prompted Duncan's call to Brittany was a guy by the name of we'll call him Jeff, and Jeff told the detective that he saw Brittany at church and Brittany had information about Steven Smith's death. So he calls and Brittany said that another friend of hers had texted her and asked her if Buster and Stephen were together, and y'all, I mean romantically together. Brittany tells the friend, no, not that I know of why, and the friend's response was I just heard that. So she asked that male friend where he had heard that, and he refused to tell her. He just said he heard it and was trying to confirm it. So the detective responds with okay, so he didn't have anything to base it on except it was a rumor, correct, and Brittany says yes. The detective then asked if Brittany knew Stephen was gay, and she says yes that she did, so she tells the detective who the guy was that

22:44 texted her, and we'll call him Jack. So eventually Duncan Investigator Duncan, he calls Jack and he lets Jack know that he knows Jack sent a text to Brittany about Steven Smithy. He then asked Jack if he knew anything about Buster Murdall having a relationship with Stephen, and Jack responded that he had heard the rumor. So the detective then asked him, do you know if the rumor is true or not? And Jack responded with no, sir. Now, it's interesting to note that at the time that Jack was saying all this to the detective and to Brittany, he was facing two different lawsuits from the Myrdall law firm for two separate car accidents he was involved in.

23:39 So I say that to say, there may be a reason he might have been trying to throw some shade on the Murdall family and he kind of saw this as a way of doing that. So on September first of twenty fifteen, Detective Proctor he interviews a man and I'm going to call that man Kevin, and Detective Proctor mentions the rumor that was going around about Boster and Steven, and he asked if Kevin knew anything about it. So Kevin tells the detective he had heard that some young men were writing down Highway six oh one and they saw that Stephen was broken down on the side of the road when they passed Stephen, so they turned around and they stuck something out of the window that ended up hitting Stephen. He then tells the detective that he wanted to help in any way possible. He said he had heard three names in relation to this hit and run.

24:39 He then says, I don't want to say it over the phone, referring to the names he had been told, and he requested to meet with the detective in person to discuss it further. He said he's sort of torn because he hates going by the rumor situation, but that when he thinks about the situation, it makes sense and it was worth looking into. The next day, September two of twenty fifteen, Detective Proctor he meets up with Kevin, and Kevin says he first heard Steven was shot, but then heard it was a hit and run, and he said that recently in the past couple of weeks, he had heard that two or three people were riding around on Highway six oh one. They saw Stephen on the side of the road. They were messing around with him, so they stuck something out of the window, and Kevin said he heard it was Buster Murdle and that it shocked him because it was kind of out of character for Buster. He also said the person who told him this said that Buster was on drugs at the time.

25:45 Proctor asked him where he heard this information and he said it was from Ready for This Jack. Kevin said that Jack told him it was Buster and a man, and we'll call that guy Trayvon, tried to sell him cocaine at a party in Mozelle. He went on to say that Trayvon just moved to Oklahoma right after the incident and that Trayvon was on a lot of drugs. The detective then asked Kevin whether he thinks Trayvon was in the car, and Kevin stated it fits the mold. So Detective Proctor he tells Kevin, hey, I heard Buster and the guys were coming back from a baseball game, and Kevin corrects the detective and says Buster and whoever was with him were coming from Murdall's house in Mozelle.

26:37 Detective Proctor then asked Kevin whether he knew if Buster was driving, and Kevin said I would imagine so, adding that Buster used to drive a big suburban and sometimes would drive a F one fifty or f two fifty. Kevin said the only name given to him was the Murdall name, and said everyone is scared to say anything because of how powerful the Murdalls are. So Detective Proctor he ends that interview with Kevin, and he immediately calls Jack. And here's how that conversation went. Detective Proctor let Jack know that he had just spoken to Kevin and that he kind of told his side of it, and quote, I've got to be working this rumor backwards, whether it's rumor or truth. Tell me the version of the story you heard. So Jack then said he was with friends one night and out of the blue, his friend Monica said that she had heard Buster did it, and everybody who knows Buster and his family and all that it was just shocking. So, y'all, as you can see, I mean, this case is getting worked pretty hard. The problem is it's all based off of rumor. Now, sometimes rumor can be fact. You just got to prove that it's a fact right now. Now. It's important to note that on

28:09 or around October of twenty fifteen, Proctor makes an attempt to call Buster Murdall. However, there's no answer. The voicemail was full and there's no audio recording of the voicemail. And it's important to note that this was the only time the investigators attempted to talk to Buster Murdall. Now, I submit to you it's because they knew his entire family was full of lawyers and technically he didn't have to tell him shit. He has the right to remain silent, right, which is exactly what they knew he would be advised to do if the police called him, And so they kind of knew chasing that lead without some really hard evidence would go nowhere. Now. On December seventh of twenty fifteen, Detective Duncan, he receives an anonymous tip and he made a note of that, and the note reads received an email in reference to an anonymous tip, states that don Tereo Aiken along with another black mail and a white male, and then he had in parentheses myrdal are the ones involved in the death. And then someone else's name pops up in this investigation and his name was Darrel Williams.

29:36 And on December eighteenth of twenty fifteen, Detective Proctor he receives some information from Detective Duncan about Darrel Williams, and Darrel Williams has a step son, and that stepson's name is Patrick Wilson. And Patrick Wilson tells Darrel Williams his stepdad that a gentleman by the name of On Connolly struck and killed Stephen Smith. So the detective made some notes and I'm going to read them to you. It says Patrick Smith told him, meaning Darrel Williams, his stepdad, that Sean Connelly struck and killed Stephen Smith. Mister Williams stated his son told him this in confidence, and that his son had moved out and he did not know where he was staying. He can only tell me that Patrick attended some Christian school in Ridgeland. I drove down to Rigland and went to step A Faith school. Patrick Wilson was not a student there. I then found Legacy Baptist Church School. Patrick Wilson was a student there, but he was not at school that day. I drove to Hampton County attempting to locate an address for Patrick. I cannot get his stepfather to return my Mister Williams stated the reason he was passing the information on was because

31:07 get ready for this. Randy Murdall told him to call, Holy shit, Randy is really interested in this case, right, So we'll move on. Detective Duncan then interviews a guy by the name of Nick Gin, and Nick Gin was an officer with the Hampton Police Department and he is the one who actually spoke with Darryl Williams, and Sergeant Nick stated that Darryl told him Sean Connelly was drunk and hit something. He came back the next day and said he saw cops and learned through media that somebody had been killed. He said, Sean Connelly called Patrick crying and stating that he thought he may have hit and killed Stephen Smith. His stepfather then told Sergeant Gin that Sean went outside and threw up. Sergeant Gin then asked if Sean described what happened, and the stepfather said, supposedly, it was a mirror. At this point, Detective Duncan asked Sergeant Gin if Patrick had a criminal record, to which the sergeant responded, I think it was charged with attempted murder, but I'm not exactly sure of the circumstances, but I think it was one of those things where they charged him with a higher charge to work their way down and what he means y'all is the prosecutor's office in that particular case, they charged him with a higher crime

32:39 so they could have room to negotiate on those charges and get them depleted to something. Well. I did some digging on mister Patrick Wilson and he indeed, as a record, he was charged with first degree assault and battery and attempted murder on April seventeenth of twenty fifteen. And according to the arrest warrant in this case, he had gotten into an argument with a man and fired a shot into the man's car and there were two passengers also in that car, and this was inside of Hampton County. A grand jury indicts him on attempt to murder in battery, and this is in August of twenty fifteen. And while he was out on bond in that case, the family of the person he attempted to murder they actually had to file several harassment complaints. So this guy, he's a grade AD dickhead, right in this case, a close friend of the murder hall's family, a guy by the name of Corey Fleming. He actually represented Wilson and in February of twenty eighteen, the indictment went away, meaning the solicitor's office.

34:00 They decided not to prosecute and the charges were dropped. Interestingly enough, at that point in time, Alex Murdau was working there as a part time solicitor. Let's talk about the other person that I just mentioned a few minutes ago, Ontario Aiken. So detectives Hoffman and James. They traveled to what's known as Varnville, South Carolina to interview Ontario Aiken, and in the notes it says there was a Hondai Genesis parked in the front yard, and within minutes of being at the subject's house, his family started arriving. We had no answer at the residence, and I made contact with the subject over the telephone. Mister Aiken advised he was working with a logging company and we met him by some railroad tracks. Mister Aiken advised he did not have any knowledge of who killed Stephen Smell. Mister Akin advised he learned of the death through Facebook. Mister Akin advised he was working with the logging company as part of a swamp crew cutting a track of woods during the week that the victim was murdered. Mister Akin said the logging company gave all employees their own private room in a hotel between a waffle house and a speedway.

35:26 He added that he came home on weekends and stayed in the hotel all week. Mister Akin remembered that he worked changing trailer tires on the Saturday in question and then went straight home. Mister Akin advised he knew the victim from wade Hampton High School and said he played football in the victim Stephen Smith, was a trainer on the football team. I asked mister Akin why someone would kill the victim, and mister Akin replied that he had no idea. I asked the victim if he ever goes out partying in the country, and he said it had been a long time since he had done that. I asked him if he was friends with anyone with the last name Myrdall. Mister Akins said that he went to school with a girl with the last name Myrdall. I asked him again if he knew anybody with the last name mrdall, and he said he knew one that graduated with the victim, and he's referring to Buster y'all. Mister Akins said he was not friends with any murderall subjects on Facebook, but later wanted to try and look on his phone to see because he wasn't sure because there was no cell signal. I checked later, meaning the detective on Facebook and the subject is friends with Buster mrdall and y'all, that doesn't mean a ton. I mean all of us. If we go through our Facebook, we have friends on there that we're not necessarily friends with. It's just people we friended on Facebook. Right. Mister Akins said

36:59 he never hung out with Buster or ever went to a party hosted by any murdaals. I asked mister Akin what rumors he had heard around town about the victim's death, and he advised he had only heard the victim was hit by a car. Mister Akin portrayed himself as a hard worker who when not working, sleeps or visits his girlfriend. So that was the conversation with mister Akin from police. So this case is cold, right, A lot of leads, no rest. And Sandy Smith, his mother, She's obviously frustrated, as we would all be. She doesn't know where to turn at this point, so she writes a very heartfelt letter to the FBI and she says, my family is in desperate need of your help. My nineteen year old son, Stephen Nicholas Myth, was murdered on July eighth of twenty fifteen in Hampton County, South Carolina. It has been apparent from the first week of the investigation that authorities are covering up critical evidence, and we no longer know who to trust, She said, the authority's flip flop between theories when they told the Smiths the news of Stephen's death on July eighth of twenty fifteen, Stephen's father, my ex husband who is now deceased, and I were first told that our son was shot to death after running out

38:32 of gas in the early hours of the morning. After exiting his vehicle. Later that day, we were told it was a hit and run. Stephen's father incidentally, y'all, he died on October of twenty fifteen. Now, in the letter, Stephen described her son's injuries in detail. He was attacked so violently that the entire side of his face was rebuilt with putty for his funeral, She said she was getting mixed messages from authorities, and in the immediate aftermath of Stephen's death, she said, Hampton investigators asked us at the time to continue to publicly say it was a hit and run. They claimed they did not want the killer to know that they were looking for him, and they had no name suspects. She said she told the South Carolina Highway Patrol investigators about potential leads, but nothing came of it. She said investigators failed to access Stephen's phone, a piece of evidence she thinks is likely to shed light on the rumors of the investigation. At the beginning of the investigation, officers told us they would not have access to Stephen's text messages for approximately one year after they claimed they would have to send the phone to Apple to override the security features. We found out must later that the phone had never been sent to Apple.

39:58 Sandy said that she I knew her son and he would not be walking down a rural road at a night like that because he was very skittish and would never walk down the road in the dark. And it's not like he would have opened his car door to accept assistance from someone he did not know, especially alone in the dark on a country road. She also mentioned his autopsy results showed his toxology records were negative for drugs and alcohol, so I have no reason to believe he would have done something so completely out of character. In the letter, she also disputed the pathologist theory that Stephen was hit by a car and concluded with we desperately need your help. This investigation is being deliberately derailed, and we need someone to hold the investigators accountable and access Stephen's phone. Now. I do want to say that this is a grieving mother, right, and we all get that.

41:01 We all totally understand that I'm a parent, and if this thing had drug on with my family, god forbid, I'm gonna blame everybody. But I have looked through over honestly, over a thousand records on Steven Smith's case, and it was being worked. It was being worked very hard. I think she's just a grieving mother who wanted some resolution, and we all get that. But as you can see from what I've told you so far, these policemen they were doing everything they could. There was just no evidence none.

41:42 They just had, you know, a hunch, right, They just knew that something didn't seem right with this case. So I'll move on. When this whole investigation occurred with Alex Murdall, y'all, it opened up a lot of a t on the Stephen Smith case, which is a great thing because this case, at this point twenty twenty one, it was as cold as ice, and police they started investigating it again and Stephen Smith's body was even exhumed after the public found out. There was a go fundme account because that's expensive to examine it and then get a private autopsy, and there was a GoFundMe account where the public contributed and paid for attorneys to get the body exhumed, et cetera. And his body was exhumed and a private autopsy was performed to see if there was any evidence that was missed on that first autopsy, and also to see if a different pathologist would agree with what that initial pathologist said.

42:54 And they had no relation to each other. This pathologist was a totally different state. She had no knowledge of the Murdall's right. It was just another pathologist. So after that autopsy was completed, the pathologist noted several injuries to Stephen Smith, the first being that seven in a quarter inch gash on the forehead, in a second being a large cranial crack on the back of his head. It was determined by that second pathologist it was because he hit the pavement so hard after that initial seven in a quarter inch gash that it just busted the back of his head wide ass open. Before I give you the results, I want to review the one and only statement from Buster Myrdall on this case, on the Stephen Smith case, and it reads, I have tried my best to ignore the vicious rumors about my involved in Steven Smith's tragic death that continue to be published in the media.

44:05 As I grieve over the Bruno martyrs of my mother and brother. I love them so much and miss them terribly. I haven't spoken up until now because I want to live in private while I cope with their deaths. Before, during, and since my father's trial, I have been targeted and harassed by the media and followers of this story. This has gone on far too long. 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. I am requesting that the media immediately stop publishing these defamatory comments and rumors about me. And that was from Buster Murdall. Now regards to that second autopsy, and the results of it. That private pathologist agrees with the findings of the original pathologists, as do several private investigators that were hired by the Smith family to investigate Steven Smith's death, some pretty prominent ones of that. I've looked over all the evidence, and I mean all of it, and personally, just an opinion here.

45:31 My personal opinion is I feel like someone that I've already mentioned as a name in this story, and I'll let you figure out who that is. For legal reasons, I can't name it, but I'll let you figure out who that is had something to do with it somehow. It's just a strong feeling I have looking over all the evidence. And as for Steven Smith, y'all, he was definitely killed. He just wasn't pulled out of a vehicle and killed. He was hit on the side of the road and killed. And someone somewhere knows something about it.

46:20 If you know something about it, reach out to me. Message me. I'll never share your name, but shoot me a message and let me know where to look, because his case is still unsolved in him and his family deserve answers. Now, for the record, I do not think Buster Murdall had anything to do with this. This is just my opinion. I just don't see it with the microscope that he's been under. If he had anything to do with it, I would think he would have been charged by now. Someone would have righted him out by this point. This is my opinion. So that's not the only case that was swirling around Mardall country at this time that had a Mardall connection, a death where the Murderalls were connected somehow. While this case with Stephen Smith was heating up, there was another one, and this one was directly related to the Murdalls, and that was the case of Gloria Sadderfield. And next week we're going to

47:55 dive in to that one. If you're liking it so far, if you're intrigued so far, if I've got your attention so far, it gets even better from here on out. I want to thank you everybody for listening, and again this episode is dedicated to the memory of Casey Frankoski, a true hero. And until next time for exposed scandalous files of the Elite, I'm your host, Jim Chapman. Much love,