Original subtitles

- If you didn't know the Murdaughs,

you wasn't from Hampton.

And whether you knew them or not, they knew you.

- They've been the solicitors nonstop for 100 years.

- Money, position, power.

- Kings of the Lowcountry.

- You're friends with them, and you appreciate them,

but at the same time, you have to beware of them,

because if something goes down,

you're gonna be the one in trouble, not them.

- The body of a woman found near the Broad River Boat Ramp

is Mallory Beach.

- Paul Murdaugh, the person accused

of driving the boat at the time of the crash,

was arraigned.

- Paul Murdaugh pled not guilty

to all three felony charges against him.

- What you got from a lot of people was,

"It's the Murdaughs.

Nothing's going to happen."

- A lot of people in the public thought

there will not be any justice until Paul gets convicted.

- Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were found dead.

- Investigators note both were shot multiple times.

- People begin to think another Murdaugh

is gonna get away with something.

- This case has become so convoluted, so crazy,

so many twists and turns to it.

Every time you think it's finished,

there's another turn.

- Three months after Alex Murdaugh's wife and son

were killed in June,

Murdaugh himself was shot in the head

over the weekend in broad daylight.

- Good evening, everybody.

Andrew Davis out here in Hampton County right now

with the story that really everybody is talking about.

We now know officially that Alex Murdaugh was shot.

- Alex Murdaugh was changing a tire on the side of the road

in rural Hampton County Saturday

when a car passed him, turned around,

and someone shot him in the head.

- This is when you wonder

if they just started making things up

or it was a soap opera somewhere.

It seems like it's a TV show more than it seemed

like real life, because in this case,

how does this get more unusual?

And then was it the same person

that shot Maggie and Paul, or what may happen

as you spin through your mind?

- Murdaugh called 911 shortly after 1:30 in the afternoon

to report he'd been shot.

He was airlifted to a hospital in Savannah for treatment.

- There was an entry and exit wound.

Murdaugh's skull was fractured,

and there was minor brain bleeding as well.

- When I first got that call,

I was fearing for the worst, like, "Oh, my God, like,

"He was just killed like another...

You know, another death in this family?"

- It's a long, twisted, crazy tale

of awful things for this family,

for everybody concerned.

But what we know right now, SLED is investigating.

Hampton County sheriffs are investigating.

Alex is right now, hopefully, expected to recover.

- My initial thought is, "What the hell is going on?"

I was shocked beyond belief

and bewildered and concerned,

because if someone is trying to kill him,

the family needs to know,

because they are concerned for their safety.

- Someone's going through great distances

to punish this family.

They didn't think

Maggie and Paul were enough.

I'm sure there's a couple enemies out there.

A lot of people hold grudges.

The list of it could be endless.

How many family members has he put in prison?

How many people are mad that...

You know, of the "privileged state"?

- At the time, the investigator told me,

"We didn't find a gun."

His tire had been slashed.

It certainly is very disturbing

that there would be vigilantes out there

who just was going to take justice into their own hands.

- This is yet another tragic event for the Murdaugh family.

This past June, Alex Murdaugh found his wife, Maggie,

and youngest son, Paul, shot to death

at the family's Colleton County property.

No suspects have been arrested.

- In any sort of death investigation,

it's extremely common for investigators

to immediately look at who had grudges

on the people that have died.

Paul was awaiting trial for Mallory Beach's death,

so it would make sense for SLED to immediately look

at all of the boat crash victims and their families

to see if they had any sort of involvement.

At the end of the day, SLED deemed

that none of them were suspects,

which created a bigger question of,

well, then who would want to hurt these people?

But this was not the first time

that the Murdaughs had been implicated

in some sort of crime.

- Ah.

- I was taking my dad to work,

and we were taking Sandy Run Road.

We pull up to a scene.

We didn't know what it was.

We just seen state troopers

all around the road, no lights.

Cars are just sitting there running.

Finally, after waiting, like, 15 minutes,

we took the long way.

I dropped my dad off, and I was like,

"Hey, I'm gonna try to take that way back home,"

'cause it's a small town.

If you see something like that, you...

You're gonna be nosy.

So I went back through.

They were still there.

So I took the other back way home.

- I think I heard it on the radio at, like, 7:30.

I called,

and Stephanie answered.

I said, "Are y'all okay?

"I heard that somebody had threw a body out

on Sandy Run Road."

- She was like, "Who do you think it is?"

I said, "I don't know," but I was like,

"Mama, did you hear from Stephen any?"

I was like, "Stephen never came home."

- And that's when I knew...

Yeah, that it was him.

Stephen was a rambunctious person.

He just... he always made you smile.

His quirkiness.

He was intelligent and dramatic sometimes.

He could fake cry in a minute.

In public.

- Growing up with a twin,

like, there was never a dull moment.

I was the shy one.

He was the more outspoken one.

- He knew hisself.

He knew who he wanted to be.

He knew who he was.

He just was a fun person,

like that annoying big brother that you just love.

- You know how, like, you see in movies and stuff

there's always the popular group

and then there's, like, the odd ones that don't fit in?

Well, we were the odd ones.

We were kinda, like, the outcasts,

but at the skate rink, that was our safe place.

So we could be who we wanted to be,

and you didn't have to worry about somebody coming in

and trying to beat you up or jump you

just because you were different.

The first time I met Stephen, we were all dancing.

And he loved to dance.

Like, he could move.

He just... he was the center of attention,

and everybody would just follow along.

Most of the popular groups

were people's family that had money,

big names like the Murdaughs.

If your name's not powerful, like my last name,

compared to the Murdaughs, it's on the bottom.

You're either here, or you're here.

So it's like, I'm here.

It's like, some people can just do whatever they want,

and then they just throw their last name out there

and then they get away with it.

I guess if you don't have money, you're a nobody.

If I did half the things that the Murdaughs are accused of,

I would be under the jail cell.

- We didn't have a lot, you know, growing up,

but Stephen understood something

that a lot of kids don't understand

in that this is not forever,

that we were deserving of more, and that...

a dream is what you make it.

- He didn't let nobody get in his way of what he wanted.

He said he was gonna start out in nursing

and work his way up to a doctor

because he wanted to go overseas

to help children that don't have doctors.

And he would have been it.

He would have been the best, 'cause he always...

What he put his mind to is what he did.

- Investigators in Hampton County

are still piecing together clues

after a teenager was found dead

beside a rural road.

They said it appears to have been a hit-and-run

that killed 19-year-old Stephen Smith.

- A young white male lying in the roadway

with severe head trauma.

- I was a first sergeant.

I received a call early in the morning,

before my shift started,

saying, "We think there's been a hit-and-run

involving a pedestrian."

When I get on scene, the Sheriff's Department

is already there.

So is the coroner.

I looked at his injuries.

I walked the scene to look for vehicle parts.

I mean, that road, essentially, was clean.

Nothing on it...

No parts, no glass, no fragments, no anything.

I was confident when I left,

this is not a wreck.

This is murder.

No one has ever, that I worked with on the Highway Patrol,

think this is a hit-and-run.

But the Sheriff's Department and the coroner,

they saying it is a wreck,

and the only reason it's a wreck,

according to them, is because his body was in the road.

No other evidence.

We are the ones that specialize in wrecks,

not Sheriff's Department,

not the coroner,

but they essentially refused

to take the case back

and investigate it as foul play.

When you think of what's going on,

that seems like...

somebody's trying to cover something up.

- That morning when they found Stephen,

Joel, Stephen's dad,

was called in to go to the Sheriff's Department at...

Like, 8:00.

And then before the sheriff came in,

Randy Murdaugh was calling.

He was doing a workman's comp claim for Joel,

and so he called Joel

and offered to investigate.

All he wanted was his electronics,

his passwords, his Facebook,

and he didn't ask any questions,

just, "I just need those electronics."

It just didn't make no sense.

And then when I was going to the funeral home

to set up arrangements,

I seen Randy Murdaugh and Alex Murdaugh

on the scene where Stephen's body was.

Stephen's body left the roadway at 9:30,

and it had to be about...

10:30, 11:00 the same day.

- I heard Randy Murdaugh went to the scene,

and Joel said that he told him

that he'll represent him for free.

But why was he there in the first place?

How did he know...

that Stephen was killed?

- PMPED, by and large,

made money as a personal injury firm.

Why would they want to help Stephen Smith's family

with a death investigation?

You wouldn't put yourself out there

to try to help or damage control a situation,

like it kind of seemed that Randy was doing,

unless you're trying to save your own family

from something.

- The Murdaugh law firm did have an investigator show up.

After a couple days had gone by,

we're out there still trying to comb that scene

to try to find something

because no other law enforcement

is willing to help.

He shows up with a camera

and wants to come in the crime scene.

I said, "I'm sorry. You can't come in here."

I told him if he wanted to take pictures,

he could take them after we were gone.

But it wasn't about taking pictures.

It was about seeing what we were doing

to try to get one step ahead.

It's the only thing that makes sense to me.

If you wanted pictures,

you could have got those at any time.

Makes you wonder, is Murdaugh involved in that?

- The Stephens case...

We know very little

or at least, certainly, publicly.

His body was found in the middle of the road.

He had blunt force trauma to his head.

They were able to locate his car,

which was several miles away,

parked on the side of the road.

The car was not running.

The gas cap was off and hanging,

the implication being that he was walking home

to his father's house.

The pathologist had issued a report

that it was a hit-and-run.

She said that the reason she thought it was a hit-and-run

is 'cause his body was found in the road.

- When they told me that Stephen got hit by a car,

You know, I told them, I said, "No, he couldn't have."

Growing up, me and Stephen,

we walked the roads all the time.

It didn't matter what time it was.

We'd sneak out the house

and walk down our rural country road

3:00, 4:00 in the morning.

If a car came, we would jump in the woods.

You know, we were more afraid of what was on the road

than what was in the woods,

'cause Stephen always said, you know,

nobody's gonna kidnap his sexy behind.

So we always just...

We were cautious.

- Stephen was different.

When he got to high school,

that's when people started noticing

that he wasn't like them.

- The family knew ever since Stephen was a little

that he would possibly come out as being gay,

but he never really told anybody.

We just knew, so we just accepted, you know, who he was.

That didn't make a difference.

You know, Stephen was still Stephen.

- It was hard.

I mean, he couldn't, like,

really go out and be hisself.

Hampton was such a small, prejudiced community.

So he got bullied a little bit,

but he never let it bother him.

- Being gay is...

the worst thing to be around here.

They gonna shun you.

You get shut out the community,

and people talk about you so bad.

- You can't feel safe in a little county.

You can't feel safe,

because everybody knows your name,

and everybody knows your business.

- The coming out process is really hard to describe,

and straight people will never understand it.

The looking and checking yourself,

"Am I being noticed?"

The scanning the room to see whether there's danger.

A young man like Stephen, who may have been

more openly effeminate,

he probably did that on a constant basis.

- Stephen opened the door for a lot of kids our age

to come out and be proud of being different.

He helped other people come out about being gay or bisexual

even when it was hard at home to be accepted.

He was the strong one coming up.

Like, it's okay to be different.

Not everybody has to like you.

- Stephen put his own crown on his head,

and he wore it proudly.

I think he liked standing out.

- I've always taught my children,

you be who you are and what you are.

You don't have to explain nothing to me.

But Stephen had to be different

because he had to hide more...

Not from us but from other people.

- South Carolina, like every state in the country,

homophobia is not gone.

I mean, it's there, and I think every young person

who is coming out, one of their greatest fears

is that they'll be the victim of a crime of violence.

- This is Corporal Duncan,

South Carolina Highway Patrol MAIT OC.

Case number on this will be CL-062-15.

It's a reference to a collision in Hampton County

on Sandy Run Road.

There was not a whole lot done in that investigation

until, you know, MAIT became involved.

We are an investigative unit

specifically in the area of car accidents.

As far as evidence here, there's only evidence

of where the body was found.

There's no parts to a car or truck or any other vehicle.

I also took pictures of the body at the mortuary.

There is some scrapes and scratches

on his left and right arm, on his knuckles,

some across his face.

But his injuries pertain to his head area.

Does not appear to be, in my opinion,

struck by a vehicle.

There were several red flags from the start

in this investigation.

Things that were not there should have been there.

For example, there's no glass.

With that type of force, there would be glass

on the ground or possibly in the body.

There's no tire marks.

There was no paint from the vehicle,

no oil transfer.

The phone didn't even fall out of his pocket.

Phone didn't shatter.

The way the body's laying in the roadway...

There's no tumble to the body.

The blood itself, it's just a pool of blood.

When you have a body that is hit by a car

traveling at 55 miles an hour,

they're gonna tumble down the road,

so why aren't there spots

in different areas of the roadway?

- Generally, if a pedestrian is hit,

they don't keep their shoes on.

This guy still had his shoes on.

He really didn't have type of injuries

you would see when somebody lands violently in the road.

It essentially looked as though he was dropped there.

- His vehicle was three miles from where he was at.

Because it was classified as a hit-and-run,

it was never dusted for prints or tested for DNA.

- When they said that he ran out of gas,

I'm like, "He had a phone.

"He could have called me.

He's called me plenty of times."

- The car was out of gas,

but did somebody go out there and drain the gas

and make it look like it was out of gas?

Or was it really legit out of gas?

- Why would you unscrew the gas cap

and not put gas in the car?

And the fact that he left his wallet in the car?

- If you're walking to go get gas,

why did you leave your money in the car?

And if he was gonna get gas,

he was walking in the wrong direction.

- There was so much about the wallet,

the phone, the car.

Why wouldn't you just stay with the car,

make a phone call?

It did not make any sense.

It was very frustrating from the start,

because it's like a puzzle.

But we were missing a whole lot of pieces

that we should have not been missing.

- Me and my older brother,

we went to the funeral home

and seen Stephen in the morgue.

It wasn't my brother.

His face was gone.

He was so beautiful on one side,

but then the other side, you couldn't even tell.

When we made arrangements, I told my mom and dad,

"I don't want to offend anybody,

but I do want to leave the casket open."

I was like, "If that's the last time I got to see my brother,

"it's gonna be the last time everybody else

"has to see my brother

so they can live with what I have to live with."

Just like Emmett Till's mother,

I wanted to...

pretty much make that same remark.

Like, "Look what they did to my brother.

"You just left him in the middle of the road

like a piece of trash, like he didn't matter."

And my dad, he couldn't handle it.

When we had the service,

he didn't go near him, 'cause he just...

He couldn't bear seeing his...

son like that.

- I wanted everybody to see what they did to my child.

'Cause somebody did this.

- As we started the investigation,

we were pretty much starting with nothing

except for a body and a car.

So we started where we thought

we needed to, you know, with friends,

last person who talked with Stephen.

- It was very frustrating,

because people that you wanted to talk with

wouldn't talk with you or just avoided you altogether.

They would say, "Well, this is a small community.

You don't understand."

I had known about the Murdaughs

through years of being in law enforcement.

The Murdaughs were very supportive

of law enforcement and first responders,

so I knew that they were a very powerful family

in that area.

- When their name started coming up,

I knew immediately, okay,

we need to talk with others about this.

- The Murdaughs have had so much control of that area

for so long, you know,

they've built a relative empire.

They have, you know, friends, connections everywhere.

- That's the political aspect of it,

making sure that you take care of the people

who take care of you.

Let them know, say, "Hey, you know,

"you're part of this family, this institution,

"and we want to make sure that we continue

"to do the things that's gonna empower us

"to maintain dominance in not only this community

but in this region and statewide.

- It's a whole network.

They can pick up the phone and call

and somebody will do them a favor,

make some phone calls for them,

things like that, so...

And that's just kind of how it is around here.

- This direct line to law enforcement

and the legal system in general in Hampton County

is so direct that the Murdaughs

knew of Stephen's death before, probably,

some of even Stephen Smith's family members did.

I mean, it just makes it seem like there was something

that the Murdaughs knew that investigators

or the public didn't know.

- Our investigators went around and talked to these people.

And they said, "Yes, we heard these things."

Well, a lot of these people disappeared after that.

They didn't answer their phone.

They weren't at their residence.

It was as though some of these people

just upped and left town.

- There was talk some of these people were paid

to leave town, paid vacation,

that they were incentivized to not be available,

to not present possible evidence

that would lead to an answer.

- Regular people don't want to talk about this

if they know them.

They're afraid of something,

whether it's retaliation physically,

whether it's monetarily,

whether they could do something to their job,

to their position, to their family.

- I don't want to drag

somebody's name through the mud

unless it's necessary.

In this case, the Murdaughs' name was brought up

at least a dozen times, possibly more.

So when you have that name constantly brought up,

you know, you have to take it serious.

- I went to school with Buster,

and when we were younger,

Stephen played baseball

with Buster and a few classmates.

And Buster's grandfather and dad

were the coaches of the team.

He was... how do I put it?

Like, you could tell he had money

by the way he acted,

kind of, like, privileged

but not like a snobby privileged person.

He was quiet when I was around him.

- Yeah, I don't really know Buster that well.

I mean, we see him, you know,

whenever he's down with John or that sort of thing, but...

- That's very rare. - Right.

I mean, I haven't had conversations

about his life goals

or where he sees himself in 20 years.

- You just don't really hear a lot about Buster.

He's Paul's older brother.

He went to Wofford College in South Carolina.

He was kind of slated to follow in his father's footsteps.

- Paul and Buster were night and day,

Jacob and Esau.

Paul was the outdoor guy.

Buster liked to hunt, but he was a studious person

and took his studies seriously.

And what I'm told by people who were close to him,

you know, that Buster was the...

Buster was the favorite child.

- We found a document for seniors at Wofford

you know, saying where they're going,

and he said he was gonna work

for the family law firm in the summer

and then go to the University of South Carolina Law School.

We don't really know what happened after that.

- He kind of just disappeared,

like, after everything happened with Stephen.

Like, you didn't hear about him.

He was like a ghost.

- I would kind of check his Facebook,

and I would never see no activity anymore.

Like, no activity.

And then they said that he went away for school.

He went out the country.

- When we started investigating Stephen,

where he's been or who he'd been with,

I was told by Sandy that before he died,

Stephen was planning on going on a trip.

- He said that he was going deep-sea fishing,

I think, the third week in July

with a prominent person.

That's all he said. He wouldn't give a name.

But he was murdered before he could go, so...

- He said he was messing with a man

from Hampton County that was high in power

and that everybody would be shocked at who it was.

I think his words were,

"If I say who this is,

the whole Hampton County is gonna be shook."

- He was getting into an influential group

at that time.

It wasn't something typical of his past.

With the information that we gathered,

you could only presume

what name would've been brought up.

It would possibly have been the Murdaughs.

- One of the rumors that we heard

was that Buster and a couple of other guys

had been out, seen Stephen,

and they got in some type of argument

and that a 2x4 or a bat was used

to strike Stephen in the head area

and that's what caused his death.

- Yes, and we actually looked at it,

and it is consistent with some type of blunt force object.

- Early on, apparently,

there were attempts to talk to Buster.

In the United States, we can't compel somebody

to talk to law enforcement,

and if somebody exercises their right to remain silent,

there's very little law enforcement can do.

- Buster was not making a big point

to either be a part of the investigation

or try to dispel rumors.

He seemed to be extremely uninterested and uncaring,

which also, I think, speaks to, like,

a classic Murdaugh mentality

of thinking he was completely above the law

and that ignoring the problem would make it go away.

- There's different stories

and different versions out there.

I've heard Paul.

I've heard Buster.

Those names have been brought up numerous times

consistently by people.

But there's nothing we can point to and say,

"Mm-hmm, that's what happened."

- My family kind of separated

after Stephen died.

My mom took it hard.

My dad took it real hard,

but it was more of an in silence.

Like, the day Stephen died was...

the same day that my dad died inside.

- Joel kind of just gave up on life after that.

In his last days, he said that he was seeing...

Stephen was coming to visit him,

and I think he just...

He couldn't cope.

- It was three months exact.

The coroner said that he passed away

of a heart attack in his sleep.

- I just think he just died of a broken heart.

- I still remember seeing Joel in the casket.

And you could just tell

he wasn't at peace,

'cause he wanted to know what happened to his child.

The day he died, he told me,

"Them Murdaughs killed my son."

He would tell anybody.

Or you could've asked Joel,

"Joel, what happened to your son?"

"The Murdaughs killed my son because he was gay."

"How do you know?"

"I know my son.

I know he was seeing Buster."

"How can you prove it?"

"I can't, but I just know

them Murdaugh boys killed my boy."

- There was rumors of that.

I don't know if it was true.

If Buster was gay, he would have never came out about it.

I don't think his family would've approved of it

either, so...

Because they are a big name.

- Joel knew 100% in his heart it was Buster.

- There's no need to do that.

The police have got ties with them Murdaughs

all the way from their great-granddad

to their granddad to their daddy.

They all got pull through the law.

When they found Paul and his mama dead,

they had everybody from Colleton County,

Hampton County there investigating it.

Stephen dies,

they just put him in a body bag.

He was hit by a car. Who cares?

It's that name. They got pull.

- Being the underdogs in town,

I guess, in their head, we're nothing,

so who's gonna notice nothing being gone?

- Sandy had to stand by herself

seeking justice for Stephen

because those in authority

didn't feel like they were accountable to them

to commit to solving this.

Poor people were not treated the same in Hampton,

and that's a tragedy not just for the victims

but for that community.

- I knew Stephen was not gonna get justice in Hampton County.

Several people...

Several families have not gotten justice

in Hampton County.

- After Paul and Maggie were murdered,

SLED called my mom

and told her that they were reopening Stephen's case.

- For what reasons, we don't know,

but it is back open.

And that gives us hope.

- I found it real curious

when they brought up Stephen Smith.

What did they find?

Did they find something on a phone?

Did they find something on the property

that relayed Stephen Smith's death to the Murdaugh family?

- Law enforcement hasn't released anything new

about what led to the death of 19-year-old Stephen Smith

or explained why the mysterious murders

of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh

in the Lowcountry of South Carolina

led to his case being reopened six years later.

- That was very surprising to me.

There's no explanation.

Maggie and Paul's death was so shocking,

and as things unfolded and more information came out,

it was so clearly an event

in a much, much, much larger story.

- And now to the new details

on the deepening mystery over the shooting

of a prominent South Carolina lawyer

just months after his wife and son were killed.

- South Carolina law enforcement

announcing an arrest.

- Curtis, you have anything to say?

- Officers from South Carolina law enforcement

arrested 61-year-old Curtis Smith

for the September 4th roadside shooting.

- Alex represented Curtis Smith,

who was a logger who got hurt on the job.

But he definitely didn't match

the description of the alleged attacker.

- I got called probably within ten minutes

of that shooting getting reported.

I knew instantaneously

that Alex's story...

Pardon my French... That was bullshit.

- From the start, the details of the shooting

made many suspicious.

It happened in broad daylight along a deserted road

when Alex Murdaugh says he was changing a flat tire.

Now we're learning what actually happened

may be even more unbelievable.

- Law enforcement now believes

Murdaugh conspired with Curtis "Eddie" Smith

to kill him as part of an insurance fraud scheme.

- Everything with Alex

has just been mind-boggling,

'cause you know someone for so long,

and then a completely different side of them comes out.

- Alex Murdaugh apparently asked Curtis "Eddie" Smith,

who is friends with Alex, who has done jobs for Alex,

to murder him so he can get the insurance money

to give to Buster, his son.

- If Murdaugh died, his living son

would have received an estimated $10 million

as part of a life insurance policy.

- He didn't think it would pay if he committed suicide,

so he wanted Eddie to do the job for him

so his son would get the money.

- When I heard about the suicide attempt,

I didn't know if I believed it or not.

The story about it all is kind of confusing.

Paying someone to come shoot you and he misses?

- Where we live,

people don't miss.

It don't matter if you're talking

about a deer or a person.

They don't miss.

- Well, the suspect accused of shooting Alex Murdaugh

in a failed murder fraud plot

claims he is being set up to be the fall guy.

- Curtis Smith says it was September 4 when his friend

South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh called,

claiming he needed help.

Smith says Murdaugh was like a brother to him,

so he didn't think twice before heading to meet him.

- Alex went through all this trouble

to establish such an insane story.

Every single part of it,

everything that he said that day

ended up being a hoax.

- Trying to say someone shot at him

and then trying to say that it was a suicide attempt...

I don't believe for a minute any of that.

I think he's trying to make it look like

he was an intended victim.

- In a matter of hours,

this whole thing just changed,

and it was just like, you shake your head,

and what is going on with this guy?

What else is he hiding?

- Honestly, I think there's still a lot to come out.

- The situation we're in right now,

tell me how you're feeling.

- Do you see the truth coming forward?