On a newbie on these threads, and perhaps I shouldn’t offer my cow noise (MOO). However I’ve been following this case for weeks and I just skimmed Threads 3-5, so here goes:
SLED opened an investigation into the death of Stephen Smith on the basis of something
they learned investigating Paul’s murder - but they won’t say what that fact or discovery is. Smith was 19 years old when he was found dead in a road of blunt force trauma to his head. The SC Highway Patrol decided he was walking in the road at night, after his car ran out of gas around midnight. Smith’s mother has never accepted this verdict - a hit-and-run - because it doesn’t match the injuries to his body and her understanding oh his behavior. She has said repeatedly that he was murdered by several young men from prominent local families in an anti-gay hate crime, possibly because he had “a fling” with the brother of one of the murderers.
PauL was the son of a prominent local family.
If Paul’s killer was out to take revenge for the unjust death of poor Ashley, why kill his mother? I would expect a vigilante not to just kill indiscriminately, but to reserve his anger for Paul.
Let us remember that Paul faced a 25-year sentence for Ashley’s death, and 15 years each for the two boat passengers who were injured. If he was involved in, or had knowledge of, Stephen Smith’s murder, it is reasonable to believe he might be motivated to trade this information for a degree of lieniency in Ashly’s death. That would put the murderers in a state of panic,and give them a motive to kill him. Killing Paul’s mother is more the act of a frightened and ruthless person killing to protect himself, than it is the act of a justice-seeker, especially if the murderer of Paul thought he might have disclosed what he knew to his mother. In my scenario, Pail’s lawyer knew what he was offering to law enforcement, and passed it on when Paul was dead.
If this is what happened, Ashley’s death was incidental to Pail’s death. I admit that bothers me, because I want some measure of justice for her. But it seems that will never happen. At least Stephen may yet be able to speak from the grave. Furthermore, DD’s misdeeds and his faked crime against himself are just the routine misdeeds of small-town corruption. Another red Herring.
As I said, this is strictly my own cow noise, and maybe I shoul never have ventured out of the Vallow threads. But at least I have a possible explanation for SLED’s statement that Paul’s murder shed light on the Smith case, which is otherwise inexplicable. Again, cow noise.
