>> ain't moving or nothing like that. but somebody -- >> reporter: 19-year-old steven smith was found dead in the middle of the road in the middle of the night just outside hampton. there were no witnesses. but among classmates and friends, there was a lot of talk police files show. and one family name kept surfacing. a name many were reluctant to talk about to police. leaving investigators obviously frustrated as interview recordings suggest. >> a lot of people seem a little nervous to say the name murdaugh. yeah. and -- and, you know, and i understand that they're pretty big down there in hampton. but -- um -- i'm out of charleston and that name doesn't mean anything to me. so i want you to feel like, you know, like you don't have anything to worry about. >> reporter: no one's been arrested and no publicly-released evidence links anyone in the murdaugh family to smith's death. then, another shock. on september 3rd of this year, the powerful family law firm