“I never had anything to do with his murder, and I never had anything to do with him on a physical level in any regard.”
Buster Murdaugh spoke to the camera, nodding in acknowledgement to Fox Nation’s Martha Maccallum in an interview for a documentary titled “The Fall of the House of Murdaugh,” which takes a deeper dive into the trial of Alex Murdaugh — who was convicted in the double-homicide of his wife and other son, Paul. The documentary also sought to address claims of the Murdaugh family’s involvement in the death of Stephen Smith, an openly gay classmate of Buster’s.
Smith was found on a Hampton, South Carolina road in 2015, and his death was initially ruled as a hit-and-run. However, after further investigation, the case was reopened and determined to be a likely homicide.
After continuing the investigation, an attorney for the Smith family announced last month there had been “substantial progress” made on the case. Eric Bland, who is co-representing the Smith family with Ronnie Richter, said he was updated on the case during a biweekly call with South Carplina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) Chief Mark Keel.
“He said, ‘Look, Eric, I am optimistic in a positive way, I see progress being made, real progress,’” Bland explained to WIS 10 News. “‘We think that we’ve talked to a number of people, and we think that there’s five or six people that have information. We’ve learned some things we didn’t know already,’ he told me.”
Around the time of Smith’s death, small-town rumors were going around that Smith and Buster were in a romantic relationship — they were classmates at Wade Hampton High School and played on the same baseball team. However, there hasn’t been any evidence presented to support the relationship’s existence.
The speculation surrounding Buster only intensified after the Smith family exhumed their loved one’s remains to have a second autopsy conducted. In response, Buster released a statement earlier this year calling out the “vicious rumors” surrounding him.
“I don’t want to be rude here, but have you ever been accused of murdering somebody?” Buster Murdaugh asked. “Well, let me tell you, this is very, very, very, very, very, it’s a terrible thing to place on somebody with absolutely no fact. I mean, it has harmed my reputation. I mean, people perceive me as a murderer.”
Maccallum asked Buster where he was the night of Smith’s death.
“The night Stephen was killed, I was at our Edisto Beach house,” he replied.
MacCallum followed up by asking, “With your family?”
“With my mom and brother,” Buster explained.
Buster’s mother and brother, Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, were murdered on June 7, 2021 at their Islandton home about an hour from Hilton Head Island. Buster’s father, Alex, was convicted in the double slayings on March 2 of this year and is now serving two life sentences. Buster testified at his father’s trial and in the new documentary, he claims the trial was “not fair.”
“I was there for six weeks studying it, and I think it was a tilted table from the beginning,” Buster offered. “And I think, unfortunately, a lot of the jurors felt that way prior to when they had to deliberate. It was predetermined in their minds, prior to when they ever heard any shred of evidence that was given in that room.”