Buster Murdaugh is the son of an ex-attorney of note and convicted killer Alex Murdaugh. He is asking to be removed from media coverage about the 2015 death of a young boy.
Murdaugh (26 years old) has not been linked to Stephen Smith’s death. Smith was just 19 when Smith’s body was discovered on a Hampton County country road. It was located approximately 15 miles from Buster Murdaugh’s house and about 2 to 3 miles away from Smith’s vehicle which, according to Smith, had run out of fuel.
Murdaugh stated Monday that “these baseless rumors about my involvement with Stephen’s death and mine are false.” “I categorically deny any involvement with his death and my heart goes out for the Smith family.”
Buster Murdaugh on Feb. 16, 2023.
Joshua Boucher / The State via AP file
Although it has been reported widely that Smith and Buster Murdaugh may have been in South Carolina together, NBC News has yet to confirm this.
Buster Murdaugh stated, “I am asking that the media stop publishing these defamatory remarks and rumors about my,”
University of South Carolina pathologists determined that Smith was struck by a vehicle in an autopsy report dated July 8, 2015. The report cited Smith’s stretched brain stem, irregularly shaped abrasions, contusions, blood in his lungs, and blood in his lungs as evidence.
The report excluded gunfire by noting that Smith was free of bullet fragments and projectiles.
The Island Packet reported that Smith’s body was believed to have a defensive wound by non-medical investigators. This could have made law enforcement consider the case a possible homicide.
An early investigator’s report was the basis of the publication’s story. According to the document, there was no evidence on the scene, such as debris or broken glass, that a vehicle had struck a pedestrian.
According to medical doctors, Smith’s death was not a hit-and run. The driver of the vehicle involved in Smith’s death has not been located.
Sandy Smith, Smith’s mother confirmed Friday that she will use the money from a crowdfunding campaign online to exhume Smith and conduct an exclusive medical examination. She said that she doesn’t believe in the hit-and run narrative.
She wrote that she needed to take a fresh, objective look at her husband’s body and make a fact-based determination about his cause of death.
Stephen Smith’s murder was given a second glance when the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division announced that in 2021 it would expand its investigation into the June 2021 shooting deaths at Buster Murdaugh’s mother Margaret Murdaugh (52 ) and brother Paul (22 ), in order to investigate Smith’s suicide.
Because Murdaugh was synonymous with a law firm that dates back to more than 100 years, elected officials and prominent lawyers, including Alex Murdaugh (54), the murders rocked South Carolina’s legal community.
Murdaugh was convicted on March 2 of two murder charges and two of using a firearm in connection to the shooting deaths of his son and wife on family property. He was sentenced to live in prison without parole the next day.
Prosecutors claimed that he committed the murders in order to draw sympathy and distract attention from a probe into financial misconduct, including claims of stealing from clients.
According to Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office incident reports, Buster Murdaugh said Monday that he was harassed by media members who follow him on road trips, park outside of his home and take photos of him inside his Hilton Head Island residence.
Murdaugh stated Monday that he tried to ignore any reports regarding the Smith probe that mentioned his name.
He stated that he had tried to ignore “foolish rumors” about his involvement in Stephen Smith’s tragic demise.
He said, “I love them so very and miss them terribly.”
