The son of disgraced lawyer and convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh is suing multiple media companies for falsely insinuating he was involved in the still-unsolved death of Steven Smith.
Richard “Buster” Murdaugh named numerous defendants in the lawsuit, including Netflix, Warner Bros., Gannett Co. and Hampton County Guardian editor Michael DeWitt.
Smith, a former classmate of Buster Murdaugh, was found dead on Sandy Run Road in Hampton County in the summer of 2015, and a subsequent autopsy determined she had been struck by a vehicle in a hit-and-run accident.
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Buster Murdaugh drinks from a bottle of water as he leaves the Colleton County Courthouse on March 1, 2023 in Walterboro, South Carolina. (Larry Pasi for Fox News Digital)
Investigators began looking into possible links between Smith’s death and the Murdaugh family after Buster Murdaugh’s mother and brother were shot and killed in June 2021 at the same family’s South Carolina compound.
Authorities said unspecified tips received after the double homicide prompted a reinvestigation into Smith’s death, but no link to the Murdoughs was found.
The new lawsuit alleges that multiple media outlets and programs have falsely linked Buster Murdaugh to Smith’s death.
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A diagram showing where investigators found Steven Smith’s body in Hampton County, South Carolina. (SCDPS)
Warner Bros. Discovery distributed the three-part series “Low Country: The Murdo Dynasty,” which aired on HBO Max.
The documentary depicts Buster Murdaugh and friends beating Smith to death with baseball bats because he was gay, and implies that the two were lovers.
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According to court documents, the Netflix series “Murdaugh: A Southern Scandal” shows a redhead holding a bat.
“Plaintiff has red hair and it is readily apparent from the context of the series that the creators intended to portray Plaintiff as the murderer of Steven Smith,” the lawsuit states.
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From left: Buster, Maggie, Paul and Alex Murdaugh (undated photo). (Facebook)
According to Buster Murdaugh’s lawsuit, DeWitt appeared in the documentary and expressed doubts about Buster’s connection to Smith’s murder.
“The false statements were published to hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of viewers who tuned in to the show, including viewers in South Carolina,” the lawsuit states.
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The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, claiming that Murdaugh’s reputation has been irreparably damaged by the allegations.
Buster’s father, Alex Murdaugh, was convicted of shooting and killing his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, in 2021 amid allegations of financial misconduct.
Defendants in the lawsuit did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this report.
