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Where Is Buster Murdaugh Now? What to Know About His Life After Dad Alex Murdaugh's Conviction
Buster Murdaugh was born to parents Alex and Maggie Murdaugh
Buster was thrust into the spotlight when his dad was convicted of murdering Maggie and their other son, Paul
Buster has also dealt with his own legal troubles, including a 2019 wrongful death lawsuit concerning Mallory BeachBuster Murdaugh and his family were prominent members of their South Carolina community — but the Murdaughs gained national notoriety in the summer of 2021, after the murders of Buster's mother, Margaret 'Maggie' Murdaugh, and brother, Paul Murdaugh.
Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, were shot and killed on June 7, 2021, at Moselle, their family's 1,770-acre property in the low country of South Carolina. At the time of their deaths, Paul was awaiting trial in connection with the 2019 boating death of 19-year-old Mallory Beach. The double murder sent shockwaves through their small South Carolina town of Hampton, where the powerful Murdaugh family had been practicing law since 1910.
Adding to the local drama was the fact that Buster's father, South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh, found himself at the epicenter of the shocking slayings. Alex's attorney, Jim Griffin, revealed that the grieving husband and father was considered a person of interest from the onset of the authorities' investigation into the murders.
The charges against Alex continued to mount throughout early 2022, but he wasn't officially linked to the killings of his wife and son until July 2022 — when a South Carolina grand jury indicted the disgraced attorney in the double murder.
Prosecutors alleged that, on the evening of June 7, 2021, Alex lured his estranged wife Maggie from their family's beach house (where she had been staying) to their hunting estate, where he then shot and killed her and Paul execution style near the dog kennels on the property. Despite the 'mountain of evidence' presented against Alex during his 2023 murder trial, Buster stood by his father's side, maintaining his innocence and testifying in his defense. But the fallout from the deaths of his mother and brother — and his father's March 2023 double murder conviction — was devastating for Buster.
'Buster is collateral damage to his father's situation,' a childhood friend of Buster's told PEOPLE in 2022. 'I think he's developed this attitude of 'I'm gonna shut people out before they shut me out.' His circle of friends got really small really fast.'
So where is Buster Murdaugh today? Here is a look at Buster's life before, during and after the tragic deaths of his mother and brother — and his father's conviction.
Richard Alexander Murdaugh Jr., otherwise known as Buster, was the eldest son of Alex Murdaugh and his wife, Margaret 'Maggie' Murdaugh. Buster and his younger brother Paul were born into one of the most prominent families in Hampton County, South Carolina.
They earned recognition from the family law firm, Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth & Detrick (or PMPED), which was founded in 1910 by Buster's great-great-grandfather, Randolph Murdaugh Sr., The Greenville News reported. Over the next century, the law firm grew into a multimillion-dollar practice that employed several generations of Murdaughs — including Buster's father, Alex.
Randolph Sr. was also the first member of the family to serve as Solicitor in the 14th Judicial Circuit, where he prosecuted criminal cases in four South Carolina counties, according to its website. The Murdaugh family would go on to hold the office continuously from 1920 to 2006.
'For over a century, the Murdaughs were law and order here in the 14th circuit,' The Hampton County Guardian reporter Michael Dewitt said in the Netflix docuseries Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal. 'They ran both sides of the legal ledger, from civil cases to criminal cases.'
Dewitt continued, 'They were the law in this area — and, at times, they were above the law.'
Buster and his family first made national news after his mother, Maggie, and younger brother Paul were found shot to death at Moselle, the family's 1,770-acre hunting estate in South Carolina.
The headlines following their murders primarily centered on Buster's father, Alex. The once-wealthy and powerful attorney quickly became disgraced in the months following the murders, as a result of his alleged involvement in illegal drug distribution, money laundering, theft, embezzlement and perjury, PEOPLE previously confirmed. In addition to the almost 90 charges brought against Alex, he was also charged with murdering Maggie and Paul after a grand jury indictment in July 2022.
Buster found his name entangled in his father's legal turmoil in September 2021, when Alex was reportedly 'shot in the head while changing a tire' in Hampton County, South Carolina. However, less than two weeks later, South Carolina law enforcement revealed that Alex allegedly arranged the shooting himself — hiring Curtis Edward Smith to shoot him in the head so that Buster could receive $10 million in a life insurance payout after his death.
Buster also made headlines when he testified for the defense at his father's double murder trial. Buster told the jury he 'knew a little bit' about his father's drug use (which at one point had Alex allegedly spending $50,000 a week on opioids and taking up to 60 pills a day). Buster also claimed on the stand that his father was 'heartbroken' following the deaths of Maggie and Paul.
After a highly publicized six-week trial in early 2023, Buster's father, Alex, was found guilty of murdering his wife and son. Buster, Alex's only surviving child, was in the courtroom as the verdicts were read.
Alex's defense team moved for a mistrial after the guilty verdicts were handed down, but the motion was quickly denied by the judge.
'The evidence of guilt is overwhelming, and I deny the motion,' state Circuit Judge Clifton Newman said, per Good Morning America.
The following day, Alex was sentenced to two life sentences for the murders of Maggie and Paul. Alex, however, maintained his innocence when he addressed the judge at his sentencing hearing.
'I'm innocent. I would never hurt my wife Maggie. And I would never hurt my son 'Paul Paul,' ' he told Judge Newman.
Buster has stood by his father, maintaining his innocence during and after his trial.
In an interview with Fox Nation in August 2023, Buster doubled down on his stance that his father was innocent and did not belong in prison.
'I do not think that he could be affiliated with endangering my mother and brother,' Buster said in Fox Nation's The Fall of the House of Murdaugh. 'We have been here for a while now and that's been my stance.'
Buster added that he believed his father's trial was 'not fair' and that pretrial publicity led the jury to form predetermined opinions about the former South Carolina attorney.
'I think that I hold a very unique perspective that nobody else in that courtroom ever held. And I know the love that I have witnessed,' Buster said, referencing his father's 'loving' relationship with his family.
Buster also told Fox Nation that he believes the killer is still on the loose — and that his safety is at risk as a result.
'I think I set myself up to be safe but yes, when I go to bed at night I have a fear that there is somebody that is still out there,' he shared.
Though Buster faced no charges in relation to the deaths of his mother and brother, he was not without his own legal troubles.
Buster's name was mentioned more than 40 times during the investigation into the mysterious 2015 death of 19-year-old nursing student Stephen Smith. Smith — who was a classmate of Buster's — was found dead on a dark Hampton County road not far from the Murdaugh family estate during the early morning hours of July 8, 2015. Authorities initially ruled Smith's death a hit-and-run — before reopening the case in June 2021, following the murders of Maggie and Paul.
Authorities revealed that, while investigating the murders of Maggie and Paul, new evidence connected to Smith's death surfaced, which led to them reopening the case. Shortly after Alex's conviction in March 2023, Smith's death was officially ruled a homicide.
Buster has never been charged — or even questioned — in connection with Smith's death, however. He vehemently denied any involvement in a public statement released shortly after his father's conviction in March 2023.
'I have tried my best to ignore the vicious rumors about my involvement in Stephen Smith's tragic death that continue to be published in the media as I grieve over the brutal murders of my mother and brother,' the statement read. 'I haven't spoken up until now because I want to live in private while I cope with their deaths and my father's incarceration ... This has gone on far too long.'
It continued, 'These baseless rumors of my involvement with Stephen and his death are false. I unequivocally deny any involvement in his death, and my heart goes out to the Smith family. I am requesting that the media immediately stop publishing these defamatory comments and rumors about me.'
Buster was also named in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in 2019 by the mother of Mallory Beach, a 19-year-old who was killed in February 2019 after a boat driven by an allegedly intoxicated Paul crashed into a bridge. Alex, Maggie and Buster were all named in the lawsuit, as Alex was the owner of the boat and Maggie's credit card and Buster's ID were allegedly used by Paul to illegally purchase alcohol prior to the crash, Fox News reports.
Beach's family and three of the other boat crash victims settled with Buster and the estate of Maggie in January 2023 for an undisclosed but 'significant' amount, an ABC affiliate station in South Carolina reported.
Buster went from being a member of one of South Carolina's most well-known families to living a life in near isolation — cutting off contact from most of his social circle following his mother and brother's deaths.
'He really withdrew after everything happened,' a former college classmate told PEOPLE in 2022. 'He has really closed off and built walls around himself.'
Buster has never returned to Moselle, his family's estate where his mother and brother were murdered, or his family's beach house on Edisto Island, S.C., where his mother was staying before her death. He also avoids his hometown of Hampton, where his family went from revered to reviled.
'I get stopped and yelled at all the time. I got cussed at in the gas station the other day,' Buster told his father in a taped jailhouse phone call, according to the University of South Carolina's newspaper The State.
To escape, Buster moved into his girlfriend, Brooklynn White's, Hilton Head Island, S.C. condo, FITS News reported. The longtime couple went on to purchase a home together in Bluffton, S.C., in May 2023. They also share a golden retriever named Miller.
White is currently an attorney at Olivetti McCray & Withrow, an all-female law firm in Hilton Head. She graduated from the University of South Carolina School of Law — the same law school Buster attended before he was kicked out in 2019 for low grades and alleged plagiarism, according to The State.
Jailhouse recordings revealed that Alex paid $60,000 to prominent lawyer Butch Bowers to help get Buster back into law school. Buster was reportedly readmitted and due to resume classes in January 2022, but 'it was mutually agreed that delaying readmission to law school would be best for him and for the law school,' Alex's attorney Jim Griffin told The State.
Buster has yet to return to law school. It is not known whether he is currently employed.
Read the original article on People
