The son of disgraced attorney and convicted killer Alex Murdaugh is suing several media companies, claiming they falsely insinuated that he was involved in the still unsolved death of Stephen Smith.
Richard "Buster" Murdaugh named a slew of defendants in the suit, 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 an autopsy later determined that he had been fatally struck by a vehicle in a hit-and-run.
Investigators began probing possible links between Smith's death and the Murdaugh family after Buster Murdaugh's mother and brother were both shot to death on the clan's South Carolina estate in June 2021.
Officials said unspecified information gleaned after the double-homicide spurred the renewed inquiry into Smith's death, but no connections were found to the Murdaughs.
The new lawsuit contends that Buster Murdaugh was falsely tied to Smith's demise in several media outlets and productions.
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Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. distributed the three-part series "Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty," which aired on HBO Max.
The documentary depicts Buster Murdaugh and a group of friends beating Smith to death with a baseball bat because Smith was gay and insinuates that the two had been lovers.
The Netflix series "Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal," shows a figure with red hair carrying a bat, court papers state.
"The plaintiff has red hair, and it is readily ascertainable from the context of the series that the creators were depicting the plaintiff as the murderer of Stephen Smith," the filing alleges.
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DeWitt, the Buster Murdaugh suit asserts, appeared in the documentary and stated his suspicions about Buster's ties to Smith's murder.
"The false statements were published to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of viewers who watched the show, including viewers in South Carolina," the filing states.
The suit is seeking unspecified damages, arguing that Murdaugh's reputation has been irredeemably damaged by the swirl of allegations.
Buster's father, Alex Murdaugh, was convicted of fatally shooting his wife, Maggie, and his son, Paul, in 2021 amid a swirl of suspicion over his criminal financial activity.
The defendants in the suit didn't immediately return requests for comment.
Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this report.
