'Baseless rumors': Buster Murdaugh denies involvement in classmate Stephen Smith's death
WALTERBORO, SOUTH CAROLINA: The surviving son of Alex Murdaugh, Buster Murdaugh, opened up about the “vicious rumors” linking him to the death of his gay former classmate, Stephen Smith. Smith, whose body was found dead on the road near the Murdaugh family home in South Carolina almost eight years ago, is due to be exhumed.
Smith’s death, which was initially ruled as a hit-and-run, was reopened just weeks after Maggie and Paul were brutally shot dead by Alex. Buster Murdaugh, who was romantically linked with Smith, denied any involvement in his death and asked people to stop spreading the “rumors.”
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'My heart goes out to the Smith family'
In a statement as reported by NBC News, he said: “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.” Murdaugh also expressed his love for his late mother and brother. Apparently, both of them were murdered by the disgraced father and the former legal scion, Alex Murdaugh, who is serving two life sentences.
However, in a Netflix special, 'Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal', it said, “multiple” locals had discussed rumors that Buster was romantically involved with Smith. “There were so many rumors swirling around that Buster and Stephen were intimate together,” said Morgan Doughty, a friend of the Murdaugh family as per Daily Mail. “Being gay in the Murdaugh family would have been looked down upon", he added.
'This has gone on far too long'
Smith’s mother, Sandy Smith, spoke out and said that she hopes an independent autopsy on her son’s exhumed body will finally provide some answers about how he died. “As a mother, there are questions that I need to ask. And there are questions I need answers to,” she said. She emphasized that she had no idea who could be responsible for her son’s death, as per Today. She further added that she wants to know why it happened and who was behind it. She claimed that finding these answers would only help bring “peace, not closure” because “he’s forever gone.”
In the statement, Buster Murdaugh also complained about being “harassed” over his family’s ever-deepening scandals, he said: “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.” Notably, nobody from the Murdaugh family has been directly linked to Smith’s death. However, one of Alex Murdaugh’s brothers had called Smith’s parents about the death even before they heard from local law enforcement, as per a report.