What Happened to Buster Murdaugh and Where Is He Today?

The Murdaughs are well known in the small town of Hampton, S.C., located just north of Savannah, Ga. Over a century ago, the family founded a law firm that now employs several dozen lawyers, and its headquarters take up an entire city block. There’s no moniker on the outside, but everyone knows it’s the Murdaughs’ firm. Buster Murdaugh’s great-great-grandfather is the man who started it all.

Buster’s father, Alex Murdaugh, is currently on trial for the murders of his other son, Paul, and wife, Maggie. Because of the trial and various other suspicious activities surrounding Buster, he has been thrust into the spotlight along with his dad. What happened to Buster Murdaugh and where is he today? Here’s what we know.

Richard Alexander “Buster” Murdaugh is the eldest and now only son of disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh. According to Fox News, as of November 2022, he is “living a quiet life with his longtime girlfriend” on Hilton Head Island, S.C. One neighbor described them as a “really nice couple” who always “smile and say hi.” The couple shares a golden retriever dog named Miller, which feels shockingly normal juxtaposed against all that is happening around him.

Buster has been a reluctant participant in this confusing circus not only because it involves the murder of his mother and brother, but his father attempted to obtain a payout for him via a wild scam. On Labor Day 2021, Alex Murdaugh “called police after indicating he had been shot in the head by an unknown truck driver on a backcountry road,” per The Daily Beast.

Later, Alex Murdaugh would admit to authorities that he hired someone to kill him in order to get an insurance payout that would ultimately go to Buster. Obviously, the plan did not work and only added to the numerous charges already brought against him. In an effort to provide some sort of reasoning behind this decision, Alex Murdaugh claimed he was suffering from opioid withdrawal after battling a 20-year addiction.

The Greenville News dropped a small chunk of the massive witness list in Alex Murdaugh’s trial, and Buster Murdaugh is definitely on it. Predictably, Buster Murdaugh has not said much on the matter. As a reminder, he did lose both his mother and brother. On top of grieving, he has to wrestle with the idea that perhaps his father did it. This cannot be easy.

In July 2021, a former college classmate and friend of Buster’s told People Magazine that he’s “not doing well at all.” They went on to say, “He really withdrew after everything happened. Before, he’d text immediately. His phone was surgically implanted in his hand or something, like you’d send a text 24/7 and he’d respond, and he loved to chat. Now he doesn’t respond to most texts or, if he does, it’s one or two words. He has really closed off and built walls around himself.”

The Wall Street Journal reported (via Fox News) that Buster was allegedly kicked out of South Carolina Law School for plagiarism during his second semester in 2019. Well, the buck had to stop somewhere, though People stated that at some point Buster worked at his father’s law firm. Perhaps the pressure of being connected to the death of Mallory Beach was getting to Buster.

On Feb. 24, 2019, 19-year-old Mallory Beach was killed when Paul Murdaugh “drunkenly crashed his boat into a bridge,” per WTOC. Allegedly, Paul used Buster’s ID to buy alcohol from a gas station mere hours before the accident. A month after their daughter’s death, the Beach family filed a lawsuit against Paul, Buster, Maggie Murdaugh’s estate, and Parker’s gas station. In January 2023, a judge approved a settlement for an undisclosed amount. This was done in exchange for removing Buster and Maggie from the lawsuit.