Buster Murdaugh says father Alex Murdaugh innocent of SC murders and that he fears true killer

Buster Murdaugh says despite his father Alex Murdaugh’s conviction in the deaths of his mother and brother, he believes his father is innocent and called the trial unfair from the start.

Murdaugh made the comments on the documentary “Fall of the House of Murdaugh” released on Fox Nation Thursday.

He said he thinks the jury members had made up their minds before the first testimony was given due to pretrial publicity.

The shooting deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh in 2021 at their hunting estate in the South Carolina Lowcountry have been the subject of hundreds of news articles worldwide and several television specials and documentaries. Buster Murdaugh testified during his father’s trial but this was his first interview.

It is told in three, hour-long parts that rely heavily on the broadcast of the trial and video evidence from the investigation the night the mother and son were murdered.

It also has stunning shots of the Lowcountry’s marshes, rivers and ocean as well as expansive views of the Murdaugh’s 1700-acres of farmland and forests. Many family photos and videos interspersed Buster Murdaugh’s interview, during which he remained stoic until the end when he talked about his mother and the family memories he will hold tight for life.

“Holding onto that is what I do to see me through,” he said.

He said he was probably closer to his mother and his brother closer to their father. He described his parents’ relationship as loving.

Host Martha MacCallum asked whether he thinks it’s possible his father is guilty.

“No,” he said, “because 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.”

He criticized the work of the police, as did Alex Murdaugh’s attorneys during the trial, saying he thought they rushed to judgment because of pressure to name a suspect.

It was more than a year before Murdaugh was charged in the case.

“I think it’s one of those things where you have to do something,” Buster Murdaugh said. “And I think that it was — and that’s the option and the route that they decided to go with. There are always two sides of the story.”

Murdaugh said he thinks many questions remain unanswered and the killer is still on the loose, which causes him to fear for his safety.

“I think that I have set myself up to be safe, but, yes, when I go to bed at night, I have a fear that there is somebody else still out there,” he said.

He thinks the murderer was someone trying to get back at Paul Murdaugh for the 2019 boat crash that killed friend Mallory Beach and injured others on the boat. Paul Murdaugh was awaiting trial for boating under the influence causing severe bodily injury and death when he died.

Buster Murdaugh said his father called him soon after he found the bodies. Buster and his girlfriend immediately drove from their home in Charlotte, where he was just starting a new job.

“I walked inside and I saw him, and it was utter silence,” he said. “It was a — it was a big embrace. He immediately broke down crying. I started crying, and that was what that was. I mean, it’s difficult to relive these — these — these tough circumstances.”

Buster Murdaugh criticized Judge Clifton Newman for saying during Alex Murdaugh’s sentencing that Maggie and Paul must visit him at night when he’s trying to go to sleep. Buster called that “clever little lines.”

The show also featured Alex Murdaugh reading from a journal he kept while in jail awaiting trial. Murdaugh was disciplined by prison officials after attorney Jim Griffin recorded him reading the passages.

In one, on the day his trial started, he said, “I am ready” and proclaimed his innocence. He said he could not get the images of his dead wife and son from his mind when he found their bodies.

In another, Alex Murdaugh says, the jury is his only hope for a fair trial. “I am absolutely exhausted.”

He said in another entry after his conviction, he intends to hold his “head high, shoulders back,” refusing to give the people who hate him the satisfaction of seeing him defeated. He said he believes he would not have been convicted if he hadn’t lied about not being at the dog kennels that night.

Months after the deaths, prosecutors found a video Paul had made in which Alex is clearly heard. It was timestamped just a few minutes before the time prosecutors said Paul and Maggie were killed.

Others interviewed for the program include defense attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, lead prosecutor Creighton Waters, Attorney General Alan Wilson, Colleton County Clerk Rebecca Hill, local attorney Joe McCulloch, Maurdaugh’s dog kennel manager Roger Dale Davis Jr., Walterboro Mayor William T. Young Jr., and the prosecution’s forensic expert Kenneth Kinsey.

Murdaugh was sentenced to two life terms and is being held in an undisclosed prison in South Carolina.