Buster Murdaugh vs. Netflix: The Lawsuit That Could Change True Crime Forever!
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 907 Ratings
🗓️ 21 February 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
While Buster Murdaugh has never been charged with a crime, his name has frequently been linked to the unsolved 2015 death of Stephen Smith, a 19-year-old nursing student whose body was found on a rural road in Hampton County, South Carolina. Smith’s death was initially ruled a hit-and-run, but years of speculation and whispers in the community suggested a possible connection between Buster and the case. No evidence has ever officially linked Buster to Smith’s death, but renewed media interest, especially following his father’s high-profile murder trial, has kept his name in the conversation.
In 2024, Buster Murdaugh filed a defamation lawsuit against Netflix, Warner Bros., and several other media companies, alleging that they falsely implicated him in Stephen Smith’s death through true-crime documentaries and news reports. The lawsuit specifically calls out Netflix’s “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal”, Discovery+’s “Murdaugh Murders: Deadly Dynasty”, and HBO Max’s “Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty”, arguing that these productions used misleading reenactments, speculative interviews, and selective storytelling to imply he was involved in a crime he has never been charged with.
Buster claims that these documentaries damaged his reputation, fueled baseless public suspicion, and caused him emotional distress. His lawsuit seeks monetary damages and demands retractions or corrections from the media companies.
The Ongoing Legal Battle
Buster Murdaugh’s lawsuit has now become one of the most closely watched media defamation cases of recent years. The case was initially filed in Hampton County, South Carolina, a jurisdiction where the Murdaugh family once held significant influence. However, Netflix and the other defendants attempted to move the case to federal court, arguing that they are out-of-state corporations and that the lawsuit belongs in a larger legal arena.
In December 2024, a federal judge ruled in favor of Buster Murdaugh, sending the case back to state court in Hampton County, where a local jury could ultimately decide whether the media outlets crossed a legal line in their reporting and documentary portrayals.
Netflix, Warner Bros., and the other defendants have denied wrongdoing and are expected to fight the lawsuit aggressively, likely arguing that:
- They never directly stated that Buster Murdaugh was guilty of any crime.
- They were simply reporting on existing rumors and public interest cases.
- Buster Murdaugh is a public figure, making defamation harder to prove under U.S. law.
The Impact on the Murdaugh Family Name
Buster Murdaugh’s legal battle comes at a time when his family name is already synonymous with scandal. His father, Alex Murdaugh, was sentenced to life in prison for the double murder of Maggie and Paul, a crime that exposed the family’s web of financial fraud, legal corruption, and hidden secrets.
For Buster, this lawsuit represents more than just a fight against Netflix and Warner Bros.—it’s an attempt to salvage what remains of his reputation. If he wins, it could set a legal precedent that true-crime documentaries cannot rely on speculation and dramatization to tell stories at the expense of real people’s reputations. If he loses, it may further cement his name in true-crime infamy, keeping him permanently tied to Stephen Smith’s case in the court of public opinion.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a true crime in real time update from True Crime Today and the Hidden Killers podcast. |
| 0:06.6 | It starts on a desolate stretch of road in Hampton County, South Carolina. |
| 0:10.5 | The body of 19-year-old Stephen Smith is found in the early hours of July 8th, 2015. |
| 0:17.2 | No car wreckage, no skid marks, no obvious signs of an accident. just a young man lying dead in the middle of the road with a head injury so severe that first responders initially think he's been shot. |
| 0:28.6 | But that's not what law enforcement concludes. Instead, the official cause of death? A hit and run. If you're already confused, you're not alone. |
| 0:39.0 | Stevens family never believed that story. His mother, Sandy Smith, has spent years saying what many |
| 0:44.4 | in their small town were already whispering. This wasn't an accident and it wasn't random. Someone |
| 0:49.9 | killed Stephen Smith. And as those whispers grew louder, a name kept coming up, Buster Murdo. |
| 0:57.4 | Now, nearly a decade later, Buster Murdoch is fighting back. Not in a police investigation, |
| 1:03.2 | but in a courtroom filing a defamation lawsuit against some of the biggest media companies |
| 1:08.0 | in the world. Netflix, Warner Brothers, Otters, and others, |
| 1:12.0 | accused of falsely portraying him as the killer in their wildly successful true crime documentaries. |
| 1:17.3 | But before we get to the lawsuit, before we get to how this case turned into a legal chess match, |
| 1:23.8 | before we even get to the Netflix reenactment of a red-haired man holding a baseball bat, first, we have to go back. |
| 1:30.3 | Back to 2015, back to a road in Hampton County, and back to the beginning of what would become one of the most bizarre, tangled, and controversial cases South Carolina has ever seen. |
| 1:41.3 | Let's start with the basics. Stephen Smith was a 19-year-old nursing student at |
| 1:47.0 | Orangeburg Calhoun Technical College. He was bright. He was ambitious. And according to those who knew him, |
| 1:53.0 | he had a personality that could light up a room. He was also openly gay, which in a rural, |
| 1:59.0 | conservative community like Hampton County, South Carolina, |
| 2:02.5 | made him stand out. On the night of July 7, 2015, Stephen was driving home from college when his |
| 2:09.5 | car apparently ran out of gas. Investigators later found his yellow Chevrolet on the side of the road |
| 2:15.4 | about three miles from where his body was found. |
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