Murdaugh: Family of Maniacs

Buster

Buster was born in 1996 in Hampton County, South Carolina. Skip ahead 18 years and he’s graduated highschool and off to college at Wofford to get his degree. If you know anything about college, college is the time for experimenting and finding yourself. While in college, Buster meets a student at Orangeburg Calhoun Technical College, Stephen Smith, who helped him with his school work. Stephen was very openly gay and didn’t give a flying fart about who knew it. Then in 2015, he’s driving down Sandy Run Road when he pulls over to call the police because he thinks someone is following him. Out of nowhere the call drops and Stephen is never heard again. The cops get out to Sandy Run and find Stephen’s body in the middle of the road still with his shoes on and still with his phone in his pocket which means that he couldn’t have been hit by another car. Context clues tell me that Buster had possibly asked Stephen how he knew he was gay which led Stephen to wonder if Buster was questioning his sexuality. If anyone knows what Hampton County is like, it’s a very tight knit community, so if one person knows something, eventually everyone will know. Buster might’ve been afraid that his secret would get out, so he silenced the only person who would be able to share his secret. 

Paul

All of Paul’s friends said he was just a crazy fun loving guy. However, they also said he heavily drank. They even gave him a new name, Timmy, when he was drunk because he turned into a whole different person. His friends tried to warn his mom, Maggie, about his drinking, but she ignored it and said it was normal. In 2019, Paul and his friends went drinking and all but good things happened. Paul and Connor wanted to go to a bar and the rest of the group couldn’t talk them out of it. Afterwards, camera footage shows a video of Paul in his Timmy form. Anthony and Mallory were the only ones who didn’t end up going into the bar, and everyone thought it would be a good idea for Anthony to drive, except Paul. He thought since it’s his boat he should get to drive it. They started going down the Beaufort river and Paul kept leaving the wheel unattended and coming back. All of the sudden Paul starts to speed up so much that the bow of the boat goes up. At this point everyone’s holding on for dear life and they crash into the Archer’s Creek bridge. Everyone flew out of the boat and swam to shore, except Mallory. Connor still had his phone on his so he called 911 to find Mallory. A few seconds later, Paul calls his dad, Alex, and says that Connor was driving the boat and crashed it. Everyone goes to the hospital except for Anthony because he’s still worried about where Mallory is. At the hospital Alex arrives and tries to talk to Morgan, Paul’s girlfriend, and Connor. He ends up talking to Connor and his parents and says he’ll take care of him and won’t let anything happen to him. Paul was going to let one of his best friends take the fall for a crime he committed. 

Maggie

Maggie is the wife of Alex and the Mother of Buster and Paul. All of Paul’s friends said that Maggie didn’t really like Paul and favored Buster a lot more. A few weeks before her murder she filed for divorce against Alex. If y’all know anything about marriage, you’ll know that you can’t testify against someone if you’re married to them. I’m thinking that Maggie had something to do with one of the murders. Why then of all times would she want to divorce Alex unless something just went down. Either there was evidence that could tie her to a crime or Alex had committed crime against her. My best bet is that she helped with a crime, possibly the murder of Stephen Smith because she did have a special place in her heart for Buster. Since Alex was already getting dragged down, maybe she thought she would let him take the fall for everything. 

Alex 

The Murdaughs have run lowcountry law ever since 1920. Alex is a fourth generation lawyer, which means he knows his stuff. Once when Paul and Morgan were in a car crash, she called 911, Paul smacked the phone out of her hand, and called his dad instead. The first thing his dad did when he got there wasn’t checking if they were ok, but getting the hunting guns out of Paul’s truck and out from around the area where they crashed. In 2018, Gloria Stterfeild, the property manager, was found dead on the steps of the family home. The Murdaughs claimed she fell down the stairs. People breezed over the fact that she was found dead at the family home because Alex had promised to set both of her sons up with a fund. During the Mallory Beach case, he tried to blame the accident on one of Paul’s friends, Connor. Also during that case, he pulled the boat out of the water, and tampered with police evidence. However, June 2021 is when Alex really slipped up. He made a call to the police saying that his wife and son had been shot . They were found on the property at Moselle face down which means they were shot from the back. They were most likely running away from Alex when they were shot. My guess is that Alex was going to only kill Maggie because she was trying to leave him, and Paul was shot because Maggie was running trying to warn him. They were shot with a rifle that only Alex had, but instead of fleeing, Alex called the police and told them Maggie and Paul were shot.