Alex Murdaugh's eldest and only surviving son Buster Murdaugh reportedly collapsed outside court after his father was convicted of killing his mother and brother on Friday. According to reports, Buster broke down in tears outside the courtroom after sitting stony-faced through his father's six-week murder trial.
According to a New York Post report, sources told the outlet that Buster camera tried to keep himself composed outside court but once the cameras were off him, he cried inconsolably and then collapsed. Alex Murdaugh, 54, was found guilty of the 2021 grisly double murder of his wife Maggie and Paul Murdaugh and was sentenced to life on Friday.
Inconsolable Surviving Son
Buster looked emotionless and put up a stony face through the six-week murder trial of his father but sources told the Post that he finally collapsed on Friday minutes after Alex Murdaugh's sentencing.
"Buster held up pretty well until the cameras were off him — but then he collapsed," a source who was at the Colleton County Courthouse when Murdaugh was found guilty of the grisly double murder, told the outlet.
"He was crying uncontrollably. The uncles [Alex's brothers, John Marvin Murdaugh and Randy Murdaugh] finally got him into a car."
Buster, who has been supportive of his father since his mother, Maggie, and brother, Paul, were killed on June 7, 2021, sat in silence in court on Thursday night as the verdict was announced.
The redhead testified in favor of the former attorney toward the end of the six-week trial. Alex Murdaugh received two life sentences for the killings of his wife and younger son.
Buster was back at the Colleton County Courthouse on Friday morning for the sentencing of his father despite the fact that he was overcome with emotion on Thursday night.
He maintained his composure as Murdaugh was given two consecutive life sentences for the murders.
A New Life Awaits
This came as Alex Murdaugh was photographed in a new mugshot with his head shaved and donning a yellow jumpsuit after being checked into South Carolina's Kirkland Reception and Assessment Center on Friday evening.
The double murderer who was found guilty will spend the next 45 days in a solitary cell. Male offenders are housed at the facility, which has extreme security.
The death knell for a once-revered southern dynasty family and its disgraced patriarch was sounded earlier on Friday when Murdaugh was heckled as he left court after being given a life sentence for killing his wife and son.
Murdaugh will begin serving two consecutive life sentences for killing Maggie and Paul at the family's hunting lodge in June 2021.
There was quite a silence inside the courtroom on Friday, with Buster looking heartbroken when Judge Clifton Newman announced that his father will spend the rest of his life in prison. As the punishment was being read, his uncle John Marvin Murdaugh, the youngest brother of Alex, laid a comforting hand on his back.
As Alex Murdaugh was led into a jail vehicle a protester shouted, "Buster's next!". "Justice for Stephen Smith!" he yelled, alluding to the unsolved 2015 death of a friend of Buster's who was 19 years old.
The cause of Smith's death was initially determined to be a hit-and-run when his body was discovered on the side of the road. When police revisited the scene, they found Smith had a blunt-force trauma wound to his head.
Many people have linked Buster to the boy's death because the family's name appears more than nine times in the file containing the investigation into Smith's death Buster has never been arrested or accused of anything in relation to Smith's death.
