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Why Buster Murdaugh, son of Alex Murdaugh, recently filed a police report

Police told Alex Murdaugh's only surviving son officers would add extra patrols outside his home after the incident.
/ Source: TODAY

Buster Murdaugh, the only surviving son of convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh, filed a police report after he said he saw a photo of himself inside of his home published in the New York Post.

Buster Murdaugh, 26, contacted police on March 5 after he was "made aware" of the photo, which appears to have been taken through the blinds of his home in Hilton Head, South Carolina, according to a copy of the police report obtained by NBC News.

He told officers he and his girlfriend reviewed Ring doorbell camera footage and saw a "suspicious gray Dodge Challenger" outside of their home around the time he believed the photo was taken. He told police he believed the occupant of the vehicle took the photo.

Officers told Murdaugh the Beaufort County Sheriff's Department would add extra patrols around his house and to contact authorities if he noticed anything suspicious.

Murdaugh's girlfriend contacted police less than an hour later, saying she and Murdaugh were being followed by a member of "the media" in a gray Chevrolet SUV.

An officer who was in the area responded and made a traffic stop on the vehicle after watching the driver speeding and making an improper lane change, according to the police report.

The officer noticed a bag in the front seat of the vehicle that was similar to a camera bag, but only warned the driver for the traffic violations before letting him go, the report said.

"Buster’s world will never be the same," Dana Wilson, a friend of Maggie Murdaugh, said in a March 3 Dateline episode. "I can’t even imagine to lose everything in your life that you’ve known — everything in your life that you’ve ever known."

Buster Murdaugh sat behind his father in court every day as he faced trial for killing his wife Maggie Murdaugh and youngest son Paul Murdaugh.

He was the first witness to take the stand in his father's defense, and testified Alex Murdaugh was barely able to speak when Buster saw him after the slayings.

"His demeanor was destroyed, he was heartbroken," Buster Murdaugh told jurors on Feb. 21. "I walked in the door and saw him and gave him a hug and just broke down."

Buster Murdaugh was mentioned several times during "Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal," a Netflix documentary about the downfall of Alex Murdaugh, which details several suspicious deaths with ties to the Murdaugh family.

Stephen Smith, one of Buster's high school classmates, was found dead in 2015 on a rural road a few miles from one of the Murdaugh family properties.

His death was ruled a hit-and-run, according to the pathology report, but authorities reopened the case in 2021 after the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.

Smith's mother, Sandy Smith, said in an interview with Court TV aired on March 6 she thinks her son was beaten to death.

"It was more than one person that done this, and somebody knows," she said. "They set him up on that road to make it look like a hit and run."

Buster Murdaugh declined to comment for the Netflix series, and no one in the Murdaugh family has been named a suspect in Smith's death.

Alex Murdaugh was convicted in the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh after a six-week trial that sparked massive public interest. He was sentenced to life in prison on March 3. His attorneys have said they plan to appeal the sentence.