The BTK killer’s daughter defends Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster

The daughter of the infamous BTK serial killer has called on people to leave Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster, alone.

Kerri Rawson told NewsNation that Maggie and Alex Murdaugh’s 26-year-old son is also “a victim” of the brutal murders of his mother and brother Paul and needs to be given space to “process and grieve.”

“He needs to be respected now. He needs time to process and grieve and when he’s ready to talk, he will,” she said.

“We have to respect that he is a victim. He lost his mother and his brother in a violent and heinous crime and then sat in court for weeks and had to listen to details of what happened to his brother’s brain.

“And then stand in the stands and watch his father go on the stand and now his father has been sentenced to two life sentences.”

Her comments come after Buster filed a police report alleging he was harassed by members of the media after his father was sentenced to life in prison for the brutal murders on June 7, 2021.

In the police report filed with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday, Buster complained about photos appearing in the New York Post, showing him and his girlfriend Brooklynne White at his Hilton Head home.

The couple told officers they watched the ring camera video and noticed a suspicious gray Dodge Challenger outside the house on Saturday night.

Buster believes the vehicle’s occupant took the photos later in the After, said the report.

Some time later, Mrs. White contacted the sheriff’s office again to report that the vehicle followed them as they drove away from Hilton Head.

Officers stopped the vehicle for speeding and improper lane changes and discovered the driver had a camera bag in the car.

The driver received a traffic violation warning.

The sheriff’s office said they would also step up patrols around Buster’s house.

Buster is in the spotlight for supporting his father every day during his trial for the murders of his mother and brother.

The 26-year-old took the stand in his father’s defense, telling jurors how Murdaugh had been “devastated” in the aftermath of the murders.

His testimony was the first and only time he ever spoke out about his father’s murders or string of crimes.

As the daughter of serial killer Dennis Rader – aka BTK – Ms. Rawson sympathized with Buster as the victim whose parent committed a heinous crime.

“I think people should leave him and his family alone now if they don’t want to do the media,” she said.

“Buster is now clearly asking for respect and privacy.”

Ms. Rawson said there are differences between her experience and Buster’s.

The Murdaugh family was well known in Hampton County, South Carolina long before the murders, with three generations of the family ruling the lowland court system.

“I’ve been through so much, but my family wasn’t prominent,” she said.

Ms Rawson also pointed out that Murdaugh continues to claim his innocence – despite the damning evidence that puts him at the crime scene.

Her father, on the other hand, confessed to killing his victims on the night of his arrest “so we knew he was guilty”.

Rader – who referred to himself as the “bind torture kill” killer in letters to the Kansas media – was suddenly arrested in 2005 for a string of murders, some of which had been committed before she was even born.

He confessed to killing 10 victims over the past three decades and was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences.

While Buster is the victim of the murders of his mother and brother, his father’s conviction has sparked renewed speculation about the mysterious death of 19-year-old Stephen Smith in 2015.

Smith, an openly gay teenager who was a classmate of Buster’s, was found dead in the middle of a road in Hampton County in 2015.

He had suffered a blunt force trauma to the head and his car was on the road.

His death was officially ruled a hit-and-run, but the victim’s family — and investigators working on the first case — have long doubted this version of events, saying it appeared he had been beaten to death.

There have long been rumors in the community that a “Murdaugh boy” may have been involved, and the name Murdaugh appeared 40 times in documents in the first case, Live5News reported.

Just days after the murders of Maggie and Paul, SLED announced that the investigation into their murders had led them to reopen an investigation into Smith’s death.

As Murdaugh was led from the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro on Friday after being sentenced to life in prison, a bystander shouted that “Buster is next” for “justice” — an obvious reference to the Smith case.

“Because we don’t know of his involvement anywhere else, he is innocent until proven guilty and nothing has even been alleged or charged here,” Ms Rawson said.

“We have to respect that he is a victim,” she said, adding that it is “pure speculation at this point.”

It’s not clear what prompted SLED to launch an investigation six years after Smith’s death.

In January 2023, SLED said it had “made progress” on the case, but no other details have been released.