The alleged involvement of Alex Murdaugh’s only surviving son in the 2015 roadside murder of his former classmate has always been a lingering question mark on the infamous family’s tangled web of legal woes.

This week, Buster Murdaugh finally fired back, filing a damning defamation lawsuit against Netflix and others who produced documentaries and news articles that he says “irreparably damaged” his reputation by insinuating he was involved in 19-year-old Stephen Smith’s death. But his decision to sue the companies he says accused him of “committing a crime of moral turpitude” may also be the key to figuring out what happened in the still-unsolved criminal case.

“He is reigniting embers that were almost extinct, adding oxygen to it in terms of public interest,” Eric Bland, a lawyer representing the Smith family, told The Daily Beast. “Now, these media companies are going to fight tooth and nail to get new content. They want another season and Buster just handed it to them.”

Bland believes that Buster’s decision to use the legal system to clear his name may finally yield answers for the Smiths—and “backfire” on Murdaugh and his family.

Despite the national interest in Smith’s death, Bland said that the family had not gotten “any new information” from state officials. That means all eyes will be focused on what the eight defendants in Buster’s suit can reveal in their discovery requests for phone records, depositions, cell phone geolocation, and other data that may normally be kept........

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