Alex Murdaugh, 54, the as soon as highly effective scion of a South Carolina authorized dynasty, is on trial for the slayings of his spouse and son.
Prosecutors say Alex gunned down 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh and their troubled 22-year-old son, Paul, on June 7, 2021.
The Murdaughs, a distinguished Democratic household, wielded monumental judicial and political energy for almost a century.
However the household’s dominance started to wane after Paul was criminally charged for a lethal 2019 boat wreck that triggered a sequence of lawsuits and threatened to reveal his father’s monetary schemes.
ALEX MURDAUGH IMPLICATES GROUNDSKEEPER AFTER MURDERS, VIDEO SHOWS
From left: Buster, Paul, Alex and Maggie Murdaugh pose on a fishing boat.
The accident set in movement a spiral of destruction that has stained the household’s legacy.
January 2006 — Randolph Murdaugh III steps down as prosecutor
His departure from workplace marked the top of the Democratic family’s 87-year reign as the highest prosecutor overseeing 5 counties.
The 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Workplace is the chief prosecuting company for Colleton, Hampton, Allendale, Beaufort and Jasper counties.
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Alex Murdaugh turns into emotional after seeing his household within the courtroom as opening statements start on the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, Jan. 25, 2023.
(Grace Beahm Alford / The Put up and Courier / Pool)
Randolph remained an worker within the solicitor’s workplace, and Alex joined him as a volunteer prosecutor whereas remaining a associate on the as soon as prestigious private harm regulation agency Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick.
It was based in 1910 by Randolph Murdaugh – the primary member of the household to be elected solicitor in 1920.
Alex Murdaugh is led into the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, Jan. 23, 2023 for the primary day of jury choice in his homicide trial.
(Mark Sims for Fox Information Digital)
The agency needed to change its title to the Parker Legislation Group after Alex’s authorized and legal entanglements destroyed the Murdaugh title.
Alex’s brother, Randolph “Randy” Murdaugh IV, stays a associate.
July 8, 2015 — Dying of Stephen SmithÂ
Stephen Smith, a former highschool classmate of Alex’s eldest son, Buster Murdaugh, was discovered lifeless in the midst of a rustic street in Hampton, South Carolina. The 19-year-old’s automotive was three miles away and out of fuel.
An post-mortem concluded that Smith died from blunt pressure trauma attributable to a hit-and-run — however his mother, Sandy Smith, believes he was murdered.
Freeway Patrol investigators disagreed with the post-mortem’s dedication and pursued a number of leads — together with rumors that Buster was having a secret affair with Smith, and the Murdaugh household might have been behind the killing. However the case stays unsolved.
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Buster Murdaugh, left, and Stephen Smith, proper, a highschool classmate that was killed in 2015.
SLED (South Carolina Legislation Enforcement Division) introduced in 2021 a recent probe into Smith’s mysterious demise primarily based on proof gathered throughout the investigation into Maggie and Paul’s murders.
The company didn’t elaborate on the character of the proof that led to their resolution to reopen the case.
Feb. 26, 2018 — Dying of the Murdaugh household’s housekeeper
The household’s longtime nanny and housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, died after falling down a set of stairs on the Moselle house.Â
Practically 10 months later, her household filed a wrongful demise declare on the urging of Alex. An legal professional representing Satterfield’s sons later discovered that insurance coverage insurance policies had paid out greater than $4 million, which Alex and his cronies had allegedly pocketed.
Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh household’s longtime housekeeper, is seen in an undated picture offered by her kinfolk.
(Brice Herndon Funeral Dwelling)
In October 2021, Alex was arrested at a Florida drug rehab heart and charged with embezzling thousands and thousands from her sons. He has remained in jail since.
He agreed to pay again the stolen $4.3 million in a confession of judgment. SLED later introduced an investigation into Satterfield’s demise and plans to exhume her physique.
Feb. 24, 2019 — Lethal boat crash
A turning level for the Murdaugh household got here in February 2019 when Paul, then 19, drunkenly crashed his father’s boat into the Archer’s Creek Bridge in Beaufort, killing Mallory Seashore, 19, and injuring 4 different mates.
The boat Paul Murdaugh was driving when he drunkenly crashed right into a bridge in Beaufort, South Carolina, killing Mallory Seashore and injuring 4 others.
(Beaufort County Sheriff’s Workplace)
Paul had a blood alcohol stage 3 times the authorized restrict.
Earlier than the collision, his mates stated he had morphed into his drunk alter ego “Timmy,” changing into belligerent, stripping off his garments and slapping his girlfriend.
Seashore’s property and different passengers filed a wrongful death lawsuit towards Alex, Buster and the comfort retailer chain that bought Paul, then underage, alcohol utilizing his brother’s ID.
Clockwise from left: Anthony Prepare dinner, Connor Prepare dinner, Miley Altman and Mallory Seashore. The buddies have been in a ship with a drunken Paul Murdaugh when it crashed right into a bridge, killing Seashore and injuring the opposite three. Paul’s then-girlfriend, Morgan Daughty, was additionally aboard.
(Fb)
Two months later, Paul was indicted on one rely of cruising below the affect inflicting demise and two counts of cruising below the affect and inflicting nice bodily hurt.
He was murdered earlier than the case went to trial.
June 7, 2021 — The double homicide
Alex, hysterical and sobbing, known as 911 shortly after 10 p.m. to report that he discovered Paul and Maggie shot to demise close to the canine kennels on the household’s sprawling 1,700 acres searching property in Islandton.
Diagram of the part of Alex Murdaugh’s property the place his spouse, Maggie, and his son, Paul, have been murdered.
(Fox Information)
“I would like the police and an ambulance instantly,” he advised the dispatcher. “My spouse and baby have been shot badly.” The primary spherical struck Paul’s chest, the second entered his left shoulder, touring into his neck and mind, which was severed from his body.
Maggie was mendacity facedown within the mud about 30 toes away. She had been shot with a rifle a minimum of 4 instances — as soon as execution-style at the back of the top.
The feed room the place Paul Murdaugh was fatally shot on the household’s sprawling searching property often called Moselle.
(Fox Information)
The property at 4147 Moselle Street straddles Colleton and Hampton counties and served as Alex’s main residence.
In Alex’s first assertion to a deputy on the scene, he advised that the boat crash litigation was behind the grisly killings.
Proof introduced throughout Alex Murdaugh’s trial for homicide on the Colleton County Courthouse on Jan. 26, 2023.
(Joshua Boucher / The State / Pool)
“This can be a lengthy story. My son was in a ship wreck. He’s been getting threats,” Murdaugh will be heard saying in physique digicam footage to Sgt. Daniel Greene. “I do know that’s what it’s.”
SLED instantly took over the investigation.
Sept. 4, 2021 — Alex claims he’s ambushed, shot within the head
Alex known as 911 and reported that he was shot within the head whereas altering a tire on Outdated Salkehatchie Street by a gunman in a passing truck — not removed from the Moselle crime scene.
Quickly after, Alex issued statements saying that was leaving the household apply and getting into rehab for a longstanding opioid dependancy.
Curtis Edward Smith, above, is charged with assisted suicide, insurance coverage fraud and different counts for allegedly making an attempt to assist Alex Murdaugh faux his personal homicide in order that his surviving son would get $10 million in life insurance coverage.
(Colleton County Sheriffs Workplace by way of AP)
Alex was really pushed out of the regulation agency the day earlier than the capturing after he was accused of stealing thousands and thousands from shoppers’ settlements.
Jim Griffin, Alex’s lawyer, stated his shopper sustained a cranium fracture and hemorrhaging from the capturing, however SLED described the wound as “superficial.”
Alex quickly admitted that he employed former shopper Curtis Edward Smith to kill him so his surviving son, Buster, might gather a $10 million life insurance coverage coverage.
From left to proper, Buster, Maggie, Paul and Alex Murdaugh in an undated picture.
(Fb)
He and Smith have been indicted on fraud and conspiracy expenses for the murder-suicide scheme.
In June 2022, he and Smith have been hit with new felony expenses — together with one for the distribution and buy of the narcotic oxycodone.Â
The South Carolina Supreme Court docket yanked Alex’s regulation license over his “egregious moral misconduct” – a choice he didn’t contest.
July to December 2022 — Alex charged together with his spouse and son’s homicide and different crimes
On July 14, Alex is indicted on two counts of homicide for the slayings of Paul and Maggie. He pleaded not responsible and continues to have the help of his son, Buster, his sister, Lynne Murdaugh Goette, and his brothers, John Marvin and Randy Murdaugh.
South Carolina Legal professional Common Alan Wilson is prosecuting the case.
About six months after the homicide expenses, a state grand jury indicted Alex on 9 counts of tax evasion for failing to report $6,954,639 of illegally earned earnings between 2011 and 2019, for which he owes $486,819 in taxes.
The newest counts are modest additions to the 90 state monetary crimes expenses he already confronted spanning 18 indictments for schemes to defraud victims of $9,789.447.
Jan. 23, 2022 — Alex’s homicide trial begins
It took two days to pick out a jury of eight ladies and 4 males for the homicide trial within the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina.
Decide Clifton Newman is presiding over what has been known as probably the most anticipated trial within the state’s historical past.
A portrait of Alex’s late grandfather, 14th Circuit Solicitor Randolph “Buster” Murdaugh Jr., was faraway from the courtroom for the continuing.
MURDAUGH MURDERS: MYSTERIOUS SNAPCHAT VIDEO ‘CRITICAL’ TO CASE: PROSECUTORS
Alex Murdaugh’s son, Buster Murdaugh, listens to testimony throughout his father’s homicide trial at Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, Jan. 27, 2023.
(Grace Beahm Alford / The Put up and Courier / Pool)
On Jan. 25, prosecutor Creighton Waters gave his opening assertion and revealed publicly for the primary time that investigators recovered a blue raincoat coated with gun residue that Alex allegedly stashed at his mom’s house one week after the murders.
Dick Harpootlian, a Democratic state senator and a member of Alex’s protection workforce, centered on the victims’ surprising accidents.
He argued in his opening statements that it was unthinkable a father who had a beautiful and loving relationship together with his son might perpetrate such a heinous crime.
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“The gases from that shot actually exploded his head like a watermelon hit by a sledgehammer,” Harpootlian stated of Paul’s accidents. “All that was left was the entrance of his face. All the pieces else was gone. His mind exploded out of his head, hit the ceiling within the shed and dropped to his toes. Horrendous. Horrible. Butchering.”
If convicted, Alex faces 30 years to life with out parole.
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