ISLANDTON, S.C. — The killing of a mom and son. Tens of millions of {dollars} in stolen funds. Contemporary investigations right into a deadly boat crash and a housekeeper’s lethal fall.
The tragic circumstances swirling round a lawyer and his household in South Carolina turned solely extra perplexing over time, resulting in a number of arrests, gorgeous twists and complex theories arising from these following the case. At its middle is the Murdaugh household, whose members have served in highly effective authorized positions within the southern a part of the state going again 100 years.
All of it started on the night time of June 7, 2021, when Alex Murdaugh, a lawyer whose father, grandfather and great-grandfather all served as the highest prosecutor throughout a large space of the state, referred to as 911 to report that his spouse and considered one of their two sons had been shot to loss of life.
A way of thriller developed round their killings as greater than a yr handed with out the authorities naming a suspect or figuring out a motive for the slayings. Then, on July 14, 2022, Mr. Murdaugh, 54, was indicted on two counts of homicide, with prosecutors saying he fatally shot his spouse with a rifle and his son with a shotgun.
The preliminary investigation has spawned a number of extra into three earlier deaths in proximity to the household, and Mr. Murdaugh first ended up in handcuffs after concocting a weird scheme to stage his personal suicide to seem like a homicide and being charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from a settlement fund.
Right here’s what to know.
What occurred within the authentic ‘Murdaugh murders’?
The deadly capturing of Mr. Murdaugh’s spouse, Maggie, 52, and their son Paul, a 22-year-old junior on the College of South Carolina, rocked the state’s Lowcountry area, the place the household had established its authorized dynasty. The killings started to be often called the Murdaugh murders.
Few particulars had been launched in regards to the assault, and no arrests had been made for greater than a yr.
Mr. Murdaugh had informed the authorities that he found their our bodies when he returned to the household’s remoted residence in Islandton, a rural hamlet about 65 miles west of Charleston.
In audio of his name to 911, which he positioned simply after 10 p.m., a distraught Mr. Murdaugh mentioned he had arrived residence and located their our bodies on the bottom “out at my kennel.”
“I’ve been as much as it now, it’s unhealthy,” Mr. Murdaugh informed the dispatcher. He mentioned that neither his spouse nor his son was respiration, and he implored the emergency responders to rush. “Are they shut, ma’am?”
Officers with the Colleton County Sheriff’s Workplace wrote in stories that that they had found a number of shell casings and had referred to as a tow truck firm to the scene. Additionally they mentioned that they had appeared for surveillance cameras from neighboring properties and companies, although the closely redacted police stories didn’t point out whether or not they discovered any.
Mr. Murdaugh and his legal professionals have steadfastly denied that he had any involvement within the deaths of his spouse and son. After Mr. Murdaugh was charged, state police and the South Carolina lawyer common, that are investigating the case, didn’t instantly launch any new particulars or motive within the killings.
How was Alex Murdaugh shot, and why was he arrested the primary time?
Almost three months after his spouse and son had been killed, Mr. Murdaugh, was compelled to resign from his household legislation agency, P.M.P.E.D. — named for the initials of its companions — after leaders on the agency mentioned Mr. Murdaugh had misused hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of shopper and agency cash, which his legal professionals haven’t denied.
The subsequent day, Sept. 4, Mr. Murdaugh referred to as 911 and mentioned he had been shot within the head on the facet of a rural street not removed from his residence. He survived with solely a minor wound and initially claimed that he had been shot by somebody who pulled up beside him as he was inspecting a flat tire on his automotive. However the story shortly fell aside.
Mr. Murdaugh quickly admitted that he had requested considered one of his distant cousins to shoot him within the head. Mr. Murdaugh’s legal professionals mentioned he had give you the plan to make his suicide seem like a homicide as a result of he had falsely believed that his life insurance coverage plan wouldn’t cowl his loss of life if it was dominated a suicide. He had wished to depart his older son, Buster, with a $10 million payout.
Two days after the capturing, Mr. Murdaugh issued an announcement apologizing to his “household, mates and colleagues” and mentioned he was getting into rehab. His legal professionals mentioned that he had been addicted for years to oxycodone and that his abuse of the painkiller had worsened after the loss of life of his spouse and son. Mr. Murdaugh’s legislation license was suspended and his legislation agency is suing him over the cash they accused him of stealing.
His scheme to have his cousin kill him additionally ended within the arrest of each Mr. Murdaugh and the cousin, Curtis Edward Smith. Mr. Smith was charged with aggravated assault, helping in a suicide try and insurance coverage fraud. Mr. Smith informed The New York Occasions that he didn’t shoot Mr. Murdaugh and that the gun had gone off as he grabbed Mr. Murdaugh’s arm to cease him from capturing himself.
Mr. Murdaugh turned himself in to the police on Sept. 16 and was charged with insurance coverage fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance coverage fraud and submitting a false police report — all felonies.
In a courtroom in Hampton County, Mr. Murdaugh wept behind a face masks as he sat handcuffed and in a jail jumpsuit as considered one of his legal professionals described his “fall from grace.” He was launched with out having to forfeit any cash, although he was arrested a couple of month in a while monetary crimes and has been held in jail ever since.
In July 2022, Mr. Murdaugh and Mr. Smith had been indicted on conspiracy fees for what prosecutors mentioned was years of cash laundering associated to distributing oxycodone.
How did a housekeeper die on the Murdaugh residence in 2018?
In February 2018, Gloria Satterfield, who had labored as a nanny and housekeeper for Alex Murdaugh and his household for greater than 20 years, fell at their residence and died from her accidents a number of weeks later.
After her funeral, Mr. Murdaugh launched her two grownup sons to a lawyer who he mentioned would deal with them, however the sons mentioned in a current lawsuit that they didn’t know that the lawyer, Cory Fleming, was a detailed pal of Mr. Murdaugh’s. Mr. Fleming reached a $4.3 million settlement with Mr. Murdaugh and his insurers that was speculated to ship about $2.8 million to Ms. Satterfield’s sons after lawyer’s charges, however the sons mentioned in September that that they had realized in regards to the deal solely not too long ago and by no means bought any cash.
Mr. Murdaugh admitted final month that he owed her sons $4.3 million.
Along with the settlement, the police are additionally trying into the reason for Ms. Satterfield’s loss of life. Her household had lengthy thought, based mostly on the Murdaugh household’s accounts, that she had tripped over their canine and fallen down the entrance steps of their residence, however the native coroner was not notified about her loss of life and no post-mortem was ever accomplished. Her loss of life can be listed as “pure” on her loss of life certificates, which is at odds with an unintended fall.
The police mentioned in June 2022 that they deliberate to exhume Ms. Satterfield’s physique after receiving permission from her household.
What does this need to do with a ship crash?
On the time of his loss of life, Paul Murdaugh, the son who was killed, was out on bail after being charged in 2019 with drunkenly crashing a ship in an accident that killed considered one of his passengers, 19-year-old Mallory Seashore, and injured a number of others.
Paperwork and movies launched since his loss of life have raised questions on whether or not the police had been sloppy or gave him favorable therapy. One of many boat’s six passengers informed a Division of Pure Sources officer shortly after the crash that Paul Murdaugh had been driving the boat, however the officer wrote in a report that the passenger had mentioned he was unsure who was driving.
The South Carolina lawyer common continues to be investigating the crash, during which Paul Murdaugh confronted a cost of cruising below the affect inflicting loss of life and two fees of cruising below the affect inflicting nice bodily damage — all felonies. The authorities haven’t made any ties between the boat crash and the double killing of Paul and his mom.
In June 2021, two of Alex Murdaugh’s brothers appeared on the ABC program “Good Morning America” and mentioned in one of many few public feedback from the household that Paul, their nephew, had been getting threatening messages since being charged within the boat accident.
And the younger man discovered alongside a street in 2015?
The housekeeper’s loss of life shouldn’t be the one one to obtain recent scrutiny.
In June 2021, just a few weeks after the loss of life of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, the South Carolina Regulation Enforcement Division introduced that it was opening a brand new inquiry into the loss of life of Stephen Smith, a 19-year-old man whose physique was discovered on a street about 10 miles from the Murdaugh residence.
His loss of life has by no means been absolutely defined, and no arrests had been made. It was initially investigated as a doable capturing, then it was thought-about to be successful and run. Police information have urged that Mr. Smith ran out of fuel on the facet of the street a number of miles away from the place his physique was discovered.
The police haven’t accused the Murdaugh household of wrongdoing within the case, and so they haven’t mentioned what — throughout their Murdaugh investigation — led them to open an investigation into Mr. Smith’s loss of life.
How highly effective is the Murdaugh household?
The Murdaugh authorized dynasty goes again to Randolph Murdaugh, who ran a one-man legislation workplace earlier than he was elected, in 1920, as the primary chief prosecutor for a five-county area that covers 3,200 sq. miles.
He served within the place for 20 years earlier than he was killed in a prepare crash. Then his son, Randolph Murdaugh Jr., who was often called Buster, took over his father’s function within the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Workplace. The youthful Murdaugh was within the place for 46 years and, when he retired, his son, Randolph Murdaugh III, who was Alex Murdaugh’s father, was elected, serving till 2006.
Alex Murdaugh by no means ran for the prosecutor job, however he did function a volunteer prosecutor and generally helped his father with circumstances. He was formally faraway from that volunteer function in September, The Island Packet newspaper reported.
