Alex Murdaugh, a prominent South Carolina attorney, found himself at the center of a national scandal in June 2021, after he called 911 to report that he had been shot on the side of a rural road.
The shooting took place just months after the murder of his wife and son at their family home in Colleton County, South Carolina. Speculation soon arose about whether the shooting was related to the murders of his family members, and the investigation into the case uncovered a web of secrets, lies, and corruption.
Alex Murdaugh was a prominent attorney in South Carolina, known for representing powerful clients in high-profile cases.
He came from a prominent legal family and was a partner in his family's law firm, Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, & Detrick (PMPED). Murdaugh was also involved in local politics and served as a prosecutor for a time.
On June 7, 2021, Alex Murdaugh discovered the bodies of his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, and his son, Paul Murdaugh, at their family home in Colleton County, South Carolina. Maggie and Paul had both been shot multiple times and were found outside the home. Paul had been awaiting trial for a boating accident that killed a young woman in 2019, and there were rumors that the murders were related to that case.
On September 4, 2021, Alex Murdaugh called 911 to report that he had been shot on the side of a rural road in Hampton County, South Carolina. He survived the shooting and was airlifted to a hospital in Savannah, Georgia, where he was treated for a “superficial” gunshot wound to the head. Murdaugh claimed that he had pulled over to change a tire when a truck drove by and someone shot at him.
The investigation into the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh and the shooting of Alex Murdaugh is ongoing, and many details have not been released to the public. However, some new developments have come to light in recent weeks.
In November 2021, a grand jury indicted Alex Murdaugh on charges of insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud related to the death of his housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield.
Satterfield died in 2018 after falling down a flight of stairs in the Murdaugh home. Murdaugh had reportedly settled a wrongful death lawsuit with Satterfield's family for $505,000, but they never received the money. The indictment alleges that Murdaugh conspired with Curtis Edward Smith, a former client of his, to fake Satterfield's signature on settlement papers and keep the money.
In addition to the insurance fraud charges, investigators have been looking into other possible motives for the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.
One theory is that they were killed in retaliation for Paul's involvement in the boating accident that killed Mallory Beach in 2019.
Another theory is that the murders were related to the Murdaugh family's involvement in a multi-million dollar wrongful death lawsuit involving a 19-year-old who died in a hit-and-run accident in 2019.
How did Alex Murdaugh kill his family?
The investigation into the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh is ongoing, and no one has been officially charged with the crimes. However, there have been many rumors and speculations about what happened that fateful night in June 2021.
In march 2023, The jury in the double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh, which deliberated for less than three hours, found him guilty of murdering his wife and son, the grisliest and most severe of the allegations faced by the disgraced former South Carolina attorney.
Murdaugh, the 54-year-old scion of a prominent and powerful family of local lawyers and solicitors, was also found guilty of two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in the killings of Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh and Paul Murdaugh on June 7, 2021.
