Disgraced ex-lawyer Alex Murdaugh indicted on two counts of murder of wife and son
Alex Murdaugh fatally shot his wife and son on their South Carolina property, prosecutors alleged Thursday, the latest bombshell added to the myriad mysteries surrounding the disgraced family.
Murdaugh, 54, was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of murder, one for wife Maggie and one for son Paul, according to the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office.
“All the efforts of our office and the law enforcement agencies involved in this investigation have been focused on seeking justice for the victims’ families,” Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a statement.
Murdaugh told police he found his wife and youngest son dead on June 7, 2021, when he got home from visiting his ailing father.
Police never identified any other suspects or made any arrests, but Murdaugh’s lawyer admitted his client was the only person of interest.
The Murdaugh family mysteries: a timeline of murders, cryptic deaths, scandals and power
Alex Murdaugh is facing two counts of murder. (Mic Smith/)
“Alex wants his family, friends and everyone to know that he did not have anything to do with the murders of Maggie and Paul. He loved them more than anything in the world,” his lawyers, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, told the Daily News in a statement Thursday.
“It was very clear from day one that law enforcement and the Attorney General prematurely concluded that Alex was responsible for the murder of his wife and son. But we know that Alex did not have any motive whatsoever to murder them.”
The indictment said Maggie was killed with a rifle and Paul with a shotgun, but provided no other details, including why investigators believe Murdaugh was the assailant. A source previously told FITS News Murdaugh had blood splatter on his clothes when police arrived the night of Maggie and Paul’s slayings.
Murdaugh was also charged with two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.
From left, Buster, Maggie, Paul and Alex Murdaugh are seen before a formal event in 2019.
“Over the last 13 months, [South Carolina Law Enforcement Division] agents and our partners have worked day in and day out to build a case against the person responsible for the murders of Maggie and Paul and to exclude those who were not,” Mark Keel, chief of that law-enforcement agency, said in a statement. “Today is one more step in a long process for justice for Maggie and Paul.”
Murdaugh remained behind bars Thursday, having been charged with dozens of other crimes including staging an assisted suicide and stealing millions of dollars from clients at his law firm.
Over Labor Day, Murdaugh was shot in the head on the side of a South Carolina road in what he initially said was a drive-by shooting. Days later, he confessed to police that he had arranged for Curtis Smith, his alleged drug dealer, to kill him and make it look random in order to ensure his eldest son, Buster, would get his $10 million life insurance payout.
After that admission, Murdaugh’s web of alleged crimes unraveled.
Alex Murdaugh's alleged crimes and infractions are many.
His law firm, founded by his relatives more than 100 years ago, has accused him of stealing millions of dollars from clients, skimming off the top of settlements and directing them into his own bank account. Both he and former Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Laffitte have been charged.
Murdaugh also allegedly stole the more than $4 million life-insurance payout intended for the sons of his family’s longtime housekeeper, who died after falling at their property in 2018. At the suggestion of Murdaugh, Gloria Satterfield’s sons, Michael “Tony” Satterfield and Brian Harriott, hired Cory Fleming to represent them, unaware he was Murdaugh’s college roommate and friend. Satterfield and Harriott never saw a penny of the payout and Fleming has been charged with stealing the money and giving most of it to Murdaugh.
A lawyer for the Satterfield sons said recently the housekeeper’s body will be exhumed and examined, questioning the Murdaughs’ official story that she tripped over their dogs. Satterfield’s death was never reported and an autopsy was not performed.
South Carolina officials have also opened an investigation into the unsolved death of 19-year-old Stephen Smith — no relation to Curtis Smith — after he was found dead in July 2015 along a Hampton County road. Smith’s blunt-force head trauma was written off as a hit-and-run but his family has long questioned that narrative.
