Alex Murdaugh Charged With The Murders Of Wife And Son

The bodies of Paul Murdaugh, 22, and Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, were first discovered on June 7, 2021, at their family hunting lodge in Islandton.

Alex Murdaugh called 911 shortly after 10 p.m. to report the grisly finding after he said he had returned from Savannah, Georgia, where he’d gone to visit his 81-year-old father, Randolph Murdaugh III, in a hospital.

Autopsies showed Paul and Maggie had each been shot multiple times between 9 and 9:30 p.m. that night.

Randolph III — who had served like his father and grandfather as the elected solicitor for the state’s 14th Judicial Circuit, and who had been awarded the highest civilian honor in South Carolina, the Order of Palmetto — then died three days later from his illness.

As authorities investigated the killings and searched for a possible motive, attention soon turned to a web of deaths that haunted the Murdaughs, whose broader family had amassed large wealth as attorneys working on civil lawsuits in the region.

The Murdaughs had been accused of helping Paul evade legal responsibility for the 2019 death of Mallory Beach, a friend of his who had died when he was allegedly boating at night under the influence of alcohol.

Paul had been charged with drunk driving over the incident in April 2021 and was awaiting trial at the time of his death.

Beach’s mother, Renee Beach, had also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against other members of Paul’s family, including his grandfather, father, and brother.

As part of their investigation into the Murdaugh killings, detectives also began reexamining the circumstances of the 2018 death of their housekeeper as well as the 2015 death of Stephen Smith, a classmate of Buster’s, who was found dead on a highway but with little evidence to suggest he had been hit by a car.

Satterfield, who had worked for the Murdaugh family for over two decades, was believed to have tripped over the family’s dogs and hit her head.

But Alex Murdaugh allegedly cooked up a scheme whereby he steered Satterfield’s two sons to hire his friend as a lawyer in order to sue his insurer for compensation.

But the two sons said they never received any of the $505,000 settlement and later learned of an additional settlement worth $4.3 million of which they had never been made aware. Instead, most of that money was allegedly transferred to Alex Murdaugh, with $1.4 million paid to his attorney friend as fees.

Alex Murdaugh has been held in jail since a judge denied him bail in October, ruling he could be a danger to himself or others.

“Alex Murdaugh stained our profession,” Eric Bland, an attorney representing the Satterfield family, said at the October bail hearing. “He also put a black eye on this state.”