At the time of his death, Paul was facing manslaughter charges stemming from a Feb. 24, 2019, boat crash that resulted in the death of one of the passengers, 19-year-old Mallory Beach. He had been out drinking heavily and joyriding in Alex’s speedboat with friends when they crashed at high speed into a bridge’s pylon shortly before 2:30 a.m., injuring those on board and sending Beach flying into the water. Her body would not be found for seven days.
Alex and his father soon arrived at the hospital where Paul and the other survivors had been taken. One nurse there said Paul appeared to be “highly intoxicated and uncooperative with staff,” telling detectives Paul was “one of the most arrogant teenagers to come through the emergency room.” Other nurses said they saw Alex entering the rooms of others who’d been on board the boat to try to talk to them, while Paul initially refused to take blood alcohol tests. Later tests showed his blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit.
The Murdaughs later tried to insist that Cook had been driving at the time of the crash — a defense they planned to use when Paul was eventually charged with three counts relating to Beach’s death months after the crash. When he pleaded not guilty in May 2019, it was in a courtroom where his great-grandfather’s portrait hung on the walls. Released on a $50,000 recognizance bond, Paul was never detained in jail; his mugshot was taken in a courtroom corridor rather than a police station.
Before his death, the Beach family had also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Murdaughs, which would have compelled them to detail their net worth and finances in court.
After Paul was murdered, officials did investigate whether he may have been the intended target and whether Maggie’s death was collateral damage. Alex’s brothers told Good Morning America that their late nephew had received death threats prior to his killing.
What about the other deaths linked to the Murdaugh family?
Soon after Paul and Maggie were killed, officials announced that “based upon information gathered” during that investigation, they were reopening probes into the 2015 death of local 19-year-old Stephen Smith and the 2018 death of Murdaugh housekeeper Gloria Satterfield.
On July 8, 2015, Smith’s body was found in the middle of a rural road in Hampton County, about 10 miles from the Murdaugh home. The 19-year-old had died from blunt force trauma to the head, which authorities had initially suspected had been due to a hit-and-run. They theorized he had been walking home in the middle of the night after his car ran out of gas when he was struck by another vehicle and left for dead. But the South Carolina Highway Patrol found no evidence of any crash, fueling suspicions that his body was simply dumped there.
Smith, a gay nursing student in the conservative small town, had been a classmate of Buster Murdaugh’s. Rumors circulating in the area linked the pair romantically, with Smith’s twin sister saying he had told her he had been quietly seeing another young man who would surprise many people. However, no members of the Murdaugh family were ever formally accused in Smith’s death.
In February 2018, more than two and a half years after Smith was killed, the Murdaughs’ longtime housekeeper, Satterfield, fell at their hunting lodge, dying weeks later from her injuries. She was said to have tripped on one or more of the family’s dogs, hitting her head on a set of stairs. But the housekeeper’s death was listed as “natural” on her death certificate, when the manner should have been “accidental,” according to a coroner.
In September 2021, following the Murdaugh murders, authorities said that based on “information gathered” during their probes of Alex, they were opening a criminal investigation into Satterfield’s death, as well as the handling of her estate. Her body was even exhumed as part of the investigation.
What other crimes has Alex Murdaugh been accused of?
Alex was charged in October 2021 with two counts of obtaining property by false pretenses for misappropriating funds intended for Satterfield’s family after her death.
Satterfield’s sons said Murdaugh steered them to use a lawyer — Cory Fleming, who was, unbeknownst to them, one of his longtime friends — so they could sue his insurer for compensation. A settlement of $500,000 was eventually reached, but the sons said they never received any money. They later also learned of an additional $4.3 million settlement of which they had never been made aware. Instead, Fleming sent the money to a new account belonging to Murdaugh. (Fleming was also eventually charged, as was former banker Russell Laffitte, who was alleged to have participated in this and other schemes.) In June 2022, Alex finally admitted in a “confession of judgment” that he owed the Satterfields the $4.3 million.
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/davidmack/alex-murdaugh-murder-trial-preview
