Over the past few weeks, American media has closely followed the murder trial of Alex Murdaugh, a well-known South Carolina-based lawyer who is facing charges that he killed his wife Maggie, 52, and youngest son Paul, 22. Each twist and turn in this case has been broadcast live on national television and now American streaming giant Netflix has come out with a three-part documentary series called “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal”.
Alex Murdaugh, 54, belongs to a family of prominent lawyers that have dominated South Carolina’s legal landscape for decades. He has maintained his innocence in the killings. If convicted, Murdaugh would face 30 years to life in prison.
What are the Murdaugh murders about?
On the night of June 7, 2021, at around 10 pm, Alex Murdaugh called 911 to report that his wife Maggie and youngest son Paul were shot dead. Murdaugh said that their bodies were discovered near the dog kennels at the family’s hunting lodge in Islandton, South Carolina. Earlier in the day, Murdaugh was at home with Maggie and Paul and phone records indicated that he left home to visit his ailing mother at 9 pm, according to a report by the New York Times on Wednesday.
The murders of Maggie and Paul shocked South Carolina’s Lowcountry region. Law enforcement officers who were at the crime scene found shell casings and said they looked for surveillance cameras from nearby areas. But police reports did not indicate that they found any.
Murdaugh told the officers that his son Paul, a student at the University of South Carolina, was getting death threats due to a fatal boat accident he had been involved in 2019 in which 19-year-old Mallory Beach, one of the passengers, had died. Paul was allegedly drunk while operating the boat and he was charged with felonies related to the accident.
No arrests were made in connection to the murders of Maggie and Paul for more than a year.
July 2022: Alex Murdaugh indicted for murders of wife, son
In July last year, Alex Murdaugh was indicted for the murders of Maggie and Paul, with authorities saying he shot his wife with a rifle and his son with a shotgun, the New York Times report added. Prosecutors accused the 54-year-old of killing his wife and son in a failed attempt to conceal his financial crimes.
On September 3, 2021, Murdaugh resigned from the law firm Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick (PMPED) after he was confronted for years of suspected embezzlement.
A day later, the former lawyer claimed that he was shot in the head on a roadside while he was changing a flat tyre. However, investigators soon discovered that Murdaugh asked a former client to kill him so that his oldest son, Buster, would receive $10 million in life insurance. But the shooter missed. Murdaugh survived and was charged with fraud. He was jailed in October 2021 and since then has faced several financial charges.
What is the latest development in the trial?
On Wednesday, Mark Ball, a former law partner of Alex Murdaugh and friend of over three decades, testified that over a dozen people walked around the crime scene (of the killings of Maggie and Paul) before law enforcement officers arrived. “This is a pretty big farm and I don’t know who is over there. Two people have been gunned down. Safety is one concern. And is that house part of what has gone on here? Where does the crime scene start and stop,” Ball said, the news agency AP reported.
Ball also said that he identified Murdaugh’s voice in a video taken at the dog kennels minutes before Maggie and Paul were murdered.
Has the Murdaugh family been involved in any other case?
The scrutiny on Alex Murdaugh in the murder of his wife and son has opened investigations into three other deaths in proximity to the family. These three deaths are of Mallory Beach, Gloria Satterfield and Stephen Smith. As mentioned before, Mallory Beach was killed in a fatal boat crash in 2019 and questions were raised about whether the police were sloppy in their probe or gave Paul Murdaugh favourable treatment. Paul was out on bail after he was charged.
A year before the boat accident, Gloria Satterfield, who was a housekeeper for Alex Murdaugh and his family for more than two decades, died after falling down the stairs at their residence. Murdaugh stole millions of dollars paid by an insurance company to the relatives of Satterfield. The investigation is this case is still going on.
And in 2015, Stephen Smith, a former classmate of Murdaugh’s oldest son Buster, was found dead on a road about 16 kilometres from the Murdaugh residence. Smith’s death was initially investigated as a possible shooting but was then considered to be a hit and run, the New York Times reported. It was rumoured that the Murdaughs were involved but the police have not accused the family of any wrongdoing.
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