After Chris Wilson learned that Alex Murdaugh had been embezzling money from his own law firm, he confronted the family patriarch.
Wilson got a call from Alex's law firm partner, Lee Cope, disclosing Murdaugh's decade-long theft of millions.
"That hit you like a thunderbolt," prosecutor Creighton Waters asked.
"It knocked me down," said Wilson, who appeared distressed. On Sept. 4, 2021, Wilson met Alex and confronted him.
"He broke down crying," Wilson testified. Alex then told him he had been addicted to opioids for more than 20 years and had been stealing the money to feed his habit.
"I was so mad. I had loved the guy for so long, and I probably still loved him a little bit, but I was so mad, and I don’t remember how it ended," said Wilson, who was stunned to learn his best friend was a drug addict. "How did I not know these things or see these things?”
A few hours later, Wilson got a phone call informing him that Alex had been shot in the head.
Waters asked Wilson to describe his reaction.
“What the devil is going on? I thought he tried to kill himself,” he replied.
Alex didn't try to kill himself but hired a former client to shoot him in what he claimed was a murder-suicide attempt, so his older son would get a $10 million life insurance payout.
Wilson was testifying at a hearing, outside of the earshot of the jury, to determine whether evidence of Alex Murdaugh's prior financial crimes can be introduced at his double murder trial to prove motive.
Alex never paid Wilson back. The last time he heard from him was in a text.
“Im so sorry for the havoc I created for you," Alex wrote. "I would do anything to make it right.”
Attorney Chris Wilson, Alex Murdaugh and another lawyer worked on a personal injury case against Mack Trucks and won two verdicts totaling $5.5 million.
Alex asked Wilson, his best friend from high school and former roommate, to pay him his $792,000 cut directly instead of through his firm.
Chris Wilson testified at a hearing, outside of the earshot of the jury, to determine whether evidence of Alex's prior financial crimes can be introduced at his double murder trial to prove motive.
"Did Mr. Murdaugh’s request raise any suspicions for you?" asked prosecutor Creighton Waters. “No, sir. It was different, but it didn’t raise any red flags or suspicions,” he replied.
"Because you trusted your friend?" Waters followed up.
“Very much,” he said.
Waters asked Wilson about his perception of Alex's wealth.
“He made a lot more money than I do," Wilson said. "Always seemed to do well in his practice. All I ever heard was he was one of the biggest producers in the firm."
But Alex came back to Wilson and asked him to resend the money directly to his firm. He wired Wilson $600,000 and Wilson fronted him the additional $192,000.
Alex never repaid the money, and Wilson soon learned his best friend had been embezzling millions from his own law firm.
When Waters mentioned the murders, Wilson started to weep, as Alex rocked back and forth in his chair at the defense table.
Attorney Chris Wilson testified that he and Alex Murdaugh met in high school and were best friends. They also had a close professional relationship sharing numerous cases.
"He was one of my best friends, I thought he was, and I thought he felt the same way about me," testified Wilson, wearing a pained expression, as Alex looked down at the defense table.
"You feel that way now?" asked prosecutor Creighton Waters.
"Mr. Waters, I don’t know how I feel now," he said.
Jurors on Wednesday were played a video from Alex's birthday party in Edisto Beach about one week before the murder of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, and Waters pointed out Wilson in the clip.
Wilson was testifying at a hearing, outside of the earshot of the jury, to determine whether evidence of Alex's alleged financial crimes can be introduced at his double murder trial to prove motive.
Before Wilson took the stand, Michael Gunn of Forge Consulting, an insurance agency, said Alex had created a fake Forge account at Bank of America, where he deposited stolen settlement checks.
Forge helps clients structure settlement payouts -- but Alex's clients had no such arrangements with the agency.
Gunn also testified that Forge hadn't had an account at Bank of America for years. Gunn first learned of the fraud when a partner at Alex's former firm reached out with a client list and asked him to check whether he had accounts with them. He didn't.
{{#rendered}}SLED special agent Katie McAllister told jurors that she had a search warrant but decided to do a "consent search" the day after Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were shot to death out of consideration for the family.
When she and other investigators arrived June 8, there were 25 to 30 grieving people present at the Moselle residence, and they didn't want to displace them, she said.
Agent Katie McAllister searched every room in the house, as Alex Murdaugh's brother, John Marvin Murdaugh and a lawyer at his then-firm, Lee Cope, trailed her.
She was looking for weapons, ammunition and other evidence. McAllister examined the bedrooms, the bathrooms and even an attic where Christmas decorations were stored.
On cross-examination, she testified that she didn't find any evidence of blood on clothes or in the bathrooms.
"If someone recently showered off blood, you'd expect to see some trace evidence there?" asked defense lawyer Dick Harpootlian.
"I don't know if I'm qualified to answer that," she replied, conceding that no specialist was dispatched to the home to swab the tubs, sinks or drains for blood.
"You saw no evidence of blood or tissue to indicate someone had washed off?" he asked.
"Yes, sir, there was nothing visible to me," she answered.
After her testimony, the judge dismissed the jury for the day to continue a hearing on whether prosecutors will be allowed to present evidence of Alex's alleged financial crimes to prove motive.
On cross-examination, Dick Harpootlian asked Dylan Hightower, 14th Circuit investigator, if he knew that the Colleton County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) had issued a statement the day after the double murder of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh stating that there is "no danger to the public."
Hightower said he was unaware of the statement. It was the third time the defense had asked a witness -- including two CCSO investigators -- whether they were aware of the statement.
CCSO Det. Laura Rutland and Capt. Jason Chapman expressed surprise that their office would issue such a statement.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division was the lead investigative agency on the case, not the sheriff's office. But the "no danger to the public" comment was widely reported by the press at the time and attributed to a spokesperson.
The defense has argued that the statement indicates that investigators immediately zeroed in on Alex and didn't probe other possible suspects.
Hightower is the state's 20th witness.
Alex Murdaugh's brothers, John Marvin Murdaugh and Randolph "Randy" Murdaugh IV, strolled into the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, after the lunch break.
The pair listened to difficult testimony Thursday morning when the CFO of the Parker Law Group, formerly known as Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick, chronicled Alex's myriad of alleged financial crimes. The jury was not present.
CFO Jeanne Seckinger, who has known Alex for more than four decades, described how he was forced to resign in September 2021 after it was discovered he'd stolen millions from the firm.
Alex and Randolph were both partners in the firm at the time.
Randolph, who still works in the Hampton law office, had to confront his brother about the stunning thefts from clients' settlement funds, Secking testified.
Alex's alleged misconduct did so much damage to the reputation of the firm, founded by his great-grandfather, that the partners changed the name to the Parker Law Group at the end of 2021.
{{#rendered}}Judge Clifton Newman informed both sides that he won't address whether Alex Murdaugh's financial crimes will be admitted at trial until Friday.
Prosecutors called their 20th witness, Dylan Hightower, an investigator with the 14th Circuit.
He was at the Moselle hunting estate June 8 -- one day after the slayings -- and filmed drone footage of the property.
He said that at the time the pine trees between the dog kennels and the main residence were only about six feet tall. He said there was a clear view from the main residence to the dog kennel area.
The defense has argued that it wasn't possible to see the section of the property where Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were shot from the main house.
He said he used Find My iPhone to locate Maggie's phone June 8 on the side of Moselle Road about half a mile from the family's 1,700-acre estate.
Hightower also downloaded the data on Alex's phone a few days after the slayings. He reviewed Alex's Verizon call records and compared them with data from his cellphone.
On the physical iPhone, Hightower saw two calls on the day of the double murder, but the Verizon record showed there were 73 calls.
Lt. Britt Dove previously testified that Alex deleted entries in his call log.
Click here to see more photos from day six of Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial.
Former criminal defense attorney and former assistant district attorney Phil Holloway told "America's Newsroom" on Thursday that evidence presented in the Alex Murdaugh murder trial on Wednesday could prove the former South Carolina legal scion had "a consciousness that what he was doing was wrong."
Holloway's comments came after two witnesses in the Murdaugh trial on Wednesday said they can "100%" hear Murdaugh's voice at the scene of the crime in a video taken minutes before his son, Paul, and wife, Maggie, were killed.
Prosecutors also argued yesterday that in another video taken on Snapchat about an hour before the murders, Murdaugh can be seen wearing a blue shirt and khaki pants -- a different outfit from the white T-shirt and shorts he was wearing around 10:20 p.m. when he allegedly found his slain wife and son.
An alibi can "cook your goose" if prosecutors can successfully turn that person against the defense, Holloway said, pointing at the two witnesses who testified that they could hear Alex's voice in a video presented on Wednesday.
"If the jury in the deliberation room comes to the same conclusion that the state's witnesses have that this was in fact the defendant's voice that was at the murder scene just minutes before these murders took place, it's over," the former criminal defense attorney said. "That's just how powerful...alibi evidence is."
"If they can prove that [Murdaugh took] actions like changing his clothes and basically using these types of efforts to get around criminal liability, it shows he's got a consciousness that what he was doing was wrong and that he's trying to deceive law enforcement, the jury will see that."
Holloway noted that the defense "has not put up their case yet."
Fox News' Rebecca Rosenberg contributed to this report.
{{#rendered}}A South Carolina judge earlier this month approved a settlement agreement between a woman killed in a deadly 2019 boat wreck and two members of the Murdaugh family.
19-year-old Mallory Beach died when Paul Murdaugh drunkenly crashed his father’s boat into a bridge. He used his older brother Buster Murdaugh’s ID to buy alcohol for the excursion.
Beach’s family agreed to drop Maggie Murdaugh’s estate and Buster, 26, from the suit in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Buster is the only living son of disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh.
Alex is accused of murdering his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, in June 2021.
While the Beach family is "pleased" with Judge Daniel Hall's ruling, they do not feel it was the "best decision given the circumstances," Beach family attorney Mark Brandon Tinsley told Fox News Digital in a statement.
It was, however, "the only decision for all who had any real interest," he said.
Tinsley added: "We also believe the ruling will help give some closure to the people who so desperately deserve it.”
Jeanne Seckinger, the CFO of Parker Law Group, formerly known as Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick, revealed in her testimony Thursday that her brother-in-law is disgraced banker Russell Laffitte.
Seckinger testified, out of the earshot of jurors, that Alex Murdaugh was forced to resign in September 2021 after it was discovered that he'd stolen millions in clients' settlement funds.
His pal, Laffitte, the former CEO of Palmetto State Bank, was convicted of wire and bank fraud charges in November for helping Alex steal from his clients by processing the stolen funds and using them to cover Alex's debts at the bank.
On cross-examination, Jim Griffin suggested that Seckinger and the firm were negligent in not catching Alex's embezzlement earlier.
"The information had been at your fingertips? 2015 it was there," Griffin asked, referring to a particular scheme Alex used to divert funds.
"That's right," she replied.
Jurors were excused from the courtroom until after lunch for the hearing. Judge Clifton Newman will rule on how much of her testimony can be presented to jurors.
CFO of Alex Murdaugh's former law firm, known then as Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick, convened a meeting in early September over mounting evidence that Alex was embezzling client settlement money.
The group showed Alex's brother and partner Randolph "Randy" Murdaugh IV what they found. "Randy immediately conceded that we needed to talk to Alex, and it looked like he had stolen," Jeanne Seckinger testified.
Murdaugh trial jurors were not present for the hearing, which will determine how much of Seckinger's testimony will be presented to the panel.
Seckinger said her understanding was that Alex had admitted he'd stolen millions in settlement funds and agreed to resign.
But before the firm announced the resignation, Alex was allegedly shot in the head. On Sept. 4, 2021, Alex called 911 and reported that he was shot while changing a tire on Moselle Road not far from the scene of his wife and son's double murder. He was airlifted to a hospital.
"Nobody knew what to think," Seckinger testified. "Was this retaliation? Was he involved with something bigger that was going to get more of us in trouble?"
Alex soon admitted that he hired former client Curtis Edward Smith to kill him so his surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, could collect a $10 million life insurance policy.
He and Smith were indicted on fraud and conspiracy charges for the murder-suicide scheme.
The firm launched a forensic audit and the extent of the decade-long theft revealed millions in missing funds.
Seckinger catalogued the stolen settlement disbursements in her testimony, and said the firm made all the clients whole.
{{#rendered}}Judge Clifton Newman sent the jury from the courtroom for a long break for a hearing to determine how much of Alex Murdaugh's alleged financial crimes will be admitted at the trial.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters questioned Jeanne Seckinger, CFO of the Parker Law Group, about confronting Alex the day of the double murder.
After a discrepancy arose over $792,000 in missing settlement funds, Seckinger confronted Alex in his office June 7, 2021. She had already asked him about these funds several times.
"[Alex] was leaning on a file cabinet outside his office, and he turned to look at me as I came up and said, 'What do you need now?' and gave me a very dirty look," recalled Seckinger, who had known Alex for 40 years. "We went in the office and closed the door, and I told him I had reason to believe he received the funds himself and that I needed proof that he had not."
He assured her that the money was there, and he would get her documentation. The conversation was interrupted when Alex received a phone call that his father, Randolph Murdaugh III, was in the hospital and dying.
That afternoon, he called Seckinger again to ask how much money was in his 401k account. "He stated that he was working on some financials for the boat accident hearing later in the week,” she said.
That night, Seckinger heard that Alex's son, Paul Murdaugh, and wife, Maggie Murdaugh, were brutally shot to death at Moselle.
The double murder halted the firm's inquires into Alex's finances and the boat wreck hearing scheduled later that week was canceled.
Parker Law Group was formerly called Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick law firm, which was founded by Alex Murdaugh's great grandfather. The firm was renamed after Alex's alleged crimes tarnished the Murdaugh name.
Alex called 911 and reported that he was shot in the head while changing a tire on Old Salkehatchie Road by a gunman in a passing truck Sept. 4, 2021 — not far from the Moselle crime scene.
Soon after, Alex issued statements announcing that was leaving the family practice and entering rehab for a longstanding opioid addiction.
Alex was actually pushed out of the law firm the day before the shooting after he was accused of stealing millions from clients’ settlements.
Jim Griffin, Alex’s lawyer, said his client sustained a skull fracture and hemorrhaging from the shooting, but SLED described the wound as "superficial."
Alex soon admitted that he hired former client Curtis Edward Smith to kill him so his surviving son, Buster, could collect a $10 million life insurance policy.
He and Smith were indicted on fraud and conspiracy charges for the murder-suicide scheme.
In June 2022, he and Smith were hit with new felony charges — including one for the distribution and purchase of the narcotic oxycodone.
The South Carolina Supreme Court yanked Alex’s law license over his "egregious ethical misconduct" – a decision he didn’t contest
The next witness, Jeanne Seckinger, chief financial officer of the Parker Law Group, was called as the 20th witness for the state.
The jury was dismissed for the initial questioning, so Judge Clifton Newman can rule on what part of Seckinger's testimony can come in.
Parker Law Group was formerly called Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick law firm, which was founded by Alex's great grandfather. The firm was renamed after Alex's alleged crimes tarnished the Murdaugh name.
Seckinger said that lawyers at PMPED were required to send all their fees to the law firm. They could not be paid directly.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters asked what it would mean if the money from a settlement was paid directly to the lawyer.
"If money is given straight to you, that would be stealing it," she said.
Seckinger said she confronted Alex about settlement funds he had improperly diverted in May 2021.
"He was trying to put some money in Maggie’s name due to the boat wreck,” Alex allegedly told her, implying that he was trying to protect his earnings from the plaintiffs in the wrongful death lawsuit.
Paul drunkenly crashed his father' boat into a bridge in 2019, killing Mallory Beach and injuring four others.
{{#rendered}}Prosecutors called Snapchat representative Heidi Galore as their 19th witness. She's testifying about the Snapchat video Paul Murdaugh uploaded at 7:39 a.m. June 7, 2021.
The video was recorded one minute before it was uploaded at 7:38 a.m..
Paul sent out the video to his friends, including Will Loving, the same day at 7:56 a.m -- about one hour before the double slaying. The clip was shown to jurors on Wednesday.
"It's a video of a subject near a tree and it's a short video with some audio," Galore said. Prosecutors then played the video for the witness, and Paul and Alex can be heard laughing.
The footage shows Alex standing beside a poorly planted tree that is drooping sideways.
Prosecutors questioned Loving on Wednesday about what Alex was wearing in the clip. He had on a blue shirt and khaki pants -- an outfit different from the white T-shirt and shorts he was wearing around 10:20 p.m. when he allegedly found his slain wife and son.
The next witness, Jeanne Seckinger, chief financial officer of the Parker Law Group. The jury was dismissed for the initial questioning.
Judge Clifton Newman explained Thursday that prosecutors were allowed to question a witness Wednesday about Alex Murdaugh's alleged financial crimes and litigation in the deadly 2019 boat wreck after the defense opened the door.
Newman said defense lawyers elicited testimony from Paul Murdaugh's good friends, Rogan Gibson and Will Loving, that Alex was such an attentive and kind father, he'd have no reason to commit the double murder.
Prosecutors have a right to challenge that character evidence, Newman reasoned. The arguments were made outside the earshot of the jury.
The judge said he'd hold a separate hearing to determine the scope of the financial evidence that could be admitted -- including his misappropriation of settlement funds.
Prosecutors are not required to prove motive in a murder case. Alex Murdaugh is charged with more than 90 financial crimes in separate indictments accusing him of embezzling nearly $9 million, tax evasion and other charges.
Prosecutors suggested that Alex shot his son and wife over mounting debts and fear his decades-long corruption schemes would be exposed.
Alex Murdaugh's friends and family members gathered at the Edisto beach house to celebrate his 54th birthday -- about one week before the double murder of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh.
During cross-examination of Paul Murdaugh's friend, Will Loving, on Wednesday, defense lawyer Jim Griffin played a short clip of the group singing him "Happy Birthday."
Paul Murdaugh, smiling, was carrying a sheet cake to his father.
The defense attorney used the footage to suggest that Alex was a loving father who would never blow off his son's head with a shotgun and execute his wife with a rifle just days later.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters pointed out attorney Chris Wilson in the video -- Alex's longtime best friend.
Wilson later said that Alex took advantage of Chris Wilson, and the pair's friendship to unwittingly rope him into his alleged financial crimes.
Alex allegedly had him divert settlement money from a case they both worked on directly to Alex's personal account instead of his firm.
{{#rendered}}Will Loving testified Wednesday that his friend, Paul Murdaugh, sent him a Snapchat video at 7:56 p.m., about an hour before he was killed.
Alex Murdaugh is seen wearing a blue shirt and long khaki pants. He and his son, Paul, could be heard laughing in the clip played for jurors about a poorly planted tree that was flopping over.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters asked Loving to described Alex's clothes in the footage -- including his shoes.
Prosecutors say an hour later, Alex gunned down Paul and his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, over concerns his alleged expansive financial crimes would be exposed.
Two hours after the Snapchat recording, Alex called 911 at 10:07 p.m. to report his wife and son "badly shot,"
In his interview with investigators that night, he's wearing a white T-shirt and shorts, indicating he had changed his clothes since the 7:56 p.m. video was recorded.
At one point during cross-examination, Loving glowingly described the father and son's relationship. "It kind of seemed like he was the apple of his eye,” Loving said.
The day ended with Waters asking Loving a series of questions -- including whether he was aware of Alex's mounting debts, his dwindling bank account balances and the status of the civil litigation in the deadly 2019 boat wreck.
Loving replied no to each question.
"Do you know anything at all about [Alex] being confronted on the morning of June 7, 2021, over $792,000 of missing fees from his law firm?" Waters asked as his final question.
"No, I did not," Loving replied. After the zinger, the trial broke for the day.
Two witnesses on Wednesday placed Alex Murdaugh at the crime scene minutes before his wife and son were gunned down in a major blow to the once-powerful attorney's alibi.
Paul Murdaugh's close friend and neighbor, Rogan Gibson, took the stand after the lunch break in the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina.
Alex is charged with fatally shooting his youngest son with a shotgun and his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, with a rifle near the dog kennels of the family's sprawling hunting estate known as Moselle at about 8:50 p.m. June 7, 2021.
Gibson described the Murdaughs as his "second family."
He had left his black lab, Cash, at the Moselle dog kennels. Paul placed a four-minute call to Gibson at 8:40 and they discussed a possible issue with Cash's tail.
Paul told him he'd take a video of Cash's tail and send it to him as soon as the call disconnected – but it never arrived.
Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced scion of a South Carolina legal dynasty, was escorted from Colleton County Courthouse into a waiting black van.
On the short walk, he accidentally flashed his handcuffs under his blazer. Since the trial began, he has painstakingly tried to hide the manacles by placing his blazer over them.
He's being held at the Colleton County Jail for the duration of his double murder trial for allegedly slaughtering his son, Paul Murdaugh, with a shotgun and his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, with a rifle on June 7, 2021.
His elder son, Buster Murdaugh, has been a continuous presence in the courtroom since the trial began last week.
Alex's brother, John Marvin Murdaugh, and his sister, Lynn Murdaugh Goette, have also been consistent presences in the courtroom backing the once powerful Lowcountry attorney whose spectacular fall from grace has dominated headlines.
The trial resumes Thursday morning with the judge expected to rule on whether prosecutors can introduce evidence of Alex's financial crimes to prove motive.
{{#rendered}}During an interview with investigators June 10, 2021, Alex Murdaugh broke down in tears after he was asked about finding his wife and son shot to death.
“I know you saw a traumatic picture I know it’s not easy, I know it’s hard," an investigator can be heard saying as Alex sobs hysterically.
"It's just so bad, I did him so bad," Murdaugh appears to say through tears.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters paused the video and asked the witness, SLED special agent Jeff Croft, what Alex said.
"It's just so bad, I did him so bad," the agent repeated. Alex appeared to mouth from the defense table, "I didn't say that." His attorneys did not object.
SLED investigators did not ask any follow up questions after the puzzling statement.
Earlier in the interview, Croft questioned Alex about his timeline the night of the murders.
"The last time that you saw Paul and Maggie was when you all were eating supper?" the agent asked.
"Yes, sir," Alex replied.
Waters said in opening statements that Paul Murdaugh took a cellphone video at the dog kennels at 8:44 p.m., and Alex and Maggie Murdaugh's voices can be heard on the recording.
Prosecutors have yet to play the critical video in court. The mother and son's phones went dark at about 8:50 p.m.
The Murdaugh’s , a prominent Democratic family, had maintained control of the legal system in the southwest corner of South Carolina known as the Lowcountry for about a century.
Alex Murdaugh’s great grandfather, Randolph Murdaugh Sr., founded a single person law firm in 1910 in Hampton which would over decades grow to be the most prominent personal injury practice in the region. It was Randolph Murdaugh Sr. who in 1920 won the open seat for 14th Circuit Solicitor, the head prosecutor presiding over five counties.
The Murdaugh family maintained unbroken control of the solicitor’s office for 86 years. Most recently, Alex Murdaugh's father served as Solicitor of the 14th Circuit, from 1987 to 2005. Afterward, Alex Murdaugh stayed on as an assistant prosecutor until he was disbarred.
Alex Murdaugh is now on trial for the murder of his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, who were found dead on the family's sprawling low country estate known as Moselle.
Richard "Buster" Murdaugh Jr. -- the lone surviving son of disgraced South Carolina lawyer and accused killer Alex Murdaugh -- has been attending the murder trial taking place at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, SC.
His mother, Maggie Murdaugh, and 22-year-old brother, Paul Murdaugh, were shot to death by different firearms on the family's sprawling hunting estate known as Moselle in Colleton County on June 7, 2021. His father, Alex Murdaugh, wasn't charged in the slayings until 13 months later.
Buster and longtime girlfriend, Brooklynn White, both 26, have reportedly been living in a modest one-bedroom Hilton Head Island condominium in the months leading up to the trial. The pair have been spotting sitting together behind the defense in court.
Prosecutors say Alex Murdaugh attempted to have himself killed in a botcher suicide for hire plot in September 2021 so that Buster could collect on a $10 million life insurance policy.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) announced in 2021 a fresh probe into the mysterious demise of Stephen Smith, a former high school classmate of Buster, based on evidence gathered during the investigation into Maggie and Paul's murders.
Smith was found dead in the middle of a country road in Hampton, SC, in July 2015. The 19-year-old's car was three miles away and out of gas.
{{#rendered}}Paul Murdaugh was 22 when authorities say he and his mother, Maggie, were shot to death with different firearms near dog kennels on the family's hunting estate in Colleton County, SC.
His father, Alex Murdaugh, dialed 911 that night of June 7, 2021, to report the double slaying. He was charged in the double murder 13 months later.
At the time of his death, Paul was facing pending boating under the influence charges in connection to the 2019 death of 19-year-old Mallory Beach.
Alex Murdaugh, a former defense attorney and assistant prosecutor, has been accused of confronting other injured teen passengers of the fatal 2019 boat crash at the hospital, telling them not to speak to law enforcement. He allegedly later launched a "whisper campaign" to make it seem like another teen, Connor Cook, had crashed the boat, not his own son.
Paul Murdaugh allegedly used a credit card belonging to his mother, Maggie, and ID belonging to elder brother Buster Murdaugh, to illegally purchase alcohol while underage from a convenience store owned by Parker’s Corporation earlier that day. The boat Paul Murdaugh was driving that evening belonged partially to Maggie and partially to Alex Murdaugh.
Alex Murdaugh, 54, the once powerful scion of a South Carolina legal dynasty, is on trial for the double murders of his wife, Maggie, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, on June 7, 2021.
Murdaugh himself dialed 911 from the family's sprawling hunting estate known as Moselle in Colleton County, SC, to report the double slaying, launching a 13-month probe.
Prosecutors say Murdaugh attempted to take his own life in a concocted suicide for hire scheme in September 2021. But the unsuccessful roadside shooting, he says, was intended so that his surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, could collect on a $10 million life insurance policy.
Before he was charged with the murders, Murdaugh was indicted in schemes to defraud a slew of former legal clients of out millions of dollars in settlement money. They included the family of his former housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, a deaf quadriplegic man and a highway patrolman among others.
Coverage for this event has ended.