Alex Murdaugh: Trial of prominent lawyer accused of murdering wife and son prompts reopening of investigations into other deaths
The trial of a prominent US lawyer for the murder of his wife and son has prompted the reopening of investigations into other deaths.
Alex Murdaugh, 54, is accused of shooting dead his wife Margaret, 52, and their youngest son Paul, 22, on their estate in South Carolina.
Prosecutors say the lawyer carried out the killings after he was caught stealing from the family firm.
A jury’s verdict is expected soon.
The Murdaughs feature in a Netflix documentary series called Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal. In it, residents in their hometown of Hampton County question the family’s influence, historically, over local law enforcement.
Following the murder charges against Murdaugh, police have begun reinvestigating the death of the family’s housekeeper.
Fresh inquiries are also being made into the 2015 death of a former classmate of Murdaugh’s oldest son.
The Murdaugh story is one anchored among South Carolina’s wealthy and well-heeled.
Before he was disbarred, Murdaugh was a personal injury lawyer – distinguished and high-earning in a powerful legal dynasty founded by his forebears in the Low Country region of South Carolina.
But now the dynasty, and he, will forever be associated with the horrific events of the evening of 7 June 2021.
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Lawyer accused of arranging own shooting for $10m insurance payout
Alex Murdaugh in a police mugshot. Pic: AP
Murdaugh shot wife five times and son twice, prosecutors say
On the family’s hunting estate, prosecutors say Murdaugh shot his wife five times with an automatic rifle.
His son was shot twice with a different weapon, a shotgun, in the head and chest.
The prosecution claims Murdaugh changed the guns used to create the appearance of an ambush.
It was Murdaugh who made a 911 call, sobbing as he told the dispatcher “my wife and child have been shot badly”.
Subsequently, he told police he had been to visit his mother and had returned to find his wife and son dead by the kennels on the estate.
Alex Murdaugh with wife Maggie and son Paul. Pic: Facebook
The boating tragedy
Officers who first attended the scene found Murdaugh in distress. Upon their arrival, he quickly provided a theory behind the killings, suggesting it was a reaction to a boating tragedy that took place in February 2019.
Murdaugh’s son Paul, then 19, had crashed the family boat whilst three times the legal alcohol limit.
A number of people were thrown overboard, including Mallory Beach, 19, who was killed.
Murdaugh might have been promoting the boating incident as part of his legal defence – in the event, it featured in the prosecution case.
The family of Ms Beach are suing Murdaugh as the owner of the boat involved in their daughter’s death.
Buster Murdaugh receives a hug at the funeral service for his mother and brother on 11 June, 2021. Pic: AP
Murdaugh was defrauding law firm, chief financial officer says
The murder trial has heard from his law firm’s chief financial officer, who gave evidence that Murdaugh had been defrauding the company and putting the money in his wife’s bank account to shield it from the lawsuit brought by the dead girl’s family.
She told the court that she had confronted him about a missing $792,000 (£655,000) on the day of the double shooting.
It plays into the prosecutor’s argument that Murdaugh was driven to murder by a fear that his financial crimes were about to be exposed, and that his wife and son were shot to elicit sympathy and stymie investigations.
Snapchat recording casts doubt over alibi
A Snapchat video recorded by Murdaugh’s son, Paul, has also been played in court to bolster the prosecution case.
It shows footage of a brown labrador at the kennels where the shooting took place.
Paul filmed it approximately five minutes before he was shot dead and witnesses have said one of the voices heard on the video is that of Murdaugh. Prosecutors point out that doesn’t square with his initial alibi that he hadn’t seen his wife or son for 90 minutes before coming across their dead bodies.
In addressing the contradiction in court, Murdaugh admitted in evidence that he had lied. His explanation was that he had an opioid addiction stretching back 20 years which made him paranoid and distrustful of police.
Investigations into other deaths
As the murder trial progresses, so do new investigations into other deaths in Murdaugh’s orbit.
Gloria Satterfield was their long-term housekeeper until her death in 2018. Its cause was originally thought to have been an accidental fall on steps at the front of the Murdaugh home. Suspicion of a different explanation has been given traction by Murdaugh’s subsequent financial dealings.
Following Ms Satterfield’s death, he secured an insurance payout on her sons’ behalf worth more than $4m (£3.3m) but pocketed the cash himself.
Only when they pursued him through the courts, did he agree to a $4.3m (£3.6m) settlement.
Michael Tony Satterfield, son of Gloria Satterfield, points out Alex Murdaugh during the lawyer’s double murder trial. Pic: AP
Fresh investigation launched
The murder charges against Murdaugh have also coincided with a fresh investigation into the death of Stephen Smith, 19, who was found dead on a road around 10 miles from Murdaugh home. He had suffered a head injury and, at the time, it was deemed to have been a hit-and-run incident.
The teenager was a classmate of the Murdaughs’ oldest son, Buster. Whilst enquiries are ongoing, law enforcement officials haven’t publicly acknowledged any connection to the Murdaugh family.
99 other charges
As well as putting Mr Murdaugh on trial for murder, the South Carolina Attorney General has laid 99 other charges against him for financial crimes dating back several years. He’s accused of swindling more than $8m (£6.6m) from unsuspecting clients.
Curtis Edward Smith was charged with assisted suicide, insurance fraud and several other counts. Pic: Colleton County Detention Center via AP
The jury at Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, has also heard of a bizarre ‘suicide attempt’ by Murdaugh three months after the death of his wife and son.
Having been picked up by an ambulance crew from the side of the road with a head injury, he told them he had been changing a tyre when someone stopped to help him and then shot him in the head.
He later admitted to investigators that he concocted the episode with a drug dealer in an effort to secure a $10m (£8.3m) life insurance payout for his son Buster. The dealer in question, Curtis Edward Smith, was subsequently charged with a number of offences, including assisting suicide, assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature.
If convicted of the double murder, Murdaugh could face 30 years to life in jail. Prosecutors in South Carolina chose not to pursue the death penalty.
Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch, two Wall Street Journal reporters and the publication’s owner, News Corp.
The US president has accused the named individuals of defamation, claiming they acted with malicious intent and caused him overwhelming financial and reputational harm.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Miami, seeks at least $10bn (£7.5bn) in damages.
In a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump called the lawsuit “historic legal action” which was filed on behalf of himself and all Americans who he said will “no longer tolerate the abusive wrongdoings of the Fake News Media”.
“I hope Rupert and his ‘friends’ are looking forward to the many hours of depositions and testimonies they will have to provide in this case,” he wrote.
It comes after Mr Trump claimed that a letter he allegedly wrote to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was “fake” and said he would sue the “ass off” Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which first published the story.
The publication had said Mr Trump wrote the letter as part of a collection Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, planned to give him as a 50th birthday present in 2003.
It claimed the message, allegedly from Mr Trump, featured several lines of typewritten text, concluding with: “May every day be another wonderful secret.”
The text was framed by what appeared to be a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman, the WSJ claimed. The letter is also said to have featured the signature “Donald”.
Mr Trump immediately denied writing the letter when the WSJ report was published on Thursday night.
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Memes of Epstein undermine victims, says lawyer
“The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper.”
Mr Trump ignored questions about Epstein as he signed a cryptocurrency bill at the White House earlier on Friday.
The president’s lawsuit comes as the US government filed a motion to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Epstein, who took his own life while awaiting trial in 2019.
In a Manhattan federal court filing, the Department of Justice said the criminal cases against Epstein and Maxwell are a matter of public interest, justifying the release of associated grand jury transcripts.
Earlier on Friday, Mr Trump said attorney general Pam Bondi had been asked to release the transcripts because of “the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein”.
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The justice department previously said it had around 200 documents relating to Epstein and that the FBI had thousands more.
It is unknown how much of this is grand jury testimony, which is typically kept secret under US law.
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All we know about the ‘friendship’
Trump denies writing birthday letter to Epstein
The president has faced increased scrutiny over his alleged friendship with Epstein since his administration’s U-turn on the so-called ‘Epstein files’.
Mr Trump pledged to release files on Epstein during his presidential campaign, as his MAGA movement accused the Biden administration of suppressing the extent of Epstein’s paedophilia, predatory behaviour and his so-called “client list” – thought to contain names of the rich and famous who conspired with him in his child sex trafficking operation.
But after a review of the evidence the US government has, the Justice Department recently determined that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted”.
Venezuela releases jailed Americans in prisoner swap
The Trump administration said on Friday that it had negotiated an exchange with Venezuela, resulting in the release of 10 jailed Americans.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the prisoners, who had been held in the South American country, were “on their way to freedom”.
Men in the CECOT jail in EL Salvador. Pic: Reuters
In return, 252 Venezuelan migrants being held in El Salvador have been freed, the Venezuelan government said.
They had been held in the notorious maximum security CECOT prison after being deported by the US.
US
Trump denies claim he wrote birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein – and says he has ordered release of more case files
Donald Trump has called an alleged letter he wrote to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein “fake” and said he will sue the “ass off” Rupert Murdoch, who owns the paper that first published the claim.
In multiple posts on Truth Social, the US president accused The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) of fabricating the letter that it claimed was written by Mr Trump as part of a collection of letters addressed to Epstein that his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell planned to give him as a birthday present in 2003.
According to documents seen by the WSJ, Mr Trump’s letter featured several lines of typewritten text framed by what appeared to be a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman.
The paper said the letter concludes “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret”, and featured the signature “Donald”, allegedly drawn across the woman’s waist, meant to mimic the appearance of pubic hair.
Epstein took his own life in prison in 2019. Pic: AP
Responding to the WSJ’s claims, Mr Trump wrote: “The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures.
“I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DJT.”
He said earlier he would also sue the WSJ and News Corp, which Mr Murdoch owns. The WSJ is published by News Corp subsidiary company, Dow Jones & Co.
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From 16 July: Trump: Epstein case is ‘a boring story’
The Justice Department has not responded to the WSJ and the FBI declined to comment.
In a separate post, Mr Trump said he has asked the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to release “any and all pertinent grand jury testimony” in the case of the paedophile financier who was found dead in his Manhattan cell in August 2019, shortly after he was arrested on sex trafficking charges.
The release of any documents, Mr Trump said, would be subject to approval by a court.
The justice department has previously said it had around 200 documents relating to Epstein and that the FBI had thousands more. It is unknown how much of this is grand jury testimony – which is typically kept secret under US law.
Ms Bondi responded to the president on X, writing: “President Trump-we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts.”
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Elon Musk, who claimed last month that Mr Trump appears in the Epstein files, was surprisingly among the first to come to the president’s defence over the WSJ claims.
“It really doesn’t sound like something Trump would say tbh,” the tech billionaire wrote on X, before going on to ask where the evidence against Epstein allegedly held by the FBI had gone.
The Trump administration has come under criticism after the president appeared to U-turn on his own promise to release more information about the Epstein case publicly.
In the run-up to the US election last year, Mr Trump drew on rumours and conspiracy theories that appeared to accuse the Biden administration of suppressing the extent of Epstein’s paedophilia, predatory behaviour and his so-called “client list” – thought to contain names of the rich and famous who conspired with him in a child sex trafficking operation.
Ms Bondi fuelled these rumours in February by telling Fox News that the alleged Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review”.
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In the same month, the justice department released some government documents regarding the case, but there were no new revelations.
After a months-long review of additional evidence, the department earlier this month released a video meant to prove that Epstein killed himself, but said no other files related to the case would be made public.
The decision was criticised by many in Mr Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, who Mr Trump later called “weaklings”.
Sky News has contacted the White House for further comment.
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