New details are emerging related to the June 2017 murders of Alex Murdaugh’s wife and son at the family’s South Carolina estate.
A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told People that Alex asked his wife to meet him at the Islandton home because his father’s health was failing. Maggie, 52, and Alex had hit a rough patch in their marriage, and she was staying at their beach house about an hour away.
Maggie tried to arrange to meet Murdaugh at the hospital, but when he insisted, she relented. While en route, she thought something felt off and texted a friend that Alex was acting “fishy.”
“He’s up to something,” she texted her friend. When she got to the house, she left her car running in anticipation of following Alex to the hospital. She walked to the back of the property where her son, Paul, 22, was tending to a dog he was caring for.
The two were later found dead in the area of the dog kennels. Both were fatally shot, with Paul suffering from gunshot wounds to the head and chest from what appeared to be a long gun. Maggie was shot multiple times with an AR-style rifle.
After more than 13 months of investigation, Alex was indicted on murder charges. In addition, he was charged with possession of a weapon.
He denies murdering his family, and the evidence against him has not been made public. The source close to the investigation told the outlet that blood splatter found on Alex’s clothing and that he never went to visit his father in the hospital led to his arrest.
“Alex wants his family, friends, and everyone to know that he did not have anything to do with the murders of Maggie and Paul,” Alex’s defense attorneys Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian said in a statement. “He loved them more than anything in the world.”
ABC News reports that they plan to exhume the body of the Murdaugh family’s housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. The family claimed she died in the hospital after a fall at their home in 2018. Alex received a $4 million payout from his home owner’s insurance, which he claimed was intended for Satterfield’s family.
In addition to the murder charges, Alex faces more than 85 other charges. The disgraced lawyer faces charges related to a murder-for-hire plot and stealing millions from people who hired him.
