Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of murder in the deaths of his wife and son on March 2, 2023, approximately six weeks of his testimony in January, along with several money laundering charges and insurance fraud.
For over a year, the case of Alex Murdaugh has brought many questions and concerns following the death of Margaret and Paul Murdaugh—Murdaugh’s wife and son.
Murdaugh and his lawyers stated that at the time of the murder, he was with his mother, who has Alzheimer’s. However, three months after the murder, he found himself in a drive-by when his tire gave out. Murdaugh sustained a “superficial” head wound.
A day later, Murdaugh left his family’s law business to enter rehab based on his wife’s and son’s death. A few hours later, his business partners issued a statement of their own accusing Murdaugh of embezzling company funds.
Authorities then released information regarding the drive-by. They revealed that Murdaugh conspired with Curtis Edward Smith to kill him and frame it as a suicide, which would lead to his oldest son, Buster, to collect $10 million from his life insurance.
Smith was then detained on suspicion of helping another person commit suicide, assault and battery, brandishing a gun, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to conduct insurance fraud.
An attorney for Murdaugh presented his depression and actions as having been driven by an opioid addiction.
After being accused of multiple charges, Murdaugh turned himself in to the authorities. A court granted him a bond but allowed him to go to a drug rehab facility.
In the meantime, a criminal inquiry on the death of Gloria Satterfield, a housekeeper for Murdaugh, has been launched by state investigators after a “trip and fall accident” at the family residence in 2018. The inquiry was made in response to using “information collected” from a separate investigation into Murdaugh.
Upon release from drug rehabilitation, Murdaugh was arrested following a probe into millions of dollars that vanished from a settlement related to the murder of Satterfield; authorities accuse him of two felonies of obtaining property by pretenses. Her heirs claim that none of the $4.3 million payment, seemingly arranged covertly by Murdaugh, went to them.
Following the suspicion of Satterfield’s death, the murder of Murdaugh’s wife and son was brought up with evidence of a video from Paul’s phone showing Murdaugh at the scene of the murders shortly before the 911 call.
Murdaugh stated he initially lied about where he was due to his financial crimes and anxiety.
Three hours later, a verdict was made, and Murdaugh was held guilty of the murders of Margaret and Paul. In addition, the jurors found him guilty of two counts of having a weapon while committing a violent crime, each bringing a five-year prison sentence. With a total of 32 counts of embezzlement, 21 counts of computer crime, 14 counts of money laundering, 11 counts of obtaining signature or property by pretenses, nine counts of tax evasion, seven counts of conspiracy, three counts of a false statement or misrepresentation and two counts of forgery. Mardaugh keeps on insisting on his innocence while his defense attorneys have stated that they will challenge the verdict.
