The Murdaugh murders have recently been a highlight in the national -and even international- news. Mainly because the ‘Alex Murdaugh trials’ seem to finally provide an answer for the almost decade-long mystery surrounding this rich and influential Southern Carolina family. Headlines of newspapers scream: “father (Alex Murdaugh), convicted for the murder of his son (Paul Murdaugh) and wife (Maggie Murdaugh) diminishes his family’s reputation.” But what exactly is ‘the Murdaugh murders’? And is there more to the story than we think?
January - March 2023
On January 25th, 2023, Alex Murdaugh’s long-awaited trial starts in the South Carolina Circuit Court. Alex, now 54, is accused of killing his wife and son on their 1770 acres property in Moselle, South Carolina.
The most significant thing about all the chaos in the courtroom is that Alex Murdaugh, now seated in the convicted chair, was once a prosecutor himself. For almost 90 years, the Murdaugh family has controlled the judicial system of South Carolina’s Lowcountry, as Murdaugh’s father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were each elected as top prosecutors in the region. The family was very well respected by the South Carolina citizens; this much so that the Murdaugh men each got their portrait hung up in the hallways of the South Carolina Circuit Court (which eventually had to be taken down for the trials).
As Alex Murdaugh talks in the little microphone in front of him, dressed in a beige Kirkland Correctional Institution jumpsuit, the mysteries concerning his family suddenly start to unravel; and all of a sudden, even more questions arise...
But to fully understand the downfall of the prominent Murdaugh family, we have to go back in time.
July 2015: Stephen Smith
On July 8th, 2015, 19-year-old Stephen Smith is found dead in the middle of a dark rural road in Hampton County, South Carolina. His head is covered in blood, his shoulder is dislocated and there are bruises and cuts all over his hands. 3 miles down the road, his car is found: gas cap unscrewed, wallet still inside.
The official cause of death is uncertain, to this day. The following information is therefore made out of speculations, or even South Carolina gossip.
According to the Hampton County Guardian, Stephen was on his way home from a night class at Orangeburg-Calhoun technical college. His car ran out of gas on Highway 601, and he started walking along Sandy Run Road. (The last, his family disagrees with. They say he would never walk along a dark rural road at night.) And although Stephen’s case was at first considered a homicide, it ended up in the police archives as a ‘hit and run’. The coroner, however, completely disagrees with the autopsy findings. He stated that nothing in this case, from beginning to end, points to it being a hit-and-run.
All of these uncertainties about the young boy’s death led to great speculations in South Carolina. The most known theory also includes the Murdaugh family. People think that Stephen and Buster Murdaugh (Alex’s oldest son, Paul’s older brother) were in a secret relationship. Stephen helped Buster with his schoolwork after school, and one thing led to another. They hid their relationship for everyone in Hampton county.
When Stephen ran out of gas on his way home from school, he called Buster to give him a ride. What he didn’t know was that Buster was on his way home from a baseball game, with his friends. When they knew where Stephen was, because of the call, they drove to him and started teasing him. The teasing eventually led to a fight, and the fight ended up with Stephen on the ground, unconscious because of the strike of a baseball bat on the head. The boys then left the crime scene, taking the murder weapon with them.
Although this theory is even confirmed by a witness, seeing the attack on the boy, police never even considered interrogating any member of the Murdaugh family. Because of their connections in the justice system, grandfather and father Murdaugh is able to manipulate police officers and investigators. This is highly likely also the case for Stephen’s suspicious death. And as we will see in other cases, Stephen and his family were not the only victims of Murdaugh’s police manipulations…
February 2018: Gloria Satterfield
Gloria Satterfield had been working for the Murdaugh family for decades, raising sons Paul and Buster “as a second mother”. However, on February second, 2018, medical services were called to the Murdaugh property, because Gloria “fell backward off the stairs”. She never woke up again and died on February 26th in the hospital.
Gloria’s death is considered a tragic accident, and at first, that seems like a viable explanation: Gloria walked up the brick stairs on the front porch, her purse in one hand and a plastic cup in the other. When she took a step backward, she tripped over one of the dogs, hit her head on the stairs, and died because of the fall.
But even Murdaugh friends and acquaintances start to doubt this… Morgan Doughty, Paul Murdaugh’s ex-girlfriend, claims that Gloria might have “known too much”. She believes that Gloria might have found Alex’s drugs while she was cleaning (at the time, Alex Murdaugh had a severe drug addiction. Alledegdly not even his family knew about the addiction). Gloria probably told Paul about the drugs she found, as she was too scared to go to Maggie, Alex’s wife. On the morning of February second, 2018, Paul or Maggie then pushed Gloria down the stairs, covering up the crime scene as a terrible accident.
Even though the police files call Gloria’s case a “tragic accident”, Alex Murdaugh promised Gloria’s sons to sue himself, offering them financial aid with this money. However, this money never got to Gloria’s sons. And even worse, Alex Murdaugh collected approximately 4.3 million dollars in commercial insurance following Gloria’s death on his property (insurance that he got only a few months prior to the accident). The Satterfield’s attorney eventually concluded that this money was stolen from Gloria’s family, as they should have received the 4.3 million. After years of covering up this theft, Alex was brought to court and promised to return the money to Gloria’s sons.
February 2019: Mallory Beach
On February 23, 2019, at 2:20 a.m., 911 was called to a bridge on Archer’s creek, Beaufort. The recording of the 911 call is chilling. A young man calls, crying. He says that six young adults got into a boat crash, and one of them is missing.
The missing girl is Mallory Beach. That night she got on a boat with her boyfriend, her two girlfriends Morgan and Miley, and their two boyfriends. They were headed toward an oyster roast. On their way and during their stay at the oyster roast, the six 19-year-old friends drank some alcohol, but when they decided to return home in the boat around midnight, everything seemed fine. The one driving the boat was Paul Murdaugh, and he was probably the drunkest of them all. Around 1 a.m., Paul Murdaugh and Connor Cook (one of the friends on the boat), decided to go to a bar and take some shots. The others didn’t agree, but couldn’t change their minds. As was seen on surveillance cameras, the four remaining friends waited for Connor and Paul on the dock. And this footage was the last image known of Mallory Beach.
Because of all the alcohol in his blood, Paul was incapable of driving the boat. However, he refused to let anyone else take over the steering wheel and even hit his girlfriend when she asked him to let someone else drive. By this time, Meghan and Miley say, they regretted getting on the boat after the oyster roast. According to their family, they begged Paul to stop the boat and let them out, but he simply didn’t listen to them.
The boat crashed into a bridge, throwing Mallory and her boyfriend Anthony into the water, and leaving the others with injuries. Mallory’s body was found 8 days later.
Again the Murdaugh family tried to cover up the scene and manipulate the police involved in the investigation. For example, Mallory’s parents were never called after their daughter went missing. The Murdaugh family removed the boat from the crime scene and talked with the survivors of the crash merely minutes after they arrived at the hospital. They even tried to blame Connor Cook for the accident, stating to police that he was the one driving the boat.
Paul Murdaugh got accused of driving a boat with three times the legal amount of alcohol in his blood, leading eventually to Mallory Beach’s death. However, Paul never faced a trial.
This case did draw a lot of media attention to the Murdaugh family.
May 2021: Alex Murdaugh, theft
In May of 2021, Alex Murdaugh confessed to having stolen 2.8 million dollars from his law partners for a decade. The money was brought into an account under a fake name, leading directly into his own pockets.
Alex is convicted of this crime, and the money was paid back to the law partners.
June 2021: Paul and Maggie Murdaugh
On June 7th, 2021, at 10:07 p.m., 911 is once again called from the Murdaugh property. This time, it is Alex Murdaugh calling. His voice is shaking as he says that he found the lifeless bodies of his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and his son, Paul Murdaugh, near the dog kennels.
Alex claims he came back from visiting his parents and couldn’t find his wife and son. When he went looking for them, he found their bodies on the ground, both of them shot to death by a gun owned by the Murdaugh family. The coroner later reveals that the two did indeed die of shot wounds somewhat between 9 and 9:30 p.m.
At first, it is thought that someone was trying to revenge Mallory’s murder by killing Paul and his mother. But later is revealed that Alex and Maggie’s marriage was not all sunshine and rainbows anymore. Maggie, at the time, was not even living on the Murdaugh property anymore, but in one of their vacation residences. She was lured onto the property because Alex’s father was dealing with some severe health issues.
Again, Alex was able to influence the authorities to save himself, although this case does have an end…
September 2021: Alex Murdaugh
On September 4th, 2021, Alex once again calls 911. He is on the side of a country road in Hampton County. He has severe head injuries and is taken to the hospital. Alex claims that he had a flat tire and got out of the car, when someone opened fire on him.
Later is confirmed that the attack was staged by Alex himself.
Back to January-March 2023
After the great downfall of the Murdaugh family, Alex Murdaugh is finally brought to court for the murders of his wife and son. As is proven in phone and car records, Alex did not leave the Murdaugh property before Maggie and Paul’s murder.
Three months of trial eventually lead to the final words from the judge. On March 9th, Alex Murdaugh is convicted for the double murders, giving him two life sentences in prison. His son, Buster, never leaves his side; not after his father is responsible for the murders of his brother, Paul, and mother, Maggie.
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