The timeline of accusations against Alex Murdaugh

Brut America

The Alex Murdaugh case keeps getting crazier ...   A once powerful lawyer now standing trial for the double murder of his wife and his son, multiple charges of financial fraud, and hiring a hitman... on himself.   Here's everything you need to know.

Transcript

00:00My wife and child just got married.

00:03They're not anyone else's children.

00:05This is Alec Murdoch.

00:07Once the son of a powerful South Carolina legal dynasty,

00:11he now stands accused of killing his wife Maggie

00:14and one of their sons, Paul.

00:16I tried to take their pulse on both of them.

00:19Behind his fall from grace lay a series of suspicious deaths,

00:23a hitman scheme, allegations of multimillion dollar fraud over decades,

00:27and a painkiller addiction.

00:29There have been new charges filed every couple months.

00:32It's now like 85 charges that he's facing, mostly financial.

00:38Over two years before the killings,

00:41police say one of Murdoch's sons, then 19-year-old Paul Murdoch,

00:45crashed a family boat, killing his 19-year-old friend Mallory Beach.

00:49I got a call from my mom to ask me if Mallory was home with me,

00:53and I told her no,

00:55and she just said that there had been a boat accident.

00:58Paul Murdoch was accused of driving the boat while drunk

01:01during the February 2019 incident.

01:04Speculation arose that due to the family's long-time connections

01:07with local law enforcement,

01:09Paul Murdoch hadn't been given a sobriety test,

01:12nor was he ever handcuffed and taken to jail

01:14for questioning or booking after the incident.

01:17The Beaufort County Sheriff's Office tells me

01:19it's recused itself from the investigation

01:21because of its, quote, long-time relationship with Randolph Murdoch III,

01:25the grandfather of Paul Murdoch, one of the teens on the boat.

01:28Beach's family filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit

01:31accusing Alec Murdoch of allowing his sons underage drinking.

01:35As a result of the suit,

01:37Beach family lawyers could likely comb through Murdoch family finances,

01:41something Alec Murdoch fought at every turn.

01:44Paul was eventually charged with three felonies,

01:46but was never brought to justice

01:48because he was killed before ever making it to trial,

01:51just three days before his father's first court date

01:53in the wrongful death suit.

01:55On June 7, 2021, Alec Murdoch called 911

01:59saying he had found his wife and son Paul

02:02killed at their South Carolina home.

02:11In the immediate aftermath, no one was charged in the killings,

02:14and previous inquiries into Murdoch's finances

02:17were put on hold as the community rallied to mourn with him.

02:21Mr. Murdoch was confronted the very morning of the murder

02:24by his own law firm seeking missing fees.

02:27That's the temporal connection of those two events.

02:30But by September 2021, three months after the double murder,

02:34Murdoch was forced to resign from his family law firm

02:37after an internal investigation

02:39revealed he had been stealing client funds.

02:42Just a few days later, the case took another strange turn.

02:46He says he's changing a tire at the side of the road due to a leak

02:49and some man pulls up with a pickup truck,

02:52talks to him briefly, and then shoots him in the head.

02:56Ten days later, Murdoch confessed to orchestrating the hit on himself

03:00with his former client and drug dealer, Curtis Edward Smith.

03:04He had asked Smith to kill him,

03:06hoping that his death would ensure a $10 million life insurance payout

03:10for his surviving son, Buster.

03:12Both Murdoch and Smith were charged for the shooting,

03:15along with other felony charges.

03:17Murdoch's lawyers later stated that their client was depressed

03:20and addicted to painkillers when he thought of the scheme

03:23and was checking himself into rehab.

03:25One month later, in yet another twist,

03:28Murdoch was once again under arrest.

03:31This time because of missing settlement funds

03:33in the wrongful death lawsuit of his former housekeeper,

03:36Gloria Satterfield.

03:38Gloria's sons allege Murdoch kept millions of dollars

03:41in an insurance settlement.

03:43His former housekeeper had died three years prior

03:45after reportedly falling down the stairs of the family's property.

03:49Satterfield's sons claim Murdoch pocketed the money for himself

03:52after pushing them to make an insurance claim

03:55while being represented by his longtime friend.

03:58From November 2021 to June 2022,

04:01Murdoch received more than 80 charges,

04:03accusing him of stealing more than $8 million

04:06from more than a dozen people.

04:08Alec Murdoch's luck had truly run out,

04:10and in July 2022,

04:12he was indicted in the killings of his wife and son.

04:15Are you guilty or not guilty of the felonies

04:17wherein you stand indicted?

04:19Not guilty.

04:21Murdoch's trial for the double murder began in January 2023.

04:25If convicted, he faces life without parole.

04:28The jury has to understand that he had been stealing

04:32for over a decade, 99 counts to date,

04:36and facing essentially life without parole

04:39on these particular financial accounts,

04:42and that's the significance of what he was trying to prevent

04:44from being exposed.

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