Twists, and Deaths, Abound in the Alex Murdaugh Family Saga

Screen capture of Alex Murdaugh entering court from WCSC News 5 coverage.

In the cold waters near Parris Island, South Carolina, in the middle of the night in late February 2019, a boat carrying 6 teenagers speeding through the dark hit a bridge. In the minutes afterward, only 5 of the 6 found their way to the river banks. One of them, Anthony Cook, realized that his 19 year old girlfriend, Mallory Beach, was not with them.

Authorities arrived to find the five drunken teens in various states of panic, anger, and injury. Fingers were pointed in multiple directions as to who was driving the boat. Despite their obvious intoxication, no one was given a field sobriety test. Anthony Cook was screaming that one of his companions needed to rot in prison, but “ain’t gonna get in no f****** trouble!” Cook asked one of the officers on scene if he knew Alex Murdaugh. The officer said that of course, he did. “That’s his son,” Cook replied. “So good luck.”

The Murdaugh family was a legal dynasty in their part of South Carolina, with one Murdaugh patriarch after another serving as solicitor (district attorney) for 86 years. Richard Alexander “Alex” Murdaugh, Sr. was a partner at a prestigious law firm bearing his name, founded by his great-grandfather in 1910, and served as a volunteer prosecutor. Alex’s father, Randolph, was retired but still a large presence in the low country at the time of the accident.

At the hospital, as the young survivors were being treated, investigators tried to piece together what happened. Statements from those involved were conflicting. Paul Murdaugh, Alex’s son, was belligerent and uncooperative. Alex and Randolph showed up in the emergency room and quickly intervened before investigators could get a statement from Paul. Blood tests revealed Paul’s blood alcohol content that night to be .286.

According to Anthony Cook, he tried to get Paul to let him drive the boat but the drunk kid refused. Anthony then sat in the bottom of the boat with Mallory, fearful due to the speed at which Paul was operating the vessel. The last thing he saw before sitting down with Mallory was Paul at the helm. Despite the statement and the circumstantial evidence, Paul was not charged until two months later.

This was not the end, or even the beginning of the story.

The Murdaughs were not only well-known, but somewhat feared. It was said that going against the well-connected lawyers in the family was all but futile, with allegations of “rigged” outcomes in the courtroom. Paul and his older brother, Richard Alexander Murdaugh Jr, called “Buster,” were known as the stereotypical spoiled, obnoxious rich kids. Paul was known to be a “mean drunk,” prone to stripping down to his boxers when inebriated – and had done so the night of the accident. So well-known were his drunken antics that his friends referred to an alter-ego for drunk Paul called “Timmie.” Timmie was on board the boat that night, reportedly having slapped his own girlfriend several times in the minutes leading up to the crash.

The family seemed untouchable, and Paul was not the first of the two youngest Murdaughs suspected of getting away with murder. In July 2015, a 19 year old man named Stephen Smith was found dead in the middle of the road in Hampton County, South Carolina. Despite the lack of tire marks or automobile debris, investigators ruled his death a hit-and-run accident. The medical examiner disagreed; the injuries were only to his head and shoulder and were not consistent with being hit by a car. Furthermore, his loosely tied shoes were still on his feet when he was found. Nevertheless, police stuck to their conclusion.

Stephen Smith was friends with Buster Murdaugh. In fact, it was alleged that Buster was romantically involved with Smith, who was openly gay. Rumors swirled in 2015 that Buster was somehow involved in Stephen’s death. Investigators looked into the allegation at the time, but nothing ever came from their suspicions. After the boating accident, Stephen’s death was cited by Anthony Cook as an example of the Murdaugh family’s ability to avoid consequences, prompting South Carolina authorities to reopen the investigation. That inquiry is ongoing.

Smith was not the only other death rumored to be attributable to the family. In 2018, the family’s housekeeper of over 20 years, Gloria Satterfield, died in a slip and fall at the Murdaugh home. However, cause of death was listed as “natural causes”, which is inconsistent with a fall. This apparent cover-up seems odd, if it was truly a tragic slip and fall accident. Gloria’s family filed a wrongful death suit in 2018 and settled for over half a million dollars. But according to a new lawsuit filed just this month, not a single penny was ever paid to the Satterfield family.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Department, of SLED, is now investigating the deaths of both Smith and Satterfield. But this is still not the end of the story.

As of June 2021, Paul Murdaugh had still not been tried on the criminal charges, and was still facing a lawsuit from Mallory Beach’s family. He would not face justice in either one. On June 7th, 911 received a call from Alex Murdaugh, who had found Paul and his mother Maggie (Alex’s wife) shot to death at the family’s hunting lodge.  Their bodies were lying near the dog kennels.

Police had no suspects. Speculation in the public was that someone was bent on ensuring that the Murdaugh’s didn’t escape responsibility again. Some thought perhaps the killings were unrelated to Mallory or the other mysterious deaths, and that logic dictated that Alex had done it, for reasons unknown. No arrests have been made in the deaths of Maggie Murdaugh and her son.

And this was still not the last twist in this tale.

Three months after the deaths of Maggie Murdaugh and her son, news broke that Alex Murdaugh had been shot in the head on the side of the road near Charleston when he stopped to change his tire. That this could be a coincidence seemed improbably. At first blush it appeared that the Murdaughs were being targeted, picked off one at a time perhaps by someone with a grudge. But Alex’s wounds were not fatal; he was only grazed, despite having been shot at from close range by a man who, Alex claimed, stopped on the pretense of helping him change his tire. His story was suspicious not only to outsiders, but also to investigators – more so a few days later when Alex released the following statement:

The murders of my wife and son have caused an incredibly difficult time in my life. I have made a lot of decisions that I truly regret. I’m resigning from my law firm and entering rehab after a long battle that has been exacerbated by these murders. I am immensely sorry to everyone I’ve hurt including my family, friends and colleagues. I ask for prayers as I rehabilitate myself and my relationships.

The vague statement threw fuel on the fire as investigators and the public have tried to piece together the immense jigsaw puzzle of the Murdaugh family saga. His statement implicitly denied involvement in his family’s deaths, but left unclear exactly what regretful decisions Alex had made.

Later the same day, an announcement from the law firm that bore the Murdaugh name shed some light on this part of the mystery. The firm announced that Alex Murdaugh had resigned from the practice, and that the firm had hired a forensic investigator to look into funds it had discovered missing. This, coupled with Alex Murdaugh’s statement seemed to fill in several pieces of this incredible jigsaw puzzle. The consensus was that Alex had either attempted to kill himself or enlisted help to do so.

That mystery was solved pretty quickly; authorities announced this week that Murdaugh had paid a client of his, Curtis Edward Smith, to shoot him in the head. His plan was to die from the wound, allowing his remaining son Buster to collect on his $10 million life insurance policy. As of this writing, Murdaugh is out of the hospital and has surrendered to the police. He is now out on a PR bond – imagine that – facing felony charges of insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and filing a false police report. The embezzlement investigation continues, as does the investigation into the murders of Maggie and Paul.

Alex Murdaugh blames a decades long opiate addiction, coupled with the deaths of most of his family, for his fall from grace. Even if that is the extent of his culpability in this horror saga, the most serious questions remain unanswered. There are five bodies attached to the Murdaugh name now, each deserving of justice – even Paul Murdaugh.

The pall of suspicion on Alex Murdaugh is not lifted by his recent admissions; some are still convinced he had something to do with the deaths of his wife and youngest son. But what motive could he have had? Sure, Paul was something of a family embarrassment, but that didn’t explain why he would want Maggie dead.

Except maybe because he found out that Maggie had hired her own forensic accountant to look into the family finances. Were the Murdaughs headed for divorce, with Maggie taking steps to protect herself financially in the lead up? Did Alex kill – or order the killing – of Maggie to save his name and fortune? Was Paul just collateral damage, or the victim of an opportunity to clean up another problem at the same time?

We don’t know yet. What we do know is that this story is so twisted and unbelievable that any good fiction editor would send it back to the author with instructions to make it more plausible. It is a cliché, the prominent, wealthy, genteel southern family with the walk-in closet full of secrets. But amid the sensationalism are several families who have been destroyed by the deaths of their Murdaugh-adjacent loved ones.

Answers are slowly trickling out, one sensational breaking headline at a time. Let’s hope they are forthcoming for the families of Mallory Beach, Stephen Smith, Gloria Satterfield, and the remaining innocent Murdaughs.