TRUE CRIME Why don’t we know who killed Paul and Maggie Murdaugh?

On Monday, June 7, 2021, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh and her 22-year-old son Paul Murdaugh were murdered at one of their South Carolina homes, a hunting property called “Moselle.” They were shot near the dog kennels on the estate with two different weapons: Paul was killed with a shotgun while Maggie was shot with a semi-automatic assault rifle. The mystery behind their shocking death is still unsolved, but after they died an eruption of secrets overflowed from a corrupt and powerful family in small-town Hampton, South Carolina. Who killed Paul and Maggie Murdaugh?

Is Alex Murdaugh involved?

There is still no named suspect, but Alex Murdaugh, who is Maggie’s husband and Paul’s father, is a person of interest in the case. 53-year-old Alex discovered their bodies after they had been shot. FITSNews say they have sources that high-velocity blood spatter was found on the shirt that Alex was wearing the night of their murder, which indicates he had to have been near one or both of them when they were killed.

Alex is currently behind bars, but not for murder charges. He’s in jail for dozens of financial crimes in connection with his work as a lawyer. We’ll get more into detail about the tangled web of these charges in another article.

Shortly after the bodies of Maggie and Paul were found the police put out a release to the public telling them “there was no danger to the community.” This seems to suggest that detectives had some kind of knowledge about who killed Maggie and Paul to know that the killer posed no further danger to the community at large.

What is Alex’s alibi?

Alex’s alibi, which has been referred to as “ironclad” by his lawyers, is that he was out visiting his mother, who has dementia, on the night of the killings.

Alex says that before visiting his mother, he spent the day with his father Randolph Murdaugh III, who was dying of cancer. Randolph, who used to be the county’s solicitor (the South Caroline name for district attorney,) died three days after Paul and Maggie on June 10, 2021.

Reward for information – but with a deadline

Another curious element to this case is the fact that Alex and his surviving son Buster Murdaugh offered a $100,000 reward in return for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in connection with Paul and Maggie’s deaths. There was a catch, though. The reward had a deadline of September 21, 2021. The deadline came and went and no one received the reward.

There are more deaths linked to the Murdaugh family

The Murdaugh family is connected to a string of untimely deaths over the past several years.

Before Paul Murdaugh died, he had been indicted for “boating under the influence causing death and two counts of boating under the influence causing great bodily injury” in a 2019 boat crash that killed his friend Mallory Beach. The Beach family also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Murdaugh family because Paul used his older brother Buster Murdaugh’s identification to purchase alcohol the night of Mallory’s death.

On June 4, 2021, just days before Paul and Maggie were murdered, mediation for the wrongful death lawsuit fell through, and the case was likely bound for trial.

Three years prior, on February 2, 2018, the family’s longtime housekeeper and nanny Gloria Satterfield fell at the Moselle property and later died from a brain injury she sustained in the fall.

Alex Murdaugh later told Gloria’s sons he was going to sue himself to get money for them from his insurance company. He set them up with lawyers, who argued a $4.3 million settlement. However, the boys never received a dime. Instead, Alex and his lawyer friend Cory Fleming pocketed the money they had gotten from Alex’s own insurance company.

Three years before that, on July 8, 2015, 19-year-old Stephen Smith was found dead in the middle of the road with a severe head injury that was not consistent with being struck by a car. There was no over evidence on the road. Still, his autopsy said he died after being hit by a car. The Hampton County Coroner later objected to this ruling by the medical examiner. Stephen’s mother believes he was a victim of a hate crime because he was gay.

After Paul and Maggie died in 2021, law enforcement reopened Stephen Smith’s case for further investigation. There is no direct evidence linking Stephen Smith and the Murdaugh other than hearsay as far as the public knows at this time. However, investigators have reportedly received tips claiming that Stephen knew Buster Murdaugh in some way.

The public still doesn’t know who killed Maggie and Paul Murdaugh and no charges have been made in their murders. Perhaps time will continue to shine a light on this unraveling spoon of death and deception.