Alex Murdaugh Charged For Murders of Wife, Son in 2021

On the night of June 7th, 2021, the wife and son of South Carolina attorney Richard “Alex” Murdaugh were fatally shot on the family’s hunting lodge estate. People Magazine reports that Murdaugh called 911 after allegedly discovering the bodies of 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh and 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh.

Alex was considered a person of interest from the beginning of the case, though his lawyers supplied the alibi that he had been with his mother and her caregiver (currently disputed). He lost his South Carolina license to practice law on Tuesday and was charged today with “two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.”

These aren’t the only charges pending sentencing for Murdaugh. According to Greenville News, he could be convicted on up to 84 charges, mostly involving financial and narcotics distribution crimes, and his potential maximum sentence would be 734 years in prison. He is currently held on $7 million bond in Columbia, South Carolina.

Murdaugh has also been connected to two other homicide cases: the death of Murdaugh housekeeper Gloria Satterfield in 2018, allegedly a "trip and fall accident,” and the death of Stephen Smith in 2015, ruled a hit and run.

Murdaugh’s lawyers continue to assert that the ex-attorney was unjustly blamed and that he would have had no motive to commit the homicides.