Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh began his life in prison for killing his wife and son on Friday, but mystery and scandal continues to swirl across the stays of his family, a distinguished legal dynasty who had plenty of influence in the world.
Lower than 24 hours after he was convicted on two counts of murder, Murdaugh, 54, appeared for sentencing at Colleton County Courthouse in South Carolina on Friday, cuffed and wearing a dark khaki prison jumpsuit – a stark image of how far he had fallen from his high-flying life.
“Everyone knows [the Murdaughs], and along with that, they’d plenty of influence here,” former friend John Wright said of the family, which had reigned over the Low Country’s legal system for over a century.
“I assumed the jury is perhaps more reticent or fearful about convicting [Alex].”
Although Murdaugh insisted before the sentencing he would “never” hurt his family, he was nonetheless handed two consecutive life terms for gunning down Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, on the family’s estate on June 7, 2021.
The conclusion of Murdaugh’s trial, nevertheless, still leaves several questions on three other suspicious deaths linked to the disgraced scion and his relatives– in addition to the moneyed family’s own future.
Stephen Smith
Stephen Smith, 19, was found dead within the early hours of July 8, 2015 on Sandy Run Road outside Hampton County, not removed from the 1,700-acre Moselle estate where Maggie and Paul and Maggie and Paul were later gunned down.
The nursing student was supposedly walking home from an evening class at Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College after his automotive ran out of gas on Highway 601, Bluffton Today reported.
Smith’s death certificate listed his explanation for death as blunt force trauma, and his arm had also been dislocated and bent behind his body. Police initially attributed the injuries to a hit-and-run accident involving the side-view mirror of a semi truck, the local paper said.
The teenager’s family, nevertheless, never accepted the accident explanation. In accordance with ABC4, interviews with witnesses unearthed unfounded rumors of a relationship between Smith, who was openly gay, and Alex Murdaugh’s oldest son, Buster.
Among the witnesses also speculated Buster, who testified in his father’s defense last month, might have been involved in Smith’s death, although no link has ever been publicly disclosed by law enforcement.
In June 2021, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) reopened a probe into Smith’s death based on information gleaned in the course of the initial inquiry into the shooting deaths of Maggie and Paul earlier that month.
Speaking after Murdaugh’s conviction, Stephen’s mother Sandy told The Post: “That jury done excellent. They seen through the lies and a Murdaugh is finally brought down.
“Now that this case is back over they will get on Stephen’s case full time.”
As of March 2023, the investigation into Smith’s death stays ongoing.
Gloria Satterfield
The Murdaughs’ longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield spent three weeks in a coma following an alleged “trip and fall” incident on the family’s home. She died on the hospital on Feb. 8, 2018.
Alex Murdaugh claimed the family dogs caused Satterfield, 57, to trip, but her death was not reported to the coroner and an autopsy was not initially performed.
SLED opened a criminal investigation into Satterfield’s death in Sept. 2021, shortly after police busted Murdaugh’s bizarre plot to be fatally shot by his drug dealer in an effort to secure a $10 million life insurance payout for Buster.
On the identical day SLED announced the brand new probe, Satterfield’s two sons filed a lawsuit claiming that Murdaugh never forked over the liability insurance money he promised after their mother’s death.
The grieving family recovered $4.3 million in stolen funds in October 2021. Satterfield’s son, Michael, later testified against Murdaugh at his trial.
In June 2022, SLED announced plans to exhume Satterfield’s body.
Mallory Beach
On the time of his murder, Paul Murdaugh was facing three felony charges – two of sailing under the influence and one in all causing death and bodily injury – for the river-based accident which killed Mallory Beach.
In accordance with official reports and accounts from surviving passengers, Paul drunkenly drove his power boat right into a piling of the Archers Creek Bridge around 2:20 a.m. on Feb. 23, 2019.
Beach, 19, was ejected from the boat into dark water. Her body was found one week later.
Paul was later found to have a blood-alcohol content thrice the legal limit, CBS reported. Alex Murdaugh, who met his son and the opposite survivors on the hospital, was allegedly overheard at one point saying “[Mallory’s] gone. Don’t worry.”
By the point Maggie and Paul were killed in June 2021, the family was also facing a wrongful death suit filed by Beach’s family.
In bodycam footage from the scene of the Murdaugh killings, a strangely composed Alex Murdaugh may even be heard telling the responding officers he felt Maggie and Paul’s murder was linked to the fatal crash.
Almost two years later, Murdaugh repeated this theory on the stand.
“I did then consider [they were killed] due to boat wreck and I do now,” he told prosecutor Creighton Waters last month.
An uncertain future
Now that Alex Murdaugh will officially spend the remainder of his life behind bars, it stays to be seen what’s going to occur to the remaining Murdaugh relatives as they struggle to return to life within the Low Country area they once ruled.
Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster, faces an especially lonely road after losing all of his immediate members of the family inside two years.
“Buster held up pretty much until the cameras were off him — but then he collapsed,” a source told The Post of the 26-year-old’s response to the guilty verdict.
“He was crying uncontrollably. The uncles [Alex’s brothers, John Marvin Murdaugh and Randy Murdaugh] finally got him right into a automotive.”
