Joshua Boucher/The State/Tribune Information Service by way of Getty Photos
As if the handfuls of fees for monetary crimes and allegedly trying to stage his personal killing weren't sufficient, Alex Murdaugh has a brand new downside: homicide fees implicating him within the deaths of his personal spouse and son.
A Colleton County grand jury on Thursday indicted the 63-year-old former lawyer on two counts of homicide and two counts of possession of a weapon in the course of the fee of a violent crime in reference to the June 2021 killings of his 52-year-old spouse, Margaret, and their 22-year-old son, Paul. They had been each discovered fatally shot close to the searching canine kennels on the household’s 1,700-acre property in South Carolina.
“Over the past 13 months, SLED brokers and our companions have labored day in and time out to construct a case towards the particular person chargeable for the murders of Maggie and Paul and to exclude those that weren't,” SLED Chief Mark Keel mentioned in a press release. “At no level did brokers lose concentrate on this investigation. From the start I've been clear, the precedence was to make sure justice was served. Right this moment is another step in an extended course of for justice for Maggie and Paul.”
Whereas the indictment doesn't supplies many particulars—together with what allegedly prompted the slayings—it does state that Murdaugh fatally shot his spouse with a rifle and his son with a shotgun. Attorneys for Murdaugh didn't instantly reply to a request for remark.
“All of the efforts of our workplace and the legislation enforcement businesses concerned on this investigation have been centered on looking for justice for the victims’ households," Lawyer Normal Alan Wilson mentioned on Thursday. “We need to thank the State Regulation Enforcement Division, the attorneys and employees in our workplace, and everybody who labored on this case for his or her tireless efforts to assemble proof and observe the place it led. We additionally need to thank the Colleton County Grand Jury for listening to that proof and for his or her service to the individuals of the state.”
The costs towards Murdaugh characterize the newest and most annoying allegations towards the once-prominent lawyer, who can be charged with orchestrating his personal homicide in a twisted insurance coverage plot to profit his surviving son, Buster. Additionally they successfully deliver the downfall of the household full circle, because the Murdaughs—as soon as an untouchable drive within the Low Nation—had been thrust into the highlight after the double murder final yr.
Since then, Alex Murdaugh has confronted a slew of allegations involving drug habit, theft, and insurance coverage fraud. However at the same time as he was named an individual of curiosity in his spouse and son’s murders after calling police to report them, he had by no means been charged in reference to their deaths—till now.
The South Carolina Regulation Enforcement Division (SLED) has mentioned that on June 7, 2021, Murdaugh known as for assist round 10:07 p.m. after discovering the 2 close to the canine kennels. On the time, Paul was dealing with fees in reference to a 2019 boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Seashore.
Within the seven-minute 911 name, Murdaugh will be heard frantically telling an emergency dispatcher his “spouse and little one have been shot badly” and that neither of them had been shifting.
“I’ve been as much as it now. It’s dangerous,” Murdaugh mentioned.
Whereas Colleton County deputies responded to the scene, SLED shortly took over the case—launching a tight-lipped 13-month investigation into who sought to kill members of a household whose earlier patriarchs served as native prosecutors. In keeping with the State, Maggie had been killed with an assault rifle whereas apparently trying to flee the scene. Paul had been fatally shot with a shotgun at shut vary.
Murdaugh’s lawyer did reveal final yr that SLED has been investigating him “from the get-go” as an individual of curiosity within the double murder. Lawyer Jim Griffin additionally insisted that his authorized crew was not apprehensive concerning the investigation as a result of Murdaugh had an alibi for the time of the murders and “had no motive to kill” his household.
“You'll suppose that if Alex was the one who did it, that SLED would have been in a position to set up that fairly simply that evening,” Griffin beforehand advised Fox Carolina in October. “You'll suppose they might have searched his home and located blood someplace. You'll suppose they might have discovered the homicide weapons on the property. You'll suppose they might provide you with one thing to hyperlink Alex to the murders, forensically or impartial proof. To my information, they haven't performed that.”
Griffin additionally beforehand denied stories to The Every day Beast that Murdaugh and his spouse had been having marital troubles previous to the homicide, noting that he reviewed Murdaugh’s textual content messages together with his spouse and located nothing out of the peculiar.
However simply months after Murdaugh’s household was murdered, the lawyer discovered himself in authorized bother after, police say, he failed in a weird try and orchestrate his personal homicide for a $10 million insurance coverage payout. Throughout a December bond listening to, Murdaugh insisted mentioned he solely devised the wild scheme amid grief over the murders of his spouse and son—and was additionally within the throes of a withdrawal from a two-decade habit to opioids.
Murdaugh known as police on Sept. 4, 2021, to report that he had been shot within the head by an unknown truck driver on a rustic highway. Days later, he allegedly admitted to police that Curtis Smith shot him at his behest in an try and stage his personal homicide for the insurance coverage payout. He was later whisked away to rehab for opioid habit.
Since his arrest over the botched insurance coverage scheme, Murdaugh has confronted 16 state grand-jury indictments, together with 81 counts of economic crimes for allegedly stealing greater than $8 million from shoppers and his former legislation agency. Murdaugh has been named in lawsuits as effectively, together with allegations he conspired to affect the 2019 investigation right into a drunken boat crash involving his late son Paul that killed a teenage lady.