A Father’s Fatal Facade: The Full Breakdown of the Murdaugh Murders | Forensic Files

County 911. Your emergency [laughter] road. I need the police immediately. My wife and child.
>> Hi crime junkies. I'm your host Ashley Flowers. >> And I'm Brit. >> And the story I have for you today is
one that you have probably heard something about. a powerful low country dynasty, a double murder, and a trial
that gripped the country. And a system that let one family operate above the law for nearly [music] a century. And
with the possibility of a new trial on the horizon, one question is more important now than ever. Why? Why
[music] would a man who seemed to have everything choose to destroy it all by [music] murdering his own wife and son?
This is the story of the Murdoch family. >> 47 Mosel Road in Allison. [laughter]
>> Sir, >> you said 4147 Mosel Road in Allison. >> Yes, sir. 4147 Road. >> Stay on the line with me. Okay. Yes,
sir. Stay on the line with me. Okay. >> I've been up to it now. It's bad. Okay. How did they shoot? Did they shoot
theirel? >> Oh, no. Hell no. >> Okay. And are they breathing? >> No, ma'am. I can tell.
>> And did you shot in the head and he shot really bad? >> Okay. Where is Where is he shot at?
>> Ma'am, I don't know. But there's blood everywhere. Um, I brain I can see his brain
face down. I tried to turn her a little bit. She's got a hole in her head. Hurry.
Those are just excerpts from the nearly 10-minute call Alec Murdoch made to 911 on June 7th, 2021 at 10:07 p.m. Between
sobs, he tells dispatch that he had just discovered the bodies of his wife and son near some dog kennels on his estate
in rural Colin County, South Carolina. And rural is for real because even speeding with lights and sirens on, it
takes South Carolina law enforcement about 20 minutes to get out to Moselle Road. Now, when they finally turn up the
long driveway to get to the dog kennels, the first thing they see is Alec standing by his truck with his hazard
lights flashing. And leaning against his truck is his 12 gauge shotgun, which Alec says that he got from his house in
case whoever hurt his wife and son decided to come back. Now, officers immediately take the gun. They secure it
in their patrol car and make their way to the kennels to see for themselves what Alec described on the phone. His
22-year-old son, Paul, is lying face down in the open doorway to a feed room that's at the end of this like row of
dog kennels. He has traumatic chest and head wounds. And police know, as Alec told the dispatcher, that the majority
of Paul's brain is actually lying next to him on the ground. Everything they're seeing is consistent with a gunshot
wound. Now, first responders also find Paul's iPhone laying on top of his body, like just resting on top of his shorts,
kind of like it was placed there. And there's no blood on it or anything. But Alec did tell the 911 dispatcher that he
had touched both of the bodies to try and see if they were breathing. So, the positions that they're found in might
not have been the positions that the killer left them in or that they naturally like fell in. I mean, Alec
actually said to the operator that [music] he tried to turn his 52-year-old wife, Margaret, who goes by Maggie, he
tried to turn her over a little bit, too, but she had a hole in her head. And first responders see what looks like
five gunshot wounds to her back, her chest, wrist, and leg. [music] >> And is Maggie right there next to Paul?
>> No, she's actually about 30 ft away, like across this gravel driveway, but there is this like clear line of sight
between the two victims. There are also 12 gauge shell casings and 300 blackout casings next to the bodies and like
strewn along the gravel driveway between them. So, it's definitely looking like both victims were shot. But what's weird
is that it seems like those two casings would have been fired from two different
[music] guns, a shotgun and a semi-automatic rifle. And neither of those weapons were
left behind. >> And what about the gun that Alec had with him when they showed up? Like that
was a shotgun, right? It was a 12- gauge shotgun, too, but it actually wasn't the
one used to kill Maggie or Paul. Investigators eventually are going to take it into evidence, but right now
they're more focused on hearing from Alec. Their first interview with him actually happens in one of the officers
cars. [music] And again, between like sobbs and dry heaving, Alec walks them through the
events of that night. And here is some of that 34-minute interview. >> So, um, just start at the top. take your time.
>> Um, like when I came back here >> Mhm. >> I mean, I pulled up and I could see him
and, you know, I knew something was bad. I ran out. I knew it was really bad. My my boy over there, I could see it was
[laughter] >> [clears throat] >> And I ran over to Maggie. And actually, I think I tried to turn Paul
over first. Um, uh, you know, I tried to turn him over and, uh, I don't know. I figured it out.
Um, his cell phone popped out of his pocket. I started to try to do something with it,
thinking maybe, but then I put it back down really quickly. Um, then I went to my wife and I
I mean I could see >> Mhm. >> Did you touch Maggie at all? >> I did. I touched them both.
>> Okay. >> I tried to take I mean I tried to do it as limited as possible, but I I tried to
take their pulse on both of them. >> Mhm. M and um you know I called 911 um pretty much right away and
she was very good. Um I know you said the phone fell out the pocket. Um but did you see anything else
that didn't belong or shouldn't belong or that wasn't part of Paul? >> No sir. Not. No. Not good.
>> No, sir. >> How about Maggie? >> No, sir. >> You didn't see anything around them?
>> What made you come out here at night? >> Um, I went to My mom's a late stage Alzheimer's patient. My dad's in the
hospital. Um, my mom gets anxious when she does. I went to check on them and Maggie. Maggie's a dog lover and she
fools with the dogs and I knew she'd gone to the kennel. I was at the house. [snorts]
I left the house and went to my mom's [cough and clears throat] for just a little while. Tried to call
her when [cough] I left. Texted her. No response. Um, when I got back to the house, the house
was obviously nobody was in there, so I figured they're still up here fooling around. Paul was um going to be getting
set up to plant. Our sunflower seeds got sprayed and died, and he was refiguring
to do to plant the sunflower seeds. >> [clears throat and snorts] >> So I came back up here and I drove up
and saw and called. [clears throat] The window of time from when Alec left to see his mom to when he came back is
small, 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.ish. The window for when Maggie and Paul were murdered is even smaller. The coroner
estimates that that was between 9 and 9:30, but Alex says that he didn't hear or see anything odd when he got home. In
fact, he says he only went to the dog kennels because he was looking for Maggie, like he couldn't find her
inside. >> Had Maggie and Paul been arguing over anything? >> No. >> What was their relationship like?
>> Wonderful. >> Wonderful. How about yours and Maggie's? >> Wonderful. I mean, I'm sure we had
little things here and there, but we had a wonderful marriage, wonderful relationship. [snorts]
>> And yours and Paul's relationship? >> As good as it could be. Have y'all been having any problems out
here? Trespassers? >> People breaking in? >> None that I know of. The only thing that
what comes to my mind is my son Paul was in a boat wreck a couple years ago and there's been a, you know, he was charged
with being arrested for being the driver. There's been a lot of negative publicity about that. And there's been a
lot of people online just really vile stuff. But when Paul's out and about, I mean, people routinely I don't think I
know the full story um cuz I don't think they give it to me, but I mean he's been
punched and hit and just attacked a lot. So, you know, but I mean nothing like this.
>> Alec is downplaying the [music] situation here. The boat wreck he's talking about happened in 2019 and
resulted in the death of a 19-year-old girl named Mallalerie Beach. And a couple months afterwards, Paul was
charged with three felony counts of boating under the influence, which included causing Mallerie's death
[music] and seriously injuring two other passengers. But the boat crash is just like the tip of the iceberg when it
comes to the Murdoch family. I mean, Mallalerie's death, Paul and Maggie's death, they're not the only suspicious
deaths that Alec [music] and his family have been tangled up in. >> Yeah. I remember when all of this was
like dominating the news, the Murdoch name was just being brought up with like one tragedy after another after another,
[music] it seemed like, >> right? And it's because like the Murdoch's, they're not just like any old
southern family. They were a huge name in South Carolina. I mean, for over a century, the Murdoch name was basically
synonymous with power and money. Three generations of Murdoch men served as the region's top prosecutors, overseeing
every criminal case across five counties. According to an article published in the state, they sent
thousands of people to prison and more than a dozen to death row. People seem to believe that they are untouchable.
But beneath that polished surface, there are cracks, like big cracks. And with the deaths of Paul and Maggie, for the
first time in nearly a century, they are about to split wide open. The world is full of mysteries that make
us question everything we've ever known to be true. These events leave us with a
sense of wonder and yearning for understanding. I'm Evette Gentile. And I'm her sister, Rasha Beckerero. And
each week on our podcast, So Supernatural, we take a deep dive into the world's most bizarre and puzzling
mysteries. Ready to dive into the unknown? Join us every Friday for a new episode of So Supernatural, available
wherever you listen to podcasts. The media latches on to Paul and Maggie's deaths immediately, and the
rumors and speculation are rampant. In the months that follow the incident, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division
doesn't name any suspects or people of interest, but they also don't publicly clear anyone. [music] And given the
Murdoch family history, people are quick to jump to their own conclusions. I mean, the first incident that starts
getting a lot of airtime is that boat crash, the death of Mallalerie Beach. On February 23rd, 2019, she was ejected
from Alec Murdoch's boat after it crashed into a bridge at 2:21 in the morning. Now, there weren't any adults
on the boat. It was just a group of teenagers with Alex's son, Paul, allegedly at the wheel. And while all of
the other kids made [music] it back to shore after the crash, Mallerie didn't. Her body was found 8 days later in a
marsh about 5 mi away from where the crash originally happened. Now, according to the coroner, Mallerie
[music] drowned after suffering a blow to the head from impact. When officers got to the scene that night and started
talking to all of the kids, it was clear that they had been drinking. A police report describes them as grossly
intoxicated and there was a cooler full of beers and seltzers on the boat and a bunch of empty cans, but no one was
breathalyzed at the scene, >> which I always get hung up on that part. Like, why not at least breathalyze Paul?
Like, if he was the one driving, >> so that's the thing. At least on paper, officers couldn't confirm who was
driving even though the passengers on the boat were all pointing fingers at Paul. And according to one of the
passengers that night, while everyone was focused on Mallalerie, Paul's main concern seemed to be getting in touch
with his grandfather, Randolph Murdoch, who was the former South Carolina circuit solicitor. In an
audio recording taken that night by first responders, you can hear one of the kids, Mallerie's boyfriend in
particular, shouting at Paul during his conversation [music] with an officer. >> BRO, YOU SMILING LIKE IT'SING FUNNY.
>> Sit down. SIT DOWN. MYING GIRLFRIEND, FOLKS. >> You all know Alec Murdoch. >> Oh yeah, I know that name.
>> That's his son. >> Good luck. >> I feel like there's so much behind that. Good luck.
>> Yeah. So Mandy Matney, the investigative journalist who covered this boat crash
and went on to deep dive into the Murdoch family and break a lot of the news surrounding Maggie and Paul's
deaths, she told our reporters that immediately following the crash, she started getting tips from people saying
that there was going to be a cover up. She kept hearing that the alleged boat driver belonged to a powerful family of
lawyers that quote [music] got away with everything and did not believe that anybody could touch them. which seems
like it was the case if all the kids from the crash were telling the officers that Paul was driving the boat and the
officers were like you said on paper writing that no one really knew who was driving the boat,
>> right? And like I get it to some extent this was a chaotic scene. The kids aren't necessarily of sound mind, but it
is hard to shake the idea that maybe Paul might have been getting some favorable treatment because of [music]
his last name. I mean, Mandy actually said that when she began reporting on this boat crash story, people were
scared to talk to her or even say the name Murdoch out of fear of the family's power. [music] And the family's power
was in full force that night. When the kids were taken to the hospital, Paul's dad and grandfather were there waiting.
They were like walking through the ER trying to talk to all of the kids while they were talking with officers, trying
to like prevent them from taking those sobriety tests and eventually stopping all police interviews.
>> Is that even allowed? >> Well, I mean like they're all lawyers, so if they were their lawyers, but
according to AP News, one nurse did actually tell Alec Murdoch to stay in Paul's room or like leave the hospital
and she asked security to keep an eye on him. Now, eventually over an hour after
the crash, Paul's blood was taken at the hospital. And even then, his BAC was more than three times the legal limit.
But at least at that time, no charges were filed. Over the next month, authorities continued their
investigation into Mallalerie's death. Her mom filed a civil lawsuit over it, accusing three Murdoch men of
wrongdoing. [music] and ultimately the county sheriff's office ended up recusing itself from
[music] the investigation due to their quote long-standing relationship with Randph Murdoch. So that's when the case
got handed over to the Department of Natural Resources and within a matter of weeks of them having it, they end up
charging Paul with voting under the influence resulting in Mallerie's death. Paul pleaded not guilty at his
arraignment, which two judges recused themselves from, by the way, because of the Murdoch family. But here's the
thing. He is murdered before the trial can take place. And two months after his murder, all charges get dismissed in
what officials describe as a formality. So all of that is a pretty far cry from how Alec was talking about this incident
to the cops the night of Paul's murder, >> right? And because Alec isn't just some
guy talking to police like he is used to dealing with law enforcement, used to dealing with judges, the whole system.
He knows the right things to say. He knows the right way to position himself to make sure things get handled quietly.
And the boat crash wasn't even the first time the Murdoch had inserted themselves
legally into the case of a dead teenager in [music] the area. I'm going to take one more detour to give everyone like
background before we come back to Maggie and Paul because like this is important
to know. So 6 years before the murders of Maggie and Paul, a 19-year-old named Steven Smith was killed. [music] And
from the jump, his death was suspicious as hell. >> Yeah. Full disclosure, this is the case
that I have the most questions about. I think it's the one that like most people
have the most questions about because none of the facts seem to be matter of fact. So on July 8th, 2015 around 4:00
in the morning, Steven's body is found in the middle of a road like 10 to 15 miles away from the Murdoch home. Now,
originally investigators thought that he had been shot. I mean like I've seen some of the like photos from the road
that day and it is like gruesome. But at autopsy, it was determined that he died
from blunt force trauma to the head, resulting from a possible hit and run. I mean, his shoulder had been dislocated.
But the thing to me that doesn't line up with a car crash is he had apparent defensive wounds on his hand,
>> right? And like, you aren't fighting a car. How do you get a defensive wound from a hit and run?
>> You don't. And that's one of the reasons that the coroner and the pathologist and
the detectives and Steven's family all seem to have different ideas about how Steven actually died. Sled South
Carolina Law Enforcement Division, they believe that Steven was on his way home when he likely ran out of gas on the
highway and decided to like walk the rest of the way. Like his car is found with the gas cap unscrewed about 2 to
three miles away from where he would have been killed. And to explain the severity of Steven's head injury, the
pathologist who performed the autopsy suggested Steven had been hit by like the mirror of a passing truck. But an
investigator from Highway Patrol wrote in reports that there was no evidence of Steven being struck by a vehicle. Like
things you would expect to see, right? Like no glass, no debris from a car found anywhere on the road or on
Steven's body. So the investigator asked the pathologist if it was possible that
like could Stephen have actually been struck with a baseball bat. Now she said no, but then he asked, "Okay, well what
if someone was like driving by and swung the bat from a moving car?" Cuz I think
she's saying like just a hit from a baseball bat wouldn't be this severe, right?
>> But what if they have the bat and it's like in a moving car? And the pathologist said, quote, "Well, I guess
that's possible." Now, the county coroner didn't buy the hit-and- run theory either. His theory was that
Steven was actually shot like they initially thought the first time, and Steven's mom, Sandy, was adamant that
her son's life did not [music] end from a vehicle collision. Sandy has said that
her son was skittish, like he would not have been walking in the middle of the road, and even if for some reason he
was, he would have gotten off the road once he saw the headlights coming. >> Mhm. And she doesn't think he ran out of
gas either. She thinks it was a setup and that he was beaten to death. I mean, so severely, by the way, that part of
Steven's face had to be rebuilt with putty for his funeral. >> So why does she think it was
premeditated? >> Well, Sandy tells Sled that Steven was acting strange in the weeks leading up
to his death. He was being more secretive, not studying as much, and playing hookie from school. So her
theory is that his classmates who were coming home from a baseball game that night were responsible.
>> Hence the baseball bat theory, >> right? And in a letter Sandy wrote to the FBI, she mentions Alec Murdoch's
sons specifically. Now, Alec's oldest son, Buster, went to high school with Steven. Buster is actually mentioned a
couple of times throughout the Highway Patrol report along with others that police were looking into. And I mean,
we're talking about a small town in South Carolina. That is far from the only connection between the Smiths
[music] and the Murdochs. Alec Murdoch coached the boys little league baseball team, and his brother Randy reportedly
repped Steven's dad in a workers's comp claim. And wasn't there a rumor that Steven and Buster were possibly in a
relationship at some point? Like, is that >> that just internet noise? >> No, that rumor is actually in the police
report. It is not verified or anything. just an early rumor that investigators were tipped off to. Steven was out as
gay and was in a relationship when he died, but people online have brought up the Steven Buster secret romance theory
to suggest that silencing Steven might have like been a motive. And Buster has never even explicitly acknowledged the
rumor. He said in a statement that he was not involved in Steven's death and that all of the vicious rumors swirling
about him were false. But what makes me like double take is that a sexual assault kit was ordered in Steven's
death by a coroner without consulting investigators. >> Which is that normal for a supposed hit
and run? Like you're investigating as a hit and run? >> One of the highway patrol officers who
responded the night said that he had never seen anything like that done before in any traffic accidents that
like he was aware of. And like the autopsy didn't know anything abnormal that would like prompt a sexual assault
kit. And what's so interesting is like the coroner who performed it is no longer in office. And because the
records have been sealed, I don't know the results of the kit, if there were any. I mean, it's not even clear. They
collected a kit. Was the kit actually tested? >> Now, because everyone seems to disagree
on what really caused Steven's death, we reached out to an Ohio based forensic pathologist, Dr. Kent Harshburgger to
get our own professional opinion. Full clarity like he did not work Steven's case, but he agreed to like look at the
autopsy photos and tell us his thoughts. And according to Dr. Harshburgger, the injuries don't look like a typical hit
and run. The head trauma is forceful enough that Steven had to have been struck by either a moving vehicle or
something in motion, but not in a way that matched the usual patterns. Like, it seems too much to just be a beating.
and a bat likely would have left a different, he said, narrower wound. What stood out most to him though was the
blood all pooling in one area. Like no sign of a second impact, which you would [music] normally expect in a hit and run
when the body like hits the ground. >> There's two impacts hit and then the ground.
>> Dr. Harshburgger said that he would have ruled it blunt force trauma to the head
and left the manor undetermined, not ruled it an accident with a car. But rulings aside, what really gives me
pause is that Sandy claims that the day of her son's death. The first call she received was from authorities notifying
her. But do you want to guess who the second call was from? >> Alec Murdoch. >> Not Alec, but his brother, solicitor
Randy Murdoch. Sandy says that he told her he was interested in working pro bono as a liaison between her family and
the authorities. Steven's dad accepted, though neither he nor Sandy had any idea
how Randy found out about the incident so quickly or why he would have been interested in it specifically. And
shortly thereafter, Randy just stopped returning their calls. So by June 7th, 2021, when Alec is sitting in the patrol
car talking to officers, he's telling them about the Mallerie Beach incident. [music]
>> Kind of >> yet way underplayed. But there is all this stuff just like bubbling under the
surface. So once Maggie and Paul are killed, every suspicion anyone's ever had, any rumor that they've heard about
this family, they're all getting spoken about louder and more often than ever before. I mean, this is all anyone is
talking about in this area at the time. Now, I don't know what police think of Alex's story early on, but they don't
arrest him that night. Per some redacted police reports I have, it doesn't even seem like he's even the first suspect. A
kid named Rogan Gibson is. And Rogan is like a third son to the Murdoch. And the
night of the murders, Paul had actually been dogsitting for him. That was likely
why he was out in the kennels that night to begin [music] with. And they know that Rogan was the last person Paul
talked to. But when they interview him the next day, they end up quickly ruling him out. It turns out Paul had called
Rogan at 8:40 p.m. to tell him that something was wrong with his dog's tail. The pair like tried to FaceTime, but
Paul had a bad connection. They end up disconnecting. And then after that, Rogan tried texting and calling Paul.
Tried texting Maggie to get Paul to call him back. Even tried Buster, but no one
was answering. So this FaceTime call and the logs proved that Rogan was telling the truth. But all the stuff they get
from the phone also proved that someone else was lying. Alec, there is a 50-second cell phone video that Paul
took via Snapchat at 8:44 p.m. on the night of his murder. And the video taken at the dog kennels shows Paul like
petting Rogan's dog. But it isn't the visuals that investigators are interested in. It's the audio. Because
in the background, you can hear Paul's voice talking to Rogan's dog. You hear Maggie's voice shouting that an off-
camerara dog named Bubba has a bird in his mouth. But then there's a third voice. Alex,
>> get back. Get back. Quit. Cash. Come on. Quit. It's okay. Come here. Come here, Cash.
[ __ ] Okay. >> Hey, he's got a bird in his mouth. >> Hey, Bubba. >> It's a guinea.
>> There's a chicken. >> Come here, Bubba. >> Come here, cat. >> Come here, Bubba. Catch. Quit.
You can hear him trying to get Bubba's attention to drop the bird. So, this video basically says that Alec was at
the crime scene right before the murders >> and he lied to police about it. Originally, he said that the last time
he spoke to Maggie was around like 8 or 8:30 p.m. that night, after which he laid down for a quick nap. Then, just
after 9:00, he woke up, left to go visit his mom. So, in his version of events, he never stopped by the dog kennels that
night or saw Maggie or saw Paul before leaving. Him leaving just after 9, though, which was always his story,
doesn't seem to be a lie. The telemetry data from his car shows that he left the
Moselle property at 9:07 p.m. >> So, he would have been there during the 9 to 9:30 window that Maggie and Paul
were presumably murdered. Like, at least a small portion of that. >> Yeah. And there's the fact that Alec
practically raced to his mom's house that night, driving faster than he had on any other trip that day. And that his
car idled for a period of time halfway up the driveway at his mom's house. Perhaps they suspect when he was trying
to conceal or stash the murder weapon. So, he did go to his mom's that night then. Yeah, they think he went to
establish an alibi, but he for sure went. And that is proven by his car's GPS data, which makes the evidence that
they end up finding in his mother's house all the more suspicious because there is this blue rain jacket in a
closet of hers. And when tested, this jacket is found to have a large amount of gunshot residue on the inside of it.
Now, it's probably sounding like all of this is happening fast, but keep in mind
the [music] Murdoch of it all. I feel like hoops had to be jumped through because this search of mom's house,
which seems like something you would search early on knowing that's exactly where he went at the time of the
murders. >> Yeah, that's his like supposed alibi, >> that doesn't happen until 4 months after
the murders. And I think it was only prompted by information from the woman who took care of Alex's mom's house. She
said that she saw Alec carrying what looked like some sort of blue tarp under his arm to like go into the house. And
given the placement of the gunshot residue, sled agents put forward that aside from shooting a gun while wearing
the jacket inside out, the residue could have gotten there if the jacket was like
wrapped around the weapon that had recently been fired. >> No, I thought that they never found the
murder weapon, though. >> They didn't. I mean, this is just circumstantial evidence,
but it definitely doesn't do Alec any favors. And by month four when they're finding this, there is already so much
more that they've learned to make Alec look suspicious. I mean, for starters, everyone by now is talking about
Mallalerie's case and Steven's case. And Stevens had so much that was like glaringly suspicious around it that it
actually got reopened. Not officially tied to the Murdoch though, just reopened. But another case undeniably is
being connected to the Murdoch. It's the case of Gloria Sadderfield. Her death and specifically the aftermath of it
starts to raise a lot of eyebrows. Gloria had worked as a nanny and a housekeeper for the Murdoch for over 20
years. I mean, she helped raise their kids, practically spent more time with them than her own family. I mean,
Gloria's sister said in an interview with People magazine that she would have given Alec anything she had. So, Gloria
was 57 years old when she allegedly suffered a trip and fall accident at the Murdoch home. According to the family,
she tripped over their dogs and fell down the front steps of their house. Gloria got admitted to the hospital with
severe head trauma and just over 3 weeks later, she died from the injury. What's
weird though is that the coroner wasn't notified about Gloria's death, nor was an autopsy performed. And on Gloria's
death certificate, her manner of death is listed as natural, which is obviously not consistent even with a trip and fall
accident. >> Right. Like Gloria didn't just happen to die of natural causes at the exact
moment she tripped down the Murdoch residence stairs. >> Exactly. But with no autopsy or police
involvement, there is just no way to know what happened. Or was anything about her death intentional. I mean, I
can't find anything that might have motivated them to [music] want her dead. >> But the weirdness doesn't even like stop
there. At Gloria's funeral, Alec apparently approached her sons and told them that they should file a wrongful
death suit against him or technically claim it against his home's insurance policy, which would be able to pay them
compensation. And so her sons do, but they like never hear anything. The whole thing just sort of like fizzles away,
which is like catching a theme here. >> Yeah. >> So by fall, Sled seems to be focusing
specifically on Alec, and they expand their investigation into his finances, which uncovers some irregularities. It
comes out that the very day that Paul and Maggie were shot to death, June 7th, the CFO of Alec's law firm confronted
Alec about funds that seemed to be missing from the firm's settlements. Now, Alec tried to talk his way out of
it, and then, of course, everyone became distracted by the slaying of his wife and son,
>> but not forever. On September 3rd, the firm confronts Alec again after another
employee discovers that instead of making sure settlement money went to the firm's clients, Alec was actually
redirecting it into a personal account or accounts that he had set up to look like they belonged to the law firm and
using the money himself. And he had been doing this for years, by the [music] way. And this is where Gloria
Satderfield comes back in. So remember, he like tells the Suns, "You should file
a claim against my insurance." They're like, "Okay, we're going to do it." They did it. Never see a dime. Well, it turns
out his home insurance did pay out $4.3 million, but the Satderfields never received a
dime. Alec was the one who pocketed all of it. He and some associates diverted the money and Gloria's kids were
completely in the dark. And so now, after learning about the payout, they file a lawsuit against Alec and his
associates. And also, Sled decides to open a criminal investigation into Gloria's death. They even get permission
from her family to exume her body so they can finally do an autopsy. So, I mean, the information is just
avalanching at this point. But before anyone can dive fully into this twisted string or like web or whatever you want
to call it of deaths and fraud and forgery, on September 4th, 911 gets a call that turns everything on its head.
>> Okay. 911. Where's your emergency? >> I stop. I got a flat tire >> and I stopped and somebody stopped to
help me >> and when I turned my back they tried to shoot me. >> Did they actually shoot you or? They
tried to shoot you. They shot me. Okay. Wait, you need EMS? Uh, well, I mean, yes. I I can't drive.
>> Okay. Seeing and I'm bleeding a lot. >> Where? Where part of your body? >> Uh, I'm not sure. somewhere on my head.
>> Okay. And what's your name? I'm still here. I'm still on the line with you. >> What's your name?
>> Alex Murdoch. >> Alex Murdoch. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Shortly after that call, Alec [music] is
airlifted to a hospital in Savannah, Georgia for treatment. >> Airlifted. He sounded totally fine on
the phone for someone who'd just been shot in the head. So, authorities say Murdoch had a superficial head wound,
though his attorney will later call it significant head trauma. I mean, there definitely was a lot of blood on him
coming from his head. Enough to have spilled into his car when he went to get his phone to call 911 and enough for
somebody driving by to feel like they needed to pick him up from the side of the road and bring him to a nearby
ambulance. So, in my mind, like it might be a protocol thing, like when you're dealing with a head injury like this,
cuz I mean, it turns out he did have a bullet wound to the back of his head and he suffered a skull fracture and a brain
bleed. He was hospitalized for 2 to three days in which time he tells sled agents that the man who pulled over to
help him with like a flat tire he had, he's the one that did this, and he was driving a blue pickup truck.
>> [music] >> and he tries to give details to a sketch artist, but Sled never releases any
images because they are apparently not satisfied [music] with them. Like they say, at first Alec didn't have enough
information about the driver's features, >> and the rest of us online just didn't
buy the story from the jump. I mean, it seems like this guy's MMO is when he gets backed into a corner. Uh-oh, a gun
goes off. >> It definitely felt fishy to me at the time. Now, after this, like within a
couple of days, Alec releases a statement announcing his resignation from the law firm and that he'll be
entering rehab for a 20-year opioid addiction, which has only gotten worse since the deaths of his wife and son. He
essentially uses the addiction to explain his financial misconduct. And his lawyer says that it was an
enormously expensive habit and that he stole the money to fund that habit. So 2 days after that statement, Alec's law
license is suspended indefinitely. And not even a week after that, some new details come out in this roadside
shooting. Basically, Alec admits to police that this was staged. He said it was a staged suicide attempt and he had
asked a man named Curtis Smith to shoot him during a fake car breakdown in order
to make his death look like murder because he believed it would help his surviving Sunbuster collect his $10
million life insurance payout. And for what it's worth, Mandy Matney believes that the insurance settlement thing is
actually made up, too. >> Did he really mean to die, though? >> I don't know. This is one of the things
that I haven't seen a bunch of theories about and Alec doesn't address it in his
statement, but it's kind of like you said, like he's done so many things wrong at this point. Like maybe it's too
much to handle. Maybe he felt like backed into a corner. And okay, where does this Curtis guy fit
into everything, though? >> So Curtis, who doesn't go by Curtis, he goes by Eddie. He's this 61-year-old
former client uh from like a workers comp case and like also apparently like a distant cousin of Alex. So they find
him on September 14th. He's arrested on charges of assisted suicide and assault and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud
among [music] others. But Eddie's version of things don't quite line up with what they heard from Alec. Eddie
actually goes on the Today Show and says that he was not a willing accomplice in
the whole scheme. He says, quote, "I didn't shoot him. If I had shot him, he'd be dead.
>> Fair enough. He claims that he had a close relationship with Alec, but said that he was he thinks he was basically
set up. He said he had no clue about the stage suicide plot. And in his telling,
he didn't know why Alec asked him to even meet him on [music] this like remote in Hampton County, but he went
anyways. And then he says Alec showed up with a gun, asked Eddie to shoot him. When Alec made a sudden movement, Eddie
intervened. The gun went off, but Eddie says that when it went off, that bullet didn't hit Alec. And once he realized
Alec was okay, he took the gun, drove off, and disposed of it. >> So, how does Alec end up with the bullet
to the head if Eddie drove away with the gun? >> Honestly, nothing about this incident
adds up. It's Alex's word against Eddie's word. Alex's attorney says Eddie was basically Alec's primary drug
dealer. Eddie's attorney says that's not true. >> Eddie said he just did like odd jobs for
Alec and that they stayed friends after Alec represented him. I mean, it's reported some places that Alec hired
Eddie to kill him. Other places say that Eddie shot Alec willingly without pay. I
mean, there is so much conflicting information out there, it is almost impossible to pin down what exactly
happened on the side of that county road, but one thing is clear. Alec has been committing financial crimes for
years. And finally, authorities are charging him for them, and they are not holding back.
>> But that's just for the financial crimes, right? Like not for murder. That eventually comes, too. So, according to
NBC News, Alec first faces 84 criminal charges and 11 lawsuits by July 2022. We're talking fraud, moneyaundering,
computer crimes, forgery, criminal conspiracy, narcotics offenses, conspiracy to purchase and distribute
oxycodone. And honestly, like none of these charges seem to be very shocking. >> And Alec will end up pleading guilty to
a number of them eventually. Then that same month, Alec is finally indicted by a grand jury for the double murder of
his wife and son, Maggie and Paul Murdoch. [music] And he does not go down without a fight.
Alec pleads not guilty to the murder charges and a trial date is set for January 2023. Now, that trial has been
covered extensively. It was one of the longest in South Carolina history. And according to Alex's lawyer, Dick
Harpulian, who we spoke to for this episode, people came from across the country to spectate. So, I'm only going
to walk everyone through like the highlights. The prosecution puts forward that Alec killed Maggie and Paul on the
night of June 7th and then left to alibi himself at his mom's house. Their theory
is that leading up to the murders, Alec feared that his financial crimes were on
the verge of being exposed, [music] basically, and that he saw no way out. So he draws up this scheme to protect
himself by becoming the victim. Like they think in his mind if he could be seen in the eyes of the public as a
grieving husband and a grieving father, maybe all that sympathy would drown out the growing suspicions about his fraud
and his theft. Plus, he wouldn't get caught because the murders could be attributed to the threats that Paul had
been getting at the time since Mallerie Beach's boat crash in 2019. Because that
was he was getting a lot, >> you know, with all the financial stuff in the mix. It really strikes me as kind
of classic family annihilator situation, right? Like Alec reached a point of desperation, saw no way out, and made
like this incredibly violent decision in a distressed state. >> And so many times with the family
annihilator stuff, I see over and over what it comes down to is not even so much like trying to not get caught for
financial crimes. It's like this um image of themselves they don't want. >> Right. Yeah.
>> And like like you just said, like not just the image of himself, but like painting himself as sympathetic even
versus like distracting from a poor image >> and family annihilator like that is a
phrase that the prosecution throws [music] out repeatedly. But the defense counters that the case against Alec is
[music] entirely based on circumstantial evidence. They know his car left Moselle
at 9:07, but it's impossible to say whether Maggie and Paul were alive or dead at 9:07. They also claimed that law
enforcement was biased against Alec from the beginning, deciding that he was guilty and then they say fabricating
evidence. They say someone else committed the murders, if not multiple someone's. And they point to some data
from Alec and Maggie's phone, suggesting that a person other than Alec was in possession of Maggie's phone after the
murder. >> Wait, did they find her phone? >> They did. So remember, Paul's was like
on top of him. Hers wasn't anywhere near her body. They actually had to track it
down using the find my iPhone feature on Buster's phone. So, her phone is found on Moselle Road just beyond the Murdoch
property, >> like on the ground. >> Uh, it sounds like it was tossed in the woods. But anyways, the defense uses the
data from Alex's phone to argue that it couldn't have been him who tossed Maggie's phone. But like you have to
remember just because someone's phone is somewhere, it doesn't mean they're with
the phone, >> right? >> And there are some wild theories out there about why Alec might have even
tossed Maggie's phone that honestly like I say they're wild, but like some of them kind of make sense. Like one theory
is that basically Alec, Maggie, and Paul all rode down to the kennels together in
one of the family's golf carts, which wouldn't have recorded the trip. Right. >> Once they got there, Alec killed Paul
and Maggie and then quickly jumped back in the golf cart to go back to the house. But here's the problem. Maggie
had left her phone in the golf cart. So when Alec drove away, >> he has it with him.
>> He accidentally took it with him, right? Investigators say that the phone data
backs this up. Like no steps are logged on Maggie's phone while she's at the kennels. And then it suddenly unlocks
and changes orientation just as Alec or someone would have been handling it. And
you know, the theory goes like once Alec realized that he had Maggie's phone, he
like panicked. He didn't have time to go back to the kennels because he needed to
rush to his mom's house for an alibi, >> but he definitely couldn't go there with
Maggie's phone still in his possession, so he just like tossed it into the woods.
>> And does anybody ever explore the possibility that Alec may have had an accomplice?
>> I mean, with regard to his financial crimes, definitely. With the double murder, it seems like Sled really just
hones in on him. Now, the defense, they present a two shooter theory based mainly on the fact that there were two
different guns that were used, but they obviously assert that neither of those two shooters was Alec.
>> Honestly, we're so deep into the story, I kind of forgot that there were two different guns that were used. I know.
And like, it's such an oddity in this case. And like when you talk about the guns, like the other weird thing that I
don't think I touched on is they did a bunch of crime scene analysis and the angle of the shots fired also were weird
to me. Like they point to an asalent that was shorter than Alec. Alec is like 63 6'4.
>> And is that like [music] the analysis of all the shots or just one or just like
some of them? >> So the what they think is I think they believe that Paul was shot first. The
initial shot to Paul's shoulder seemed more straight on. All of the others were like angled up. I'm I'm also just
thinking like Alec was a trial lawyer and we already know about one incident that he staged involving a gun. Like he
would have known that using two weapons would complicate a case against him in a
courtroom. Like two guns makes more sense with two people. He's only one person.
>> Yeah. And listen, >> it makes things muddy. >> Yeah. And muddy is usually like for a
defense good at trial. Yeah. Listen, there are so many theories out there about exactly how these shootings might
have gone down. I mean, there's literally even videos of people online who have like literally rebuilt the dog
kennels and acted out the shooting with dummies. And like basically, one of the other theories that they like play out
explains the low angle shots by suggesting that Alec may have like fallen down from the recoil or like
tripped after shooting once at Paul in the shoulder, which then would have even forced him to like take a second shot
from the ground. like did he do it intentionally? Did he fall? Did he is there some other excuse? But basically,
he's like when he's like on the ground, that's when he like fires at Maggie. That's they say there's a theory. That's
why the angle doesn't make sense. >> Okay. So, if it's not Alec, then who, right? Like, who does the defense put
forward? If I'm a juror and I'm supposed to believe Alec didn't do this, [music]
I kind of want to see an alternate theory, like someone else that we aren't looking at.
>> Yeah. So Dick Harpull, his lawyer, uh, suggested in our interview with him that
he suspects Eddie, that guy that was tangled up in Alex like roadside shooting thing, but even though he said
that to us, like Eddie was never put on the stand or called as a witness at this
trial >> because again, like you don't have to say I know the jury wants it. You don't
have to say who. You just have to provide reasonable doubt. And to provide that reasonable doubt, I mean, the
defense points out that there was unknown DNA found under Maggie's fingernail and a brown hair in her hand
that ostensibly had not [music] been tested or explained. I mean, Alec had red hair. And these are two details that
the internet has really run with. Some people say that the hair in Maggie's hand was her own. Like maybe it got
there when she was shot in the head. She was dirty blonde, so I don't know. I haven't seen it myself. or they say
like, "Was it from one of the dogs?" I again haven't seen it. How long was it? And then there's all these Reddit
threads that pour over the DNA under her fingernails. Like some attribute it to the fact they say Maggie went to the
nail salon earlier that day where other people would have obviously been like touching her hands. She also went to the
doctor's office. I I don't know. And honestly, the defense doesn't spend nearly as much time on either of those
pieces of evidence as like I would have expected. And yeah, I I've this trial is just like
such not even a mess, just confusing. Like what about the car data and the blue jacket and stuff? Like how does the
defense explain those things? >> Not even the defense. Alec actually ended up taking the stand in his own
defense to explain it himself. Oh, how could [laughter] you? >> So in his testimony, he says he's clear.
He says, "I didn't kill my wife. I didn't kill my son." and he like breaks down multiple times in describing how he
allegedly found them that night. I mean, he admits that he lied to law enforcement in early interviews, but
claims that it was because he was on a massive amount of oxycottton, which made him paranoid and distrustful of law
enforcement. And he said that he was basically afraid that if he told investigators he was at the kennels that
night, like the video they have of or the video at 8:44 they have of his voice, he thought that they would
immediately set their sights on him. And he's [music] like, "If you look at me, if they were looking at me as the
suspect, that's going to distract them from finding like the real killer." Now, he explains that stopping in the
driveway of his mom's house was because he was trying to grab his phone, which had like fallen in a crack between like
the seat and the console. He says he doesn't remember bringing a blue anything there. Knows nothing about the
rain jacket. So, he doesn't really explain it. He's just like non-factor. But in the end, like it's not enough to
convince a jury. Even Alex's lawyer, Dick, told us that while he believes Alec's story is credible in the context
of a man that is quote lied and cheated and stolen millions and millions of dollars, absolutely not. End quote. It
takes the jury less than 3 hours to return a guilty [music] verdict. On March 2nd, 2023, Alec was found
responsible for the murders of Maggie and Paul and later sentenced to the maximum, which is two consecutive life
sentences. I think the one thing I'm still struggling with in this case is just the why. Like to be clear, I feel
really really certain of Alex's guilt, but like why would he go so far as to kill his wife and son just to
>> essentially distract people from his financial crimes? Like >> is that really the only explanation we
get out of this? I know it like it which like every family annihilated case I feel like this is where we end up. We're
like like really this is why >> there are like a million other options that don't include killing your own
family. >> When we spoke to Mandy Matany who in my mind she's like one of arguably like the
deepest in the trenches of this case. >> She's like in the same boat. She says that the motive in this case is one of
the most misunderstood parts of the story. She told our reporters that she believes Alec was in this sort of like
downward spiral before he killed Mackie and Paul and that we have to remember that he like grew up with this belief
that because of his last name, he could just get away with anything. Now, I didn't mention this before cuz I didn't
want to distract from the other cases I told you about, but just 3 days after Maggie and Paul were murdered, Alex's
father, Randolph Murdoch, died in his home. And and I don't bring this up to suggest in any way that like Alec was
involved in his father's death. Like Randolph died after a battle with cancer, but what Mandy suggested is that
Alec was used to relying on his father to get him out of messes that he made. She said that Randolph was really the
one who had the pull at police stations and with solicitors and judges. So maybe
Alec believed that this mess was just another thing that he could get away with. and he had no way of knowing that
his father wouldn't be around to help him anymore. >> That safety net disappeared after he
took these drastic actions. >> Yeah. And maybe that that's why like things continued to escalate or we saw
him like >> scrambling >> scrambling, making those like drastic moves. Now, did Alec really believe that
he could get away with double murder? I don't know. But I also don't really have
a better theory to give you. Like, [music] no one does. So, can I ask like what happened to Buster?
I feel like he >> don't really hear about him. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. He's he's tried pretty hard to
like keep just a low profile. Like from what I can tell, he seems to still be living in South Carolina. I know he was
enrolled at um the law school at the University of South Carolina. But by 2021, he'd actually been asked not to
return, according to court records, citing plagiarism and low grades. Recorded phone calls that Alec made in
prison to him show that he was like trying to pull any strings he could to get Buster back in. But in 2022,
Buster's attorney stated that Buster had quote put his desire to go to law school
on hold for now. Now, I know our reporter tried every number we could find online to contact him. And we even
emailed his long-term girlfriend turned wife as of earlier this year for any kind of comment, but we never heard
back. And all I know is that Buster maintains that his dad is innocent. And Alec also continues to maintain his
innocence from protective custody at a maximum security prison in South Carolina. We sent him a letter and asked
Dick to make sure that he got it, but we never heard anything back. And all the while, Alex lawyers are still fighting
to appeal his conviction. They also pushed for a new trial alleging jury tampering. Now, a judge denied that
motion back in January of 2024 after an evidentiary hearing. But Alex team didn't stop there. in August of 2024.
They elevated the issue to the South Carolina Supreme Court. Oral arguments are pending and until then, Alec will
remain in his 8x10 single cell unit. According to Dick, he's now sober, busy with prison jobs, and of course, still
pouring over his own defense, still strategizing, still looking for a way out. Now, Mandy
Matney ended up writing a book on this case called Blood on Their Hands: Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the
Murdoch Dynasty, and her work has been optioned into a dramatized limited series that's about to come out. So, I
don't think that this is the last we'll be hearing about the Murdoch. In 2023, South Carolina law enforcement
officially declared Steven Smith's death a homicide rather than a traffic accident. But still, it's never been
fully explained, and no one has ever been arrested in connection with it. And we reached out to SLED for more
information about [music] Steven's case, but they declined a comment saying that
it is an ongoing investigation. So, if you know anything about his roadside death in July of 2015, please come
forward. Mallerie's family was able to settle a lawsuit with one of the places that served Paul that night and with
Maggie's estate and Buster, whose ID Paul used to buy the alcohol, but no one has ever been put behind bars. [music]
And as far as I can tell, Gloria Satderfield's body was never actually exumed. The criminal investigation into
her death is ongoing. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkkey.com.
And if you want to listen to more episodes like this and all of our episodes completely adree, be sure to
join our fan club. You'll also get early access [music] to new episodes every week and episodes that we've never
released here. And you can follow us on Instagram @ crimejunkiepodcast. >> We'll be back next [music] week with a
brand new episode.

On June 7, 2021, a frantic 911 call from Alex Murdaugh reported that his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, and their 22-year-old son, Paul Murdaugh, had been shot to death near the dog kennels of the family’s 1,700-acre estate in Colleton County, South Carolina. The double homicide shocked the Lowcountry community, but it was only the beginning of a story that would expose one of the most powerful families in South Carolina history.

For nearly 100 years, the Murdaugh family dynasty dominated the legal system across five counties. But beneath the polished surface were decades of corruption, cover-ups, and unanswered questions. As investigators probed the brutal murders of Maggie and Paul, a web of scandals unraveled around Alex Murdaugh. He was tied to financial fraud, opioid addiction, and even a staged roadside shooting in September 2021, which he later admitted was an insurance fraud scheme. Authorities uncovered his theft of millions of dollars from clients and colleagues, ultimately charging him with 84 criminal counts ranging from fraud to money laundering.

The spotlight on the family also revived scrutiny of other mysterious deaths linked to the Murdaughs: The 2019 boating crash involving Paul Murdaugh that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach in Beaufort County, the 2018 death of Gloria Satterfield, the family’s longtime housekeeper, who allegedly tripped and fell at the Murdaugh home—only for Alex to steal the $4.3 million insurance settlement meant for her sons., and the 2015 death of 19-year-old Stephen Smith, whose body was found on a rural road near Hampton County under suspicious circumstances.

In January 2023, Alex Murdaugh went on trial for the murders of Maggie and Paul. The prosecution’s key evidence was a Snapchat video taken by Paul at 8:44 PM on June 7, 2021, which captured Alex’s voice at the crime scene, despite Alex’s earlier claims that he was napping at home. After six weeks of testimony, a jury took less than three hours to find him guilty. On March 2, 2023, Alex was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. Today, Alex Murdaugh remains in a South Carolina maximum-security prison, still fighting his conviction with appeals and claims of jury tampering.

Key Episode Moments 0:01 - 0:20 — Intro 0:21 - 2:02 — Maggie & Paul Found 2:03 - 4:05 — Crime Scene Breakdown 4:06 - 6:12 — Alex’s First Interview 6:13 - 8:37 — Timeline of the Murders 8:38 - 11:16 — The Murdaugh Dynasty 11:17 - 17:06 — Mallory Beach Boat Crash 17:07 - 25:18 — Stephen Smith’s Suspicious Death 25:19 - 27:12 — Snapchat Video Evidence 27:13 - 29:33 — Alibi Falls Apart 29:34 - 33:16 — Gloria Satterfield Settlement 33:17 - 40:40 — Roadside Shooting & Financial Crimes 40:41 - 42:41 — Murder Charges 42:42 - 45:38 — Defense Strategy 45:39 - 48:33 — DNA & Forensic Questions 48:34 - 50:00 — Alex Testifies 50:01 - 50:30 — Guilty Verdict 50:31 - 52:24 — Why Did He Do It? 52:25 - 54:19 — Appeals & Jury Tampering Claims 54:20 - 56:14 — Outro --------

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Brief Summary

Alec Murdoch is convicted of murdering his wife and son amid a web of family scandals and suspicious deaths.

Key points

The Murdoch Family Tragedy. A powerful dynasty faces a shocking double murder that captivates the nation.
The Boat Crash Incident. Alec Murdoch's son Paul is involved in a fatal boat crash, raising questions of privilege.
The Baseball Bat Theory. Sandy suspects Steven's classmates were involved in his death, linking it to a baseball game.
The Sexual Assault Kit. A coroner ordered a sexual assault kit in Steven's case, raising questions about the investigation.
Alec's Alibi. Alec Murdoch's timeline raises suspicions as he claims to have left for his mother's house before the murders.
The Roadside Shooting. Alec Murdoch's roadside shooting raises more questions than answers, leading to a staged suicide plot.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Why would a man who seemed to have everything choose to destroy it all?

Introduction to the Murdoch family story

0:44WatchOct 6, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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