Disgraced South Carolina legal scion 54-year-old Alex Murdaugh was charged this week with the double murder of his wife and son on their sprawling family farm last year.
Murdaugh — a fourth-generation lawyer from a powerful legal family — was indicted Tuesday on two counts of murder and two counts of weapons possession in the shooting deaths of 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh and 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh, the state’s district attorney, Alan Wilson, announced Thursday.
The pair was gunned down near a dog kennel on the family’s 1,700-acre hunting estate in Islandton with at least two two separate guns — a rifle and a shotgun — on June 7, 2021.
The elder Murdaugh called 911 and frantically told a dispatcher he had returned home to find the bullet-riddled bodies of his loved ones.
He claimed to have a solid alibi, saying he’d been visiting his dying father in the hospital and checking on his elderly mom when the double slaying unfolded.
But sources later said that investigators have cellphone video that puts him near the murder scene at the time of the killings, contradicting his alibi claims.
The prominent lawyer was soon hit with dozens of charges over his finances, including allegedly stealing millions and faking his own murder in a botched insurance scam to collect $10 million for his surviving son, Buster.
Murdaugh — who has since blamed his crimes on drug addiction — also stands accused of scamming millions of dollars from the family of his longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, 57, who died under suspicious circumstances at his home in 2018.
In total, he faces at least 71 charges that he stole $8.5 million from clients. The law firm founded by his family has also alleged that Murdaugh was fired after stealing money from the firm.
The fallen legal scion was charged last month with allegedly laundering millions of dollars in a scheme to distribute the painkiller oxycodone.
On Tuesday, Murdaugh was formally disbarred in South Carolina and was reportedly informed that he’d be charged with the murders of his wife and son.
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