Bizarre Details Of The Alex Murdaugh Case We Can't Move On From

The following article contains mentions of addiction and suicide.

On June 7, 2021, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh and her son, 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh, were shot and killed at their family's estate, Moselle, near Islandton, South Carolina. Their murders ultimately resulted in the 2023 conviction of Maggie's husband and Paul's father, Alex Murdaugh, once a prominent attorney in the South Carolina Lowcountry. The case made waves throughout the region, where the Murdaughs maintained a century-long legal and political family dynasty. The waves were felt across the U.S. and globally, too, as the media, news junkies, and everyday people became transfixed by the events that led up to the incident and the twists and turns that followed Alex Murdaugh's initial 911 call reporting the discovery of his wife and son's bodies.

The trial of Alex Murdaugh brought to light a tangled web of power, deception, and death that eventually became the subject of the popular Netflix documentary, "Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal." It also spawned countless other news specials and provided fertile ground for amateur sleuthing, as well as speculation, theorizing, and commentary about what happened. Even O.J. Simpson took to X to share his opinion on the Murdaugh case. Fast forward to years after the jury rendered its guilty verdict in the case, and the discussion of the Murdaugh trial has continued unabated. Here are some of the memorable and even bizarre details about the Murdaugh case that stand out.

When police arrived at Moselle after Alex Murdaugh called 911 to report what happened to his wife and son — and even during the call itself — Alex asserted that they were harmed as a response to another headline-making incident the family was involved in. Namely, the February 2019 boating accident that claimed the life of 19-year-old Mallory Beach.

Paul Murdaugh and several friends, including Beach, had been traveling using the Murdaughs' boat, which crashed into a bridge, sending the young woman and others into the water. Beach's body was found a week later, and the cause of death was determined to be drowning and blunt force trauma. Paul was reportedly driving the vehicle and was said to be intoxicated and behaving erratically as he drove the boat. His blood alcohol was captured at .24 while in the hospital hours after the accident.

Despite being charged later with felony counts of boating under the influence — causing Beach's death and injuring two other riders — Paul never spent any time in jail. He was out on bond at the time of his 2021 death. Body camera footage from the scene of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh's murders showed Alex blaming the deaths on the boating accident, saying, "This is a long story. My son was in a boat wreck a while back. We've been getting threats, I know that's what it is," as reported by The Hill.

One year before the boating accident that killed Mallory Beach, and three years before the fatal shooting of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, the family was involved with the death of another individual. This was the tragic death of their longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, which occurred on the Murdaughs' property. Satterfield died in February 2018 at the age of 57 after reportedly tripping over one of the Murdaughs' dogs and falling down stairs.

Alex Murdaugh reached out to the Satterfield family after Gloria's funeral, encouraging them to cash in with his homeowners' insurance providers. Ultimately, a multi-million-dollar settlement was reached with the insurance company, a settlement that Satterfield's next of kin would later claim they were unaware of.

Gloria's son, Tony Satterfield, eventually called for his mother's body to be exhumed, as he and others questioned the conclusions that the Murdaughs and the authorities made regarding the precise nature of her death. "[We want] to see if there's any foul play or anything," Tony told NewsNation in 2023.

The mysterious death of 19-year-old Stephen Smith – who was found dead on a South Carolina roadside in July 2015 — became linked to the Murdaugh family years after the tragedy. At the time, Smith's death was ruled a hit-and-run despite a lack of evidence at the scene. Smith's car was found some 3 miles away with the gas cap dangling. Years later, as Alex Murdaugh faced charges in the killing of his wife and son, Smith's untimely death received renewed attention from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, or SLED, due to the Murdaugh name having come up during interviews with investigators on the earlier case.

Hampton County Guardian editor Michael DeWitt Jr. said that he had heard unsubstantiated rumors "that at least one Murdaugh child was in a vehicle with other boys and allegedly, somebody in the vehicle ... struck the young man with a baseball bat and killed him," in reference to the Smith case, via CBS News. The outlet further noted that the name of Buster Murdaugh — Alex's sole surviving son – appeared in the original case files multiple times.

During the proceedings of Alex Murdaugh's murder trial, investigators from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division gave testimony about the usage of Maggie Murdaugh's phone on the night she was killed. It was revealed, according to a source within law enforcement (via People), that Maggie sent messages to a friend that night as she headed to Moselle, saying that something felt off about Alex's behavior. "He's up to something," she reportedly wrote in a text.

Earlier that night, Alex called his wife to the property, telling her that his father, Randolph Murdaugh III, was in poor health and that she needed to see him before he died. Hours later, Maggie was shot and killed, along with her son, near the dog kennels at the family's Colleton County lodge. According to People's unnamed source, Maggie initially declined to meet her husband at Moselle. Other reports have alleged the couple was going through marriage difficulties, and Maggie was staying at their Edisto Island beach house, an hour away from their estate.

Alleged financial crimes involving his clients and related financial settlements were a key component of the prosecution's case against Alex Murdaugh. During the trial, lead prosecutor Creighton Waters argued that Alex murdered his wife and son to gain sympathy and buy himself time to contend with a crumbling financial situation. "When the hounds are at the door, when Hannibal's at the gates for Alex Murdaugh, violence happens," Waters said, via NBC News, referencing Alex's alleged fraud and stealing of millions of dollars.

At the trial, Jeanne Seckinger — the CFO of Alex's former law firm — testified that she confronted Alex about nearly $800,000 in missing client settlement money on the morning of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh's slaying. Eventually, Alex Murdaugh would tearfully plead guilty to 22 counts of financial fraud and money laundering. Alex admitted to funneling settlement money through a dummy bank account he opened to hide and launder the funds. "I want to take responsibility. I want my son to see me take responsibility," Alex said, seemingly referring to his surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, who showed little emotion when his father was convicted of murder.

During his murder trial, Alex Murdaugh's skeletons continually came out of the closet, including the fact he was spending $50,000 per week on drugs as he battled an opioid addiction. The amount of drugs he claimed to have ingested was as staggering as the amount of money he spent on getting them. When he took the stand, Alex recalled how he would buy oxycodone, and there were days when he would take more than 60 pills.

The Murdaugh patriarch also blamed his proven-false statements to investigators — including his recounting of his whereabouts on the night of the murders — on a paranoid state of mind caused by his drug use. "As my addiction evolved over time, I would get in these situations or circumstances where I would get paranoid thinking," Alex said during his testimony (via CNN). "On June the 7th, I wasn't thinking clearly. I don't think I was capable of reason. And I lied about being down there."

In September 2021, Alex Murdaugh was shot and injured on a South Carolina roadside. A passing motorist saw a bloodied, panicking Alex and called 911 to report what they saw, but didn't stop to offer any assistance themselves because something seemed off about the situation. "We are on Salkehatchie Road and there is a male on the side of the road with blood all over him and he's waving his hands. He's fine — he looks fine, but it kinda looks like a set-up, so we didn't stop," a woman said in the 911 call (via Independent). Apparently, they were onto something.

In this case, Alex was ultimately charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy, and filing a false police report. His defense attorney, Dick Harpootlian, told the court that as Alex's drug problem got worse and depression set in, he decided that it was his time to die, so he arranged for someone to kill him. This way, his surviving son, Buster — whose body language has spoken volumes in interviews — could collect a $10 million life insurance policy, as opposed to a suicide, which Alex thought could be an exclusion from his policy. However, the shot only grazed Alex's head, and he survived.

A distant cousin of Alex's, Curtis Edward Smith, was ultimately accused of firing the shot. For his part, Smith maintained that he had not shot Alex and was instead trying to prevent him from shooting himself.

Despite the particularly heinous way in which Maggie and Paul Murdaugh died — not to mention other crimes Alex Murdaugh was accused of and the perceived trail of death surrounding the family — the prosecutors in the case opted not to seek the death penalty. "After carefully reviewing this case and all the surrounding facts, we have decided to seek life without parole for Alex Murdaugh," South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a 2022 statement (via AP).

In the wake of Alex's conviction, Judge Clifton Newman, who presided over the murder trial, commented on the prosecution's decision to forgo the pursuit of capital punishment. "I don't question at all the decision of the state not to pursue the death penalty," Newman said in court (via BBC) before giving Alex two consecutive life sentences in prison. "But I sit here and reflect on the fact that over the past century, your family, including you, have been prosecuting people in this courtroom and many have received the death penalty, probably for lesser conduct."

For someone who was a practicing attorney and descended from generations of prominent law practitioners, Alex Murdaugh's testimony during his own murder trial was so bad that it may have cost him his freedom. "His testimony was very poor. In fact, I think it was borderline atrocious," jury consultant Alan Tuerkheimer argued to CNN. Defense attorney Misty Marris also offered her analysis to CNN, saying, "For him, the chance of convincing one or two jurors that he might be a liar, he might be a thief, but he's not a killer, was worth taking that risk ... But in my opinion, the testimony was what actually sunk him."

Amidst a divulgence of many of his secrets — including his addiction — Alex had to answer to a video that his son, Paul Murdaugh, filmed on his phone mere moments before his death. This video contained audio that witnesses and prosecutors said captured Alex's voice, which contradicted his previous statements that he was nowhere near the scene at the time of their deaths. While testifying, Alex ultimately admitted that he lied about when he had last seen Paul and his wife, Maggie, before supposedly discovering their bodies.

While Alex Murdaugh's admission that he was near where his wife and son were killed was a key moment during the murder trial, some believe that the former attorney actually confessed to the murders before the trial even began. A South Carolina investigator testified during the trial that Alex huttered the phrase, "I did him so bad," during a recorded interview in the days immediately following the murder of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.

When the video of the interview was played in court and senior special agent Jeff Croft gave his opinion of what was said, Alex could reportedly be seen shaking his head in response. It was contended by the defense that Alex actually said, "They did him so bad." However, as reported by South Carolina Public Radio, Croft further stated that he was "100%" confident that Alex said, "I." The agent claimed that he didn't follow up on the statement at the time because it was early in the investigation, so he didn't want to lose Alex's cooperation.

Part of what made the Alex Murdaugh trial — and the events surrounding the Murdaugh family, in general — such a source of fascination for the general public was the myriad of twists, turns, and bizarre behavior of the characters involved. However, those things weren't generated solely by the Murdaughs themselves. The attorneys and even the court officials involved in the case had their own missteps and memorable moments. One such incident falling into both of those categories occurred when Alex's defense attorney, Dick Harpootlian, pointed an assault rifle at the prosecution inside the courthouse.

Harpootlian pointed the rifle at the prosecutors' table while attempting to show jurors the shooter's stance while questioning a forensics expert about Maggie Murdaugh's killing. "Tempting," he reportedly said in court (via New York Post) as he did so, adding, "I don't know how I can do this so I'm not pointing at somebody."

Afterward, Harpootlian was criticized online for the incident. "That is disgusting!!!! Especially in a horrific double murder case. What is wrong with people?? ... How can this be silly banter in this gruesome case?" one observer wrote in a post on X.

In the wake of Alex Murdaugh's conviction for the murder of his wife and son, South Carolina attorney general Alan Wilson praised his lead prosecutor, Creighton Waters, for the successful prosecution. "Creighton, you did a fantastic job. I don't think there is another attorney in the State of South Carolina that could have led this Herculean effort," Wilson said during a press conference (via CNN).

However, Waters' skills aren't limited to the courtroom. The attorney also made waves on social media with his side gig as a performing musician. Waters plays the guitar in his spare time and has been a part of several bands throughout his life. His X account is flush with videos depicting his on-stage shredding, many of which have amassed tens of thousands of views. "He's a such a BADA$$....in the courtroom and on stage!" wrote one fan on X in response to a video of Waters performing with his band.

As explosive as the Alex Murdaugh trial was in the media and, at times, in the courtroom itself, the possible presence of actual explosives brought the proceedings to a screeching halt at one point. Colleton County Courthouse personnel received a bomb threat via phone in February 2023 just as a witness was about to take the stand.

The threat prompted a full evacuation of the facility. "Alex was taken by the police, but they grabbed the family and rushed them out ahead of us," courtroom spectator Marty Yates recalled to NBC News. "And then we all evacuated the building and have scattered around." After police dogs were brought in to sweep the building and the all-clear was given, court staff and attorneys returned to the courtroom two hours after Judge Clifton Newman announced the evacuation.

Colleton County Court clerk Becky Hill was a prominent figure throughout the Alex Murdaugh trial itself, as well as the Netflix documentary that it spawned. However, her involvement in the case ultimately resulted in her own set of highly-publicized legal troubles.

Hill was formally charged in May 2025 with perjury, obstruction of justice, and misconduct in office. Arrest warrants filed against Hill (via ABC News) alleged that she abused her office for financial gain after she promoted a book she wrote about the case, "Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders," via social media.

She was also accused of obstructing justice by releasing evidence photos to third parties, giving "false and misleading testimony" amid Murdaugh's appeal, and receiving financial bonuses totaling roughly $12,000. Hill was released on an over $80,000 bond for her charges, and the case is ongoing as of this writing.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, or is struggling or in crisis, contact the relevant resources below:

• The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

• Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.