The Murdaughs: the terrible true story of a family marred by five bodies in less than six years

“They have seriously shot my wife and my son, they are not moving!”. Those were the words Alex Murdaugh used when he called the police on the night of June 7, 2021. It was not the first of his lies, and not the last that he would use to cover up one of the shadiest family plots in the history of the United States.. But let's start, at the beginning, who was this influential family and what were the five crimes that, in one way or another, bore their last name?

The Murdaughs, an untouchable dynasty

Collenton County, South Carolina, was one of those places where nothing almost ever happens.. Perhaps because those who 'ruled the show' and decided what was yes and what was not, for more than a century, were the Murdaughs, the most influential family of lawyers in the state.

Its history dates back to the 1920s, when Randolph became the first elected attorney (district attorney). Since then, all of his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren, up to the protagonist of this case: Alex Murdaugh, have followed his legacy.

So it is not surprising that this historic dynasty had accumulated enough power to decide which cases are prosecuted, which people, and in what way.. Everything passed through his hands.

First murky death (2018): the assistant 'falls' down the stairs

The first death that affects the Murdaugh family occurred in 2018 in the house where Alex and his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, lived with their two children, Buster and Paul.

Gloria Satterfield was, for more than 20 years, another member of the family for whom she worked as a housekeeper and nanny, until an 'unfortunate accident' ended her life.. Or at least, that's what Maggie told the police when she called to report her assistant's 'fall down the stairs', who, apparently, could have tripped over the dogs.

Suspicions began to grow when, after the murder of Maggie and Paul, the babysitter's case was reopened and it was discovered that there was no autopsy, and that her death was listed as 'natural', which is strange for an accidental death.

As if all this were not enough to distrust the accidental causes of Gloria's death, it is known that her family never received the insurance compensation – 4.3 million dollars that the parties had agreed with the insurer and that Alex could have kept. Murdaugh-, and that, during the trial held on March 3, 2023, he himself confessed to having lied about the death of his assistant.

Gloria's exhumation – which is planned to be carried out if the family gives permission – would reveal a lot of information about what happened on the day of her death.. Although Netflix, in its documentary, has already dared to theorize about the reasons that could have led the Murdaugh family to murder the maid: “she knew too much.”

Second death (2019): a boat accident

The second death bears the mark of Paul Murdaugh, the youngest of the family, who that night in February 2019, returned from a party with five friends – three girls, among whom was his girlfriend, and his best friends, Margot and Mallory, and the latter's boyfriend. In addition to Connor, another friend of the group, Paul's cousin.

At the end of the party, most of the kids, who were 22 years old at the time, believed that it was best not to take Paul's boat after drinking, especially him, who, according to what they say, was in a serious state of drunkenness.

Once on the boat, Paul started going around with the boat, and all his friends got angry with him.. He was out of his mind, as he increasingly was when he drank, and even slapped his girlfriend in front of them all.. Seconds later, the ship crashed into a bridge. Everyone survived the fall, except Mallory, his girlfriend's best friend, who was in a relationship with one of the boys who was also on the boat, who was found dead in the river a week later.

When Paul was murdered, there was still no date for the trial he should have faced and which his family tried to avoid at all costs by obstructing the corpse and extorting the officials involved in the investigation.. There will never be justice for Mallory.

Third death (2015): an unsolved accident

We now go back to 2015, because when everything seemed to point in one direction during the investigation of the murder of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, the case of Stephen Smith, a gay boy who had been found dead on the road, was reopened.

There was never enough evidence, but many witnesses and investigators claimed that the eldest of the Murdaughs, Buster, could be involved in this strange death – whose signs did not coincide with those of a hit-and-run accident – because he was on the radar of the area where it occurred in the moment in which the events occurred.

Some American newspapers have dared to suggest that Stephen could have a romantic relationship with Buster and that is why he could have gotten rid of him to safeguard his reputation.

The murder of Paul Murdaugh and his mother (2021)

With a housekeeper who falls down the stairs, a young woman drowned, a gay boy killed in the road and a mother and son shot to death…. The Murdaugh family went from being one of the most influential in South Carolina to being the protagonists of the most bizarre crime story in the United States.

The night that Maggie and her son Paul were murdered with two different weapons – a hunting shotgun and an assault rifle – Alex Murdaugh claimed to be visiting his parents, and it was later, when he arrived, that he found them dead.. Or at least, that was the version he maintained for a long time, until at the trial last March, he confessed, through tears, to having lied about his alibi because of the opiates he was taking.. He said that, in fact, he had been at her house that night. But he continued to plead guilty.

In fact, at the trial it became clear that he was there that night when the Prosecutor's Office provided videos in which the alleged murderer is seen wearing a white shirt with no blood stains, despite the fact that during the call he had warned the telephone operator that he had touched the bodies, as well as a clip from the boy's Snapchat in which the father's voice can be heard shortly before the time of death.

An assisted suicide

After the murder of his son and his wife, Alex Murdaugh's story could even become more bizarre. The last straw was the uncovering of a case of corruption in his company, which, added to the rest of the cases in which he was involved, forced him to resign.. But he wouldn't settle for that: The next day, Murdaugh called 911 and told them that someone had shot him in the head while he was changing the tire on his car.

It was soon shown that, in reality, the incident was part of a plan, hatched with a cousin of his, whom he convinced to fake his murder in order to collect the insurance from his only surviving son.

Justice put an end to this story when in March 2023 he was sentenced to serve two life sentences without the possibility of parole, for the murder of his wife and son. In addition, committing insurance fraud, criminal conspiracy, and lying in a police report. Now Collenton County rests in peace.