Alex Murdaugh (interestingly pronounced as “Alec Murdock”) was born on May 27, 1968. He is a part of the Murdaugh family dynasty who live in lowcountry South Carolina. It’s a very small area socially and everyone knows everyone. He was a part of the South Carolina bar where he represented people in personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits. He met his wife Maggie Murdaugh while attending University of South Carolina and the two would eventually have 2 children together: Paul Murdaugh and Buster Murdaugh in 1999 and 1996 respectively. 3 generations of Murdaugh’s served as the circuit solicitor of South Carolina’s 14th judicial district which covers 5 counties. Locals called the district “Murdaugh country” because of the amount of judicial power they had.
Alex and Maggie were not the best parents. They allowed their sons to drink as early as age 12. They were able to get away with things like this due to the family’s legal connections
Paul’s behavior while drunk was extremely aggressive and rowdy. His friends describe Paul as a completely different person while he is intoxicated. They nicknamed his drunk alter ego “Timmy”.
Things went downhill on the night of February 23, 2019 Paul Murdaugh took his girlfriend Morgan, his two friends Connor and Anthony, and their girlfriends Miley and Mallory. Paul used his older brother Buster’s ID to purchase alcohol at a local gas station for them all. It’s important to note that Paul (and all of his friends) were only 19 years old at the time. Paul drove the boat to a friend’s oyster roast where they all hung out and drank. Paul in particular drank a lot and his friends did not think it would be a good idea for him to drive the boat back.
Before heading back to the boat, Paul and Connor decide to go to a bar to take shots (yes, the bar still served them even though they were underage)
At around 1AM on February 24, Paul and Connor leave the bar and head back to the boat. At this point Paul was wasted and his friends were adamant that he give one of them the keys since they were not as drunk. Paul refused claiming that the boat is his and he did not want anyone else driving it. His friends reluctantly got in the boat and they began driving. To set the scene a bit clearer: They were riding in the boat at 2:30 in the morning with an intoxicated driver during the cold month of February without headlights (boat lights were broken) in the middle of a pitch black creek. Connor had to shine a flashlight in front of the boat in order for them to see. While riding, Paul crashed the boat into a bridge which tragically ejected Mallory from the boat. She unfortunately drowned and her body was found 8 days later.
Citizens of the lowcountry were outraged after discovering Paul Murdaugh was the boat driver. The Murdaugh’s are infamous for getting away with serious crimes and they believed Mallory would not receive any justice. This ended up not being true as Paul Murdaugh was charged with 3 felonies for the incident in February. He plead not guilty. On June 4, 2021, it was decided Paul would go to trial for the death of Mallory after a failed mediation between Paul and Mallory’s family
Unfortunately this trial would never happen because on June 7, 2021 Paul and Maggie Murdaugh (mother) were found shot dead at their residence by Alex Murdaugh (father). Alex claimed that he found his wife and son deceased after returning home from a visit with his parents. This may have been believable at first but the events preceding these murders made Alex look very suspicious. He was fired from his own family’s law firm, he staged a suicide attempt, and the prosecutor who happened to be friends with Alex randomly recused himself from the case with no real explanation. In October 2021, Alex was arrested for the double homicide of his wife and son.
How and why would someone impulsively murder their wife and son? The answer to this question is not simple as there are a series of events that had a domino effect in this case. I will be covering those events next week for Part 2.