From our correspondent in the United States,
A double murder, without witnesses or found murder weapon. An influential family in the American South, descended from three generations of chief prosecutors in the region. A lawyer addicted to opiates, on the verge of ruin, accused of having killed his wife and his son to attract sympathy when he was suspected of having embezzled millions of dollars. A sensational documentary on Netflix, which looks back on three other suspicious deaths in the orbit of this all-powerful clan…
After five weeks of a hearing with many twists and turns, the trial of Alex Murdaugh is coming to an end, in South Carolina, with the defense’s final argument expected this Thursday before the start of deliberations. The outcome looks uncertain.
Accused of being the “annihilation” of his family
On June 7, 2021, shortly after 10 p.m., Alex Murdaugh (pronounced [Alec Murdoc]) calls for help. In tears, he explains that he found the lifeless bodies of his wife, Maggie, and his youngest son, Paul, near the kennel of their property in Moselle, which covers several hundred hectares in the lowcountry, the region swampy coast of South Carolina.
After a year of an investigation where almost nothing filters, the imposing lawyer is arrested and charged with this double murder. In his closing argument, prosecutor Creighton Waters insisted on Wednesday: “His reputation was about to be ruined. His ego couldn’t live with this shame. He had a motive, the means and the opportunity. He became the destroyer of his family. »
Murdaugh hid he was there
For almost two years, Alex Murdaugh assures investigators that he would nap in the main residence, located 400 meters from the kennel, then went to visit his dying father and his mother suffering from dementia for about 40 minutes, in a nearby town located about twenty kilometers away. But a carer claims he only stayed for about 20 minutes, and he pressured her to change her story, offering to pay for her wedding party.
A video presented by the prosecution also explodes the chronology put forward by the suspect. At 8:44 p.m., his son, Paul, films a video of an injured puppy in the kennel. We hear the voice of his mother, and that of a man. At the bar, all the witnesses are categorical: it is that of Alex Murdaugh.
Familiar with the legal system
At 8:49 p.m., the smartphone of the young man, aged 22, is unlocked for the last time. His text chat with a friend stops. His mother’s phone goes to sleep thirty seconds later. It is probably at this time that they are shot, believe the investigators. Paul with two shotgun salvoes, to the chest then to the head; Maggie by an AR-15 type semi-automatic rifle.
Alex Murdaugh was therefore present at the scene of the crime a few minutes before the tragedy, insists the prosecutor. According to him, the lawyer, who knows the legal system by heart, “made up an alibi” by calling his wife’s cell phone three times at 9 p.m., then sending her an SMS to warn that he was leaving to see his parents, with his car leaving the Moselle residence at 9:07 p.m., according to data extracted from the on-board computer.
In murder trials, lawyers almost always advise their client not to testify. But faced with this video, Alex Murdaugh had no choice. At the bar, he admits having lied and concealed his presence at the kennel. He argues that he was in a “paranoid” state of mind because of his addiction to opiates, and that he “did not trust” the investigators. And looking the jury straight in the eye, he swears: he did not kill “Maggie and Paul-Paul”, whom he “could never have hurt”. He offers an alternative version to the 12 jurors: the trail of “revenge” against his family.
The fall of a crook
This revenge, according to the defense lawyer, is linked to a fatal accident in 2019. Young Paul Murdaugh was piloting a family boat drunk on the local river when it hit a bridge, killing one of his friends, Mallory Beach , 19 years old. It’s the drama at the heart of Netflix’s documentary series Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal. At the helm, Alex Murdaugh assures that his family regularly received threats.
Prosecutors put forward a completely different version: Alex Murdaugh was under pressure as his son’s trial approached, charged with dangerous drunk driving that caused the death of Mallory Beach. Above all, a civil complaint risked exposing the state of his finances, which were in the red. The lawyer, who led the high life, spent at that time 60,000 dollars a week on opiate pills bought from a drug dealer. At the helm, he admits having embezzled millions paid by an insurance company to the relatives of his housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who died after a fall at their Moselle property in 2018 (see box). The noose was tightening. His law firm partners were beginning to ask questions. The financial manager had even asked him for an explanation a few hours before the double murder.
No direct physical evidence
If the motive advanced by the prosecutors is complex and its logic questionable, they assure that the plan of the accused worked. At least initially. After the double murder, his partners do not insist, when he has just lost his wife and his son and the authorities are looking for a suspect for months.
To instill “reasonable doubt” in the minds of the jury, defense attorneys can rely on witnesses. In particular the eldest son Murdaugh, who assured that his father had always been loving and never violent. Lawyer Richard Harpootlian repeated that there was no “material evidence”: the weapons of the double murder were never found.
Problem: the family owned about twenty firearms, including shotguns. And a ballistics expert was formal: the ammunition analyzed bears marks identical to those of old casings found on the property. The Murdaugh couple had bought two AR-15 assault rifles using this type of ammunition for their sons. One was lost by Paul Murdaugh in 2016; the replacement rifle, which remains untraceable, could, according to the prosecution, be the murder weapon. The defense presented the thesis of two killers, including one of small size, supported by a ballistics expert. But the latter conceded that many other factors could explain the different angle of the shots, such as a crouching shooter.
An uncertain verdict
If convicted, Alex Murdaugh faces between thirty years in prison and life imprisonment, because the prosecutors have given up asking for the death penalty. But in the United States, a guilty verdict or an acquittal must be decided unanimously. It is enough for only one of the 12 jurors to have a “reasonable doubt” for the trial to be deadlocked. In this case, prosecutors would have to decide whether to request a new trial or drop the charges.
What is certain is that Alex Murdaugh is far from being off the hook: he faces dozens of other charges, mainly financial crimes and insurance fraud. Enough to keep the American public in suspense, with a second documentary series in development, this time at Hulu.
The main dates of the case
July 8, 2015. Stephen Smith, 19, is found dead on a country road, killed with a blow to the head. He was a classmate of Alex Murdaugh’s eldest son, Buster. Relatives evoke in the Netflix documentary rumors of a possible secret homosexual affair, which have not been corroborated at this stage.
February 26, 2018. The Murdaughs’ housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, died two weeks after falling down the stairs of “Moselle”, their property. His death was never reported to a medical examiner, and no autopsy was performed. The ex-girlfriend of younger brother Paul Murdaugh claims the employee found a bag of pills belonging to Alex Murdaugh shortly before he fell.
February 24, 2019. Mallory Beach, 19, dies in the accident of the boat driven in a state of drunkenness by Paul Murdaugh.
June 7, 2021. Maggie and Paul Murdaugh are shot dead.
June 22, 2021. Authorities are reopening the investigation into the death of Stephen Smith, based on new information obtained in the investigation into the double murder of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh.
September 4, 2021. Alex Murdaugh calls the police after being shot in the head. He has since admitted to having asked an acquaintance to kill him so that his eldest son, Buster, could receive $10 million in life insurance. But his accomplice obviously missed it.