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He belongs to one of the most powerful families in South Carolina.
Top lawyer Alex Murdaugh is now being prosecuted for the alleged double murder of his wife Maggie and son Paul.
Evidence linking him to the crime scene is said to have emerged in the investigation.
It was on June 7, 2021 that Alex Murdaugh called the police and reported that he had found his wife Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and the couple’s youngest son Paul Murdaugh, 22, shot dead in the family’s hunting lodge.
The murder dropped like a bomb. Mainly because the family belongs to one of the most prominent families in South Carolina.
Over three generations, between 1920 and 2006, Alex Murdaugh’s father, grandfather, and great-grandfather served as district prosecutors in the Lowcountry District in the southern part of the state.
And Murdaugh himself also became one of the most successful lawyers in the region.
Denies crime
He has firmly denied involvement in the murders – and claimed that he was visiting his sick father at the time of the crime.
But now, over a year later, he is being prosecuted for his denial.
– Alex wants his family, friends and everyone else to know that he had nothing to do with the murders of Maggie and Paul. He loved them more than anything else in the world, defense attorneys Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian said in a statement and continued:
– It has been clear from day one that the judiciary and the public prosecutor have already decided in advance that Alex was guilty of the murders.
If convicted, Murdaugh faces up to 30 years in prison. The prosecutor can also demand the death penalty because more than one person was killed, according to the news agency AP.
Crucial evidence
The public documents give few explanations for the decision to prosecute him, writes AP. The only thing that emerges is that Murdaugh is accused of shooting his wife with a rifle and his son with a shotgun.
But CNN reports, citing sources, that there is conclusive evidence linking him to the crime scene.
Police are said to have found blood splatter on Murdaugh’s clothes, which indicates that he was standing near at least one of the victims when the person was shot.
In addition, a video with audio is said to have been found in the dead son’s mobile in which Murdaugh talks to his wife near the time of the murders, according to a source.
He is not seen in the video, but the voice is believed to belong to Murdaugh. The video should also have a timestamp that can be central to the evidence, writes CNN.
More accusations
But the charges against Murdaugh do not stop there. Several other investigations have been initiated against the top lawyer in the wake of the murder case.
He is accused, among other things, of having stolen 8.5 million dollars, equivalent to almost 90 million kronor, from clients.
The alleged eco-crimes are partly related to Murdaugh’s former housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, who died in a “fall accident” in 2018 in one of Murdaugh’s homes.
Murdaugh is accused of, in collaboration with Satterfield’s family, suing himself for the purpose of paying insurance money to Satterfield’s relatives.
However, he is said to have transferred over three million dollars of that money to his own account, according to the investigation.
“An evil man”
The Satterfield family’s lawyers, Eric Bland and Ronnie Richt, are not surprised by the new murder charges.
– It’s just another shameful chapter in the doom of an evil man completely in the absence of morality. The sad thing about it all is the number of victims he has left behind. Clients, family members, legal partners, colleagues and friends, they say in a statement.
In September, the story took another bizarre turn when the top lawyer ordered a murder of himself so that the surviving son would receive 10 million dollars, just over 105 million kronor, on the life insurance. But the assassination failed – the gunshot only touched Murdaugh’s head.
He himself called the police after the shooting, but admitted shortly afterwards that he had planned the act together with another man.