COLUMBIA, SC (AP) — The shooting of the wife and son of South Carolina attorney Alex Murdo set off a chain of investigations, strange events and legal maneuvers over the past 13 months that his attorney says will soon lead to murder charges.
But Murdo’s life was quietly unraveling behind the scenes long before that. Authorities said he was stealing money, addicted to painkillers and desperately trying to avoid a thorough investigation of his finances related to a wrongful-death lawsuit involving his son — all while lying to nearly everyone in his life.
Like the whiteboard of a detective show, the spokes of half a dozen investigations have been broadcast from Murdo since the murders of 52-year-old Maggie Murdo and her 22-year-old son Paul on June 7, 2021.
Suddenly a whole group of people have become players in the drama – the family of a teenager who died in a boating accident determined to fight for justice, the murdered wife who led a quiet life, Murdo’s client who may have been hired to stage an attempt on the life of the lawyer and the housekeeper who died in a fall at the Murdo home.
MALLORY BEACH
More than a year before the murders, 19-year-old Mallory Beach died when she was thrown from a Murdo family boat after it crashed into a bridge post. Police said Paul Murdo was drunk while operating the boat in February 2019.
Beach’s family sought justice not only criminally but also in civil court, filing a wrongful-death lawsuit that is still pending trial.
This court case probably meant a close look at the Murdo family’s finances. Murdo fought the case every step of the way, as Beach’s lawyers suggested he feared they would discover how he managed to live so far beyond his current means. Prosecutors said they have since learned that Murdo stole money from his law firm and clients.
The state Department of Law Enforcement is investigating whether Murdo, his family or friends tried to interfere with the boating accident investigation. Others on the boat said Murdow was in the emergency room that night, looking around their rooms and trying to convince them to tell investigators his son wasn’t driving.
MAGGIE MURDO
Maggie Murdo married the sweetheart she met at the University of South Carolina and moved to small Hampton County, where Alex Murdo’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather were elected prosecutors.
By all accounts, she leads a quiet life, supporting her husband’s work and raising two sons. Friends don’t recall her working outside for a short time, running her own gift shop. They remember a devoted mother who loved her family’s coastal home about 60 miles (96 kilometers) away on Edisto Island.
Maggie Murdo died near her younger son at the family’s hunting estate in Colton County. Both were shot multiple times, the investigator said. Alex Murdo called 911 after discovering their bodies. He said he had just returned home from visiting his mother and sick father.
Thirteen months later, Murdo’s attorney said the rest of the family was told Tuesday that state agents would seek murder charges against Murdo this week.
CURTIS “EDDY” SMITH
Curtis “Eddie” Smith met Alex Murdo when he sued the tree company he worked for after injuring his back in 2007. Or maybe they already knew each other. Like many things with Murdo, exactly what happened is hazy.
Murdo won a settlement for Smith, who said the two became friends. Murdo’s lawyers said it was more of a business relationship, with Murdo buying drugs.
Days after the Murdo family’s century-old law firm discovered stolen money in September 2021, Murdo asked Smith to meet on the side of a lonely Hampton County highway, according to prosecutors. Murdo said he asked Smith to kill him so his surviving son could get $10 million in life insurance. Smith said Murdow threatened to kill himself and the gun went off as Smith tried to wrestle him from his grip.
The shot only grazed Murdo’s head. Murdo’s lawyers called Smith a drug dealer.
“Who needs enemies with a friend like that?” Smith told an Associated Press reporter.
Both men were charged in the roadside shooting — Smith with assisted suicide, conspiracy and other charges; Murdough, for insurance fraud and filing a false police report after initially saying he was randomly shot while changing a tire.
In June, prosecutors suggested a much deeper connection. They re-indicted both men, saying Murdo wrote 437 checks worth $2.4 million that Smith cashed over eight years to try to hide theft and other illegal activity, including a group for drugs including the pain reliever oxycodone.
It was the 16th indictment against Murdough, who prosecutors said stole more than $8 million from clients and others.
GLORIA SUTTFIELD
Gloria Satterfield was the Murdoes’ housekeeper for two decades before she slipped into a coma and died a few days after Alex Murdoe said she tripped and fell in their home.
Murdo referred Satterfield’s family to a friend to act as their attorney, according to a lawsuit. Murdo then had his insurers pay out more than $4 million in wrongful-death settlements, prosecutors said.
But Satterfield’s family never saw a penny until their new lawyers went after him. Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter relentlessly attacked Murdo in court and in the media. Murdo ended up behind bars on $7 million bail.
Bland compared Murdough to a bank robber, but using a pen and corrupt friends instead of a gun.
Months later, the lawyer friend and banker, who prosecutors say were secretly sending money to Murdoch meant to go into trusts for his clients, were indicted.
Bland and Richter won more than $4 million in court settlements from Murdo, whose assets were frozen, as well as from Murdo’s lawyer friend and the bank Murdo used.
The investigation into Satterfield’s death is ongoing. State agents said in June they would exhume her body. South Carolina medical examiners are supposed to be notified of any suspicious death, but the Hampton County coroner was not told about Satterfield’s fall.
Another death investigation was reopened after the shooting deaths. Stephen Smith, 19, died in what investigators say was a hit-and-run, possibly struck in the head by the mirror of a semi-trailer on a two-lane road in Hampton County in 2015. But Smith’s mother said there was no broken glass or plastic pieces from a mirror in the road , where her son’s body was found.
State agents have not said what evidence in the Murdaugh case led them to reopen the Smith case.
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