Original subtitles

‐ Tragedy in the Lowcountry as...

‐ Their bodies were found...

‐ However, we still don't know if there are any suspects.

‐ It is the latest turn in an ongoing saga.

‐ Two members of a well‐known family are dead.

‐ Both found dead from gunshot wounds.

‐ Paul had been in trouble with the law before,

facing criminal charges of boating under the influence.

‐ That killed a former USC student, Mallory Beach.

‐ Another death, and another investigation

tied to the Murdaugh name.

‐ Stephen Smith, who was found dead in the road,

ruled a hit and run.

‐ There's a new twist in a story we've been following.

‐ Former housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield,

who died at the Murdaugh home.

‐ My name is Alex Murdaugh.

‐ I've been an investigative journalist for 28 years, and a lot of the stories that I've done

are...are pretty cut and dry.

And this is far from that.

I have to tell you, I...I haven't worked on a story

this complicated, this intricate before.

For the last six months,

I've been wading through this labyrinth of investigations.

And connected to all of these cases

are members from one family, the Murdaughs,

and often its patriarch, 53‐year‐old Alex Murdaugh.

It all started in June of 2021.

‐ Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were found shot to death

outside of some dog kennels in their hunting lodge.

‐ A shotgun was used on him.

A semi‐automatic weapon was used to kill Maggie.

‐ A mother and her son were shot in cold blood.

And they are a prominent family in this area.

The big question on... in my mind,

and also in the minds of...of many people was,

"What's the motive here?"

Why would someone want Maggie and Paul Murdaugh dead?

Homicides don't happen in Hampton County.

Tell me about this place.

‐ Hampton County...if you knew of...of us at all,

if you knew what Hampton County was,

you knew us for our Watermelon Festival,

the oldest continuing festival

in the...in the state of South Carolina.

‐ We call this the Lowcountry of South Carolina,

and it has the most vestiges of the old South.

People here are hardworking.

They're, you know, basically honest people.

‐ You know, everybody here is like family.

You can get people here together for a cause.

‐ Good people. They're nice and kind.

And they'd give you the shirt off their back,

you know, if you ever need help.

Every now and then you get one of them bad apples.

‐ We're trying to grow a better county.

And this comes along.

And now we're synonymous with this Murdaugh.

Man, I was in Colombia the other day.

And I told somebody I was from Hampton,

and the first thing they said,

"Oh, you're the home of the Murdaughs."

‐ I needed to dig deeper into who the Murdaugh family is.

They're a big deal? ‐ Oh, yes.

Absolutely. And well respected, yes.

‐ Growing up, you knew their name?

‐ Oh, absolutely.

My family's grown up around them all the years.

And I mean, to hear the name was

to know that they were respected.

‐ They work very hard.

They give back to their community.

They will loan their property,

their, you know, houses or whatever,

to have some type of a fundraiser.

‐ If you're from Hampton, you've had some type of...

of relationship with the Murdaughs.

They're just...they're involved in everything.

If you run into a Murdaugh in the Piggly Wiggly

or on the street, they're gonna shake your hand,

they're gonna know your name,

and they're going to ask you how you're doing.

‐ The Murdaughs have deep roots in this community.

So what happened in the early summer of 2021

was a shock to the people that live here.

‐ We're following this developing story tonight.

‐ Tragedy in the Lowcountry

as two members of a well‐known family

were discovered overnight. ‐ Found shot to death.

‐ No arrests have been made. ‐ No suspects have been named.

No persons of interest at this time.

‐ April? ‐ Yes.

‐ Hi, I'm Troy. ‐ Nice to meet you.

‐ Nice to meet you.

Have you been able to make any sense out of all of this?

‐ I do not understand it.

When the call came in, that, you know,

Maggie and Paul had been killed...

We was up all night trying to make sense of it

and nobody could.

As far as the family as a whole,

I never saw problems.

I loved Maggie, a very sweet lady.

They always seemed happy together.

They always did things as a family.

So it was a...it was a huge shock

for the...the whole community.

I mean, that's all anybody's talking about now.

‐ That night, the sirens started around 10:30.

They just...it was just non‐stop.

Siren after siren after siren.

I think probably about the 20th time the car went by,

I mean, I just was at this time wide awake in bed.

My stepdad was very close with their dad.

And then other than that, it's just been

our families knew one another.

So just disbelief. Just shock.

‐ At first I was actually just...

you know,

speechless.

Really couldn't process it.

‐ It's mind‐blowing. I mean, there's a lot of us

that don't really know what to say.

It's...it's very tragic. It's...it's sad.

‐ You just don't see, you know, a young man and a...and a mother

being killed in a community like this.

‐ In the days following the murders,

Alex and his eldest son, Buster,

made no statements to the press.

But Alex's brothers spoke out on behalf of the family.

‐ I got a call from...from Alex Monday night.

And as soon as I answered the phone,

I knew something was wrong.

You know, man.

He just told me, he said, "Come as fast as you can.

Paul and Maggie have been hurt."

‐ It changes you as a family.

And I can't imagine the horror

that my brother's experiencing.

‐ Can't envision who would do something like that.

‐ You...you'll never know the truth

about anything, you know.

There's only two people that know.

The person that did it and the good man upstairs.

You don't know who did what.

‐ Of course, you can count on us

to bring you the very latest as we learn more details.

Now reporting live, Riley Benson down on two.

‐ I remember sitting in our...our morning meeting

and our news director came in

and they said, "Who wants to go to Hampton?"

I remember all the reporters, nobody raised their hand.

I'd never even heard of it until Alex Murdaugh

all happened. And I got...I was the lucky one

who got sent down to Hampton County.

Then we get out here

and it was that first day after the double murder.

You know, SLEDs out here and the Sheriff's right here.

And so I've been covering it really from that point.

We came to know that, you know, they said

that Alex was a person of interest early on.

‐ Right. ‐ But not totally surprising

when he was the one who found the bodies.

He was the one who called 911, and of course, you know,

he's the husband, the father.

There's still no real explanation behind

what happened on this Colleton County family property

or any information on who could be

behind the brutal shootings.

Residents say lack of information

has many community members drawing their own conclusions

in this high profile case.

‐ Any sign that there was a robbery in progress?

‐ They did find her cellphone thrown on the side of the road.

So whoever it was, appears to have taken her cellphone.

‐ I've been to a lot of crime scenes

and looked at a lot of homicides.

And to me this is...it's almost more than personal.

In some ways, it's overkill.

Two different weapons shot multiple times

when one shot would certainly do the job.

We have so little information.

Even the...the reports that were released through FOIA,

they're so redacted

that you can't even read a complete sentence.

I mean, anything right now is possible.

The first person you want to talk to you

is the person that found the body.

‐ Alex Murdaugh. ‐ Exactly.

‐ Alex makes a 911 call at 10:08.

The time of death ruled between 9:00 and 9:30.

Alex reported to have a "stone‐cold alibi."

He was with his dad, Randolph,

who died just a couple of days later.

‐ Just natural causes, but died.

‐ And he also went to see his mother who has dementia.

‐ So do you have your own theories?

‐ Everybody has a theory in this town.

‐ Everyone has a theory and a lot of it is just

rumors and gossip.

I mean, there are a lot of potential enemies there

of this family.

We came across an old article on them from 2009

where someone tried to burn down their home.

I mean, most people don't have...I mean,

no one's ever tried to burn my home down.

‐ This was a twisted, twisted tale.

We began investigating this double homicide

at the hunting lodge.

But as we dug further,

that was just the tip of the iceberg.

‐ The more questions you ask, the more questions evolve.

‐ What would someone gain from killing a mother and her son?

Revenge?

‐ Sex?

‐ Never had a case that was shrouded in so much secrecy.

‐ Money?

‐ Do you guys know who she is? ‐ Yeah, she works for us.

‐ When you have this many untimely deaths,

what's happening here?

‐ A lot of people don't want to talk.

They're afraid.

‐ There's something terribly wrong here.

‐ The motives for murder are pretty basic. It's not surprising.

Betrayal, revenge, sex, and money.

I've done this a long time.

And it all boils down to those four.

In June 2021, the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh

shocked the Lowcountry.

How could the wife and son

of one of the most prominent attorneys in town

have been murdered in their own home?

But even more shocking were two subsequent statements

by law enforcement.

First, they were not naming any suspects.

Second, the public had no reason

to fear for their safety.

‐ I think people were probably

just as perplexed as you and I are.

But they did say that there was no threat to public safety.

So everyone was confused of "Okay, if there's no threat

"to public safety,

then why hasn't there been arrests made yet?"

‐ Why do you think the law enforcement isn't giving out

even a smidgen of information?

‐ For me, I feel that there's a different way

to go about an investigation of this magnitude.

I mean, when you think about who the Murdaughs are,

they're infamous around here, especially these parts.

Of course, it's going to be handled differently

because they're well known.

I have faith that they're doing what they're supposed to do.

‐ News organizations became aware

that there was no information being provided to the public

by the Colleton County Sheriff's Department.

The law says that these police reports

for the preceding 14 days

must be made available for inspection and copying

without a written request.

The report from the Sheriff's Office

contained no information at all.

A reporter from the Post and Courier

went to the State Law Enforcement Division

and was denied access to the building.

The judge reviewed the original documents,

unredacted documents,

and the claimed exemptions asserted by law enforcement

and said they were appropriate.

It shouldn't take a lawsuit to get information.

If I'm truly cynical,

I'd say that somebody's being protected.

If I'm merely skeptical,

I'd say it's the Sheriff's Office

had no idea what it was doing.

‐ As an outsider covering the story,

you have to wonder why law enforcement agencies

would be so tight‐lipped about a case as significant

as the double murder of two members

of one of the most prominent families in the area.

Tell me about the Murdaughs.

‐ 85 years, they've been solicitors in this district.

Solicitor is prosecutor down in this area.

‐ Randolph I, in 1920, served until his death in 1940.

Local legend says that he never put

a shingle out front of his law firm

with his name on it.

Because people everywhere

knew where the Murdaugh Law Firm was located.

Randolph Murdaugh built the beginnings of something

that grew and grew and became this...this powerful law firm.

His son, Randolph Jr.... Buster...

ran for election and he became solicitor.

‐ Hell of a trial lawyer.

He could get away with things you couldn't do now.

He'd throw evidence across the courtroom

if he wanted to make a point.

He had a flair for the dramatic.

‐ Then Randolph III came,

and he served almost another 20 years.

‐ Randolph was a gentleman as well.

Anytime he had a murder case involving a shooting,

he made sure to wear a white shirt.

And he would get a red magic marker

and he goes at the medical examiner.

You know, "Where...where did the bullet go in?"

And the medical examiner

would put this big red dot on his shirt

and then another one if there was one there.

‐ They...I'd probably tell you it's the longest running

solicitor run in all the country.

Put a lot of people in prison in the last 85 years.

‐ Knowing their long history as prosecutors,

you have to wonder if the Murdaugh family

may have made enemies along the way.

‐ They also had a very profitable law practice

in litigation, mostly civil suits.

‐ They call it the house that CSX built.

I think it made a name for itself

because the lawyers knew

how to use the venue provisions in South Carolina.

‐ Because of the venue statutes,

those statutes that govern where suits are brought,

if you had any property in a county,

you could bring suit against a corporation in that county,

regardless of where the injury might have occurred.

And railroads running throughout South Carolina

often got sued in Hampton County

by lawyers from the Murdaugh firm.

And they were quite successful.

‐ This law firm is huge. I mean, they always win money.

They generally win millions of dollars for their clients.

They just knew that the Murdaughs

were the ones who would get you the money that you wanted.

‐ Who was Alex Murdaugh?

‐ He works hard.

He's always been a...a family guy.

You know, you can be in the grocery store

and he'll come in.

If he sees you, you turn around,

he comes over to speak.

You know, you'd think he's a politician.

I just kind of see Alex as a normal guy.

‐ He is very influential. He's a...he's a dad of two.

I think he's a very successful lawyer

and volunteer prosecutor.

‐ Alex was the one we all thought

would have replaced his dad as Solicitor.

Because Alex was a kind of brash BS politician.

He'd put his arm around you, remember your name.

I've known Alex since he's been 18.

He's always been a...a good guy to me.

‐ There's no great money in being a solicitor.

If you look up the salary, I'm sure it's...it's not

what you'd make as an attorney at a personal injury law firm.

‐ This was a powerful family.

And Alex Murdaugh had a lengthy list of clients.

Could it have something to do with an old case?

Did the family have enemies?

If people in town had theories, no one was talking.

This is Troy Roberts. I'm a reporter.

I'm interested in sitting down with you

to discuss the Murdaugh family case.

When I arrived in August,

I reached out to multiple people

who may have some information about this case.

You're...you're not interested.

I was met with so much resistance.

A lot of hang‐ups.

‐ He is not available for any comments?

Investigating this story has been extremely frustrating.

People either cancel,

or they're uncooperative,

or they ghost us.

Could you tell him that Troy Roberts called?

Is there any way that you could pencil me in?

I have not encountered this kind of wall of silence

for any criminal cases that I've covered

with the exception of the John Gotti trial, frankly.

A neutral party will be better.

Okay, got it. Okay.

‐ I will.

‐ The unsolved double murder of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh is making news headlines.

‐ One of the victims of that double homicide...

‐ 22‐year‐old Paul Murdaugh.

‐ Paul Murdaugh had been in trouble with the law before.

‐ Facing three felony charges.

‐ Before he and his mother were murdered,

Paul was a student at the University of South Carolina.

But trouble had a way of following him around.

‐ I grew up in Hilton Head, South Carolina,

which is in Beaufort County down on the coast.

This started out as very local story.

And now it's become national.

There's lots of national attention.

I really didn't know how I could help.

I'm not in law enforcement.

I don't really have any connections to law enforcement.

But I had an idea that I could possibly do this podcast.

I thought it would also be a good way to draw attention

to the stories and hopefully get resolution for the victims.

I started the podcast

after the double homicide of Maggie and Paul,

but that's not when I first became interested in the story.

I actually first became interested in the story

back in 2019.

‐ Do you know much about Paul Murdaugh?

‐ He was privileged.

‐ Paul was... ‐ Not a good reputation.

‐ Does not have a good reputation.

‐ Paul was...all accounts seemed to be,

I guess, the wild child.

‐ Their party spot was Moselle.

They'd go there and party.

‐ I've been to parties at their home.

‐ Parties at the Murdaugh home? ‐ Yep.

Always a fight, period. There is always a fight.

Seems like he had a lot of anger.

‐ Paul had a alter ego named Timmy.

That when he became intoxicated,

he became this Jekyll and Hyde kind of character.

‐ Could Paul's murder have been an act of revenge?

What happened that night

when Paul and his friends were on the boat?

‐ They had been drinking.

They bought alcohol with his older brother's ID.

‐ These kids all kind of grew up together.

Connor and Anthony are cousins.

And then there was Paul,

Morgan, Mallory, and Miley.

‐ Everybody went to school and everybody socialized together.

These kids were a band of brothers and sisters...

to use a hackneyed phrase, I guess...

with a very special relationship

that's forever been torn up.

‐ Who as teenagers has not drank before you're of age?

I mean, I can't think a lot of us

could say that we haven't done that.

A lot of us were just lucky enough

that, you know, somebody didn't get killed or hurt.

‐ Teenagers drinking and partying on a boat

is not that unusual.

But the events of February 24, 2019,

would change the lives of these six kids forever.

‐ They had made plans to go to a Oyster Race.

They decided to travel by boat

because there was reportedly a DUI stop.

So they go to this Oyster Race,

they have the beers.

After that, Paul really wanted to go

to downtown Beaufort and do some shots.

Most of the other group didn't want to go,

But Paul and Connor go into the bar.

The rest of them did not have IDs.

No one was 21.

They go to a local park and just hang out.

Paul and Connor do a few shots.

Paul, at this point, has a conflict

with one of the patrons.

So they quickly shuffled Paul back to the boat.

‐ At the end of a very long day of underage drinking

and nightfall, fog, late hours,

it appears Paul Murdaugh was not only angry,

but very, very intoxicated.

‐ Paul is insisting on driving.

No one really wants him to drive

because he's intoxicated.

I think he became kind of an angry drunk

and this is from depositions.

They called him Timmy.

‐ Timmy did something with his hands

or some sort of hand motions.

And so when they said that on the boat,

they started seeing him do these hand things,

they're like, we know Timmy is here.

‐ It's dark and foggy.

And an angry person at the wheel of the boat.

‐ They did not have lights.

They were navigating with a small flashlight.

He was driving in circles, not really getting anywhere.

They're all starting to get mad at him.

They're yelling at him.

He goes up and he has a confrontation with Morgan,

who was Paul's then girlfriend,

where he pushes, spits on, and hits her.

At that point, Connor, who was standing next to him,

takes over the steering.

And I think this happened a few...few times?

‐ Mm‐hmm.

‐ They're all again yelling and then somehow,

the throttle gets pushed.

‐ How fast was he going?

‐ 35 miles an hour, I believe.

‐ He went at a high rate of speed under the bridge

which is a bit dangerous, anyway.

It's narrow.

And the boat struck the pilings at the bridge.

‐ Thrown out of the boat were Paul Murdaugh,

Anthony Cook, and Mallory Beach.

Who is missing?

‐ Female, Mallory Beach.

On the early hours of February 24, 2019,

more than two years before his brutal murder,

Paul Murdaugh and five friends crash

into the Archers Creek Bridge.

‐ What followed was total chaos

as one of the passengers, Mallory Beach,

was nowhere to be found.

‐ Connor is the one who called 911.

Morgan had some sort of hand injury.

‐ She was bleeding a lot, they said.

Now Anthony's had a shoulder injury.

‐ But he was swimming and swimming

and trying to find Mallory.

‐ Knowing the extent of injuries that Connor Cook had,

I mean, he had a broken jaw,

I was surprised that he was able to be that calm

while talking to the 911 operator.

‐ Can you hurry? ‐ What did you say?

‐ There was a lot of chaos.

Anthony Cook, Connor's cousin,

Paul Murdaugh, to some extent,

were both in the water.

You have to envision swimming

in the middle of the night with fog.

It's cool. People are screaming.

But it's a tidal creek,

so the water is constantly moving.

‐ Now, Anthony's... he's fired up,

He definitely blames Paul.

‐ You had lots of law enforcement there.

So people who were injured were capable

of being attended to before they left for the hospital.

You had officers who were able to engage in the immediacy

of the search to try and save Mallory Beach,

to locate her and save her.

‐ Anthony refused medical attention

because he wanted to stay and look for Mallory.

But the other four go to the hospital.

Paul, who had to be restrained,

had to have a police officer ride with them.

‐ When they went to the hospital,

they were separated and taken into different rooms.

‐ Paul reportedly called his grandfather.

‐ Why?

‐ Because his grandfather was a lawyer,

and he felt like he needed to be there to help him.

‐ He had called his grandfather,

I think thinking maybe his grandfather

would be a little nicer to him than his dad.

Turned out, that wasn't necessarily the case

when they got to the hospital.

‐ They met him at the hospital.

‐ Security had to be called in

because Paul was acting up again.

And he says to one of the nurses about her butt,

how he likes it.

And she says, "I'm going to have to get a urine test."

And he says, "Will you hold it?"

He...just very rude.

‐ There was a failure to administer blood alcohol tests.

‐ There was by law enforcement, yes.

At the scene, they did not.

However, the hospital did.

‐ He was acting so bizarre that they thought

he might have a brain injury, and so that is actually

why his blood alcohol was tested at the hospital.

‐ And?

‐ It was over three times the legal limit.

And this was quite some time after the boating accident.

‐ While hospital staff was trying to treat Paul,

rescue crews were searching the nighttime waters

for any sign of Mallory Beach.

Meanwhile, Paul's father, Alex, was now

at Beaufort Memorial Hospital springing into action.

‐ This whole scene in this hospital,

according to the hospital staff,

nurses and security, is...is insane.

They report that Alex was moving from room to room.

He was trying to find out where they were.

He even got Connor as Connor was going to get his CAT scan.

He was trying to get into Paul's girlfriend's room.

‐ He's outside of her room saying, "I need to get in

so I could tell her what to say."

‐ And the girlfriend's like, "I don't want them in here."

‐ They say he was...seemed like it was a plan to orchestrate.

The charge nurse goes as far as saying that,

"You need to stay in your son's room,"

and had a security guard looking out to make sure

that he did, in fact, stay in his son's room.

‐ Paul starts to talk.

And Paul's grandfather steps in and,

"He's not giving any statements," they say.

‐ "You're talking to us now."

‐ Police always want to talk to the suspects

before they have a chance to lawyer up.

Before they have a chance really to think

through the...what they might say to a police officer.

That's just generally good police work.

‐ Unless you are the lawyer for those people,

I think there's no reason for you to go into their room

and tell them not to talk to law enforcement.

It reminded me of a story my first senior partner

used to tell on getting witnesses ready for a trial.

And he would get the witnesses out behind the horse shed

to get the story straight.

So it sounded to me like the Murdaughs

were going around trying to horse shed the witnesses

before the police had a chance to interview them.

‐ This family is a legal dynasty.

And whenever one of them gets into trouble,

they seem to be treated differently

from most other people.

Did law enforcement have a cozy relationship

with the Murdaugh family?

‐ I mean, they worked hand‐in‐hand

with law enforcement as prosecutors.

‐ For a long time.

‐ The Murdaughs have built a relationship

with law enforcement.

And it hasn't been an illegal type of relationship.

You're working side‐by‐side to win cases,

but you're also hunting and fishing together.

You're enjoying some good barbecue together.

Now, put yourself in the mind of a police officer

in Hampton County.

Let's just speculate and say something comes up

and the Murdaugh name is mentioned.

Very few law enforcement officers

would be brave enough to raise their hand and say

"Hey, I've got a Murdaugh over here doing something."

It'd be career suicide.

‐ In the Mallory Beach case, one of the officers...

‐ I think he was possibly a groomsman in his wedding.

‐ Yes.

‐ There were definitely connections.

‐ One of the brothers of Alex Murdaugh

brought around a boat trailer

and was allowed access to the crime scene.

Another interesting piece of a very disturbing puzzle

of an investigation

that didn't seem to be full throated and enthusiastic.

‐ By all accounts, events at the hospital were chaotic.

And the media and the public have focused

largely on the alleged actions of Alex Murdaugh that night,

sometimes losing sight of the fact

that a 19‐year‐old girl was missing

in the chilly Beaufort waters.

‐ Sunrise, crews are continuing to search

for a former USC student

who went missing over the weekend.

‐ Department of Natural Resources says it wasn't clear

who was driving.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

‐ Inconsistencies in the investigation

are one thing,

but the core of the inquiry into Mallory Beach's death

centers around one single question.

Who was driving the boat that fateful night?

‐ That is the...that is the million...

‐ Million dollar question.

‐ Yes, the question is because

Connor and Paul were both in the captain's seat area.

And some of the boaters... there was a blanket

over one of their heads.

Anthony was down on the floor with his girlfriend.

‐ There's a lot of curious things about this.

A, there's missing evidence. So that is part of the problem.

‐ Paul Murdaugh's clothing...because

when the police arrived, he had stripped down,

but his clothing was never found.

And then there's the problem

of the biological evidence on the boat itself.

We know the biological evidence was gathered

under the watchful eye of a DNR officer.

And much of that are now unaccounted for.

‐ There was only actually one recorded statement.

‐ Well, they think that Anthony Cook's was recorded,

but there's no...

But they can't find it.

‐ We do have dash cam audio.

‐ The night of his treatment at the hospital,

Connor Cook's folks were directed to a lawyer

named Cory Fleming

who they've hired to defend Connor Cook's interests.

And their ultimate determination to discharge

the services of Mr. Fleming were because they learned

that he had a very special relationship

with the Murdaugh family,

including being the godfather of Paul Murdaugh,

the other potential suspect.

‐ It seems like steps were taken

to protect this young man.

‐ You can draw your own conclusions.

‐ Three days of searching, still no sign of 19‐year‐old Mallory Beach.

‐ In the days after the crash, speculation continued

about whether Paul Murdaugh was driving the boat...

a boat owned by his father Alex...

and while the controversy about whether Alex might have

interfered in the investigation was beginning,

closure on what happened to Mallory Beach

was about to come.

You learned that Mallory was missing in the river?

‐ Right, Mm‐hmm.

‐ So were you hopeful that she would be found alive?

‐ I was very hopeful.

Obviously, as time goes on,

you realize that the chances are a little slimmer.

‐ How do you know Mallory?

‐ Mallory's sister, Savannah, is married to my nephew.

She was a very sweet,

very fun‐loving, just full of life.

Just sweetest person you'd ever meet.

‐ While Mallory's family wish for a miracle,

law enforcement and local volunteers

continue to search the waterways

hoping to find Mallory.

‐ This is the Battery Creek. It's the marshes of Beaufort.

The tide here fluctuates in height,

six to eight feet, roughly every six hours.

So right now you're looking at low tide

and in six hours from now on, the tide'll be

all the way up almost to the top of the grass.

‐ You told me you spoke to Mallory Beach's family

before agreeing to meet with me.

What did you say to them?

‐ I just want...I just wanted to get their permission

because I had not spoken to anybody.

It was a great conversation. Just the sweetest people ever.

And...and he said, "No, you're...you're welcome

to tell your story and how you play into this."

Because they want Mallory's story told, you know?

‐ How did you hear about this boat accident?

‐ So it was... as you can imagine,

that accident was front page of the paper.

Everybody seemed to know somebody involved in it.

I knew the whole community was out there looking

that they would find her.

And as time went on,

that didn't turn out to be the case.

I was working all week,

working night shift at the hospital.

And it just led up to that Sunday morning.

And I got home, and I was laying there,

and I said, "You know what?

I...I think I'll go out and look today."

I just took off my hat and said a quick prayer.

And I said, "Lord, let this girl be found today."

And so we went down, probably,

I don't know, 400 or 500 yards.

And it's just like what you see around here.

There are creeks everywhere.

We worked our way right up in the small creek.

And we instantly found her.

The boat didn't turn one time.

We could have gone in 100 creeks.

And we drove right up on her.

Within 12 minutes of being on the boat,

she was right there.

But I...I can honestly say and...and

I...I mean this with all sincerity,

I really feel like I had nothing to do

with finding Mallory.

If you're a man of faith,

you'll understand what I'm saying.

I was just thankful for the family

that that closure had come.

‐ The body of Mallory Beach was found in a marsh

one week after the boat that she was riding in

late at night crashed...

‐ When did you give up hope?

‐ You know, for the...I prayed

for the family the whole entire time.

A day or two goes by, you know,

you definitely do start to have this fear,

but you just continue to pray for them.

It was absolutely tragic. You know, what happened then.

I know it's, you know,

hard for them because of the murders,

now they're having to relive all this all over again too.

‐ What was the community's reaction to this case?

‐ They were outraged that it was taking forever.

What they deemed forever.

They take two months to indict Paul or indict anybody.

They're thinking it's the Murdaughs.

It's...nothing's gonna ever come of this.

‐ We have new developments in the Beaufort County case.

Charges have been filed.

‐ Paul Murdaugh was indicted

on boating under the influence.

‐ If Murdaugh is convicted,

he faces up to 15 years for each BUI charge

and up to 25 years for the fatal BUI charge.

‐ A lot of the community was upset

that he was not in an orange jumpsuit

and that he got to take his mug shot in the courtroom.

‐ That he was getting special treatment.

‐ Yes.

‐ I saw a state law enforcement agent

walk in with an old style wooden box with a handle on it.

It was a fingerprint kit.

That was arranged from minute one,

that kid was not gonna take 50 steps over into the jail

from the courthouse.

That's arrogance.

‐ Well, Paul Murdaugh had great lawyers.

‐ He's pleading not guilty.

And as a result,

he should be released on his own recognizance.

‐ He got out on bail.

And he petitioned to be allowed to go back

to USC, South Carolina... go back to college,

which caused some problems in the community

that he was able to go about his life.

‐ We just need...want to accommodate any concerns

the AG's Office had. He's not leaving this state.

He's not gonna leave the country.

So...and he waived extradition.

Those are normal conditions.

So, no, we did exactly what's normal.

This is being handled in a very normal fashion.

‐ I think that most people who would have found themselves

as defendants in that circumstance

would have been treated dramatically differently.

‐ Who was responsible for Mallory Beach's death?

That question does remain unanswered.

‐ The Beach family still has a wrongful death lawsuit

pending against the Murdaugh family.

‐ They named Alex...

Who was the owner of the boat.

They named Buster, who had provided his ID

to his brother.

They named Parker's, who is where they bought the alcohol.

Actually, Paul was never named in the civil lawsuit.

‐ Right.

‐ So what might all of this have to do

with the murder of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh?

‐ The first hearing on this civil lawsuit

was supposed to be three days after Paul was murdered.

Timing was rather odd.

‐ Who stands to gain the most with Maggie and Paul gone?

‐ If it's a monetary gain, then you could think of someone

in the family who stands to inherit things.

Or if it's because someone was angry at something they did.

‐ And if it was a revenge thing,

who's to say that they didn't think

Alex was gonna be there?

‐ By the end of the summer, Alex Murdaugh was facing

civil lawsuits in the death of Mallory Beach,

and he was reeling from the homicides of his wife and son.

But what happened to him next, no one could have predicted.

‐ It can't get crazier than this.

‐ One story is that she tripped over the dogs

and fell down the stairs.

‐ It was declared natural causes.

‐ There's nothing natural about falling downstairs.

‐ $4.3 million.

I have no idea where the money is right now.

‐ With Stephen Smith,

it was a disaster from the start.

‐ This is murder? ‐ In my opinion.

‐ The primary question

is who killed Paul and Maggie Murdaugh?

‐ There's a lot more twists and turns to come

in the saga of Alex Murdaugh.

‐ Two weeks, and still no one has been arrested after two members of a South Carolina family

were found dead in their home.

‐ As law enforcement investigated the murders

of Paul and Maggie, they made a shocking discovery.

Today, authorities have refused to reveal what they found.

Whatever it is, this discovery prompted them

to reopen the investigation into the 2015 hit‐and‐run death

of 19‐year‐old Stephen Smith, found dead on a quiet road.

What's even more surprising to me

is that the local community

didn't seem shocked by the connection.

‐ Okay. ‐ All right.

‐ Stephen Smith's body was found

in the middle of the rural road.

He had a large gaping wound on his head.

And his vehicle was parked down the road

several miles away with the gas cap open.

‐ His wallet was still in the car as well.

‐ His wallet was still in the car?

‐ Yes.

‐ And why wouldn't you take your wallet?

If you ran out of gas or anywhere you're out of gas,

no one just would leave their wallet in the car.

‐ In the Lowcountry, the South Carolina Highway Patrol

continues to investigate what they think is

a fatal hit‐and‐run.

‐ With that Stephen Smith case, I was the executive officer

of the coastal unit, which is MAIT,

the Multi‐Disciplinary Accident Investigation Team.

My responsibilities were to oversee

everything about any investigation.

‐ I've worked on very high profile cases.

And I've never had a case that I feel like was shrouded

in so much secrecy.

It was a disaster from the start.

‐ Stephen Smith was on his way from college

when he ran out of gas.

What happened after that isn't clear.

‐ According to statements from Stephen Smith's sister,

her father received two calls the night of Stephen's death.

‐ Stephen's father's first call,

the guy was from the coroner telling Stephen was dead.

The second Call was from Randy Murdaugh,

who said "I'll represent you for free."

‐ Where his body was found, no evidence was really gathered

what you would be looking for...for an accident.

Usually, if you have some type of injuries from an accident,

you're going to get some type of splatter no matter what.

Nothing out at the scene there.

If I'm not mistaken, there was no chain of custody

done with the clothes.

We were never given the opportunity to see the car

in its original state where they found it.

I examined that car a few days later in an impound lot

that sat there pretty much open.

‐ So it could have been contaminated.

‐ Yes.

It was a what I call trying to piece a puzzle together

when you don't have a whole lot of pieces.

‐ The initial coroner thought

it was potentially a gunshot wound.

But pathologists ruled it a hit‐and‐run.

She really was the only one who said

that it was a hit‐and‐run.

‐ Apparently, there were divergent views

over potential cause of death.

I don't think it's unusual that doctors could disagree.

It seems kind of strange

that the disagreement would be so dramatic.

‐ What was Stephen Smith's cause of death?

‐ Blunt force trauma.

‐ So he was killed by a...a heavy instrument?

‐ I would say so, yes, sir.

‐ That struck him in the head?

‐ Correct.

‐ This was murder? ‐ In my opinion.

‐ Investigators say Stephen Smith was struck by a car,

but his mother doesn't believe that story.

‐ He called his sister one night.

He ran out of gas.

And he hid in the woods and would not come out

till he was sure it was her.

And so we know for a fact that it was not a hit‐and‐run.

Stephen would not have been in the highway.

‐ Whether it was foul play or a hit‐and‐run,

Sandy wants the person who's responsible

for her son's death to know something.

‐ I just want to say, you know, I mean, I forgive you.

I don't hate you.

There's just answers. I want some answers.

‐ I commend Stephen's mother. Because a mother knows.

And she never gave up on...on her son.

And I do commend her for that,

for wanting answers that she deserves.

‐ I had questions from day one.

There was a rape kit done, which, to me, is unusual.

‐ Why? ‐ Exactly.

If it was a hit‐and‐run, why...why are we doing

a rape kit? Yeah.

‐ Did anyone explain to you the reason behind it?

‐ No, sir.

Typically, you're not gonna do that

unless you think somebody's been raped.

‐ Stephen Smith was well‐liked.

He was gay.

We don't have any concrete information

other than Stephen Smith's mom, Sandy, says

he was involved with someone in an influential family

but never goes on to name...

‐ Names. ‐ Names.

‐ When did Stephen come out?

‐ I feel like he came out maybe eighth grade.

‐ To you or to everyone?

‐ Generally, everyone, yeah. ‐ Really?

What kind of reception did he get?

‐ There were mainly guys that called him names,

picked on him.

From our town in general,

it's not a thing that they accept.

It...you...the amount of kids

who have been shunned and abused

because they're a part of the LGBT community in Hampton,

you'd be shocked. It's really sad.

When he passed away, it definitely broke my heart,

you know?

He really made me happy. He was a good friend.

He wasn't like other people.

When you talk to Stephen, it was like,

you know you were safe.

You knew you were cared about and respected, you know?

You don't find that in a lot of people.

‐ Did you speak to any of Stephen's friends?

‐ Yes.

But it was just a bunch of rumors

that we could not confirm or deny.

‐ They would say, "I've heard this from...I heard this from."

And it was always, you know, going in a circle.

‐ Investigators continue to chase rumors

that the Murdaughs were somehow involved.

‐ Because the Murdaugh's name was brought up so much,

we wanted to gather as much information we can

so if we get the opportunity to interview them,

we can confront them with this information.

‐ Did you ever have that opportunity?

‐ No, sir.

‐ We were told to hold off on that

until we found further information

that could lead us more towards that family.

If we're gonna confront somebody,

you're only gonna get one opportunity

with a household name like that.

‐ Frustrating? ‐ Yes, sir.

‐ Was this a hit‐and‐run, an accident?

‐ There is no way it was a hit‐and‐run.

There is no way.

Murder. It had to be murder.

I hate to say that it would be murder

because the thought of him going through the things

that he went through, I hate that.

I hate that thought.

But I think, yeah, that he was definitely murdered.

‐ In all of my years of reporting,

when the same name is repeated over and over again,

it's usually not a coincidence.

‐ Their family's name come up in reports multiple times.

‐ The last name of that family came up all the time.

‐ This is the spot where 19‐year‐old Stephen Smith died. His car was found about three miles from this location.

And no one really knows where he was going

or why he left the car behind. It was...it was very curious

that...that this young man's body was found here.

Why here?

And we still don't have answers.

Could a Murdaugh have been involved

in the death of Stephen Smith?

Why would their names appear so many times in police reports

related to the investigation?

‐ In the Lowcountry,

the South Carolina Highway Patrol continues

to investigate what they think is a fatal hit‐and‐run.

They say they need the public's help

with information on this incident.

‐ The Highway Patrol say

that there are no suspects in custody

and they do not have a description of the car.

‐ Thanksgiving of that year,

we called Stephen Smith's mother, Sandy,

into the "Guardian" office.

And we told her we wanted to hear her story.

We wanted to reach out to the community,

touch people's hearts,

and, hopefully, compel someone

to come forward with some information.

She told us that she knew who killed her son,

that she was hearing these same rumors.

‐ She said she believed Stephen was killed for being gay

by some Hampton County youths.

‐ We wrote that story and published it

in our Thanksgiving edition.

And I sat and I waited.

Unfortunately, no one ever came forward.

‐ The final ruling was that Stephen Smith was killed

in a hit‐and‐run?

‐ Yes. ‐ Correct.

‐ There is the frustration of why did this young man

not get any attention at the time?

What happened there?

Why did it take this many years to be a story?

‐ Law enforcement isn't saying why they reopened

the six‐year‐old Stephen Smith case.

But the timing,

just weeks after the murder of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh,

was a coincidence not lost on many.

‐ It was tragic the way he passed away.

I liked Stephen, he...he seemed like a pretty laid back,

you know, outgoing young fella.

You know, he had a lot of life left ahead of him.

I hope they figure out what's going on

and figure out the truth, and I say,

bring peace and comfort to the family and loved ones.

‐ Stephen Smith, who died back in 2015,

had some sort of connection to the Murdaugh family,

most prominently, Buster Murdaugh,

the son and brother...

Buster has remained very quiet

and kind of in the shadow during all of this.

Not a lot of stories about Buster.

Because Buster, seems to be, was the one

who was closest to Stephen Smith in the family.

When we looked through the documents provided by,

you know, SLED

and...and Buster's name and the Murdaugh name

pops up as being in association,

being a friend of Stephen Smith.

But nothing that directly said, you know,

Buster was with him that night in July.

‐ By the end of summer,

the double murders of Maggie and Paul remain unsolved.

A new lawsuit centering on Alex Murdaugh's actions

have been filed

in the Mallory Beach fatal boat crash.

And the investigation into the death of Stephen Smith

was also underway.

And the Murdaughs were somehow connected

to all of these cases, in one way or another.

What has this done to the Murdaugh legacy?

‐ What it has done is exposed a division in Hampton County

and other parts of the Lowcountry

that you either hated them and suspected them of manipulation,

or you love them because of the results they could obtain.

‐ You know, and anytime you got a fiefdom,

you have people you take care of.

And if you take care of them, they take care of you.

You know, it's like there was this nice,

neat package for about 90 years,

then someone pulled a thread on the Emperor's suit

and that just started dropping off in pieces.

‐ This mom has waited six years for justice,

and now she's starting to get it

because an investigation is open,

and it all has to do with the death of those two people.

‐ There's a lot of speculation in the community

and law enforcement.

You know, maybe were the Murdaughs

involved in his death?

‐ I know it's complicated, but, man, it is really mystifying.

‐ Now, for another development surrounding former lawyer Alex Murdaugh...

‐ Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were murdered in June.

And shortly after, Alex is dealt another blow.

A new petition to file a lawsuit

is brought by Connor Cook,

alleging a conspiracy to frame him

as the driver of the boat that killed Mallory Beach.

‐ Over the last three months, I think, more than once,

lawyers on the opposing side of these...this case have said,

"Gosh, we still don't know who was driving the boat."

If that lawyer doesn't know who was driving the boat,

he's the only person on the planet

who doesn't know who was driving the boat.

‐ There was an effort made to shift the blame

and focus from Paul Murdaugh over to Connor Cook.

The strategy may not have been necessarily

to pin it on Connor Cook.

Remember, these people are attorneys.

They're trying to create confusion at the scene,

after the scene.

‐ There's a lot unusual about this investigation,

almost as if there was an effort to do

as little as possible

and take as long as possible to not do it.

Connor Cook was a 19‐year‐old with a jaw broken

in three places awaiting medical treatment,

having lost one of his childhood friends.

In the midst of this chaos, and being told

by a very prominent member of the legal community,

"Don't talk to the police.

We're gonna take care of things."

In this lawsuit, I think Connor's goal is to make sure

that everybody knows he was not responsible for this accident.

It's also to hold Alex Murdaugh accountable.

‐ Even though Paul was deceased,

this new petition was filed

shortly after Maggie and Paul's murder.

‐ It just seemed almost cruel and unusual

with developments in this case, to file a lawsuit.

There's never a good time to sue anybody.

But with this case, with shoes dropping

left and right like a caterpillar losing its shoes,

there was never a good, perfect time to bring a lawsuit,

but we just did.

‐ But what is even more shocking

is what happened next.

‐ Welcome back, everybody.

Things have been lighting up our inboxes and our phones

or whatever the last few days.

Saturday, phones start blowing up,

Facebook starts blowing up, etcetera.

Take us to that time.

‐ Well, I was actually getting ready to leave

to go to the South Carolina game.

So I was packing the cooler, and all of a sudden,

I...my phone is ringing off the hook and, like,

"You're not gonna believe this."

‐ Crazy.

‐ And I really honestly thought maybe this is more fake news.

‐ Alex Murdaugh, whose wife and son

were shot to death back in June,

was shot in the head himself while changing a tire today.

‐ Murdaugh stopped to change a tire on Salkehatchie Road

near Varnville, when...

‐ Alex Murdaugh called 911

shortly after 1:30 Saturday afternoon

to report he'd been shot.

‐ He was air‐lifted to a hospital in Savannah, Georgia,

with what authorities called a superficial gunshot wound

to the head.

‐ I couldn't believe what I was learning

after Alex was shot.

There was just a...a series of events

involving this man that just didn't seem to make sense.

‐ When the call came in where he was shot,

I didn't know...well, why would he go on the side of the road?

You know, I just didn't know.

And then everything started coming out.

And, um...

it...it was just one thing after the other.

‐ Tonight, several new twists

in the Murdaugh murder mystery.

‐ Alex Murdaugh was pushed out of his powerful law firm

over claims he misused funds the day before he called 911

to say he'd been shot in the head.

A member of the firm said

the amount was in the millions.

‐ Without saying too much,

I know one person that works for the firm.

It's just been heartbreaking.

‐ Murdaugh's lawyer says he voluntarily checked himself

into an inpatient substance abuse rehab center.

‐ These reports that your client

stole millions of dollars from...from the law firm,

did he use all of that money to buy drugs?

Or did he use some of the millions for...for other things?

‐ The vast majority of it, as I understand it,

was used to buy drugs.

‐ That's a lot of...that's a lot of oxy.

‐ I'm not really buying the drug addiction angle.

‐ Why is that?

‐ Anytime I ever had an interaction with Alex

in the courthouses and things like that,

I saw no discernable problems that he was having.

And I've had clients who have been on hydrocodone

and those type of things.

And it wears you down, you know?

I mean, I don't see how you can...you can function.

I mean, lawyers typically have to think most of the time.

How you can function with those type of drugs in your system.

‐ There's a new twist in a story we've been following.

Police say that a prominent lawyer

who you may have heard about

enlisted a hitman to shoot him in the head and kill him.

‐ He was suicidal.

So he went to his drug dealer and asked him to shoot him.

‐ Curtis Smith, also charged with assisted suicide

and insurance fraud.

An affidavit in that case claims

Murdaugh told Smith to shoot him in the head

so Murdaugh's son could collect

his $10 million life insurance policy.

‐ What Eddie Smith says is there was a struggle,

you know, for the gun.

‐ The gun went off?

Did it hit him? Did the bullet hit him?

‐ No.

‐ So that...that story where you got...

‐ There's no blood on me. There's no blood on him.

‐ Eddie Smith says he didn't see any blood

or anything like that when he left the scene.

ER doctor that we had on our podcast said

he absolutely did sustain some injuries.

‐ We may never know what happened on Salkehatchie Road.

But what we do know

is that Alex Murdaugh is at the center of these events.

This was a man who was spiraling out of control.

It...it was actually quite sad.

People resent all the attention

that this case has brought to this quiet community?

‐ They're struggling.

They're stressed, they're heartbroken.

We need closure. The whole community does.

And I just hope we get it soon.

This really is a tale

that has a lot more twists and turns.

‐ State investigators now reopened another inquiry

into the death of Murdaugh's housekeeper,

Gloria Satterfield. ‐ Of Gloria Satterfield.

‐ The Murdaugh's housekeeper.

‐ Of Murdaugh's longtime housekeeper,

Gloria Satterflield.

‐ By September 2021,

Alex Murdaugh's world appeared to be closing in on him.

His wife and son had been murdered.

He was named in an additional lawsuit

in connection with the death of Mallory Beach.

And the investigation into the death of Stephen Smith

had been reopened based on something found

in the double homicide investigation.

But that wasn't all.

Less than two weeks after Alex's shooting,

yet another suspicious death

connected to the Murdaughs surfaced.

‐ 911, what is your emergency?

‐ On the day of the incident, tension was clearly high.

Tell me about Gloria Satterfield.

Who...who was she?

‐ She was their housekeeper. The Murdaughs's housekeeper.

‐ Gloria was a religious woman.

Has two children, and spent most of her life

being either a housekeeper or raising children.

And she happened to do it for the Murdaughs for a period

in excess of 20 years.

She helped raise Buster and Paul,

and she felt like she was part of the fabric of that family.

‐ And what happened to Mrs. Satterfield?

‐ The story is somewhat confusing.

The one story is that she tripped

and fell down the stairs.

‐ She stayed in the hospital for 24 days, nearly a month.

‐ Yes.

‐ And died there.

‐ Yes, but she was never able to make a statement.

‐ The circumstances surrounding her death are questionable?

‐ I believe they are.

‐ There was not an investigation at the time

because the death certificate said natural causes.

‐ There's nothing natural about falling down the stairs.

It should say she died of a, you know, brain bleed,

subdural hematoma, but not natural causes.

‐ Why wasn't an autopsy ordered?

‐ I don't know that the coroner was even notified in this case.

It...it could have been a natural death

had she had a heart attack

and then fallen down the stairs.

But the only way to know that is to do an autopsy.

And initially,

it certainly appears much more like an accident.

Or perhaps something more sinister.

‐ I don't think there's anything suspicious

if it were a standalone event.

But when you have this many untimely deaths

connected to one family, then it starts to become like,

okay, maybe what's happening here?

‐ And so, on September 15, 2021,

at the request of the Hampton County Coroner,

a criminal inquiry was opened

into the death of Gloria Satterfield.

‐ The Hampton County Coroner, Angie Topper,

she noticed that some things just weren't jiving.

It was deemed a wrongful death for this lawsuit,

but the...the death certificate said natural causes.

‐ Natural causes.

If it wasn't intentional, it certainly is lazy

and creates more questions than answers.

And you should never have questions

with a death certificate.

It should be clear and succinct.

But again, like everything with the Murdaughs,

it just opens up another can of questions.

People just don't understand the power of the Murdaughs

in this Hampton County.

I cannot begin to tell you the mystique of this family

and the mystique of that law firm.

‐ SLED said they're relaunching

this criminal investigation due to new evidence.

‐ And the crime that set off these legal troubles,

the death of Murdaugh's wife and son, is still unsolved.

‐ What's your client's involvement

in Gloria Satterfield's death?

‐ Well, first of all, he has no involvement

in Gloria Satterfield's death.

That was a case that was litigated...not litigated,

but examined thoroughly.

It was an accident that she tripped

and fell down the stairs.

‐ When I began investigating this case,

I...I thought, tragically, Mrs. Satterfield had

a suspicious accident at...at the house.

But I didn't think there was a financial element

to that particular case.

‐ Prominent Lowcountry attorney, Alex Murdaugh,

facing more charges today.

He was arrested in Florida in connection

to the investigation into the death

of his family's former housekeeper,

Gloria Satterfield.

The State Law Enforcement Division accused Murdaugh

of misappropriating funds

related to her wrongful death settlement.

‐ Alex Murdaugh breached their duties to their clients,

to the Satterfield family.

‐ In what way?

‐ Well, for starters, by being lawyers for her sons

in a suit against himself.

After Miss Satterfield's funeral,

Murdaugh apparently approached her sons and said,

"I'm gonna sue myself.

"Come meet my friend, Cory Fleming.

"He's gonna sue me, and we are going to get you money

from my insurance company."

He brought them to his best friend,

his college roommate, the godfather of his child,

without explaining the extent of their relationship.

That's just the first thing they did wrong

was not explain their relationship,

and Cory Fleming's potential loyalty to Alex Murdaugh.

That disloyalty to his own clients later manifested

when he started writing checks to Alex Murdaugh.

‐ What was the most egregious thing that you discovered?

‐ The bottom line, stealing $4.3 million.

‐ How did Murdaugh hide those assets

from Mrs. Satterfield's boys?

‐ In two ways.

First, they got Chad Westendorf from the bank

to take over as the representative

of Gloria Satterfield's estate

so that her son, Tony Satterfield,

wouldn't be a part of the proceedings anymore

and wouldn't be aware of the settlement.

They just said, "This is complex stuff.

"We're going to get this other guy

to take care of it for you."

And so, Satterfield went down to Murdaugh's office

and signed over paperwork.

And the next day, they went to the court

and asked for a settlement

that they never told the Satterfields about.

Then they funneled the checks

through Murdaugh's personal bank account

in the name of Forge.

‐ Forge?

‐ Apparently, he had opened it in the name

of Alex Murdaugh DBA Forge.

And by writing Forge on the check,

it would make it appear that the settlement funds

went to Forge Consulting,

which is a legitimate settlement funding company.

‐ And is that account still open?

Has it been cleaned out?

‐ I have no idea.

I have no idea where the money is right now.

‐ When that case came to me, I did not believe it.

When I hear that all the money was stolen.

And you say to yourself,

"Well, why didn't the clients question him?" you know.

Nobody had been involved in the legal system before.

They're just hardworking, God‐fearing people.

They trusted Alex. He abused that trust.

‐ I can't figure out why these insurance companies,

based on their lawyer's advice, paid out all this money.

To me, that's just insane,

without even a basic investigation.

I mean, there's not even a police report

that talked about Ms. Satterfield's death.

‐ I just couldn't believe it. I was...I thought who would...

who is the type of person who would do this?

I mean, this is a person

who had helped them raise their children.

‐ Have you seen something like this before?

‐ No.

He appears to regard himself as above the law.

‐ Alex Murdaugh waived an extradition hearing in Florida this morning.

He'll return to South Carolina and face felony charges.

‐ The bond hearing for Murdaugh

is scheduled in a Richland County Courthouse.

‐ I'll never forget when we were in the bond hearing.

You know, the door opened and Alex walked out.

You know, everybody's like...

You know, there's OJ,

you know, OJ kind of thing.

He sat down and I watched him.

And he was looking out like this.

Looking for anybody. Looking for a friend.

Looking for family, looking for a law partner.

‐ When I first started covering this case,

I had real sympathy for Alex

after losing his wife and youngest son.

But I had no way of knowing that, six months later,

he would be under arrest

and indicted on 27 charges related to financial crimes.

There's no other way to describe it.

This prominent lawyer has suffered a fall

from grace few can fathom.

‐ Your Honor, we're here today

in the case of State vs. Richard Alexander Murdaugh.

He is cleared for a bond setting

on two Hampton County arrest warrants.

‐ But we would ask you to consider

a personal recognizance bond.

‐ Well, my partner Ronnie and I got up and said,

"Lock the guy up."

He does not deserve bond. He forfeited that right.

He stole. He's a liar and a cheat.

Thank you, Your Honor.

‐ The reaction in the courtroom,

Murdaugh's attorneys seemed to be shocked.

A surprising verdict, Judge Clifton Newman

moved to deny that bond based on Murdaugh's ability

to flee and his mental state.

‐ He needs to get treated for his addiction

so that he can focus clearheaded

on how to resolve any issues he might have.

‐ The justice system is now recognizing

that he's a clear and present danger with a pen

and he's being treated accordingly.

‐ It was surprising that Alex didn't make bond.

This is a man who had strong ties

with judges and attorneys.

It suggests that his influence has weakened.

‐ 12 seconds ago, judge orders Murdaugh assets

to be frozen. ‐ Wait, what happened?

Did that just come through? ‐ Yeah.

‐ What is it?

‐ "Judge orders Murdaugh assets to be frozen.

Appoints receivers." ‐ Okay, wait.

‐ Judge ordered Murdaugh family's be frozen

and controlled by people appointed by the court.

It's everywhere. ‐ Where are you reading this?

‐ News Two Charleston.

Ready? I'm good. Are you good?

‐ I'm good. ‐ Rolling.

‐ Hello, friend. Welcome back to the podcast.

As we're recording this, a new thing has popped up.

A break that Alex Murdaugh is not going to be happy with.

Alex and his son Buster's assets were frozen.

So there will be attorneys

taking over Buster and Alex's finances.

‐ Alex owes a lot of people a lot of money.

Parker, who was one of Alex's former law partners,

is suing Alex.

Randy, Alex's brother, has also filed suit against him.

‐ There's about to be a long line of people

that Alex owes money to.

‐ We have breaking news as we come on the air.

A Hampton County grand jury has indicted

former South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh...

‐ On a different set of insurance fraud charges.

Those come from a botched attempt to have himself killed.

‐ New at noon, a judge has decided

to keep Alex Murdaugh in jail

after reviewing his psychiatric evaluation.

‐ The judge called him a danger to himself and the community.

‐ And there's a second grand jury investigation

that was just opened.

And allegedly, he was writing checks

to get drugs from this drug gang.

It's strange as...as

almost everything involved in this case.

‐ We're not at the tail end of it.

It's just starting.

He's sitting alone in a cell.

So the only thing that he can broker

to get himself some kind of life

or a life for his son

is information.

Or maybe he just takes it with him to his grave.

‐ Clearly, there are a lot of questions

that still need to be answered.

What happened to Stephen Smith on that quiet country road?

Will Alex be held liable for influencing the investigation

into the boat crash that killed Mallory Beach?

Was there anything criminal

in the death of Gloria Satterfield?

Who killed Maggie and Paul Murdaugh?

One thing that's certain,

there's a lot more twists and turns to come

in the saga of Alex Murdaugh.

‐ At first, I thought obviously,

he's a very successful person

who grew up with a lot of privilege.

Looking at social media posts,

I thought he did look like a loving dad.

I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt

with the boating accident

and wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt

with the death of his wife and son.

But then, I also didn't think at the time

that it was possible that Alex was somebody

who would allegedly steal millions of dollars

from a former housekeeper, from his law firm.

And the more that comes out, the more it's not possible

to give him the benefit of the doubt.

‐ It's bizarre that all roads seem to lead...

‐ Correct. ‐ To one family.

‐ I pray that it's not.

But I have to wait and see what the outcome's gonna be.

‐ What questions do you have about this case?

‐ Well, the same question you have.

What's gonna happen before we walk out of this room?

‐ I want closure to this.

And that peace comes to the family of Alex.

And I want the ones that's passed on

before us to be at peace too.

‐ The primary question

is who killed Paul and Maggie Murdaugh?

We pretty much know

what the future looks like for Alex Murdaugh.

He's lost everything. He has truly lost everything.

‐ What has this done to the legacy of this family?

‐ Straight to the ground.

‐ I guess you could say that this happened

because of hubris.

Some people are able to not lose sleep

over the obvious reality

that one day there will be a knock at the door,

and the devil's due.