What Is Going on With This South Carolina Murder Family?
Alex Murdaugh, whose wife and son were murdered in their home, was recently shot in the head.
On Friday, Alex Murdaugh quit his job at a private law firm. On Saturday, he was shot in the head while changing a tire on the side of a road (he survived). It is the latest in a series of disturbing events within the Murdaugh family, a South Carolina legal dynasty that produced three generations of chief prosecutors who presided over the five-county Lowcountry region for eight decades, concluding the family run in 2006.
Alex Murdaugh’s trauma has been playing out on a national stage since June, when he arrived at his Islandton home to find that his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and son, Paul Murdaugh, had been murdered, each of them shot multiple times. Paul, a 22-year-old college student, was at the time awaiting trial on charges of boating under the influence related to a 2019 crash that resulted in the death of a 19-year-old female passenger.
This charge, along with the the family’s long legal history — Murdaugh’s father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, served as the region’s chief prosecutor — have raised questions about whether the family was targeted. So, too, does the suspicion that Paul had received favorable treatment from police after the boating accident. In one example, cited by the New York Times and according to documents released after Paul’s death, a passenger on the boat told a Department of Natural Resources officer that Paul had been driving; the officer wrote in a report, instead, that the passenger did not know who was driving.
In June, Alex Murdaugh publicly sought information about the murder of his wife and son, offering a $100,000 reward for knowledge that led to a conviction. The police have yet to make an arrest.
On Saturday, September 4, the day after Alex Murdaugh resigned from the law firm Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth and Detrick PA (PMPED), he was taken to the hospital with superficial injuries after calling 911 and reporting he had been shot on the side of the road in Hampton County. Alex Murdaugh’s lawyer, Jim Griffin, told local media the shooter passed Murdaugh while he was working on his car, then circled back to shoot him. (The bullet grazed his head.) On Monday, Murdaugh released a statement explaining he would enter rehab.
“The murders of my wife and son have caused an incredibly difficult time in my life. I have made a lot of decisions that I truly regret,” said Murdaugh’s statement. It continued:
"I’m resigning from my law firm and entering rehab after a long battle that has been exacerbated by these murders. I am immensely sorry to everyone I’ve hurt including my family, friends and colleagues. I ask for prayers as I rehabilitate myself and my relationships.”
PMPED followed with a statement of its own, alleging that Murdaugh had been misusing funds. "(Alex Murdaugh) is no longer associated with PMPED in any manner,” the statement said. “His resignation came after the discovery by PMPED that Alex misappropriated funds in violation of PMPED standards and policies. A forensic accounting firm will be retained to conduct a thorough investigation."
Damn. What the hell is going on here, with all this???
Update: On September 8, the website FITSNews reported that the knife used to puncture the tire Alex Murdaugh was on the side of the road to fix was linked to Alex Murdaugh himself. State law enforcement has so far declined to comment on either the knife or the status of the investigation.
