COLLETON COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – It’s been six months since Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were found brutally murdered on the Murdaugh’s Colleton County family property known as Moselle. The investigations into the double homicide have uncovered a trail of corruption by the family patriarch, Alex Murdaugh, who is now the subject of investigations into five deaths and millions of dollars of missing money.
The Murdaugh mysteries have run deep through the Lowcountry, captivating the county — spurring documentary series and making international news all since June 7. That’s the day Alex Murdaugh found his wife and son, Paul and Maggie, brutally murdered on their Colleton County property.
Since then, Alex Murdaugh has been arrested several times and is accused of scheming a botched assisted suicide attempt and stealing insurance money from previous legal clients.
Murdaugh continues to be held at the Richland County Detention Center in Columbia, despite a $7 million bond set by Judge Allison Lee on Dec. 13. Murdaugh faces 48 charges related to alleged theft and money laundering of $6.2 million in settlement funds and attorney fees. If convicted of all charges, Murdaugh faces a sentence of more than 500 years in jail.
183 days ago, two brutal murders, and now six months later — there are few if any answers regarding those who could be responsible for the double homicide.
“I’ve got up to it now, it’s bad,” Alex Murdaugh could be heard saying on a released and redacted 911 call from the night of the murders. “Nobody, they’re not — neither one of them is moving.”
It’s a murder mystery capturing the attention of the nation, from the local to state and federal level. Law enforcement remains quiet, there have been no news conferences called in the case and little to no information on leads. Former State Attorney General Charlie Condon says it leaves some questions.
“There’s something missing, there’s got to be something missing,” Condon says.
Condon says that becomes more and more apparent as days pass and no new information is released.
Without a smoking gun or any other sort of concrete evidence, Condon says it raises questions for the public but impacts the surviving victims the most.
Cases “never being solved, solved years later — it’s really tough for the family,” Condon says. “It really hurts in terms of the possibility of having closure in the matters.”
The six-month anniversary was marked with news of a new lawsuit, a bond hearing and a criminal complaint against Murdaugh as civil and criminal cases stack up.
“Alex didn’t act alone,” says attorney Ronnie Richter, representing the estate of Gloria Satterfield in one of the latest criminal case filings. “He needed a vehicle (with) which to wash it in order to use the money on the other side and he did that through some fake accounts that he had established with Bank of America.”
The case left the sleepy Lowcountry town shaken months ago. Now, residents are working to pick up the pieces as a killer remains at large, fearful the case could go cold.
“As each hour, day, week, month goes by — in a criminal case and you don’t have an arrest, it becomes challenging to solve it,” Condon says.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, leading the investigation, declined to provide comment, saying the Murdaugh case is an ongoing investigation. Anyone with information that could help is urged to call SLED’s Murdaugh tip line: 803-896-2605.