Lawyer Alex Murdaugh charged with murdering his wife and son

Alex Murdaugh, a disgraced legal descendant from South Carolina, was charged this week with the double murder of his wife and son on their sprawling family farm last year.

Murdaugh, 54 – a fourth-generation lawyer from a powerful legal family – was charged on Tuesday with two counts of murder and two counts of possession of weapons in the grisly murders of Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, according to local reports. .

The couple were shot near a kennel on the family’s 1,700-acre hunting estate in Islandton with at least two separate firearms – a rifle and a shotgun – on June 7, 2021.

The elder Murdaugh called 911 and frantically told a dispatcher he had returned home to find the bullet-riddled bodies of his loved ones.

He claimed to have a strong alibi, saying he visited his dying father in hospital and watched his elderly mother when the double murder unfolded.

But sources later told NBC News that investigators had cellphone video that put him near the murder scene at the time of the killings, contradicting his alibi claims.

The prominent lawyer was soon charged with dozens of charges relating to his finances, including stealing millions of dollars and faking his own murder in a botched insurance scam to raise $10 million for his surviving son, Buster .

Murdaugh – who has since blamed his crimes on drug addiction – is also accused of defrauding the family of his longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, 57, who died under suspicious circumstances at her home in 2018.

In total, he faces at least 71 charges of stealing $8.5 million from clients. The law firm founded by his family also alleged that Murdaugh was fired after stealing money from the firm.

The disgraced legal scion was charged last month with allegedly laundering millions of dollars in a scheme to distribute the painkiller oxycodone.

At the time of his death, Paul Murdaugh was awaiting trial in the 2019 drunken boating death of a young woman.

On Tuesday, Murdaugh was officially disbarred in South Carolina and reportedly told he would be charged with murdering his wife and son.