The Murdaugh Murders: From Conviction to a 2027 Retrial

On June 7, 2021, the chief financial officer at Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth & Detrick confronted attorney Alex Murdaugh about $792,000 in missing funds. That same night, at 10:06 p.m., Murdaugh called police from his cellphone to say he had found his 52-year-old wife, Maggie, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, shot dead near the dog kennels at their hunting lodge in Islandton, South Carolina.

The killings set off a chain of events that unraveled a legal dynasty. For 87 years, three successive generations of the Murdaugh family had served as the 14th Circuit Solicitor, controlling the local prosecutor's office in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Alex Murdaugh, a fourth-generation attorney, eventually stood trial for the murders of his wife and son, a case that local media called the "trial of the century."

The record shows years of financial crimes, a roadside shooting Murdaugh later said he arranged, and a murder trial that ended in conviction, only for the verdict to be thrown out in 2026 because of what a court clerk said to the jury. The State of South Carolina is now preparing to try the murder case again.

The Night of the Killings

Alex Murdaugh called Maggie on June 7, 2021, and asked her to meet him at the family hunting lodge, known as Moselle, reportedly so they could travel together to see his terminally ill father, Randolph Murdaugh III. Maggie texted a friend that her husband sounded "fishy" and was "up to something." She parked her car and walked to the dog kennels, where she found Paul.

Paul had been under indictment at the time for boating under the influence causing death, following a February 2019 boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach. He had pleaded not guilty. That night, both Maggie and Paul were shot multiple times, with different guns. The indictment later stated that Alex shot his wife with a rifle and his son with a shotgun.

Murdaugh told officers he was not at the scene that night, claiming he had visited his mother, who has dementia, and returned to find the bodies. Cellphone data, including a video Paul recorded at the kennels with his father's voice on it, placed Murdaugh at the scene before the killings.

The Initial Investigation and the Roadside Shooting

In the months following the murders, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) regarded Murdaugh as a person of interest. During this time, the law firm PMPED discovered Murdaugh had misappropriated funds and forced his resignation on September 3, 2021. The next day, Murdaugh called 911 to report he had been shot in the head while changing a flat tire in Hampton County.

He was treated for a superficial gunshot wound. While in rehab for an opioid addiction, Murdaugh told investigators he had staged the roadside shooting in the hope of being killed, so his son could collect life insurance money. Court documents alleged that he hired a former client to shoot him, for a payout of about $10 million. Days after the shooting, the South Carolina Supreme Court suspended his law license.

In July 2022, a Colleton County grand jury indicted Murdaugh on two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. He pleaded not guilty and was denied bond.

The 2023 Murder Trial

The trial began on January 25, 2023, overseen by Judge Clifton Newman. The prosecution, led by Creighton Waters, argued that Murdaugh's motive was the stress of his impending financial crimes being discovered. Judge Newman ruled that testimony about the financial crimes was admissible, allowing jurors to consider it as a possible motive.

The prosecution presented timeline data from cellphones and car telemetry, and highlighted a video taken by Paul at 8:44 p.m. at the kennels, in which a witness identified Murdaugh's voice. Murdaugh's defense team, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, criticized the crime scene investigation, noting it was spoiled by rain and that friends and family were allowed to walk through it.

Murdaugh took the stand on February 23, 2023. He denied shooting his wife and son but admitted to repeatedly lying to law enforcement about being at the kennels that night, attributing the lies to paranoid thinking from his opioid addiction. He also admitted to stealing from clients and asking a relative to shoot him. On March 2, 2023, after less than three hours of deliberation, the jury found Murdaugh guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without parole.

Financial Crimes and Federal Sentencing

The murder case was only part of it. On May 24, 2023, a federal grand jury indicted him on 22 counts, including money laundering, wire fraud, and bank fraud. He pleaded guilty to 22 state charges in November 2023 and was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

On April 1, 2024, Murdaugh was sentenced in federal court to 40 years in prison for financial fraud, to run concurrently with his state sentences. He was also ordered to pay $8.7 million in reparations to his victims, which included the family of Gloria Satterfield, a longtime housekeeper for the family who died in February 2018 after what was described as a trip and fall accident at the Murdaugh home.

Jury Tampering Allegations and the Clerk of Court

In September 2023, Murdaugh's defense team alleged jury tampering by Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill, who had released a book about the case. The defense claimed Hill had inappropriate contact with jurors and requested a new trial. Hill resigned in 2024 amid a SLED investigation.

On May 14, 2025, Hill was charged with felonies including misconduct and perjury. In December 2025, she pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, perjury and two counts of misconduct in office. She admitted to showing sealed court exhibits to the media, lying about it, and using her office to promote her book, and was sentenced to three years' probation. The judge said her sentence would have been much harsher if investigators had found that she tampered with the jury.

The Conviction Overturned

On May 13, 2026, the South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously overturned Murdaugh's murder and weapon possession convictions, ordering a new trial. The court cited "shocking jury interference" by Hill, saying she used her status as "an officer of the court" to "essentially implore the jurors" to convict Murdaugh. The court wrote that her actions were a "breathtaking and disgraceful effort" to undermine the jury process.

In May 2026, Murdaugh filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Hill seeking $600,000; a federal judge dismissed it in August 2026. The state attorney general, Alan Wilson, announced plans to retry the murder case.

Where the Case Stands

As of September 2026, Alex Murdaugh remains in prison on his state and federal sentences for financial crimes, to which he pleaded guilty. He has denied killing Maggie and Paul from the start. With the 2023 verdict thrown out, the murder charges are pending again, and he is presumed innocent of them unless a new jury finds otherwise.

Judge Debra McCaslin set the retrial for April 5, 2027, at a status hearing in June. She then ruled that the retrial could not be held anywhere in the 14th Circuit, finding that Murdaugh could not get a fair and impartial trial in Colleton County, and on September 8 she ordered it moved to Sumter County, about 80 miles from the original trial in Walterboro. At the June hearing, defense attorney Jim Griffin said he wants the DNA under Maggie's fingernails analyzed by genetic genealogy, and that he was not sure how long that would take.

A new jury will hear the case from the beginning, and it will decide on what is put in front of it in Sumter County, not on the verdict of 2023.

Sources

1. Trials of Alex Murdaugh
2. Murdaugh: Death in the Family
3. Murdaugh family saga: A timeline of death, embezzlement and an ... - CNN
4. Inside the Murdaugh saga: How a South Carolina dynasty fell to murder ...
5. Judge picks new location for Alex Murdaugh's double-murder retrial - ABC News
6. Alex Murdaugh murder retrial set for April 2027 in Sumter - The Sumter Item
7. Alex Murdaugh retrial set for next year after South Carolina Supreme Court overturned double murder conviction - ABC News
8. Becky Hill, court clerk who helped with Alex Murdaugh's trial, pleads guilty to showing sealed exhibits - CNN
9. Judge dismisses Murdaugh's lawsuit against former court clerk Becky Hill - FOX Carolina

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