On June 7, 2021, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and her son Paul Murdaugh, 22, died. Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, a new true crime series on Netflix, examines their deaths.
In Walterboro, South Carolina, disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh, 54, is presently on trial for the murders of his wife and youngest son.
Murdaugh allegedly told investigators that he discovered their bodies at the 1,700-acre hunting estate owned by the family in Colleton County, South Carolina.
He was accused of two charges of first-degree murder and two counts of having a weapon while committing a violent crime in July 2022. He entered a not-guilty plea.
According to a People article, Murdaugh has continued to be detained at the Richland County Detention Center with a bond of $7 million, which is among the highest in South Carolina history.
Who Killed Maggie and Paul Murdaugh? The Theories Explained
An image from the Netflix documentary “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal” shows Alex Murdaugh, his son Paul and his wife Maggie, as well as Paul’s mother Maggie. The accused killer Alex Murdaugh’s booking photo is seen in the inset. On June 7, 2021, the disgraced lawyer’s wife Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son Paul were shot to death in their Colleton County, South Carolina, home.
Dr. Kenneth Kinsey, an Orangeburg County deputy sheriff and a crime scene expert, testified about the sequence of events leading up to Maggie and Paul’s deaths on February 17 at Murdaugh’s trial.
According to a story in The Independent, Dr. Kinsey claimed that Paul was shot twice with a shotgun in the feeding area of the family’s estate’s dog kennels.
Paul was hit by the first bullet in the chest and arm, but the injury was not deadly, it was explained. Then, when he got closer to the kennels’ entrance, he was shot a second time. It was said that the bullet entered his brain and quickly killed him.
According to Dr. Kinsey, Maggie was killed outside the kennels by a gunman who was positioned about four to five feet away and using an assault rifle similar to the AR-15. She was facing the kennels when she was shot multiple times “in pretty fast succession,” he continued.
Neither weapon has been located by police.
Theory 1: Alex Murdaugh is responsible for the death of his wife and son
According to the evidence, Alex Murdaugh was present at the crime site with Maggie and Paul. Three voices can be heard in video footage recorded by Paul that is thought to have been taken just before he passed away; the sounds, according to the prosecution, are those of Murdaugh, his wife, and their son.
Murdaugh has insisted that he wasn’t there when the crime was committed and that he later found his wife and son’s remains next to the estate’s dog kennels.
Furthermore submitted evidence at the trial revealed that Maggie and Paul were aware of Murdaugh’s 20-year opioid addiction and the $60,000 per week he was spending on it. According to The Independent, Paul allegedly found a “bag of drugs” one month before he and his mother passed away, and text conversations reveal that he confronted his father about it.
Murdaugh is also accused of more than 100 other suspected financial offences. The New York Times stated that the former attorney allegedly attempted to stage his own demise in December 2021 in order for his living son, Buster, to get a $10 million life insurance payment.
Theory 2: There were two shooters who killed Maggie and Paul Murdaugh
According to WTOC, Dick Harpootlian, the defence attorney for Murdaugh, said that the way in which Maggie and Paul were killed suggests there were two shooters.
One shooter was said to have attacked Paul, and a second was said to have served as a lookout. They killed Maggie when she supposedly intercepted the lookout. The employment of several weapons in the shootings, according to Murdaugh’s defence, supported the theory.
The Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, has been the site of the trial, which is currently in its 22nd day as of February 22.
You can now watch Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal on Netflix.
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