The Case of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh

Margaret "Maggie" Murdaugh, 52, and her 22-year-old son, Paul Murdaugh, were shot to death at the family's Moselle property in Colleton County, South Carolina, on June 7, 2021. Alex Murdaugh was convicted of both murders in 2023 and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, but the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned those convictions in May 2026 after finding that a court clerk improperly influenced the jury. Prosecutors have announced plans to retry him.

Maggie Murdaugh was 52 and the wife of prominent South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh. The couple had two sons, Buster and Paul. Paul Murdaugh was 22 and was studying at the University of South Carolina. He was particularly interested in boating, hunting and the outdoors. The Murdaugh family owned the Moselle property in Colleton County, a large rural estate used by the family for hunting and recreation. Paul had also been facing criminal charges stemming from a 2019 boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach. The case remained pending at the time of his death. Alex Murdaugh was experiencing severe financial problems in the period leading up to the killings, although investigators initially did not publicly identify a motive.

On the evening of June 7, 2021, Alex Murdaugh called 911 shortly after 10 p.m. and reported finding his wife and son dead at Moselle. Deputies arrived and found Maggie and Paul near the property's dog kennels. Both had suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Paul was found inside the feed room of the kennels and had been killed with a shotgun. Maggie was found outside the kennels and had been shot with a rifle. The crime scene contained multiple firearms and spent ammunition. Investigators secured the property and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, or SLED, took the lead in the homicide investigation. SLED reported that agents and crime-scene personnel began processing the property during the night and into the following morning.

The investigation initially considered Alex Murdaugh to be a possible victim and witness rather than publicly identifying him as the killer. That changed as investigators reconstructed the family's movements on the night of the murders. A major breakthrough came from Paul's cellphone. Investigators recovered a video from Paul's phone that had been recorded at the kennels shortly before the murders. The recording contained the voices of Alex, Maggie and Paul, placing Alex at the kennels shortly before the killings. Alex had initially told investigators that he had not been at the kennels shortly before the murders. The discovery of the kennel video therefore directly contradicted an important part of his original account. Investigators also examined Alex's extensive financial problems. By 2021, he had been stealing money from clients and his law firm for years to support his failing finances. Prosecutors eventually argued that the impending exposure of his financial crimes provided a motive for the murders: killing Maggie and Paul would create a crisis that could buy him additional time. Alex continued to deny killing his wife and son. In July 2022, a Colleton County grand jury indicted him on two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. The trial began in January 2023 and lasted approximately six weeks. The prosecution presented the kennel video, cellphone evidence, vehicle data, financial evidence, forensic evidence and testimony concerning Alex's increasingly desperate financial situation. Alex testified in his own defense and admitted that he had lied to investigators about being at the kennels, but maintained that he had not killed Maggie or Paul. On March 2, 2023, the jury found him guilty of both murders and both weapons charges. He was sentenced the following day to two consecutive life sentences without parole.

Alex Murdaugh's murder convictions did not remain final. In May 2026, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled unanimously that former Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill had improperly influenced jurors during the 2023 trial. The court found that Hill made comments to jurors that attacked Murdaugh's credibility and defense, creating a presumption of prejudice that the State failed to overcome. The Supreme Court therefore reversed the denial of Murdaugh's motion for a new trial and remanded the case for a new trial. The court did not find that Murdaugh was innocent or rule that the evidence was insufficient to prosecute him. The decision concerned his constitutional right to a fair trial before an impartial jury. The South Carolina Attorney General's Office announced that it intends to retry Murdaugh for the murders of Maggie and Paul. Murdaugh remains imprisoned because of his separate financial-crime convictions.

The murders became one of the most heavily publicised American criminal cases of the 2020s, drawing enormous attention because of the Murdaugh family's longstanding prominence in South Carolina's Lowcountry legal community and the extraordinary series of financial and criminal investigations that followed. The case also became notable for the kennel cellphone video, which placed Alex Murdaugh at the crime scene shortly before the killings despite his earlier denial that he had been there.