South Carolina murder mystery deepens with body to be exhumed
It is more than a year since the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, the wife and son of Alex Murdaugh, the jailed South Carolina lawyer making headlines via a complex embezzlement case as hard to navigate as the states low country swamp.
The story has captured the imagination of much of America as a true crime murder mystery that appears to mix violent shootings and other deaths with financial shenanigans all served up with a hefty dose of southern Gothic drama.
No arrests have resulted yet from the double murder investigation. But Alex Murdaugh faces 700 years in prison on fraud charges totaling $8.5m in losses.
Yet there have been incremental, and some say important, advances, including the release this week of 911 tapes from the day Murdaugh claimed he was ambushed by a gunman in the wake of the murders, and plans to unearth the body of housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, whose family were swindled out of millions of dollars in a $4.3m insurance settlement.
All told, the sprawling saga around the prominent South Carolina family involves five deaths, at least seven state and federal investigations, the loss of millions of dollars, and five indictments totaling 71 charges, including money-laundering, computer crimes and forgery.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/19/south-carolina-alex-murdaugh-murder-deaths-police