The most gripping murder trial of the year came to an end last week, when Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of the murder of his wife and son.
But, even though the disgraced former lawyer will spend the rest of his life behind bars, his legal troubles are far from over.
Even before the deadly shootings of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, Alex was linked to a number of controversies – and now that his life is under public scrutiny, it’s all coming to light.
Not only does Murdaugh have a whole lot of financial trouble on his hands, but investigations into the deaths of two people have been re-opened by police ‘based on the information gathered’ during Murdaugh’s trial and investigation.
For starters, let’s look at the financial charges Alex Murdaugh is facing.
Though Alex maintained his innocence throughout the murder trial, he did admit to a number of serious financial crimes.
Prosecutors argued that Murdaugh had orchestrated the murder of his wife and son to distract from the fact that he had committed fraud, laundered money, evaded taxes, and stolen at least $8 million settlement money.
When Murdaugh took to the stand, he confessed – on more than one occasion – to those financial crimes listed by the prosecution.
He told the court that he had stolen money from clients to fuel his opioid addiction.
Overall, Murdaugh is accused of at least 99 financial crimes in 19 different indictments, thanks to his admissions in court.
But it’s not just financial crimes that Murdaugh has to worry about.
Deep-dives into the Murdaughs ahead of the trial – including both a Netflix and HBO docu-series – raised concerns over two more mysterious deaths linked to the family.
The first was that of the family’s long-time housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, who died in February 2018.
At the time, Gloria’s death was ruled as a ‘trip and fall accident’, according to a wrongful death settlement.
But after Murdaugh was accused of attempting to orchestrate his own death in 2021, suspicions were raised and police looked into Gloria’s cause of death once again.
The investigation was reopened and, last summer, police received permission from Gloria’s family to exhume her body to further investigate her cause of death.
Investigations are still ongoing and no charges have been made as of yet.
Gloria’s son has also filed a lawsuit against Murdaugh, after the disgraced lawyer admitted that he stole millions of dollars that was intended for his late housekeeper’s children following her death.
The second re-opened investigation concerns the death of Stephen Smith, who was the classmate of Alex’s surviving son Buster.
The 19-year-old student was found dead in the middle of the road in 2015.
At the time, the incident was described as a hit and run, since Smith had suffered blunt force trauma, but Smith’s mother had always maintained that his death was no accident, arguing that he wouldn’t have been walking along the road.
In 2021, South Carolina law enforcement officials reopened the case as part of their wider investigation into Murdaugh.
The case may not be directly linked to Alex, but investigations could bring his family name to the forefront once again.
Another lawsuit that’s likely to do that is the case of 19-year-old Mallory Beach’s death.
Mallory had been killed in a 2019 boat crash that Murdaugh’s late son Paul was involved with.
Prosecutors claim that Paul was responsible for the crash, though he had pleaded not guilty before his death.
It was this lawsuit that prosecutors believe triggered Alex’s motive to kill Paul and Maggie, since the suit would have exposed the Murdaugh family’s crimes.
