The Murdaughs held a tight grip on a South Carolina county for more than a 100 years until a double homicide and a twisted web of crimes brought the family patriarch undone.
Nearly three months after his wife and son were murdered, Alex Murdaugh asked Smith to kill him so that his surviving son could claim the insurance payout.
The former attorney was charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false police report over the incident, and indicted in October."I think when this case started a lot of people assumed this was a murder case and then with some white collar [crime] running in there,""But the reality is, as we've done this extensive investigation, we've realised that this was a white-collar case that culminated with two murders.
Alex Murdaugh, who pleaded not guilty, claimed he was visiting his mother at the time of the slayings and had returned home to discover the bodies."I didn't shoot my wife or my son," he insisted, during a tear-filled and gruelling testimony.But then he made a stunning admission. After 20 minutes denying the prosecutor's accusations, he admitted that he was at the dog kennels where the killings occurred on the night of the murders."I lied about being down there.
After five weeks, which included a bomb threat to the court and admonitions of the Murdaugh family for an obscene gesture made in court and the passing of contraband items, Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of killing his wife and son.
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