Alex Murdaugh arrives in court as jury selection begins for his double murder trial
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Police investigating the double murder of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh have also reopened the 2015 hit-and-run case of teenager Stephen Smith.
July 8, 2015: Teen Stephen Smith dies
Smith was found on the side of the road.
Police officially ruled her death a hit and run, but she had suffered blunt force trauma to the head.
His mother has since shared his belief that she believes he was killed in a hate crime because he was gay.
Case notes obtained by DailyMail.com revealed that Paul’s older brother, Buster, was named multiple times in the investigation.
The police wanted to know more about her relationship with Stephen.
Stephen’s mother said he had been having an “affair”.
In a statement years later, one of Paul’s friends said the family had “covered up” other murders.
He mentioned Smith’s death.
February 2, 2018: Gloria Satterfield, Murdaugh family housekeeper, dies
Gloria Sattlerfield, Murdaugh family housekeeper, dies
Gloria died after ‘falling’ down the stairs of the family home
The family gave his family $500,000 in a wrongful death settlement, but it is unclear why his death was ruled his fault.
Alex Murdaugh was listed as the defendant in the lawsuit.
Satterfield was only 57 years old when he died.
She left a husband and children.
His death was also mentioned in the statement of Paul Murdaugh’s friend.
February 23, 2019 – Mallory Beach dies after being thrown from a boat driven by Paul Murdaugh
Mallory Beach, 19, died in February 2019
Paul was later charged because he had been drinking and behaving ‘belligerently’ that night.
He had been released on bail.
One of the six teenagers on board testified that they were afraid to talk about the Murdaugh family because they knew how to ‘cover things up’.
The boy named Stephen Smith and the housekeeper, and claimed that Paul pushed Beach off the boat.
June 7, 2021: Paul and Maggie are murdered
The mother and son were found shot to death at the family home in Islandton, South Carolina.
Alex Murdaugh says he found them in the house.
The medical examiner said the couple had been dead at most an hour when he discovered them.
It is later revealed that Alex waited an hour to call 911 about their deaths.
Alex’s son Paul, 22, (left) and his wife Maggie, 52, (right) were found dead of multiple gunshot wounds on June 7 at the family hunting lodge.
Alex’s father, Randolph Murdaugh III, died ‘peacefully’ at his home three days after Maggie and Paul were found shot dead.
June 10, 2021 – Alex’s father Randolph Murdaugh III, 81, dies ‘naturally’ and ‘peacefully’ at home
Alex Murdaugh’s alibi for the night of his wife and son’s murder was that he was visiting his sick father in the hospital.
The father died just three days later, following a battle with cancer.
September 3, 2021 – Alex resigns from his law firm amid allegations of embezzlement
The firm has hired a forensic investigator to review the accounts.
September 4, 2021: Alex calls 911 claiming he was shot in the head in a moving car
He only had ‘superficial’ injuries and was also able to call his brother.
September 6, 2021: Alex resigns from the law firm
In a statement he says: “I am resigning from my law firm and entering rehab after a long battle that has exacerbated these murders.”
September 14, 2021: Police arrest suspected hitman in Alex shooting
Police say Alex Murdaugh orchestrated his own shooting in a botched assisted suicide scheme designed so his surviving son could collect a $10 million life insurance payout.
Curtis Edward Smith, 61, was arrested on charges of assisted suicide, assault and battery, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.
Smith, of Walterboro, South Carolina, is a longtime client of Murdaugh’s, who represented him in minor traffic matters as well as in a 2015 lawsuit Smith filed against a forest management company.
According to police, Murdaugh paid him to shoot him in the head and kill him, making it look like a random drive-by attack.
September 15, 2021 – Police open criminal investigation into Satterfield’s 2018 death
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) announced that it is investigating the 2018 death of Gloria Satterfield and the subsequent handling of her estate.
Satterfield, 57, had been Murdaugh’s housekeeper and nanny for about 25 years when she suffered a fatal brain injury following a mysterious fall inside the Murdaugh family home.
He died several weeks later, on February 26, 2018.
SLED said Hit had opened a criminal investigation into Satterfield’s death based on a request from the Hampton County coroner, as well as “information gathered during the course of our other ongoing investigations involving Alex Murdaugh.”
September 16, 2021: Alex turns himself in to police for insurance fraud
Murdaugh turned himself in to the police in connection with the insurance fraud scheme, where he arranged his own murder so his surviving son could collect a $10 million payment.
He faces charges of insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false police report.
November 29, 2021 – Murdaugh faces 27 new counts after an indictment for allegedly $4.8 million in financial crimes
Murdaugh was charged with an additional 27 counts, and prosecutors said he stole nearly $5 million in settlement money he had obtained for his dead housekeeper, an injured state trooper and others, as well as fees intended for his law firm. .
December 6, 2021 – Satterfield’s family sues Bank of America for letting Murdaugh hide life insurance money meant for them
The bank was added as a defendant in the lawsuit against Murdaugh, who is accused of defrauding Gloria Ann Satterfield’s children out of life insurance money after the housekeeper’s mysterious death.
Statterfield’s sons say the bank looked the other way when it allowed Murdaugh to open a fake account and transfer insurance payments to him and a cousin.
June 28, 2022: Alex Murdaugh and Curtis Smith are charged with drug trafficking
Murdaugh is accused of writing 437 checks worth $2.4 million that Curtis Smith, the man he hired to kill him, cashed over eight years, ending in September 2021.
Smith kept some of the money and used the rest for wide-ranging illegal activities, according to indictments unsealed June 28.
That illegal activity included a “distribution network” for the painkiller oxycodone, according to prosecutors.
Both men were charged with possession, manufacture, or distribution of narcotics.
Russell Lafitte, the former CEO of Palmetto State Bank, is charged with bank fraud, wire fraud and bank embezzlement for allegedly helping Murdaugh steal money from his client’s settlements.
July 21, 2022: Palmetto State Bank CEO is charged with bank fraud for ‘helping Murdaugh steal money from his clients’
A federal grand jury has indicted Russell Lafitte, the former CEO of Palmetto State Bank, for allegedly conspiring with Murdaugh to steal $8.5 million from his client’s settlements.
He is charged with bank fraud, wire fraud and embezzlement of bank funds.
November 8, 2022: Lafitte faces federal trial
Lafitte’s federal trial on the bank fraud charges began on November 8.
The Associated Press reported that defense attorneys Bart Daniel and Matt Austin argue that Murdaugh manipulated people and lied to Lafitte.
They say he was just a pawn on Murdaugh’s instructions and did not knowingly participate in the alleged fraud.