South Carolina heir Alex Murdaugh to be charged with murders of his wife and son 

South Carolina legal heir Alex Murdaugh will be charged with the 2021 murders of his wife and son this week. 

The family has been notified that Murdaugh, 54, will be charged this week. A grand jury will be shown evidence on Thursday. 

It’s unclear what that evidence is. 

Murdaugh remains in county jail on fraud and embezzlement charges relating to the money he stole from his law firm and a failed attempt to stage his own murder as part of a $10million life insurance scam for his son. 

His brother – who is serving as his attorney – did not immediately return requests for comment on Tuesday.

Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were found dead in their family home last summer in a mystifying crime that was the beginning of a long, legal saga for the rich South Carolina family. 

Since then, Alex has been charged with trying to commit life insurance scams and questions have arisen over the family’s dark past. 

Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, were found shot dead on the grounds of the family home on June 7.

Alex called 911, claiming through tears and screams that he’d just returned home to find them there. 

No other suspects have ever been named and SLED – the State Law Enforcement Division – has always been tight-lipped on whether or not Alex had an alibi. 

In the months that followed, it emerged that Murdaugh had embezzled money from his law firm to fund his opioid addiction. 

He then tried to stage his own murder in a life insurance scam to benefit his surviving son, Buster, hiring would-be hitman Curtis Smith to shoot him on the side of the road. Smith is in jail. 

In the months before her murder, Maggie Murdaugh – a regular fixture in Charleston society – had reportedly been meeting with divorce attorneys. 

Friends said she had become embarrassed that her checks at charity luncheons were bouncing. She is believed to have then discovered that her husband had squandered their money on prescription pills.  

Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were found dead at the family home on June 7, 2021. Alex Murdaugh called 911 claiming he found them there, shot dead. No other suspects have ever been named 

Murdaugh is currently in jail on fraud and embezzlement charges relating to the $8.5million he stole from his law firm. He always claimed that he came home to find Maggie and Paul (right) shot dead at the family home last June 

The shocking murders on the family’s grounds last year were the beginning of a twisted web of murder and crime. Above, the grounds on June 8, the day after Maggie and Paul were found dead

In light of the murders of Maggie and Paul, the family’s dark history came into question. 

It emerged that in 2018, the Murdaugh family housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, died three weeks after falling in their home. 

Her sons sued the family for insurance money – which Alex encouraged them to do – then later sued him directly claiming that he stole the insurance money he promised them. 

Before his death, Paul Murdaugh was also involved in a fatal boating accident that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach. 

He was driving the boat drunk when it crashed and she was thrown into the water. 

Murdaugh’s life quickly unraveled after the deaths of his wife and son. Days later, his father – who had served as an attorney in the area for decades – died. 

In the absence of any other suspects, suspicion quickly turned to Alex but his family stood by him. His brothers appeared on Good Morning America to protest his innocence. 

The family put up a $100,000 reward for information that could lead to Maggie and Paul’s killers. 

Murdaugh housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, left, died after a fall in the family home in 2018. Mallory Beach, 18, was killed in an accident on a boat Paul Murdaugh was driving

In a statement at the time, a grieving Alex said: ‘I want to thank everyone for the incredible love and support that we have received over the last few weeks. Now is the time to bring justice for Maggie and Paul. Buster and I, along with Maggie’s mother, father and our entire family, ask that anyone with helpful information should immediately call the SLED tip line or Crime Stoppers.’ 

It wasn’t until September that the tide started to turn against him. 

On September 3, he quietly resigned from the law firm he’d served for years, Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, & Detrick.

Before that – on September 4 – Murdaugh called 911 reporting that he had just been shot on the side of the road. 

He said he had no idea who had attacked him, and claimed it happened while he was changing a tire. 

On September 6, his resignation from the law firm became public along with the allegations that he had stolen millions over the years. He entered rehab at the same time, revealing a crippling addiction to prescription painkillers. 

Curtis Smith, the hitman he allegedly hired to kill him, was then arrested and his insurance scam plot was revealed; Smith told police that Alex wanted him to kill him and have it look like a murder so that his surviving son, Buster, would receive a $10million life insurance payout.