HAMPTON COUNTY, S.C. – Alex Murdaugh’s attorney says agents with the State Law Enforcement Division have met with the 54-year-old’s family to advise them murder charges are being sought this week from a grand jury.
But Jim Griffin says he hasn’t heard from anyone directly with law enforcement or the Attorney General’s Office that his client will be charged with the murders of his wife and son. Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were found shot to death at the family’s Islandton hunting lodge last June.
“We won’t have any comment until charges are actually brought against Alex,” says Griffin.
Both SLED and the Attorney General’s Office have declined to comment as well, saying only that the investigation into the double murder is ongoing.
“Agents are committed to the integrity of the investigation, thus no additional information from SLED will be provided at this time,” says the Director of Public Information for SLED Renee Wunderlich.
Murdaugh is already being held on $7 million bond at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Columbia where he faces a slew of unrelated charges. The once prominent attorney’s life began to unravel shortly after his loved one’s murders and his admission to an opioid addiction.
Murdaugh is now accused of embezzling nearly $8.5 million from colleagues and former clients. He’s also charged with trying to stage his own death so his surviving son could collect insurance money.
But it is the unsolved shooting deaths of Murdaugh’s 52-year-old wife and 22-year-old son that have continued to generate speculation. Murdaugh called 9-1-1 to report finding the pair shot to death the night of June 7, 2021 at the family’s rural, Colleton County property. He has maintained he had nothing to do with their deaths.
