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Found at: codevoid.de:70/cnn?/2023/03/20/us/murdaugh-family-connected-deaths


		
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ARTICLE VIEW:
These are the deaths and investigations connected to the Murdaugh
family
By Christina Maxouris and Dakin Andone, CNN
Updated:
11:37 AM EDT, Wed March 22, 2023
Source: CNN
Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced former South Carolina attorney, was
sentenced to life in prison earlier this month after he was found
guilty of murdering his wife and son – the most serious and grisliest
of the allegations faced by the scion of what was once .
The murder convictions, which Murdaugh has appealed, came almost two
years after he called police to report he had found his wife, Margaret
“Maggie” Murdaugh, and his grown son, Paul Murdaugh, shot dead at
their rural estate. Murdaugh said he found the bodies after returning
from a visit to his mother.
But the deaths weren’t the only ones to which the Murdaugh family
name was tied. And as yearslong mysteries surrounding the family are
garnering fresh attention, so are several other deaths.
Margaret and Paul Murdaugh
Alex Murdaugh called 911 on June 7, 2021, to report he found his wife
Margaret, 52, and son Paul, 22, shot dead outside their Islandton home
about an hour from Hilton Head Island, the South Carolina Law
Enforcement Division, or SLED, said.
Murdaugh denied involvement in their killings, even as he was buried
under an avalanche of charges related to alleged financial crimes. But
he was with two counts of murder and two weapons charges – to which
he pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors argued during the trial that Murdaugh killed his wife and
son to distract from and delay investigations into his alleged
misdeeds, which included stealing millions of dollars from his clients
and his law firm – crimes .
The defense team, in the meantime, argued Murdaugh was a loving father
and husband and painted a picture of a sloppy investigation.
In the end, it did not convince the jury, which was at the scene of the
killings minutes before they happened – an indication, the state
said, that he had lied about his whereabouts when they were shot.
He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Murdaugh.
Stephen Smith
No connection between the Murdaugh family and the death of whose body
was found in the middle of a Hampton County road on July 8, 2015, has
been announced by authorities.
But on June 22, 2021, SLED said it was opening an investigation into
Smith’s death based on information gathered while probing the double
homicide of Margaret and Paul Murdaugh. SLED has not specified what
that information was.
In March 2023, a SLED spokesperson confirmed to CNN the agency was and
that there was no indication his death was a hit-and-run – as it was
deemed in an initial incident report.
That news came on the heels of an announcement by Smith’s family, who
said it would petition a court to have his body exhumed for a private
autopsy as part of an effort to reexamine his death.
“We think that he did not die on that road that fateful night,”
Eric Bland, an attorney for Smith’s family, told reporters in a news
conference. “We think that there was other reasons and other causes
that caused his death.”
“Our job is not to find out who did it,” he added. “That’s not
what we do, we’re not law enforcement, we’re not doing a criminal
case. … What we’re really trying to do is give a mother answers.”
According to an incident report from the South Carolina Highway
Patrol’s Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team, or MAIT,
Smith’s body was found in the road with blunt force trauma to the
head.
While a pathologist cited in a SLED report states that Smith appeared
to have been hit by a vehicle, the responding officer referenced in
MAIT’s report cited “no vehicle debris, skid marks, or injuries
consistent with someone being struck by a vehicle.”
Smith’s shoes were also both on and loosely tied, the report added,
and investigators saw no evidence suggesting he was struck by a
vehicle.
Notes from investigators in the case file say that “according to
family, Stephen would never have been walking in the middle of the
roadway” and that he was “very skittish.”
Smith had injuries to his left arm, hand and head, according to notes
taken by a SLED investigator at the scene.
His vehicle was found about three miles away, that report said, and
added the gas tank door was open and the gas cap was hanging out on the
side of the car. The vehicle’s battery was functional, but the car
wouldn’t start, it added.
Smith’s death remains unsolved, but his family hopes a private
autopsy will provide them a “new, unbiased look at his body and an
accurate determination of his cause of death based on facts,”
according to a GoFundMe page that raised more than $87,000.
Mallory Beach
Mallory Beach was a 19-year-old woman killed in a February 24, 2019,
boat crash.
Beach was ejected from the boat – along with a male – when the boat
struck a bridge, according to an affidavit from an officer who was
supervising the scene.
According to a report from the South Carolina Department of Natural
Resources, a doctor who treated Paul Murdaugh after the boat crash
reported that Murdaugh was “clearly intoxicated” and slurring his
speech.
Beach’s body was found about a week after the crash by volunteer
searchers, according to a Department of Natural Resources accident
report.
Three people who were on the boat told investigators that Paul Murdaugh
was driving, but another passenger named a different person who was
also aboard that night as the driver, according to the affidavit.
At the time of his death, Paul Murdaugh was facing charges including
boating under the influence, causing great bodily harm, and causing
death in connection to the boat crash.
Gloria Satterfield
SLED has also announced it was into the February 26, 2018, death of the
Murdaughs’ longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, 57, and the
handling of her estate.
Satterfield was the Murdaugh family housekeeper for more than two
decades before dying after what was described as a “trip and fall
accident” at the Murdaugh home, according to Bland, the attorney, who
is also representing her estate.
SLED opened its investigation based on a request from the Hampton
County coroner that highlighted inconsistencies in the ruling of
Satterfield’s manner of death, the agency said in September 2021, as
well as information gathered during SLED’s other ongoing
investigations involving Alex Murdaugh.
Satterfield’s death was “not reported to the coroner at the time,
nor was an autopsy performed,” the coroner’s request to SLED said.
Additionally, her manner of death was ruled “natural,” which was
“inconsistent with injuries sustained in a trip and fall accident,”
the coroner said.
SLED announced in December 2022 it would seek to exhume Satterfield’s
remains, saying it had sought and received the permission of the
housekeeper’s family.
In December 2021, Murdaugh with Satterfield’s family, stemming from
the alleged misappropriation of funds they should have received after,
according to affidavits released by SLED, Murdaugh coordinated with the
family to sue himself and seek an insurance settlement.
In the aftermath of Satterfield’s death, a $500,000 wrongful death
claim was filed against Alex Murdaugh on behalf of her estate, Bland
said. But the estate did not receive any of the $500,000 owed as the
result of a wrongful death settlement in 2018, Bland added.
Bland has told CNN he does not believe Satterfield was murdered, but he
does not want to rule anything out.

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