Paul Terry Murdaugh, age 22, was a White/Caucasian male from Hampton/Islandton, South Carolina, whose life ended on the night of June 7, 2021, at the Murdaugh family’s rural hunting property known as Moselle, near Islandton. He was found dead alongside his mother, 52-year-old Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, near the dog kennels on the family estate.
The scene was immediately alarming: Paul had been shot with a shotgun, and Maggie had been shot with a rifle, indicating that two different firearms were used in the killings.
Paul came from one of the most prominent legal families in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. For generations, members of the Murdaugh family had held power in the local legal system, and his father, Richard Alexander “Alex” Murdaugh, was a well-known attorney. At the time of Paul’s death, the family was already under public scrutiny because Paul was facing charges connected to a 2019 boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach. That pending case had placed pressure on the Murdaugh family, and the murders at Moselle soon pulled together questions about family privilege, financial secrets, legal influence, and violence.
On the night of the killings, Alex Murdaugh called 911 at about 10:06 p.m. and reported that he had found Maggie and Paul shot near the kennels. He told investigators that he had not been there when they were killed and said he had been visiting his mother, who had dementia. For months, no arrest was made in the double homicide, and the case drew national attention as investigators examined the family’s relationships, finances, and the timeline of Alex Murdaugh’s movements that evening.
A major break in the case came from Paul himself. Shortly before he was killed, Paul recorded a video near the dog kennels involving a dog that belonged to a friend. Investigators later said voices in the background placed Alex Murdaugh at the kennels minutes before the murders, contradicting his earlier statements that he had not been there. Prosecutors would later describe that video as crucial because it placed Alex at the scene with Maggie and Paul close to the estimated time of death.
Alex Murdaugh was arrested and charged in July 2022 with two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in connection with the deaths of Paul and Maggie. Prosecutors alleged that Alex killed his wife and son as his financial crimes were closing in on him, arguing that the murders were an attempt to gain sympathy, delay accountability, and distract from years of theft from clients and others. Alex denied killing them and pleaded not guilty.
During the 2023 murder trial, prosecutors presented evidence about Alex’s lies, cellphone data, the kennel video, gunshot evidence, and his mounting financial pressure. The defense argued that investigators had rushed to judgment and that the crime scene had not been properly protected. Alex testified in his own defense and admitted he had lied about being at the kennels before the murders, but he continued to deny killing Paul and Maggie. He said his drug addiction and paranoia led him to lie to law enforcement.
In March 2023, a jury found Alex Murdaugh guilty of murdering Paul and Maggie and guilty of the related weapons charges. He was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. The conviction appeared to close the murder case, while Alex also faced and later received lengthy sentences for separate financial crimes involving millions of dollars stolen from clients, his law firm, and others.
The case did not end there. Alex Murdaugh’s defense later challenged the murder convictions, alleging improper jury influence by Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca “Becky” Hill. In May 2026, the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned Alex Murdaugh’s murder convictions and ordered a new trial, finding that the jury had been improperly influenced. That ruling did not declare him innocent; it erased the murder convictions because of trial-related misconduct and returned the murder charges to a pending posture. Alex Murdaugh remained imprisoned on his separate financial-crime sentences.
As of the latest available reporting, Alex Murdaugh remains the charged suspect in the killings of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, but his murder convictions have been overturned and a new trial has been ordered. No other person has been publicly charged with murdering Paul. The official prosecution theory has centered on Alex Murdaugh as the alleged killer, while the defense has continued to deny that he committed the murders.
