a story of drugs, murder and corruption that has the United States on trial.
The trial of Alex Murdaughwhich has been running since January 23rd, is becoming a media sensation in the United States because it has all the necessary ingredients to be so: murder, drugs, corruption… and unexpected twists and turns with each new development in the investigation. The case centers on Alex Murdaugh, an influential attorney Who is on trial for, allegedly, killing his wife and infant son to hide different corruption cases and his addiction to opiates..
Alex Murdaugh, 54, is one of the third generation of a powerful family of lawyers of Walterboro, a small town located in South Carolina, where the farmhouse inherited generation after generation is located. For the past five years there have been several deaths in the family’s surroundings.accidental events or perfectly executed plans that have yet to be solved.
In 2018, the family’s housekeeper and nanny for more than two decades, Gloria Satterfield, passed away when she fell down the stairs of the family home and an autopsy was never performed. A year later, his youngest son, aged nineteen, died, was involved in an accident while driving a boat after returning from a drunken party.which cost the life of a young woman of the same age.
Wife and son killed in the cottage.
After this event, the Murdaughs began to be investigated for suspicions of fraudulent business dealings and in 2021 an event revolutionized the country’s media: Paul, the 22-year-old youngest son, and Maggie, the wife, were found dead in the family cottage..
From the very beginning Alex was the prime suspect in the eventssomething that he always denied, alluding that at the time of the crime he was away from homevisiting his mother. According to his testimony, it was he who alerted the authorities through a call when he arrived at the house and found his son and his wife with several shots all over their bodies, including in the head. This theory soon began to fall apart, since the police found a video on the son’s social networks where the father’s voice was heard in the house before the tragic moment..
A turn in research
Last Thursday there was a very important twist in the investigation, for the first time Alex admitted to lies in the testimony which he had been maintaining from the beginning. He again denied being the perpetrator of the murder, but acknowledged that he had he was not at his mother’s house when it all happened.. He justifies this false testimony by his addiction to opiateswhich caused him paranoias that prevented him from remembering and cost him about 50,000 a week.
According to the prosecution, he killed his family members and then fabricated the alibi of going to visit his mother to erase himself from the scene of the crime. In addition, the prosecution contends that Murdaugh’s motive for committing this crime was. attempt to divert the attention of investigators. for his corruption and fraud offenses, including stealing from partners and defrauding them of $8.3 million, which led to his imprisonment in 2021, as reported by El País.
Thirty years or life imprisonment
The trial against Alex Murdaugh began last January 23 and is nearing a resolution. On the table is the decision whether to sentence him to thirty years in prison or a life sentencea situation that has the entire country watching live broadcasts of the trial.
And taking advantage of the repercussion of the case, Netflix has been quick to release a short documentary of three chapters where they tell in detail all this story of intrigue and conspiracy around the life of the protagonist of this story. The Murdaughs: Death and Scandal in South Carolina., which does not yet have a final chapter, as the trial has yet to reach a verdict.
