Murdaugh’s plot revealed, arrests and court hearings. What you may have missed this week
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Alex Murdaugh Coverage
The Murdaugh family saga has dominated the news after another shooting, a resignation and criminal accusations — with Alex Murdaugh at the center of it all. Here are the latest updates on Alex Murdaugh.
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Law enforcement arrested Alex Murdaugh and a former client this week for plotting a killing ... but not one of the still-unsolved murders from June.
Murdaugh and the client — lawyers say he was Murdaugh’s drug dealer — were jailed, accused of plotting a scheme to kill Murdaugh Sept. 4 so his surviving son, Buster, could collect on a $10 million insurance policy.
But wait. There’s more. The State Law Enforcement Division announced it was opening a sixth criminal investigation linked to the family, this one over the 2018 death of the Murdaughs’ former housekeeper and nanny.
Although the week brought a flurry of activity from the Sept. 4 shooting, including Murdaugh’s confession that he planned it, more than three months have passed since the deaths of his younger son, Paul, and wife, Maggie, and still no word on arrests, suspects or motives.
Here’s what happened this week tied to the Murdaugh family:
Tuesday: the first arrest
Curtis Edward Smith, a 61-year-old Walterboro man, was arrested in Colleton County on charges of assisted suicide, assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud in the Sept. 4 shooting of Alex Murdaugh.
SLED released the arrests warrants for Smith, alleging he conspired with “co-defendant” Murdaugh in the shooting. Murdaugh confessed to police that he gave Smith the gun and told Smith to shoot him so his surviving son, Buster, could get a $10 million insurance payout.
An arrest of Murdaugh seemed imminent.
Wednesday: Murdaugh client, nanny death
Documents obtained by The Island Packet & Beaufort Gazette newspapers show Smith was a client of Murdaugh’s more than a decade ago. Murdaugh’s lawyers, who appeared in multiple national television interviews this week, have also alleged that Smith was Murdaugh’s drug dealer.
Smith attended a bond hearing in Colleton County on unrelated drug charges. His bond was set at $5,000 cash surety for a methamphetamine charge, and he was released on a personal recognizance bond for the marijuana charge. He was transported to neighboring Hampton County’s Detention Center to await a bond hearing on his four other charges tied to the Sept. 4 shooting.
SLED announced, by request of the Hampton County coroner, that it was opening an investigation into the death of Gloria Satterfield, who worked for the Murdaughs as a housekeeper and nanny for about 20 years. She died in a local hospital after she had a “trip and fall” incident in the family’s home. The coroner says the death was never reported to the coroner’s office and that no autopsy was completed. That news came hours after Satterfield’s sons filed a lawsuit against several people, including Murdaugh, alleging missing insurance money.
During a media availability with reporters, SC Gov. Henry McMaster commented on the ongoing Alex Murdaugh case. ‘”The whole thing from beginning to end, and I don’t know all the details, is one of the saddest stories I think I’ve ever heard. It’s just sad.”
Thursday: Alex Murdaugh’s arrest, bond hearing
Smith and Murdaugh attended separate bond hearings in Hampton County.
Smith, who was held in the jail overnight, was in court at 9 a.m. The judge set a $55,000 cash surety bond, which was paid later in the day, allowing him to leave, according to jail officials.
Murdaugh turned himself into the jail just before noon and had a bond hearing at 4 p.m.
The judge granted him a $20,000 personal recognizance bond, meaning he wouldn’t have to pay anything to be released. He also surrendered his passport to state police, but was allowed to return to the out-of-state rehab facility where he’d been.
During the hearing his attorney, Dick Harpootlian, said Murdaugh suffered a possible skull fracture and minor brain bleed, but there were no visible signs on Murdaugh of being shot in the head 12 days earlier.
His lawyer painted Murdaugh as a victim of a 20-year opioid addiction and said the murders of his wife and son in June “put him over the edge.”
Murdaugh began crying.
“He has fallen from grace,” Harpootlian said, adding that Murdaugh had shown no evidence that he is a danger to the community or a flight risk. Setting a high bond is unnecessary, his lawyer said. “He’s not a man of significant means anymore.”
This story was originally published September 17, 2021 at 11:19 AM with the headline "Murdaugh’s plot revealed, arrests and court hearings. What you may have missed this week."
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