The eyes of the world have been focused on the Alex Murdaugh trial since proceedings began on Jan. 23, but the Murdaugh family itself has been the talk of genuine crime circles for far longer. In fact, back in 2015, the death of 19-year-old Stephen Smith first put the Murdaugh name on the radar, and it stayed that way for the years to come.
On June 2, 2021, Alex’s wife and son, Maggie and Paul, were killed at the property owned by the Murdaugh family in Colleton County. On March 2, Alex Murdaugh was found guilty on four charges — two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon in the commitment of a violent crime — and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Throughout the trial, several intimate details of the Murdaugh family and their history were addressed in the courtroom, including a video shot by Paul himself in the minutes before he was killed. Several people have credited that very video with being a key piece of evidence against his father. In addition to drug abuse, a state of paranoia, and several lies bogging Alex Murdaugh down, other things were also mounting up against him quickly.
There was an additional piece of information shared during the trial as well. Maggie thought Murdaugh may have cheated on her in the past. While it wasn’t something believed to have happened recently or that she felt was still happening, it was still a pain that hurt her heart. Although the judge ruled it inadmissible, it still got the attention of media outlets.
That begs the question — who believed that Alex was having an affair? Why did the judge not allow the information as part of the trial? Let’s take a look.
Who was Maggie Murdaugh?
Maggie Murdaugh was a mother of two, one of whom met an untimely fate on the same night that she did. Her sons, Paul and Buster Murdaugh, were the apples of her eye, and friends and family said she lived for her boys, never missing a school function and ready to support them in every possible avenue.
Maggie was born to Terry and Kennedy Branstetter, high school sweethearts from Horse Cave, Kentucky, who crossed the state line into Tennessee to be married since they were too young to be wed under Kentucky law. The couple lived in Nashville for Terry’s job before moving to South Carolina. Maggie was said to be very close to her parents, doing everything with them.
A family friend told The New York Post that Maggie was “doing the best she could” and “asking for help on some level, but nobody was listening.” As many have shared, Murdaugh was a well-known influential figure in the state of South Carolina, with negative connotations against him never sticking for long. It’s likely that Maggie felt that her options were limited, and that idea is further highlighted by remarks from Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson, someone who worked for the Murdaugh family.
During her testimony, Turrubiate-Simpson said (via The Daily Beast) Maggie was enjoying her time in Edisto, staying busy and not sharing much desire to “come home.”
“Maggie told me she had to go to a doctor’s appointment, and she said…in the text she said ‘Alex wants me to come home. She kind of sounded like she didn’t want to come home because she really liked being in Edisto because they had a lot of work going on.”
A down-to-earth woman who was trying to find footing of her own for, perhaps, the first time; a mother, a daughter, a sister, and a friend. Maggie Murdaugh’s life was cut short, and with Alex Murdaugh found guilty of the crime, it’s a heartbreaking idea that the man who should have loved her forever would take her life, blowing away any chance at a happy forever.
The circumstances around Alex Murdaugh’s alleged affair
The Independent reports that on the seventeenth day of the Murdaugh trial, Maggie’s sister, Marian Proctor brought up speculation about an affair. The matter allegedly happened 15 years ago, but Proctor said Maggie broached the topic once again around the time of her death, with Proctor confirming: “She did not think anyone was still going on; it just bothered her.”
It was also reported that Jim Griffin, Murdaugh’s defense attorney, denied that Murdaugh had an affair and asked the judge to make any testimony from Proctor inadmissible. Judge Newman did announce that Proctor couldn’t be asked about the affair since it allegedly happened years before the murders.
Proctor also claimed that her sister asked Murdaugh to leave their home when she found out about the affair, but they eventually worked through their issues. While they may have been able to stick it out immediately after the affair, People reports Maggie visited a divorce attorney in the weeks before her murder.
A source shared few details about the visit but did note that Maggie drove around an hour from her home to find a divorce attorney to discuss everything from finances to debts.
“She didn’t pay close attention to the family money or where it came from, but now she was starting to look into it.”
It’s unknown if Alex found out about the visit, but it was evident that things were changing in the marriage, as some of Murdaugh’s co-workers noticed that Maggie was no longer visiting her husband at work or having lunch with him as they used to. While Alex has continued to deny involvement, saying he would “never intentionally do anything to hurt either one of them,” he has been convicted and sentenced for the murder of Maggie and Paul.
What evidence existed against Murdaugh?
As we shared above, Murdaugh was on trial for the deaths of his wife and son, and there were pieces of evidence presented in court that painted him in a guilty light. That is in addition to the fact that he originally lied about his whereabouts on the night of their murders.
BBC shared some of the key details that led to Murdaugh’s being found guilty, like a missing family gun, a snapchat video, and a mixed-up timeline regarding the time window in which he visited his mother. Murdaugh still claims his innocence, but as Judge Newman told him, he’s not pulling the wool over anyone else’s eyes.
“You can convince yourself about it but obviously you have the inability to convince anyone else.”
In less than three hours, a jury returned to the courtroom with their verdict, which was unanimously seconded by everyone. Murdaugh was found guilty of the murder of both his wife and his son and was also held liable on two additional counts of “possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.”
The location where Murdaugh will serve out his sentence is yet to be revealed, but as Judge Newman said, he will have plenty of time wherever it may be to think about his actions and will be haunted by the vision of his wife and his son anytime he closes his eyes.