The alleged murders of Alex Murdaugh are just the tip of the iceberg, according to the filmmakers, who say they have uncovered new crimes and corruption that span “the state and federal levels.”
In the new Netflix documentary Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, former friends of Alex’s late son Paul reveal the pressured witnesses after his drunk boating accident in February 2019.
At the time of the deaths of his wife Maggie and son Paul, Alex was being sued for up to $30 million over the accident in which his son was operating his boat under the influence of alcohol, which he had purchased using his older brother Buster’s ID.
The new series also investigates the deaths of Stephen Smith, a former classmate of Buster’s, and Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaughs’ housekeeper, who died in a fall at their home. Her death was the subject of widespread foul play speculation.
Speaking to ‘Vanity Fair’, filmmaker Jenner Furst said: “There is so much more to this story. There have been other crimes that we know about – corruption that goes well beyond Hampton, South Carolina. That goes to the state and federal level.’
Paul, Maggie, Alex and Buster Murdaugh attend dinner at the Carolina Yacht Club. The legal scion is accused of shooting Maggie and Paul on June 7, 2021
Tinsley told the court Alex tried to “intimidate and bully” him for suing him over his son Paul’s drunk boating accident that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach (pictured).
The new film also explores the deaths of Stephen Smith (right), a former classmate of Alex’s older son Buster, and Gloria Satterfield (left), the Murdaughs’ housekeeper, who died in a fall at their home. Her death was the subject of widespread foul play speculation
Furst claims they’ve uncovered such a breadth of deception that they hope the new show will “create a tidal wave to unlock the rest of the story.”
The documentary’s release comes as Alex’s defense is presenting her case in the disgraced assignee’s double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro.
Alex is accused of the brutal murder of his wife, Maggie, and youngest son, Paul, on the night of June 7, 2021, on the family’s sprawling hunting estate in Moselle, in the Lowcountry of South Carolina.
Maggie was shot five times with a high-powered assault rifle, while Paul was hit twice with a shotgun.
The defense theory is that Maggie and Paul could have been killed in revenge for Paul’s boat wreck.
In the documentary, Paul’s former girlfriend Morgan Doughty, 23, broke her silence to reveal the younger Murdaugh’s son was frequently drunk and that the family once helped cover up a serious car accident while he was under the influence.
Doughty described the events after a 2017 Christmas party where she claimed a drunk Paul crashed his truck and his family rushed to the scene to hide guns and beer cans in the vehicle before police arrived.
She also recalled how the family housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, found packs of pills belonging to Alex, who was addicted to opioids, and told Paul about it the same year she died of a fall at her estate.
Morgan Doughty broke her silence to speak about her relationship with Paul Murdaugh, claiming he was a frequent alcohol abuser and crashed his truck full of beer cans and guns in 2017, an event she said his family helped stop to cover up
Doughty, pictured with Paul, said their romance soured over his alleged heavy drinking and physical abuse, and claimed he once grabbed her by the throat and hit her
Photos of the Murdaugh boat Sea Hunt taken by investigators following the wreck of Paul’s drunk boat in February 2019
The three-part Netflix documentary delves into the scandals and suspicious deaths linked to once-celebrity legal South Carolina scion Alex Murdaugh and his family between 2015 and 2021.
In the documentary, Doughty, who moved to South Carolina with her parents early in high school, said she had a strong bond with Paul and the two began dating in their junior year.
During their romance, Doughty said she and her friends would hang out at Paul’s house, where his parents reportedly regularly offered booze to the minors.
“Whenever I stopped by the Murdaughs, it was normal for them to drink and always have a lot of alcohol around the house,” Doughty said.
Alex Murdaugh is on trial for the 2021 fatal shooting of his son Paul and wife Maggie at his hunting lodge
Claims of the Murdaughs’ prevailing drinking culture align with what Doughty told police after the death of her friend Mallory Beach, 19, in 2019 – who was killed in a boating accident said to have been driven by Paul while intoxicated.
In her affidavit, Doughty presented 25 videos of minors drinking alcohol while Alex and his family were present.
But while the fatal boating accident was under deep investigation, Doughty claimed Paul was responsible for another drunk driving incident two years earlier.
On December 25, 2017, Doughty claimed she drove a drunk Paul home when he “aggressively” demanded that he drive his truck.
She said he then lost control and crashed into a ditch, adding that beer cans and guns rolled everywhere in the truck.
When she tried to call 911 for help, Doughty said Paul grabbed her phone and hung up, opting to call his grandfather, Randolph Murdaugh, and Alex instead.
Doughty claimed Randolph, Alex and Maggie Murdaugh rushed to the scene and before checking on the teenagers, they cleared the truck of guns and beer cans.
She added that they fined her for calling 911 because it would have caused trouble for her youngest son, Paul.
Doughty said Alex and Maggie Murdaugh were fully aware of their son’s drinking and often offered alcohol to minors. Pictured: a picture of Doughty giving Alex an injection in 2018
Doughty said Paul would regularly drink with friends as a minor (left) and drink alcohol provided to him by his parents (right).
Doughty said there was a prevailing culture of alcohol consumption on the Murdaugh estate
Doughty said their relationship began to deteriorate in part due to Paul’s alleged constant drinking, and her friends warned her to stay away from him.
In the documentary, her friend Miley Altman said she and Beach would tell Doughty they were going to end things with Paul, saying the couple would break up and get back together over the weekends.
Speaking of her relationship with Paul, Doughty said, “I think our relationship is just something that I’ve really held onto just because when it’s been good, it’s been really good. But when it was bad, it was really bad.’
She said their arguments started to get physical, and it all came to a head one night when they were celebrating Buster Murdaugh’s graduation and Paul started kicking her at a hotel where they were staying.
Doughty noticed that Paul was drunk, and when he told her to stop, he grabbed her by the throat.
“He got on top of me and I just remember him yelling, ‘I told you to shut up,'” she recalled.
“Just hold my throat. I just remember then he hit me in the knee really hard,” she added as she started to cry.
On the day of the boat wreck, Doughty claimed that Paul hit and spat on her.
Doughty’s parents, Bill and Diane, said they had no idea what their daughter was going through but said she was done with him the day of the accident.
“She was done,” her mother said. ‘That was it.’
“She always said Mallory saved her, and that’s really a way she saved her.”
Along with her own inner turmoil, Doughty also offered insight into Paul, saying that he often felt he was a disappointment to his family and that he only got approval from the family’s housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield.
Doughty said Satterfield was “Paul’s second mother” and that the housekeeper told him about “pill bags” that Alex heard.
Alex had abused opioids for years and was often confronted about it by his family, including Paul, just a month before he and Maggie were murdered on June 7, 2021.
Doughty noted that Satterfield’s discovery happened in 2018, the same year she fell to her death at Alex’s hunting lodge.
Doughty also said Paul (left) felt he was a disappointment to his family after his brother Buster (right) pursued a career in law like their father
Most of the first episode of the Netflix series was dedicated to Beach’s death and Paul’s alleged role in it.
Beach, 19, was thrown from the boat when it crashed into Archers Creek Bridge in Beaufort, South Carolina in February 2019. Her body was found five days later.
It is believed that 19-year-old Paul was intoxicated at the time, and brother Buster was accused of lending his younger brother his ID so he could buy alcohol before the crash.
Anthony Cook, Beach’s boyfriend, and his cousin Connor Cook, Miley’s boyfriend, also spoke in the Netflix series.
Connor opened up about his outrage when the Murdaugh family tried to frame him for crashing the crash boat.
“I wanted to beat him to death for not driving,” Connor said, adding that he was relieved when Paul was finally charged with Mallory’s death
At the time of his death, Paul was awaiting trial for three felonies — two for driving under the influence of alcohol and one for causing death and physical harm.
He was charged and released on $50,000 bail.
According to legal documents viewed by , Murdaugh was “highly intoxicated”, “intoxicated” and “aggressive” on February night two years ago when he crashed his boat into a mound on Archer’s Creek.
All six youths on board that night were under the age of 21 and were ejected from the ship. But Beach didn’t make it to shore.
Beach’s mother filed a $50 million creditor’s lawsuit against the estate of Paul and his late mother Maggie, while other survivors of the boating — Doughty and Altman — also filed claims against the $10 million and $5 million Murdaugh estates .
Creditor claims filed against an estate are legal means for claimants to receive money they believe is owed to someone after they die.
Doughty’s friend Mallory Beach (pictured) disapproved of her relationship with Paul. Beach, 19, died when an allegedly drunk Paul crashed his father’s boat in 2019
Pictured: Blood found on Murdaugh yacht after fatal boat accident
Paul was allegedly driving the boat drunk with his friends on board when the boat crashed and everyone was thrown overboard, with everyone except Beach returning to shore
Pictured: Paul (right) walks to the yacht with the group of friends on the night of the crash
Last month, the Mallory Beach family reached a preliminary settlement with Buster Murdaugh in the $50 million lawsuit.
The cost of the settlement was not released, but ABC News 4 reported that it was a “substantial” amount.
The settlement will reportedly mean Buster and his late mother Maggie Murdaugh – who was accused of knowing her son Paul was drunk when he went boating that night – will no longer be named in the lawsuit.
That would leave only Paul and Buster’s father, Alex, and Parker’s Kitchen convenience store (where Paul bought underage alcohol) as names.