The jury deciding the fate of Alex Murdaugh returned a swift and sure verdict on Thursday – but they heard no damning evidence against the disgraced legal scion and his propensity for violence.
Murdaugh allegedly beat and raped a prostitute who claims he hired her from a sex trafficking ring that looked after “mayors, judges, attorneys, prosecutors and police officers” – evidence never heard by the jury.
Lindsey Edwards, 28, made the explosive allegations in a video interview with a South Carolina news site in August.
The mother-of-four, who says she was a victim of sex trafficking while working as a pole dancer, recalled multiple incidents in late 2014 or early 2015 when she was allegedly forced to have sex with Murdaugh, and several violent ones Attacked by the lawyer, who was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday.
Prosecutors told they will now bring more than 100 more charges against Murdaugh, including financial crimes, a life insurance scheme involving assisted suicide and obstruction of justice. He is also threatened with investigations into drug trafficking.
However, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office declined to comment on the status of a reported investigation into Edwards’ claims of four brutal beatings and rapes by the disgraced legal scion and his ties to the sex trafficking ring, with deep ties to law enforcement Edwards alleges.
Lindsey Edwards, 28, worked as a stripper and claimed she was forced into prostitution, hired for sex by Alex Murdaugh and abused by him
Edwards said her “madam” took her and several other girls to a private party at a beach house in late 2014 or early 2015, where she met Murdaugh. “He pulled clumps of hair out of my head,” she said of Murdaugh
On August 2, Fit News published an interview with Edwards and uploaded it to YouTube, in which she tearfully shared the horrific story.
Her report was never shown to the jury in Murdaugh’s case after the judge ruled last month that presenting evidence of his infidelity would be too confusing.
Murdaugh’s sister-in-law, Marion Proctor, told the judge she believes he cheated on her sister 15 years ago – and that her sister raised the issue around the time of the murders. “She didn’t think anyone else was going on, it just bothered her,” Proctor said.
The judge allowed her to testify but did not allow the jury to learn about the alleged infidelity.
Following his sentencing on Thursday, Murdaugh now faces at least five separate federal investigations, including a financial crimes investigation into fraud against customers and employees, charges of trafficking oxycodone and meth, obstruction of justice in the investigation into his son Paul’s boating accident in which 19 people died. year old Mallory Beach.
“We intend to pursue the other charges pending against Alex Murdaugh. However, there are currently no sex trafficking or sexual assault charges against him. We cannot confirm anything and certainly cannot comment on what may or may not be under investigation,” South Carolina Attorney General spokesman Robert Kittle told .
“Apart from the four counts on which he was just convicted, the state grand jury has 99 financial charges pending against him and three local charges related to the roadside incident: conspiracy, false payment request and filing a false police report.”
In an interview with Fits News founder Will Folk last August, Edwards said her “Madame” took her and several other girls to a private party at a beach house on the Isle of Palms in late 2014 or early 2015, where they met Murdaugh met.
“It was apparently a men’s weekend or something. There was a bunch of guys drinking and doing drugs. They had a fire on the deck and ate food and just hung out,” she said.
“I think for the first hour that we were there we were taking shots, doing cocaine, smoking weed, hanging out by the fire and just talking and getting to know each other.
“That’s where I met Alex Murdaugh.
“There were at least enough girls for everyone that was there,” she told Folk. “They had their pick from the crowd between the girls. He’s attached to me. He was very nice, very gentlemanly at first,” she said.
He told her he was a personal injury attorney from Hampton, South Carolina.
“When it came time to actually operate it, my expectations were still pretty high. I said okay, shouldn’t be that bad, I’ve done that a good hundred dozen times at this point. He seemed like a really nice person.
But Edwards said that was the beginning of the nightmare.
“You could just see his whole personality changing,” she said. “You could see it in his eyes. Maybe it was the cocaine and all. His pupils dilated so much that his eyes were almost completely black.
“I was severely choked with both hands and pinned to the bed at my throat,” she said. “It was to the point where I couldn’t breathe anymore.
“I passed out, I saw dots, I saw stars. I slapped and scratched his wrist as much as I could to get him to stop because at that moment I thought I was going to die.
“It was also while he was being forcibly penetrated. As soon as he was done, I got up and ran out as fast as I could, even completely naked.”
A few weeks later, unbeknownst to Edward, she was offered another job with Murdaugh at a hotel in North Charleston.
Edwards, a mother of four, said she was sex trafficked while working as a pole dancer. She said she finally decided to come forward after recognizing Murdaugh during his murder investigation
Edwards posted a video showing her pole dancing on her TikTok page. “I was severely choked with both hands and pinned to the bed at my throat,” she said. “It was to the point that I couldn’t breathe”
Edwards claimed cops would get free sessions with prostitutes if they warned the ring about sex trafficking stings and that their pimp threatened them with their powerful connections. Edwards is pictured in a snap from her TikTok
She said this time he pulled strands of hair out of my head.
“I had bald patches on the back of my head. The hair there is still taking a while to grow back.”
Just a few days later she claimed the madam had set her up with Murdaugh again.
“I still had handprints around my neck that I covered up with makeup,” she said.
Edwards said she feared for her life and managed to escape by smuggling her phone with her and calling a cab.
But five hours later, her captors found her at home, dragged her out, and she was “forced to go back and serve Murdaugh,” she said.
“He was even more pissed off at the time,” she told Fit News. “My hair is tearing and I’m choking. If he didn’t choke me, I would have a washcloth shoved in my mouth and severely slapped in the face for a good 20-30 minutes.
Edwards said that when she asked her pimp why she let Murdaugh hit her, the woman told her he was a “personal friend.”
Maggie, Paul, Alex and Buster Murdaugh with their dog Bubba. Alex was found guilty of the murders of Maggie and Paul on Thursday
Murdaugh is pictured at Friday’s sentencing hearing. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of his wife and son
On August 2, Fit News published an interview with Edwards and uploaded it to YouTube, in which she tearfully shared the horrific story
Edwards said she finally decided to come forward after recognizing Murdaugh amid his murder investigation and hoped she could use the notoriety to speak up for women’s reproductive rights, an issue close to her heart .
She told Fits News she didn’t want any money for her story and that any payout from a potential civil lawsuit would go to a charity for victims of human trafficking.
“I want to open a foundation for victims of human trafficking so that they can start their lives anew and not have to fight tooth and nail like I did to get to where I am today,” she said.
Edwards’ attorney, former state legislator Mandy Powers Norrell, previously confirmed that the mother-of-four spent hours with officers from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) to tell her story.
SLED did not respond to requests for comment on the status of its investigation this week.