The Murdaugh Murders - to believe Alex didn't shoot his wife and son?

[XelaM]

The trial is currently ongoing in the US and has been the subject of a Netflix documentary The Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal.

It's almost unbelievable this case is real and not some movie script for a tragic thriller. It involves the very powerful Murdaugh family- a dynasty of many generations of prosecutors/lawyers who had almost unlimited power and money. They appeared to be above the law. The father was Alex (the heir to the dynasty) and he was married to Maggie with whom he had two sons- Buster and Paul. The younger son Paul appeared to be as appalling a human being as his father (at least according to the documentary).

Five people are dead who were connected to this family:

*Mallory Beach - a young teenage girl who was on a boat that the younger Murdaugh son (Paul) crashed at night being drunk out of his mind. His father Alex tried to initially claim that someone else was driving the boat but then did absolutely everything to make this case "go away" even after Paul had been charged. Paul never faced any consequences for Mallory's death. Her family were pursuing a civil suit.

*Stephen - the elder son's (Buster's) friend who was found dead in the middle of a road in very odd and suspicious circumstances. No one ever faced any consequences for his death.

*Gloria - the Murdaugh housekeeper who allegedly fell down the stairs at their property. Alex collected a $4.3 million insurance payout for her death (on a policy he had taken out a month earlier) and never paid it to her family.

*And now the younger son Paul and his mother (Alex's wife) Maggie were found shot dead on their property with two different firearms.

Alex has been charged with the murders of his son and wife (in addition to having been found to have embezzled huge funds from his law firm and his clients).

But I just don't understand how someone who was so concerned with protecting the family dynasty and whitewashing his son of any responsibility for Mallory's death- why would he shoot the same son two years later? The motive that the prosecution put forward was that he tried to gain sympathy when he was being prosecuted for embezzlement and trying to delay Mallory's family's civil suit. I just don't understand that this is a strong enough motivation for shooting his son?

I have been vaguely following this and am baffled too. Men kill their wives all the time but not their sons.

This has now reached Netflix .

I just watched the Netflix today. What was the motive ? Drugs?

And where did all the money go?

He is 100% guilty. That world is so insular, such a bubble, he felt insulated by arrogance and hubris. Nasty, nasty piece of work. That poor housekeeper’s family. Terrible.

Sleazy and disgusting family the lot of them. Alex deserves to rot in prison.

I can't see how he didn't do it. The circumstantial evidence and his past credibility are overwhelming.

Exactly

I normally hate the Daily Fail but they provide a good summary of the case here:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11786623/amp/The-trial-transfixing-America-Did-millionaire-Alex-Murdaugh-shoot-wife-son-dead.html

I can’t see how he is innocent whatsoever.

Because a powerful and hubristic man is ESPECIALLY likely to act so to his nearest and dearest?

My rule is that people don't have exceptions for their bad behaviour. If they do it to other people, they will do it to you under the right circumstances.

I definitely think he did it, he has lied so much throughout, I can’t see it being anyone else. He’s going for an Oscar with his performance testifying with the fake tears and cringy nicknames like ‘paw paw’ 🙄

I've actually been watching the trial,& the prosecution has proved very little never mind murder,the investigation was terrible,one investigator lied to the grand jury that indicted him about the blood spatter evidence,they left evidence behind,walked all over the crime scene with no protective gear on,let water fall onto the bodies,it was farcical.
He has been testifying the last few days & honestly his love for his family shines through. Yes he's a terrible human for his financial crimes & deserves punishment for that but that is not this & it's what the state is hanging it all on. Even if convicted,he has plenty of grounds for appeal, according to lawyers on You tube
The standard is beyond a reasonable doubt & there is plenty of doubt.

Straight out of Grisham. That Daily Fail article is a good summary. That assault rifle is so horrific. Can you imagine shooting your son with that as a distraction? It's just incredible.

Men quite frequently kill their kids. Google 'family annihilation'.

The only unusual feature here is that one son was left alive - but maybe something went wrong with the original plan?

It’s on Discovery + thats where i watched it

The father has evil eyes I think

@Fridaysgirl17
i agree, I watched some of his evidence earlier and was surprised to find him credible. Perhaps it’s all an act

Familiar with family annihilation of course, but this is not that. This is a planned cold-blooded murder for gain.
Perhaps he left the other kid alive so he could testify about what a good dad he was. Ugh.

And I think this might be a problem.

Doesn't mean he didn't do it though.

So this is from today - Alex Murdaugh has admitted being at the scene of the murders, the dog kennels, which he had previously denied. It came to light after prosecutors found a video of the dogs taken by his son 'about 4 minutes before he died' where Alex's voice can be heard talking to the dogs off camera.

So now we know that he was with his wife and son minutes before they were shot to death, and has lied about it for the past 20 months.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/24/alex-murdaugh-trial-testimony

Innocent people don't lie. And that is powerful circumstantial evidence that he was involved in their deaths.

I imagine his motive was either an insurance payout (like his poor housekeeper) or to stop the civil case against his son going anywhere by killing him. Or just to stop all the drugs and embezzlement stuff from coming to light?

The overwhelming majority of female murder victims are killed by a man they are in a relationship with. It's just like poor Emma Pattinson and Lettie, except WAY more obvious red flags with Alex Murdaugh.

Classic Netflix documentary roping in multiple plot lines and making absolutely zero credible conclusions.

I wondered why I was recognising the Murdaugh name. I've just finished watching a doc recently on
ITVx - The Speedboat Killer - victim Mallory Beach

Of course he did it. Even tried to fake his own shooting and set up that bloke.

I was stuck with this. Can see he had means and opportunity but didn't get the motive mind you he did alot of weird stuff after.

Popping my armchair deceive hat on, they said it was 2 different murder weapons, maybe son lost it whilst drunk and killed the mum and dad killed him in revenge/ self defence.

Or one of them knew something about the previous murders and threatened to go to the police - the son doted on the nanny maybe found out.

We could come up with a lot of theories I bet.

Only on episode two but have vaguely followed the news.

My thoughts are:
I think Alex did it and didn’t want to kill Buster because he was a much better heir to the dynasty whereas Paul was causing trouble for the family to clean up

Didn’t Alex get shot himself a few months later? (Although I thought they had proved he shot himself but staged it like it was a hitman)

What I don’t really understand is why Buster is supporting his dad? Does he truly believe he didn’t do it or is he just trying to save the last of his family unit?

He lies to get out of a lie, he can’t keep his story straight and yesterday admitted to being at the kennels after lying about it since the murders. He’s as guilty as it gets!!

Yes, I saw that they placed him near the scene of death. I just don't get it. Why?! Why would he shoot his son at point blank range? He tried so hard to make all of his son's problems "disappear". How could he have just shot him in cold blood seemingly for no reason?! Unless he was in some drug-induced state of psychosis