A South Carolina man and his mother were recently shot and killed, and he left behind a fraught recent history. Paul Murdaugh, 22, and Maggie Murdaugh, 52, were found dead near dog kennels at the family’s property by Islandton last Monday, according to The Associated Press. This residence was a hunting lodge reportedly owned by the mother.
Mallory Beach died in a February 2019 boat crash. Two years later Paul Murdaugh, the man charged in her death, was killed. What happened during those two years? https://t.co/JPTxTbRvGp
— Rock Hill Herald (@RHHerald) June 10, 2021
No suspects have been named in what is being investigated as a double homicide. Investigators have offered no alleged motives. Paul Murdaugh faced a felony trial over the 2019 death of 19-year-old Mallory Beach, who died in a boating crash. His family has also been sued over this fatal incident. But authorities have not alleged a connection between the recent killings and Beach’s death.
The incident caught attention in the area, where Murdaugh men have held the position of 14th Circuit Solicitor–the area’s top prosecutor–for almost a century. Paul Murdaugh’s paternal grandfather Randolph Murdaugh III, who last held the position and retired in 2005, died Thursday. The 81-year-old was sick, said a family source cited by WJCL. He was in intensive care, said State Sen. Sen. Margie Bright Matthews (D-District 45) on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.
Paul’s father Alex Murdaugh is a partner in the family law firm and also a part-time prosecutor. That firm of Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth & Detrick released a statement, according to WIS.
“The Murdaugh family and PMPED wish to thank everyone for the many calls and condolences in the aftermath of the deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh,” they wrote. “We ask for your continued patience and prayers through this tragic time.”
The father reportedly owned the boat connected to Beach’s death.
According to authorities, six people were flung from that boat on a night in February 2019 after it crashed into a piling under a bridge. Beach was found dead a week later. The five survivors were “grossly intoxicated,” police said. None of them, however, took sobriety tests. One of those people was Paul Murdaugh, who ended up being charged with one count of boating under the influence causing a death, and two counts of boating under the influence causing great bodily injury. Beach’s mother Renee Beach sued members of the Murdaugh family over the underage drinking.
Mallory Beach’s family expressed condolences in the wake of the shooting deaths.
“The Beach family extends its deepest and warmest sympathies to the Murdaugh family during this terrible time,” they said in a statement, according to WIS. “Having suffered the devastating loss of our daughter, the family prays that the Murdaughs can find some level of peace from this tragic loss. They would like the family and the community to know that their thoughts and continued prayers are with the Murdaughs. It is their most sincere hope that someone will come forward and cooperate with authorities so that the perpetrator of these senseless crimes can be brought to justice.”
[Screengrab via WJCL]
