Alex and Maggie Murdaugh's marriage was a relationship in crisis as Maggie demanded answers about their dwindling funds and they repeatedly argued over money and his drug use in the weeks before her brutal shooting, DailyMail.com can reveal.
A maelstrom of violence, conspiracy and relentless publicity has swirled since Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, were found shot dead by dog kennels at the family's hunting lodge in South Carolina.
But there has been little real insight into the Murdaugh marriage or family life, until now.
Today, DailyMail.com can lay bare the true extent to which the Murdaugh household was fractured, as an inside source speaking exclusively to us, has told of the scenes that they witnessed.
According to the source, who has known the family for more than three years and spoke on condition of anonymity, 'Their marriage was absolutely on the rocks.'
A source close to the Murdaugh family told DailyMail.com that Alex and Maggie's marriage was in crisis
The couple repeatedly argued over money and his drug use in the weeks before her brutal shooting. According to the source, who has known the family for more than three years and spoke on condition of anonymity, 'Their marriage was absolutely on the rocks'
'Alex and Maggie didn't look at each other like they were married. There was no love lost between them. I never saw them touch or be affectionate to each other.
'It was like he had just checked out of the family, and she was stuck because she had been there so long, but she had started squirreling money away in her closet.
'I don't know if that was because she was planning to leave or because she knew that she didn't always have money to pay the bills.
'She confronted him about money more than once and his response was always the same, 'Leave it to me. I'll figure it out just like I did the last time.'
Maggie, the source told DailyMail.com, had long dealt with her husband's now much reported abuse of prescription pills but, they said, 'I don't think she'd had to worry about money before. That was new for her.'
The source explained, 'I remember one day, it must have been a few months before she was killed, she was crying because she had written a check at a charity luncheon, and it had bounced.
'She thought at first there must have been some mistake but when she found out there wasn't she was mortified and upset.
'I think when Maggie married Alex she didn't have to think about money or where it was coming from and once she started asking questions she definitely picked her battles.'
Murdaugh's response was always the same, they said, 'He'd always tell her not to worry about it, that he'd figure it out, he'd fix it.
'He was just so checked out of the family by the end. He never gave her any real answers that I heard.'
And in a now chilling detail, the source continued, 'One thing that Maggie really loved was to be at the dog kennels. She loved those dogs – there was one in particular that she was very fond of.'
According to the source her routine was familiar to the household, 'She would go down there at least once a week, usually late afternoon or as the sun was setting. It was her thing.'
About one week before her death – and the last time the source saw her alive – they recalled, 'Maggie was saying that with the beginning of the summer she was worried that Paul would start drinking more and partying harder.'
She told them that she feared he had 'inherited his father's problem with addiction,' and her solution was to find ways to spend more time with him.
The source said, 'She asked him to spend more time with her and to help her with the kennels. Maggie said she needed to keep an eye on Paul, so she wanted him to go with her to make sure the dogs were okay.'
According to the source, the dogs were 'nothing more than trackers' to Murdaugh who had little care for them. The source added that Murdaugh rarely went down to the kennels where he found Maggie and Paul's bodies.
Moselle Hunting Lodge where Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were gunned down June 7 at the dog Kennels. About a week before their death Maggie asked Paul to spend more time with her and to help her with the kennels, the source reveals
The source said that Maggie feared their son Paul (left) had 'inherited his father's problem with addiction,' and her solution was to find ways to spend more time with him
According to the source, who has known the family for more than three years, 'Their marriage was absolutely on the rocks'
It was Murdaugh, 53, who called 911 to report the grisly discovery. Maggie had been shot multiple times, including in the back, with a semi-automatic rifle. Paul had been shot twice – in the face and torso – with a shotgun. One of the weapons belonged to the family though investigators have not confirmed which.
It is now three months since the shootings and South Carolina Law Enforcement (SLED) has released scant detail of their investigation.
Maggie was worried her son Paul (pictured in his mugshot) would start heavily partying and drinking during the summer months. When he died he was facing trial for the boating death of Mallory Beach
They have consistently refused to answer DailyMail.com's questions as to whether Murdaugh - who has a 'cast-iron alibi,' according to his attorney - is a person of interest and have declined to publicly clear him if he is not.
According to the source relations between all the family members were strained in the weeks and months before Maggie and Paul were shot.
Murdaugh was increasingly 'reckless' in his drug use, they said, while Maggie expressed growing concerns about money.
She allegedly consulted a forensic accountant to dig into the family finances, while People magazine has reported that she visited a divorce attorney just six weeks before her murder.
As for the sons they could not have been more different in terms of personality, the source said, claiming, 'Buster was very sweet, a real mama's boy, but Paul was a spoiled brat.
'He knew he had money and he made sure everyone else knew it. It was very clear that Paul thought he'd never get in trouble because of who his family was.'
In fact, Paul was facing up to 25 years in prison on three felony counts in relation to a fatal boating accident that happened in February 2019. He was at the wheel, 'drunk and belligerent,' when he ploughed his father's boat into pilings on Archer's Creek.
Five of the six teens on board survived with minor injury but 19-year-old Mallory Beach was flung from the vessel and killed.
The accident and its aftermath had placed yet more strain on the household and its finances.
Beach's mother, Renee, brought a wrongful death suit against Murdaugh and Buster, whose ID Paul used to buy alcohol on the night of the crash.
Murdaugh's life has unraveled at a dizzying rate. He has been charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false police report following an incident September 4 when he claimed he was the victim of a drive-by shooting
Crime scene tape is visible on the stretch of Old Salkehatchie Road where Alex Murdaugh reported having been the victim of a drive by shooting. He is accused of hiring a hitman to kill him
DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that Murdaugh's
