Alex Murdaugh, 53, has been investigated by law enforcement officials ‘from the get-go’ as part of the probe into the June 7 double-murder of wife Maggie, 52, and their son, Paul, according to attorney Jim Griffin
The South Carolina legal heir who hired a hit man to kill him in a botched suicide plot so that his child could collect on a life insurance policy is a person of interest in the slayings of his wife and 22-year-old son, his lawyer confirmed.
Alex Murdaugh, 53, has been investigated by law enforcement officials ‘from the get-go’ as part of the probe into the June 7 double-murder of wife Maggie, 52, and their son, Paul, according to Jim Griffin.
Griffin, a lawyer representing Alex Murdaugh, made the revelation to The Daily Beast on Wednesday.
But the attorney denies that his client had anything to do with the killings. He says Alex Murdaugh was visiting his mother, who is stricken with dementia, at the time of the killings and ‘had no motive to kill them.’
'You would think that if Alex was the one who did it, that SLED (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) would have been able to establish that pretty easily that night,' Griffin said.
'You would think they would have searched his house and found blood somewhere.
'You would think they would have found the murder weapons on the property.
'You would think they would come up with something to link Alex to the murders, forensically or independent evidence.
'To my knowledge, they have not done that.'
DailyMail.com reported on Tuesday that the Murdaughs' 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.
According to a 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,' the source said.
'There was no love lost between them. I never saw them touch or be affectionate to each other.'
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.
Murdaugh's wife, Maggie (far right), and son Paul (left) were killed on June 7, shot multiple times at the family’s sprawling estate in Islandton, South Carolina. No one's been arrested in their deaths, which brought scrutiny into every nook of Murdaugh’s life
Murdaugh is seen above at a bond hearing in Varnville, South Carolina on September 16
'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.'
Griffin acknowledged that investigators ‘are not sharing information but I believe if they had that [information] they would have charged Alex and they have not charged him.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to SLED for comment.
Alex Murdaugh is currently in out-of-state drug rehab after being charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy, and filing a false police report. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years behind bars.
Murdaugh's wife, Maggie, and son Paul were killed June 7, shot multiple times at the family’s sprawling estate in Islandton, South Carolina.
No one's been arrested in their deaths, which brought scrutiny into every nook of Murdaugh’s life.
A source who has known the family for years told DailyMail.com on Tuesday: 'Their marriage was absolutely on the rocks'
In July, SLED released the 911 call where Murdaugh reported that he found his wife and son shot to death.
The seven-minute 911 call didn't include much new information about the deaths of Maggie and Paul.
Alex Murdaugh immediately identified himself on the 911 call and told the operator his 'wife and child have been shot' near dog kennels on his property.
'I've been up to it now. It's bad,' Murdaugh said.
During the 911 call, dogs could be heard barking in the background and Murdaugh sounded deeply upset and agitated.
He told the operator several times that neither his son or wife was breathing.
The operator asked Murdaugh if anything was out of place. There was a brief pause before he answered 'not particularly, really. No ma’am.'
Murdaugh has said he found the bodies after returning home from visiting his ill father for several hours.
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
Griffin said he reviewed his client’s text messages with his wife and that there were no signs of a ‘domestic dispute.’
‘He loved his wife. He loved his son. The murders were done in the most brutal fashion,’ Griffin told The Daily Beast.
He added: 'He didn't do it. I feel strongly that he didn’t do it.
'Nobody wants to solve these murders as much as Alex.'
Griffin said that members of his legal team are working to ‘peel back more layers of this onion’ to see if someone else may have had a motive to harm Murdaugh and his family.
Just weeks after the murders, police say that Murdaugh was found wounded from a gunshot on the side of a road in a rural part of the state.
Murdaugh's lawyers said that he was suffering from an addiction to drugs when he hired a former client, Curtis 'Eddie' Smith, to shoot him dead.
The goal was to get his surviving son a $10 million life insurance benefit, state police said. But the shot from a .38 caliber revolver only grazed his head.
At the time of his death, Paul Murdaugh was awaiting trial on a charge of boating under the influence causing death in a February 2019 crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach.
Whether local law enforcement agencies tried to obstruct the investigation into the boating death is also being reviewed by state officials.
Murdaugh is a member of a prominent legal family in the southern part of South Carolina.
His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all elected solicitors in the area but are no longer in office.
The man charged with shooting Murdaugh is Smith, a former client from a workplace accident case.
Smith said they became friends, and he was stunned to find himself dismissed as a callous drug dealer by Murdaugh's lawyers.
The day before the botched murder-for-hire scheme, Murdaugh was fired by the PMPED law firm founded by his family after the firm determined he took money.
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
Smith claimed he knew nothing about the plot to kill Murdaugh for a multi-million-dollar insurance windfall until he met him by the side of a road and was told 'I want you to shoot me in the head'.
Smith told the The New York Times that Murdaugh - who is one of his distant cousins - was accidentally shot when he tried to wrestle the gun from him to stop the scandal-hit lawyer from killing himself.
Smith denied conspiring with Murdaugh and has shared how bitter he feels after was slapped with charges for allegedly trying to save the man he 'loved like a brother.'
'I don't know if betrayed is even the word for it,' he said.
'I thought of him as a brother, you know, and loved him like a brother. And I would've done almost anything for him. Almost.'
Curtis Edward Smith, 61, (in mug) claimed he knew nothing about the plot to kill Alex Murdaugh until he met him by the side of a road on September 4
The 61-year-old, who has been accused of being Murdaugh's opioid dealer, said he got a phone call from Murdaugh on the morning of September 4 asking him to drive in his work truck to meet him in Hampton.
Murdaugh didn't tell Smith the reason for the meeting, Smith said, but he went anyway.
Smith said he arrived at the location and Murdaugh drove past, honking his horn for him to follow in his vehicle.
When they arrived along a rural road, Murdaugh pulled over at the side of the road so Smith did the same, he said.
Smith claimed that it was only then that he learned about Murdaugh's reason for their meeting.
Murdaugh allegedly got out a loaded gun and asked Smith to shoot him in the
