the public face of the company is this is a wonderful partnership. but behind the scenes it's impossible. >> in the u.s. they think i'm the liberal tree hugger. >> but rupert suggests something stunning, something that will forever change the face of his empire. >> and lachlan is furious. and he says if you take another phone call on this deal you'll no longer have a son. >> this will decide what they've all been vying for, succession for the company. >> announcer: the following is a cnn special report. 911.

what is your emergency? >> this is alec murdaugh. i need the police and ambulance immediately. >> alex murdaugh. >> double murder mystery. >> soon to be on trial. >> alec murdaugh facing charges accused of killing his wife and son. >> this trial will be one of the most watched since o.j. >> for the first time those closely tied to this shocking story sit down together. >> every lawyer at this table is on trial. >> it's a good feeling to be conn conn connected to the power. >> until it comes back to bite you. >> powerful family. series of unsolved killing. >> how many families do you know that have five dead bodies in their orbit? >> murdaugh's housekeeper died in 2018 in a slip and fall at murdaugh's home. >> he used gloria's death to enrich himself. >> 19-year-old steven smith was found dead on the side of a road. >> i want justice.

good evening. i'm randi kaye. as alex murdaugh awaits his fate behind bars, many here in south carolina and around the country are left with so many questions. questions those close to the alleged crimes which include financial fraud and murder have been trying to answer. so tonight for the first time alex murdaugh's victims and alleged victims, their lawyers and local reporters who for years have been covering every detail of this case, come together to talk about the man who changed their lives forever and the mystery that has shaken this community. >> you're all brought together by really one man. but some of you, you do know each other, right? from -- >> yes. >> our families worked together or went to school together. there's always a connection. >> always a connection some way. yes. >> my father owned a grocery

store for 54 years, which everyone came to that grocery store. that's what put me in the middle to be able to know everyone. >> we call him jj. >> jordan jinx, ginger harriet and sandy smith grew up in the rural county of hampton, south carolina. less than 3,000 people live in the town of hampton. >> one thing about hampton also, genuine people live there. >> all your friends' children come to your house and they call you mom. >> right. >> hampton is also the hometown of alex murdaugh. what was alex murdaugh like as a young boy? >> kind of rough. but a typical friend. we were both interested in hunting and fishing and stuff like that. >> we were kids. i mean, we went all through school together. i just thought he was alex. he was loud and he was just alex. >> alex, he just seemed arrogant and conceited and like i'm

better than you. >> you stayed friendly or in touch with him over the years? >> absolutely. i got wedding gifts from him. i gave him gifts. i went out of town and stuff he liked, i knew it, i brought it back. we were friends. i trusted him. >> alex murdaugh wasn't just a resident of hampton. alex's great grandfather, grandfather and father, randolph murdaugh iii, had all been the county's district attorneys or what they call solicitors. >> being a solicitor in south carolina is one of the most powerful positions in our legal system. >> mandy matney, john munk, and liz farrell are all locke local journalists. >> people do have trouble finding lawyers here because of the way the legal system works. you have to be careful about who you hire sometimes because of who they might be associated with. >> over a century ago alex's great grandfather, a solicitor,

also started a local law firm, formally called peters, murdaugh, parker, eltsroth, & dietrich, or pmped for short. >> the sfirm >> the firm is a p law firm. it specializes in wrongful death, medical malpractice, suing big corporations on behalf of victims. >> monk has been reporting in south carolina for nearly 50 years. >> because the murdaughs know pretty much everybody in that county, they could count on getting juries that had the reputation of siding with them in a big way. >> something that people don't understand about pmped and their control over hampton county, most names i've looked up in the hampton county public index, so many of them have lawsuits connected to pmped. everybody has a cousin who has gotten a lot of money from calling pmped and them handling a car accident, for instance. i've heard that a million times.

>> it created a loyalty. >> yeah, it creates a loyalty and it creates a culture of silence basically. >> for sure. >> alex murdaugh, a lawyer himself, worked at his family's law firm, pmped, since he graduated law school back in 1994. mike hemlep, justin bamburg, joe mccullough, and eric bland are all local litigators. >> all four of you graduated from the university of south carolina school of law, correct? >> yes. >> because alex murdaugh also graduate from the same school. >> randy and i graduated together. >> his brother. >> yes, his brother. >> growing up, the murdaughs even over in bamberg county, people knew who they were. >> randi, i have stories i'll tell you. i was talking to a lawyer here in town who said his old law partner, who was a big political figure here in touwn, got a cal one day from old buster. >> buster is the nickname of

alex murdaugh's grandfather, a solicitor who served for 46 years. >> buster said, counselor, i know you can help me out here, my boy's gotten into some trouble and needs to be gotten out of it and i know you can handle it. so the lawyer jumped right on it and within an hour he'd made the calls like we could do in the good old days and make problems go away. and he called buster back and he said solicitor, i've got it taken care of, it's all gone. he said what do i owe you? he said solicitor, i don't need to be paid, you know, this is a favor. and he said buster then said to him, "well, you know, counselor, if you ever need to kill a man, you bring him to hampton county." and whether that was true or false, maybe a joke, that was the reputation and that is what that community has dealt with for decades.

>> that law firm did a great deal for hampton county residents. but it doesn't give that law firm the right to have so much power to suppress law enforcement. >> that's what you think is going on here? >> yeah. if the murdaugh family did something wrong, they're guilty. we ain't playing on a level playing field when it comes to hampton county and the murdaugh family. >> exactly. >> your status in an environment, a town, should not exclude you from the law. >> right. >> you should -- if you do wrong, you should be punished like anyone else. >> yeah, i like being connected to the power for 50 years. i could pick up the phone if somebody is bothering me. >> until it comes back to bite you? >> exactly. >> pmped, now named parker law, did not respond to cnn's request

for comment. the state grand jury has indicted murdaugh on about 90 charges or so. in terms of schemes to defraud victims totaling nearly $8.8 million. or so. he has been indicted on the two counts of murder in connection with the deaths of his wife and son. as lawyers practicing for quite some time in this state, what do you make of that? >> proud. proud of our legal system. proud of our attorney general. proud of our judges. >> i want to add something. i am not proud. i am angry. i'm very angry. you asked how we feel about this? alex threw all of us under the bus. the entire world is looking at south carolina, and every lawyer at this table is on trial because of greed and avarice. i represent the family of a 19-year-old kid who was poor, who was brutally murdered and left on the side of the road. who gave a crap about that in 2015?

>> when we return -- >> they beat him to death. >> now we know, there's missing evidence. >> a look inside the five mysterious deaths. >> i heard right after the murders that there was something on alex's shirt. >> all circling alex's orbit. >> there ain't no allegedly. this is what happened.

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maggie and alex murdaugh married in august of 1993. around that time, they had two kids, buster and their youngest son paul. that's when they met gloria satterfield. >> we grew up close. >> ginger is gloria's younger sister. how close was gloria -- >> very much. she baby-sat for them before she started doing housekeeping. paul was about 13 months old. he was just starting to walk. she would wear skirts all the time and he would walk around and hold her skirt while she was doing the housework and stuff. >> she pretty much raised him, him and buster. she thought the world of maggie. >> double murder mystery. this morning, investigators trying to find who killed two members of one of south carolina's most prominent legal families. >> what about the murder of

maggie and paul? what is it that has surprised you the most? what still shocks you? >> liz was one of the first people that called me that morning. speechless, absolutely. >> unbelievable. >> i started making calls because i was worried that right from that moment that already this is being covered up. >> the coroner's office tells us preliminary results show both died from gunshot wounds. >> there were many thoughts that filled my mind. a mother and her 22-year-old son shot to death with two different weapons? apparently a shotgun and some sort of ar-15. you're thinking two people must have done it, right? so it became a big whodunit. maybe alex did it. but if alex did it, why did he use two guns? >> the phone kept me up at night? what is it with maggie's phone? how does that fit into all of this? >> john, you had the first story

that revealed maggie's cell phone had been found in the woods? >> right. about a half a mile away from the mozelle estate. >> mozelle is what they call the 1700-acre hunting property where the murdaughs had a home. >> it added to the strangeness. why should somebody -- a killer apparently -- take the cell phone and drop it a half a mile away or a mile away? by the side of the road. >> the feeling in the community, whoever killed the murdaughs didn't end up here by accident or randomly. >> crimes like this that don't involve robbery statistically come back to a family member. >> passionate crime. >> they were killed in a hail of bullets, each of them. so that does suggest the passion that you mentioned. >> 911. what's your emergency? >> this is alex murdaugh. >> he says he showed up at their property in mozelle and called 911 and found his wife and son bleeding. he reported them outside the dog

kennels. >> the number one thing that stood out to me was the first time hearing the 911 call. the moment you call 911 and hit send on your phone, even though no one has answered and it's just ringing, it's recording on the dispatch end. and the phone is dead silent. and you can hear the dogs barking in the background. and as soon as dispatch answers, it's this panicked alex. >> hampton county 911. what is your emergency? >> this is alex murdaugh. >> i never knew panic could get cut on and off. >> let the blubbering begin. >> i need the police immediately. my wife and child have been shot badly. >> that was so weird to me.

>> you are saying he would have been panicked before that, before it started -- before anybody picked up the line. >> i hadn't picked up on that. >> he would be hyperventilating. >> evidence obtained by the state also allegedly places alex, maggie and paul murdaugh together at the scene of the crime more than an hour before alex called 911. some of the headlines that i could share from the two of you, high velocity impact spatter connects alex to time and place of murders. that was in april of 2022. maggie wasn't staying with alex at the time. sources say alex lured maggie to mozelle. this is all from your reporting. >> i heard right after the murders that there was something on alex's shirt. and it was significant. >> they may be looking at evidence, including the potential of blood spatter on murdaugh's clothing. >> the only body fluid that an investigator would find significant would be something that was small and would have come from a weapon. >> spatter is what actually puts him at the scene at the time of the killing. >> what he had on him. >> if it's true. >> allegedly was something that you could have only gotten from one position.

>> i would just note with great respect and as a devil's advocate that those assertions, which may be true, have yet to be tested in a court of law with alex's lawyers, who are some of the best in south carolina. >> blood spatter? all i know about blood spatter is what i read in some blog. i've never seen any blood spatter evidence. >> the unsolved double killings, just one of the many twists and turns deepening questions surrounding this powerful family. >> one of the things that people outside of south carolina don't understand about this entire story is somebody may read about it and they may watch cnn and learn about it and feel like this happened quickly. it did not. this was a slow burn. it was like there was no bottom to the hole that was being dug. >> alex, he's a guy that embodies the old saying if

you're going through hell just keep on going. >> it's the onion you keep peeling. you never get to the core. >> right. >> mike hemlep is the attorney for sandy smith. sandy's son, 19-year-old steven smith, was found lying in the middle of a hampton county road in july of 2015. >> the highway patrol's incident report notes that he suffered from blunt force trauma to the head. >> his death was initially deemed by the south carolina law enforcement division, or s.l.e.d., as a hit and run. steven's case, it was cold for quite some time, and now s.l.e.d. is taking another look at it because of what they say was something that was discovered after the double murder of maggie and paul murdaugh, which is really interesting. >> yeah. because it was like mind-blowing. and i'd been begging them. you know? nobody returned my call. >> coming up -- >> you're talking about a young man who's homosexual. you're talking about a small southern town.

it's taboo. somebody didn't like it. >> and later -- >> 911. what is your emergency? >> my housekeeper has fallen and her head is bleeding. i cannot get her up. >> the housekeeper for the murdaugh family died after suffering some type of fall at the murdaugh home. >> to learn that he used gloria's death to enrich himself is horrible. you do? ♪ what will you change? ♪ will you make something better? ♪ will you create something entirely new? ♪ our dell technologies advisors provide you with the tools and expertise you need to do incredible things. because we believe there's an innovator in all of us.

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share a little bit about your son. >> i'm sorry you missed the opportunity to meet him. because he was very vibrant. you could have a bad day and all he had to do was walk in the room and say something, and it was like, your mood is gone because you couldn't stop laughing or smiling. >> he would light up a room. >> he had plans and dreams. >> yes. he started at a tech school to become a nurse. >> did you know the murdaugh family? >> stephen played little league one year and randolph and alex were his coach.

you know, and that's how i met them. and stephen went to school with buster. >> buster is alex murdaugh's eldest son. the stephen smith case was reopened by s.l.e.d. as a result of something that was found at the double murder scene for maggie and paul murdaugh. >> so stephen died. and he was found july 7th of 2015. rumors were everywhere. everywhere. this is a small county. it's impossible that people didn't know what happened. people talk. >> what the talk has always been was that stephen had some sort of a relationship with a murdaugh. and that was going to get out. >> so they took him out? >> think how courageous stephen was. you're talking about a young man who is homosexual, who isn't hiding it, is very proud of who he is. you're talking about a small

southern town. >> it's taboo. >> it's taboo. and he's wearing it proud. and somebody didn't like it. it clearly had to have been related to his sexuality. don't you believe, mike? >> 100%. 100%. south carolina and wyoming are the only two states that have no hate crimes law. >> we have have no hate crimes law? >> no. we can't get one passed. and we have been trying and begging and fighting. >> you're kidding me. >> no. >> what happened to stephen smith? >> there's so much we don't know. we know some bare bones facts. >> hampton county 911. where is your emergency? >> we know he was found at 4:00 in the morning on sandy run road in hampton. he was about a mile from his car. he had died of horrific blunt force trauma to his head. his skull was fractured. his wallet was in his car.

he had his cell phone. and he was not that far from his father's house, where he lived. his twin sister stefanie was also at home. i was a prosecutor for a long time. i have prosecuted cases of people having been hit by cars. this is not the scene of a hit and run. there was no debris. >> there was no debris. lower extremities, nothing was broken. and his loosely tied sneakers were on his feet? >> yes. >> they would have been blown off. >> if it was a ahit and run case. >> every hit and run case i have ever seen, shoes blow off. >> they did not have their shoes on. >> a hit and run is extraordinarily violent. extraordinarily violent. he had some abrasions but not significant. >> what do you remember about that night and when you learned what had happened to your son? >> i was on my way to work. and i heard on the big dog radio

that they had found a body in the road on sandy run and joe miley. and i was like oh gosh, my kids live on joe miley. so i called joel's house. >> joel was stephen's father. >> stefanie answered. i said are y'all okay? i heard something happened down the road. they found a body. and she said, "mom, did stephen spend the night at your house last night?" i said no. and then i knew. i knew it was him. >> is that a mother's instinct? >> oh, yes. yes. because stephen was my baby. so we were always close. >> i know that soon after randy murdaugh had called. randy is alex murdaugh's brother. >> when i was on the phone with joel, he said, let me put you on hold because randy murdaugh is calling. he said, randy wants to take be stephen's case pro bono.

and i said what case? because they said it was a hit and run. >> did you think that call from randy murdaugh was strange? >> yes. it made no sense to me. >> yeah. >> really, there was no case yet. >> yeah, you didn't know it was a case yet. >> his law office has said he didn't call -- he didn't know stephen had died until after the funeral. >> excuse me, but alex murdaugh and randy murdaugh were standing at the crime scene. >> oh, wow. >> they were at the crime scene after stephen's body was moved, randy murdaugh called and asked, was that you that just passed by? i said, yeah. he said i wish you would have stopped so i could have met you. >> wow. >> at the crime scene. >> yeah. >> his office says that he never offered to represent the family in any way. >> well, if you can believe anything a murdaugh says. >> s.l.e.d. has released some of the interrogations and interviews regarding stephen's

case to the media. >> i don't feel like it's a hit and run. i've looked at the body itself. >> a lot of people seem a little nervous to say the name murdaugh. >> the lead investigator at the time even voiced his doubts about this being a hit and run. >> typically, you don't see the highway patrol working a murder. and that's what this is. >> wow. >> that was the lead investigator at the time. yet, you still don't have answers and you still don't know who did this. >> right. >> this is either an extreme amount of corruption from very powerful people who were able to pull all of these strings, or everybody involved in this did not do their job, and that is very scary for the justice system. both sides, it's scary. >> what do you believe happened to your son stephen? >> i feel like they beat him to death because the only damage was to his head. and he did have some defense wounds. he had a dislocated shoulder.

it had to be somebody he knew to put his body like he was walking home. >> i mean, my heart goes out to her. it's just hard to believe. >> it's been seven years and stephen's case is still unsolved. his mother's attorney has yet to bring a case against the murdaugh family. >> there's no fact that i can point to other than talk, rumors, speculation and the connection of s.l.e.d. reopening the case at moselle. there's nothing connected to the murdaughs. and i'll tell you one other thing. there are people right now in hampton who know what happened. and they need to come forward. >> sandy lost her son but she is also lost her own community. because people were just turning their backs saying, we can't say anything.

>> i want justice for my son. >> you deserve it. >> you deserve it. you do. >> that's all i want. >> yes. >> you'll get it. >> oh, yeah. one step closer. >> mr. murdaugh -- >> when we return -- >> i didn't think they were in our money. >> he forged my name. >> we review some of the 90 financial fraud charges alex murdaugh is facing. >> to learn that he used gloria's death to enrich himself is horrible. >> 911. where is your emergency? >> and later -- >> we were in a boat crash -- >> the tragic death of 19-year-old mallory beach. >> there was an effort by the murdaugh family to influence law enforcement. and now we know there's missing evidence. ♪fall into me and i'll catch you darling♪ ♪we'll dance in the street♪ ♪

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tell me about gloria. >> gloria was special. everyone referred to her as the murdaughs' housekeeper. she was more than that. she was a sister. she was a mother. she was loved by all of us. >> 911. where is your emergency? >> my housekeeper has fallen and her head is bleeding. i cannot get her up. >> according to alex murdaugh,

in february of 2018 gloria was picking up a check at his home when the murdaughs' four dogs tripped her and she fell down their front porch steps. >> i believe she maybe hit her head and maybe has a concussion or something. >> do you know what her name is? >> gloria satterfield. >> she died three weeks later. >> maggie called alex first. >> eric bland represents gloria satterfield's estate. >> and he said that he booked it home from work. gloria was bleeding. and she told him the dogs tripped me. so he said she blacked out after that. >> we all went to the hospital. alex didn't come to the hospital. nobody else came the entire time she was there the three weeks. >> you don't believe your sister was killed? >> was murdered. no. no. we still think it was an accident.

>> ginger doesn't believe alex murdaugh killed her sister, but he is liable for another nefarious act in connection with her death. you discovered this insurance document related to the gloria satterfield case. at some point. >> i remember turning to liz and being like, a curse word or two. my god, whoa. >> and there was a settlement. >> alex murdaugh along with another attorney had devised a scheme to sue his insurance company for the death of gloria satterfield, promising to give the money to gloria's two surviving sons. the sons never saw what totaled to be $4.3 million. >> my name is tony, one of gloria's younger sons. >> so when you think about your sister gloria's loyalty to the murdaugh family and to alex murdaugh and now you know he defrauded her sons of $4.3

million -- >> yes. because they never got a dime. >> what do you make of that? >> to learn that he used gloria's death to enrich himself is horrible. >> it's a heartbreaking story. >> ruthless. >> ruthless is a word for it. >> people wonder, how did they go and ms. gloria died and they steal all the money? well, they had practice. >> what did happen to hakeem pinkney and why is his story so tragic? >> august 2009, there's this bad wreck. everybody is tremendously injured. hakim, he already struggled because he was deaf. and now he's a quadriplegic. they didn't know about alex or the murdaughs like that. they get referred there. >> alex murdaugh represented

members of the pinkney family and sued the makers of the tires over the crash. but according to the pinkney family lawyer, when the settlement money came in greed took over. he had a settlement and then he just chose to not pay it to hakim's family. >> so it -- >> allegedly. >> well, there ain't no allegedly. this is what happened. some of the money went where it was supposed to go. and a large portion of it didn't. approximately a million dollars. >> alex murdaugh's alleged accomplice was russell lafette, the former ceo of palmetto state bank. murdaugh allegedly convinced the pinkney family to hire lafitte at their conservator and then funneled the money through the bank back to himself. a scheme they allegedly also concocted with elena spohn. >> we were on i-95 coming

through hampton county. and a firestone bridgestone tire blew out, and which caused our collision. >> mother dies instantly. brother dies instantly. >> eric bland is elena's attorney. >> elena is pinned in the back of the car. you're talking 2009, the case is settled for $9 million. a huge settlement. so they have to have somebody to help them manage their money. >> russell la nfitte was the conservator for elena and her younger sister. >> over the course of them being 11 and 18 years old, as a conservator he loaned money to himself and to alex murdaugh from a conservatorship account. he loaned himself over $600,000. he loaned over $800,000 to alex murdaugh. and these girls would get nsf chekds come back to them --

>> not sufficient funds. >> -- because he had spent all the money. >> alex, i remember him telling me, these people took your mom and your brother because of their mistakes and we're going to make it right and you're not going to have to work another day in your life. and knowing that i'm over here pinching pennies -- >> because he was limiting your funds. >> definitely. >> it's horrible. it's a horrible thought. you've got kids that are in need and scared to even ask to get money to buy something they need, and here they are, they're just spending it like it's nothing. >> that's heartless for you to have whatever you need and you can't get to it because of somebody's making the decision for you. >> jordan jinks is alex's childhood friend. >> i had a car accident. i was rear-ended by a pool company out of hilton head. so i called alex. that was the first person i called. >> and alex murdaugh got a settlement for you. >> absolutely.

>> and that money came right to you? >> not all of it. >> alex murdaugh allegedly defrauded jordan jinks of $150,000. he was a friend. >> and he convinced you that he's working for you and doing everything above and beyond for you. >> i trusted alex like a brother. alex and i ate off the same plate. >> if he's willing to do that to a childhood friend, he'll do it to anyone. >> russell lafitte pleaded not guilty to a federal indictment, alleging he he helped murdaugh steal from their mutual clients. his trial is set for november. their lawyers did not respond to a request for comment about these financial fraud charges. when we return -- >> this trial will probably be one of the most watched since o.j. >> what happens next? >> all he has to do is flip one juror who is going to say he is not guilty.

what bridge is this? [ phone ringing ]

>> 911. where is your emergency? >> we're in a boat crash. on arthur's creek. we have someone missing. >> in february of 2019, 19-year-old mallory beach was killed while boating with five other friends, including alex murdaugh's youngest son, paul. paul was allegedly driving the boat intoxicated and crashed. mallory's body was found eight days later. >> we knew that the accused driver from what everybody in hampton was saying was paul murdaugh, and who also happens to have all these influences around local cops. >> hey, buddy. >> i'm fine. >> you sure? let's get you checked out. all right? >> i'm fine. >> what's your last name? >> murdaugh. >> we kept asking for the initial police report. the incident report from dnr.

and i didn't get that until 2021. and that is so odd to me. usually you can always get an incident report. >> so you were suspicious? >> very suspicious. everything was suspicious. >> we had good sources in law enforcement. and they told us, you know, the fix is in already. >> in the incident report, law enforcement did not specify who was driving the boat. joe mccullough represents connor cook, one of the surviving passengers. >> as a prosecutor, i have seen done in every dui case, every felony dui and boating under the influence cases, it's law enforcement 101, police academy cases. you separate the people. you figure out who was driving. you stand them up. do the field sobriety exercises. none of that occurred in this case. and now we know there is missing evidence. >> directly after the boat crash, the passengers were transported to the hospital.

and according to the hospital staff, alex murdoch and his father went from room to room attempting to speak to the remaining survivors. cook later testified that alex murdoch told him to, quote, keep his mouth shut and inform law enforcement he did not know who was driving. what happened at the hospital? >> there was an effort by the murdoch family to influence those young people, their parents, to influence law enforcement. >> how does alex get to go to the accident scene with his father and start to direct people around like that? it doesn't happen anywhere else. >> it was their hubris and their privilege. >> paul murdoch was eventually indicted and charged with boating under the influence resulting in death. but paul would never face trial. he and his mother, maggie murdoch, were killed nearly 2 1/2 years after the boating accident. three months after the double

homicide -- >> 911, what is your emergency? >> reporter: alex murdoch claimed someone tried to kill him too. >> i got a flat tire. and i stopped. and member stopped to help me. and when i turned my back, they tried to shoot me. >> oh, okay. were you shot? >> yeah. but i'm okay. >> his lawyers later admitted in court it was a fake suicide attempt. >> he admits he was trying to do this to get this $10 million in life insurance for his now only surviving son buster. so do you buy that, that the motive was he was looking out -- >> no. he was just trying to divert the attention away from him. >> it was from the get-go it was a ploy to promote the ninja warriors are after me. >> so there is this life insurance policy and then this

alleged opioid addiction. attorneys for him said for the last 20 years there have been many people feeding his addiction to opioids. alex is not without fault, but he is just one of many whose life has been devastated by opioid addiction. what do you make of that statement, mike? >> can you talk? >> his face says it all. >> it's hard when you're on tv to respond to that. it's all bullshit. it's all bullshit. >> was there any sign that he used opioids? >> yes and no. before stuff started happening, i would have went to his defense 200%. >> and now with all this you think he had to have been on something? >> he had to be, he had to be. >> what say you, richard alec murdoch? you guilty or not guilty of the felonies wherein you stand indicted? >> not guilty. >> alex murdoch is now disbarred

and in jail on a $7 million bond. his first trial, the double murder of maggie and paul, is set for january of 2023. >> mr. murdoch pleads he is innocent. >> reporter: alex murdoch's lawyer, some of the most prominent in the state. >> we believe that the killer or killers are still at large and put this behind him and go after the real killers. >> mr. murdoch, did you kill your wife and son? >> if you didn't do it, who did? >> i'm nervous that they're going to try this murder case first. it's a circumstantial evidence case, and he is an excellent lawyer. all he has to do is flip one juror who is going to say he's not guilty and it's a hung jury. >> alex murdoch's lawyers decline to participate in an interview, but they did release a statement to cnn, saying in part alex is looking forward to his day in court, and we are

confident he will be acquitted. alex continues to hope that everyone responsible for maggie and paul's death will eventually be brought to justice. >> this trial will probably be one of the most watched since o.j. >> reporter: murdoch's trial in connection to mallory beech's wrongful death lawsuit has yet to be investigated. the murdoch's housekeeper and plan to exhume her body. alex murdoch has admitted in court to stealing the insurance settlement funds that belonged to gloria's estate. and as for steven smith, his case has been reopened. what are your thoughts on the public perception of this county now that the murdoch name is out there and the case is getting national attention? what do you think people think of this county and this place where you grew up? >> go ahead.

>> well, a lot of people ask me. they can't believe that it is such a small community people didn't know that this stuff was going on in their county. and of course we have no clue what was going on because they were hiding, because it was that one group of people who were working together. >> to us, it's still home, you know. >> i think this bad thing is going to be great thing for hampton county because of the chokehold, the power they had over hampton county. there is a great hope that hampton county will start its blossoms. >> oh, yeah. >> because of this. >> because now that power -- >> that power is diminished. >> no longer in control. >> is weakened. it's going to help.

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>> hello, i'm in puglia, which is the hl