♪ this is "nightline." >> this is "nightline." >> tonight, a southern dynasty. >> the murdochs weren't above the law, they were the law. >> their power and prestige thrown in turmoil after one fateful night. >> i looked at the phone and said, no, not my child. >> a series of untimely deaths. >> 911, what is your emergency? >> my wife and child -- >> a tale of twists and turns. >> there's murder, there's also deceit, there's lies. it's like a soap opera. >> inside the downfall of the house of murdaugh. "nightline" will be right back. ♪ of course, they love the savings they're gonna get with geico,

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thank you for joining us. in the south carolina low country, for almost 100 years one family seemed to have had it all. the murdaughs. money, power, influence. why are they now at the center of a murder mystery? here's abc's eva pilgrim. >> i feel like i'm in a three-ring circus. there's no bottom to this case. >> every time something happens,

your jaw drops and you gasp. >> i'm from south carolina, and this would set off one of the most notorious sagas my home state has ever seen. >> hampton is a very small town in south carolina. it's in the low country of south carolina. >> it's a quiet town. everybody knows everybody. >> generations have lived here, just like you see in the murdaugh family. >> this family has been there for over a century. powerful in the legal community, elected prosecutors for three generations. >> in the area, the murdaughs weren't above the law, they were the law. >> it's into this family of power and privilege that paul murdaugh is born. his father, alex, is a prominent lawyer. his mother maggie and his older brother, who's known as buster. >> these three couples were going out.

paul murdaugh was there with his girlfriend, morgan doughty. anthony cook was there with his girlfriend, mallory beach. anthony's first cousin was there with his girlfriend. >> reporter: borrowing their father's boat, the teens stop at a gas station buying beer using an older brother's i.d. they set off for an oyster roast. >> they went back to the boat to drink. they weren't drinking in front of everyone. paul's uncle was there too. >> did he look like he was really young at the event? >> he didn't look like that to me. >> just after midnight, the group leaves the oyster roast and they go to downtown beaufort to a place called luther's. >> we could see in that video they have a couple of shots, stayed about ten minutes. then they head back to their friends on the dock.

>> paul, he's swaying. i mean, he clearly is intoxicated. >> paul and the rest of the group get back on the boat. >> i could tell he was drunk. he, like -- he gets drunk a lot, it's kind of like he is a whole other person when he's drunk. >> his behavior was getting increasingly belligerent. the other kids on the boat were noticing that. >> testimony was mallory asked to be let off, and he wouldn't stop, wouldn't let anybody else drive. >> did paul have an issue with drinking? that you guys know of? >> what do you mean by that? >> drinking too much? becoming belligerent when he was drunk? >> i've seen him drink. but you know, he was -- i wouldn't categorize him as -- like everyone else. >> there's no big, bright searchlights on this boat. one of the boys is holding a flashlight ahead of them while they're driving. >> the boat's going pretty fast at this point. >> a dolphin head, which is three pylons sort of lashed together. >> it's a bad crash.

everybody's kind of thrown around. and malley beach is thrown off the boat. >> morgan's hand is injured. she's bleeding. conner has a fracture in his jaw, a laceration where he hit the console during impact. paul is in the water. comes out of the water. he's only wearing his boxer shorts. anthony apparently injures his shoulder. then mallory's missing. >> please send someone. >> we're coming, we're coming, okay? >> the sheriff's department, police department responds. pass island marshal's office responds. >> get a phone call from mallory's mom. she was frantic. on the phone said, no, god, not my child. >> on the dash cam footage is anthony cook, mallory's boyfriend. >> at certain points you can hear him talking to a deputy. >> anthony cook is losing his

mind. he's telling them, "that s.o.b. killed my girlfriend." >> you know murdaugh? that's his son. driving the boat. >> he says he's never going to go to jail. >> that night at the hospital, paul is strapped to a gurney because they were afraid of him being violent. >> so they drew his blood. at 4:00 a.m., two hours after the crash, he was more than three times over the legal limit for driving. >> so there are investigators there at the hospital, and they're trying to figure out what happened. >> an officer from the south carolina department of natural resources, which has jurisdiction over boat crashes, says he's trying to talk with paul. >> alex and randolph murdaugh come in. randolph was reported as saying, you're not talking to him anymore, you're talking to us,

we're his attorneys. >> we also know from court records that alex went from room to room telling these young kids to be quiet, don't talk. >> we reached out to alex murdaugh's team about the allegations that he tried to interfere in the crash investigation, but they declined to comment. >> i've never been involved in a fatality where the operator of a vehicle was under the influence, that that person didn't go to jail immediately. >> but after he's evaluated at the hospital that night, paul murdaugh's allowed to go home with his family. >> i'll ask you both directly just so that we're clear. no one made a phone call to a law enforcement person? anything trying to influence -- >> i certainly didn't, and i know of nobody that did. >> you know, i have friends in those agencies. but no. no one that i know of reached out and tried to influence it whatsoever. >> now we learn that the south carolina state law enforcement division has launched a criminal probe into whether alex murdaugh

obstructed justice in the boat crash investigation. but it's important to note, though, at this time no other member of the murdaugh family has been implicated in that probe. >> i'm worried about finding my child. and they're worried about how they're going to cover up paul driving. >> mallory's body is found a week later by two fishermen about five miles away from the crash site. >> there was so many times that people go missing and they never find the body, that it was a closure for that. >> what was she like as a baby? >> she was the child that had to

be near you all the time. >> she could be a lady when she needed to be a lady. and she could be a tomboy, so to speak. >> i lost my paddle! >> paul is not charged even after she's found. a month goes by. some thought, maybe he's going to get away with it, he's a murdaugh. >> within weeks of the boat crash, mallory beach's mother files a civil lawsuit against the convenience store where alcohol was purchased and against paul murdaugh's father alex and older brother buster. >> i knew who we were up against. and how things would probably disappear if we didn't act quickly. >> in response to mallory's mom's lawsuit, parkers, that convenience store where paul purchased alcohol, denies it knowingly and willfully sold alcohol to a minor. >> for their part the murdaugh attorneys deny all wrongdoing alleged in this suit. they deny buster knowingly gave paul his i.d. they deny even that paul was driving the boat at the time of the crash. >> i wanted accountability.

i wanted paul to just own up to, yes, i was driving the boat, it was an accident, i'm sorry. >> you see words like dynasty used, and power. but we're just regular people. and i think this perception of power is not right. >> it took nearly two months, but paul murdaugh was charged with three boating under the influence felony counts on april 18th, which is mallory beach's birthday. if convicted facing up to 25 years in prison. >> instead of being arrested and taken to jail, paul murdaugh's attorneys are able to arrange for him to come to court and be arraigned and booked there. >> paul murdaugh was released on his own recognizance. for two years this case just dragged on. then in june, something happened that stunned not just south carolina, but the whole country. coming up --

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county 911, what is your emergency? >> june 7th, 2021, 10:07 p.m., alec murdaugh county 911, what is your emergency? >> june 7th, 2021, 10:07 p.m., alex murdaugh calls 911 and he is frantic. >> are they breathing? >> no, ma'am. >> the scene alex murdaugh is looking at is his 53-year-old wife, maggie, and 22-year-old son, paul. >> they were both shot to death outside their property. >> the shell casings that are found later will show they were shot by two different firearms. >> according to his own lawyers, alex murdaugh himself immediately becomes a person of interest. >> mallory beach's family is cleared by law enforcement of any involvement in the murdaughs' death. >> this is not justice for us. these people were brutally murdered. >> but as reporters are digging into everything associated with the murdaugh family, they discover that mallory beach's death isn't the only untimely death that seems to be connected to this family. >> sled has reopened a cold case involving the death of 19-year-old steven smith.

the agency said they made the decision based on information gathered while investigating the double murder of maggie and paul murdaugh. >> steven smith, a 19-year-old young man found dead in the middle of the road, his case never solved. >> he was openly gay in this very small town which could not have been easy. >> i was so proud of him. you know, because his favorite saying is, i am who i am. and god made me, and god don't make mistakes. >> the highway patrol just didn't buy it, that this was a hit and run. >> he had no abrasions. no torn clothes. shoes were still on his feet. cell phone still in his pocket. >> steven smith's twin sister, stephanie, tells police right after the coroner called to tell them steven died, randy murdaugh called, offering his services as an attorney. >> why would they be worried about my son's death?

>> the most persistent rumor told to police alleged that paul's older brother, buster murdaugh, was involved. >> steven smith was a classmate of buster murdaugh. >> but we don't know if those people, given these statements, had direct knowledge of this case or if they were repeating rumors. >> so the police are checking it out. but they can't get to the root of where this rumor came from. they can't really make any headway with it. >> highway patrol files show buster murdaugh didn't answer when he was contacted. >> neither buster murdaugh nor anyone in the murdaugh family has ever been charged in this case. the family denied any connection to steven's death when i sat down with them in june. that was shortly before s.l.e.d. opened their own probe into steven smith's death based on information that they were able to get during the investigation of maggie and paul's double murder. since then, randy murdaugh has declined to comment about the statement stephanie smith made

to investigators that randy offered his legal services to the family. we also reached out to buster murdaugh, but the family has declined further at this time. >> reporters were also looking at the 2018 death of the murdaughs' house keeper and nanny, gloria satterfield, who died after an injury at their home. >> 911, what is your emergency? >> my housekeeper has fallen and her head is bleeding, i cannot get her up. she fell going up the steps. >> murdaugh's insurance company agreed to pay $505,000 for her wrongful death. as the summer ends, there's a new emergency. >> i got a flat tire. >> uh-huh? >> and i stopped and somebody stopped to help me. and when i turned my back, they tried to shoot me. >> according to authorities, alex sustains a superficial head wound.

>> two days later on labor day, alex's pr team released a statement. >> he says that he's resigning from his law firm and that he's checking into rehab. >> then another bombshell. >> abc news has learned alex murdaugh resigned from his family's law firm amid accusations of misappropriating funds just the day before he says someone shot him. >> he loses his law license. his life is falling apart. >> days later, curtis eddie smith, distant relative and former client of alex's, is arrested in his alleged shooting. one of the charges is assisted suicide. according to a police affidavit, murdaugh admitted to investigators the plan was for mr. smith to murder him, leaving his son, buster, to collect a life insurance policy valued at approximately $10 million. >> alex murdaugh was charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and filing a false police report,

which are all felonies. >> alex's lawyer claims his client's behavior was due to opioid addiction. he also claims smith, who allegedly shot alex in the head, was his drug dealer. smith has publicly contradicted that story, saying alex called asking for help, and when smith met him, alex had a gun that went off when smith tried to wrestle it away from him. >> now, he has not yet entered a plea on any criminal charges. but he denies he's alex's drug dealer. meanwhile, alex murdaugh is released on bond and sent back to rehab. >> in the midst of all this craziness, a lawsuit drops from gloria satterfield's sons that says her sons never got any settlement money. >> the lawsuit alleges alex murdaugh diverted the majority of the insurance settlement to his own account and that there was a second settlement that wasn't properly recorded. >> it turns out to be $4,300,000. $2.7 million should have been

paid directly to brian, hair ret, and tony satterfield. alex murdaugh took that money. >> he's arrested again. this time for the alleged theft of the settlement money from the gloria satterfield wrongful death suit. >> over the next two months, alex murdaugh is indicted on almost 50 additional charges. >> he has not yet entered a plea on any criminal charges. in december he apologized to the satterfield and harriet families, saying he planned to agree to pay back $4.3 million to them. >> there's a long road ahead for alex murdaugh. >> i don't know that this man will ever be free. >> obviously the biggest question is, who killed maggie and paul? and why were they killed? i don't think this is the end in terms of wrongdoing that we're going to hear about this family. >> our thanks to eva. we'll be right back.

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♪ finally tonight, alex

murdaugh is still in jail, unable to finally tonight, alex murdaugh is still in jail, unable to raise the money to pay his $7 million bond. we'll be following this story as it continues to unfold. that's "nightline" for this evening. we'll see you right back here same time next week. thanks for the company, america. have a good and safe weekend. good night.