this is "nightline." >> tonight, a southern dynasty. >> the murdochs weren't above the law, they were the law. >> their power and prestige thrown into turmoil after one fateful night. >> no, not my child. >> a series of untimely deaths. >> 911, what's your emergency? >> this is alex murdaugh, my wife -- >> a tale of twists and turns that leads to murder. >> there's murder, there's also deceit, there's lies. it's like a soap opera. >> investigators digging in. this week, alec murdaugh charged with killing his wife and son. >> watching a family of this

stature collapse is a fascination and sadness at the same time. >> inside the downfall of the house of murdaugh.

♪ good evening. thank you for joining us. in the south carolina low country, for almost 100 years one family appears to have it all. the p

the murdaughs. suddenly the dynasty crumbles after untimely deaths, including a mother and son found murdered. this week a new twist as an indictment is handed down. 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 draw drops and you gasp. >> i'm from south carolina. this was 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. >> the area of the murdaughs

weren't above the law, they were the law. >> it's into this family paul murdaugh is born. father a prominent lawyer. mother maggie and older brother, 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 malley. first cousin connor cook was with his girlfriend, miley altman. >> 19-year-old paul was borrowing his father's boat. the teens stopped at a gas station where underage paul buys beer using his older brother's i.d. they set off for an oyster roast. >> they kept going 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 drunk at the event? >> he didn't look like that to me.

>> just after midnight, the group leaves the oyster roast and go to downtown beaufort to a place called luther's. >> we could see in that video they have a couple of shots. stay for 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 gets drunk a lot. it's just kind of like, he was drunk and he is strong. >> he wouldn't let anybody else drive. >> did paul have an issue with drinking that you know of? >> what do you mean? >> drinking too much, becoming belligerent when he was drunk? >> i've seen him drink, but no, 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 while they were driving. >> the boat's going pretty fast at this point. >> the boat crashes into pylons, injuring the teens and throwing mallory overboard. she goes missing. >> please send someone. >> we're coming, we're coming, okay? >> sheriff's department shows up. police department responds. parris island marshal's office responds. >> a phone call from malley's mom. she was frantic. >> i looked at the phone and said, "no, god, not my child." >> on the dash cam footage, 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 all know alex murdaugh?

that's his son. >> that's who was driving the boat? >> good luck. >> 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. >> 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 recorded 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 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 alec murdaugh obstructed justice in the boat crash investigation. 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 hild. and they're worried about how they're going to cover up paul driving. >> mallory's body is found a week later by twoheenabou fe mi crash site.many times that people go missing and they never are found, the body. so it was like 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. 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 crash

mallory's mother files a civil lawsuit against the convenience store where the alcohol was purchased and against paul murdaugh's father, alec, 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, parker's, the convenience store where paul purchased the alcohol, denies it knowingly and willfully sold alcohol to a minor. >> the murdaugh attorneys deny all wrongdoing alleged in this suit. they deny buster knowingly gave paul his i.d., they denny 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. >> it took nearly two months, but paul murdaugh was charged

with three boating under the influence felony counts on april 18th, which is mallory beech's birthday. if convicted facing up to 25 years in prison. >> instead of being arrested and taken to jail, paul murdaugh's attorneys arrange for him to come to court and be arraigned and booked there. >> paul murdaugh was released on his own recognizance, and for two years this case dragged on. but then in june, something happened that stunned not just south carolina, but the whole country. coming up -- >> 911, what's your emergency? >> this is alex murdaugh, i need the police and ambulance immediately, my wife and child are shot badly. announcer: type 2 diabetes? discover the power of 3 in the ozempic® tri-zone. in my ozempic® tri-zone, i lowered my a1c, cv risk,

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snets ♪ ♪ ♪ [ phone ringing ] county 911, what's your emergency? >> on june 7th, 2021, at 10:07 p.m., alec murdaugh calls 911, and he is frantic. >> are they breathing? >> no, ma'am. >> the scene that alec murdaugh is looking at is his 52-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 that they were shot by two different firearms. >> according to his own lawyers, alex murdaugh himself immediately becomes a person of

interest. >> mallory beech's family is cleared by law enforcement of any involvement in the murdaughs' death. >> this is not just justice for us. these people are brutally murdered. >> but as reporters are digging into everything associated with the murdaugh family, they discover that mallory beech's death isn't the only untimely death that seems to be connected to this family. >> s.l.e.d. 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 on investigating the double murder of maggie and paul murdaugh. >> they learn about stephen 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-a hit-and-run. >> he had no ababrasions, no to clothes, shoes on his feet, cell phone in his pocket. >> stephen smith's twin systems police, right after the coroner called, 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. >> stephen smith was a class made of buster murdaugh. >> but we don't know if those people giving 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 myrrh murdaugh didn't answer when he was contacted. >> neither buster murdaugh nor anyone in the murdaugh family has been charged in this case. the family denied any connection to stephen's death when i sat down with them in june. that was shortly before s.l.e.d. opened up their own probe into stephen smith's death based on information 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 comment 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 brick

steps. >> murdaughs' insurance company agreed to pay $505,000 for her wrongful death. but as the summer independents, 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, alec sustains a superficial head wound. >> two days later, on labor day, alec's p.r. 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 alec 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 henne smith, a distant relative and former client of alec'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. >> alec's lawyer claims his client's behavior was due to opioid addiction. he also claims that smith, who allegedly shot alec in the head, was his drug dealer. smith has publicly contradicted that story staying alec called asking for help, and when smith met him, alec had a gun that went off when smith tried to wrestle it away from him. >> he has not yet entered a plea on any criminal charges, but he denies he's alec's drug dealer.

meanwhile, alec 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 of the settlement money. >> the lawsuit alleges alec murdaugh diverted the majority of the insurance settlement to his own account and that there was a second settlement that wasn't properly recorded. >> turns out to be $4 million some. $2.7 million should have been paid directly to brian, hair ret, and sally 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 lawsuit. over the next eight months, alex murdaugh is indicted on more than 80 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 payback $4.3 million to them. >> we are following breaking news from south carolina where a disgraced attorney has just been indicted for the murders of his wife and son. >> coming 402 days after maggie and paul murdaugh were found brutally murdered with multiple gunshot wounds, this was an almost unbelievable sttwist. alec murdaugh, the father, the husband, is indicted. according to the indictment, he acted alone in the shooting of his wife and son, allegedly killing maggie with a rifle and shooting paul with a shotgun. alex murdaugh denied that he was involved with their deaths, issuing a statement through his lawyer saying that he wants his family and friends and everyone to know that he did not have anything to do with the murders of maggie and paul. just this week we spoke with

alec's brother, john marvin, again. he said that his family, the murdaughs, and maggie's family, remain close and that as hard as it may be to hear, they remain united as one family seeking the truth. >> watching a family of this influence and reputation collapse is a fascination and a sadness at the same time. the complexity of this is really perhaps the most amazing part. >> alec murdaugh is now sitting in jail, unable to meet the $7 million bond on those financial charges he's officially been disbarred, he will never practice law in south carolina again. and soon, he'll enter a courtroom, the place where his family's name and reputation were built. but this time, he'll be fighting for his own life. >> our thanks to eva. we'll be right back with the final word.

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