A new report alleges that Alex Murdaugh asked his wife to meet him at the family’s hunting lodge before she died, a request that she felt was suspicious.
PEOPLE magazine, citing unnamed law enforcement sources, reports that on June 7, 2021, Alex texted his wife, Maggie, and asked her to meet at their vast estate in Islandton, South Carolina.
Alex, 54, reportedly had said that his father, 81-year-old Randolph Murdaugh III, was in poor health and that she should see him before he passed.
Maggie is said to have initially declined the invitation to meet at the lodge but suggested that they meet at the hospital instead. However, she eventually agreed to meet at the lodge and planned to follow Alex to the hospital using her own car, according to PEOPLE.
Multiple sources told the magazine that the couple’s marriage was having unspecified difficulties and that the 52-year-old Maggie was living at a family beach house on Edisto Island, about an hour away.
En route to the lodge, Maggie is said to have texted a friend that she believed Alex was acting “fishy,” the magazine reports, citing a police source.
“He’s up to something,” Maggie reportedly texted the friend, according to PEOPLE.
When Maggie arrived at the property, she reportedly left her vehicle running and walked to the family’s dog kennels. That’s where the couple’s 22-year-old son, Paul, was photographing a dog he had been watching for a friend.
It is not clear how PEOPLE or authorities determined this timeline of events, and what happened next remains even more blurry.
What is known is that Maggie and Paul were shot to death near the dog kennels. Paul was reportedly shot in the chest with a shotgun at close range, and Maggie had multiple gunshot wounds from a semi-automatic rifle, including one shot to her back and what police believe were additional shots once she was on the ground.
Authorities pronounced both Maggie and Paul dead at the scene.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, the state charged Alex in connection with the killings on Thursday. He is facing two counts of murder in addition to two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.
Alex is scheduled to be arraigned next week.
Police have not disclosed officially the nature of evidence they have compiled against Alex, but the unnamed law enforcement officials told the magazine that investigators found blood spatter on Alex’s clothing, which suggests he was at the scene when the murders occurred and not at the hospital with his father, which he initially asserted.
In a statement to PEOPLE, Alex’s lawyers continued to assert that he is innocent of the murder charges.
“Alex wants his family, friends and everyone to know that he did not have anything to do with the murders of Maggie and Paul,” the lawyers said in a statement to the magazine. “He loved them more than anything in the world.”
Aside from the murder-related charges, Alex is facing dozens of charges for allegedly stealing money from clients and from his former law firm, stealing money from a former housekeeper who died after falling on his property, and for drug trafficking.
He also allegedly attempted to stage his own death in a failed attempt to cash out a $10 million life insurance payment for his surviving son, 26-year-old Buster Murdaugh.
Alex has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and is being held in jail on a $7 million bond.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast. Listen to the latest episode:
[Featured image: Facebook]
