Alex Murdaugh’s Murder Trial: Current Status of the Family and Key Players

The Murdaugh family captured public attention after the tragic deaths of five individuals connected to them over a span of six years. So, what has happened to the key figures involved?

Alex Murdaugh was an influential civil litigation attorney until his youngest son, Paul Murdaugh, was implicated in a fatal boat crash involving his friend. The situation escalated when Alex faced allegations of embezzling funds from his law firm, clients, and the government through various schemes of fraud and money laundering. In 2022, he was indicted on double murder charges for the deaths of his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and son Paul.

Currently, Alex faces a staggering 102 grand jury criminal charges, with 19 indictments related to fraud and drug offenses. He has been disbarred, his assets were confiscated, and he has been sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the murders of his wife and son.

The family’s story has been extensively covered in the “Murdaugh Murders” podcast, HBO’s The Murdaugh Dynasty, Investigation Discovery’s The Murdaugh Murders: Deadly Dynasty, Netflix’s Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, Lifetime’s Murdaugh Murders: The Movie, and Hulu’s Murdaugh: Death in the Family, which premiered in October 2025.

Scroll down to find out what has become of the family members and significant players in this legal saga:

Alex Murdaugh

The patriarch resigned in 2021 following allegations of misappropriating funds. He became indicted in 2022 for the double murder of his wife and son. Alex was found guilty of murder and has also pleaded guilty to 22 federal charges, including wire fraud and money laundering.

He received two consecutive life sentences for the murders, alongside an additional 40-year sentence for financial offenses. He is also serving a 27-year term for state-level financial crimes.

Maggie Murdaugh

Maggie married Alex and together they had two sons, Buster and Paul. She and Paul were found dead in June 2021, and Alex has been accused of the crime, which he has consistently denied.

Buster Murdaugh

Buster, the eldest son of Alex and Maggie, planned to follow in his father’s footsteps as a lawyer, but was not allowed back into law school after his first year due to poor academic performance.

He was implicated in the death of Mallory Beach, a friend of Paul’s, for lending his ID to his brother. In January 2023, Buster settled with Beach’s family and three other passengers involved in the tragic accident.

Buster was also linked to the death of Stephen Smith, with some witnesses suggesting a secret relationship between them. (Buster has denied knowing Smith prior to his death.) Smith was found dead in 2015 on a road near the Murdaugh estate, with officials claiming he succumbed to a hit-and-run, a conclusion disputed by Smith’s family. No arrests have been made in this case.

The eldest Murdaugh sibling married Brooklynn White in 2025 and initiated a defamation lawsuit against Netflix, Warner Bros., and others in 2024 for falsely accusing him of murder.

Paul Murdaugh

Paul was facing criminal charges related to Mallory Beach’s wrongful death prior to being fatally shot by Alex in 2021, alongside his mother. Alex was found guilty of all counts concerning their murders.

Mandy Matney

Journalist Mandy Matney from South Carolina investigated the Murdaugh family and their controversies following Beach’s demise. She produced the “Murdaugh Murders” podcast prior to Alex’s arrest.

Matney and her husband, David Moses, serve as executive producers for Hulu’s Murdaugh: Death in the Family.

Gloria Satterfield

Gloria Satterfield was the Murdaugh family’s housekeeper who passed away in 2018 following a fall at their residence. Her death became intertwined with the family’s scandals when a large settlement was discovered to have been misappropriated by Alex. He later confessed to fabricating details about the circumstances surrounding Satterfield’s demise, which was initially deemed an accident.

Randolph Murdaugh

Randolph, Alex’s father, served as solicitor starting in 1986, running unopposed every election until his retirement in 2006. He was married to Elizabeth Alexander, and they had four children together.

Randolph passed away from natural causes in June 2021, just days following the murders of Maggie and Paul.

Mallory Beach

In 2019, Paul crashed the family boat into the Archers Creek Bridge in Beaufort, South Carolina, resulting in the untimely death of his friend Mallory Beach. Paul faced three felony charges for boating under the influence and injuring two additional passengers.

The Beach family filed a lawsuit against several Murdaugh family members, settling in 2023. They reached a $15 million agreement with the owners of the convenience store that sold alcohol to Paul prior to the accident.