Here’s the latest on the once-prominent South Carolina lawyer accused of murdering his wife and son.

Where is Alex Murdaugh now? Inside the case that became a true crime sensation

Here's the latest on the once-prominent South Carolina lawyer accused of murdering his wife and son.

By Allison DeGrushe

Allison DeGrushe

Allison DeGrushe is a timely SEO writer at **. She has been working at * *since 2025. Her work has previously appeared on Distractify.

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and Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn is a writer and editor at **. His work has previously appeared on The A.V. Club, The Guardian, The Ringer, and many other publications.

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on May 13, 2026 6:18 p.m. ET

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Alex Murdaugh at the Richland County Judicial Center in Columbia, S.C., on Jan. 29, 2024. Credit:

Tracy Glantz/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

- Alex Murdaugh was arrested in July 2022 and charged with the murders of his wife, Maggie, and their youngest son, Paul.

- Murdaugh was found guilty and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

- In May 2026, he was granted a new trial after his double-murder conviction was overturned.**

Alex Murdaugh, the scion of one of South Carolina's most prominent legal dynasties, sits at the center of a story that has obsessed true crime fans.

The case has been explored at length on Mandy Matney's *Murdaugh Murders Podcast*, as well as in buzzy documentaries on Netflix and HBO. It was even adapted into both a Hulu series *and* a Lifetime movie, with Jason Clarke and Bill Pullman each starring as the disgraced lawyer.

It all began in 2019, when Alex's youngest son, Paul, was involved in a fatal boat crash. From there, Alex's life unraveled as shocking details about his life of crime surfaced. It all came to a head with the 2021 murders of Paul and his wife, Maggie.

So, where is Alex Murdaugh now? Read on for what we know.

Who is Alex Murdaugh?

Alex Murdaugh in court via Netflix's 'Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal'.

Alex Murdaugh was born into one of South Carolina's most influential legal families. For several generations, the Murdaugh name was synonymous with power, as three members of the family worked as the solicitor for the 14th Judicial Circuit between 1920 and 2006.

Alex continued his family's legacy by pursuing a legal career and working at Parker Law Group (formerly known as Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick), which his great-grandfather founded in 1910.

Outside of his professional life, Alex appeared to be a dedicated family man. According to the *New York Post*, he met and started dating his late wife, Maggie, while attending the University of South Carolina. After getting married, they had two sons: Richard Alexander "Buster" Murdaugh (born in 1996) and Paul Murdaugh (born in 1999).

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What happened to Alex Murdaugh’s wife and son?

The family's troubles began long before the murders. In February 2019, Paul was involved in a boating accident that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach. According to the BBC, the survivors of the crash testified that Paul had been behind the wheel and intoxicated when the accident occurred.**

Two months later, he was indicted on three felony charges. He pleaded not guilty, but was murdered before the trial.

On the night of June 7, 2021, Alex called 911 to report that Maggie and Paul had been shot to death near the dog kennels on their property in Islandton, S.C. He told authorities he had visited his mother that evening and returned home to find their bodies.

In the days that followed, family members proclaimed Alex's innocence. Alex and his surviving son, Buster, also offered a $100,000 reward for information about the murders.

What happened to Alex Murdaugh?

Alex Murdaugh with his legal team in court via 'Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal'.

For well over a year, Maggie and Paul's murders remained unsolved. During this time, Alex became embroiled in a number of scandals.

Roughly two months after the deaths of Maggie and Paul, Alex claimed to have been shot in the head in a roadside incident. That same month, he abruptly resigned from the family law firm and entered rehab for addiction.

In September 2021, he was forced to resign from his family law firm for reportedly misappropriating money. Soon after, a lawyer for Alex admitted that Alex had paid a a former client to kill him so that his surviving son, Buster, could receive a $10 million insurance policy.

Over the next year, a slew of fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering charges began piling up. In July 2022, he was indicted for the murders of Maggie and Paul.

What was the outcome of Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial?

Alex Murdaugh listens as he is sentenced for murdering his wife and son on March 3, 2023.

(Joshua Boucher/Pool/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty

Alex Murdaugh pleaded not guilty, and his trial began on Jan. 25, 2023. Evidence built up against him, including a video recorded by Paul just minutes before he was murdered. Alex Murdaugh's voice can be heard in the background, contradicting an earlier statement that he wasn’t at the crime scene.

After only a few hours of deliberation on March 2, 2023, the jury found Murdaugh guilty on two counts of murder and two counts of of possession of a weapon. The following day, Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

In November 2023, as part of a plea deal, Alex pleaded guilty to 22 state financial crimes and was sentenced to 27 years in prison. In April 2024, he was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for his financial crimes, to run concurrently with the previous sentences.

Where is Alex Murdaugh now?

Alex Murdaugh during an evidentiary hearing at the Richland County Courthouse on Jan. 16, 2024.

Tracy Glantz/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Murdaugh is currently serving two consecutive life sentences for the murders of his wife and son, in addition to prison time stemming from numerous state and federal convictions tied to fraud and other financial crimes.

He sought a new trial, alleging the Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill influenced the jury that found him guilty. According to WRDW News 12, Murdaugh's attorneys claim that Hill instructed jurors “not to believe Murdaugh’s testimony and other evidence presented by the defense, pressuring them to reach a quick guilty verdict, and even misrepresenting critical and material information to the trial judge in her campaign to remove a juror she believed to be favorable to the defense.”

Hill denied the allegations, and jurors submitted statements saying she did not pressure them.

In January 2024, a judge denied the motion for a new trial and claimed Hill had no effect on the verdict. Later that year, however, the South Carolina Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal, bypassing the Court of Appeals, per CNN.

On May 13, 2026, Murdaugh was granted a new trial by the South Carolina Supreme Court, which overturned his double-murder conviction.

"Our justice system provides — indeed demands — that every person is entitled to a fair trial, which includes an impartial jury untainted by external forces bent on influencing the jury toward a biased verdict," the justices wrote in their unanimous opinion (via PEOPLE). "Although we are aware of the time, money, and effort expended for this lengthy trial, we have no choice but to reverse the denial of Murdaugh's motion for a new trial due to Hill's improper external influences on the jury and remand for a new trial."

In a statement shared on social media, the South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a statement that he planned to "aggressively seek to retry Alex Murdaugh for the murders of Maggie and Paul as soon as possible."**

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