COLUMBIA, S.C. — Over a 56-hour stretch this weekend, the Murdaugh family dominated the news after another shooting, a resignation and criminal accusations.
Alex Murdaugh, a prominent attorney from a powerful South Carolina dynasty, was at the center of it all.
Three months after he found his younger son, Paul Murdaugh, and his wife, Maggie, shot to death on their expansive property in Colleton County and called 911, Alex Murdaugh was dialing the emergency number again.
This time it was for himself.
Around 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Alex Murdaugh, 53, was shot in the head on the side of Old Salkehatchie Road in Hampton County. His lawyer, Jim Griffin, said Murdaugh had pulled off the road because of car trouble when a truck with two people in it drove past, turned around, and then came back and someone in it shot him. Griffin said Murdaugh’s brother, Randolph “Randy” Murdaugh IV, had told Griffin the information.
Alex Murdaugh called 911 himself, according to a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division news release, and was airlifted to Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah after receiving “a superficial gunshot wound to the head.”
A statement from the family was released soon after saying, “The Murdaugh family has suffered through more than any one family can ever imagine. We expect Alex to recover and ask for your privacy while he recovers.”
On Monday, the saga continued after Alex Murdaugh announced he was resigning from the family’s storied law firm and entering rehab.
In a statement, he said Paul and Maggie’s murders have caused “an incredibly difficult time” in his life.
“I have made a lot of decisions that I truly regret,” the statement continues. “I’m resigning from my law firm and entering rehab after a long battle that has been exacerbated by these murders. I am immensely sorry to everyone I’ve hurt including my family, friends and colleagues. I ask for prayers as I rehabilitate myself and my relationships.”
Hours later, Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth and Detrick law firm said Alex Murdaugh was forced to resign after it was discovered he allegedly took money from the business.
In a statement to The Island Packet, PMPED confirmed that Alex Murdaugh resigned Friday after the firm accused him of misappropriating funds and he was no longer associated with the firm “in any manner.”
Sources in the legal community familiar with the cases suspected the amount of money to be a lot, one saying it was more than $1 million.
“This is disappointing news for all of us,” the statement said. “Rest assured that our firm will deal with this in a straightforward manner. There’s no place in our firm for such behavior.”
A forensic accounting firm will investigate the missing funds, and PMPED said it notified law enforcement and the South Carolina Bar Association.
Griffin, Alex Murdaugh’s lawyer, said Monday night that his client had been released from the Savannah hospital and entered a rehabilitation facility for treatment for substance abuse.
As of Tuesday morning, no arrests had been made in the June double homicide or in Saturday’s shooting. No suspects had been publicly named either.
