MAUREEN CALLAHAN: Stayed tune – Alex Murdaugh’s sordid tale is just getting started

Do you think we’ve heard the last of Alex Murdaugh? Think again.

Yes, Murdaugh was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole for the murders of his wife Maggie and his son Paul. But this case is far from over.

In any case, it has only just begun.

At least two other deaths linked to the once-powerful Murdaughs have remained unsolved. There are currently five other criminal investigations into Murdaugh pending. He will also go on trial later this year for attempting to stage his own suicide to look like a murder – hiring a hit man to kill him on the side of a road, ending with a flesh wound. It was reportedly a bizarre attempt to gift his surviving son, Buster, with a $10 million life insurance policy.

This is the case that keeps on giving, a Southern Gothic full of corruption, lies, fraud, drug addiction, murder and the generational power of a politically prominent family. The closest consequence is probably the Kennedys: a prominent family that is rampaging, drunk, drugged, disorderly and entitled – just the worst combination – causing grievous bodily harm and in some cases death, abusing women, using their last name as a sword and shield to avoid all consequences, everyone knows, but out of fear or reverence they keep their mouths shut.

Consider the mysterious death of 19-year-old Stephen Smith, an openly gay friend—and, as witnesses have told police, perhaps more—of Alex’s only surviving son, Buster. Smith’s body was found at 4:20 a.m. on July 8, 2015, in the middle of a two-lane road by a passing driver.

But there was little evidence that Smith had been hit by a car. Alex Murdaugh appeared on the scene; why is unclear.

Highway Patrol didn’t think Smith’s death was an accident either: His shoes, which should have blown off on impact, remained on his feet. He lay in a studied position. There were no skid marks on the road, no vehicle debris, no injuries caused by a vehicle collision. First responders thought the blunt force trauma to Smith’s head resembled a gunshot wound.

Smith’s car was found three miles away, the fuel cap unscrewed, a detail his family found strange and unusual – Stephen, they said, would never have gotten out of his car alone this late at night. He was a careful, methodical boy who wouldn’t have let his gas tank get that low, and even if he had, he would have called for help.

Still, the coroner ruled it a hit-and-run. Smith’s family wants answers and so far has been unimpressed by the ongoing investigation by South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). The case was reopened in June 2021, only after Murdaugh’s wife and son were killed.

“I just don’t understand why more answers aren’t coming out of SLED,” family friend Suzanna Andrews told local outlet Live 5 News. “Someone out there knows something.”

Then there’s the Murdaugh family’s longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who was found dead in Murdaugh’s home in February 2018. Satterfield, the Murdaughs said, stumbled up the stairs, fell, hit her head, and died.

There was no autopsy. Murdaugh told Satterfield’s sons he would sue his own insurance company and give them the settlement money.

Of course that never happened. Murdaugh sued his insurance company, but he kept the money – over $4 million. Only after her sons got a lawyer was Murdaugh forced to turn it over.

Last June, with Murdaugh awaiting trial in jail, SLED announced they would finally formally open a criminal investigation and exhume Satterfield’s body.

Lindsey Edwards claims to be another victim of Alex Murdaugh. She gave a very detailed interview to South Carolina’s FITSNews outlet seven months ago, and is now reportedly cooperating with an SLED investigation into her claims that she was coerced into a sex trafficking ring and operated Murdaugh against her will.

Here’s what Edwards says she told her Mrs about Murdaugh, who she claims smothered her on their first meeting:

“I was like, ‘I don’t want to go there, I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to do this. He’s going to hurt me again. . . I don’t feel safe doing this. I do not wanna die.’

Her madam remained unmoved. And so Edwards said she was sent alone to a hotel room where Murdaugh, she said, “ripped tufts of hair out of my head” and forcibly entered her. ‘

When informed of a third forced encounter, Edwards attempted to flee. Her punishment? Murdaugh’ was even angrier and more violent than before. I got hair pulled and choked, and if he wasn’t strangling me, I would have stuffed a washcloth in my mouth and been violently slapped across the face for 20 to 30 minutes.”

Edwards compared her Mrs. client list to “Epstein’s black book” — full of powerful men.

Her claims, of course, are just that – for now. But you have to ask yourself: What was South Carolina law enforcement doing all this time? What we know so far about Alex Murdaugh’s criminal history is exhausting. The sheer terror he felt in almost everyone he knew, the darkness, the drugs, the lies, the thefts, the string of deaths in his presence – that’s not normal. If you think corruption in small towns is a thing of the past, it might be wise to think again.

Alex Murdaugh is currently facing 71 other charges, including stealing $1 million from a deaf teen who was paralyzed in a traffic accident. He is a convicted family destroyer. Are we to believe that no one in the police force suspected what this man was capable of? Not even the smartest criminals can keep the mask from slipping off, and it’s clear that Alex Murdaugh is a sadistic psychopath.

Yet another case, this involves the needless death of 19-year-old Mallory Beach, who was killed when she was thrown from the speedboat Murdaugh’s son Paul was riding.

It took eight days to find her remains.

Two other teens were seriously injured in that accident, and in the excellent Netflix docuseries “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal,” they tell how Alex Murdaugh and his father Randolph prowl the corridors of the hospital, looking for survivors, and the police from interrogating a blind man. drunk Paul, and claims to be the legal guardian of victim Morgan Doughty – who was also Paul’s girlfriend for many years.

Doughty said on camera that Paul physically and emotionally abused her and made fun of her working-class family — and wow, does that give us more Murdaugh ugliness, judging people by their bank accounts. Doughty said she saw Alex Murdaugh outside the room where her fingers, stripped of the skin, were sewn shut.

“While I was having surgery on my hand,” she said, “Randolph just walked in and kind of stared at me. We heard another knock. Alex Murdaugh kind of knocked on the glass door and he said, “I have to go in there. I represent her.’

Doughty’s mother Diane: “Even before I got there, Alex turned around and said he was (Morgan’s) representative and her acting guardian.”

Morgan: “I looked at the head nurse and thought, ‘Ma’am, please keep that man out of my room.’

It’s one of the most chilling moments of the entire series. This was a young woman who knew the Murdaughs, had spent time in their home, and saw how frightened everyone was around the patriarchs. Surrounded by medical professionals with scalpels, police and other parents in the hallway, Morgan Doughty was still afraid of Alex Murdaugh. Very scared.

This is what we know now. How many other victims are there? What is the true carnage left in Alex Murdaugh’s wake?