Alex Murdaugh charged with the murders of his wife and son

() — A grand jury from Colleton County, South Carolina, accused to Alex Murdaugh for the murders of his wife and son in 2021.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson and South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel announced Thursday that a “Colleton County Grand Jury indicted Richard Alexander Murdaugh on two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon while committing a violent crime in the deaths of his wife Maggie and son Paul.”

A bail hearing date has not yet been set.

Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and her youngest son, Paul Murdaugh, 22, were found shot to death on the family’s property in Moselle, South Carolina, on the night of June 7, 2021. Alex Murdaugh made the 911 call reporting the incident, saying he had just returned home and discovered their bodies.

Murdaugh, a once prominent — now disbarred — attorney, has been behind bars in Columbia, South Carolina, on $7 million bail for months, facing a series of financial crimes charges.

“Over the past 13 months, SLED officers and our partners have worked day in and day out to build a case against whoever was responsible for the Maggie and Paul murders and to exclude those who weren’t. At no time have officers lost The focus of this investigation. From the beginning I have been clear, the priority was to ensure that justice is done. Today is another step in a long process of justice for Maggie and Paul,” said SLED Chief Mark Keel.

reported earlier this week that South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) authorities told the Murdaugh family during a visit Tuesday that they would be seeking murder charges this week from a grand jury, according to Murdaugh’s lawyers.

Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, attorneys for Alex Murdaugh, issued a statement criticizing this fact, stating that “it was abundantly clear from day one that law enforcement and the Attorney General prematurely concluded that Alex was responsible for the murder of his wife and child,” while adding that they would file a motion for a speedy trial, “requesting that the Attorney General turn over all evidence within 30 days, as required by law, and we demand that a trial be held in a period of 60 days from receipt of said evidence”.

The attorneys’ statement also included a message from Murdaugh, which read: “Alex wants his family, his friends and the whole world to know that he had nothing to do with the murders of Maggie and Paul. He loved them more than anything in the world”.