Just over a month before Maggie Murdaugh and her son Paul were killed on their 1,770-acre hunting residence, the late wife of disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh visited a divorce attorney.
According to a law enforcement source, Maggie drove an hour’s distance to Charleston to meet with a lawyer and plan for a potential divorce.
The details of the conversation between Maggie and the lawyer remain unknown, but the source told People magazine that she had wanted to determine the status of the couple’s assets.
“She didn’t pay close attention to the family money or where it came from,” the source said. “But now she was starting to look into it.”
Prior to her death, coworkers at Alex’s law firm noticed that Maggie hardly came by the office to have lunch together, contrary to what she previously had done often.
Investigators have still not yet identified a motive or suspect in the double murder case and remain unsure if the possible divorce played a role in Maggie and Paul’s death.
On June 7, the mother and son were shot outside their home. Alex reported their deaths to police shortly after returning home after 10 p.m.
The gunshot wounds that killed the two came from different firearms, police said.
Three months after their deaths, Alex Murdaugh was shot in the head in a rural part of South Carolina. His injuries were minor and police had later discovered that Murdaugh staged the shooting in an attempt to collect his $10 million life insurance policy that would benefit his living son, Buster.
“The murders of my wife and son have caused an incredibly difficult time in my life,” Murdaugh said in a statement. “I have made a lot of decisions that I truly regret. I’m resigning from my law firm and entering rehab after a long battle that has been exacerbated by these murders.”
Murdaugh has since been charged with conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false police report. He is also being investigated for misappropriating millions of dollars from his law firm. Murdaugh is also the subject of an investigation surrounding the death of his family housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield.