(Reuters) – The South Carolina attorney previously charged with allegedly orchestrating a plot to have himself shot last year in an insurance scheme is expected to be indicted later this week on murder charges in the death of his wife and son, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing one of the man’s lawyers.
Alex Murdaugh, already facing dozens of state charges including embezzlement, could be charged in the June 2021 deaths of wife Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and son Paul Murdaugh, 22, the New York Times reported, citing his lawyer Jim Griffin.
Investigators have informed some family members that an indictment may come this week, according to Griffin, the report said.
Attorneys for Murdaugh, prosecutors and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division investigating the case could not be immediately reached by Reuters for comment.
Murdaugh was charged last September of insurance fraud, among other charges, in the arranged shooting, which he survived. The shooting allegedly was designed so that his surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, could collect a $10 million insurance payout. Murdaugh in an affidavit had admitted to plotting his own death, a state police agency said last September.
Murdaugh was also indicted in November by a state grand jury on 27 charges stemming from schemes to defraud law clients and associates, as well as launder more than $4.8 million.
An attorney for Murdaugh, 54, previously said that he arranged the shooting due to depression after his family’s murders.
Murdaugh, a scion of a South Carolina legal dynasty, is in custody at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Columbia, South Carolina. He was suspended from practicing law in September.
Murdaugh was accused of embezzling settlement funds related to his housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who died in 2018 after a “trip and fall” accident in the Murdaugh home, according to court records.
The indictments charged him with crimes including breach of trust, fraudulent intent, money laundering, computer crimes and forgery, according to South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson.
(Reporting by Tyler Clifford; Editing by Leslie Adler)
