Alex Murdaugh’s lawyer admits he is ‘person of interest’ in wife and son’s deaths

South Carolina lawyer reported finding the bodies of his wife and son, before being wounded in a subsequent shooting he arranged himself

For the first time, a lawyer for Alex Murdaugh has admitted that he is a person of interest in the double homicide of his wife and son.

“SLED [the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division] has said from the get-go that Alex was a person of interest,” Mr Murdaugh’s attorney, Jim Griffin, told FOX Carolina News.

Mr Murdaugh, a former lawyer in South Carolina, reported finding the bodies of his wife, Margaret, and son, Paul, on 7 June. Both were dead from gunshot wounds.

Mr Murdaugh’s lawyers have consistently denied that he had anything to do with their deaths – a point that Mr Griffin reiterated in the FOX interview.

“You would think that if Alex was the one who did it, that SLED would have been able to establish that pretty easily that night,” Mr Griffin said. “You would think they would have searched his house and found blood somewhere. You would think they would have found the murder weapons on the property. You would think they would come up with something to link Alex to the murders, forensically or independent evidence. And to my knowledge, they have not done that.”

Mr Griffin added that Mr Murdaugh has not been charged with the murders.

“What we do know as his lawyers is that he had no motive to kill them,” the lawyer said. “He loved his wife, he loved his son.”

The Independent has reached out to SLED for confirmation that Mr Murdaugh is indeed a person of interest.

The double homicide is just one of many investigations tied to Mr Murdaugh. First, his wife and son were shot dead. Then Mr Murdaugh himself was shot, but survived. Since then, he has admitted to arranging his own shooting as part of a $10m insurance fraud scheme.

Meanwhile, based on information they uncovered in relation to the first two murders, police have reopened investigations into the deaths of his housekeeper in 2018 and a teenage classmate of one of his sons in 2015.

The tangle of cases has left even Mr Murdaugh’s own lawyers overwhelmed.

“It makes us all wonder what the hell’s going on,” Mr Griffin himself said earlier this year.

In connection to the assisted suicide attempt, Mr Murdaugh has been arrested and charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and filing a false police report. His accused shooter, Curtis Edward Smith, has been arrested as well.

Mr Murdaugh has not been charged in the deaths of his wife, son, housekeeper, or son’s classmate.

SLED is continuing to investigate the myriad of cases, with help from the FBI.

“I can assure you that SLED agents will continue working to bring justice to anyone involved with any criminal act associated with these ongoing investigations,” SLED chief Mark Keel said in September. “The arrests in this case are only the first step in that process.”