Murdaugh Death in the Family: True Story, Explained

Created by Michael D. Fuller and Erin Lee Carr, Hulu’s ‘Murdaugh: Death in the Family’ is a true crime drama series that follows the story of the Murdaugh family. The focus is on Maggie and Alex Murdaugh, whose wealth and family history make them influential members of the community. However, their seemingly perfect life is torn apart by a series of unfortunate events that unravel everything they’d built together. A string of mysterious deaths leads the family to become the center of an investigation where deeper secrets come to light. Over the course of eight episodes, the series reveals the fractured state of a picture-perfect family, becoming even more disturbing as it draws connections to reality. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Murdaugh: Death in the Family Recounts the True Story of the Murdaugh Murders

The events portrayed in ‘Murdaugh: Death in the Family’ are based on the true story of the Murdaughs, a South Carolina family that came into the limelight after a double homicide. The show begins with Maggie and Alex Murdaugh’s son, Paul, getting into trouble after crashing his boat. This refers to the real incident that took place on February 24, 2019, when Paul Murdaugh crashed his family boat into the Archers Creek Bridge in Beaufort, South Carolina. He was accompanied by several friends, almost all of whom were teenagers, and the accident led to the death of a young girl named Mallory Beach. Paul was charged with the crimes of boating under the influence, causing Mallory’s death, and injuring two other teenagers in the process.

In the show, the accident marks the beginning of the unrest that grows with each step, a development similar to one that transpired in real life as well. On June 7, 2021, Alex placed a 911 call, revealing that he’d found his wife and son dead near the dog kennels at their family’s hunting lodge. It was later found that 52-year-old Maggie and 22-year-old Paul had multiple gunshot wounds. As the investigation into the double homicide began, Alex said that at the time of the murders, he was with his mother, who had Alzheimer’s, and her caregiver. A couple of days later, Alex’s father, Randolph Murdaugh III, died at the age of 81. While his death was believed to have been because of several health issues, the successive nature of the deaths in the family caught the public’s interest.

Evidence Placed Alex Murdaugh at the Center of the Investigation

Things got even more twisted when, on September 4, 2021, Alex Murdaugh survived what authorities described as a roadside shooting. Two days later, he resigned from his family’s law firm. Hours after his declaration, the firm released a statement alleging that Alex had embezzled the company’s funds. Ten days later, the authorities alleged that Alex arranged the shooting in an attempted insurance fraud scheme involving his $10 million policy. He was charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and filing a false police report. He was released on bond, but was arrested again on October 14, when he was charged with two felony counts for financial fraud. The following month, additional charges were brought against him, including money laundering and forgery, among other offenses.

Over the next few months, a series of charges was brought against Alex, accusing him of committing financial fraud of varying degrees. By mid-2022, he had been disbarred, with dozens of criminal charges and multiple lawsuits pending. The same month, he was also charged with the murder of his wife and son. During the trial, prosecutors introduced a cellphone video that they argued placed Alex near the dog kennels shortly before the killings. Alex pleaded not guilty to the charges, but by the end of the trial, the jury found him guilty of the double homicide, and he was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.

The Hulu Series Weaves Together Fact and Fiction to Deliver a Compelling Tale

The case, starting from Maggie and Paul Murdaugh’s murder to Alex’s conviction, was covered by Mandy Matney in the ‘Murdaugh Murders Podcast,’ with Liz Farrell. The Hulu series uses the podcast as its source material, presenting a majority of events as seen from the perspective of Mandy, who also serves as an executive producer on the show. The show’s creators revealed that they focused heavily on the research done by Mandy while getting her insights about the case. While the facts were easier to present, the real challenge lay in presenting the more personal moments of the Murdaugh family.

Co-creator Michael Fuller wondered, “What was it like for them at their kitchen table in the wake of the boat crash? What was it like for the families that were caught up in the vortex of the boat crash saga, and or who were people who worked with Alex, or were friends with Paul, or any of those things?” He said that with the help of Mandy’s reporting and her connections to the community, which had witnessed the whole thing unfold before their eyes, they were able to bring a sense of authenticity to the story and its characters. Due to some gaps in the knowledge, certain creative liberties were taken in presenting the events and characters.

One major shuffle in the timeline occurred with the death of Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh family’s housekeeper, who passed away at the family’s hunting property in Moselle under mysterious circumstances. This occurred about a year before the boat accident involving Paul Murdaugh. In the show, however, she is depicted as alive at the time of the accident, for dramatic effect. In this way, a combination of fact and fiction is used to create a story that the creators hope is “exciting and compelling.” Their intention with the show is to present the tale of “this very complex, very complicated family,” and their wish for the viewers is to find the humanity in the characters, despite their flaws.

Read More: Murdaugh Family Tree, Fully Explained