It has been over a year since Alex Murdaugh told police he arrived home at his family’s expansive estate in Islandton, South Carolina, and discovered the lifeless bodies of his wife, Maggie, 52, and their son Paul, 22.

Maggie and Paul Murdaugh had been shot to death with two different firearms. That was on June 7, 2021.

Alex Murdaugh was once a respected and powerful attorney in Hampton County. His family had a tight hold on local politics — generations of Murdaughs held the office of 14th Circuit Solicitor for more than 85 years.

At the time of Maggie and Paul’s murders, Alex Murdaugh was thought by many to be a grieving victim himself but over the past year, that has all changed.

Recently, Cox Media Group’s Nicole Bennett had the opportunity to speak with Riley Benson, anchor/reporter for News 2 in Charleston, S.C., about the Murdaughs. Benson joined News 2 as a reporter in November of 2019. Since then, he’s covered some of the biggest events facing the Low Country, including presidential debates, COVID-19, riots in downtown Charleston, and of course, the Murdaugh family murders and subsequent investigations.

>> Listen to the full episode below.

Beyond Criminal Headlines is a true crime podcast where every two weeks, host Nicole Bennett sits down with esteemed journalists from across the industry who’ve covered some of the most notorious crimes in American history. Find the latest ‘Beyond Criminal Headlines’ content on any podcast provider or listen on demand here.

On July 14, a Colleton County Grand Jury indicted 54-year-old Alex Murdaugh on two counts of murder, and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, in connection to the June 2021 deaths of his wife and son.

Before the bombshell murder charges, Murdaugh faced more than 80 other criminal charges through 16 state grand jury indictments for schemes to defraud several victims—including the family of his late housekeeper, a deaf quadriplegic man and a highway patrolman injured in the line of duty—of a total sum of nearly $8.5 million.

Just this week, a judge denied an effort to put in place a gag order in the disgraced attorney’s murder trial. South Carolina circuit court judge Clifton Newman issued the order on Monday, Aug. 1, and instructed both parties that efforts to suppress “pretrial publicity” were denied.

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