Buster Murdaugh seen shopping – days after ‘progress’ in Stephen Smith murder investigation
Police investigating the double murder of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh also reopened the case in a 2015 hit-and-run involving teen Stephen Smith.
July 8, 2015: Teenager Stephen Smith dies
Smith was found on the side of the road.
Police are officially ruling his death a hit-and-run, but he suffered blunt force trauma to the head.
His mother has since shared her belief that she believes he was killed in a hate crime because he was gay.
Case notes obtained by DailyMail.com revealed that Paul’s older brother Buster was mentioned several times in the investigation.
The police wanted to know more about his relationship with Stephen.
Stephen’s mother said he had had an ‘affair’.
In a statement years later, one of Paul’s friends said the family had “covered up” other murders.
He mentioned Smith’s death.
February 2, 2018: Murdaugh family housekeeper Gloria Satterfield dies
Gloria Sattlerfield, the Murdaugh family’s housekeeper, has passed away
Gloria died after ‘falling down’ the stairs in the family home
The family gave her family $500,000 in a wrongful settlement, but it’s unclear why her death was considered their fault.
Alex Murdaugh was listed as the defendant in the lawsuit.
Satterfield was only 57 when she died.
She left behind a husband and children.
Her death was also mentioned in the statement by Paul Murdaugh’s friend.
February 23, 2019: Mallory Beach dies while being thrown from a boat piloted by Paul Murdaugh
Mallory Beach, 19, died in February 2019
Paul was later charged with drinking and behaving “combatantly” that night.
He had been released on bail.
One of the six teens on board testified that they were afraid to talk about the Murdaugh family because they knew how to “cover things up.”
The boy called Stephen Smith and the housekeeper, and claimed Paul pushed Beach off the boat.
June 7, 2021: Paul and Maggie are murdered
The mother and son were found shot to death at the family home in Islandton, South Carolina.
Alex Murdaugh says he found them at home.
The medical examiner said the pair had been dead for an hour at the most when he discovered them.
It was later revealed that Alex waited an hour to call 911 about their deaths.
Alex’s son Paul, 22, (left) and wife Maggie, 52, (right) were found dead from multiple gunshot wounds at the family’s hunting lodge on June 7
Alex’s father Randolph Murdaugh III died ‘peacefully’ at home three days after Maggie and Paul were shot
June 10, 2021: Alex’s 81-year-old father Randolph Murdaugh III dies ‘naturally’ and ‘peacefully’ at home
Alex Murdaugh’s alibi for the night of his wife and son’s murders was that he was visiting his ailing father in the hospital.
The father died just three days later, after a battle with cancer.
September 3, 2021: Alex resigns from his law firm over allegations that he has misused money
The company has hired a forensic investigator to review the accounts.
September 4, 2021: Alex calls 911 and claims he was shot in the head during a drive-by
He only had ‘surface’ wounds and was also able to call his brother.
September 6, 2021: Alex resigns from law firm
In a statement, he said: “I am resigning from my law firm and going to rehab after a long battle that has exacerbated these murders.”
September 14, 2021: Police arrest the alleged hitman in Alex’s shooting
Police said Alex Murdaugh orchestrated his own shooting in a botched assisted-suicide scheme designed so his surviving son can cash in on a $10 million life insurance policy.
Curtis Edward Smith, 61, was arrested on charges of assisted suicide, assault and battery, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.
Smith, of Walterboro, South Carolina, is a former client of Murdaugh, who represented him in minor traffic cases and in a 2015 lawsuit Smith filed against a forest management company.
According to police, Murdaugh paid him to shoot him in the head and kill him, making it look like a random drive-by attack.
September 15, 2021: Police open criminal investigation into Satterfield’s 2018 death
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) has announced it is investigating the 2018 death of Gloria Satterfield and the subsequent handling of her estate.
Satterfield, 57, was Murdaugh’s housekeeper and nanny for about 25 years when she suffered a fatal brain injury after a mysterious fall at the Murdaugh family home.
She died a few weeks later on February 26, 2018.
SLED said hit had opened a criminal investigation into Satterfield’s death based on a request from the Hampton County coroner, as well as “information gathered during our other ongoing investigations involving Alex Murdaugh.”
September 16, 2021: Alex turns himself in to the police for insurance fraud
Murdaugh handed himself over to the police in connection with the insurance fraud, where he arranged his own murder so that his surviving son could collect $10 million.
He is charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and making a false report to the police.
November 29, 2021: Murdaugh faces 27 new charges following $4.8 million allegation of financial crimes
Murdaugh was indicted on 27 additional charges, with prosecutors saying he stole nearly $5 million in settlement money obtained for his deceased housekeeper, an injured state agent and other people, as well as fees intended for his law firm.
December 6, 2021: Satterfield’s family is suing Bank of America for allowing Murdaugh to stash life insurance money meant for them
The bank was added as a defendant in the lawsuit against Murdaugh, who is accused of paying Gloria Ann Satterfield’s sons out of life insurance after the housekeeper’s mysterious death.
Statterfield’s sons say the bank looked the other way when Murdaugh was allowed to set up a bogus account and wire the insurance payments to himself and a cousin.
June 28, 2022: Alex Murdaugh and Curtis Smith are charged with drug trafficking
Murdaugh is accused of writing 437 checks worth $2.4 million that Curtis Smith – the man he hired to kill him – cashed over eight years, until September 2021.
Smith kept some of the money for himself and used the rest for a variety of illegal activities, according to indictments unsealed June 28.
That illegal activity, according to prosecutors, included a “distribution network” for the painkiller oxycodone.
Both men were charged with possession, production or distribution of narcotics.
Russell Lafitte, the former CEO of the Palmetto State Bank, is charged with bank fraud, bank fraud and misappropriation of bank funds for allegedly helping Murdaugh steal money from his client’s settlements
July 21, 2022: CEO of Palmetto State Bank is charged with bank fraud for ‘helping Murdaugh steal money from his clients’
A federal grand jury indicted Russell Lafitte, the former CEO of Palmetto State Bank, for allegedly conspiring with Murdaugh to steal $8.5 million from his client’s settlements.
He is charged with bank fraud, bank fraud and misappropriation of bank funds.
November 8, 2022: Lafitte faces a federal trial
Lafitte’s federal trial on the bank fraud charges began on Nov. 8.
The Associated Press reported that defense attorneys Bart Daniel and Matt Austin allege that Murdaugh manipulated people and lied to Lafitte.
They say he was just a pawn following Murdaugh’s instructions and did not knowingly participate in the alleged fraud.