‘Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal’ Ending Explained: What Happened to the Murdaugh Family?

Welcome to the Ending Explained for Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal. A docuseries consisting of three episodes is arriving on Netflix this week. The docuseries follows the scandal surrounding the Murdaugh family, a prominent family living in the region known as the Low Country in the state of South Carolina. In about four years, the Murdaugh family transformed from being very respected and powerful to being completely decimated by one of its members.

The docuseries uses the standard format for this type of show. However, for those using HBO Max, the docuseries become completely useless. A similar docuseries on HBO Max goes deeper into the case and even reveals some more juicy details about it. In contrast to that other documentaries on the same subject, the Netflix version feels a bit incomplete, which is a shame. So, in general, both documentaries go through the same information and interview the same people of interest.

The following paragraphs contain spoilers for Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal. Read at your own risk.

Who Are The Murdaugh Family?

The Murdaugh family became prominent thanks to the law firm the family owned for many years. The family then became solicitors for the state of South Carolina, and from the fame and fortune followed. While famous and respected in their community, the family members often were the object of rumors and tales. Clearly, the Murdaugh thought they were above the law, and they could get away with pretty much anything thanks to their influence and power.

However, things started going south in February 2019 when Paul Murdaugh, the youngest son of Alex and Maggie Murdaugh, got involved in the death of Mallory Beach. Mallory was the girlfriend of Paul’s best friend, and in the way young people do, they went out one night on the Murdaugh family boat, and Paul was driving. The issue was that Paul was quite drunk while on the wheel and impacted against a lower bridge, killing Mallory instantly. The events caused a major scandal in the area and even reached the national news.

However, this was only the beginning, as Mallory’s death would make people pay attention to the Murdaugh family in ways that were not good for them. It wasn’t soon enough that investigators, and even the police, started to find weird happenings around the family. For example, the death of Gloria Satterfield, a woman who had been working for the family as a housekeeper for a long time. She supposedly died from falling down some stairs, but rumors began circulating that Maggie had killed her.

The same would happen when investigators started to pay attention to a forgotten case from some years prior. The death of Stephen Smith. A young gay man that saw classes with Buster Murdaugh, the oldest son in the family. Rumors of Smith having a relationship with Buster started to circulate, and, of course, being gay and also being a Murdaugh would not have been well received. And so, Buster disappeared from town. However, he was seen selling some stuff for his father, Alex, here and there. Not many things are known about Buster right now.

The rumor is that Smith was killed by Buster or someone else in the family to stop the rumors or the relationship.

Where Is Alex Murdaugh Right Now?

Things would become even worse for the family when Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were murdered on the night of June 7, 2021. Alex called the police, saying he had found the bodies. Of course, this led to an investigation that would make Alex Murdaugh a suspect. Here, Alex became incredibly sloppy and started a set of situations that would end up in his arrest. His wife’s and youngest son’s deaths were very suspicious, and his behavior after finding out revealed even more.

It was discovered that Alex Murdaugh was also a master con man. Basically, he used his contacts and reputation to extract money from the dead. He would start lawsuits against insurance companies in the name of the victims’ families and then keep all the money for himself. It was discovered that he had gained millions of dollars by doing this. The discovery became trendy and put Alex Murdaugh in the news once again just weeks after the deaths of his wife and son.

Just then, he would also become a center for news when he got shot on the highway. It was later discovered that Alex had paid his drug dealer to shoot him. The assisted suicide attempt failed and served as even more proof that Alex Murdaugh was hiding even darker stuff behind his reputation as a model citizen. A reputation that was now nonexistent.

In December 2022, Alex Murdaugh would be charged with a total of 106 criminal offenses. The charges extend from fraud to murder, and Alex is still awaiting a trial. The docuseries ends funny as Alex asks if Netflix has made a docuseries about him and his family.