On June 7, 2021, Alex Murdaugh called 911 to report that his wife and son were shot to death in cold blood. At the same time, Murdaugh was charged with egregious financial crimes involving the theft of millions of dollars. Eventually, he was convicted for the murders, which was covered in the Netflix documentary Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal. Now the second season is on the way.
Murdaugh’s wife Maggie was 52, and their son Paul was a 22-year-old junior at the University of South Carolina. Murdaugh said he found the bodies near the dog kennels, and that he was gone visiting his mother.
Prosecutors argued that he murdered his family and then left to create an alibi. Things got even more strange when Murdaugh, with help from his cousin, tried to fake his own death by gunshot. On March 2, Murdaugh was found guilty for murdering his wife and son after a three-hour jury deliberation. He was sentenced to life in prison.
The first season of Murdaugh Murders followed the events leading up to the jury’s decision. The second season “features firsthand accounts from those who were there the days leading up to and following the murders.”
Those interviews include “former Murdaugh family housekeeper Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson” and “matriarch Libby Murdaugh’s former caretaker Mushelle ‘Shelly’ Smith.” Both of them were pivotal in securing Murdaugh’s conviction.
It came out in the trial that Murdaugh offered Smith a really nice wedding gift after they didn’t agree on how much time he was at his mother’s house the night of the murders.
She said he told her, “If someone asks you, I was here for 30 to 40 minutes.”
Other interviews include Curtis Edward Smith (aka “Cousin Eddie”), who allegedly shot Murdaugh in the head in a failed hitman scheme. The documentary also features juror Gwen Generette, the slain son’s girlfriend Morgan Doughty, his friend Anthony Cook, and a reporter for the Wall Street Journal named Valerie Bauerlein.
This season of the show is directed by Michael Gasparro (Fyre Fraud) and executive produced by Julia Willoughby Nason. In another twist in a case full of them, Murdaugh’s other son Buster recently went on FOX Nation and claimed that his father is innocent and the real killer is still out there.
“I do not think that he could be affiliated with endangering my mother and brother,” Buster said. “We have been here for a while now and that’s been my stance.”
The second season of Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal premieres on Netflix on Sept. 20. The first season is streaming now.