Megan Udinski, FISM News

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On September 16, Alex Murdaugh, the South Carolina lawyer at the center of a series of tragic events, was arrested on three felony charges  including insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false police report.

The charges are a result of a botched scheme of assisted suicide in which Murdaugh reportedly provided former client Curtis Edward Smith with a firearm and had him shoot him on a remote South Carolina road. Murdaugh’s suspected goal was to allow his lone surviving son to collect a $10 million insurance payout.

He was issued a $20,000 bond and released back to an out-of-state facility without GPS tracking. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in jail.

According to a South Carolina Law Enforcement Department (SLED) press release, Chief Mark Keel remarked that this was just the tip of the iceberg in the case:

I can assure you that SLED agents will continue working to bring justice to anyone involved with any criminal act associated with these ongoing investigations. The arrests in this case are only the first step in that process.

In addition, on September 15 SLED reopened the case of Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh’s  housekeeper who died suspiciously in 2018. Her death had been called a “trip and fall” incident. Gloria’s two sons have never received the insurance settlement payment of $500,000 which was owed them by Alex Murdaugh.

There has been swirling suspicion since Satterfield’s death in 2018 that her death was not merely an accident and that Alex Murdaugh may have had been complicit in her death.