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Dateline: Secrets Uncovered brings viewers the harrowing details about the Murdaugh murders. The episode was released on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, and is available to stream on Peacock.
The chilling murders of Paul Murdaugh and Maggie Murdaugh, who were the youngest son and wife of powerful South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh, are explored in the most recently released episode of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered.
It is titled, The Murdaugh Murders: Inside the Investigation.
On June 7, 2021, Alex Murdaugh called 911 and reported that his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and son, Paul Murdaugh, had been shot at their home in Islandton, South Carolina.
The chilling incident shocked the small rural community of Islandton and led to an investigation, which revealed some dark secrets that Alex was hiding.
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The Murdaugh murders: 5 chilling details explored
1. Paul Murdaugh and Maggie Murdaugh were found dead
On June 7, 2021, Alex Murdaugh, father and husband of Paul and Maggie, reported that he had found his wife and youngest son shot to death at 10 PM that night.
He told the police that he had dinner with them that night as per usual and then went to visit his ailing mother at 9 PM. When he returned just after 10 PM, he found the two of them dead.
2. A twist to the Murdaugh murders
The case took an unexpected turn in September 2021 when suddenly Alex once again called 911 and claimed that he had been shot in the head while he was changing his car's tires.
When the police arrived, they found that Alex was not fatally hurt and had only been grazed by the bullet.
However, when investigations were conducted, it was found that the tire in question, which Alex claimed to be changing, appeared to have been deliberately cut with a pocket knife, which had Alex’s DNA on it.
This led the police to suspect that Alex had a role in his own shooting.
3. Dark secrets about Alex come to light
The suspicions of the authorities that Alex was involved in his own shooting were confirmed by Alex himself. He confessed that he had been fired from his law firm after he ran into trouble for stealing money from the firm as well as from his legal clients.
He also claimed that the death of his wife and son left him devastated, and he wanted to die.
However, he said that he wanted his surviving son, Buster, to be able to collect his $10 million life insurance policy, so instead he set up the scene for his attempted suicide to look like a murder scene.
He also admitted that he had asked his former client, Curtis “Eddie” Smith, to shoot him.
This led to Alex being arrested and charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and filing a false police report.
4. Evidence found in the Murdaugh murders case
Investigators believed that it was Alex who killed Maggie and Paul to keep his financial crimes a secret. Evidence for this could only be provided when investigators finally gained access to Paul’s cell phone.
They discovered that Paul had recorded a video of one of the family's dogs on Snapchat and sent it to several of his friends moments before he was shot.
The video had captured Alex Murdaugh's voice in the background, which placed him at the scene of the crime.
Moreover, it was also found that while going to visit his mother, Alex’s Chevrolet Suburban recorded that he had slowed to a speed of just 42 miles per hour at the scene where his wife’s phone was later discovered.
Also, Alex had called 911 just 17 seconds after returning home, which was too short a time for him to have discovered the bodies and made the call.
5. Alex Murdaugh was arrested and convicted of the Murdaugh murders
Alex was indicted on July 14, 2022, but he maintained his innocence. On March 2, 2023, the jury found him guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime, and he was sentenced to life in prison.
Moreover, on April 1, 2024, he was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for his financial fraud crimes, along with his previous sentencing.
Catch more about the Murdaugh murders on Dateline: Secrets Uncovered.
