Dateline: Secrets Uncovered - What happened to Paul and Maggie Murdaugh?

Dateline: Secrets Uncovered explored the chilling murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh in its most recently released episode titled, The Murdaugh Murders: Inside the Investigation, which was released on Wednesday, July 16, 2025.

On June 7, 2021, a prominent lawyer from South Carolina, Alex Murdaugh, called 911 to report that his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and son, Paul Murdaugh, had been shot at their home in Islandton. The tragic incident shocked the community, and an investigation into their deaths began, which slowly uncovered the dark secrets that Alex was hiding.

Dateline: Secrets Uncovered explores the case in detail, looking into the details of the investigation, as well as the trial that followed.

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Dateline: Secrets Uncovered explores what happened to Paul and Maggie Murdaugh

The Murdaugh family founded and ran one of the state’s most prominent law firms, which allowed Alex to have a lavish lifestyle for himself and his family. However, their seemingly idyllic life came to an end on June 7, 2021, when Alex reported that he had found his wife and youngest son shot to death near the dog kennels at 10 PM that night.

Alex told the authorities that he had dinner that night with Maggie and Paul and went to visit his ailing mother at 9 PM that night. He returned home just after 10 PM to the horrific scene of the crime, as per Dateline: Secrets Uncovered.

The case took an unexpected turn in September 2021 when Alex called 911 once again, claiming that he had been shot in the head while he was changing his car's tires. However, he was not fatally hurt and had only been grazed by the bullet. At the scene of the alleged shooting, investigators noticed that the tire in question appeared to have been deliberately cut with a pocket knife with Alex’s DNA on it.

This led them to suspect that Alex played a role in his own shooting, and the same was later confirmed by Alex himself. He confessed that he had been fired from his law firm after he was caught stealing money from the firm as well as from his legal clients. Moreover, the death of his wife and son left him despondent, and he wanted to die.

But Alex claimed that he wanted his surviving son, Buster, to be able to collect his $10 million life insurance policy, so he enlisted his former client, Curtis “Eddie” Smith, to shoot him. Following this incident, Alex was arrested. The charges against him included insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and filing a false police report. Smith also admitted to shooting Alex, and he was charged.

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Dateline: Secrets Uncovered- What happened to Alex?

In the following months, Alex was charged with several financial crimes, and investigators suspected he killed Maggie and Paul to hide his wrongdoings. But they needed solid evidence to prove it.

Progress in the case came when investigators accessed Paul’s phone. They discovered that on the night of the murders, Alex’s Chevrolet Suburban slowed to 42 mph near the spot where Maggie’s phone was later found.

It was then accelerated up to 74 miles per hour. Moreover, Alex had called 911 just 17 seconds after returning home, which was not enough time for him to have discovered the bodies. While Alex denied killing Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, he was indicted on July 14, 2022, and his trial began six months later. According to Dateline: Secrets Uncovered, Alex was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

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Catch Dateline: Secrets Uncovered's The Murdaugh Murders: Inside the Investigation, now streaming on Peacock.