Photo. courtesy of Crosby Land Company
The South Carolina hunting lodge where a scandal-plagued lawyer’s wife and son were shot to death and a housekeeper mysteriously died is about to make its way out of legal purgatory as the blockbuster trial against Alex Murdaugh continues.
Netflix will drop its three-part series “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal” on Wednesday, about the prominent attorney accused of stealing millions from his clients and the mysterious deaths swirling around his family. The series is expected to generate renewed interest in the $3.9 million sale of the family’s nearly 1,800-acre hunting farm, which is expected to close next month.
Alex Murdaugh is currently on trial for the murder of his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and son Paul Murdaugh, 22, on June 7, 2021. He is also accused of swindling millions of dollars from his clients to help fund a drug addiction and hiring a hit man to kill him so his surviving son, Richard “Buster” Murdaugh, could collect a $10 million life insurance policy.
Alex faces more than 100 charges ranging from the murder of his wife and son to tax evasion and could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.
The 1,772.2-acre farm, spanning two counties about 90 minutes west of Charleston, SC, is expected to close on March 8, says John T. Lay. He is one of two court-appointed attorneys charged with overseeing and liquidating Alex’s assets and then putting them into a trust to compensate his victims.
The farm has reportedly been under contract since June, but the sale has been tied up in the courts. The property is also where the family’s housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, 57, was found dead in 2018.
It includes a four-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom home built in 2011. The nearly 5.300-square-foot residence includes a game room, and there is also a 1,140-square-foot guest cottage on the property. The sprawling property encompasses more than 2.5 miles of property along the Salkehatchie River, a 20-acre dove field, and 12 dog kennels.
Alex had transferred the property to his wife for $5 plus “love and affection” in 2016, which attorneys have argued was an attempt to shield his assets from pending and future lawsuits.
“That’s the question, whether he transferred the Moselle Farm property out of his name and into his wife’s name to avoid it being used as an asset to pay off his creditors,” says South Carolina real estate attorney Tiffiny Wolf, of Goggans, Stutzman, Hudson, Wilson & Mize, who is not connected to the case. “Mr. Murdaugh is an attorney, so he has options available to him that the general public is not going to have. He’s going to know more about real estate and forming corporations, so it’s possible the properties he owns may or may not be as accessible to creditors.”
Alex’s victims, those he is accused of swindling and those who lost family members as a result of their ties to the Murdaughs, have been jockeying for compensation from a sale of the property.
The family of Mallory Beach filed a lawsuit against the estate last year. She was killed in 2019 in a boating accident when son Paul was allegedly driving intoxicated. The Beach family accused Alex and the Murdaugh family of contributing to Paul’s underage drinking.
Once the sale goes through, the Beaches are expected to receive more than $600,000, while the Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster, is to be awarded about $500,000 for his inheritance from his mother’s estate, says Lay. An additional $275,000 is to be split among other victims.
In addition, the $2 million-plus lien on the property from the mortgage company Palmetto State Bank will be paid off, says Lay.
Alex’s Edisto, SC, beach house was sold for $955,000 in July 2022, according to property records. The proceeds are being held in a trust for the victims. The four-bedroom, three-bathroom home is back on the market for $1,184,000.
One of seven islands off the coast of South Carolina that Alex owned jointly with Barrett Boulware, a suspected drug smuggler who died in 2018, was sold in December. The 20-acre property was unloaded for $285,000. Boulware was also the previous owner of the Moselle Farm, according to property documents.
Other properties are either under contract or are expected to go back up for sale, says Lay. He stressed that these are small properties without any structures on them where new development is prohibited. The proceeds of the sale are to be split with the Boulware estate.
“It’s a very legally complicated and convoluted mess,” says South Carolina real estate attorney Gary Pickren, of Blair Cato Pickren Casterline, who has no connection to the case.
Pickren stressed how powerful and well-known the Murdaugh family has been in the state. “It’s been very intriguing to watch them fall.”
The post South Carolina Farm Where Alex Murdaugh Is Accused of Murdering His Wife and Son About To Be Sold appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.