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Case file s1180 · Jailed and executed · 2021
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2021
Walterboro - Colleton County Court House 01: Photomechanical print (postcard) : halftone, colored Divided back
Walterboro - Colleton County Court House 01. Curt Teich & Co.. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
June 2021 (Maggie and Paul Murdaugh); Alex Murdaugh living; retrial set for 5 April 2027
Place
Moselle, Colleton County, South Carolina, USA
Field
law (family law firm); hunting estate · Crime on the timeline
Legal tradition
South Carolina probate law (qualified disclaimer, creditor claims); South Carolina criminal law
Historical event
Murdaugh murders and financial-crimes cases, 2021 to 2027
Jailed and executedMurder and sudden deathNowNorth AmericaUnited States

Alex Murdaugh renounced his murdered wife's estate, the family estate sold for $3.9 million, and in 2026 South Carolina's top court threw out his murder conviction

Maggie Murdaugh and her younger son, Paul, were shot dead at the family's Moselle estate in June 2021. Her will left everything to her husband, Alex, a lawyer from a prominent local family. Alex filed a "qualified disclaimer" in Colleton County Probate Court saying he "renounces, rejects and absolutely refuses" her estate, which would send it to their surviving son, Buster. Reporters noted the move would put the assets out of reach of six civil suits against Alex. The 1,700-acre Moselle sold for $3.9 million in March 2023. A settlement reported by the Greenville News directed about $2.68 million to the family of Mallory Beach and two survivors of a boat crash, $100,000 to Connor Cook, $290,000 to Alex's brother John Marvin Murdaugh for the estate's legal bills, and about $530,000 to Buster. On 2 March 2023 a jury convicted Alex of both murders, and he received two life terms. He was separately sentenced to 40 years for dozens of financial crimes. On 13 May 2026 the South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously ordered a new trial. It found the county clerk of court, Becky Hill, had "egregiously attacked" his credibility with jurors, and that the financial-crimes evidence should have been kept out. Attorney General Alan Wilson said he would retry the case. Judge Debra McCaslin set a tentative retrial date of 5 April 2027; the venue is not decided. Status: murder conviction vacated; charged, awaiting retrial; in prison on the financial-crimes sentence.

What the law took from it

A disclaimer can move an inheritance to the next heir, but creditors and the court decide whether it holds.

Sources
  1. digital-release.wsav.comPress
  2. oxygen.comPress
  3. live5news.comPress
  4. wrdw.comPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Alex Murdaugh renounced his murdered wife's estate, the family estate sold for $3.9 million, and in 2026 South Carolina's top court threw out his murder conviction,” story s1180, https://www.celebrity.estate/murdaugh-estate-2021, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Jailed and executedMurder and sudden deathNowNorth AmericaUnited States