Inside Alex Murdaugh’s $4 Million Moselle Farm Estate and Its Dark History

IIt’s a case that has captured the nation’s attention for the past 21 months as the heir to the South Carolina legal dynasty, Alex Murdaugh, stood trial and was convicted of the brutal double murder of his wife and son.

Before returning their guilty verdict on March 2, the jurors returned to where it all began.

On March 1, the jury was taken to the family’s sprawling 1,700-acre Moselle estate in Islandton, South Carolina, to see for themselves the crime scene where Maggie and Paul were killed on June 7, 2021.

They visited the kennels where Murdaugh ambushed his son in the feed room, shooting him once in the chest and a second time in the head, neck and shoulder with a shotgun.

They saw where, moments after shooting Paul dead, the husband and father turned on his wife Maggie.

They saw where she desperately tried to flee from her killer, backing into an ATV under a shed outside before being shot five times with a semi-automatic rifle.

But that’s not all the jurors saw.

They also saw a location where another mysterious death took place just three years before the 2021 murders.

They saw a snapshot of life for the powerful and wealthy Murdaugh family as the $4 million property was the place they called home for several years.

And they may have even seen some of the estate’s feral pigs – the existence of which was an unusual mention throughout the disgraced lawyer’s murder trial.

The dark history of the Moselle

Bordering the banks of the Salkehatchie River, 4147 Moselle Road consists of over 1,700 acres of land including a 5,275 square foot home, a farm, a two-mile stretch of river – and of course the kennels.

Before the Murdaughs moved to Moselle, the property was linked to another controversial family.

It was the home of Barrett Boulware – a fisherman, suspected drug dealer and longtime friend and business partner of Alex Murdaugh, who died in 2018.

He and his father were arrested for drug trafficking in 1980 when investigators seized 15 tons of marijuana from a shrimp boat in the Bahamas.

The charges were later dropped when a key government witness died.

Boulware’s name came up during the murder trial when jurors heard Murdaugh stole $750,000 in insurance money from his friend when he was dying of colon cancer.

Murdaugh family home

Alex Murdaugh bought Moselle in 2013 from Boulware’s wife, Jeannine Morris Boulware, according to property records.

Murdaugh reportedly bought the entire property for just $5, FITS News reported – a move sometimes used so that the seller can avoid paying capital gains taxes.

The Moselle was just one of many homes owned by the top lawyer – and suspected financial fraudster.

The family also owned a home in Hampton, South Carolina, as well as a beach house in Edisto Beach.

During the testimony of Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster, jurors were told that the Hampton home had been their primary residence but, after it was damaged by a hurricane, the family made the Moselle their primary residence.

However, jurors heard that Maggie preferred to stay at Edisto Beach – especially during the summer months.

Buster testified that much of the land in the Moselle was in fact inaccessible and consisted of marshy land.

1,700 acres and lots of hogs

Throughout the trial, jurors heard that the property’s 1,700 acres were a hunter’s paradise with dove fields, deer stands and duck ponds all over the estate.

Murdaugh, Paul and Buster – along with their friends – spent a lot of time roaming the estate hunting deer, duck, quail, dove and hog.

In particular, the jurors heard a lot about wild hog hunting – from the time of day the hunt took place to the type of weapons used.

Several witnesses said they wandered the property and caused a nuisance, and that family – and friends – would shoot them at the first chance.

One witness even told the court how he killed around 1,000 pigs while he was in the area (but not just on the Murdaugh estate).

The property’s river also made it ideal for fishing and kayaking.

mystery shopper

In the months following the murders, Murdaugh put the Moselle on the market and it is currently being bid on for a $3.9 million offering from a mystery buyer.

The property was first listed in February 2022 – eight months after the murders of Maggie and Paul and five months before Murdaugh was charged – under the new name Cross Swamp Farm.

It was later converted into Moselle Farm.

According to the Crosby Land Co. list of Colleton County, the Moselle consists of 1,772 acres of “unusually diverse habitat with varying forest types and age-class distribution.”

“The landscape includes productive pine plantations, open fallow fields and mature pine/mixed hardwood stands, these upland areas give way to the flat lowlands of the Salkehatchie River basin,” it reads.

“The property has over 2.5 miles of river frontage offering freshwater fishing, kayaking and abundant populations of deer, turkey and waterfowl.”

The family home was built in 2011 and has four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, meaning it could ‘easily be converted into a weekend hunting lodge for up to 15 people’ , indicates the list.

“This is truly a premier property, with all the upgrades and amenities one would expect of a high-end sports property with little to no deferred maintenance costs,” it reads.

A buyer – believed to be a local landowner – made an offer in June 2022. But the sale was put on hold when Murdaugh was accused of trying to offload his assets to avoid paying in a series of lawsuits he is facing. confronted, prompting a court to freeze his assets.

Three bodies in three years

At least three deaths have now taken place in the Moselle area.

In February 2018 – three years before the murders of Maggie and Paul – the Murdaughs’ longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield died on a mysterious trip and fell into the family home.

Satterfield, who worked for the family for more than 20 years, was found at the bottom of the steps leading to the family home after tripping over the pet dogs.

She never regained consciousness and died of her injuries three weeks later on February 26.

At the time, his death was considered an accidental fall.

However, his death certificate listed his manner of death as “natural” and no autopsy was performed.

Questions are growing around Satterfield’s death and investigators reopened an investigation into his death in September 2021 – days after Murdaugh’s financial fraud scheme was uncovered.

Investigators plan to exhume his body.

As part of his 100 financial crime charges, Murdaugh is now accused of stealing $4 million in wrongful death settlement funds from Satterfield’s family as part of his long-running multimillion-dollar fraud scheme. for a decade.

The jury tour

The jury’s visit to the murder scene came at the request of Murdaugh’s defense attorney, Dick Harpootlian, who said ‘it would be helpful for the jury to see Moselle’ before deciding the fate of the murder. disgraced lawyer.

It took place under tight security, with Judge Clifton Newman telling the jurors they could not ask anyone questions while there, including law enforcement, and could not discuss the business with each other during the trip.

The judge also informed them that some things had changed on the property as a result of the murders.

“It has been a year and a half or more since June 7, 2021, since the alleged crime took place. Things have most likely changed. We are in a different season of the year,” he said on Tuesday afternoon.

Media were also banned from accompanying the jurors on the trip, although a small group of media visited the site after the jury departed.

According to a pool report of The Wall Street Journal‘s Valerie Bauerlein, the jury’s visit lasted approximately 1h20 in total, including travel time.

Pool then briefly toured the kennels, noting that it was “a heavy place to visit” with the feed room feeling “like a haunted place”.

As she stood in the center of the small room, she said she could not see to the left outside the doorway where the prosecution’s expert witness said the shooter was standing.

The place where Paul’s body fell – outside the feeding room – was within sight and only 12 paces from where Maggie’s body was found, she said. reported.

Judge Newman granted jury visit on February 27 following a request from Mr Murdaugh’s defense lawyer, prosecutor Creighton Waters raised an objection that ownership has changed in the last 20 months, the trees between the family home and the kennels having increased considerably.

Judge Newman gave the defense a rare victory and agreed to arrange the field trip to Moselle.

During the courtroom discussion, Mr Harpootlian also raised concerns about the need for security for the trip after claiming people had been caught trespassing on the property over the weekend -end.

He said Murdaugh’s brother called law enforcement to evict the intruders from Moselle as he noticed people taking selfies outside the food hall where the brutal killings took place.

“There were literally dozens of people in Moselle last weekend who trespassed, taking selfies outside the food hall,” he said, condemning the “carnivalesque attitude” of some members of the audience.

After the jury’s visit, proceedings resumed at the Colleton County Courthouse, with the defense and prosecution presenting closing arguments.

The jury was sent to deliberate on the afternoon of March 2 and returned with a guilty verdict less than three hours later.

Murdaugh will now find himself with a new, more permanent home – behind bars.