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It's almost an afterthought in the Alec Murdoch
case. Who was his wife Maggie? And how did the

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one known as the Friendly Murdoch end up as fodder
in one of the biggest scandals in recent South

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Carolina history? By all accounts, Maggie Murdoch
was your average All-America Southern belle

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Born in Nashville, Tennessee, to Terry and
Kennedy Branstetter, she had a modest upbringing

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one that was seemingly based on traditional
Southern values. Her father worked for DuPont

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and the family eventually relocated to Unionville,
Pennsylvania, where Maggie attended high school

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and was a member of the track team. One
of her classmates, Lisa Hindman-Moore

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told the New York Post in 2021 that
Murdoch came from a very proper family

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and aspired to have a family of her own one day. She recalled, We had our
little cliques, and we ran after boys and did a little partying and drinking

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but I think her dreams were what she was taught.
She was from the South, and the Southern dream

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for a girl at that time was to finish college,
maybe, but more importantly, find a husband

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get married, and have kids. Although Hyman Moore
considered Murdoch a friend, their friendship

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apparently didn't last thanks to some mean girl behavior. She said, She was just
a pretty girl, wearing the same preppy clothes we all did. I remember us out

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in the fields drinking a six-pack, but Margaret
— we never called her Maggie — was always thin

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She would pick at me for being heavier.
Regardless, Hyman Moore said Murdoch didn't

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deserve what happened to her. Reflecting on her murder, she mused, I think she
got in too deep and didn't have a voice, but she had to be quiet on account of who

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she was married to. That was the tragedy, I think.
Maggie met the man she would marry and who would

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later be convicted of killing her when they were
students at the University of South Carolina

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Alec Murdoch was one year ahead of his future
wife, and as one of her friends anonymously told

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the New York Post in 2021, he was her first real
boyfriend. Thanks to his family name, Alec was

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probably considered a catch by many. However,
marrying him meant that Maggie would have

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to immerse herself in the family
and the culture of his hometown

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While the town of Hampton was small, the Murdock
name loomed large as one of the most well-known

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legal families in the state. Ever since his
great-grandfather Randolph Murdock Sr. was

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appointed 14th Circuit Solicitor in 1920 the offices belonged to a Murdock male That is until Alec came along Alec was passed over in favor of Duffy Stone
which broke the line of succession that had spanned three generations While he may not have inherited the office held by his father grandfather and great

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Alec still enjoyed all the weight and
privilege the Murdoch name carried

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And with Maggie by his side, they ran
the town, according to one family member

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They went on to tell the Post, They owned the police. They
could always do whatever they wanted. There was no fear of

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consequences or repercussions to anything they
did. Murdoch's don't really get told no much

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Alec and Maggie had two sons, Buster and Paul.
By all accounts, Maggie, a stay-at-home mom

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was a devoted and loving parent. A family member told the New York Post, She bent
over backwards for her kids, maybe to a fault. Those boys wanted for nothing

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The boys were Murdoch's and, as such, were
afforded what some would consider more than

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their fair share of leniency and protection.
For instance, there was speculation that the

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oldest son, Buster, was involved in the
hit-and-run death of 19-year-old Stephen Smith

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although he has vehemently and publicly
denied any involvement and was never charged

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Buster's younger brother Paul, on the other hand, was charged with a serious crime.
Paul had a reputation for being aggressive and volatile, even when he was a kid

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The family member told the New York Post, I saw him snap at least
once. He told his aunt Nancy to go f*** herself. It was about 10 years

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ago, and he would have been around 11. He did not
take authority well. And things only got worse as

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time went on, as a friend of the family noted in
the Netflix documentary series Murdoch Murders

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A Southern Scandal. But when Paul started getting
older, that's when his reckless behavior became

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much worse. At the time of his death, Paul was
being charged in connection with a boat crash

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that killed his friend Mallory Beach. He pleaded
not guilty, but was killed before the case was

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tried, so no one knows for certain. As for what
happened to Alec Murdoch's only surviving son

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Buster, he married his longtime girlfriend,
Brooklyn White, and has filed several defamation

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suits over the Smith allegations. In a family
full of powerful men, it sounds like Maggie was

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a breath of fresh air. She took her role as the
matriarch of the family seriously, but she remained

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true to her roots and was considered by many
who knew her to be a kind, caring, loving woman

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family friend Bubba Mixon told the New York Post, When the longtime
family housekeeper Gloria Satterfield was in the hospital Maggie was

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the only Murdoch to visit her, despite even
with the drama going on in her own life at

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the time with Paul's boating accident. Despite
the scandals that often seemed to swirl around

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her family, Maggie had a fun side, and like
the men in her life, she knew how to have

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a good time. A family member said, She'd let her hair down and
drop some F-bombs and tell you to piss off if she felt like it

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She had a great, dry sense of humor. She had
this thing where she'd roll her eyes when

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someone was doing something stupid, like Alec or Paul. Despite her good
nature and everything she had going for her, that old saying still rang true

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money can't buy happiness. Even with her comfortable
lifestyle, Maggie supposedly had marriage issues that only

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worsened toward the end of her life. A source
who was said to be close to the family claimed

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to the Daily Mail, their marriage was absolutely
on the rocks. Alec and Maggie didn't look at each

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other like they were married. There was no love
lost between them. I never saw them touch or be

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affectionate to each other. Part of the reason may
have been Alec's alleged affair. While testifying

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during Alec's murder trial, Maggie's sister,
Marion Proctor, alleged that Alec had cheated

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on his wife many years ago, and Maggie had kicked
him out of the house. Proctor also claimed that

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her late sister was still bothered by it up
until her death. During her testimony, she said

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She did not think anything was
going on. It still bothered her

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On top of the alleged sexual indiscretions,
Alec grappled with prescription drug addiction

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Chris Wilson, who claimed to be Alec's best
friend, confirmed this during the murder trial

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During his testimony, Wilson said that Alec had
once admitted to him that he'd been addicted to

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opioids for two decades. Wilson also claimed
that Alec told him that he'd been stealing money

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from his law firm and from clients. During his
own testimony, Alec confirmed he had been misusing

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opioids for years. While we may never know the
full story, there has been speculation about where

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Maggie and Alec's marriage was headed. Unconfirmed
rumors have floated that Maggie was living apart

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from Alec at the time of her death. People later
reported that some of Alec's co-workers had

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claimed that something seemed amiss in the
marriage, as Maggie spent less time around

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the office than usual Another source told the magazine that Maggie had met with a divorce attorney just a few weeks before her death
Apparently she was trying to get a handle on the state of the family finances to determine how she would fare if worse came to worse

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There were indications that the family was under
increasing amount of stress on multiple levels

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The source told the publication, she didn't
pay close attention to the family money or

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where it came from, but now she was starting to look into it. Those close to
the Murdochs denied any rumors of marital problems, much less divorce talks

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A spokesperson for Alec issued a
statement refuting the claims. It read

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The most recent allegations by People magazine
regarding the state of Maggie and Alec Murdoch's

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marriage are totally inconsistent with what we
have been told by friends and family members

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Also, we have reviewed many years
of text messages on Alec's phone

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and the conversations between Alec and
Maggie portray a very loving relationship

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Maggie's friend Maria Cordero got more
to the point and told the New York Post

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None of what they're saying is true, and it's nobody's business, neither. If it's
true that Maggie was starting to look into the family finances, then it's probably

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also true that she may have been shocked
by what she found. From all appearances

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the Murdochs lived a life of wealth and excess,
complete with private jets and luxurious vacations

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But the reality was much different. Maggie
may have started to see the truth when she

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experienced an embarrassing incident. A source claimed to the Daily Mail,
I remember one day, it must have been a few months before she was killed

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she was crying because she had written a
check at a charity luncheon and it had bounced

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She thought at first there must have been some mistake, but
when she found out there wasn't, she was mortified and upset

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In addition to two counts of murder, Alec
was also convicted of financial crimes

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including money laundering and wire fraud. Hopefully
he serves out the double murder convictions

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but the backstop was always these financial crimes. The source continued, I think when
Maggie married Alec, she didn't have to think about money or where it was coming from

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and when she started asking questions, she
definitely picked her battles. He'd always

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tell her not to worry about it, that he'd figure
it out, he'd fix it. As the tragic story of the

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Murdoch's lives unfolded, the residents of their
small community realized that nothing was as it

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seemed. As one member of their social circle told
People, behind all those black ties and fancy

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dresses were some pretty miserable people