Paul Murdaugh’s long-time girlfriend has broken her silence to accuse the murdered 22-year-old of physical abuse – and claimed his parents once helped cover up a serious car crash because their son was driving drunk.
Morgan Doughty, 23, spoke out about her turbulent relationship with Alex Murdaugh‘s younger son, Paul, for the first time in a new Netflix documentary ‘Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal’. She described him as an abusive partner who would often drink, claiming that one night he started kicking her, and when she told him to stop, grabbed her by the throat and punched her.
Doughty also detailed the events following a 2017 Christmas party, where she alleged a drunk Paul crashed his truck, with his family rushing to the scene to hide guns and beer cans in the vehicle before police arrived.
She then recalled how the family’s housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, had found bags of pills belonging to Alex Murdaugh, who was addicted to opioids, and told Paul about it the same year she died from a fall at their estate.
The new allegations comes amid the fifth week Alex’s double murder trial, where he is accused of shooting dead Paul and his wife, Maggie, on June 7, 2021, at the family’s sprawling hunting lodge Moselle in South Carolina.
Morgan Doughty (pictured) broke her silence to discuss her relationship with Paul Murdaugh, claiming he often abused alcohol and crashed his truck full of beer cans and guns in 2017, an event she said his family helped cover up
Doughty, pictured together with Paul, said their romance soured over his alleged heavy drinking and physical abuse, claiming he once grabbed her by the throat and hit her
The three-part Netflix documentary dives into the five deaths linked to the prominent legal family between 2015 and 2021.
Speaking in the documentary, Doughty, who moved to South Carolina with her parents when starting high school, said she had a strong connection with Paul, and the two began going out in their junior year.
Alex Murdaugh (pictured) is on trial for the 2021 fatal shooting of his son, Paul, and wife, Maggie, at his hunting lodge
During their young romance, Doughty said she and her friends would hang around Paul’s home, where his parents allegedly offered the minors liquor on a regular basis.
‘Whenever I came around the Murdaugh’s, it was very normal for them to be drinking and have a lot of alcohol always stocked in the house,’ Doughty said.
The claims of the Murdaugh’s prevalent drinking culture matches what Doughty told police after the 2019 death of her friend Mallory Beach, 19 – who was killed in a boat crash allegedly driven by Paul when he was drunk.
In her affidavit, Doughty provided 25 videos of minors drinking alcohol with Alex and his family present.
But while the fatal boat crash has been heavily scrutinized, Doughty claimed Paul was responsible for another drunk driving incident two years prior.
On December 25, 2017, Doughty claimed she was driving an intoxicated Paul home when he ‘aggressively’ demanded that he drive his truck.
She said he then lost control and crashed into a ditch, adding that beer cans and guns inside the truck rolled over everywhere.
When she tried to call 911 for help, Doughty said Paul grabbed her phone and hung up, opting instead to call his grandfather, Randolph Murdaugh, and Alex.
Doughty claimed Randolph, Alex and Maggie Murdaugh rushed to the scene, and before checking up on the teens, they cleared the truck of the guns and beer cans.
She added that they chastised her for calling 911 because it would have meant trouble for their youngest son Paul.
Doughty said Alex and Maggie Murdaugh were fully aware of their son’s drinking and that they often offered alcohol to minors. Pictured: a picture of Doughty giving Alex a shot in 2018
Doughty said Paul would drink regularly with friends as a minor (left), and would drink alcohol provide to him by his parents (right)
Doughty said there was a prevalent culture of drinking alcohol at the Murdaugh estate
Due in part to Paul’s alleged constant drinking, Doughty said their relationship began to sour, with her friends warning her to stay away from him.
In the documentary, her friend Miley Altman said she and Beach would tell Doughty to end things with Paul, saying the couple would breakup over the weekends and get back together again.
Describing her relationship with Paul, Doughty said: ‘I think that our relationship is just something that I really clung to just because when it was good, it was really good. But when it was bad, it was really bad.’
She said their arguments began getting physical, and it all came to a head one night when they were celebrating Buster Murdaugh’s graduation and Paul began kicking her at a hotel they were staying at.
Doughty noted that Paul was drunk, and when he told her to stop, he grabbed her by the throat.
‘He got on top of me, and I just remember him screaming, “I told you to shut up,”‘ she recalled.
‘Just holding down my throat. I just remember then he punched me really hard in the knee,’ she added as she began to cry.
Doughty’s parents, Bill and Diane, said they had no idea what their daughter had gone through, but said she was through with him on the day of the accident.
‘She was done,’ her mother, said. ‘That was it.’
‘She always said that Mallory saved her, and that’s one way, really, she saved her.’
Along with her own inner turmoil, Doughty also offered insight into Paul, saying that he often felt he was a disappointment to his family and that he only got approval from the family’s housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield.
Doughty said Satterfield was ‘Paul’s second mom,’ and that the housekeeper had told him about ‘baggies of pills’ she found that belonged to Alex.
Alex had been abusing opioids for years, and was often confronted about it by his family, including Paul just a month before he and Maggie were murdered on June 7, 2021.
Doughty noted that Satterfield’s discovery occurred in 2018, the same year she fell to her death in Alex’s hunting lodge.
Doughty also said that Paul (left) felt like he was a disappointment to his family after his brother Buster (right) sought a career in law like their father
Paul’s biggest supporter was housekeeper Gloria Satterfield (pictured), Doughty said, describing her as Paul’s second mom. She died in a fall at Alex’s hunting lodge in 2018, the same year she found the legal scion’s ‘baggie of pills’
The majority of the first episode in the Netflix series was dedicated to Beach’s death and Paul’s alleged role in it.
Beach, 19, was thrown from the boat when it crashed into Archers Creek Bridge, in Beaufort South Carolina, in February 2019. Her body was found five days later.
It is believed Paul, 19, was drunk at the time, with brother Buster accused of lending his younger brother his ID in order for him to buy alcohol before the crash.
Also speaking in the Netflix series was Anthony Cook, Beach’s boyfriend, and his cousin Connor Cook, Miley’s boyfriend.
Connor spoke about his outrage when the Murdaugh family attempted to pin the crash boat crash on him.
‘I wanted to beat the sh** out of him because I wasn’t driving,’ Connor said, adding that he was relieved when Paul was finally indicted over Mallory’s death
At the time of his death, Paul was awaiting trial on three felony counts – two of boating under the influence and one of causing death and bodily injury.
He had been indicted and released on a $50,000 bond.
According to legal documents seen by DailyMail.com, Murdaugh was ‘highly intoxicated,’ ‘drunk’ and ‘belligerent,’ on the February night two years ago when he sped his boat into a piling on Archer’s Creek.
All of the six youths on board that night were under 21, were ejected from the vessel and but Beach did not make it to shore.
Beach’s mother filed a $50million creditors claim against the estate of Paul and his late mother Maggie, while other boat crash survivors – Doughty and Altman – also filed claims against the Murdaugh estates for $10million and $5million.
Creditors claims filed against an estate are legal means for claimants to get money they feel they are owed from someone after they have died.
Doughty’s friend, Mallory Beach (pictured) disapproved of her relationship with Paul. Beach, 19, died when an allegedly drunk Paul crashed his father’s boat in 2019
Pictured: Blood found on the Murdaugh yacht following the fatal boat crash
Paul was allegedly driving the boat drunk with his friends on board when the boat crashed, sending everyone flying overboard, with all but Beach returning to shore
Pictured: Paul (right) walking with the group of friends to the yacht on the night of the crash
Last month, the family of Mallory Beach reached a tentative settlement with Buster Murdaugh in the $50million lawsuit.
The cost of the settlement has not been made public, but ABC News 4 reported that it had been told it is a ‘significant’ amount.
Reports say the settlement will mean that Buster and his late mother Maggie Murdaugh – who was accused of knowing her son Paul was drunk when he went out boating that night – are no longer named on the lawsuit.
This would leave just Paul and Buster’s father Alex and Parker’s Kitchen convenience store (where Paul purchased alcohol underage) as being named.
TIMELINE OF MURDAUGH FAMILY MURDERS, DEATHS, LAWSUITS AND ARRESTS
Police investigating the double murder of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh have also reopened the case into a 2015 hit-and-run of teen Stephen Smith
July 8, 2015: Teenager Stephen Smith dies
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Smith was found on the side of the road.
Police officially rule his death a hit-and-run but he had suffered blunt force trauma to the head.
His mother has since shared her belief that she thinks he was killed in a hate-crime because he was gay.
Case notes obtained by DailyMail.com revealed Paul’s older brother Buster was named multiple times in the investigation.
Police wanted to know more about his relationship with Stephen.
Stephen’s mother said he had been having a ‘fling’.
In a deposition years later, one of Paul’s friends said the family had ‘covered’ other killings up.
He mentioned Smith’s death.
February 2, 2018: Murdaugh family housekeeper Gloria Satterfield dies
Murdaugh family housekeeper Gloria Sattlerfield dies
Gloria died after ‘falling’ down the stairs in the family house
The family gave her family $500,000 in a wrongful death settlement but it’s unclear why her death was ruled to be their fault.
Alex Murdaugh was listed as the defendant in the lawsuit.
Satterfield was only 57 when she died.
She left behind a husband and children.
Her death was also mentioned in the deposition by Paul Murdaugh’s friend.
February 23, 2019: Mallory Beach dies being thrown from boat driven by Paul Murdaugh
Mallory Beach, 19, died in February 2019
Paul was charged afterwards because he’d been drinking and was behaving ‘belligerently’ that night.
He had been released on bond.
One of the six teens on board testified that they were scared to speak about the Murdaugh family because they knew how to ‘cover things up’.
The boy named Stephen Smith and the housekeeper, and claimed Paul pushed Beach from the boat.
June 7, 2021: Paul and Maggie are murdered
The mother and son were found shot dead at the family home in Islandton, South Carolina.
Alex Murdaugh says he found them at the home.
The medical examiner said the pair had been dead for an hour at most when he discovered them.
It was later revealed Alex waited an hour to call 911 about their deaths.
Alex’s son Paul, 22, (left) and wife Maggie, 52, (right) were found dead from multiple gunshot wounds on June 7 at the family hunting lodge
Alex’s father Randolph Murdaugh III died ‘peacefully’ at home three days after Maggie and Paul were found shot dead
June 10, 2021: Alex’s 81-year-old father Randolph Murdaugh III dies ‘naturally’ and ‘peacefully’ at home
Alex Murdaugh’s alibi for the night of his wife and son’s murder was that he was visiting his ailing father in the hospital.
The father died just three days later, following a battle with cancer.
September 3, 2021: Alex resigns from his law firm amid claims he misused funds
The firm has hired a forensic investigator to go through the accounts.
September 4, 2021: Alex calls 911 claiming he’s been shot in the head in a drive-by
He only had ‘surface’ wounds and was also able to call his brother.
September 6, 2021: Alex resigns from law firm
In a statement he says: ‘I’m resigning from my law firm and entering rehab after a long battle that has been exacerbated these murders.’
September 14, 2021: Police arrest alleged hitman in Alex’s shooting
Police said Alex Murdaugh orchestrated his own shooting in a botched assisted suicide scheme, designed so his surviving son can collect a $10 million life insurance payment.
Curtis Edward Smith, 61, was arrested on charges of assisted suicide, assault and battery, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.
Smith, from Walterboro, South Carolina, is a former client of Murdaugh, who represented him in minor traffic matters as well as a 2015 lawsuit that Smith filed against a forest management company.
According to police, Murdaugh paid him to shoot him in the head and kill him, making it look like a random, drive-by attack.
September 15, 2021: Police open criminal investigation into Satterfield’s 2018 death
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) announced it is investigating the 2018 death of Gloria Satterfield and the subsequent handling of her estate.
Satterfield, 57, had been the Murdaugh housekeeper and nanny for around 25 years when she suffered a fatal brain injury following a mystery fall inside the Murdaugh family home.
She died several weeks later on February 26, 2018.
SLED said that hit had opened a criminal investigation inter Satterfield’s death based on a request from the Hampton County Coroner, as well as ‘information gathered during the course of our other ongoing investigations involving Alex Murdaugh.’
September 16, 2021: Alex turns himself into police over insurance fraud scheme
Murdaugh handed himself over to police in connection to the insurance fraud scheme, where he arranged his own killing so that his surviving son could collect $10 million payout.
He faces charges of insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false police report.
November 29, 2021: Murdaugh faces 27 new counts after an indictment for an alleged $4.8 million in financial crimes
Murdaugh was indicted on 27 additional charges, with prosecutors saying he stole nearly $5million in settlement money he had obtained for his dead housekeeper, an injured state trooper and other people, as well as fees meant for his law firm.
December 6, 2021: Satterfield’s family sues Bank of America for allowing Murdaugh to stash life insurance money meant for them
The bank was added as a defendant in the lawsuit against Murdaugh, who is accused of bilking the sons of Gloria Ann Satterfield out of life insurance money after the housekeeper’s mysterious death.
Statterfield’s sons say the bank looked the other way when it allowed Murdaugh to set up a fake account and transfer the insurance payouts to himself and a cousin.
June 28, 2022: Alex Murdaugh and Curtis Smith are charged with drug trafficking
Murdaugh is accused of writing 437 checks worth $2.4 million that Curtis Smith – the man he hired to murder him – cashed over eight years, until September 2021.
Smith kept some of the money for himself and used the rest for wide-ranging illegal activities, according to indictments unsealed on June 28.
That illegal activity included a ‘distribution network’ for the painkiller oxycodone, according to prosecutors.
Both men were charged with possessing, manufacturing or distributing narcotics.
Russell Lafitte, the former Palmetto State Bank CEO, is charged with bank fraud, wire fraud and misapplication of bank funds for allegedly helping Murdaugh steal money from his client’s settlements
July 21, 2022: Palmetto State Bank CEO is charged with bank fraud for ‘helping Murdaugh steal money from his clients’
A federal grand jury indicted Russell Lafitte, the former Palmetto State Bank CEO, for allegedly conspiring with Murdaugh to steal $8.5 million from his client’s settlements.
He is charged with bank fraud, wire fraud and misapplication of bank funds.
November 8, 2022: Lafitte faces federal trial
Lafitte’s federal trial on the bank fraud charges began November 8.
The Associated Press reported that defense lawyers, Bart Daniel and Matt Austin, argue Murdaugh manipulated people and lied to Lafitte.
They say he was just a pawn following Murdaugh’s instructions and didn’t willfully participate in the alleged fraud.
