A high-profile criminal case in the US state of South Carolina has taken another turn: a prominent lawyer, whose wife and son had been murdered three months ago, admitted to having commissioned an alleged assassination attempt against him.
Alex Murdaugh wanted to achieve through his death that his other son receives a life insurance policy worth around ten million dollars, the police said.
He therefore commissioned a previous client who had also supplied him with opiates to do the deed.
He was arrested for, among other things, homicide on demand and insurance fraud.
The Murdaugh case has preoccupied South Carolina for months.
On June 7, the attorney's 52-year-old wife and 22-year-old son, who belongs to a well-known family of lawyers, were found shot dead on family property in Islandton.
The background to the fact remains unclear to this day.
On September 4, Murdaugh himself was gunned down on the side of a country road when he was allegedly about to change a car tire.
The 53-year-old was injured in the head but survived and was flown to a hospital.
The day before, Murdaugh had been fired from his law firm for allegedly embezzling funds from clients.
A lot of money was spent on opiates
Now he admitted to having orchestrated the alleged murder himself.
According to a police document, he gave a former client a gun and ordered him to shoot him in the head.
The man is reportedly confessed.
Murdaugh's attorney Dick Harpootlian told NBC News that the lawyer was addicted to opiates and spent a lot of money on the highly addictive pain reliever, oxycodone.
He wanted to take his own life, but feared that in this case the life insurance would not be paid out to his son.
"He arranged for the man to shoot him," said Harpootlian.
Meanwhile, there are no new findings in the investigation into the murder of Murdaugh's wife Maggie and his son Paul.
In 2019 Paul was involved in a boat accident in which a 19-year-old was killed.
He was charged with steering the boat while drunk.
jok / AFP