Unsolved Murdaugh Murders Expose Years of South Carolina Mysteries

Alex Murdaugh, the powerful lawyer who asked a handyman to kill him, had a spectacular fall from grace. Five people in his family’s orbit have died in recent years, and investigators are looking for connections.

HAMPTON, S.C. — Curtis Edward Smith, a handyman and former logger, had done his share of odd jobs over the years for Alex Murdaugh, a lawyer and scion of one of the most powerful legal families in the South Carolina Lowcountry.

But Mr. Smith said he was reluctant to do the last job Mr. Murdaugh asked for when the two men met at the side of a rural road one Saturday in September.

“I want you to shoot me in the back of the head,” Mr. Smith recalled Mr. Murdaugh telling him. He said Mr. Murdaugh had a loaded gun in his hand.