WHAT'S NEXT FOR 'MURDERER' DYNASTY

Murdaugh guilty of slays, but some questions still linger

Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh began his new life in prison for killing his wife and son on Friday, but mystery and scandal continues to swirl around the remains of his family, a prominent legal dynasty that had a lot of influence in the area.

Less than 24 hours after he was convicted on two counts of murder, Murdaugh, 54, appeared for sentencing at Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, SC, on Friday, cuffed and wearing a khaki prison jumpsuit — a stark representation of how far he had fallen from his former high-flying life.

“Everyone knows [the Murdaughs], and in addition to that, they had a lot of influence here,” former friend John Wright said of the family, which had reigned over the Low Country’s legal system for more than a century.

“I thought the jury might be more reticent or fearful about convicting [Alex].”

Although Murdaugh insisted before the sentencing he would “never” hurt his family, he was handed two consecutive life terms for gunning down Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, at the family’s estate on June 7, 2021.

The conclusion of Murdaugh’s trial, however, still leaves several questions and a suspicious death linked to the disgraced scion and his relatives — as well as the moneyed family’s future.

Housemaid mystery

The Murdaughs’ longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield

(inset) spent three weeks in a coma following an alleged “trip and fall” incident at the family’s home. She died at the hospital on Feb. 8, 2018.

Alex Murdaugh claimed the family dogs caused Satterfield, 57, to trip, but her death was not reported to the coroner and an autopsy was not initially performed.

A criminal investigation into Satterfield’s death was opened in September 2021, shortly after police busted Murdaugh’s bizarre plot to be fatally shot by his drug dealer in order to secure a $10 million life insurance payout for Buster.

Once the probe was announced, Satterfield’s two sons filed a lawsuit claiming that Murdaugh never forked over the liability insurance money he promised after their mother’s death.

The grieving family recovered $4.3 million in stolen funds in October 2021. Satterfield’s son Michael later testified against Murdaugh at his trial.

An uncertain future

Now that Alex Murdaugh will officially spend the rest of his life behind bars, it remains to be seen what will happen to the remaining Murdaugh family as they try to return to life in the Low Country area they once ruled.

Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster (above), faces an especially lonely road after losing all of his immediate family members within two years.

“Buster held up pretty well until the cameras were off him — but then he collapsed,” a source told The Post of the 26-year-old’s reaction to the guilty verdict.

“He was crying uncontrollably. The uncles [Alex’s brothers, John Marvin Murdaugh and Randy Murdaugh] finally got him into a car.”

But after Buster broke down outside court Friday, minutes after his father’s conviction, he was whisked off by his uncles to what is known as “Buster’s Island” — a property on Chechessee Creek, near Beaufort, SC, that has been in the Murdaugh family since the 1970s, a source close to the family said.

“There is not a lot of warmth for Alex or Buster in Hampton these days,” one Hampton resident whose family has known the Murdaughs for decades told The Post. “I think [Buster] will stick with his uncles and stay out on Hilton Head. I don’t see him coming back here.”

Toward the end of the six-week trial, the redhead took the stand in his father’s defense.

Unrepentant but ‘haunted’

Before reading the sentence, Judge Clifton Newman said to Murdaugh: “I know you have to see Paul and Maggie during the nighttime when you’re attempting to go to sleep . . . and reflect on the last time they looked you in the eyes.”

“All day and every night,” the fallen patriarch admitted.

During the trial, the court heard extremely graphic testimony about how Maggie had been shot five times, twice in the head, and Paul had been blasted with a shotgun, exploding his skull and splattering brain all over the dog kennels.

But Murdaugh, who was stonefaced in court, continued to deny his guilt and told the unimpressed judge that he would “never hurt” his wife and son.

While Newman, 71, said he understood the state’s decision not to pursue the death penalty, he commented on the weight of Murdaugh’s conviction and sentence in light of his family’s historic influence in the Low Country courts.

“As I sit here in this courtroom and look at the portraits of many judges and court officials . . . your family, including you, have been prosecuting people in this courtroom and many have received the death penalty, probably for lesser conduct,” he said.

Before the trial started in January, a portrait of Murdaugh’s late grandfather, Randolph “Buster” Murdaugh Jr., was removed from the courtroom, Newman said, explaining that he did not want it to affect the jury.

“You’ve practiced law before me, and we’ve seen each other at various occasions throughout the years,” Judge Newman told Murdaugh.

“[The murderer] might’ve been the monster you become when you take . . . opioid pills. Maybe you become another person,” he continued, referring to the convicted killer’s admitted drug addiction.

What of the star witness?

It’s a new twist on an old axiom: A dog is a prosecutor’s best friend.

Bubba, a rambunctious yellow Labrador retriever, was not among more than 75 witnesses and nearly 800 pieces of

evidence in the six-week murder trial of disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh.

But the dog’s presence at the crime scene played a pivotal role in convicting the now-disbarred attorney. Murdaugh insisted to authorities on the night of the slayings that he wasn’t near the dog kennels at the family’s rural hunting lodge, where Maggie and Paul were found fatally shot, her with a rifle and him with a shotgun.

But prosecutors brought to light a bombshell Snapchat video that clearly placed the South Carolina scion at the family’s Islandton hunting lodge. Murdaugh is heard snatching a chicken away from Bubba.

“Come here, Bubba!” Murdaugh’s voice says. “Come here, Bubba!”

Murdaugh was forced to come clean, admitting that he was at the kennels and had lied.

“Bubba solved the case,” the source told The Post on Thursday. “Labs are very loyal. They love their owners and Maggie was Bubba’s master.”

But now that his master is off to prison, Bubba reportedly lives with Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson, a former housekeeper for the Murdaughs who was herself a witness during the trial.