Family of Mallory Beach, 19, reach settlement with Buster Murdaugh, 26, in $50million lawsuit

The family of Mallory Beach have reached a tentative settlement with Buster Murdaugh in a $50million lawsuit, after the young woman was killed during a fatal late night boat ride, driven by Buster's younger brother and murder victim Paul.

Beach, 19, was thrown from the boat when it crashed into Archers Creek Bridge, in Beaufort South Carolina, in 2019. Her body was found five days later. 

It is believed Paul Murdaugh, 19, was drunk at the time, with Buster accused of lending his younger brother his ID in order for him to buy alcohol before the crash.

Now, after months of negotiations, hearings and a failed mediation, 'several defendants' including Buster have settled with Beach's family and three of the other surviving passengers in the fatal crash.

The family of Mallory Beach (pictured) have reached a tentative settlement with Buster Murdaugh in a $50million lawsuit, after the young woman was killed during a fatal late night boat ride, driven by Buster's younger brother Paul

Paul Murdaugh and his mother Maggie (left) - who were both named in a lawsuit over Mallory Beach - have since been murdered. Husband and father Alex (second-right) has been accused of murdering his son and wife. Alex's eldest son Buster (right) has now settled in the $50million, paying an unknown amount to Mallory's family and other boat crash survivors

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 Murdaugh and Parker's Kitchen convenience store (where Paul purchased alcohol underage) as being named.

However, the settlement is not yet final. A hearing will be held next Thursday (January 19) by State Judge Daniel Hall in Lexington County.

Final approval of the settlement will be discussed there, according to Mark Tinsley, attorney for Mallory's mother Renee Beach. Tinsley said Probate Judge Leigh Boan must also issue a final approval.

'The Beach family feels very strongly that whatever their faults were, Paul and Maggie didn't deserve what happened to them,' Tinsley told Fox News Digital about the settlement agreement. 'They also feel Buster has suffered enough, so it was important to them to try and get him out of the case.' 

The settlement will be able to move forward once it is approved, and when Alex Murdoch agrees to its conditions. Lawyers representing the Beach family and passengers also want a financial claim filed by Palmetto State Bank withdrawn.

The wrongful death lawsuit has already been pushed back to June 2023 after Murrell Smith - attorney for Parker's Kitchen and Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives - claimed legislative immunity.

Mallory Beach, 19, was thrown from the boat when it crashed into Archers Creek Bridge, in Beaufort South Carolina. Her body was found five days later. Paul was Murdaugh accused of being drunk at the helm. Paul was awaiting trial on three felony counts – two of boating under the influence and one of causing death and bodily injury - but he was murdered in June 2021

Pictured: Coolers full of beers were seen on the boat. Paul was captured on security cameras inside a Parker's Kitchen convenience store using Buster's ID to purchase alcohol underage. The store was also named in the lawsuit brought by Mallory's family and the survivors

Paul Murdaugh never saw the inside of a courtroom over the death of Mallory Beach.

He, along with his mother Maggie, were gunned down in the grounds of their Islandton home on June 7, 2021.

Authorities have alleged Paul and Buster's father - Alex Murdaugh - is behind their killings, which prompted investigators to look further into the 54-year-old's past.

Pictured: Paul Murdaugh, who was accused of causing the death of Mallory Beach, was murdered on June 7, 2021

In addition to being accused of his son and wife's killings, officials have said Alex Murdaugh is an 'allegedly crooked lawyer and drug user who borrowed and stole wherever he could to stay afloat and one step ahead of detection.' 

At the time of his death, Paul Murdaugh 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, all were ejected from the vessel and all but Beach made 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 -  Morgan Doughty and Miley 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.

Pictured: South Carolina hunting farm where Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were found shot dead last year. It is thought to be worth around $4million

Family members of the deceases have the choice of either accepting the claims and agreeing to pay the claimants, or dispute them - leading to court battles.

If accepted or awarded by a probate judge, creditors claims but then be paid to third parties before surviving families can access any proceeds from the estate.

However, the proceeds of both Paul and Maggie's estates are set to first go to father and husband Alex Murdaugh, according to reporting from January 2022. It was not immediately clear if that is still the case.

Murdaugh would be entitled to the valuable properties owned by his slain wife Maggie. Her estate includes a vacation home on Edisto Beach, as well as 1,700 acres of property in Colleton and Hampton counties.

These include the family's river-side home in Colleton County's Moselle community.

A judge last year essentially froze Murdaugh's bank accounts in 2021. Since then, his brother John Marvin Murdaugh has been petitioning the courts to lift lis pendens on Maggie's properties, allowing for them to be sold. 

John Marvin Murdaugh's attorneys have argued the lis pendens - which put a legal warning against properties that could be involved in litigation - are frivolous and without merit, and that Mallory's Beach's family has no legal claim to continue them.

Speaking in January 2022, Tinsley said: 'John Marvin's move to cancel the lis pendens is a clear indication ... he and Alex are trying to maneuver to avoid the claims against (the Moselle property).' 

Fox News Digital reported on Thursday that Renee Beach, along with co-receivers Alex Murdaugh and John Murdaugh, would receive a $275,000 settlement from the sale of the Moselle home thought to be worth nearly $4million.

Buster Murdaugh will receive $530,000 from his mother's estate.

Alex Murdaugh - a disgraced former attorney and head of the wealthy Murdaugh family - is set to appear in court over the double murder in two weeks time.

Pictured: Alex Murdaugh sits in court with his legal team, including attorney Margaret Fox during a judicial hearing before in the Colleton County Courthouse, August 29, 2022

A state filing obtained by DailyMail.com in December offered the first insight into Murdaugh's actions in the immediate aftermath of the slayings. 

It showed Alex Murdaugh told law enforcement that he knew why his wife and son were slaughtered and informed the first officers on the scene that the murders were tied to the 2019 boat crash, implying they were revenge killings.

The filing shows Murdaugh made a frantic 911 call shortly after 10pm on the night of June 7, 2021 in which he claimed to have found Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, 'badly shot,' near dog kennels at the family's rural hunting estate of Moselle, South Carolina.

But prosecutors alleged the first thing Murdaugh did was try to throw investigators off the scent by falsely linking the murders with the crash.

Family members of all six teens on board the boat as well as the survivors themselves provided DNA samples and were eliminated from police enquiries shortly after the murders. Instead, investigators allege, the 'only person with a true motive to kill his wife and son,' was Murdaugh himself.

In the document filed in Colleton County Court prosecutors wrote that the 'clouds of Murdaugh's past misdeeds' were gathering into 'a perfect storm that was going to expose the real Alex Murdaugh.'

They claim that he was facing imminent 'legal, financial and personal ruin.'

Maggie and Paul were found shot dead near these dog kennels on the family's home in Islandton, South Carolina. Alex Murdaugh has been accused of their murders

Paul's body was found partially inside one of the kennels, while his mother was several feet away, leading investigators to believe that she ran from her killer before being felled

That storm, they state, was due to break on June 7, 2021 – the very day that they allege Murdaugh gunned down his wife and son in a bid to, 'shift focus' away from himself and 'buy some additional time to try' and cover his alleged crimes.

For the first time in his life, prosecutors say, Murdaugh was facing 'accountability' and the exposure of years of misdeeds and a mountain of debt running into millions.

They will argue at his trial that he killed his own wife and son for no other reason than to create a distraction from his other misdeeds.

Murdaugh is currently being held in the Alvin S Glenn Detention Center in Columbia where he is awaiting trial on multiple charges. 

He faces life in prison if convicted. Murdaugh faces a total of 99 financial criminal charges stemming from 19 indictments. His trial for the murders of Maggie and Paul is due to begin in Colleton County Court on January 23, 2023.

He has pleaded not guilty to killing his wife and son.

Mallory Beach has been described as being popular, and that 'everybody loved her'. She had many friends as well as a boyfriend, Anthony Cook.

Murdaugh has also been accused of attempting to start a 'whisper campaign' to make it sound as if Connor Cook (Anthony's cousin), and not his own son, actually crashed the boat as the group of friends were heading to a party.

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

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.