Alex Murdaugh moved to undisclosed location

Alex Murdaugh moves to maximum security jail – but authorities REFUSE to say where for his own protection and admit he will be kept away from the rest of inmates in special unit

• Disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh has been moved to a secure prison 
• Murdaugh was convicted of murdering his wife and son earlier this month
• Officials will not disclose the exact location of his new residence citing safety concerns  

Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh has completed his evaluation at a South Carolina state prison and is now in a maximum security facility, but authorities won’t say which one. 

According to a press release from the South Carolina Department of Corrections, Murdaugh, 54, ‘has been moved to the statewide protective custody unit of a South Carolina maximum-security prison.’

The decision to move Murdaugh into protective custody came Thursday after a recommendation from the Protective Custody Review Board. His case was evaluated at the Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia. 

The disgraced lawyer will be kept from the general population because of ‘validated protective concerns.’ The four member board takes into account security, mental health and classification, before taking their decisions. 

South Carolina’s corrections department does not disclose the exact location of inmates in protective custody for their own safety. There are six maximum security prisons in the state. 

Smiling Alex Murdaugh appears shaven-headed in a new mugshot from prison days after being found guilty of murdering his wife and son. The new mugshot was to replace an out of focus photo that was taken on March 3 (right) when he was transferred to the Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center

Murdaugh will be housed with 28 other inmates ‘in a single eight by ten cell that contains a bed, toilet, and sink.’ His privileges will be no different to other inmates, the SCDC said. 

This comes after many had raised concerns over Murdaugh’s possible influence over the judiciary stemming from years of operating within the state’s legal sphere. 

Prosecutors said Murdaugh killed his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, at their home in June 2021, shooting them with two different weapons, cleaning up the scene, then driving to visit his ailing mother before calling 911 and saying he discovered the bodies. 

Following a six-week trial, Murdaugh was sentenced to two life sentences. ‘I’m innocent. I would never hurt my wife, Maggie. I would never hurt my son, Paul,’ he told Judge Clifton Newman following his conviction. 

The six maximum security prisons in South Carolina are located across five counties, two in Richland, with Greenville, Lee, McCormick and Dorchester making up the others, reports The State. 

On the same day that Murdaugh was sent to his new home, reports emerged suggesting that law enforcement is eyeing two new potential suspects in the 2015 murder of 19-year-old Stephen Smith in Hampton County.

Smith had ties to the Murdaugh family in particular eldest son Buster.

Local news website FitsNews has named the two people as Patrick Wilson and Shawn Connelly, both 25, citing sources from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

DailyMail.com has reached out to the SLED for comment on the new revelations. Stephen Smith was found dead in the middle of a two-lane Hampton County road on July 8, 2015. His car with the gas cap removed and his wallet still inside was found a short distance away.

Kirkland Correctional Center will be Murdaugh’s grim new home for the next few weeks as he undergoes evaluation for where to be sent permanently 

This undated file photo provided on July 11, 2019, by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows the new death row at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, SC

Kirkland, where Murdaugh was being evaluated, is one of South Carolina’s most notorious facilities. Far from being safe inside the prison’s fortified walls, inmates like Murdaugh are under constant threat from the killers, sex offenders and armed robbers they call neighbors.

The shocking absence of law and order within the so-called correctional facility was highlighted in 2017 when two inmates strangled four others after luring the victims into their cell with promises of drugs and cookies.

The killings were carried out by Denver Simmons, who was jailed for killing a mother and her son, and fellow inmate Jacob Philip, convicted of strangling his girlfriend and her eight-year-old daughter.

Their motive: the pair wanted to be placed on death row because they were fed up with life in the hellhole jail.

One by one, they lured their four victims into their cell then used a broom and electrical cord as weapons to beat and strangle them, hiding the bodies behind a curtain on their bunk. Simmons and Philip then calmly strolled down to the guard station and confessed.

Kirkland inmates have also been known to orchestrate horrific crimes on the outside from within their cells.

Two years ago, armed robber Harvester Jackson used a contraband cellphone to orchestrate the attempted murder of his ex-girlfriend in Columbia, South Carolina.

Jackson was in Kirkland serving a 10-year sentence when he ordered four accomplices to shoot up the victim’s home, prosecutors alleged. His ex-girlfriend, who survived the attempt on her life, told investigators it wasn’t the first time Jackson had ordered an attack from behind bars.

Kirkland’s notorious reputation was also highlighted by a recent report which found it had the highest death rate of any prison in South Carolina. Between 2015 and 2021, 160 inmates died at the state-run institution.

In second place was Broad River Correctional Institution, which is just a stone’s throw away from Kirkland and could be where Murdaugh ends up housed. There were 101 death at Broad River, which houses medium and high-security inmates, across the six year period.

Kirkland is where the vast majority of South Carolina’s male prisoners are first sent after they’re convicted

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