Buyers will soon have the chance to own a 21-acre parcel of true-crime infamy—for the right price.

The notorious South Carolina hunting lodge, where once-prominent attorney Alex Murdaugh murdered his wife and son, is going up for auction next month.

An online auction for the Moselle Estate House in Islandton, SC, is scheduled to open on Feb. 9. The auction will run through Feb. 15, with the minimum bid set at $1.1 million.

Murdaugh, who comes from a powerful South Carolina family, is serving a life sentence for killing wife Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and son Paul Murdaugh, 22, on June 7, 2021, on the property. He also pled guilty to 22 counts of financial fraud and money laundering for ripping off clients and the estate of his late housekeeper. The money was used to pay for his drug addiction.

The disgraced attorney was also accused of hiring a hit man to kill him. This would have provided his surviving son, Richard “Buster” Murdaugh, with a $10 million life insurance policy.

The four-bedroom, 4.5-bath house is also where the Murdaugh family’s housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, died mysteriously in 2018.

Inside Alex Murdaugh’s former home

Built in 2011, this nearly 5,300-square-foot house features front and back porches, vaulted ceilings, and a grand staircase topped with a mezzanine balcony. The estate is located about 70 miles southeast of Charleston, SC, and just over 70 miles north of Savannah, GA.

The entire parcel—all 1,772 acres, including the house—was sold for $2,663,676 in March of last year, according to property records. That was a steal, compared to the initial $3.9 million list price.

The new owners, two men who live nearby, purchased the property for timber, hunting, and agribusiness, says Craig King. He is a senior sales associate at J.P. King Auction Company, which is holding the auction.

The owners put the house and 21 acres of land up for sale for $1.95 million last year.

“They were getting some [buyer] activity but not a tremendous amount,” says King. “It was sitting vacant, and that’s not good for real estate.”

Potential buyers must be preapproved to purchase the property and make an appointment with the auction company to tour the estate.

Often, when a highly-publicized murder happens at a home, the property will sell at a discount. The exact amount of savings will vary widely, but it can be 10% to 15% or more, depending on the severity of the crime. Many potential buyers are squeamish about living somewhere that people were killed.

“We’re going to get a lot of exposure for the property,” says King. “Will that equate to buyers at the end of the day? We don’t know.”

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