Every mysterious death in the dizzying Murdaugh investigation
OCTOBER 15, 2021 THE BIG STORY
South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh is facing new charges related to the death of his housekeeper  Alex Murdaugh walks into his bond hearing on Sept. 16, 2021, in Varnville, South Carolina. Mic Smith / AP Following his release from a drug rehabilitation facility, Alex Murdaugh was charged with two felony counts related to allegations that he misappropriated funds intended for the sons of his late housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. His arrest is unrelated to the mysterious killings of Murdaugh's wife and son in June.
Previously, Murdaugh was arrested in September and charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and filing a false police report after he allegedly orchestrated his own botched killing so that his surviving son, Buster, would receive a $10 million insurance payout. Investigators are also probing the Murdaugh family's connections to the 2015 death of Buster's classmate, Stephen Smith, who was found dead on a highway but with little evidence to suggest he had been hit by a car.
If you're behind on the Murdaugh saga (and who could blame you, this is a whirlwind), these stories can help you get up to speed:
STAYING ON TOP OF THIS
A former Boeing employee is accused of lying to regulators about the 737 Max before the deadly crashes that killed hundreds  Ted S. Warren / AP US government officials allege that former chief technical pilot Mark A. Forkner gave federal regulators false information about part of the Boeing 737 Max's flight controls. This software reportedly pushed the nose of the plane downward, forcing pilots to struggle for control of the plane.
The Boeing 737 Max made its debut in 2017, and the new plane came under scrutiny on Oct. 29, 2018, when Lion Air Flight 610 crashed shortly after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia, killing all of its 189 passengers. Five months later, on March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 also went down after takeoff, killing 157 people.
SNAPSHOTS
Robert Durst will spend the rest of his life in prison for murdering his friend. The multimillionaire real estate heir seemed to confess to three murders in an HBO documentary. He's officially heading to prison after decades of suspicion.
Actor Lili Bernard has filed a lawsuit against Bill Cosby for allegedly drugging and raping her in 1990. "I have waited a long time to be able to pursue my case in court and I look forward to being heard and to hold Cosby accountable for what he did to me," she said in a statement.
Jonah Hill asked fans not to post "good or bad" comments about his body because it "doesn't feel good," months after opening up about his childhood insecurities. "This isn't a 'good for me' post. And it's definitely not a 'feel bad for me post,'" the actor wrote. "It's for the kids who don't take their shirt off at the pool."
ANOTHER TRUMP-ERA POLICY WINDS DOWN
The Biden administration has suspended a Trump-era policy that put immigrants at risk of being deported without due process A policy that allows ICE officers to arrest and rapidly deport certain undocumented immigrants without access to a judge was suspended by the Biden administration on Thursday, after BuzzFeed News obtained government data that showed it had been used several times this year.
"Expedited removal" is most commonly used within 100 miles of the border and for those who have been in the country for up to two weeks. But in July 2019, Trump expanded the policy so that expedited removal could be used anywhere in the country and for anyone who could not prove that they had lived in the US for longer than two years. From Jan. 20 to late August, ICE officials said they deported four immigrants under expedited removal.
WHAT TO WATCH
New TV shows we can't get enough of  A totally normal priest from Midnight Mass. Eike Schroter / Netflix Midnight Mass
The Problem With Jon Stewart
The Other Two (Season 2)
Our full list of TV recs can be found here. CHEERS TO THE WEEKEND
Spend some time with these inquisitive longreads Ted Lasso is still good
Her best friend was murdered. Twenty years later, she said her dad did it.
Franklin-Lipsker's trial became a flashpoint in the '90s media obsession with "recovered" or "repressed" memories. The new docuseries Buried recounts the story vividly, but falls short of clarifying its complicated cultural impact.
My family moved to the US for a better life. But what does that really mean?
"From those stories in childhood—warning marks etched on the road by travelers long before us—I picked up on the fact that my family and our fellow immigrants were new arrivals not only to a nation but to a long-standing system of racial oppression, suspended somewhere between those who conquered the land by blood and those whose blood built the empire. We had come by choice but in peace, with neither the privileges of whiteness nor the weight of Blackness. Where did that leave us?" Hey. Today's Incoming had a lot of grim news. Be sure to give yourself space to process heaviness without turning your back on the world, Alexa 📝 This letter was edited and brought to you by Alexa Lee and BuzzFeed News. You can always reach us here.
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