Murdaugh Murders Podcast - 'The Magic Men' - What Happened To The Plyler Sisters? (S01E56)

Episode Date: August 10, 2022

The Plyler sisters were just little girls when Alex Murdaugh and Russell Laffitte entered their world.  Now, more than 15 years later, they are discovering all the ways these two men (allegedly) secretly enriched themselves off their settlement money. We talk with Alania Plyler about what it was like having Russell Laffitte as her conservator and the betrayal she now feels knowing what he was doing the entire time. Plus legal analysis on what duties a conservator is supposed to perform from Eric Bland. The Murdaugh Murders Podcast is created by Mandy Matney and Luna Shark Productions. Our Executive Editor is Liz Farrell. Advertising is curated by the talented team at AdLarge Media. Find us on social media: https://www.facebook.com/MurdaughPod/ https://www.instagram.com/murdaughmurderspod/ For current and accurate updates: Twitter.com/mandymatney Support Our Podcast at: https://murdaughmurderspodcast.com/support-the-show Please consider sharing your support by leaving a review on Apple at the following link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murdaugh-murders-podcast/id1573560247 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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See how Miro users save up to 80 hours every year by meeting less and doing more. That's Miro.com with three boards free forever. That's M-I-R-O.com. Okay, here's how Miro works. See, it's amazing. What's everyone doing at David's desk? Ever since marketing started using Miro's collaborative online whiteboard, he thinks all our other teams should sign up.

Why? He says Miro's making his meetings disappear. And if every team gets on it, that means even less meetings. They're using Miro for brainstorms, mindmaps, customer research? So could we use Miro instead of having another 100 meetings for every round of feedback? Yep, you can comment, react to ideas, even leave a recording on the board. And what about presentations? There are Miro templates for that.

How do you know so much about Miro? I've actually been using it all along. I just used a Miro board to plan the best vacation. Okay, I'm on board. See how Miro users save up to 80 hours every year by meeting less and doing more. Get on board at Miro.com with three boards free forever. That's M-I-R-O.com. I don't know how Russell Lafitte lived with himself knowing what was done to the Plylar family.

But I am horrified by the depth of destruction in this case. After talking to Elena Plylar about everything she and her sister have been through since their mother and brother died in a car accident in 2005, I am inspired and moved by her story. And I think you will be too. My name is Mandy Matney. I have been investigating the Murdoch family for more than three years now. This is the Murdoch Murders podcast with David Moses and Liz Verrell.

Until recently, not much was known about the Plylar case. When the shocking details of the Satterfield case began to emerge last fall, several former clients of Ellick Murdoch started to come forward. But the Plylar sisters were not among them. We knew the case existed. We mentioned the case a few times in past episodes. And we knew that the Ellick-Russell combination we were seeing in the public index was a giant red flag.

But we kept hearing that there probably wasn't going to be anything there. The immediate thought seemed to be that maybe Russell had actually done his job as conservator. And there were more than 2,000 pages of probate court filings related to their case, which made it vastly different from the Satterfield case, in which there was, as you guys know, a single piece of paper filed with the court. But also, there were more than 2,000 pages of probate court filings related to their case. So the full picture would take some time to get at. Turns out the case isn't vastly different from that of the Satterfields and the Pinknees and the Badgers

and most of the others we've heard about. Yes, Russell filed a lot of paperwork in this case. And yes, Hampton County probate judge Sheila Odom did actually issue some orders when it came to the spending of Elena and Hannah Plyler's money. But no one did right by the girls. Not Ellick, not Russell, not Odom. Far from it. Russell faces state and federal charges for the 22 loans he gave himself

and Ellick out of Hannah's accounts, which weren't entirely paid back. He was also a terrible conservator and frankly, a questionable banker. It's clear to us that the fix was in from the beginning. The Plyler sisters didn't live in Hampton County, but as they did in the Hakeem Pinkney case, Russell and Ellick told the probate court that they did. Why? Because they would face a lot less scrutiny in Hampton County than they would have in Lexington County, where the girls lived at the time. On the petition for Russell to take over as their conservator,

he checked the box indicating that Hannah and Elena were Hampton County residents. But about an inch above that box was the girls address in West Columbia, plain as day. The sign was right there from the very beginning that something was wrong here, but that sign was ignored by the court and it would be years before anyone would know how wrong. The Plyler story is a compelling one. It gives us a much deeper and fuller view of what Ellick and Russell's alleged crimes look like from the inside and the callousness with which they allegedly committed them. And it shows us that despite what Russell is telling himself and the court,

that Ellick tricked him, that he did everything the right way, he is definitely not a victim in this. This week, we were so lucky to speak to Elena Plyler, one of Ellick Murdoch's financial victims. Like all of the other victims, Elena's story shows that what was done to these victims cuts so much deeper than money and settlements. When you peel the layers back, it's about trusting someone during the worst time of your life. But my favorite thing about Elena is how her story has a happy ending,

despite everything these men did to her. We're going to have Elena tell most of her story dating back to July 2005, when she was just 12 years old. Yeah, it was a Friday evening. My mom, my brother, and my sister, and obviously myself, we had recently moved down to Hardyville, South Carolina. My parents were in the early stages of getting a divorce. So my mom's family was from Buford, Bluffton area,

and she wanted to be closer to them. So what we would do on the weekends is come back up to Columbia where my dad lived. There was a discussion where he wanted a TV, so this particular weekend on July 16th of 2005, after mom had gotten off of work, we were bringing the TV back to dad's house. And so it kind of gives you the setup of the vehicle. It was a Ford Explorer, and I think it was a 99, so it was one of the smaller SUVs.

And I remember before we left, we left at around 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and I remember my mom, she hated to drive on the interstate, she hated traffic, and I knew she was already just nervous about getting on the interstate with all those cars and that it was going to take a lot longer than usual. My brother and I had actually gotten into an argument of who was going to sit in the front seat because I was 12 and he was 14. So I was at that age where I was ready to start sitting in the front seat. And so my mom had us agree that my brother would ride to Columbia in the front seat,

in the passenger seat, and on the way back down to Hardyville, I would get the front seat. So I was super excited about that. So that was her last time she got to parent us, if you will, and make things right between my brother and I because we were brother and sister and we fought like cats and dogs. This fight, the one everyone remembers having a million times with their siblings, has stuck with Elena for years. That decision that her mom made changed her life forever, and she'll never forget it.

Ultimately, he got the passenger seat and I remember getting on 95. We were on I-95 for, it seems to be about an hour. It was, yeah, it was right at an hour. My sister was sleeping, my brother was sleeping, and I remember I was listening to one of Usher's CDs playing. I had my own little headset, and I was listening. I remember my mom asking me if I was awake, so I pulled my headphones down, and I told her, yeah, I'm awake.

And she was asking if there was anything we wanted to do that weekend in Columbia, and I told her no. And we were also going to Columbia, not only to give Dad the TV, but we also sold newspapers on the side of the road. Mom had a little business with state newspaper to make some extra money. This was the first time she was going to be a single parent. We talked about that and working that weekend and coming back home on Sunday. And during that conversation, it got silent just for a moment.

And I remember looking up at the screen, the front screen, and it said, I want to say 551. And it was like immediately when I looked at the clock, 551, we heard a loud pop. And I heard Mom scream, and that's when she lost control of the vehicle. And we left the road, and we started spinning into trees, numerous trees. And then by the time the car had stopped, I remember seeing that usher CD that I was listening to hanging on a branch. I remember the smell of pine from the pine trees.

And my brother's seat had fell back into my lap, and I kept calling out for them. Elena remembers every moment, even the most horrific parts. This next clip is especially graphic and hard to listen to, so just a warning to sensitive listeners. I remember seeing, you know, just what a 12-year-old wouldn't want to see coming out of anyone's head, especially their brother. So I would imagine that it would have been brain matter, just from the impact.

He wasn't talking or moving, and my sister was. I was pinned between the seat. My brother's seat had fell completely into my lap, and then the TV kind of comes into play because it was put in between my sister and I. So the way that the car had spun out and flipped, the TV landed on my arm. So I was completely pinned into the vehicle. But my sister, Hannah, she was eight at the time. She was free to move.

They crashed in a single car accident at mile marker 38 on Interstate 95 in Hampton County, South Carolina. Elena received injuries to her hip, leg, knee, and arm. She needed medical attention immediately. Her little sister, thankfully, was able to get out of the car. I sent my eight-year-old sister to the top of the hill of a busy interstate to flag down health because I was afraid that no one would see us down where those trees were. And Hannah did, as I told her to do.

She walked up the hill and she's, you know, this little eight-year-old girl flagging down cars. And I know that there was an 18-wheeler that pulled over, but it felt like an eternity before law enforcement and, yeah, firemen to come. But I'm sure it didn't. I'm sure it was a lot longer and just in the moment. But when they finally came, I saw that they had Hannah. Hannah was safe and they started using the job, the life on me to pull me out. But I actually had a special moment with my mom in the car. To me, as the older I get, it's down time childish.

But I remember looking at my mom, and she had beautiful blonde hair, but she was, I remember telling people for weeks and weeks, like, my mom was glowing. And to me, I've always taken that with me. That was her soul leaving her body, and that also helped secure my face, because I know what I saw even at a young age. And 17 years later, I'll never forget that image that I saw of mom where she was actually glowing. So I feel at ease of where she is. And again, like I said, that definitely secured my face.

But they did struggle to get me out of the car. It did take them a while. As they were using the doll for life to remove me from the vehicle, I remember looking over to my left side out the window, and they were putting my mom and my brother in a body bag. So that was the last images that I saw of them with them being put in a black body bag. When they finally got me out of the vehicle, I was airlifted to Savannah Hospital, and that's where I began numerous surgeries and spent many times,

much time in the ICU. I don't remember how many pints of blood that I had to receive. I know it was a very, very good amount. That's kind of where my journey began to start healing. Her mother, Angela Pliler, and her 14-year-old brother, Justin Pliler, died in the crash. I immediately knew that they had passed away. There wasn't much that could have been said to me after seeing them put in the body bags. I knew what that meant.

And unfortunately, even before the wreck, I had to grow up pretty quickly. I knew a lot more than what I probably should have known, but my mom was my best friend, and I think I was hers as well. So she confided in me in a lot of things that I may not need to have known. So I had already had a pretty bigger picture in life than what a typical 12-year-old would have. But I was frustrated because my sister, on the other hand, was told differently. I believe family never told my sister that they had ended up passing away and that she found out from the news that they had died.

Now, I was airlifted to Savannah Hospital, and my sister was taken to MUSC by an ambulance. So we were separated and didn't see each other for weeks. So that was also hard, not being able to see her and seeing exactly how she was. But after I got out of the hospital, I did learn that Hannah found out through the news that Mom and our brother Justin had died. We asked Elena to describe her brother Justin to us. Again, he was just 14, two years older than Elena when he died in the crash. He was a typical brother. We definitely fought like cats and dogs, but we knew how to push each other's buttons,

and we also knew what to say to stay out of trouble. So my brother, if he hurt me or if he said something mean to me, he knew all he needed to do was offer to play babies with me or play one of my favorite games. He wouldn't get in trouble because I wouldn't tell on him. So I liked to play babies in the house and play house and things. He hated it, but he would do it to stay out of trouble. And then on his defense, whenever I did something wrong, I knew all I needed to do was throw the football with him, and then that would clear me from getting in trouble.

So we knew how to push and pull each other's buttons, and I will say, though, when it came down to where we understood that our parents were going to get a divorce, we got a lot closer. I really did see my brother mature quickly because he now knew he was going to be the man of the house, and Mom always reminded him that dad's not here anymore, so I need you to be the man of the house, and he really did that. He protected us and the best of his ability. Elena said she had a strenuous relationship with her father, which is an important aspect in this story. My relationship with my father has never been stable.

There were a lot of issues even prior to my siblings and I being born with alcoholism, and it goes a long way in his family. And my dad had a rough childhood, so I don't think my dad really knew how to show love, and I don't think that my dad knew how to receive love. Every time that someone showed him love, it was normally abused. So later on in life, when he had his own children, I think he just did the only way he knew how to love, and so it was very unsteady. I wouldn't say the healthiest relationship at all. Those months following the accident in 2005 were really hard on Elena and her sister.

I'm not sure where my dad was living prior to the accident because we had left to move to Hardyville with mom, but after the accident, he ended up moving in with his mother and stepfather, who had always been dad to him, so his parents' house, and they allowed Pan and I to come live with them as well. So we were pretty crowded in a small home. There were several families that lived there. I was more of a, I don't want to say an issue, more of a pain because I couldn't walk. I couldn't do anything for myself, so I had to have the hospital bed and the downstairs, and I needed, I required 24-7 help. I needed a lot of attention. I required a lot of attention just because I was, in a sense, paralyzed for several months.

I wouldn't say I definitely wasn't paralyzed, but it felt that way. I broke my femur in two different places in my right leg, and I completely blew my knee and my left leg, where they were even talking about considering amputation for my left leg. But thank goodness that the doctor gave me a shot because my knee is, it's functionable now. So I crushed my left shoulder from the TV, just the impact that TV has totally crushed my shoulder. So I had three pins literally sticking out of my arm, so I required a lot of attention and a lot of around-the-clock help. I felt more of a burden than anything. That was for sure. Elena and her sister Hannah were in a very vulnerable position in 2005 after their mom and brother died.

They really didn't have any adults to turn to. That is when Alec Murdoch and Russell Lafitte entered the picture. So I know that my dad kept referring to this lawsuit, that we were going to sue Ford and Firestone, Bridgestone, that whatever had happened in that wreck was, it was a faulty tire. And so I just kept hearing my dad talk about that, but I didn't know a whole lot about it until one of his attorneys that he had used in the past during a prosecution case, they ended up reconnecting. And so my dad explained to him his name, Arnold Beecham. So my dad reached out to Arnold Beecham and explained the situation and what was going on. And I believe at the time this case was nothing that Arnold was really familiar with and real comfortable with,

and I can appreciate him for that. And so he was referred to by a friend from my knowledge of the Murdoch firm and that they fight hard, they win good money and he thought that this would be a perfect law firm to get in on with us. So Arnold contacted Alec and Alec jumped on it and he said that he would absolutely do it. And so I talked to Alec just a few times on the phone at first, and then there was a deposition held in Charleston. So on November 8th, 2005, Ronnie Crosby and Alec Murdoch filed lawsuits against Bridgestone Corporation, Firestone, Ford Motor Companies, and a few other parties.

They filed a lawsuit in Hampton County, South Carolina. We asked Elena, what was Alec like? How did he make you feel? This next part is so important because it illuminates just how exactly Alec, with the help of his co-conspirators, stole millions of dollars from his clients. I felt very comfortable, but I was also very timid. I remember him being very loud, but he was very confident. And so that made me feel good. I think he's going to do good.

He's going to want us a lot of money because that's what everyone kept telling us, that we'll never have to work another day in our lives, we're going to be set for life. And when you tell a little girl that who pretty much came from nothing, that was exciting. That was an exciting point, but then it was also hard to know that these people are kind of putting a price on my mom and my brother's life. Yeah, and me and my injuries that I went through and just all the trauma. If you ask me a dollar sign, it's infinity. Like, there's no amount of money, absolutely no amount of money. But when they start talking about millions of dollars that, you know, we were just learning those big numbers in school not too long ago from this,

I felt like it was going to be definitely life-changing. And it was. Alec, he in a sense seemed kind of cocky, but I also took that as a good thing because he knew what he was doing. He was very firm talking to the other people in the room. And I couldn't tell you who exactly were those people. I would imagine from the other side, but he was very, very confident and cocky when speaking to them. So where he got his point across. I remember he looked at me and he told me that he was going to make this right and that he was going to make those people pay for what they've done.

And those words really helped me. I felt comfortable and I felt protected with him saying that to me. A quick note about PMPED here. In Elena's probate file, in an expense sheet form from the law firm, we found something interesting. In addition to the $1.9 million in lawyer's fees the girls had to pay, they paid more than $90,000 in expenses. A lot of that money was spent on experts, but a portion of it was also spent on flights on private planes and Alec's meals. Ronnie had a few meals on the expense sheet, but nothing like Alec Murdoch, who apparently ate often on the girls' dime.

We've seen a lot of head shaking things over the past three years, but seeing Alec charge two little girls for his meals at the Columbia Hooters, which he went to twice by the way, is a new type of head shake. Also, one of the private plane trips was through an aviation company owned by one of the PMPED attorneys, Mark Ball, which seems like something investigators should question if they haven't done so already. So around 2006, Elena was introduced to wrestle defeat. I do remember Alec explaining to me that he basically put it that he didn't feel like there was anyone that could be trusted in my family to be in protection of the amount of funds that I was going to be getting. So he thought it was in the best interest, and he said, even the court agreed that it was in my best interest to have a conservator appointed to me.

And then his name would be wrestle defeat. And then Alec also informs me that Alec is a good guy, that he's known him for years and years. They grew up together, one of his good friends. So I like Alec's personality and that go-getter mentality, so I felt good about this. I felt good, like we were in good hands. And when I met Russell, I remember just one of my first things thinking about him is like this guy is very business-like. He's wearing the suits, he's very professional, like I'm in good hands. I'm going to be taken care of, and I can trust these guys, and that's what they were there for.

But like I said, there was a lot of back-and-forth talking between me and Russell. But one of the issues that we ran into a lot was he was so far away, and I didn't have families to drive me to go see him. So it was really a lot of cat and mouse phone calls. Sometimes it could be hard to get in touch with him via text or email or phone call. And I think a lot of that has to do with distance being that I was in Lexington County and he was in Hanson County. But we ended up talking a lot via those ways. It was never really in person, maybe just a few times in person. This might be one of the reasons there's a state law about how conservators need to open their conservates' estates in the same county where conservates live. Having that kind of local accountability is a sign the conservator wouldn't be in some far-off land.

What's stunning here is that throughout all of the years that Russell and Ellic were connected to the Plilers, they shared next to nothing with the girls. Both were kept in the dark before the money came in, after the money came in, and even after they were sent on their ways when they turned 18. I had Ellic and the other attorneys and even my own dad in my head telling me, you're going to get all this money. You'll never have to work a day in your life, like you're going to be set for life. And telling a little girl that I was 14, 15 at this time because we were getting closer to fettling, I was excited. I was like, I want a small little pink car. I had all these bizarre things that I wanted and I thought that was really cool. They literally made it feel like it was going to be a bottomless pit. And at first it was kind of strange like asking Russell, like, hey, I need school supplies because normally you would ask your parents those things.

And I will say when I lost my mom, I basically lost both parents. She was a good mom. She was a very good mom. And she didn't have much, but she loved her children. And she always, always made sure her kids had what they needed. We didn't have the best of everything by no means, but she always came through. And so it was different not having mom there to help with school supplies or Christmas gifts. Again, Elena and her sister were basically left to their own devices during this horrible time where they not only were grieving the loss of their mother and brother, but they were trying to figure out how to navigate life on their own.

So it was very uncomfortable at first, even though I knew that this was my money, but I had to ask this man that I didn't know, like, hey, start school. I had no school supplies. I had no school clothes. And I needed those things. So he would tell me I got to get it approved from the judge and I'll get back with you. And the majority of the time things like that were approved because I had to have them. I had to have the school supplies. I had to have clothes. I had to have, you know, medications. I had, you know, there was a lot of things that I needed.

But then it got to a point where I guess we were asking and we conversation so much about me always needing money. He ended up turning into like a father figure to me. I mean, it got to a point where I got comfortable telling him, hey, I need laundry detergent. And he would, obviously, he would tell me it needs to be approved by the judge. And I could never imagine the judge saying, no, don't send her money for laundry detergent or groceries. So it really became more of a father figure. There's really no other way to put it. I get kind of annoyed at myself that I let my brain go there. But I also don't blame myself because maybe it was a spot that I needed to still after basically losing mom and dad in one person.

He was that person that I could go to because I would have normally went to my mom and since she wasn't there, Russell kind of turned into that person unintentionally. Yeah, I would go to Russell for just about everything. And he would sometimes he would tell me, no, just like I guess a normal father would say, you know, but sometimes he would tell me, yes, I could do this or I could get that. And of course, I was extremely happy and he knew how thankful I was. I would always thank him. As a conservator, Russell was supposed to manage the girls finances. He paid himself handsomely to do this.

When the settlement came through, he paid himself more than $140,000 from Elena's account and over $90,000 from Hannah's. Every year, he took another 5% from what each sister earned an interest from the bank and annuities. When he made his initial investments for the girls, he held back a portion for expenses. This is something that Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter brought up at Russell's bond hearing because holding back that much was unnecessary. The annuities provided more than enough for the girls monthly expenses. Basically, when the money really started coming in and I knew it was there, I could get a new bedroom suit for my dad's house because I didn't have a bed at my dad's house. So he allowed me to get that and then I needed, I mean, just a lot of random things,

but it was not saying I was looking for his sympathy at all, but I think he knew, like, we didn't have anything. And that has supposedly millions of dollars sitting in an account that he's supposed to be conserving and protecting and preserving. I didn't think anything else of it. And again, Elena was kept in the dark and relied entirely on Russell to be the adult in her life, making all the financial decisions for her and her sister. To her, Russell acted like he was being responsible, when in reality… Yes, there were many times where we were denied funds just because the judge… Well, we were told that the judge denied it or we didn't need it or it didn't seem like it would get beneficial. And so when we were told no, we were told no.

I couldn't go to a second person or I couldn't go back and find, like, my other parent and tell them I needed this. So no meant no and we just learned to live with that. We have no way of knowing whether Russell actually asked the judge all those times Elena and Hannah asked for their money and were denied. What's frustrating is that we know Russell had a standing order with the judge where he could give each girl up to $24,000 a year without having to ask the judge for permission. In the probate files, there were emails from both Elena and Hannah timidly asking for the basics, money for food and clothing. A good example of this was when Elena was 17. She needed to get her own home for her own safety. The biggest one that I remember, I was having a very rough time jumping house to house between family members for years, both my sister and I. It was always very unstable and it got to a point where my dad was getting, he and I were, the best way to put it, butting heads pretty bad,

him drinking way too much to where it wasn't safe and bringing people home that I didn't even know. I'd wake up one morning and there'd be people in my house that I didn't know who they were and it just, it got very uncomfortable being in my own house with my dad. I was explaining that to Russell and Russell said that, well, maybe we can, maybe we can work something out to see if the judge can approve you for a house. And then, and think that was in 2010, yeah, the beginning of 2010, I was told that the judge did approve me to be able to buy a house. So I was, and he kind of gave me a ballpark. I want to say it was under $200,000 was what my limit was. So I found several houses that I liked in the area that I wanted, but a lot of them got denied. And the reasons why they were denied was Russell said either the kitchen was too small, too much yard work for me, and those can be things that can be changed later on. Like at this point, I just need to stay home.

Think about it, being 17 years old and having to make a big decision like this. It was very, very, very overwhelming for sure, especially because one, I knew I was about to have a place of my own to call home because I lost that feeling of home when mom died. I mean, I had stuff at every family member's house and if we did something wrong, we had to, we essentially got kicked out and we just kind of got tossed around from house to house for a few years. Granted, we weren't the perfect kids. I wasn't just an extra mouse to feed. Now, my family did receive my mom's social security benefits. So every house that I went to, it was basically for money. So if I lived with this family member, they had to get that social security check or I couldn't live there. Hannah and I always grew up thinking they didn't want our best interests.

They wanted that, those funds that they were getting. And I kind of leave the bad taste in your mouth as you get older. You feel like you were nothing more than a dollar to some people. But when I did turn 17 and I got approved to get a house, I had no idea what I was doing, really, but I knew I needed to get out of my dad's house as quickly as possible. But there was about two or three houses that I absolutely loved, but Russell really had the last day, so. And so the house I ended up buying, Russell saw it before I did, I believe. I guess he saw it online. He's like, this is going to be the house.

So there were things about the house that it wasn't crazy about, but I also felt like beggars couldn't be choosy. So we just went on and bought the house and life was better. So when she did purchase the house in 2010, Russell played more of the role of the father figure than a conservator, and he went furniture shopping with Elena. He came to Columbia one day after we closed on the house and we went and bought furniture and things that you would need to start a house, basically, to make it somewhat of a home. So we went and bought couches, beds, furniture, you know, those your typical home items. That was by far the coolest thing ever. I really enjoyed that because I never really had anything that was mine to know that those couches that I'm picking out are going into my home, like my safe place. And that was the feeling I don't think I'll ever forget.

We saw the receipts from this shopping spree, which cost around $18,000. Russell put the items on his credit card and got reimbursed from Elena's conservatorship account. In the files, we found a single receipt for a sandwich at Charlie's Grilled Sub's in Columbia. Russell, as it turned out, was like Alec, and that he saw no problem in charging a child for his meal. I was blown away by that. The reason why I was blown away by that is I had spent all day with him, probably paying for his time as it was. And when my attorney, Eric, told me that I ended up paying for this man's lunch, the man that was in a fancy suit and just presented himself well and wealthy. And I'm a 17-year-old girl, and when I found out that I bought his lunch, no one that he was already getting paid to be up there.

I don't think he wasn't shopping for his house, so I don't think he had the best time like I did. But that bothered me in a lot of ways because it would have been different if I would have said, hey, I'll pick up the check. But then technically, I wouldn't have been able to do that because I was only 17. I would have needed a judge's approval. So even if I were to offer to, and I didn't, but I'm just even saying, if I would have offered to buy his lunch by what Russell's always told me, I always need court approval. So that was kind of a slap in the face to me that you put your food on my bill. I don't know, I was bothered by that. That wasn't even right.

Knowing everything that I'd been through, I told Russell that I had been in and out, not me being a criminal, but I had to call the police on my dad numerous times to get my belongings. Like, I had been through a lot, so just even in those few weeks, and he couldn't take the time to just sit down and let us be normal people and let me buy you, you know, him say, I've got lunch this time. Like, I just, it's bizarre to me. Around that same time in May 2010, Elena's dog was attacked, and the dog had to go to an emergency vet in the middle of the night. But remember, Elena always needed to ask permission every time she needed money, even in an emergency situation. This often put her in a tough spot, especially this time. And so, what I ended up doing, I took her to that vet, and the next day I'd let Russell know what was going on.

And like, I was put in a position where I don't have the ability to wait on a judge to prove this $500. Like, I can send you my vet bill, and my dog was going to die. And my dog, she wasn't just a dog. Like, that was really the only family I had, so I was extremely close to her. She was, I got to mother her, so it kind of made, it was kind of a weird relationship with the dog. The dog was literally like my child, and I got to mother her, so she was very, very, very special to me. And when she was hurt, I did take her to that emergency vet, and it was at a point where I couldn't call Russell, hey, I need money for my dog, so I went ahead and told them,

okay, this will be paid, I assure you, but you're just going to have to wait until in the morning when I can contact my conservator to get the money in my account. And they were kind of fishy about it, so what I ended up doing was writing a check, and told them just to process it the next, like during business hours, and I knew that the funds would be there, but the funds were not there. In reality, there was supposed to be $24,000 a year for Elena's living expenses that did not require a judge's approval. But Russell never told her that for a reason.

Yeah, it's strange, because even though I had the house, life was getting easier, I'll say life was getting safer for me, but I still was living in a position almost like poverty. I had to ask for groceries, I had to ask for money to take my dog, and I was still in school, so I couldn't get a job, and so I had a lot going on. So I felt confident, it was kind of a split-moment decision. I'll write this check at four o'clock in the morning, but please don't process it until nine o'clock in the morning to where I can get the funds put in the account.

I had notified Russell about it during business hours, and he was aware of it, but obviously it was not taken care of as fast as it should have been because that's why I received the letter from the solicitor's office. That is a big deal. It was Russell's job to make sure Elena didn't get threats of arrest from the solicitor's office. But he was tight with the money. He gave Elena $150 a week as an allowance for food, gas, and daily expenses. That's all he seemed to have put on one account that she had access to, $150 a week.

There was no cushion there, and no overdraft protection, apparently. This mistake of Russell's cost Elena $121 in fines to avoid getting arrested. Meanwhile, Ellick Murdock had overdrafted in the six figures, and we can guess how many letters he got from solicitor Duffy Stone about it. Zero. And for a person like Elena, who has no resources, getting a letter threatening criminal charges from a solicitor is scary. People go to jail for bad checks in South Carolina all of the time.

I was scared. I was very scared. But I never wanted to get in trouble with the law, hence that's why I got into law enforcement. But I've always been a rule follower, and that's something about it, if you know me, that I'm very much a rule follower. It's the best of my abilities, and I do write by people. So when I got that letter in the mail, I was scared. I was freaking out, to be honest with you. I remember sending it to Russell, and Russell just said,

I'll take care of it. I'll take care of it. And I found so much comfort in that. It seemed like Russell, between Russell and Ellick, they were the magic men. They could make my problems go away. Something bad happened, just called it, I'm a call away, and I'm going to make things right. This should have been the time when Russell realized he had gone too far. The solicitor's office was being alerted of a bad check. And an account he was managing should have been a red flag to most people,

but not to Ellick and Russell, who apparently plowed ahead. Russell didn't explain to Elena what happened with the check. He just said he would take care of it. That's a big part of their MO, keeping clients in the dark and making them feel like these large, complicated settlements were just too much for them to understand. Elena said it was never explained to her by Ellick or Russell how much money she was actually getting. I had no idea.

They just kept telling us that there was, what was the term, that, like, more than enough to live off of, that you were set for life. That was what we were always called, you're going to be set for life, set for life. What that meant, I don't know, because I've seen people have money. A lot of money goes through it in a year and a half, and then I've seen some people be able to make, you know, to live a normal life off of a good set of money. So I didn't even know what I was getting into, honestly. In October 2015, Elena turned 18.

In September, Russell started closing out her accounts, but didn't give her the money until March of the next year, according to the court filings. We asked Elena how that went. Did Russell give her a roadmap for her investments? Did he explain her monthly bills to her and important household expenses? Did he stay in touch with her afterward to make sure she was doing okay? No, he dropped me pretty quickly. I met with him at his bank, and it was a very quick conversation.

I expected it to take a lot longer considering the amount of money that was there and the paperwork and stuff. But no, he dropped me like a hot plate. And the only time that I did have conversation with him was when I reached out to him. Russell left Elena with a parting gift, though. Turns out he never paid her property taxes before the conservatorship ended. So I remember coming home and there was this bright orange letter on my garage, and it scared me because they were talking about taxes weren't paid and they were going to take my house. And I didn't know any of it.

I never got to experience real-world issues like that. So I was scared to now have somebody come in to take my house. No one explained taxes to me. No one explained to me because the house was paid for, but I also obviously still had to pay my property taxes. But again, since it's a Russell and he said, I'll take care of it. And we'll be right back. In 2015, Elena had another awful tragedy to deal with. About a year after the birth of her twins, her house burnt down.

At this point, she was renting out the house Russell bought with her money, and she was living in a new home. But the house was a total loss. In that fire, she also lost vital paperwork related to her annuities and all the files from her case. For six years, she asked Russell for copies of those files. I had sent Russell a text message September 4th of last year asking if he had any updates on Alec, because that was when he had just gotten shot. And he said that he was waiting to talk to his family that he wasn't sure how he was going to do. And then I had told him, so that kind of started a new conversation.

It's probably been years since I've talked to Russell since then. I just added the blue asking, because I knew that they were best friends, because I was reminded that they grew up together. So I knew if he had information that he would be the guy to ask. So more things started coming out about Alec and his addictions and stuff. And Russell talked about how he was still in shock, and he couldn't believe it. And then, so I talked and then, so then September 28th, even after we were talking about Alec, September 28th, I'm asking Russell again the three things that I still need copies of. So this was 2021.

I'm still asking for documents that I requested in 2015 or 2016, the house fire. I want to say it was 2015. So then he just says no problem. And then October 6th, he says he is shipping all of my stuff to me that day. So it took up until October 6th of last year to get all of the paperwork done and requesting. So that kind of raised the red flag to me. Like, why isn't he sending me this stuff? Like, it's that kind of had me flabbergasted because I requested it for years and I never got it.

But he was very interested in if I had spoken with sled or FBI and wanting to know what they had said. And I was like that. And it's really say much to me just saying that they are going through my cases, along with everyone else's cases that Alec and Russell had dealt with. So I felt like we were going to turn up okay because both Han and I did receive money when we turned 18. I thought we were one of the, I hate to say, one of the lucky ones that they didn't mess with. And then when Eric was hired and he started looking into our accounts, we saw a lot of discrepancies in that we're still finding. So it's been overwhelming for sure. And it's been kind of scary and a lot of emotions are resurfacing that I thought I had gotten over and taken care of.

But it's kind of reliving the worst days, worst years of my life. It's kind of like reliving them again. And then Alayna had to make a difficult decision. Does she go to a lawyer and find out what really happened and reopen wounds that have been healing for a long time? It was very hard for me to want to get involved, basically, because I saw where, like, the Satterfield brothers, they didn't even get any money. So I knew rightfully so those were the people who needed justice. And even with the Pickney case that started looking into their cases, like, those guys were done absolutely wrong. They didn't receive any money.

And so on the other hand, I look at me. I said, my sister and I, we both received money, so I think we're okay. And so again, I wanted an attorney just to look over it to see if there was any discrepancies. And wow, was my world turned upside down when I found out that we were done. I don't want to say just as wrong, but we became victims quickly. Here is Alayna's attorney, Eric Bland. A conservatorship account means to conserve, to preserve. And it's meant to be an account that'll be there for when the person turns 18 or whenever it is that they're going to get their money.

It's not to make, you know, turn $2 million into $8 million. This isn't options trading, it's not trading, you know, puts and calls and things like that. This is to preserve money, and I can never imagine that a judge would permit somebody to loan money unsecured to people who are credit risks, like Alec Murdoch. He would want to be honest, he would have to say, you know, putting aside money money to yourself, that's just an absolute no-no, okay? For him to be able to do that, he would have to have an independent loan committee review it. If they would ever approve a conservator loaning money to themselves, because there's no oversight, it's only the conservator who would be doing the oversight on repayment. It's not like that the loan committee is going to take over the conservatorship account. He would be the one who would have to keep up with, well, our interest payments being made if they repaid according to the terms in the note,

but he's the one who's determined the interest rates. You know, a loan committee didn't determine it, but it's to Alec. He was a total unsecured credit risk. He wasn't putting up any collateral, and Russell knew that his loans were non-performing loans with the bank, and he was overdrawn in his checking account. We're talking as if it's appropriate to even entertain the discussion of doing these loans. It's not. You can't get even to the point of, well, what kind of interest rates should we charge? You don't loan money from conservatorship accounts.

Elena is still trying to wrap her mind around what Russell did. Remember, both Alec and Russell were sworn officers of the court and had a fiduciary duty to act within their client's best interest. For 15 years, she had no reason to think that they hadn't done that. She also had no idea that the entire time Russell was her conservator, he was racking up overdraft fees over and over, and they were getting charged back to her. At the bank, his family owns two of those fees for $5 each came on the days after Russell had paid himself a conservator fee of over $1,500. He overdrew her account because he was paying himself for the work he was doing or not doing in overseeing her finances. I put a lot of trust in both Alec and Russell.

I feel very betrayed. The trade is a good word. I would also say disappointed because these men, they knew that they should have known that they were getting into situations that were very sensitive and that these people, not even including myself, like these victims, they've already lost a lot and have gone through a lot. It just, it amazes me that they had the audacity to come up with these crimes. And in July, Elena faced the man who had betrayed her when he stood accused on federal charges in her sister's case and others. So when we walked into this court, well, right outside the courtroom, elevators opened and I stepped off the elevator and I looked to my right and I immediately saw Russell. I guess not many people around me knew what he looked like, but I dealt with him for so much.

I knew, I mean, I was like a father figure to me, like family, so when you see him, you know him. And I was, for a second, I had a feeling of sadness because I'd never seen him in that aspect. He looked sad, but he also looked at me like he didn't know me, but seeing him for the first time right outside the courtroom, I had this feeling in my, like a, like a pit in my stomach. And I almost felt like I was doing, I wasn't sure if this is the right thing to do with me being in there. But I started remembering about things that had already been covered and had already been found and what we discussed that had gone wrong all the discrepancy. And I knew I needed, I needed to be in that courtroom. So when I walked in the courtroom, he walked right past me, didn't, didn't look at me again.

As far as I know, he talked to his family and I know when the judge called Russell up to the stand, his kids kept looking at his son and his daughter. They kept glaring over at me and the attorneys and they would say something to each other and they'd look back. And I just thought that was very unprofessional being in that environment because nobody told Russell to go dip into our funds and to spend our money. Nobody told him to loan Alec and whoever else. Our, my blood money, like that was my, my mom and my brother's blood money. It wasn't lottery winnings. It was, it was blood money.

And for them to feel like I was, I was the bad guy. That's the way that his family made me feel like I should be ashamed of myself for putting him in this position. But I was not even aware he was doing these things. I was never asked about, can I use your money for loans? As far as I know, there was never ever a court order saying that he could loan out to Alec and these others to himself. So I felt like they had me as the bad guy when I was just there to, to show that no, I'm the victim here. I'm the, I'm the face for the money that he was dipping into. So it was very uneasy.

I almost felt like you could cut to the tension with a knife for sure. One of the things that came out in the bond hearing was that not only had Russell given himself and Alec 22 loans from Hannah's account with APRs that were far below market rate. He took out three lawyer loans on Elena's behalf without her knowledge. These loans from Fomento State Bank were routinely arranged for clients of PMPED. The loans are backed by letters from PMPED that were hand delivered to the bank. Turns out, while Russell was giving himself and Alec 1.5 and 2.5% interest rates, you was giving Elena rates that were more than 20%. So no, I was not aware and it's frustrating that I got the short end of the stick in the long run too because I still got overcharged while he, who is a successful man, who has a good career, who has a good life, who has all the life in front of them. I mean, he's very, very successful and I'm here 15, 16, 17 years old trying to figure out where I was going to get my next meal from.

And it just blows my mind that even though it was a good amount of money in that account, I didn't have access to it. And it was his job to protect it and preserve it and to use it in a way that would benefit me and that was clearly not what happened. Russ is supposed to be the checker, the guardian at the gate. He's supposed to be the big bouncer outside the bar room door and prevent anybody from coming in that doesn't have a proper ID, that's not of age, that is not intoxicated. He's supposed to be the guy that pushes people away and he let the wolf into the henhouse and that wolf was Alex. Alex is Typhoid Mary. You let him in, everybody's going to be infected. As Elena and Hannah's new attorney, Eric has recently gone through the files and explained to these women what Russell and Ellic did with their settlement. It just does not sit well with me at all. It does not sit well with me at all.

You know, you feel like when you lost how I feel when I lost my family in the car wreck that we lost it all, but we really didn't. It wasn't until Russell and Alex came into the picture and that's when we really lost it all. We lost our mom and our brother, basically traded it in for money and then they took the money. So it was like a double loss for us and it doesn't feel right that they paid the loans back with other victims' money. I have a heart and I have empathy and that just bothers me so bad knowing that that's what they were doing. I can't imagine doing dirty work like that. I don't have the contents to do that. I don't understand where these men thought that it was okay, but it's okay and so it's not okay. We're seeing that. In the probate files we found an email from Hannah asking Russell for money to buy a car.

She told Russell that she needed the car to have a way back and forth to school. Here's a passage from it. Quote, I needed Hannah to have a car because she was living with me at that time because I had my children August 4, 2014. It was just me and Hannah, kids ourselves, basically taking care of two babies because their father was not in the picture. We didn't have families to help take care of my twins. It was me and Hannah. A lot of times I look back and I wonder how we're still here, how we made it all in one piece. They would have been really convenient for Hannah to have the car when she asked for it because I ended up having a C-section and I couldn't drive for so long.

Hannah was the only one that could drive, so she was driving my car as much as I needed her to. Actually, Hannah was the one that drove me and the babies home from the hospital in my car because she didn't have one. I'm not sure what clicked to allow Hannah to get a vehicle, but we were very disappointed and it was frustrating and it created even more family problems for us for her being denied it. Yes, school was very important, but we had bigger issues at the time, too, than just school. I remember being just at wit and with everything. I got a car, why didn't she get a car? It was insane. I actually find it coincidental now when Hannah did get a car, it was delivered to my house because she lived with me. And I remember the guy that delivered the vehicle told me that he also was the one who cored away the vehicle that my mom was driving in the wreck.

So I kind of thought that was special at the time, but even now I think back and like, was that a coincidence or not? That the same person that pulled my mom's car out of the trees is the same person who delivers my sister's car to our house. This is the part we need to tell you about all the ways Ellick and Russell used the Pliler's case and the Pliler's money to enrich their friends. Both Hannah and Elena's car came from a Hampton County mechanic with a tow company whose sources have told us is incredibly close with Ellick. Russell paid the daughter of a bank employee to sit with Elena when the electric company came to her house to turn the electricity on. Ellick paid the father of one of his partner's daughter-in-laws, thousands of dollars to act as a chauffeur for the girls between Hampton and Columbia. One of the private flights Ellick took was through an aviation company owned by a partner, but the most shocking one was Maggie Murdock's father. In the girls probate files are emails to and from Maggie's father, Terry Brandsetter.

In one email, Russell tells Alex that they should go with Maggie's father's proposal because, quote, I just feel like we have a hard time justifying how we left that much money on the table. But the thing that you need to know about Elena's story is this. She doesn't want your sympathy, she just wants people to be held accountable. Elena now has a beautiful life, she has twins, a boy and a girl named after her mother and brother. Who I will add, I do not think it is coincidental that they are a boy and a girl. I think God knew what he was doing when he gave me those babies, so they are both named after my mom and my brother. My life is beautiful now, even through all the ashes, I say, and God does turn beauty in the ash.

I've got beautiful children, I've got a wonderful husband, so my life is not all terrible anymore. It came from a rough time, but man, I've got stories to tell and definitely life less needs to take along the way. That's for sure. In the most beautiful part of all of this, Elena took everything she learned growing up about loss, tragedy, family and faith. And she created a life filled with hope and love. She is a proud deputy now in Lexington County, South Carolina. She knows firsthand how difficult life can be sometimes, and she chose a career devoted to helping others. I got into law enforcement because my whole life, I felt like I was in survival mode, and that's where I worked best at.

I wanted to help people. I feel like that's the cliche answer sometimes, but for me, God really lit the way and showed and directed me exactly where I needed to be and how to get into law enforcement, and I just followed it, and that was my calling. And it was helping my community, whether I saw the worst in people, and I've been in that position many a times, and I knew how to react because I knew what I would have wanted. The Murdoch Murders podcast is created by me, Manny Matney, and my fiance, David Moses. Our executive editor is Liz Farrell. Produced by Luna Shark Productions.