“Cousin Eddie” is back behind bars in South Carolina — but no one’s saying why.
Curtis “Eddie” Smith, who was accused of trying to shoot the now-infamous former attorney Alex Murdaugh on a rural road in Hampton County last September in a convoluted insurance fraud/suicide-for-hire scam, was arrested late Friday by the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED).
A Colleton County Sheriff’s deputy at the County Detention Center in Walterboro, where Smith is being held, said there was no information available on new charges against Smith.
“He’s being held for SLED, that’s all it says,” the officer told The Post Saturday.
Smith, 61, was previously charged with assisted suicide, assault and battery of a high aggravated nature, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud in connection with the shooting of Murdaugh on Labor Day weekend.
Smith told The Post in September that he did not shoot Murdaugh and denied there was a suicide-for-hire scheme. He said he was set up by Murdaugh to make it look as if he were trying to shoot him.
Lawyers for Murdaugh accused Smith of being Murdaugh’s drug dealer, which he has denied.
In December, Smith was named in a lawsuit involving Murdaugh and the Bank of America over an alleged money laundering scheme. The suit claimed that Murdaugh issued 17 cashier’s checks to Smith totaling $164,748.76, and separately issued 254 personal checks to Smith totaling just over $1.8 million between 2015 and June 2021.
Alex Murdaugh has himself been jailed since October on more than eight charges of financial fraud, mainly related to allegedly swindling clients at his former law firm.
He had been at one point considered a “person of interest” in the slayings of his wife and son on June 7, 2021. Maggie Murdaugh, 52, was shot to death along with their troubled 22-year-old son, Paul, at the family hunting lodge in Islandton, South Carolina.
Alex found the bodies at the lodge, called “Moselle,” around 10 p.m. The coroner found that the victims were shot multiple times, reportedly with a semi-automatic assault rifle and a shotgun. He ruled the deaths a double homicide.
Neither SLED nor Smith’s latest attorney, Thomas Bouchette, responded to calls and emails from The Post about Smith’s latest arrest.
SLED detectives say Murdaugh told Smith to shoot him in the head so his surviving son could collect his life insurance.
