When Alex Murdaugh called police to report the murders of his wife and son two years ago, he didn’t realize it would lead to a stunning unravelling of his family’s century-long legal dynasty.
He lied to investigators, he hid evidence and he tried to buy time to cover up the crime. It’s one of the biggest mysteries of a criminal trial that has captivated audiences across the country.
Hiding
It was a tense moment for Alex Murdaugh during his murder trial. He was about to tell the jury why he killed his wife and son and how he tried to hide it up for 20 months.
It’s a southern gothic story of unsolved murders, multimillion-dollar scams, tons of opiates and an investigation that eventually led to Murdaugh being arrested. His prosecutors painted him as a liar who stole from clients and decided to kill his wife and son so they wouldn’t find out about his other crimes that were about to come to light.
Prosecutors have detailed Murdaugh’s swerves from truth to falsehood in a slew of interviews and in video footage that was recorded minutes before Paul and Maggie were shot dead at the family’s seventeen-hundred-acre hunting estate, Moselle. Among other things, they have shown a Snapchat video that caught Murdaugh’s voice, five minutes before investigators believe Paul and Maggie were shot to death.
Calling for help
When a prominent member of a prestigious family in South Carolina called police to report the murders of his wife and son, the police responded with a sense of urgency. It was a moment when a family’s life could come unravelled, and one that spawned an epic tale that has captured national attention.
The murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh in June 2021 were the first of many bizarre stories that have followed this dynasty in a small corner of the Lowcountry known as Moselle, near Walterboro.
After he learned his wife and son were shot, Alex Murdaugh frantically called the police. He was able to make a false statement and lie about his alibi, and the police even caught him on Snapchat video talking to his sister in the midst of the crime.
Barricading a room
The prosecution has painted a sweeping portrait of Alex Murdaugh as a serial thief and murderer. But there are still unanswered questions.
For example, did he have help? If he did, why didn’t he get it?
Those are the questions that keep coming up, even after a jury found Murdaugh guilty of murder. And while the state’s case against the disbarred attorney has been largely circumstantial, it is still enough to put him behind bars.
In addition, a murder investigation is a complicated process. It requires an experienced investigator and the right evidence.
Hide in plain sight
Murdaugh tried to hide in plain sight the night he killed his wife and son, prosecutors said. He lied to police about where he was when he found them dead, a lie that he admitted on the witness stand this week, lead state prosecutor Creighton Waters told jurors Thursday.
The defense argued the lies were a desperate bid to distract investigators from financial crimes. A day of reckoning was on the horizon, they said, and Murdaugh knew it.
Griffin pointed to a forensic expert’s report that said blood spatter showed Murdaugh was in close proximity to the victims. He also pointed to a blue jacket found on Murdaugh’s body with gunshot residue.
Prosecutors had hoped to use that evidence in court. But the expert report and blood-spatter findings turned out to be faulty, and it was a few months before trial that defense lawyers discovered the contradiction. They said the evidence framed the wrong man.
