FIRST, THIS IS WHAT I BELIEVE REALLY HAPPENED ON THE NIGHT OF THE MURDERS:
Alex Murdaugh shot Paul and Maggie using guns he’d put in the golf cart. He used two guns to make it look like there were two shooters. He’s a lawyer. He’s smart that way. He likely shot Paul first, knowing that Maggie would run forward instead of away to protect her child. He then killed her. After the first shot, she did turn away, of course.
He took Maggie’s phone, and turned it off so he could throw it out of his vehicle window later. He then checked Paul’s phone screen to see who had been calling him. He couldn’t access Paul’s phone but he knew Paul had been talking to Rogan on the phone while he was in the kennel. Paul had been taking care of Rogan’s dog. If somebody didn’t immediately call Rogan back, he might get worried, and show up at the crime scene. Alex tried to call Rogan after getting back to the house to avoid that from happening. There was evidence presented of Alex using his own phone later, at the house, to try to call Rogan.
Alex left Paul’s phone lying on his back, and then raced back to the house, showered, changed, packed up the weapons and his bloody clothes (in the blue tarp/large jacket), and went to his truck. Maggie’s phone was not “taking steps” with Alex’s because he’d turned her phone off. His phone had been turned off during the killings but he’d turned it back on at this point at the house. He knew what he was doing. The rest of his evening was spent inventing alibis, dumping evidence, and pulling an Oscar winning performance with his wailing.
The 35 Weirdest Things Uncovered (and not) in the Alex Murdaugh Trial
1. Alex Murdaugh took the stand in his double murder trial exactly four years to the day after the boat crash that killed Mallory Beach. His son, Paul, was the one driving the boat while extremely drunk. The same two lawyers representing Alex Murdaugh in the murder case were also representing his son, Paul, in the boat case.
2. When you call 9-1-1, the system starts recording the call before the operator answers. In the recorded 9-1-1 call from Alex on the night of the murders, you can hear the dogs in the background barking (skip to the 5:00 minute mark) but you can’t hear Alex. He only starts audibly “crying” when the 9-1-1 operator answers. The first officer who arrived later testified Alex was not “crying” (no tears) when he arrived.
3. When the second cop showed up at the murder scene, Alex stopped wailing, and abruptly said, “How ya doin?”
4. He changed clothes…but he can’t remember changing clothes. The clothes worn before the murder are now missing.
Alex later told the housekeeper he was wearing something he wasn’t that day. She knew what shirt he was wearing that morning because she’s helped turn down his collar as he was leaving for work. He didn’t know it was up. After he told her what shirt he was “really” wearing, she felt he was trying to tell her what to say to investigators.
The housekeeper was called after the murders to come to the house. She did laundry (wet towel on the bathroom floor), and even cleaned the bathtub/shower after the murders. She was likely just trying to stay busy but…did Alex tell her to clean the shower/tub?
5. Two guns Alex owned exactly match the types of murder weapons…but now those guns are conveniently missing.
Shell casings found (used by Paul and his friend after doing target practice using a 300 Blackout AR-15 rifle before the day of the murders) match the ones used for the murders. So, that same blackout gun was used by the family and then by the killer…but that gun is now gone. Alex claimed it went missing last December. So, somebody stole the family gun months before the murders, and then came back to their house with it in June to commit murders? No way. Another gun of the same type was allegedly stolen from Paul’s truck at a party months prior.
So, the family has now “lost” two 300 Blackout AR-15 rifles? Right…
6. Thirty minutes after “finding” his wife and son murdered, Alex Murdaugh googled a restaurant, and looked at a group text message with the word “bikini” in the subject line.
7. He “loved” every person from whom he stole. He said that numerous times.
8. His practice of repeating the prosecutor’s questions back to him before answering was to give himself time to formulate a good answer to each question. Of course, there were many questions that he simply did not answer, saying he couldn’t remember. A creative way to plead the 5th?
9. His memory recall between being questioned by his own defense vs. being questioned by the prosecution was markedly different. In fact, he started looking like he had dementia. But, it was a well thought out scheme on his part. He also hunched over, and looked like a weak, beaten old man. That was also intentional.
10. He admitted he looked his financial crime victims in the eyes, knowing they “trusted him” while he was stealing from them. He also lied to his wife, his sons, other family members, partners, co-workers, and everybody else. You know what the closing arguments from the Prosecutor are going to say about that, right? He also looked the jurors in the eyes…but they are strangers. Why would he tell them the truth?
11. He was transferring money here, there, and everywhere; not only stealing, but also getting loans. He couldn’t keep up with all the moving parts. According to the Netflix documentary, Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, his wife only had about $58 in one of her checking accounts in the end. She had apparently visited a divorce attorney, and had needed a forensic accountant because she couldn’t figure out why there was no money.
She was living in a different house. They were clearly separated. Not sure why that wasn’t mentioned in the trial. Alex Murdaugh did cheat on his wife. That testimony was not allowed in front of the jury. The cheating was a long time ago but I have a hard time believing he did not continue philandering while doing everything else he did.
CAUGHT TRICKING THE COURT…AND THE PROSECUTION DIDN’T CATCH ON!
12. Alex claimed he couldn’t get loans on his equity in Moselle because his wife owned it. However, what he didn’t tell the jury was that he was her beneficiary in her will. If she died, he COULD get loans on it because he would then own it outright. He could also sell it. It’s worth millions. That’s motive right there. It is unfortunate the prosecution didn’t catch onto that.
13. Maggie Murdaugh’s will had her sister listed as the executor. But, on the same day Maggie signed it (in 2015), her sister’s name was scratched out and Alex Murdaugh’s dad’s name was written in to replace it. Maggie did not initial that change.
14. Alex Murdaugh stole money (through a lawsuit settlement) from a close friend. That friend was in the hospital, and wanted his wife to stay in a hotel nearby but they didn’t have the money. Alex didn’t give him any money for a hotel. He couldn’t even pony up a few hundred bucks for a hotel room for that woman. He also stole from two motherless girls and from a quadriplegic, to name just three of his many, many victims.
15. Alex Murdaugh claimed he took up to 2,000 mg of oxycodone on some days, which would be fatal, even if spread out over the day.
“The lethal dose of oxycodone is typically listed at about 80 mg (milligrams), but again, this will vary depending on the person’s tolerance, gender, weight, and other drugs used in conjunction with oxycodone.” – Source: https://delphihealthgroup.com
It’s pretty clear to me that he was dealing drugs with Cousin Eddie but he is trying not to also get convicted of that.
16. Alex claimed the prosecution/cops wouldn’t let him tell them all the facts. He said he made “multiple requests” to talk to law enforcement to tell them the truth but he was ignored. (Total B.S.) He said he stopped trying after he was charged with the killings.
17. When testifying, he said, “When you’re doing the things I was doing, you find all kinds of ways to justify it.” (Like killing your wife and kid to take the heat off of you financially???)
18. The prosecutor claimed Alex had never told anyone he was really at the kennels; that he only brought it up for the very first time on Thursday. He was asking if Alex’s attorneys knew the real story all along. Defense attorney Griffin objected. The judge said, “Overruled!” Griffin instantly stood, and tried to object again. The judge then yelled at him, “Sit down!”
The objection was about attorney/client privilege. The objection was overruled because the defense attorney went on TV (an HBO show), and restated the lie that Alex had been saying about not being at the kennels.
CAUGHT IN ANOTHER LIE ON THE STAND
19. On Friday, his kennel story kept changing. He said he never got out of the golf cart. Then, he said he did (to get the chicken out of the dog’s mouth). Then, he said he got back on the golf cart. Then he changed his story again, and said he went, and put the chicken up.
The most telling part was when he said he was leaving on the golf cart, and claimed he said to them, “See you in a minute.” See them in a minute? He was going to go see his mom, right? But, his son and wife were shot just minutes/seconds later. I think he went to get the guns (or already had them in the golf cart). The “5′ 2″ shooter,” which a defense expert witness hilariously mentioned, based on the bullet trajectory, can simply be someone sitting down (like in a golf cart) to do the shooting, or the shooter being on one knee, which is not unusual…especially when hunting.
And, here’s what he said on the stand about what he was going to do next, after claiming he was leaving the kennels: “Was going to do exactly what I didn’t want to do.” Not sure what he meant by that but I have my assumptions…
20. He stated during his testimony that none of the dogs was acting odd. Those are hunting dogs. If a stranger (the fictional killer that would pull the trigger seconds/minutes later) is nearby, they’re going to sense/smell that person nearby, and start acting up. The only reason they would not act up is if they know the killer.
21. He claimed Maggie and Paul went to the kennels after dinner. He claimed on the stand on Thursday that he never heard anything after he got back to the house but his story changed overnight. On Friday, he said thought he heard Maggie and Paul “pull up” out front (I though they walked to the kennels?). This implied it could have been another vehicle (the fictional shooter?).
So, he could apparently hear a vehicle pull up…but he couldn’t hear several high-powered gun shots?!?!
22. He didn’t look at the jury much during cross-examination…but he did when he was crying.
23. His wife was not living with him. She said/texted (sister/friend) Alex was acting strange when requesting she come to the main house that day. He claimed he wanted her to go with him to visit his dad. Yet, they never went to visit his dad that night.
24. Alex Murdaugh deleted phone calls made from his phone that night (they were later found on others’ phones). He also deleted records of incoming calls.
25. He drove 70-80 mph to and back from his mom’s house before and after the murders. After dark. On winding roads. He did NOT drive that fast to and from work earlier that day.
26. He paused in his vehicle by the woods near his mom’s house. Dumping the murder weapons to pick up later?
27. The blue tarp/raincoat. It was bundled up (not folded). What was in it?? Bloody clothes? He entered his mom’s house carrying it, and went upstairs. The mom’s caregiver didn’t go upstairs to investigate. She said she had only been upstairs in that house a few times. Alex later tried to tell the caregiver (at his Dad’s wake) that he’d been at the house for longer than the 20 minutes he actually was. She was so disturbed by the conversation that she called her brother, who is a police chief.
28. He admitted he paid a drug dealer to shoot him on the side of the road. It failed. He could have simply offed himself and his son probably would have still gotten the life insurance, if his policy had a suicide clause (many do after the first two years). You’d think a smart lawyer would read the insurance policy details first before trying to scam the insurance company, and setting himself up for even more charges.
29. His family was suspected to be involved in the killing of a local gay man. It was rumored that Alex’s oldest son, Buster, was involved with him. There is no evidence about that online. I imagine high-powered South Carolina good ole boys don’t fancy people calling their sons gay.
30. A few years ago, the Murdaugh’s housekeeper apparently tripped over one of their dogs, falling down the stairs, and dying a few days later. The current housekeeper testified that dogs weren’t allowed in the house because of allergies. Alex later stole the settlement money from the dead housekeeper’s sons…and one of them has special needs. A Netflix documentary alleges the now deceased housekeeper found pills taped underneath Alex’s desk. Did she know too much?
5 CLEAR MOTIVES!
31. FINANCIAL CRIMES EXPOSURE. Alex claimed he wasn’t really upset on June 7th about the Chief Financial Officer at his law firm just revealing to him (four hours before the murders) that they had evidence he was stealing money. He knew the gig was up.
Sympathy for his loss would divert attention away (and delay proceedings) for his financial crimes, and his liability in the boat crash case.
32. POTENTIALLY LOSING MILLIONS ON THE BOAT CRASH CASE. Alex claimed he wasn’t really upset on June 7th about the boat case hearing that was only 3 days away. Paul was about to potentially cost Alex millions because of the boat crash, and was likely an embarrassment to the family. He was apparently quite a hellion. The Netflix documentary goes into great detail about that.
Incidentally, his other son, Buster, was apparently kicked out of law school for cheating (plagiarism), which was also a disgrace. It’s also alleged that the family spent $60K trying to fix that mess. Paul’s mess was going to be a LOT more expensive than Buster’s. A former family friend claimed, in the Netflix documentary, that Buster was the favorite son. Is that why he’s still alive?
33. POTENTIALLY LOSING HIS ACCESS TO PAINKILLERS. Alex claimed he wasn’t really upset on June 7th about his wife recently finding more pills (in his computer bag). Addicts will usually do just about anything for a fix. Paul was called “Little Detective” by his family because he was good at finding his dad’s drug stashes. If the Little Detective is eliminated, along with the other person finding his pills, there’s need to worry about the family finding, and taking his pills away anymore, right?
34. LEARNING HIS DAD HAD ONLY HOURS TO LIVE. Alex claimed he wasn’t really upset on June 7th after hearing his father was going into hospice care. His dad died just four days after the murders. Was his father giving him money as well? Was he about to lose that, too?
AND, THE BIG ONE!
35. HE WAS STILL MAGGIE’S BENEFICIARY IN HER WILL!! Maggie Murdaugh owned Moselle, and half of the beach house. Alex was her beneficiary. By not sharing that with the jury, HE LIED. When talking about how he could get money to cover up his financial crimes, he claimed he couldn’t use the equity on the Moselle house for loans because he didn’t own it. You’d think his adoring wife, who he gushed about on the stand, would be happy to get a loan on “her” property to help him out, right? He knew she would not.
They were separated, she was suspicious of him, he’s previously cheated on her, and she had apparently contacted an attorney, and hired a forensic accountant, who would have exposed all of Alex’s financial crimes. She was about to find out how bad things really were. But, she never did had the chance. And, what nobody seems to know is did Maggie Murdaugh have a life insurance policy and who was the beneficiary on that?
Now, Maggie and Paul, two of the biggest hurdles in Alex Murdaugh’s dire straights financial situation, are dead.
Alex Murdaugh will be found guilty.
Angela Hoy lives on a mountain in North Georgia. She is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the President and CEO of BookLocker.com and AbuzzPress, and the author of 24 books.
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