Alex Murdaugh trial - live: Ballistics expert says Murdaugh too tall to be shooter as son Buster takes stand

Oliver O'Connell and Rachel Sharp

Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son Buster has testified at his father’s trial for the murders of the 26-year-old’s mother Maggie and brother Paul.

Buster – who has sat in Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, every day since the start of the trial – was called to the witness stand by the defence on Tuesday morning.

His testimony comes after the defence began its case on Friday, fighting back against a trove of circumstantial evidence including cellphone and car data, a damning video allegedly placing Mr Murdaugh at the crime scene and apparent holes in his alibi.

Jurors have already heard four weeks of dramatic testimony from 61 witnesses for the prosecution, culminating with a detailed timeline piecing together the final movements of the two victims – and the movements of their accused killer.

Among the revelations in the 88-page timeline was a voicemail message revealing Maggie and Paul had discovered the disgraced attorney’s stash of opioids a month before their murders.

Testifying for the defence, an expert witness claimed that the shooter could only be 5’2” to have fired some of the shots at the crime scene. Forensic engineer Mike Sutton then faced tough cross-examination from the prosecution.

Alex Murdaugh murder trial

22:29 , Oliver O'Connell

Mr Sutton’s testimony concludes.

Court will resume at 9.30am tomorrow.

22:21 , Oliver O'Connell

Harpootlian bring up the SLED report in which the bullet defects in the feed room, dog house, small animal cage (quail pen) etc were documented and labelled.

Mr Sutton confirms that he read the report and used it as a source as part of his investigation.

Harpootlian keeps emphasising that much of the evidence collected was done so by SLED.

Mr Sutton also says in response to a question that different ammo would not have made a difference to his audio tests.

22:06 , Oliver O'Connell

Fernandez presses Mr Sutton on the many variables that could affect the trajectory of a bullet or shotgun pellet — including whether the victim or shooter were moving.

Mr Sutton concedes that none of those are within the realm of his expertise.

Cross-examination concludes and Harpootlian begins redirect.

21:53 , Oliver O'Connell

Fernandez calls into question the trajectory linked to the bullet hole in the paper-product end of the quail pen and the study of it, given the lightweight material and that a projectile was not found.

He asks whether Mr Sutton considered that the shooter may not have been a 5’2” person standing, but could’ve been a taller person crouching.

Mr Sutton responds that he did, and notes that he also took into account the positioning of the shell casings.

There are objections when Fernandez keeps referring to the shooter as an 11 or 12-year-old on account of their alleged height.

Mr Sutton concedes that shell casings may have been moved or ricocheted or may have been ejected in an unorthodox manner.

21:29 , Oliver O'Connell

Fernandez’s questioning regarding Mr Sutton’s expertise in gunshot spread is particularly pointed but the witness is remaining calm as he answers.

21:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Moving on to the study of the audio evidence, Fernandez establishes that the shots fired were not an exact replication of what was used in the murders. They were not conducted with the exact same guns or ammunition.

Fernandez also contends that no test was done about the background noise in the courtroom when the recording of the shot was played. Further, he shows a photo of the trees that had grown up between the kennels and the house in the 19 months between the murders and Mr Sutton’s tests that may have muffled the sounds of the shots.

Mr Sutton contends that this would have made little impact on the ability to hear the sounds of a gunshot over a TV and other appliances in the house.

21:06 , Oliver O'Connell

There was an awkward back and forth between Mr Sutton and Fernandez over the chart showing the speed of the SUV over time. One of the axes of the chart is not labelled so it is difficult to tell when Murdaugh passed the place where Maggie’s phone was discovered.

Mr Sutton tries to retrieve a laptop in which both axes are labelled but Fernandez insists he uses the chart that has been entered into evidence as he did earlier. This appeared to demonstrate that during Mr Sutton’s direct examination, he was guessing as there was no time label on the chart.

20:50 , Oliver O'Connell

Fernandez hints heavily that much of Mr Sutton’s work is based on guesswork. He contends that it is creating a hypothesis and testing it with reconstructions.

He has no certification in the reconstruction of shooting incidents and is not a firearms expert.

20:43 , Oliver O'Connell

The jury is brought back in and cross-examination of Mr Sutton by prosecutor David Fernandez begins.

Mr Sutton says that his report provided to defence was finalised yesterday but says that is standard.

Mr Sutton gets paid $350/hour for his services and has worked 40-50 hours on the case. He also worked on the Mallory Beach boat crash death case.

20:22 , Oliver O'Connell

Harpootlian reapproaches the question of the phone being thrown from the window and manages to ask it in a way that does not cause an objection.

Mr Sutton says that if thrown from a car an object such as a phone would hit the ground at 45mph (as the car was going that speed) and would tumble or slide to a stop over a distance. He says that the leaves, shrubs etc by the roadside might stop it travelling as far as it might.

Looking at the speeds Murdaugh travelled on the return journey when he hit 80mph, Mr Sutton notes that this was just for a second, with Harpootlian suggesting that it may have been him overtaking another vehicle. Mr Sutton says that while he hit these high speeds it was just for a short time and therefore his average speed was not much affected.

Direct examination concludes and the court takes a short break.

20:14 , Oliver O'Connell

Harpootlian has more success in asking whether Murdaugh would have been able to see the bodies of Maggie and Paul as he approached in the car with his headlights on that night.

Mr Sutton says he believes that the headlights would have illuminated the area around the shed and kennels but he says he cannot say what Murdaugh may have seen that night.

20:10 , Oliver O'Connell

Mr Sutton also looks at a chart of the speed of Murdaugh’s SUV as he drove from the house to Almeda to his parents’ home.

Harpootlian is trying to match Murdaugh accelerating to the moment that Maggie’s phone was discarded on the side of the road. The state initially contended that he would have possibly slowed down to throw the phone from the vehicle as he passed that point.

The chart shows the car was more or less accelerating past this point from approximately 42mph to 45mph.

Harpootlian tries to ask about how the phone would be thrown or would travel through the air if ejected from a car window. There is an objection that it is beyond his expertise. The objection is sustained.

19:57 , Oliver O'Connell

Mr Sutton moves on to his second area of expertise — whether the sound of a shotgun or a rifle could be heard in the main house if fired at the kennels.

The distance is 1,100 feet and he testifies that there is a lot of vegetation and other factors that would muffle the sound.

He explains they had the air conditioning, refrigerator, and television on as they would have been that night when they fired their test shots.

The shotgun was fired within and just outside the feed room. The Blackout rifle was fired just outside the kennels and was much louder, Mr Sutton says.

The results were 165db for the rifle and 155db for the shotgun.

An audio recording is played in the court and the shots are barely audible (for the recording the TV was not on).

In his professional opinion, Mr Sutton says no one in the house would have been able to hear the shots from within the Moselle Road house.

19:48 , Oliver O'Connell

Mr Sutton explains the tests he carried out to establish the shotgun blasts that hit Paul.

In the feed room, one of the shots went through the back window and hit a tree outside. Mr Sutton ran a string from the tree through the hole in the glass and into the room. This corresponded to where Paul was standing when the first buckshot hit him in the chest (blood ran down onto the floor leaving footprints from his sneakers).

Following this string, the shooter would have to be firing from the hip to hit Paul at the right angle from the doorway of the feed room approximately three feet away.

The second shot that hit paul in the shoulder and head would also have to be fired from the hip at a much greater angle.

Court resumes after lunch

19:25 , Oliver O'Connell

Court is back in session and the jury is being brought back in.

Direct examination of defence witness Mike Sutton continues with attorney Dick Harpootlian.

Murdaugh defence witness suggests Maggie was killed by 5’2” shooter – not her 6’4” husband

19:18 , Oliver O'Connell

A defence witness in Alex Murdaugh’s high-profile double-murder trial has suggested that Maggie was gunned down by a 5’2” shooter – and not her 6’4” husband.

Mike Sutton, a forensic engineer who specialises in external ballistics, took the witness stand on Tuesday as the defence fights back against the trove of circumstantial evidence laid out by the prosecution over the past four weeks.

Based on the projection of one of the bullets at the crime scene, Mr Sutton told the court that he believes the assailant that shot Maggie with an AR-15-style rifle had to be 5’2” to 5’4”.

Rachel Sharp watched his testimony.

Alex Murdaugh defence witness suggests Maggie was killed by 5’2” shooter

Murdaugh’s son recounts father telling him mother and brother were murdered

19:02 , Oliver O'Connell

‘He sounded odd’: Alex Murdaugh’s son recounts father telling him about murders

Murdaugh’s surviving son Buster gives stoic testimony as dad smiles

18:42 , Oliver O'Connell

Alex Murdaugh’s only surviving son Buster gave stoic testimony as his father looked on smiling in the South Carolina courtroom where he is on trial for the murders of the 26-year-old’s mother Maggie and brother Paul.

Buster – who has attended Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, every day since the start of the high-profile trial in a show of support for his father – was the first witness called to the stand by the defence on Tuesday morning.

Read on:

Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son Buster gives stoic testimony in murder trial

Murdaugh judge compares defence attorney to Kyrie Irving

18:22 , Oliver O'Connell

The judge in Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial has compared one of his defence attorneys to Kyrie Irving as he scolded him for a social media post branding the criminal investigation “sloppy”.

At the start of day 19 of the disgraced legal scion’s trial in the Colleton County Courthouse on Tuesday, Judge Clifton Newman questioned Mr Murdaugh’s attorney Jim Griffin about one of his tweets about the case.

Rachel Sharp has the story.

Alex Murdaugh judge compares defence attorney to Kyrie Irving

18:02 , Oliver O'Connell

The court is now breaking for lunch as Harpootlian informs Judge Newman he has another hour of questioning of the witness to go.

Court resumes at 2.15pm.

18:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Mr Sutton’s conclusion is that the potential shooter would be between 5’2” and 5’4” tall to be in a shooting position unless they were laying on the ground or kneeling.

Based on the position of the shell cases from the shots fired at Maggie, he can more easily determine where the shooter was located.

As the court was told earlier, Murdaugh is 6’4”. The measurement of his kneecap is 25”.

17:45 , Oliver O'Connell

The focus of much of Sutton’s testimony has been related to the bullet hole found in the quail pen.

He shows two positions for the shooter based on the trajectories and the position of Maggie’s body.

17:30 , Oliver O'Connell

From the angles from which bullets are fired, Mr Sutton explains you can determine the location of the shooter.

The jury is shown two 3D scans of the scene (one with the roof of the shed removed for clarity). The positions of Maggie and Paul’s bodies are shown.

17:17 , Oliver O'Connell

Mr Sutton examined the crime scene at Moselle, specifically the bullet holes in the quail pen and elsewhere.

He examined photos and measurements relating to the scene made by SLED agents.

Harpootlian is walking him through the photos and asking about the various angles of trajectory of the bullets fired around the kennels.

17:08 , Oliver O'Connell

Mr Sutton’s expertise is in ballistics (tracking the flight of a bullet); acoustics — what can be heard by whom in a specific setting; and assesses what happened in accidents such as with motor vehicles.

He is submitted and accepted as an expert witness in these three areas.

Mr Sutton was hired by Mr Griffin to look into what happened at Moselle.

New Witness: Mike Sutton, forensic engineer

16:55 , Oliver O'Connell

The defence’s next witness is Mike Sutton, a forensic engineer, who examines accidents to determine or eliminate what happened in an event.

Defence attorney Dick Harpootlian is questioning him.

16:52 , Oliver O'Connell

After a very brief redirect about how long his mother would stay at the Edisto Beach house, Buster Murdaugh’s testimony concludes.

16:52 , Oliver O'Connell

Buster testifies he had no knowledge of his father’s financial situation or crimes.

He says that the boat crash and the criminal and civil cases brought against the family were unsettling.

It would annoy him when Paul used his ID.

Buster says he never slept at Edisto again, but acknowledges that his father once asked him if he wanted to hunt out on the property again after the murders.

16:44 , Oliver O'Connell

Moving on to the Almeda property, Buster explains — as he did in direct examination — about the parking situation and how they would pull up onto the grass.

Meadors asks when he first talked about parking on the grass. Buster days it was a few days ago. He is unsure if it was before or after caretaker Shelly Smith’s testimony. He also cannot remember whether he brought it up or if someone else had.

It is noted there are no tire tracks on the grass which you might expect if it was a regular place to park.

Buster says they would call the house before arrival so the caretakers would not be concerned about a car appearing in the drive at night and would unlock the door for them.

16:40 , Oliver O'Connell

The jury has been brought back in and cross-examination of Buster Murdaugh begins.

Before state prosecutor John Meadors begins, he offers his condolences to Buster for the loss of his mother, brother, and grandfather — who he recalls from when he was a young solicitor.

His first question regards the two entrances to the Moselle Road property and whether you would be able to see the kennels if the lights were on.

Buster says it depends on which lights were on.

16:16 , Oliver O'Connell

One of the final questions asked of Buster is how long it takes to clean out a dog kennel with the hose. He says about 10 minutes to wash away the dog excrement.

Court is now on a 15-minute break.

16:14 , Oliver O'Connell

Buster is shown the 10 June 2021 video of his father being interviewed in which there is a question as to whether he said: “I did him so bad” or “They did him so bad” in reference to Paul.

He says his father says “they” and that he heard him say that repeatedly on the night of the murders.

16:11 , Oliver O'Connell

Neither Buster nor Alex Murdaugh spent another night at the Moselle Road property after 7 June 2021.

His father was in detox after the roadside shooting.

Buster testifies his father kept clothes at all the different properties they owned and at their relatives’ homes. He is asked about the shirt his father is wearing in the Snapchat video and says it is blue and not sea foam.

16:07 , Oliver O'Connell

Buster and Alex Murdaugh offered a reward for information that led to Paul and Maggie’s killer or killers. He testifies that they worked on the language together.

There was an expiration date on the reward of 30 September 2021.

15:58 , Oliver O'Connell

“Nobody really slept,” that night, Buster says.

They returned to Moselle in the morning and testifies that he, his girlfriend, and his father showered there when they got back.

Except while sleeping, he was with his father from then on. At some point, they stopped staying at the Almeda house and moved over to his uncle John Marvin’s hunting lodge.

15:52 , Oliver O'Connell

Buster is asked when he found out about the murders of Maggie and Paul.

He says he was called by his father later that night and sat in shock while his girlfriend, Brooklyn, got things together for the drive down to Moselle.

Buster says they arrived at the property around 2.00am.

He remembers his uncles were there as well as his father, plus Chris Wilson and various lawyers from the law firm, and his friend Nolan Tute.

They stayed there for several hours to around 4am or 5am and then went to the Almeda house with his father and uncle. Buster helped his father pack some clothes before they left.

15:46 , Oliver O'Connell

Buster says Paul was bullied online and harassed in the street and at bars after the boating crash that killed Mallory Beach.

He says the stigma surrounding the family’s responsibility for the boat crash consumed his mother and she stopped going to Hampton as she felt people were staring at her. She began shopping in Walterboro instead.

Maggie was anxious about the civil lawsuit against the family and the amount that Mark Tinsley said he was suing the family for — as well as the criminal case against Paul which concerned Murdaugh more.

Buster says that the family didn’t believe Paul was driving the boat when it crashed and they planned on fighting the criminal case.

A picture is shown of the family on Memorial Day weekend — a week before the murders.

15:42 , Oliver O'Connell

Buster says it was not unusual for his father to shower a lot as it gets very hot at Moselle in the summer and Murdaugh was a lot bigger then at 6’4” and 250 pounds.

Asked about his opioid addiction, Buster says he knew “a little bit” and that he knew Maggie and Paul had found pills and confronted him about it.

Buster says his father went to a detox facility around Christmas 2018 and they thought that would handle it. They found pills on other occasions.

He says all the conversations were civil and there was no violence in the family.

15:38 , Oliver O'Connell

At 9.10pm on 7 June 2021, approximately 20 minutes after the murders, Murdaugh called Buster on his drive to Almeda to check on his mother.

Buster testifies that such a call was normal as they would often speak while driving.

He also tells the court that as cell phone reception was so spotty on the property (and especially bad under the metal roofs of the sheds) it was not unusual for his father to leave his phone behind at the house. He also says Paul would misplace his phone a lot.

Buster also talks about Bubbam the labrador who caught a chicken on the night of the murders as Maggie can be heard saying in the kennel video shot by Paul. When Bubba wore a shock collar he would be well-behaved.

15:27 , Oliver O'Connell

Moving on to phone records, Buster says he spoke to his parents “pretty much every day”.

There are calls between Maggie and Buster and Maggie and Paul around 1.40pm on the day of the murders.

There is also a call between Alex and Maggie.

Buster explains that such call activity was normal and does not remember much of the detail about the calls except for arranging for some medication he was taking to be delivered.

15:18 , Oliver O'Connell

Buster talks about both sides of his family — Maggie’s parents and his father’s — and Alex’s parents’ medical conditions in the summer of 2021.

As we have heard, Alex’s grandfather was gravely ill in hospital at the time of the murders, and his mother was being cared for at home with late-stage Alzheimers.

He says Murdaugh would visit them a lot at lunchtime or in the evening. Maggie would sometimes go as well, but not regularly.

Buster explains that they would part in the garage or carport if they visited during the day, but if they went in the evening they would pull around the back and enter through a sunroom back door.

As the court heard last week from the OnStar GPS evidence, Murdaugh pulled around the back of the house on the night of the murders. with prosecutors implying it was to stash the missing weapons or other evidence.

The defence is trying to undermine this theory with Buster saying it was normal to park there. The court is shown pictures of the lawn at the back of the house with a “cook house” and “cook shed” near the treeline about 20 yards from the house.

15:09 , Oliver O'Connell

Buster’s mother Maggie was killed with a 300 Blackout rifle which has never been found. Testimony has indicated that it was the replacement rifle bought for Paul (that didn’t have a thermal sight on it) that was used to murder her.

Paul was shot twice, first with buckshot and then with steel birdshot. Buster testifies he would never load a shotgun that way and does not know why someone would. He says he never saw a gun loaded in that way.

15:03 , Oliver O'Connell

Buster explains that his brother Paul would often leave guns around the property more than anyone else.

He confirms what we have heard already: the 300 Blackout rifles were Christmas gifts for him and Paul. He identifies the black rifle as his and says that Paul’s was tan-coloured and was stolen or lost or taken.

Buster says that afterward, he would share his gun with Paul.

New Witness: Buster Murdaugh

14:49 , Oliver O'Connell

The jury is brought in and the first witness takes the stand — Buster Murdaugh, Alex Murdaugh’s surviving elder son.

He was not at the Moselle Road property on the night of the murders.

14:47 , Oliver O'Connell

Defence attorney Jim Griffin is in trouble with Judge Newman for retweeting an opinion piece from The Washington Post on Twitter over the weekend.

The article described the investigation of the Murdaugh murders as “sloppy”.

Judge Newman asks: “It appeared on my Twitter feed this morning ... Mr. Griffin, is this part of your defence strategy?”

“Your honor, all I did was retweet an article that was published by The Washington Post,” replied Griffin.

Judge Newman, compares the situation to Kyrie Irving being punished for retweeting and adds that “it doesn't pass the feel test” to have an attorney tweeting or commenting publicly about the case or witness testimony in it.

The judge appears to decide that Griffin's actions violated the spirit of judicial ethical rules, but perhaps not the letter of them, and the trial proceeds.

Juror absent

14:39 , Oliver O'Connell

Court is back in session but a juror is unwell and is at a doctor’s appointment.

Judge Clifton Newman says he plans to replace the juror with an alternate. The juror in question was already an alternate herself.

If she is replaced then there will be only two alternates left (there were six at the start of the trial).

Both the state and the defence raise no objection to the juror being replaced.

The defence says it plans to rest its case on Friday (dependent on how long cross-examination etc will be).

Murdaugh and family arrive at court

14:26 , Oliver O'Connell

What to expect in court today:

14:00 , Rachel Sharp

Alex Murdaugh’s trial will resume in Colleton County Courthouse at 9.30am ET on Tuesday – after a day’s break for the President’s Day public holiday.

Mr Murdaugh’s surviving son Buster is expected to be the first witness called to the stand by the defence, a source told CNN.

He will then be followed by an accident reconstructionist who is expected to be used to pick holes in evidence and the evidence-gathering process at the crime scene.

His testimony comes after the prosecution rested its case on Friday and the defence began its own, as Mr Murdaugh’s legal team seeks to present him as a loving father and husband who could not have killed his family members.

RECAP: Defence begins its case

13:40 , Rachel Sharp

The defence began its case on Friday afternoon with two short witnesses, as Alex Murdaugh’s attorneys pointed out that they did not to call any witnesses whose testimony could extend over the public holiday weekend.

Colleton County Coroner Richard Harvey first testified that he placed Maggie and Paul’s times of death to be around 9pm, after touching their bodies to check the temperatures.

Under questioning from defence attorney Dick Harpootlian, he said that the murders could have taken place anytime between 8pm and 10pm – seeking to cast doubts in the timeline laid out by the prosecution.

Colleton County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Shalane Tyndall then testifiied about the statement that the agency released the morning after the murders.

“At this time, there is no danger to the public,” the original statement to a local paper read. It was later amended.

RECAP: Prosecution rests case

13:20 , Rachel Sharp

The prosecution rested its case on Friday after four weeks of dramatic testimony, which culminated with a detailed timeline piecing together the final movements of the two victims – and the movements of their accused killer.

Newly-obtained car data – from Alex Murdaugh’s 2021 Chevy Suburban – placed him at the spot where Maggie’s phone was later found dumped just minutes after he allegedly shot and killed her and Paul.

After passing that spot, his car then suddenly picked up speed, continuing to go at a high speed all the way to his mother’s house.

In another bombshell moment, the data revealed that less than 20 seconds passed between the moment Mr Murdaugh’s car arrived at the dog kennels and the start of his 911 call where he claimed he found the bodies.

During the 911 call – and in interviews Mr Murdaugh gave in the aftermath of the murders – he claimed he had touched both his wife and son’s bodies to check for signs of life before calling 911.

He also claimed that when he moved Paul, his cellphone “popped out of his pocket”. He said he picked it up but then put it back down on his son.

Another revelation came when jurors were shown a bombshell voicemail message Paul left for his father on 6 May 2021.

The message reveals that Maggie and son Paul found “bags of pills” in the accused killer’s bag just one month before their murders.

Days later on 26 May 2021 – 12 days prior to her murder – Maggie then carried out several internet searches seeking to identify different types of pills.

Then, on 3 June 2021 – four days before he allegedly killed his wife and son – Mr Murdaugh sent a voicemail to then-Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Laffitte asking him for money.

A timeline of murders, financial fraud, unexplained deaths and arrest

13:00 , Oliver O’Connell

Disgraced legal dynasty heir Alex Murdaugh is currently on trial in a South Carolina courthouse for the murders of his wife and son.

Mr Murdaugh, 54, is accused of shooting Paul, 22, twice with a shotgun and Maggie, 52, five times with a rifle on the family’s sprawling hunting lodge in Islandton on 7 June 2021.

He was arrested more than a year later in July 2022 and charged with their murders.

In the 20 months since the brutal double murders propelled the Murdaughs onto national headlines, a series of other scandals, allegations and alleged crimes have also come to light.

Here’s a timeline of the key moments in the case:

Alex Murdaugh: A timeline of murders, financial fraud, unexplained deaths and arrest

Alex Murdaugh’s only surviving son Buster to testify at double murder trial

12:42 , Rachel Sharp

Alex Murdaugh’s only surviving son Buster is expected to testify on Tuesday at his father’s trial for the murders of the 26-year-old’s mother Maggie and brother Paul.

Buster – who has attended Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, every day since the start of the high-profile trial in a show of support – will be the first witness called to the stand by the defence on Tuesday morning, a source told CNN.

This would mark the first time that he has ever spoken publicly about the murders of his mother and brother or about his father’s string of alleged crimes.

Read the full story here:

Alex Murdaugh’s only surviving son Buster to testify at double murder trial

LISTEN: Dramatic 911 call where Alex Murdaugh claimed he was victim of hitman plot

12:20 , Rachel Sharp

Last week, jurors heard Alex Murdaugh’s 911 call from September 2021 where he claimed he was ambushed in a drive-by shooting.

On 4 September 2021 – three months on from the murders – the disgraced attorney was ambushed in what he initially claimed was a drive-by shooting along a road in Hampton County. He checked into rehab the following day, announcing that he was struggling with a 20-year opioid addiction and that he had resigned from his law firm PMPED.

But, Mr Murdaugh’s story about the roadside shooting soon unravelled and he confessed to law enforcement that he had orchestrated the saga, paying Mr Smith to shoot and kill him in an assisted suicide plot so that his surviving son Buster could get a $10m life insurance windfall.

Both Mr Smith and Mr Murdaugh were then arrested and charged over the incident.

Prosecutors claim that the roadside shooting saga was part of Mr Murdaugh’s pattern of creating violence to get away with things – with the shooting coming just one day after he was confronted by PMPED for stealing millions from clients.

Listen to the 911 call below:

Murdaugh made bizarre search on phone after police arrived at scene of murders

12:00 , Oliver O’Connell

The report also shows a bizarre search by Mr Murdaugh at 10.40pm, just 34 minutes after alerting 911 dispatchers that he had found his wife and son’s bodies by the property’s dog kennels — and 15 minutes after the first deputy arrived on the scene.

“Alex Murdaugh searched ‘Whaley’s Edisto’ in Safari browser,” the timeline states.

Andrea Blanco has the story.

Alex Murdaugh looked up restaurant minutes after police arrived at murder scene

Who is Buster Murdaugh?

11:30 , Rachel Sharp

Buster Murdaugh is the eldest – and now only surviving – son of Maggie and Alex Murdaugh.

The 26-year-old has stood by his father throughout the growing number of allegations against him – even after his arrest for the murders of his brother and mother.

Buster was also accused of buying alcohol for Paul before the 2019 fatal boat crash.

His name has also cropped up in connection with the mysterious death of Stephen Smith – a 19-year-old who was found dead at the side of a road in Hampton County in 2015.

Buster has been listed as a potential witness for the defence.

Buster Murdaugh with his girlfriend during his father’s double murder trial

He has supported his father in court every day since the start of the trial but his apparently bad behaviour has cropped up in the courtroom.

In court on the week of 6 February, Buster appeared to “flip the bird” at attorney Mark Tinsley as he took the witness stand about the boat crash lawsuit that he brought against Mr Murdaugh.

Judge Clifton Newman has reportedly issued multiple warnings to several members of the Murdaugh family about their behaviour in court and they have been moved to the back of the courtroom.

Sources told FITS News that when Buster was asked to move to the back of the courtroom, he allegedly kicked over a water bottle in anger.

The judge has warned that he and other family members could be removed from court altogether.

New car data places Alex Murdaugh at the spot where wife’s phone was dumped

11:00 , Oliver O’Connell

Newly obtained car data has placed Alex Murdaugh at the spot where his wife’s phone was later found dumped – before he quickly sped away from the scene.

The data, handed over by General Motors just last week, shows the disgraced legal dynasty heir left the family home in his 2021 Chevy Suburban at 9.07pm on the night of 7 June 2021 – just minutes after he allegedly shot and killed his wife Maggie and son Paul.

Rachel Sharp has the details.

New car data places Alex Murdaugh at the spot where wife’s phone was dumped

Murders, million-dollar fraud and mystery deaths: The story of Alex Murdaugh’s spectacular fall from grace

10:30 , Rachel Sharp

The ‘trial of the century’ is now under way in a courtroom in South Carolina where powerful legal scion Alex Murdaugh is charged with the brutal double murder of his wife and son.

But this is far from the only twist in a bizarre and sprawling tale of unexplained deaths, hitman plots and multi-million-dollar fraud schemes.

The Independent’s Rachel Sharp delves into the lowcountry’s sprawling saga:

Alex Murdaugh trial: Story of the legal scion’s spectacular fall from grace

Murdaugh’s wife and son found ‘bags of pills’ one month before their murders

10:00 , Oliver O’Connell

A bombshell voicemail message has revealed that Alex Murdaugh’s wife Maggie and son Paul found “bags of pills” in the accused killer’s bag just one month before their murders.

The message, on 6 May 2021, shows Paul confronting his father about the discovery of the drugs – at a time when the disgraced attorney claims he was spending up to $60,000 a week to feed a 20-year opioid addiction.

“I am still in EB because when you get here we have to talk. Mom found several bags of pills in your computer bag,” it says, referring to Edisto Beach, the Murdaugh family’s beach home.

Rachel Sharp reports.

Alex Murdaugh’s wife and son found ‘bags of pills’ one month before murders

Surviving son Buster to testify today in father’s double murder trial

09:31 , Rachel Sharp

Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son Buster is expected to testify today at his father’s double murder trial.

Mr Murdaugh is accused of shooting dead his wife Maggie and son Paul – Buster’s mother and brother – at the family estate on 7 June 2021.

Buster, 26, – who has sat in Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, every day since the start of the high-profile trial – will be the first witness called to the stand by the defence on Tuesday morning, a source told CNN.

His testimony comes after the defence began its case on Friday, fighting back against a trove of circumstantial evidence including cellphone and car data, a damning video allegedly placing Mr Murdaugh at the crime scene and apparent holes in his alibi.

Mr Murdaugh’s legal team is arguing that he could not be responsible for the murders as he is a loving father and son.

They claim the killer or killers are still out there.

Murdaugh attorney mocked for ‘spicy’ cross-examination of SLED agent

08:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Alex Murdaugh’s defence attorney has been mocked for his “spicy” cross-examination of a law enforcement official who testified about the accused killer’s botched hitman plot.

Alex Murdaugh attorney mocked for ‘spicy’ cross-examination of agent over hitman plot

Jury hears how killer ambushed Paul before shooting Maggie on her knees

07:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Alex Murdaugh allegedly ambushed his son Paul in the feeding room of the family’s dog kennels before turning on his wife Maggie who tried to flee only to be shot and killed on her knees, according to chilling testimony from a top crime scene expert.

Rachel Sharp has the details.

Alex Murdaugh trial hears killer ambushed Paul before shooting Maggie on her knees

Murdaugh’s detailed sketch of shooter who never existed revealed at trial

06:45 , Oliver O'Connell

The jury in Alex Murdaugh’s trial has finally been presented with evidence of his botched hitman plot months after the murders of his wife and son - including a sketch of the nonexistent man he claimed shot him.

Megan Sheets has the story.

Alex Murdaugh’s detailed sketch of fake shooter exposed at trial

‘Did you kill your wife and son?’

05:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Newly-released footage has revealed the dramatic moment that Alex Murdaugh was first confronted by law enforcement for the first time about allegedly killing his wife and son.

Rachel Sharp reports.

Dramatic moment Alex Murdaugh is first asked by police if he killed his wife and son

Murdaugh grimaces as trial hears bizarre 911 call after being shot in the head

04:45 , Oliver O'Connell

A visibly uncomfortable Alex Murdaugh grimaced as prosecutors played the 911 call in which he reported being shot in the head - in what turned out to be a botched hitman plot.

Alex Murdaugh reacts to trial hearing his 911 call after being shot in the head

Murdaugh spent $50,000 a week on drugs before murders

03:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Alex Murdaugh spent a staggering $50,000 a week on drugs which he was buying from the man accused of being his co-conspirator in a botched hitman plot, jurors heard in dramatic courtroom testimony on Wednesday.

Defence attorney Jim Griffin brought up Mr Murdaugh’s pricey opioids habit during cross-examination of SLED Special Agent David Owen – the lead investigator in the brutal murders of Mr Murdaugh’s wife Maggie and son Paul.

Alex Murdaugh spent $50,000 a week on drugs before wife and son’s murders

Key players in Alex Murdaugh murder trial

02:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Disgraced legal scion Alex Murdaugh is currently on trial for the grisly double murder of his wife Maggie and son Paul, who were found shot dead at the family’s sprawling estate in Islandton, South Carolina, on 7 June 2021.

The husband and father – who comes from a long line of prominent attorneys in South Carolina – is accused of shooting Paul twice with a shotgun and Maggie five times with an AR-15-style rifle.

Prosecutors claim that he was motivated by desperation to distract from his string of alleged financial crimes which were on the brink of being exposed.

For years, the Murdaughs reigned over the local justice system and mingled in powerful circles.

Now, the brutal double murders have brought to light a series of scandals surrounding Mr Murdaugh including unexplained deaths, a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme and a botched hitman plot – in a sprawling saga that touches many across the low country.

Here’s some of the key players in the case:

Who are the key players in Alex Murdaugh murder trial?

Victims’ last texts and calls revealed

01:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Jurors learned about the final text messages and phone calls made by Paul and Maggie before their brutal murders.

On the night of 7 June 2021, Paul placed a call on his cellphone to friend Rogan Gibson at 8.40pm, lasting four minutes, followed by a second call at 8.44pm. The second was the last incoming communication Mr Gibson received from Paul’s cellphone.

Five minutes later, at 8.49pm, Mr Gibson sent Paul a text message: “See if you can get a good picture of it. Marion wants to send it to a girl we know that’s a vet. Get him to sit and stay. He shouldn’t move around too much.”

The message – believed to be about a dog Paul was taking care of for him – went unanswered.

From that point onward, neither Paul nor his mother Maggie responded to any messages or calls on their cellphones.

Prosecutors said in opening statements that Paul was shot dead first at 8.50pm and Maggie minutes later. Their cellphones had no activity from 8.49pm onward.

After sending the text message at 8.49pm and receiving no response from his friend, Mr Gibson sent a follow-up text at 9.58pm, which simply read: “Yo.”

Mr Gibson also tried calling Paul multiple times at 9.10pm, 9.29pm, 9.42pm, 9.57pm and 10.08pm.

Getting no response from his friend, jurors heard that he also texted Paul’s mother Maggie at 9.34pm, saying: “Tell Paul to call me.”

Shortly after, Mr Gibson had four missed calls from Alex Murdaugh at 10.21pm, 10.24pm, 10.25pm and 10.30pm.

Guns and ammo at Murdaugh home match crime scene

00:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Bodycam footage released by the court on 30 January revealed a huge stash of firearms inside the Murdaugh family home in the days after the murders.

SLED Special Agent Jeff Croft told jurors how he seized firearms and ammunition from the Murdaugh home – including weapons and ammo that matched the type of gun and bullets used to kill Maggie and Paul.

A .300 Blackout semiautomatic rifle, 12-gauge Browning shotgun, Benelli shotgun and 12-gauge pump shotgun which were seized from the family home were all brought into the courtroom and shown to jurors.

The agent testified that several empty boxes of ammunition were also found during searches of the Murdaugh home on 8 June and 13 June.

Inside the .300 Blackout rifle was Sellier & Bellot .300 AAC BLK ammo – the same type of ammo that was used to kill Maggie.

Also seized as evidence was a credit card receipt for an $1,021.10 item from Gucci – the item had been circled.

On 31 January, Agent Croft also testified that ammunition – steel shot ammo specifically Winchester DryLok – matching the fatal shot fired through Paul’s brain had been located on the Murdaugh family property.

Two separate guns – a rifle and shotgun – were used to kill Maggie and Paul. They have never been found.

Bodycam shows Murdaugh’s ‘clean’ shirt after claiming to touch bloody bodies

Monday 20 February 2023 23:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Bodycam footage from the night of the murders revealed Mr Murdaugh wearing a “clean” white shirt after he claimed he touched his wife and son’s bloodied bodies on finding them shot dead.

In the footage, Mr Murdaugh is dressed in a white T-shirt and dark shorts with no obvious signs of blood.

During courtroom testimony, multiple law enforcement officials described how Mr Murdaugh was “clean” and did not appear to have any blood on him when they arrived on the scene of the murders.

Yet, according to the 911 call made by Mr Murdaugh and bodycam footage from his first police interview on the night of the murders, Mr Murdaugh claims he touched his wife and son’s bodies when he found them by the kennels.

In the interview footage, he is heard telling law enforcement twice that he “tried to turn over” his son’s bloodied body and that he had checked him and his wife for pulses.

“I could see his brain ... I ran over to Maggie, actually I think I tried to turn Paul over first... um... you know, I tried to turn him over, I dunno, I figured it out,” he is heard saying.

Mr Murdaugh said that his son’s cellphone fell from his pocket when he tried to move him and that he handled it briefly.

“His cell phone popped out of his pocket, I started trying to do something with it but I put it back down really quickly, and then I went to my wife,” he says.

Detective Laura Rutland of Colleton County Sheriff’s Office contradicted his version of events as she said that Mr Murdaugh was “clean from head to toe” with no signs of blood on his body, shirt, shorts or shoes.

She said she didn’t say where he checked for a pulse but, in a gripping reenactment, agreed that if Mr Murdaugh had touched pulse points on Paul’s neck or wrists he would have been covered in blood.

As jurors have previously heard, the crime scene was especially violent and bloody, with Paul’s brain shot out of his skull and both he and Maggie lying in pools of their own blood.

Murdaugh ‘immediately’ told police murders were tied to 2019 boat crash

Monday 20 February 2023 22:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Alex Murdaugh “immediately” suggested that his wife and son had been murdered because of a 2019 fatal boat crash as soon as the first law enforcement officer arrived on the scene of the grisly slayings, bodycam footage played in court revealed.

The footage was taken from the bodyworn camera of Colleton County Sheriff’s Sgt Daniel Greene when he was the first officer to respond to the scene.

It captures the disgraced legal dynasty heir pacing around the dog kennels, sobbing and wailing, and repeatedly asking: “Are they dead?”

“Has somebody gone to check ‘em? They did check ‘em? They’re sure that they’re dead?” he says.

The first thing Mr Murdaugh tells the officer when he arrives is that he armed himself with a shotgun after finding his wife and son’s bodies.

“Sir I wanted to let you know because of the scene I did go get a gun and bring it down here,” he says.

Unprompted, Mr Murdaugh then tells the officer that the murders must be connected to the 2019 fatal boat crash involving Paul.

“This is a long story. My son was in a boat wreck months back. He’s been getting threats, most of it’s been benign stuf we didn’t take serious... he’s been getting pinched ,” Mr Murdaugh says. “I know that’s what this is.”

At the time of Paul’s death, he was awaiting trial over the death of 19-year-old Mallory Beach.

Paul was allegedly drunk driving a boat of his friends including Beach in 2019 when it crashed and they were thrown overboard. The rest of the group survived but Beach’s body washed up days later.

Paul was charged with boating under the influence and faced up to 25 years in prison.

Mr Murdaugh was also heard mentioning the boat crash in the 911 call alerting law enforcement to the scene and in his first interview with law enforcement on the night of the murders.

In the bodycam, Mr Murdaugh is also seen regaling in great detail his alleged movements that night.

“I came to the house first,” he says. “My mom has late stage Alzheimer’s, my dad is in the hospital. I left, I don’t know what time. I can go on my phone and tell you the exact times,” he says, before suddenly saying: “Did you check?”

Key revelations from the Murdaugh murder trial

Monday 20 February 2023 22:00 , Oliver O'Connell

It’s a dramatic saga that now includes murder, a botched hitman plot, multi-million-dollar fraud schemes and a series of unexplained deaths.

The now-disbarred attorney denies the allegations and has pleaded not guilty.

Mr Murdaugh’s trial got underway at Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro on 23 January.

The prosecution is expected to wrap up its case this week (week of 13 February) before the defence begins its own case, where Mr Murdaugh is expected to take the stand.

Rachel Sharp catalogues the many key revelations from the trial so far:

‘Confession’, bloody scene and ‘clean’ shirt: Key moments from Alex Murdaugh trial

Watch: Data shows just 20 seconds for Murdaugh to check bodies

Monday 20 February 2023 21:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Missing guns and matching ammunition

Monday 20 February 2023 20:30 , Oliver O'Connell

In the interview, Mr Murdaugh was asked about missing guns – and the agent revealed that the ammunition found at his wife and son’s bodies matched what was found around the estate.

During the time he was “knocking around” with Paul, Mr Murdaugh said he didn’t remember seeing any rifles or shotguns.

However, he also acknowledged it would be rare for Paul not to have guns on him and that Paul would have driven, and not walked, to the kennels from the house.

“Paul always had guns. It was very unusual for Paul not to have guns,” he said of his son.

Agent Owen pointed out that Paul often kept his guns in his truck – suggesting that the firearms used in the murders could have been taken from the vehicle.

When police arrived on the scene of the murders, the only vehicle at the kennels was the SUV Mr Murdaugh had driven to his mother’s home. Additional tire marks were noted in the ground.

After finding his wife and son’s bodies, Mr Murdaugh said he drove back to the family home and got a shotgun, claiming he “just grabbed one” not thinking which one.

When asked how he loaded shotguns and what type of shot he used, he said he used bird shot and buckshot.

The agent told Mr Murdaugh that this matched the shot shells recovered from the murder scene. It was also consistent with guns at the family home.

Mr Murdaugh went on to tell the officer that three guns were missing from the family’s collection: a black Benelli rifle, a browning shotgun and a pump shotgun.

He said that a .300 Blackout semiautomatic rifle had been missing since around Christmas.

Agent Owen told him that Blackout cartridge cases were found by the house and gun room, at the shooting range and around Maggie’s body.

For the first time, the agent revealed to Mr Murdaugh that “family guns” were used in the murders – something Mr Murdaugh did not appear to react to.

“We’ve already established that family guns were used. And if they came from Paul’s truck, Paul’s truck was at the house. So where were they?” the agent asked.

Mr Murdaugh responded: “And how did they get down there?”

Later in the interview, Mr Murdaugh finally asked how his wife and son were killed.

On the witness stand, Agent Owen said this was the first time that Mr Murdaugh had asked him what happened to Maggie and Paul and who could have killed them in the two months since the murders.

The footage shows that Agent Owen told him he believed Paul was shot first, followed by Maggie.

In the footage, Mr Murdaugh is seen sobbing as he said he thought it was the other way around.

“I thought Maggie was shot first as she was shot in the back of the head,” he wept.

The agent told him they “may never know” for certain and that “the shooting happened very quickly, very quick” but that it appeared Paul had been shot first.

He added that it “all depends how many shooters were there”, saying if there was “one person, two persons, three persons” they could have been killed at the same time.

“Two guns, two types of ammunition, it’s hard to say,” he said.

Why were Maggie and Paul at Moselle that night?

Monday 20 February 2023 19:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Inconsistencies were also revealed in Mr Murdaugh’s account of why Maggie was even at the Moselle estate that day.

The accused killer claimed that he wasn’t expecting his wife home but that he later learned she had come to the property because she was worried about him.

“Maggie wasn’t supposed to come home. I’ve since found out she was worried about me and worried about my dad and so she came home,” he said.

“That wasn’t 100 per cent but it was pretty well [known] that she was going to stay at Edisto.”

When asked if he was surprised, he said that she had let him know earlier in the day but said he only learned her reason “why” after the murders.

During testimony from the Murdaugh’s longtime housekeeper and friend Blanca Simpson, jurors heard that Mr Murdaugh had insisted both Maggie and Paul come to the property at Moselle.

Buster, Maggie, Paul and Alex Murdaugh left to right (Maggie Murdaugh/Facebook)
Buster, Maggie, Paul and Alex Murdaugh left to right (Maggie Murdaugh/Facebook)

Phone calls and text messages between Ms Simpson and Maggie were presented in court, with Ms Simpson saying that Maggie texted her saying: “Alex wants me to come home.”

Maggie liked being at the family beach house in Edisto and had been preparing to host a big July 4 gathering there, Ms Simpson said.

In a phone conversation, Maggie also mentioned that Mr Murdaugh wanted her to come to Moselle that day and she seemed a bit “disappointed”, the housekeeper said.

“She sounded like she didn’t want to come home... she sounded like she was a little disappointed,” she said.

Mr Murdaugh had also asked Paul to come home because he wanted his son to “fix” something on the property, Ms Simpson testified.

Murdaugh was questioned about comments on 911 call

Monday 20 February 2023 19:00 , Oliver O'Connell

In the police interview, Agent Owen also asked Mr Murdaugh about several comments he had made in the 911 call reporting the murders – compared to what he was telling him two months on.

The footage shows Mr Murdaugh telling the officers that he went to the dog kennels after returning from his mother’s house.

When asked where the dogs were, he said he “didn’t move the dogs” and didn’t “recall a dog being out”.

However, in the 911 call, he is heard appearing to call to someone or something, saying: “Here, here.”

Agent Owen pointed out the call saying it sounded like he was talking to somebody else or calling for one of the dogs.

Mr Murdaugh confirmed that he didn’t see any people at the kennels and was “certain” none of the dogs were loose at the time.

The agent also asked him about another comment he is heard making in the call: “I should have known.”

Mr Murdaugh said he was likely talking about the murders potentially being connected to the fatal boat crash.

“I don’t remember saying that but I guess all the threats... I was convinced this was something to do with the boat wreck and all of that,” he said.

When asked about telling the dispatcher he picked up Paul’s cellphone and “thought about doing something” but put it back, he said he couldn’t remember what he was thinking.

“I don’t know. When I went up to him and the phone came out I don’t remember having any intentions of doing anything with the phone,” he said.

Murdaugh caught out by Paul’s cell phone video

Monday 20 February 2023 18:15 , Oliver O'Connell

In the 11 August interview, Mr Murdaugh told investigators that he did not go to the dog kennels after having dinner with Maggie and Paul and before visiting his mother.

This statement contradicts bombshell cellphone footage retrieved from Paul’s phone.

The footage, taken by Paul at the dog kennels just minutes before he and Maggie were shot dead, captures three voices off camera.

Cellphone data shows it was recorded for 58 seconds from 8.44.49pm to 8.45.47pm – less than five minutes before prosecutors say the murders unfolded at 8.50pm.

Multiple witnesses – including two of Paul’s best friends and Mr Murdaugh’s longtime friends – have testified at trial that they are “100 per cent sure” that the three voices belong to Paul, Maggie and Mr Murdaugh.

Agent Owen brought up the video in the August interview, telling Mr Murdaugh “you were heard in the background”.

Mr Murdaugh said that he had heard about the video from Paul’s friend Rogan Gibson who asked him if he had been at the kennels.

When asked if it was him in the video, he said: “No sir... not if my times are right.”

Asked who could be, he said he had “no idea” and said he was surprised that Mr Gibson – who was very close with the family – thought it was his voice.

Differing accounts of visit to mother’s house

Monday 20 February 2023 17:30 , Oliver O'Connell

The police interview also revealed Mr Murdaugh claiming he had spent 45 minutes to an hour at his sick mother’s house that night – a timeline that has been refuted by both car data and testimony from his mother’s carer.

Mr Murdaugh told the officers that he had dinner with Maggie and Paul and then “dozed off” on the couch.

When he woke, he said he went to check on his mother, because she has Alzheimer’s and his father was in hospital. He said he would visit his mother “all times of the day”.

Mr Murdaugh said he did not check with Maggie if she wanted to come with him.

“I don’t remember having plans that Maggie was going to arrive with me but maybe she told me she was that night,” he said.

“I don’t remember that specifically... but she didn’t normally go with me...it’s not like we had plans that she was going to ride with me.”

He then claimed that he stayed at his parents’ home for around 45 minutes to one hour and said that he didn’t stop anywhere to or from the visit.

“No I didn’t go anywhere... I went straight,” he said.

Last week, Muschelle “Shelly” Smith, who worked as a caregiver to Mr Murdaugh’s mother Libby, testified that a “fidgety” Mr Murdaugh showed up at his sick mother’s house sometime between 8.30pm and 9.30pm on the night of the murders. She said it was unusual for him to visit at that time.

She said he stayed only around 20 minutes – but then later told her to tell police he had been there double that time.

“I was here 30 to 40 minutes,” she said he told her days later in a conversation that left her feeling “nervous”.

Mr Murdaugh later offered “to help her out” with paying for her upcoming wedding and putting in a good word for her with her other job, she said.

Data taken from Mr Murdaugh’s SUV also indicates that Mr Murdaugh did leave his family home and drove to visit his sick mother at around 9.06pm, arriving at 9.22pm.

The records suggest he only stayed at his parents’ home for 21 minutes, leaving again at 9.43pm and arriving at Moselle at around 10pm. He called 911 at 10.06pm.

Murdaugh could not account for change of clothes

Monday 20 February 2023 16:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Agent Owen also asked Mr Murdaugh about his change of clothing – from a Snapchat video sent by Paul an hour before the murders to the moment police arrived on the scene of the grisly crime.

At 7.56pm, Paul sent a Snapchat video to his friend showing his father on the grounds of the family estate.

In the footage, Mr Murdaugh is dressed in trousers, loafers and a blue button-down shirt.

Less than one hour on from the Snapchat, Paul and Maggie were shot dead at around 8.50pm.

Bodycam footage from the first officer arriving on the scene at around 10.30pm was previously played in court. It shows the disgraced attorney in a different outfit of a white short-sleeved t-shirt and shorts.

When asked by Agent Owen about the change of clothes, Mr Murdaugh stalled – before saying he was “not sure”.

He then said: “I guess I changed when I got back to the house.”

Prosecutors have suggested that Mr Murdaugh changed clothing after killing his wife and son. Multiple law enforcement officials have testified that Mr Murdaugh and his clothing were “clean from head to toe” – despite his claims he had touched the bloody bodies of his wife and son after finding them.

Discrepancies in Murdaugh’s account of day

Monday 20 February 2023 16:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Mr Murdaugh claimed that he had gone to the office of his law firm PMPED on the morning of 7 June 2021, where he worked on the lawsuit over the 2019 fatal boat crash.

He told the officers he left his office and arrived back at the family estate on Moselle Road at around 5.30pm.

He said that he arrived home around the same time as Paul, while Maggie came home hours later.

He and Paul rode around the estate together in a white pickup and black pickup, he said.

He said they looked at sunflowers on the grounds and “just talked”, speaking about the “stress on him with the boat crash”.

During the interview, Mr Murdaugh told law enforcement that he and Maggie had been worried about Paul and were trying to get him to go to doctor for “stresses of everything with the boat wreck”.

Paul was “very resistant” to the idea, he said.

“We tried to watch him really closely but he was resistant,” he said.

Agent Owen then confronted him with information taken from his work key card and statements made by his brother Randy, which contradicted his timeline.

The keycard revealed that Mr Murdaugh actually entered his office at around 5.30pm that day, the agent said.

Randy had told investigators that he left the offices at around 6pm and Mr Murdaugh was still there.

Murdaugh police interview exposes wild inconsistencies in his alibi

Monday 20 February 2023 15:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Dramatic footage has revealed Alex Murdaugh being confronted by law enforcement about wild inconsistencies in his alibi in a police interview two months on from the murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul.

Footage of the 11 August 2021 interview with Mr Murdaugh was played in court on Wednesday as the prosecution nears the end of its case in the disgraced legal scion’s double murder trial in Colleton County, South Carolina.

In the interview, which has never been seen before, the discrepancies between Mr Murdaugh’s version of events on the night of 7 June 2021 and the trove of evidence and witness testimony revealed at his murder trial was laid bare.

Among the inconsistencies were: how long Mr Murdaugh spent at his mother’s home that night; whether or not he went to the dog kennels; the different clothes he was wearing; the timeline of when he was at his law firm; and the reason Maggie had gone to the family estate that day.

“It wasn’t one inconsistency. It was several inconsistencies within a period of time that were repeated,” SLED Special Agent David Owen testified, adding that Mr Murdaugh was “the only known suspect at that time”.

Rachel Sharp reports.

Alex Murdaugh police interview exposes wild inconsistencies in alibi

Will Alex Murdaugh testify in his own murder trial?

Monday 20 February 2023 14:20 , Rachel Sharp

That’s the question on everyone’s lips.

Last week, it emerged that Alex Murdaugh is expected to testify in his own murder trial.

A source close to the defence told News 3 that, although the legal strategy could be changed, Mr Murdaugh is expected to take the stand in his own defence – as soon as this week.

It would be the first time Mr Murdaugh has publicly spoken out about the murders.

What to expect in court this week:

Monday 20 February 2023 13:52 , Rachel Sharp

The court is on a break on Monday due to the President’s Day public holiday.

On Tuesday, Alex Murdaugh’s legal team will then resume its fight to prove his innocence of the brutal murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul.

The defence begun its case late on Friday, pointing out that they did not want to bring witnesses whose testimony would stretch over the weekend.

Among those on the defence’s witness list are Mr Murdaugh’s surviving son Buster and his brother John Marvin – as well as Mr Murdaugh himself.

Murdaugh’s wife and son found ‘bags of pills’ before murders

Monday 20 February 2023 13:40 , Oliver O'Connell

A bombshell voicemail message has revealed that Alex Murdaugh’s wife Maggie and son Paul found “bags of pills” in the accused killer’s bag just one month before their murders.

The message, on 6 May 2021, shows Paul confronting his father about the discovery of the drugs – at a time when the disgraced attorney claims he was spending up to $60,000 a week to feed a 20-year opioid addiction.

Rachel Sharp reports.

Alex Murdaugh’s wife and son found ‘bags of pills’ one month before murders

ICYMI: Alex Murdaugh’s wife and son found his ‘bags of pills’ before murders

Monday 20 February 2023 13:00 , Maroosha Muzaffar

A bombshell voicemail message has revealed that Alex Murdaugh’s wife Maggie and son Paul found “bags of pills” in the accused killer’s bag just one month before their murders.

The message, on 6 May 2021, shows Paul confronting his father about the discovery of the drugs – at a time when the disgraced attorney claims he was spending up to $60,000 a week to feed a 20-year opioid addiction.

Rachel Sharp reports:

Alex Murdaugh’s wife and son found ‘bags of pills’ one month before murders

Maggie and Paul didn’t suffer, Murdaugh told wife’s sister

Monday 20 February 2023 12:40 , Oliver O'Connell

Maggie Murdaugh’s sister has revealed how Alex Murdaugh reassured her that his wife and son did not suffer when they were brutally murdered.

Taking the stand in Mr Murdaugh’s double murder trial on Tuesday, his sister-in-law Marian Proctor described comments the disgraced legal scion made following the brutal shootings of Paul and Maggie on 7 June 2021.

Andrea Blanco reports.

Maggie Murdaugh’s sister says Alex told her wife and son didn’t suffer during murders

ICYMI: New car data places Alex Murdaugh at the spot where wife’s phone was dumped – before he sped away

Monday 20 February 2023 11:30 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Newly obtained car data has placed Alex Murdaugh at the spot where his wife’s phone was later found dumped – before he quickly sped away from the scene.

The data, handed over by General Motors just last week, shows the disgraced legal dynasty heir left the family home in his 2021 Chevy Suburban at 9.07pm on the night of 7 June 2021 – just minutes after he allegedly shot and killed his wife Maggie and son Paul.

One minute later, while driving at a speed of 42 mph, his car passed the very spot along Moselle road where Maggie’s cellphone was recovered from the shrubbery the next day.

Read the full story by Rachel Sharp here:

New car data places Alex Murdaugh at the spot where wife’s phone was dumped

Alex Murdaugh looked up local restaurant minutes after police arrived at scene of murders

Monday 20 February 2023 10:30 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Disgraced legal scion Alex Murdaugh looked up a restaurant online just minutes after finding the butchered bodies of his wife and son, records show.

Prosecutors in Mr Murdaugh’s double murder trial on Friday presented a timeline of the evening on 7 June 2021, when Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were shot dead on their property in Islandton, South Carolina. Mr Murdaugh is accused of executing the slayings to distract from his growing legal and financial troubles.

To build a chronology of the events, agents with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) pulled records from the disbarred lawyer’s phone, as well as the victims’. The information collected from 6pm to 11pm on the day of the shootings shows several interactions between Maggie, Paul, Mr Murduagh and other relatives.

Read the full story by Andrea Blanco here:

Alex Murdaugh looked up restaurant minutes after police arrived at murder scene

Murdaugh cries as trial hears brutal details of murders

Monday 20 February 2023 09:40 , Oliver O'Connell

Disgraced legal scion Alex Murdaugh broke down in tears as an expert testifying in his murder trial described how his son and wife were brutalised by bullets.

On the sixteenth day of Mr Murdaugh’s double murder trial on Monday, prosecutors called forensic pathologist Dr Ellen Riemer to take the stand and explain the degree of the injuries suffered by Paul and Maggie Murdaugh when they were shot to death on the night of 7 June 2021.

Warning: Graphic content.

Andrea Blanco reports.

Alex Murdaugh cries as trial hears horrifying autopsy details

ICYMI: Alex Murdaugh attorney mocked for ‘spicy’ cross-examination of agent over botched hitman plot

Monday 20 February 2023 08:30 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Alex Murdaugh’s defence attorney has been mocked for his “spicy” cross-examination of a law enforcement official who testified about the accused killer’s botched hitman plot.

Dick Harpootlian resorted to shouting at SLED Senior Special Agent Ryan Kelly during an intensely combative exchange on Friday, which marked day 20 of Mr Murdaugh’s trial for the double murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul.

During testimony on Thursday, jurors heard Mr Murdaugh’s 911 call and police interview on 4 September 2021 – where he told Agent Kelly he was the victim of a drive-by shooting.

Read the full story by Rachel Sharp here:

Alex Murdaugh attorney mocked for ‘spicy’ cross-examination of agent over hitman plot

Dramatic bodycam footage shows Alex Murdaugh sobbing and asking ‘are they dead’

Monday 20 February 2023 07:40 , Oliver O'Connell

Alex Murdaugh’s past alleged extramarital affair emerged on the seventeenth day of the trial for the murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul.

The prosecution sought to have new testimony from Maggie Murdaugh’s sister Marian Proctor — including details about Mr Murdaugh’s affair more than a decade ago and his opioid use — admitted in court on Tuesday. The murder trial is now in its fourth week at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina.

Andrea Blanco has the story.

Maggie Murdaugh suspected Alex had an affair 15 years ago, sister tells trial

Watch: Moment Alex Murdaugh claims he was shot by gunman on side of the road

Monday 20 February 2023 07:15 , Maroosha Muzaffar

ICYMI: Bombshell voicemail shows Alex Murdaugh’s wife and son found ‘bags of pills’ one month before murders

Monday 20 February 2023 06:15 , Maroosha Muzaffar

A bombshell voicemail message has revealed that Alex Murdaugh’s wife Maggie and son Paul found “bags of pills” in the accused killer’s bag just one month before their murders.

The message, on 6 May 2021, shows Paul confronting his father about the discovery of the drugs – at a time when the disgraced attorney claims he was spending up to $60,000 a week to feed a 20-year opioid addiction.

“I am still in EB because when you get here we have to talk. Mom found several bags of pills in your computer bag,” it says, referring to Edisto Beach, the Murdaugh family’s beach home.

Read the full story by Rachel Sharp here:

Alex Murdaugh’s wife and son found ‘bags of pills’ one month before murders

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