Alex Murdaugh trial updates: SLED: All roads led to only one murder suspect, Alex Murdaugh

The video at the top of the story will play a live video stream of the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial or a replay of today's proceedings upon completion.

The veteran state police investigator who led the Alex Murdaugh double murder case offered some revealing testimony Wednesday, before being ripped at by Murdaugh’s attorneys in cross examination.

On Wednesday, the 18th day of the Murdaugh double murder trial, state prosecutors presented the SLED lead case agent for the Murdaugh murders, Senior Special Agent David Owen, and played a video interview that began to turn the tide in its early investigation.

“Did you kill Maggie?” Owen bluntly asked Murdaugh during this interview, before telling him that he was the only murder suspect in SLED’s circle of investigation. “Did you kill Paul? Do you know who did?”

“You are still in this … with everything we talked about, the family guns being used, the ammunition (matching)…”

In questioning by Assistant Attorney General John Meadors, Owen revealed that a pattern of “inconsistencies” in Murdaugh’s statements, along with key items of evidence, led SLED to zero in on Murdaugh as their one and only suspect by August of 2021.

SLED, local police, and even the FBI, had worked tirelessly on this case from June 7 until the present, following every credible lead, and no other credible suspect emerged form this intensive investigation, said Owen.

In two previous interviews with SLED, Murdaugh was clear that he never went to the family dog kennels, the scene of the crime, until finding the bodies on June 7, 2021. SLED Senior Special Agent David Owen took the stand and testified that Murdaugh family friend, Rogan Gibson, told him on the day after the killings that he had seen and heard a video taken on victim Paul Murdaugh's phone that placed Alex at the crime scene around 8:44 p.m. Police now believe Paul and Maggie were killed around 8:50 p.m.

The State then entered into evidence the third interview that Murdaugh conducted with SLED, on Aug. 11, 2021. In that interview, SLED agent Owen confronted Murdaugh about Gibson's statement, about another video that shows him wearing different clothes roughly an hour before the killings, about questionable statements he made during the 911 call that night, about shell casings at his home that matched the ones at the crime scene, and more.

During that recorded interview, Murdaugh told investigators that he was at his mother's home in Almeda that night for roughly 45 minutes to an hour, but a witness had said he was only there 15 to 20 minutes. Murdaugh also made other statements that didn't check out with police.

The same day, 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone, recused himself from the investigation, citing the "events of the day" in the SLED investigation.

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Murdaugh defense rips into David Owen, accuses SLED of lying

While Owen’s testimony was powerful for the State, Griffin’s cross examination was just as brutal – alternating between poking holes in the quality of the police work to accusing the SLED agent of presenting false facts to a grand jury.

In an attempt to insinuate shoddy and incomplete police work, Griffin volleyed questions at Owen:

• Why didn’t police take steps to preserve evidence that might exclude Murdaugh as a suspect?

• Why were no murder weapons found at the crime scene or other locations?

• Why didn’t SLED search Murdaugh’s mother’s house before September?

• Why were no significant amounts of blood or DNA found in Murdaugh’s vehicle?

• If police believed Murdaugh had changed clothes after the killings, why didn’t they ask him for the clothes?

• Why weren’t Maggie and Paul’s clothes tested for DNA?

Griffin went on to insinuate that Owen had lied to Murdaugh during an interview, at which point Owen testified that agents are allowed to use “trickery” to get information from suspects.

But Griffin went to ask the agent why, in seeking a murder indictment against Murdaugh in 2022, he gave information to the Colleton County Grand Jury which later turned out to be incorrect as the investigation continued and new facts emerged.

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters said Wednesday afternoon that the State is in the “home stretch” of its witness list and expects to rest its case Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.

Aug. 21 the day SLED began to view Alex Murdaugh as murder suspect

August 11, 2021: it quite possibly marked the very day that Richard "Alex" Murdaugh was no longer the grieving father to a murdered wife and son, and only a possible person of interest, and became a murder suspect.

On Wednesday, the 18th day of the Murdaugh double murder trial, state prosecutors presented the primary SLED witness and video interview that began to turn the tide in its early investigation.

In two previous interviews with SLED, Murdaugh was clear that he never went to the family dog kennels, the scene of the crime, until finding the bodies on June 7, 2021. SLED Senior Special Agent David Owen took the stand and testified that Murdaugh family friend Rogan Gibson told him on the day after the killings that he had seen and heard a video taken on victim Paul Murdaugh's phone that placed Alex at the crime scene around 8:44 p.m. Police now believe Paul and Maggie were killed around 8:50 p.m.

The State then entered into evidence the third interview that Murdaugh conducted with SLED, on Aug. 11, 2021. In that interview, SLED agent Owen confronted Murdaugh about Gibson's statement, about another video that shows him wearing different clothes roughly an hour before the killings, about questionable statements he made during the 911 call that night, about shell casings at his home that matched the ones at the crime scene, and more.

During that recorded interview, Murdaugh told investigators that he was at his mother's home in Almeda that night for roughly 45 minutes to an hour, but a witness had said he only there 15 to 20 minutes. Murdaugh also made other statements that didn't check out with police.

The same day, 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone recused himself from the investigation, citing the "events of the day" in the SLED investigation.

The prosecution is expected to finish playing the video of this crucial interview when court resumes at 2:20 p.m. The State expects to rest its case sometime late Thursday or early Friday.

Wednesday a.m. updates in Colleton County court

After members of slain son Paul Murdaugh’s family sat for the second day and heard gruesome autopsy details early Tuesday, family members of slain mother Maggie Murdaugh gave emotional and revealing testimony in the Richard “Alex” Murdaugh double murder trial.  

As the S.C. Attorney General’s Office continues with Day 18 of its efforts to convict the disgraced lawyer Murdaugh on charges he shot and killed his family on June 7, 2021, Tuesday’s emotional testimony brought out possible infidelity, admitted opioid abuse, a roadside suicide plot and more of what attorneys called “Murdaugh’s lies,” – but not all of this inflammatory testimony made it before the jury.

Court resumed with an in-camera hearing, without the jury, at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. Judge Clifton Newman heard arguments on the admissibility of further testimony involving Murdaugh’s roadside suicide plot.

Newman ruled the roadside shooting is inadmissible:

“The financial evidence was allowed on the issue of motive. This evidence, I find, goes beyond motive or is not evidence of motive, but more toward common scheme or plan," Newman said.

Video: Maggie Murdaugh's sister takes stand, says Alex said 'odd' things after sister's death

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Alex Murdaugh trial live stream, updates: What to know from Day 18