A ‘confession’, bloody dog kennels and ‘clean’ shirt: Key revelations from the Alex Murdaugh murder trial

Legal dynasty heir Alex Murdaugh is currently on trial in a South Carolina courtroom for the brutal double murder of his wife and adult son.

Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, were both shot dead at the family’s sprawling 1,700-acre property in Islandton, South Carolina, on the night of 7 June 2021.

Mr Murdaugh, 54, claimed that he returned home from visiting his elderly mother to find the victims’ bodies at the dog kennels on the land.

No arrests were made for more than a year, until – in July 2022 – Mr Murdaugh was charged with their murders.

Prosecutors allege that Mr Murdaugh killed his wife and son to distract from the growing number of scandals and crimes swirling around him.

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.

Here are the key revelations from the trial so far:

Prosecutor’s opening statement reveals Snapchat video will be key to trial

Opening arguments kicked off the trial on 25 January, with the prosecution telling jurors that cellphone records and a Snapchat video taken by Paul minutes before he died are “critical” in proving Mr Murdaugh’s guilt.

Attorney Creighton Waters gave a timeline for the murders, saying that Paul was shot at the dog kennels first at 8.50pm and Maggie minutes later.

Cellphone records allegedly place Mr Murdaugh at the dog kennels minutes earlier – when the suspect had “told everyone he was never there”.

Mr Waters also described a video Paul made at the kennels minutes before his murder as he was filming a dog to send to a friend. According to the prosecution, three voices – Paul, Maggie and Mr Murdaugh – can be heard.

Other evidence the prosecution promised to show jurors included gunshot residue found in both Mr Murdaugh’s car, on him and on a raincoat that he allegedly left at his parents’ home a week after the murders.

Defence details horror injuries of victims in opening statement

In the defence’s opening statement, Mr Murdaugh was seen breaking down in tears as his attorney Dick Harpootlian described the fatal shot which killed his son Paul, saying it “exploded his brain, like a watermelon”.

Mr Murdaugh then arrived home and found his son’s brains by his feet, he said.

Mr Harpootlian insisted Mr Murdaugh is an innocent man, saying that jurors will see a Snapchat of him and Paul happily spending father-and-son time together less than two hours before the murders.

“Paul, the apple of his eye. You are going to see a video from the night of the murders of Paul and Alex riding around looking at trees they planted, a Snapchat sent to other people. They were laughing, having a good time,” he said.

He also argued that cellphone records from that night are “incomplete” and that Maggie’s phone was thrown on the side of a road halfa mile from the family estate at the same time that Mr Murdaugh was at the property.

The suspect would “have to be Houdini to be in both places”, he said.

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

Mr 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.

In the footage, taken from the bodyworn camera of Colleton County Sheriff’s Sgt Daniel Greene when he was the first officer to respond to the scene, Mr Murdaugh says he believes the murders are connected to the boating incident.

“This is a long story. My son was in a boat wreck,” 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 is 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.

Suspect shed ‘no tears’ after finding wife and son’s bodies

Colleton County Sheriff’s Office Sgt Daniel Greene testified that Mr Murdaugh appeared to shed “no tears” after he claimed to have found his wife and son’s bodies.

Sgt Greene told the court that Mr Murdaugh seemed “upset” and repeatedly asked if his wife and son were dead but did not appear to have any physical tears in his eyes.

“Did you ever see any physical tears?” the prosecutor asked.

“I did not,” the officer said.

As bodycam footage from the night of the murders was played in court, Mr Murdaugh was seen breaking down in tears.

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

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.

911 call played at trial

The unredacted 911 call placed by Mr Murdaugh on the night of the murders.

In the dramatic audio, Mr Murdaugh cries and and sobs down the phone as he tells the dispatcher “it’s bad” and “my wife and child have been shot badly”.

He also the dispatcher about the 2019 boat crash involving Paul, saying that the 22-year-old had been getting threats “for months and months and months”.

The attorney then says he is going back to his house to get a gun “just in case”. When officers arrived on the scene, Mr Murdaugh had a shotgun which he handed over.

Murdaugh tells wild story about Black Panthers

Alex Murdaugh recounted a wild story about a farmhand claiming to “kill radical Black Panthers” when he was interviewed by law enforcement on the night of the double murder of his wife and son.

In footage of the interview, Mr Murdaugh says he can’t think of anyone “overly suspicious” who could be responsible for the murders but suggests law enforcement speak to a farmhand he had recently hired to work at the 1,700-acre estate.

Mr Murdaugh claims that the man had told Paul a “really weird” story just one week before the murders.

“He told Paul a story the other day of how when he was in high school he got in a fight with some Black guys and an FBI undercover teams observed him fighting those guys,” he says. “And they put him on an undercover team with three Navy Seals and their job was to kill radical Black Panthers.”

He adds: “Paul was so taken aback by it that he recorded it on his phone”.

Mr Murdaugh tells the officers that Paul had “been working with him a lot” and the story was “really weird”.

However, he adds that he doesn’t believe the man could be behind the murders, saying that it’s “such a stupid” that he was “embarrassed” to even bring it up.

Speculation over whether Murdaugh accidentally confessed

Audio from Alex Murdaugh’s second interview with law enforcement was played in court on 30 January, revealing that the disgraced legal dynasty heir may have unwittingly slipped up and confessed to the murders of his wife and son.

“I did him so bad,” a sobbing Mr Murdaugh appeared to say about his son in a police interview on 10 June 2021.

SLED Special Agent Jeff Croft was asked by prosecutor Creighton Waters to clarify what he heard Mr Murdaugh saying.

“It’s just so bad. I did him so bad,” he responded.

While prosecutors sought to suggest that the 54-year-old father and husband slipped up during the police interview, Mr Murdaugh was seen shaking his head and appearing to mouth “I did not say that” to his attorneys in court.

However, the audio of the interview has also raised doubts, being somewhat unclear as to whether Mr Murdaugh says “I” or “they”, with some inside and outside court believing he actually says: “They did him so bad.”

Guns and ammo at Murdaugh home match crime scene

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.

Defence’s two shooters’ theory

Mr Murdaugh’s legal team sought to push its theory that there could have been two shooters separately responsible for killing the mother and son.

Jurors were shown photos and diagrams of the crime scene from both the night of the murders and more than one month later on 16 July, with defence attorney Dick Harpootlian honing in on two bullet projectiles in particular – one that travelled through the dog house and one through the quail pen.

Under cross-examination of SLED special agent Melinda Worley, Mr Harpootlian pushed the idea that, because the bullet projectiles were shot at different angles, it was a “reasonable” possibility that there was two killers.

“One reasonable explanation is there are two people there: one with a shotgun, one with an AR. Could someone have been a lookout, they went there to kill Paul and Maggie surprised them?” Mr Harpootlian pressed.

Agent Worley admitted that the theory is “possible” but said that it is only one “one explanation” as to what may have taken place that fateful night. She added that the angles could also be explained as one single shooter moving around.

Victims’ last texts and calls revealed

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.

Doubts cast on preservation of crime scene

During much of his cross-examination of SLED Special Agent Worley, Mr Harpootlian sought to pick holes in the evidence gathered from the bloody crime scene.

He raised doubts about a mark or potential footprint spotted on Maggie’s calf on the night of the murders.

While Mr Harpootlian suggested it was a “footwear impression”, Agent Worley said she “couldn’t say” that was what the mark was but that it “could be”.

The mark was not examined on the scene and no impression of the imprint was taken, she testified.

She also confirmed that a bloody footprint found in the feeding room was later determined to be that of a law enforcement officer – something that supported the defence’s line of questioning that some evidence was not preserved correctly and was even “destroyed”.

“Do you know what other evidence they may have destroyed?” asked Mr Harpootlian.

“I have no idea,” the agent said, to which he responded: “That’s right you don’t.”