It Took Authorities 8 Days To Find Mallory Beach After Her Death
The Netflix true crime docuseries Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal explores the killings of Paul Murdaugh, 22, and his mother Margaret "Maggie" Murdaugh, 52, who were found dead in their family’s hunting lodge in June 2021.
Alex Murdaugh, Maggie's husband and Paul's father, was just sentenced to two life sentences in prison after a jury found him guilty of both murders. He had taken the stand in his own defense during the trial, and continued to plead not guilty until the end.
The docuseries explores the events leading up to Maggie and Paul's murders, including a 2019 boating accident Paul was involved in that killed a 19-year-old local girl named Mallory Beach. In fact, at the time of his death, Paul was out on bail after being charged with drunkenly crashing the boat in the accident that killed Mallory and injured several others of Paul's friends, including his girlfriend Morgan Doughty, per The New York Times.
The docuseries has raised a lot of questions about the Murdaugh family, as well as Mallory Beach's death. Here’s what you need to know about the teen.
Who was Mallory Beach?
Mallory Beach was a 19-year-old from Brunson, South Carolina, who was killed in a boating accident on February 24, 2019.
Her parents told E! that Mallory was “always a people person.” Her father Phillip Beach said that “she could be a lady when she needed to be a lady and she could be a tomboy, so to speak. She loved hunting and fishing."
Her obituary said that she graduated from Wade Hampton High School and played on the soccer team. "She dearly loved her family and many friends, who were very close to her," it continued.
Mallory was dating one of Paul Murdaugh’s friends.
When she died, Mallory was in a relationship with a local teen named Anthony Cook, who appears in the doc. Mallory and Anthony, along with several of their friends, got on board the Murdaugh family boat on Feb. 23, 2019, to attend an oyster roast, the documentary explains.
When the group boarded the boat to go home, Anthony explained in the docuseries that Paul was “out of his mind drunk.” Despite his friends' pleas, Paul reportedly drove the boat drunk. When the boat crashed, Anthony said he heard a scream before passing out, and when he came to, he realized Mallory wasn’t on the boat or with him in the water. He continued to dive in and out of the water to try to find her.
It would be more than a week before she was found.
Was Mallory's body ever found?
Investigators and volunteers spent eight days searching for Mallory, according to CBS News. On March 3, 2019, two volunteers found her body about five miles down the river from the scene of the crash.
What was Mallory's cause of death?
According to the coroner’s office, Beach died from drowning and blunt force trauma, Fox Carolina reports.
Her parents settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the Murdaughs.
A month after the crash, the Beach family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against members of the Murdaugh family, CBS News reported.
In early 2023, a judge approved a settlement between Mallory’s family and two of Alex Murdaugh’s family members, Buster and Maggie Murdaugh (his son and late wife), WTOC 11 reported. An exact number hasn’t been announced, but the Beach family will received “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” the news organization said.
“We are pleased with the court’s decision and feel like it was not only the best decision given the circumstances, but the only decision for all who had any real interest in the matter,” Beach family attorney Mark Tinsely told WTOC 11. “We also believe the ruling will help give some closure to the people who so desperately deserve it.”
Alex Murdaugh claims Mallory's death played a role in Paul and Maggie's murder.
When he took the stand to testify in his trial, Alex explained that he thought "random vigilantes" were responsible for the murders. He was later found guilty of both murders.
"I did then believe it was the boat wreck, and I do believe now that it was the boat wreck that had something to do with that," Alex said at the time.
For more information on the terrible boating accident and Mallory Beach's story, you can watch Murdaugh Murders, streaming now on Netflix.
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