Alex Murdaugh’s voice heard in cellphone video recorded moments before wife and son’s slayings, friends testify

Murdaugh told the investigators he visited his mother earlier that night. His father was in the hospital – he would die days later – and his mother had Altzheimer’s disease. He said he called and texted his wife when he left, but she did not respond.

He returned to the family’s home and found no one there, according to testimony. He drove down to the kennels, where he made the grisly discovery. He told investigators he checked the pulses of his loved ones — mindful that he was standing at a crime scene. He tried to turn his son’s body over, he said, which caused the young man’s cell phone to fall out of his pocket.

His relationships with his wife and son were “wonderful,” the father said.

Murdaugh offered the investigators two theories for who could have committed the crimes.

As he previously told a 911 dispatcher, he suspected his family was targeted because of his son’s alleged role in a 2019 boating accident that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach. Paul Murdaugh was charged with operating a boat while intoxicated in the crash, but he died before the case went to trial. A wrongful death lawsuit was also pending at the time of the murders.

His son had been threatened for his alleged role in Beach’s death, Murdaugh said, and he was attacked once while visiting Charleston with friends.

“There was a lot of negative publicity about that,” Murdaugh said. “And there have been people online — just vile stuff.”

Murdaugh was also suspicious of a handyman who worked on his estate. The man recently told his son an outlandish story about the FBI recruiting him to assassinate members of the Black Panther Party.

“Paul was so taken aback by it — he recorded him saying bits and pieces of it,” Murdaugh said.

It was strange, but the two of them seemed to get along pretty well, he added.

Rutland testified Friday that Murdaugh was “clean” that night, despite the grisly crime scene. There was no blood on Murdaugh’s tee, shorts or shoes, as if he had changed his clothes, she said.

The detective testified that Paul Murdaugh’s phone was found on the backside of his shorts and his arms were tucked under his body. It did not appear that someone had attempted to flip him over, she said.

In cross-examination, Harpootlian asked if Murdaugh was a suspect then.

“That night, everybody was a suspect,” Rutland responded.

Murdaugh was interviewed again three days later by investigators from South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Senior Special Agent Jeff Croft testified that Murdaugh allowed them to download the contents of his phone before walking investigators through the day of the murders. He also provided investigators with the passcode for his wife’s phone. He said he did not know the passcode for his son’s device.

He said he went to work that day at his family’s law firm in Hampton but left early to meet his son, who was home from college. They rode around the estate looking for hogs, taking potshots at targets and inspecting their corn crops.

Maggie Murdaugh was home when they returned. The family ate dinner together before his wife left to visit the kennels, Murdaugh testified. He assumed his son went with her, but he remained at the house.

“I was watching TV, looking at my phone,” he told investigators. “I actually fell asleep on the couch.”

He was not certain when he awoke, but he said he called his wife before leaving.

A civilian employee for the Secret Service successfully cracked the passcode on Paul Murdaugh’s cellphone in March, according to testimony. Combined with data collected from the parents’ devices, state investigators plotted the family’s digital activities that night in reports that ran thousands of pages.

Paul Murdaugh read his final text message at 8:48 p.m. June 7, according to testimony from Lt. Britt Dove from SLED’s Computer Crimes Unit. His mother would read her final message less than a minute later.

Both phones remained locked thereafter. Investigators found Maggie Murdaugh’s phone the next day on the side of the road about a quarter-mile from the property. Paul Murdaugh’s phone battery died shortly after 10:30 p.m., Dove testified.

Murdaugh called his wife five times before he said he discovered the bodies, the lieutenant testified. He also sent two text messages. One sent at about 9:45 p.m. read: “Call me babe.”

South Carolina prosecutor Creighton Waters said in his opening statement the father’s phone calls and text messages were an attempt to establish an alibi — the kennel video ruined that.

Paul Murdaugh recorded a video at 8:44 p.m. on his cellphone of a chocolate Labrador being kept at the kennel. Gibson asked his childhood friend to take the video of his dog, Cash, because of a possible injury to its tail. Paul Murdaugh recorded the video, but it was never sent.

Gibson spoke with Paul Murdaugh in a Facetime call shortly before he recorded the video. He told the jury he thought he heard the family patriarch’s voice in the background, but he was uncertain. When he listened to the video his friend recorded, he knew it was Alex Murdaugh’s voice.

Will Loving, another close friend, offered the same testimony Wednesday — it was Alex Murdaugh's voice.

On Monday, jurors heard claims the disbarred attorney tearfully confessed to slaying his wife and son during an interview with investigators days after the slayings.

A recording of the interview was replayed for the jury several times as defense attorneys and prosecutors sparred over the alleged nine-word confession. State investigator Jeff Croft testified that Murdaugh said through heavy sobs: “It was so bad. I did him so bad.”

At the defense’s table, Alex Murdaugh shook his head and muttered to his lawyers. In cross-examination, defense attorney Jim Griffin offered a more benign interpretation of his client’s words: “They did him so bad,” referring to the real killers.

The trial is expected to continue into next week.

Follow @SteveGarrisonPC

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit