Maggie Murdaugh Was ‘Lured’ To Moselle On The Night Of Her Murder, Sources Say

by LIZ FARRELL, WILL FOLKS and MANDY MATNEY

As the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and the office of state attorney general Alan Wilson appear closer to wrapping up the investigation into the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, more information is emerging about what happened on the night they were killed.

On Tuesday evening, FITSNews exclusively reported that high-velocity impact spatter was present on the shirt Alex Murdaugh was wearing June 7, 2021.

This evidence placed him physically at the scene at the time that one or both of his family members were shot. The high-velocity impact spatter — as well as other evidence — also contradicted what the Murdaugh camp was calling Alex Murdaugh’s “ironclad alibi” on the night of the murders.

Also revealed Tuesday by FITNews: Just weeks before the murders, the state grand jury had subpoenaed for Alex Murdaugh’s finances in connection with an obstruction of justice investigation connected to a fatal 2019 boat crash involving Paul Murdaugh.

Multiple sources close to the investigation have also confirmed to FITSNews that, prior to June 7, and at the time of her death, Maggie Murdaugh was living apart from her husband and alone at her Edisto Beach home.

FITSNews has been unable to independently confirm reports that Maggie met with a divorce attorney prior to the murders. However, a meeting like this would not have been inconsistent with what multiple sources have described as the strained status of their relationship — in part, because of a rumored affair Alex was having with another attorney.

Additionally, on the evening of June 7, Maggie drove to Moselle — the family’s 1,700-acre hunting property in Islandton, S.C. (about an hour and fifteen minutes from their Edisto Beach house) — because Alex had asked her to meet him there.

In other words, Maggie was “lured” to what would be the site of her murder, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation.

These same sources say Maggie had expressed her hesitancy to meet with her estranged husband to at least three other people in her life, but ultimately decided it was the right thing to do.

It is unclear whether this information would have been contained on Maggie Murdaugh’s iPhone, which was found in the woods a short distance from Moselle on the day after the murders by investigators with the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office – and with help from Alex Murdaugh’s younger brother, John Marvin Murdaugh.

Paul Murdaugh’s phone was found with his body, sources say.

The reason Alex said he wanted his wife at Moselle: Randolph Murdaugh III was dying and Alex wanted Maggie to visit him and his mother, who has dementia, at their Varnville home, multiple sources have confirmed.

But, according to a report on Good Morning America just ten days after the murders, the narrative coming from the Murdaugh camp was that Alex had dropped off his father at a Savannah hospital earlier in the day of the murders and then went to check on his mother.

At the time of the murders, Alex Murdaugh says he was at his parents’ home in Varnville, less than 20 minutes away from Moselle. 

His attorney Jim Griffin told Fox Carolina in October 2021 that Murdaugh was home watching a gameshow at his parents’ house “at the time the coroner says” Maggie and Paul were murdered.

“On the way over (to Moselle), he spoke to his friends and communicated about business and he called his dad who was in the hospital,” Griffin said. “He didn’t do it. I feel strongly he didn’t do it.”

After the murders, Alex Murdaugh went to stay with his in-laws — his wife’s sister and her husband — and remained closely in their presence for “around three months,” multiple sources tell FITSNews.

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Prior to June 7, though, Murdaugh’s connection to the Branstetters wasn’t seen as particularly strong, according to multiple sources, and he often found excuses not to accompany Maggie and the boys on visits to them.

“It’s been said he didn’t particularly like them,” one source close to the investigation said.

Through his attorneys — both in interviews with the media and behind the scenes — Murdaugh has maintained his innocence in Maggie’s and Paul’s murders. He has also claimed to have cooperated with SLED agents from the beginning of their investigation into the double homicide.

In the days following Maggie’s and Paul’s deaths, friends of Alex say he seemed focused on his loss of Paul – lamenting that because of what happened Paul would never be able to prove his innocence in the 2019 boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach of Hampton, S.C.

The boat crash, in many ways, is at the heart of what many see as Alex Murdaugh’s unraveling.

In the weeks after the murders, it was also cited by multiple members of the Murdaugh family as the motive for the murders — hinting that Maggie’s and Paul’s deaths were a result of vengeance.

Randy Murdaugh and John Marvin Murdaugh appeared on Good Morning America in June 2021 to talk about the murders.

“It’s just hard to imagine somebody can be so sick as to do this, intentionally kill people like that. I mean, we see it in the world. We see it on the news. But you don’t think it’s going to happen in your small community, to your family,” Randy said.

Both men said that Paul had been receiving threats from strangers online. They called the threats “bothersome” but did not believe them to be credible.

“I don’t know of anybody that would truly be an enemy or truly want to hurt them,” Randy told Good Morning America.

(Click to view)

(Via: FITSNews/ YouTube)

Multiple sources have told FITSNews that Maggie Murdaugh was not a fearful person, but she did not like staying at Moselle.

At the time of her death, Maggie had just completed a redecoration of her Edisto Beach home and was embarking on a project to make Moselle “more homey.”

There was no indication prior to her death that Maggie feared for her life or Paul’s life — especially as it relates to “revenge” for the boat crash or any other incident in which her sons might have been involved, according to multiple sources.

Friends of Maggie say that Paul and Buster were the center of her life. Multiple sources have told FITSNews that “Maggie Murdaugh lived for those boys.”

She knew of their whereabouts at all times, and they knew hers. In fact, Buster had an app on his phone that showed his mother’s location through her phone. It is this app that helped investigators locate her discarded phone in the woods.

On the day of her murder, she knew Paul — who worked that day at his uncle’s equipment rental shop and ate dinner with his uncle’s family at their home in Okatie — would be at Moselle that evening.

Paul left Okatie for Moselle at around 6:00 p.m.

Maggie is believed to have arrived at Moselle sometime between 7:00 and 7:30 p.m.

This new information helps shed light on some of the circumstances surrounding the murders.

Sources close to the situation have told FITSNews that this physical evidence “could have only come from one thing.”

On the night of June 7, Maggie was shot multiple times with a high-powered rifle. She received a bullet wound to the back of her head while lying face down on the ground, multiple sources have told FITSNews.

Paul was killed with a shotgun, which caused multiple injuries. He, too, was shot in the head, according to his death certificate. He was killed with one round of birdshot and one round of buckshot, according to multiple sources.