By LIZ FARRELL, MANDY MATNEY and WILL FOLKS
One year ago, Alex Murdaugh told investigators he arrived home to Moselle — the family’s hunting property — around 10 p.m. to find that his wife and son had been murdered near the dog kennels.
He told investigators he had not been near the kennels at or around the time law enforcement believes Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were killed, according to several sources.
In fact, he said he had not seen Maggie or Paul before leaving for Varnville that evening, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
“Alex Murdaugh was with his father at the hospital. According to a person close to the family, he came back to Moselle, took a nap and when he awoke, he left to check on his mother, who suffers from dementia. He didn’t see Maggie and Paul before he left, according to the person.”
In the immediate days after the murders, Murdaugh’s attorneys gave this news outlet similar information that supports the Journal’s account. They also have told the public multiple times over the past year that their client’s whereabouts were “completely” accounted for that night.
A representative from the Murdaugh camp told FITSNews last June that Alex’s alibi was “ironclad.”
But according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, Alex Murdaugh was not being honest with law enforcement about where he was around the time of the murders …
The State newspaper published a profile on Bamberg attorney Chris Wilson — a friend of Alex Murdaugh.
In the profile, Murdaugh’s attorney Jim Griffin was now unequivocally placing Murdaugh at Moselle shortly before the murders.
“Griffin contends that Murdaugh, a person of interest in the investigation, left the estate around 9 p.m. to drive to his mother’s house, about a 20-minute drive, and returned to the estate around 10 p.m., or shortly after.”
Why say this now?
One possible reason could be this: Audio and video evidence obtained by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division shows that Alex Murdaugh was indeed near the kennels that evening. Before he said he left for Varnville, he not only saw his wife and son, he interacted with Maggie and Paul shortly before they were killed, multiple sources with knowledge of the investigation have confirmed to FITSNews.
Video found on Paul Murdaugh’s now-unlocked phone shows Alex and Maggie talking by the dog kennels the evening of June 7, 2021, according to multiple sources.
It is the latest revelation from the meticulously executed — and therefore slow-going — investigation.
As FITSNews exclusively reported in April, high-velocity impact spatter was found on Murdaugh’s clothes, which places him at the scene of the murders when at least one of the victims was killed.
FITSNews also reported that Maggie Murdaugh appears to have been lured to Moselle that night by her husband under the guise of visiting his dying father.
Right now, there is a “mountain of evidence” implicating Alex Murdaugh in the crimes, multiple sources have told FITSNews.
But still, one year later, no charges have been filed …
***
Jim Griffin’s Changing Story
Alex Murdaugh’s family members and his attorneys have been adamant from the beginning that Alex Murdaugh was not on the Moselle property around the time Maggie and Paul were murdered.
On June 17, 2021, just 10 days after the double homicide, the Murdaugh family spoke publicly about the murders for the first time.
On Good Morning America, ABC News correspondent Eva Pilgrim, who spoke directly to John Marvin and Randy Murdaugh, reported that “on the day of the murders, Alex Murdaugh took his dying father back to the hospital and he went to check on his mother,” before returning home to find his wife and son murdered.
In the Good Morning America interview last June, the Murdaugh family didn’t go into any further details about Alex’s alibi.
Over the course of the next few months, the Murdaugh camp stayed mostly quiet about the specifics of June 7, but claimed Alex’s alibi was “ironclad.”
However, several months later in an exclusive interview with Fox Carolina’s Cody Alcorn, Griffin went on the record for the first time about where Alex was on June 7, 2021.
“I can assure you that we have Alex’s whereabouts accounted for completely at that time,” Murdaugh’s attorney Jim Griffin told Fox Carolina in October 2021. “That night? He’s sitting on the bedside of his mother at her house when the coroner says the murders happened. She has dementia. There’s a house sitter, caregiver … with him and they’re watching a gameshow on television.”
***
During that interview, Griffin mentioned that Alex spoke to “one of his friends and communicated about business” on the way over to his mother’s home, which is about 20 minutes from Moselle. Griffin also said that Alex called his father who was in the hospital during that time period as well.
Griffin didn’t identify the “friend” to whom Alex spoke — and he didn’t go into any further details about Alex’s alibi publicly for more than six months.
The October interview was recorded after several statements from Jim Griffin were found to be inaccurate during the alleged suicide-for-hire fiasco in September. Griffin had told reporters that Alex was at the wrong hospital on the night of the “shooting” and told the press multiple times an entirely false narrative about the incident.
After several months of near silence from the Murdaugh camp, Griffin spoke out about Alex Murdaugh’s alibi again in the State Newspaper this May.
Griffin identified Chris Wilson as the “friend” Alex had spoken with that night — and said that Wilson would likely testify on Alex’s behalf. Griffin intimated that Wilson had said Alex’s tone was “absolutely normal” when they spoke.
For the first time, Griffin seemed to be putting on the public record that Alex was at Moselle at 9 p.m. … which means Alex would have seen Maggie and Paul shortly before they were killed.
Griffin also said that Alex drove to his mother’s house at 9 p.m., got to her house at 9:20 p.m., stayed for 20 minutes and then turned around and drove back to arrive at Moselle at 10 p.m.
During that time, Griffin said, Alex called Chris Wilson four times — twice on the way there and twice on the way back.
Why would Griffin suddenly say that Alex was at the property right before murders happened? Does he know about the video? And would speaking to another attorney ever actually count as an actual alibi?
***
What We Know So Far …
Multiple sources close to the investigation have 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 not been able to independently confirm reports that Maggie had 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. It took investigators several months before they were able to unlock it.
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.
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, Maggie knew that 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.
He left his uncle’s home around six. She arrived at Moselle sometime between 7 and 7:30 p.m., according to multiple sources with familiarity of the situation.
On the night of June 7, 2021, Paul Murdaugh was shot twice with a shotgun. He was shot in the chest and in the head — once with bird shot and again with buck shot, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the case.
His mother was shot multiple times with a high-powered rifle.
Investigators believe Maggie Murdaugh initially froze and then ran from the gunman before falling to the ground. She received a bullet wound to the back of her head at close range while lying facedown, multiple sources have told FITSNews.
Shortly after the murders, FITSNews exclusively reported that both had been killed ”execution-style.” That initial report seems to stemmed from the fact that both Maggie and Paul were shot in the head at close-range.
A shooting of this type could result in the presence of high-velocity impact spatter on anything or anyone in proximity at the time the weapon was fired.
***
***
Alex Murdaugh called 9-1-1 at 10:07 p.m. that night.
“I been up to it now — it’s bad,” he told Colleton county dispatcher Angel Fraser, referring to the crime scene.
During the call, Murdaugh told the dispatcher that he was not at Moselle at the time of the double homicide.
Asked whether the victims were in a vehicle, Murdaugh responded “No ma’am, they’re on the ground, out at my kennels.”
“Okay, did you hear anything? Or did you come home and find them?” she asked.
“No ma’am, I’ve been gone,” Murdaugh responded, beginning to sob. “I just came back.”
“OK and was anyone else supposed to be at your house?” Fraser asked.
“No ma’am,” Murdaugh responded, sobbing. “Please hurry.”
When the dispatcher asked whether he saw anyone in the vicinity of the home when he arrived, Murdaugh said no. He was then asked whether he noticed anything out of place.
“Not really,” he replied.
At one point in the call, Fraser asks Murdaugh not to touch the bodies of his family members.
“I don’t want you to touch them at all, OK? I don’t know if you’ve already touched them but I don’t want you to touch them just in case they can get any kind of evidence, OK?” she said.
Murdaugh was quick to tell the dispatcher that he had already touched Paul and Maggie’s bodies.
“I already touched them trying to get a … um … trying to see if they were breathing,” Murdaugh responded.
Why No Charges?
Neither SLED nor the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office would comment on the latest revelation that audio and video evidence contradicts Murdaugh’s early statements about his whereabouts June 7, 2021.
But this is not a surprise.
For the past year, both agencies have kept a tight rein on the more than half dozen investigations involving Murdaugh.
Last week, after an attorney revealed to the media that investigators had asked for permission to exhume the body of the Murdaugh family’s deceased housekeeper, SLED released a short statement. While the agency confirmed the report, it offered no other insight into the investigation — more specifically, whether investigators now suspected there was more to the “trip and fall” story offered by Alex Murdaugh at the time Gloria Satterfield’s death in February 2018.
“This is a complex process that will take weeks, not days. This investigation is still active and ongoing. As such, no additional information from SLED is available at this time.”
Since the recusal of 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone on Aug. 11, 2021, it became clear to those following the case that Murdaugh had been linked to the murders in some way around that time.
Murdaugh’s co-workers at the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office — including Stone, his deputy solicitor and his team of investigators — had inserted themselves at the murder scene from the very beginning.
Immediately, Stone faced backlash for that decision.
The public and the media questioned what appeared to be a clear conflict of interest — his team’s mere presence at the scene could ultimately harm the investigation, many said, because of the Murdaugh family’s long history with the Solicitor’s Office and with Stone’s appointment as successor in 2006; their influence over law enforcement within the 14th Circuit; and the fact that up until September 2021, Alex Murdaugh was a badge-carrying “volunteer prosecutor” for Stone.
Stone dug in, however, and said that there was no evidence to suggest Murdaugh would emerge as a suspect. He assured the public that he would step down if that changed.
When he finally stepped away from the case in August, he would not say why. In a letter to the attorney general, however, Stone said, “Considering the events of today in SLED’s investigation of the homicides of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, I am asking that you assume all prosecutorial functions in this matter effective immediately.”
Law enforcement’s immediate declaration that the public was not in any danger — the implication being that a shooter was not on the loose — had added even more intrigue to the case.
Did it mean investigators knew who did it?
For months, the public waited for someone to be charged.
For months, rumors have circulated that “today’s the day” or “this week is the week.”
For a while, many believed an announcement would be made on the anniversary of Maggie’s and Paul’s deaths.
If the totality of evidence implicates Alex Murdaugh in the case, as sources have told FITSNews, why then has there been no arrest?
Is it because Murdaugh is already in jail and therefore not a risk law enforcement needs to consider? Is it because of how hard Murdaugh’s attorneys are expected to fight, thereby necessitating a fully shored up prosecutorial plan? Or are investigators waiting on another critical piece of evidence to come back?
No matter the reason, Maggie’s and Paul’s loved ones have gone a year without answers.
At some point, this will become unacceptable.
Maybe that point has already come.
*****
ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
(Via: Provided)
Liz Farrell is the new executive editor at FITSNews. She was named 2018’s top columnist in the state by South Carolina Press Association and is back after taking a nearly two-year break from corporate journalism to reclaim her soul. Email her at liz@fitsnews.com or tweet her @ElizFarrell.
***
WANNA SOUND OFF?
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to proactively address? We have an open microphone policy here at FITSNews! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.
*****
ABOUT THE AUTHOR..
Mandy Matney is the news director at FITSNews. She’s an investigative journalist from Kansas who has worked for newspapers in Missouri, Illinois, and South Carolina before making the switch to FITS. She currently lives on Hilton Head Island where she enjoys beach life. Mandy also hosts the Murdaugh Murders podcast. Want to contact Mandy? Send your tips to mandy@fitsnews.com.
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
(Via: FITSNews)
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children. Oh, and unlike some leaders in the S.C. General Assembly, he knows how to tie a Windsor knot.
***
WANNA SOUND OFF?
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to proactively address? We have an open microphone policy here at FITSNews! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.