Becky Hill Investigation: An Update

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A multi-faceted criminal investigation into embattled Colleton County, South Carolina clerk of court Becky Hill has picked up significant momentum in recent weeks, multiple sources familiar with the status of the inquiry confirmed to this media outlet.

Among other escalations, Hill now finds herself squarely under investigation for allegedly perjuring herself during her disastrous testimony at last month’s evidentiary hearing for convicted killer Alex Murdaugh.

Murdaugh, readers will recall, is seeking a new trial based on allegations that Hill tampered with the jury that found him guilty of murdering his wife, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh, and younger son – 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh – on the family hunting property in June of 2021. Hill’s office managed Murdaugh’s double homicide trial in Walterboro, S.C. from January 23 through March 3, 2023. In fact, she read the guilty verdicts to a waiting world on the evening of March 2, 2023.

Murdaugh’s initial bid for a retrial was shot down last month by former S.C. chief justice Jean Toal – although his attorneys are confident they will prevail on this matter as it enters the appellate phase.

In the meantime, Hill’s situation has grown infinitely more precarious now that she is no longer useful to the state in its bid to sustain the guilty verdicts it won against Murdaugh last winter. Indeed, the appetite for investigating and prosecuting Hill appears to have dramatically increased since the Murdaugh hearing concluded last month.

To recap: On the eve of Murdaugh’s hearing, our media outlet exclusively reported that Hill’s county-issued cell phone – which had been missing for months – had finally been located. This mobile device – a Samsung Galaxy S10E – was discovered on January 23, 2024 and immediately reported to the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED).

***

We can now confirm this device was collected by SLED agents on January 28, 2024 – one day before Murdaugh’s retrial hearing. We can also confirm SLED agents obtained a search warrant for records related to this phone in the days immediately after the hearing – records which were finally obtained on or about February 12, 2024.

What else? We now know where the phone was discovered …

According to our sources, Hill’s mobile device was found in a desk drawer in a county office previously used by her son – former Colleton County information technology director Jeffrey “Colt” Hill. Additionally, we can confirm that this phone – like multiple other devices sought in connection with this ongoing investigation – had been reset to factory settings when it was obtained by investigators.

How do all of these pieces connect?

Back in November, our Andy Fancher exclusively reported that Jeffrey Hill had been arrested on one count of wiretapping for having “willfully and feloniously intercept(ed) electronic phone communication.”

A key component of Fancher’s report? The notation that Becky Hill had been “forced to surrender her phone to SLED upon the issuance of a search warrant” in connection with the wiretapping investigation into her son.

Which phone, though?

Not the one they were looking for, it would appear …

As previously reported, Jeffrey Hill’s wiretapping arrest was reportedly tied to an effort to keep his mother “abreast of the investigations into her conduct,” including a pair of probes launched by the S.C. State Ethics Commission (SCSEC) last summer. One of those investigations is focused on whether Hill abused her position as clerk of court in an effort to facilitate the publication of her book about the Murdaugh trial, Behind the Doors of Justice.

Our media outlet further linked Becky Hill to the wiretapping investigation into her son, noting SLED investigators were “exploring obstruction of justice charges against both Becky Hill and Jeffrey Hill as it relates to the mushrooming wiretapping scandal.”

***

RETURN OF THE MISSING PHONE …

According to our source, SLED asked for Jeffrey Hill’s office to be locked down upon the occasion of his arrest on November 21, 2023 – and county officials reportedly complied with this request. Not only that, county officials reportedly searched his office prior to locking it – but Becky Hill’s phone did not turn up in that search.

So … how did it wind up in Jeffrey Hill’s former office two months later?

Sources familiar with the status of the inquiry say the discovery of the missing device is part of an “ongoing obstruction of justice inquiry” being run by SLED with support from the statewide grand jury, which operates under the auspices of S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson.

As previously reported, the iPhone Becky Hill surrendered to SLED last fall is not the phone she used during the trial. Nor is it a separate iPhone Hill has been reportedly been using since the allegations against her son were made public.

Sources familiar with the inquiry said Becky Hill switched from a Samsung device to an iPhone in the days immediately after she was publicly accused of tampering with the Murdaugh jury. However, Jeffrey Hill reportedly told county officials on August 30, 2023 his mother’s Samsung phone had already been turned into the county – even though Becky Hill was reportedly still using it on the day the jury tampering allegations were announced a week later.

We also previously reported that Becky Hill’s county-issued cell phone number was “released” from its taxpayer-funded Verizon account and added to her personal account in late July 2023. This, we were told, was part of an effort to dodge a looming subpoena for cell phone records tied to the two SCSEC investigations.

Becky Hill reportedly told ethics investigators on multiple occasions she did not keep her county-issued Samsung phone after her son transferred the line from the county to her personal account in late July.

None of the devices linked to either Becky or Jeffrey Hill have been handed over to investigators intact. The iPhone Becky Hill provided to SLED investigators last fall had been reset to its factory settings. Similarly, two phones provided by Jeffery Hill to SLED – one a personal Samsung and the other a county-issued Samsung – had both reportedly been reset to factory settings.

Also, two other Samsungs belonging to Jeffrey Hill – a personal device and a county phone – were reportedly destroyed when he first learned SLED wanted to question him in connection with the wiretapping scandal.

“These evasive measures appear to have taken place at pivotal moments in the evolution of this story,” I noted earlier this year, referring to when ethics investigators asked Becky Hill for her cell phone records, when Becky Hill was publicly accused of jury tampering and when her son was contacted by SLED for an interview on the wiretapping allegations.

Now we discover SLED obtained the wiped phone discovered in Jeffrey Hill’s office the day before Becky Hill was scheduled to take the stand at Murdaugh’s retrial hearing in Columbia, S.C. last month.

***

PERJURY RAP …

In addition to the ongoing misconduct and obstruction investigations, Hill is also the focus of a new line of inquiry: Whether she perjured herself on the stand at last month’s big hearing.

Under grueling questioning from Murdaugh attorney Dick Harpootlian – and later from justice Toal – Hill withered and was exposed as a liar and a fraud. Her credibility was “utterly and completely eviscerated on the stand,” I noted at the time. Claiming “poetic license,” Hill admitted to fabricating portions of her book – the same book portions of which she previously admitted plagiarizing.

But did Hill also lie on the stand?

Under questioning from justice Toal, Hill was repeatedly asked about sealed exhibits – specifically images from the crime scene and from Maggie Murdaugh and Paul Murdaugh’s autopsies – and whether she allowed members of the media to view these sensitive records.

“Did you ever allow anyone from the press to view these sealed exhibits?” Toal asked Hill.

“No ma’am,” she responded.

Toal asked the question again as she grilled Hill about her process for safeguarding these graphic images.

“Were any press people ever allowed to view the exhibits – even the sealed exhibits that you had on file?” Toal asked.

“No ma’am, no ma’am,” Hill responded.

According to sources close to the ongoing investigation, SLED agents visited the Colleton County courthouse on February 14, 2024 in search of evidence they believe will prove Hill lied on the stand.

In addition to executing search warrants for key card access to the courtroom – and to several of its adjoining chambers – agents reportedly sought security footage from the courthouse. They also reportedly took pictures of rugs and carpets within the building as part of an apparent attempt to tie certain images and videos of sealed exhibits back to Hill.

According to these sources, Creighton Waters – the lead prosecutor on the Murdaugh case and the chief attorney for the statewide grand jury – will be briefed on the status of SLED’s investigations into Hill and her son later this week.

Count on this media outlet to keep our audience in the loop on any new developments related to these ongoing inquiries …

***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

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 and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven (soon to be eight) children.

***

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.