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(Trends Wide) –– Former lawyer Alex Murdaugh was found guilty this Thursday of the murders of his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, and his son, Paul Murdaugh, which occurred on June 7, 2021. Despite the lack of direct evidence, the Prosecutor’s Office passed weeks explaining how Murdaugh had the motive, means and opportunity to commit the crimes.
The prosecutors’ case hinged largely on circumstantial evidence: proving that Murdaugh was at the scene of the crime that night and that he lied to investigators. Also presenting him as a con man who murdered his family in a desperate attempt to divert investigations into his actions.
Reason
Several witnesses accused Murdaugh of gross financial irregularities at his law firm, with which he shares his name. They also presented evidence that the defendant lied to almost everyone around him in a fraud that spanned years. The “moment of truth” was approaching on several different fronts, so Murdaugh killed his family to distract and delay those financial investigations, the Prosecutor’s Office argued.
Two specific investigations, which could have exposed Murdaugh’s crimes, were coming to a head at the time of the murders.
For one, the CFO of his law firm testified that she had confronted Murdaugh about missing funds on the morning of June 7, 2021, hours before the murders. After the killings, the internal investigation into those funds took a backseat.
Second, Murdaugh was facing a lawsuit from the Mallory Beach family, a 19-year-old who died in February 2019 when a boat owned by Murdaugh and allegedly driven by Paul crashed. A hearing in that civil case had been scheduled for June 10, 2021, and had the potential to reveal his financial woes, prosecutors argued.
Half
Maggie was killed with a Blackout rifle and Paul with a shotgun, prosecutor Creighton Waters said. And he added that the two weapons belonged to the family. Testimony from a weapons expert showed that the Blackout rifle casings discovered near Maggie’s body matched those found elsewhere on the family property.
Waters noted that this weapon was missing and Murdaugh was unable to explain it.
Paul Murdaugh was killed by shotgun fire, one of Paul’s “favorite weapons,” Waters said. Investigators determined that the two projectiles that killed Paul had “class characteristics” similar to a 12-gauge shotgun. Waters added that Alex Murdaugh had this shotgun with him the night of the murders and that “Maggie’s DNA and blood” were found in the receiver of the weapon.
Chance
One of the prosecution’s most compelling pieces of evidence was recorded audio that they say places Murdaugh at the crime scene on the night of the murders. The video focuses on one of her dogs and appears to have been recorded in the kennels of the family’s home in Islandton, South Carolina. Three different voices can be heard in the background of the video, and family friends identified those voices as Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh.
Video on Paul’s phone was recorded starting at 8:44 p.m. on June 7, 2021, just minutes before Paul and Maggie were shot dead, according to Lt. David Britton Dove, a crime center supervisor. computer scientists with the South Carolina Division of Law Enforcement.
Murdaugh’s presence there contradicted the initial claim he made to investigators that he was not at the kennel that night, prosecutors said.
Murdaugh “told anyone who would listen that he was never there,” prosecutors said in opening statements. “The evidence will show that she was there. He was at the scene of the crime with the two victims.”
Murdaugh later admitted to lying and testified during the trial that he misled the police due to addiction-induced paranoia.
