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Alex Murdaugh Allegedly Told Sister-In-Law That His Wife Didn’t ‘Suffer’ During Her Death
Alex Murdaugh told sister-in-law Marian Proctor that he didn't know who killed his wife and son but believed it was someone who “thought about it for a long time,” according to her testimony.
Disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh allegedly reassured his sister-in-law that Maggie Murdaugh didn’t suffer before her death, though he denies killing her.
Maggie suffered multiple gunshot wounds alongside her youngest son Paul when both were gunned down on the family’s Colleton County hunting compound on June 7, 2021.
Maggie’s sister, Marian Proctor, testified Tuesday that when she first saw Alex after the murders, she asked her brother-in-law whether Maggie “suffered” before her death, according to The State.
“He assured me that she had not,” Proctor said on the stand. “Now I don’t know that I think that was true.”
Dr. Ellen Riemer, of Medical University of South Carolina, testified earlier this week that Maggie was shot at least four times with an assault rifle, according to Fox News. When the first two shots were delivered to her abdomen and left thigh, Reimer testified that Maggie had likely been standing before collapsing to her knees.
"We know she must have been in a lot of pain," Riemer testified. "She had projectiles, ammunition, going through her left kidney. You can imagine that was a painful wound and may have caused her to fold over."
As she was crouched on her knees, another shot tore through her chest and into her head before she suffered a shot from behind.
Her son Paul was found nearby with two shotgun wounds, including one so violent it tore his brain from his body.
On Tuesday, Proctor testified that she asked Alex whether he knew who had killed his wife and son.
Although he said he didn't know who the killer was, Alex told her he “felt like whoever did it had thought about it for a long time,” she testified, according to The New York Times.
“I just didn’t know what that meant,” she said.
Proctor also thought it was odd that in the weeks after the double homicide, Alex seemed more focused on wanting to clear his son’s name in a fatal 2019 boat crash than in trying to find the killer.
“He said that his No. 1 goal was clearing Paul’s name,” she testified. “And I thought that was so strange because my No. 1 goal was to find out who killed my sister and Paul.”
Prosecutors believe Alex killed his wife and son in an attempt to divert attention away from a series of financial crimes.
On Wednesday, jurors saw video of an interrogation conducted two months after the murders where state investigators confronted Alex about whether or not he killed his family members.
During the August 11, 2021 interview, SLED agent Lt. David Owen—who also took the stand Wednesday—brought up the topic at the end of the interview, according to CNN.
“Did you kill Maggie?” he asked in the video.
“No,” Alex replied. “Did I kill my wife? No, David.”
Alex also said he didn’t kill his son Paul and didn’t know who may have killed either.
“Do you think I killed Maggie,” Alex then asked.
“I have to go where the evidence and the facts take me,” Owen responded.
When Alex pushed about whether the investigator believed he killed Paul, Owen again responded, “I have to go where the evidence and the facts take me.”
“And I don’t have anything that points to anybody else at this time,” he continued in the footage.
“So does that mean that I am a suspect?” Alex asked.
Owens replied that the investigation remained ongoing.
Owen also challenged Alex during the interview about several supposed inconsistencies in his story, including his claim to investigators that he hadn’t been at the dog kennels that night prior to discovering the bodies.
Paul’s friend Rogan Gibson told investigators, however, that he heard Alex’s voice in the background during a phone call with Paul shortly before his death, according to the testimony.
“You were heard in the background, and that was prior to 9 p.m. …Was it you?” he asked.
“At nine o’clock? No, sir,” Murdaugh replied, “not if my times are right.”
Months later, Owen testified that investigators also discovered a video on Paul’s cell phone taken at 8:44 p.m. at the dog kennels that allegedly captured Alex’s voice in the background.
During the interrogation, Owen also honed in on Alex’s changing outfits that night. He was captured in a Snapchat video sent to Paul’s friend at 7:56 p.m. wearing a blue shirt and long khaki pants, but was seen talking to investigators a few hours later that night wearing a white T-shirt and shorts.
“What point in the evening did you change clothes?” Owen asked, according to The Associated Press.
“I’m not sure,” Alex replied before saying, “What time of day was it?”
During the cross-examination, defense attorney Jim Griffin focused on what the investigators hadn’t done, including asking Alex to provide the clothing seen in the Snapchat video.
“And the reason you didn’t, (was because) you weren’t concerned about those clothes. Your investigation had been focused since early June on the T-shirt he was wearing, the shorts he was wearing and shoes he was wearing at the time he called 911,” Griffin said, according to CNN.
“Yes,” Owen responded.
Griffin also questioned Owen about why they didn’t test the sinks for blood, test the victim’s bodies for DNA or initially search the home of Alex’s mother, even though he told investigators he had been there the night of the murders.
Investigators ultimately did search the property in September of 2021 and allegedly found a blue raincoat covered in gunshot residue.
Griffin also opened the door for prosecution to present evidence about Alex’s botched assisted suicide attempt in September of 2021 after mentioning it during Owen’s cross-examination.
Griffin told the court that Alex had a deep drug problem at the time of the murders, regularly buying $50,000 worth of drugs each week from Curtis Edward Smith and suggesting the killings may have been related to issues with a drug gang, CNN reports.
Smith—who was also involved in the botched assisted suicide attempt—had allegedly been skimming money off the top and owed money to a drug gang at the time of the murders, Griffin alleged.
He asked Owen whether they had tested the DNA of any known drug dealers in the area against an unknown DNA sample found under Maggie’s fingernails.
Owen replied that it hadn’t been done.
As a result of the questioning, Judge Clifton Newman ruled that prosecutors can now present evidence about Alex’s own September 2021 shooting. Prosecutors believe Alex enlisted Smith to shoot him in the head along the side of the road as his legal problems began to mount so that his surviving son Buster could collect on a $10 million insurance policy. The bullet only grazed Alex, however, and he survived.
In addition to the murder charges against him, Alex is also facing around 100 other criminal charges for a series of alleged financial crimes.
