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Maggie Murdaugh Was Worried About Money, Believed Alex 'Was Not Being Truthful' About Finances, Housekeeper Testifies
Housekeeper Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson testified that before her death, Maggie Murdaugh had tearfully confessed that she was worried about the family's finances because of an ongoing lawsuit and believed her husband may have been keeping things from her.
Before her death, Maggie Murdaugh had been worried about money and believed her husband “was not being truthful to her” about the family's finances, according to the family’s housekeeper.
Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson took the stand Friday to testify about Maggie’s final days before she was gunned down, along with her youngest son Paul, 22, at the family’s Colleton County hunting compound on June 7, 2021. Maggie’s husband, Alex Murdaugh, is now on trial after he was accused of killing his wife and son.
According to Turrubiate-Simpson, who has known the Murdaugh family for more than 15 years, Maggie had been worried about their finances in light of a civil lawsuit filed against the family following a fatal 2019 boat crash involving their son Paul, according to CNN.
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“She was concerned about the amount of money that they were requesting in that lawsuit – $30 million is what she told me,” Turrubiate-Simpson testified.
Maggie made the tearful confession one day to Turrubiate-Simpson after making coffee and pulling the housekeeper into a room to talk.
"She was worried about a lawsuit and stated they wanted $30 million and was crying, stating, 'We don't have that kind of money. If I could give them everything that I got and make this go away, I would do it in a heartbeat. I'll start over. We'll start over. I just want it gone,'" Turrubiate-Simpson testified, according to NBC News.
Maggie had also been suspicious that her husband Alex may have been keeping something from her.
“She felt that Alex was not being truthful to her with regard to what was going on with that lawsuit,” Turrubiate-Simpson said Friday. “She said ‘He doesn’t tell me everything.’”
On the day of the murders, Turrubiate-Simpson testified that Maggie and Paul had been at the family’s beach home in Edisto Island when Alex asked Maggie to return to their property in Colleton County.
According to her testimony, Maggie had been “disappointed” after telling the housekeeper that “Alex wants me to come home.”
In anticipation of their arrival back at the property, Turrubiate-Simpson prepared dinner for the family, making cubed steak, rice, gravy and green beans.
She texted Maggie at 3:28 p.m. that afternoon, writing “Dinners on the stove, just left,” according to WJCL.
The next morning, she received a call from Alex Murdaugh.
“B, they’re gone. They’re gone,” he allegedly said.
Turrubiate-Simpson was initially confused about what he meant until Alex clarified “No, B, they’re dead.”
Alex asked her to come to the property to clean up.
“He said there was going to be people probably stopping by and bringing food and stuff,” she testified, according to CNN. “He said I just want the house to look the way Maggie would like for it to look. So, I said 'OK' and I went to the house.”
But Turrubiate-Simpson testified that she was surprised by what she found when she got there. The pots with leftovers were stuffed into the refrigerator, although they were usually left on the stove or sink for her to clean the next day, WJCL reports.
She also found Maggie’s pajamas and a pair of underwear neatly folded in the middle of a doorway on the floor.
In the couple’s bathroom, she found a puddle of water near the shower and a pair of khaki pants laying on the ground.
Jurors had previously heard from one of Paul’s friends that the 22-year-old had sent a Snapchat video earlier that night around 7:56 p.m. of Alex standing by a newly planted tree that kept flopping to the side. During the video, Alex was wearing a sea foam green shirt and khaki pants but was later spotted talking to investigators just hours later wearing a white shirt and shorts.
Turrubiate-Simpson testified that Alex later tried to convince her that he had been wearing a “Vineyard Vines” shirt on the night of the murders.
“You know…I was wearing that shirt that day,” he allegedly said, according to FITSNews.
She remembered him wearing a polo shirt, not a Vineyard Vines shirt.
“I didn’t say anything, but I was kind of thrown back because I don’t remember him wearing that shirt that day,” she testified, according to NBC News.
She testified that she never saw the polo again after the murders.
During cross-examination, Turrubiate-Simpson testified that Maggie and Alex rarely argued and only got into minor disagreements about things like paint colors.
“He adored her,” she said. “He loved her.”
She also told jurors that when she later cleaned the khaki pants she had discovered on the bathroom floor, she saw no signs of blood.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters has said the state plans to rest its case sometime in the middle of this week. The defense team then expects to spend about a week calling witnesses of their own to refute the prosecution’s claims; closing arguments could begin sometime around Feb. 23, according to CNN.
Murdaugh—who is also facing around 100 other criminal charges in connection with an alleged years-long financial scheme to steal millions from his former law firm and clients—has pleaded not guilty.
