In the Matter of Alex Murdaugh

Summary

Dateline NBC: "In the Matter of Alex Murdaugh" (May 19, 2026)

Host: NBC News (Lester Holt)

Summary by Podcast Summarizer

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Episode Overview

This episode delves deep into the unprecedented reversal of Alec Murdaugh's double murder conviction in what was once dubbed the "trial of the decade." The case, involving a prominent South Carolina attorney accused of killing his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, is re-examined amid bombshell revelations of alleged jury tampering. Drawing from current developments, trial testimony, and new interviews, the episode covers the original murders, the explosive investigation, the convoluted trial, and the remarkable path to a planned retrial.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Murders and Immediate Aftermath

• The Night of June 7, 2021

  • Alec Murdaugh calls 911 after discovering the bodies of his wife Maggie and son Paul at their Moselle property ([04:59]).
  • Murdaugh immediately offers a theory: retribution for the 2019 boat accident involving Paul ([06:07], [14:29]).
  • The family was well-known in the Lowcountry legal scene, which influenced law enforcement’s approach ([07:45], [23:05]).

• Boating Accident Context

  • 2019 boat crash led to Mallory Beach’s death, for which Paul was facing serious charges ([14:58]).
  • Mark Tinsley, attorney for the Beach family, pursued financial records from Alec, leading to pressure on the Murdaugh family ([19:59], [20:46]).

2. Inside the Investigation

• Immediate Law Enforcement Response

  • Law enforcement’s early work at Moselle site comes under scrutiny for its perceived leniency towards the powerful Murdaughs.
  • “They basically allowed the family and all these attorneys from the law firm to...console the grieving Alex.” – Michael DeWitt ([23:12])

• Elimination of Boat Crash Victims as Suspects

  • Investigators quickly established alibis for all potential suspects connected with the boat crash ([24:12]).

3. Financial Crimes and Personal Unraveling

• Financial Troubles Come to Light
  • Growing evidence Alec was embezzling from his law firm and clients, including the misappropriation of the Satterfield settlement ([29:47], [31:44]).
  • Alec's drug addiction and confession:
    • "I've got a drug addiction...I've been stealing from my clients and I've been stealing from my firm." – Alec Murdoch ([33:13])
  • Failed suicide attempt staged for life insurance proceeds ([33:31]).

4. The Trial: Prosecution and Defense Cases

• Prosecution’s Case and Evidence

  • Motive: Alec committed murders to gain sympathy and distract from his looming financial collapse ([52:49]).
  • Key evidence includes timeline constructed from phone/GPS data and the damning kennel video that places Alec at the scene minutes before the murders ([42:33], [43:03]).
  • "You're going to reach the inescapable conclusion that Alec murdered Maggie and Paul. That he was the storm." – Creighton Waters ([40:20])
  • Forensic testimony: Gunshot residue on a raincoat hidden in his mother’s home ([46:19]).

• Defense’s Arguments

  • Cites lack of direct physical evidence, no murder weapon, and criticizes alleged investigative missteps ([59:00]).
  • Empathy from family members, especially Buster and John Marvin, describing Alec’s sincere grief ([61:26], [62:05]).
  • The pivotal moment: Alec takes the stand, admits to lying about his alibi but insists on his innocence ([66:35]).
  • "I did lie to them." – Alec Murdoch ([66:54])
  • He blames his opioid addiction and paranoia for his lies ([67:17], [67:52]).

5. Bombshell Jury Video & Verdict

• Kennel Video Undermines Alec’s Alibi

  • Paul's cell phone video, capturing Alec at the kennels with Maggie and Paul at 8:44 pm, devastates the defense ([42:33], [43:22]).

• Prosecution Portrays Alec as Skilled Manipulator

  • "You've been able to lie quickly and easily and convincingly if you think it'll save your skin for well over a decade. Isn't that true?" – Creighton Waters ([72:16], [76:25])

• Verdict and Immediate Fallout

  • Jury convicts Alec Murdoch after only three hours of deliberation ([78:10]).
  • "Guilty verdict." – Becky Hill, court clerk ([78:10])
  • Sentenced to life in prison ([78:13]).

6. Jury Tampering Revelation and Overturned Conviction

• Becky Hill Allegations

  • The court clerk, who read the verdict, publishes a memoir claiming intimate knowledge of jurors and faces accusations of having tried to sway them ([80:13], [80:45]).
  • "She said that Ms. Hill said, don't let them fool you. I mean, my world stopped." – Jim Griffin, defense attorney ([81:25])
  • Some jurors confirm improper communications; Hill denies all charges ([82:26], [82:58]).

• Supreme Court Decision

  • Finds Hill’s conduct “shocking,” saying she "placed her fingers on the scales of justice” ([84:24]).
  • Alec granted a new trial ([84:24]).

7. Preparing for Retrial, New Evidence, and Reflections

• Attorney General’s Dedication

  • “Two people were murdered, and they deserve justice.” – Attorney General Allen Wilson ([01:31])
  • Possibility of death penalty on retrial ([87:54]).

• Defense Anticipates Different Trial

  • Supreme Court warns against excessive focus on financial crimes ([86:34]).
  • Defense claims to have new leads and private investigations ongoing ([87:04]).

• Divided Reactions

  • Some jurors and legal commentators are stunned by the overturning ([85:18], [85:25]).
  • The case is set to become yet another national media circus with another jury reckoning ([87:54]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the weight of the conviction and the aftermath:

  • “This is a bombshell…This never, ever happens.” – Laura Jarrett, NBC legal analyst ([79:03])

• On the crime scene and evidence:

  • “There were a significant number of particles characteristic of gunshot primer residue on the inside of this jacket.” – Agent Megan Fletcher ([46:19])

• On the prosecution’s theory of motive:

  • “He was eager to keep concealed this long running financial fraud that would ruin his family and his family name.” – Becky Hill ([52:49])

• On the power of the kennel video:

  • “Which voices did you recognize on that video? … Paul Murdaugh, Maggie Murdo and Alex Murdaugh.” ([43:39])

• On jury tampering:

  • “She made it seem like he was already guilty.” – Becky Hill Juror ([82:38])

• On the retrial:

  • “We intend to retry this case. Two people were murdered, and they deserve justice.” – Attorney General Allen Wilson ([01:31], [87:46])

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Important Timestamps for Key Segments

• The Murders and 911 Call: [04:59] – [07:22]
• Background: Boat Crash and Lawsuit: [14:58] – [21:17]
• Alec’s Financial Crimes and Confession: [29:47] – [33:13]
• Alec’s Suicide Attempt & Fallout: [33:31] – [35:09]
• Start of The Trial: [37:31] – [41:12]
• Prosecution Case and Kennel Video Revelation: [42:33] – [43:53]
• Cell Phone and GPS Evidence: [56:10] – [57:57]
• Defense Case and Alec on the Stand: [65:31] – [76:42]
• Verdict Announced: [78:10] – [78:13]
• Jury Tampering Allegations Introduced: [80:13] – [83:45]
• Supreme Court Overturns Verdict: [84:17] – [84:41]
• Discussion of Pending Retrial: [86:00] – [87:54]

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Conclusion

This episode traces the dramatic rise and fall of Alec Murdaugh—a story of family tragedy, power, deception, and possible injustice. With the original conviction overturned due to jury tampering by a court official, South Carolina will play host to a historic retrial certain to captivate the nation once more, as legal, personal, and community stakes remain heartbreakingly high.

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For listeners seeking more information, or to follow the ongoing twists in the Murdaugh saga, Dateline NBC continues to provide detailed investigative coverage.

Transcript

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[Lester Holt]

Tonight on Dateline.

[Creighton Waters]

Mr. Murdoch, are you a family annihilator?

[Alec Murdoch]

A family annihilator? You mean like, did I shoot my wife and my son? No.

[Lester Holt]

A bombshell in the notorious case of Alec Murdoch. His guilty verdict overturned, this decision is

[Laura Jarrett]

nothing short of shocking.

[Lester Holt]

This never, ever happens inside this stunning new ruling. Jurors told you they felt coerced.

[Jim Griffin]

Something really amiss went on in the jury room. I mean, my world stopped revealing.

[Lester Holt]

New interviews, the attorney General.

[Attorney General Allen Wilson]

We intend to retry this case. Two people were murdered and they deserve justice.

[Lester Holt]

The defense team. What was Alex response when you told him?

[Jim Griffin]

He said, I didn't believe it's going to happen.

[Becky Hill]

The jurors, I feel like he didn't get a fair trial.

[Lester Holt]

I was like, what?

[Alec Murdoch]

Why? They are dead, aren't you?

[Lester Holt]

Yes, sir. That's what it looks like.

[Jim Griffin]

He didn't kill Maggie and Paul.

[Lester Holt]

Do you have new evidence to back that up?

[Jim Griffin]

Private investigators are out there investigating.

[Attorney General Allen Wilson]

They have the evidence. We'd love to see it. The eyes of the world were on this trial. We have a job to do and we are going to do it.

[Lester Holt]

I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline. Here's craig melvin with. In the matter of alec murdoch, Just three short years ago, it was proclaimed the trial of the decade.

[Jim Griffin]

Did you take this gun, or any gun like it, and shoot your son, Paul?

[Alec Murdoch]

No, I did not. I didn't shoot my wife or my son. Anytime.

[Lester Holt]

28 days. More than 70. 70 witnesses. Some giving dramatic testimony.

[Becky Hill]

It was hard because I know she wasn't going to be coming back.

[Alec Murdoch]

No mother or father or aunt or uncle should ever have to see and do what I did that day.

[Creighton Waters]

Listen to that gathering storm that all came to a head on June 7, 2021, the day the evidence will show he killed Maggie and Paul.

[Becky Hill]

We got up this morning at 2 o'.

[Alec Murdoch]

Clock.

[Becky Hill]

We were here at 3 o' clock in line.

[Lester Holt]

It really has been worldwide. Alec, is there anything. It ended with one of South Carolina's most prominent attorneys from one of its most famous families, convicted of murder.

[Becky Hill]

Guilty verdict

[Lester Holt]

or did it?

[Becky Hill]

They overturned his murder conviction. This is huge true crime news today.

[Lester Holt]

I just can't believe this is going to trial again. Social media blew up this week when the state's highest court ordered a do over in the case of South Carolina vs Alec Murdoch. How does the state of South Carolina convict a guy and then have it all undone? How does that happen?

[Attorney General Allen Wilson]

Look, while I am disappointed, I don't put blame on anyone but one person tonight.

[Lester Holt]

How the verdict against Alec Murdoch came

[Becky Hill]

undone, I did not pressure the jury.

[Jim Griffin]

She was definitely manipulating this jury.

[Laura Jarrett]

What happened was so egregious, so disgraceful. In the words of the court, they had no choice but to overturn this conviction.

[Lester Holt]

You'll hear from insiders who fought over the case once and seemed destined to do so again.

[Creighton Waters]

You dust yourself off, you get back up, you take a fresh look at it, and then you go do your job.

[Jim Griffin]

We didn't give up.

[Dick Harpootlian]

And that's the secret to the business we're in.

[Jim Griffin]

You don't give up.

[Lester Holt]

But first, we'll take you back to the beginning and the man at the center of it all. It was June 7, 2021, a dark night in South Carolina's low country.

[Chris Wilson]

Now I won't wait.

[Lester Holt]

Your emergency. At 10:07pm, a call came into the Colleton County Sheriff's Department. There was an emergency at a remote home outside of town. Sergeant Daniel Green was the first to arrive. Central 717, seen and secure. Had a Whiskey fox, Whiskey Mike. Both gunshot wounds to the head. His body camera rolled.

[Alec Murdoch]

I want to let you know because of the scene. I do, I did. Go get a gun and bring it down here.

[Lester Holt]

It's in your vehicle.

[Creighton Waters]

Do you have any guns on you at all?

[Alec Murdoch]

No, sir. It's leaning up against the side of my car. You're fine, man.

[Lester Holt]

You're fine. Green came face to face with the caller, Alec Murdoch, right away near a row of dog kennels.

[Alec Murdoch]

It's bad to check the pulses. Yes, sir.

[Lester Holt]

There by the kennels. Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, each had been shot multiple times, including to their heads. This is the firearm you brought from inside the house, sir?

[Alec Murdoch]

Yes, sir. I went get this Is a long story. My son was in a boat wreck months back.

[Lester Holt]

And while Alex said he didn't know who committed the murders, he suggested the motive. Retribution for a crash that killed a 19 year old woman on a boat Paul Murdoch was said to be driving.

[Alec Murdoch]

He's been getting threats. Most of it's been benign stuff we didn't take serious. Okay. You know, he's been getting like, punched. I noticed somebody I know. That's what it is.

[Lester Holt]

Murdoch also told the sergeant he had gone to visit his mother that night. When did you get home? Right. Right when you called. Or did you go to the house first? Where is the house?

[Jim Griffin]

I came to the house first.

[Alec Murdoch]

My mom has late stages Alzheimer's and my dad is in the hospital. Okay. I left. I don't know what time. I can go back on my phone and tell you the exact time.

[Lester Holt]

As he told Greene about the moment he found his wife and son, his emotions spilled over.

[Alec Murdoch]

Did you check them?

[Lester Holt]

We got medical guys that are. That's what they're going to do. Okay.

[Alec Murdoch]

What are they doing? Can they hurry?

[Michael DeWitt]

They are.

[Lester Holt]

Yes, sir. Once the EMTs arrived, Greene confirmed Alec's worst fears.

[Alec Murdoch]

They are dead, aren't they?

[Lester Holt]

Yes, sir, that's what it looks like. Alec frantically called his friends and family, and they started arriving, too. Meanwhile, Greene learned the central fact about the man who'd made that 911 call. What's your first name, sir?

[Alec Murdoch]

My name is Alex Richard Alexander Murdoch.

[Lester Holt]

Murdoch. That was a name known to nearly everyone in the low country. A name that meant power and influence for generations. As more deputies arrived, they realized the gravity of what had happened here and to whom it happened.

[Alec Murdoch]

Y' all familiar with this family?

[Jim Griffin]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

I wasn't until he told me the names.

[Creighton Waters]

Murdoch.

[Lester Holt]

Then investigators from sled, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division arrived. They were crime scene specialists who soon had a lot of questions for Alec Murdoch.

[Jim Griffin]

How is your relationship with Maggie?

[Alec Murdoch]

Very good. As good as it could possibly be. I mean, you know, we had our issues.

[Lester Holt]

The tragic events on that warm, humid night would launch a Southern gothic tale of epic proportions with a final chapter yet to be written.

[Dick Harpootlian]

There's nothing that happened that day that would say to him, I better go kill Maggie and Paul.

[Lester Holt]

Seems like we're getting a good little preview here of the retro.

[Dick Harpootlian]

Oh, we're ready.

[Lester Holt]

Even before the Sun Rose On June 8, 2021, residents of tiny Hampton, South Carolina, were playing a game of telephone.

[Michael DeWitt]

Keep in mind that Hampton county is a small town, small place. You can't. Your gossip travels faster. Than you do.

[Lester Holt]

Just a few hours earlier, one of the town's most prominent figures, attorney Alec Murdoch, said he had come home to find his 52 year old wife Maggie and 22 year old son Paul shot to death on the family's sprawling property known as Moselle.

[Alec Murdoch]

They are dead, aren't they?

[Lester Holt]

Yes, sir. That's what, that's what it looks like. Reporter Michael DeWitt was born and raised in Hampton.

[Michael DeWitt]

That night and early in the morning, the people in the Murdaugh Circle found out they're getting phone calls, they're getting texts. Maggie and Paul have been shot and killed.

[Lester Holt]

As the news spread, Colleton County Sheriff's deputies and agents from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, or sled, continued to gather evidence at the scene. A few things were clear right away. Maggie and Paul had been shot at close range, each with a different gun.

[Michael DeWitt]

It was clear at the scene that Paul had been shot twice with the shotgun and she had been shot multiple times with this high powered rifle.

[Lester Holt]

That shotgun and rifle were nowhere to be found. But there were guns, a lot of them, on the property, which was often used for hunting.

[Michael DeWitt]

A lot of people hunt. The fact that the Murdoch family had at least 27 guns in their family gun room, it's not surprising.

[Lester Holt]

Chris Wilson, a friend of the Murdaugh family, was a regular at Moselle.

[Chris Wilson]

Just a very social place. They always welcome people into their home.

[Lester Holt]

His friendship with Alec dates back decades.

[Chris Wilson]

Grew up in towns that were close to each other, you know, 30 miles or so apart. Played some ball against each other and then a little bit of ball with each other.

[Lester Holt]

The friends grew closer in law school, and by that time Alec had met Maggie, Chris was in their wedding party.

[Chris Wilson]

They had a very close relationship. I mean, Ellick did what he needed to do to take care of the things that Maggie needed, and Maggie did what she needed to do to take care of the things that Ellick and the boys needed.

[Lester Holt]

The boys, sons, Buster and Paul, became Maggie's world. According to Chris's wife, Dana, when she

[Becky Hill]

had boys, she embraced that role and would fish with them and hunt with them, and she probably even threw ball in the yard with them. But she was just such a great boy, Mom.

[Lester Holt]

Moselle was one of three properties the family owned, and it's where Alec taught his wife and kids to love the lifestyle of the low country. What did Maggie ever say about her life at Moselle?

[Becky Hill]

She loved being out there. It was away from everybody and I mean, it was just such a beautiful place and so quiet,

[Lester Holt]

quiet and remote. It was A special place for Paul too.

[Becky Hill]

He was always outdoors and so good at it, you know, so good at tending the land and hunting and just being outside.

[Chris Wilson]

It was a great place. 1700 or so acres. Hogs, turkey, deer, dove, quail. A huge house that would sleep and welcome a number of people.

[Lester Holt]

But now the property was the scene of a bloody horror sled. Special Agent David Owen was leading the investigation. He climbed into a car with Alec to ask him some questions.

[Jim Griffin]

Can you go by Alec? Yes, sir. Just start the top.

[Lester Holt]

Take your time. Alec told Owen he had been visiting his mother that night. He described the what happened when he got home. Maggie and Paul were not at the house, so he said he went looking for them at the dog kennels on the property.

[Alec Murdoch]

I mean, I pulled up and I could see him and you know, I knew something was bad. I ran out. I knew it was really bad. My boy over there, I could see it was.

[Lester Holt]

Owen asked if the family had had any issues of late. And Alec repeated the theory he had given to Sergeant Green earlier. Have y' all been having any problems out here?

[Jim Griffin]

Trespassers?

[Alec Murdoch]

None.

[Lester Holt]

People breaking in?

[Alec Murdoch]

None that I know of. The only thing that what comes to my mind is my son Paul was in a boat wreck a couple years ago and there's been a, you know, he was charged with being arrested for being a driver. There's been a lot of negative publicity about that and there's been a lot of people online, just really vile stuff.

[Lester Holt]

That 2019 boat wreck had upended the lives of Paul and four of his friends and caused the death of 19 year old Mallory Beach. Paul was indicted on three counts of boating under the influence, causing death and great bodily injury. He faced a maximum of 55 years in prison and pleaded not guilty and awaited trial. But now he lay dead alongside his mother on the family's beloved property. Was Alec right? Was this the act of ultimate retribution?

[Jim Griffin]

Has he received any direct threats related

[Lester Holt]

to the boat accident?

[Alec Murdoch]

Oh, yes.

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[Alec Murdoch]

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[Becky Hill]

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[Lester Holt]

From almost the very moment investigators arrived at his country home, Alec Murdoch had been telling them the murders of his wife and son had to be connected to a 2019 boat crash.

[Alec Murdoch]

This is a long story. My son was in a boat wreck.

[Lester Holt]

That boat crash had turned the lives of Alex family and several other families upside down.

[Becky Hill]

911, where's your emergency?

[Jim Griffin]

We're in a boat crash on Arthur Street.

[Lester Holt]

It happened in the middle of a February night at 2:30am Six teenagers including part Paul Murdoch were in the Murdoch's motorboat in a local creek when the boat sped up and slammed into a bridge. Pilot One of the passengers, Connor Cook made the call. There's. There's six of us and one is missing. Please send someone. No, I'm coming.

[Becky Hill]

We're calling, we're coming. Okay.

[Lester Holt]

Connor and several other passengers were rushed to the hospital. Marty and Christine Cook are Connor's parents. How did you find out what had happened?

[Jim Griffin]

Connor called me. He said daddy, we've been in an accident in Archer's Creek and we can't find Mallory.

[Lester Holt]

19 year old Mallory beach was still missing in the dark water. Paul Murdoch was rushed to the hospital too. His father and grandfather met him there. And Alec reached out to the cooks who were still on their way.

[Jim Griffin]

Elliot calling me, going on and on about an accident. That girl was missing and then Connor was driving the boat.

[Lester Holt]

He told you Connor was driving the boat?

[Becky Hill]

Yes, he did.

[Jim Griffin]

Multiple times.

[Lester Holt]

He called to check on you? To check on Connor?

[Alec Murdoch]

No. Hell no. To trying to get this scheme going.

[Creighton Waters]

To telling us about how to convince

[Becky Hill]

us that our son was Driving the boat.

[Lester Holt]

That didn't make sense to the cooks. Paul usually drove his family's boat. The cooks also say Paul was a known troublemaker and thought Alec was wielding his considerable influence that night at the hospital to keep him out of trouble.

[Becky Hill]

It would be easier for him to get Connor out of trouble than his son.

[Jim Griffin]

That was his exact words. I can look out of Connor better

[Creighton Waters]

than I can Paul.

[Lester Holt]

Meanwhile, on Archer's Creek, the search for Mallory beach went on for a week.

[Becky Hill]

Crews are continuing to search for a former USC student who went missing over

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the weekend near Parris Island.

[Lester Holt]

It ended tragically when two volunteers recovered Mallory's body.

[Mark Tinsley]

You know, there were so many opportunities for this not to have happened.

[Lester Holt]

Attorney Mark Tinsley filed a wrongful death suit on the beach family's behalf in March 2019.

[Mark Tinsley]

They wanted to hold all those people responsible for her death accountable. But more than that, they wanted to make sure that it didn't happen to someone else's child.

[Lester Holt]

The suit named Alec, who owned the boat, along with several others. And why name Alec Murdoch in that?

[Mark Tinsley]

When you promote a certain kind of behavior, when you condone the sorts of things that Paul did for the length of time without any consequences, and he bears responsibility for what happened.

[Lester Holt]

Tinsley requested Alex financial records as part of the suit. What was the response?

[Mark Tinsley]

Just an objection, A refusal.

[Lester Holt]

In fact. Tinsley said Alec told him he was broke. Tinsley didn't believe it.

[Mark Tinsley]

He's making millions of dollars a year. A million dollars a year, at least every year.

[Jim Griffin]

Why would he have no money?

[Mark Tinsley]

He comes from money.

[Lester Holt]

The impasse dragged on for more than two years. Finally, in June 2021, both parties were scheduled to appear at a hearing where Alec would likely be compelled to turn over his financial records. Then June 7, just a few days before that hearing, the unthinkable happened.

[Mark Tinsley]

I get a call about 11:30 that

[Lester Holt]

Monday night that Paul and Maggie had been murdered. Now investigators had to find out if the boat crash had anything to do with those murders, even as they seemed to be losing control of a crime scene that was being overrun by Alex friends and lawyers. Moselle, the Murdaugh family retreat that was known for parties and recreation, had become a place where people came to grieve and offer support to Alec Murdoch and his remaining son, 25 year old Buster. Alec's friend Chris Wilson was one of them. When you got there, what did you find?

[Chris Wilson]

When I got there, pulled into the main gate, was kind of headed up the driveway towards the main house. Saw a lot of lights and people you could Tell there was a lot of commotion going on down at the kennels, which turned out to be law enforcement and other people. Alec was there. I walked over and hugged his neck and we cried. He didn't say anything. He was whimpering and crying and seemed destroyed. We hugged, was just there. I mean, I was trying to be there for a friend that, you know, didn't know what to do for him, didn't know what to say. Just wanted to be there.

[Lester Holt]

Some questioned why the house wasn't courtyard as a crime scene like the kennels were.

[Michael DeWitt]

How you doing, sir?

[Lester Holt]

It was clear the Murdaugh family held a certain status with law enforcement.

[Michael DeWitt]

They basically allowed the family and all these attorneys from the law firm to just, just move over there and set up and. And console the grieving Alex, console the family.

[Lester Holt]

While some investigators searched the home and property, others were looking into Alex theory about the 2019 boat crash. They wanted to know where the surviving passengers and their families were on the night of the murders. That meant Connor Cook and his parents, Marty and Christine. When you heard, what'd you think?

[Becky Hill]

My first thought was, thank God Connor was home with me.

[Lester Holt]

Did they question him?

[Becky Hill]

Of course they questioned me.

[Lester Holt]

They questioned you?

[Becky Hill]

I was his witness that he, you know, got home from work and that he never left the house.

[Jim Griffin]

They question every passenger in that boat.

[Lester Holt]

But despite Alex's theory, it appeared no one involved in the boat crash was near Moselle on the night Maggie and Paul were gunned down.

[Michael DeWitt]

They did, you know, got an alibi from everyone. And I think they fairly quickly eliminated the boat crash passengers as possible suspects.

[Lester Holt]

Still, the boat crash and the beach family civil suit against him were never far from Alex's mind. In another interview with SLED agent David Owen three days after the murders, Owen asked Alec to take him through how he spent that fateful day. Alec mentioned the upcoming hearing where he was likely to be forced to turn over financial records.

[Alec Murdoch]

I'm a defendant in a civil case involving my son. I told you about the boat wreck.

[Jim Griffin]

Yes, sir.

[Alec Murdoch]

And there were some motions coming up in that on Thursday. And I was mostly just getting ready for those things and then other junk.

[Lester Holt]

Alec also gave Owen more details about his whereabouts that night after work. He said he came home and rode around the property with Paul. Paul can be heard laughing on this video from that evening as the two watched a tree bed. Then they went home to eat.

[Alec Murdoch]

Maggie had gotten home and, you know, we sat down, we ate supper, which we usually supper together.

[Lester Holt]

After dinner. Alex said Maggie went to check on the Kennels And Paul was outside, too.

[Alec Murdoch]

I stayed in the house.

[Jim Griffin]

Okay.

[Alec Murdoch]

And I was watching tv, looking at my phone, and I actually fell asleep on the couch.

[Lester Holt]

Alec told Owen he left to visit his mom after he woke up a little after 9pm she lived about 20 minutes away. And Alec said he stayed there for a while before he returned home a little after 10pm Paul and Maggie weren't there, he said. So he drove around the property. He found them lifeless at the kennels and dialed 91 1. Once again, he got emotional about the moment he discovered his wife and son. I know it's hard,

[Jim Griffin]

And sitting here talking today is tough.

[Alec Murdoch]

It's just so bad. They did it so. Such a good boy, too. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

[Lester Holt]

After that second interview with Special Agent Owen ended, Alec got more bad news. This time about his father, Randolph, who had been sick. Valerie Borlein is a reporter for the Wall street journal.

[Becky Hill]

On June 10, there's all this incredible activity going on in the background, trying to figure out what happened to Maggie and Paul. And his father, Randolph iii, comes over to kind of huddle up with the lawyers and the family and then goes back home and dies just a couple hours after that interview.

[Lester Holt]

That weekend, the family buried Maggie, Paul and Randolph.

[Becky Hill]

A community gathering to remember a mother and son killed in the low country

[Lester Holt]

on June 25th, two and a half weeks after the murders, Alec and Buster put out a statement. They asked for help to bring justice to Maggie and Paul and offered a $100,000 reward. By all appearances, Alec seemed to be a grieving father and husband. But that summer was about to unravel Alec's world and make so many question if they ever really knew him.

[Chris Wilson]

He asked me to write the checks to pay the fees on the case that would have been payable to his firm directly to him.

[Lester Holt]

Had you written him checks like that before?

[Jim Griffin]

No.

[Lester Holt]

The summer of 2021 was a time of grief and confusion for the Murdoch family. Chris Wilson did his best to be there for Alec, his friend of more than three decades.

[Chris Wilson]

I mean, the guy seemed destroyed to me. Not eating. I didn't seem to be sleeping. Didn't go back to Moselle to spend another night that I know of.

[Lester Holt]

It was quite a contrast from their last happy time together. Alec had celebrated his birthday just one week before the murders. That's Chris giving him a bear hug.

[Chris Wilson]

Everybody was having a good time that night. It was Maggie, Paul, Buster, my wife, my family, a number of their friends. And we had had a good time together.

[Lester Holt]

Alec and Chris were lawyers in neighboring counties and sometimes took on cases together to better serve their clients. But Chris would soon discover his apparently wealthy friend was hiding some secrets. In the spring of 2021, Alec was facing mounting pressure to turn over his financial records to Mark Tinsley for the 2019 boat crash lawsuit. Around that time, Chris says, Alec asked him to do something unusual.

[Chris Wilson]

Alec asked me to write the checks for the fees directly to him instead of to his firm, which I did. In March of 2021. He told me he had authority and approval from his firm then.

[Lester Holt]

You had no reason not to believe him.

[Chris Wilson]

I didn't have any reason not to trust the guy. I mean, we had been dealing with each other, business and professional, for 30 years with no problems whatsoever.

[Lester Holt]

But a few months later, Alec changed his mind.

[Chris Wilson]

He contacted me and said, the fees can't be paid to me this way. They have to be paid directly to my firm. He was supposed to send me $792,000 back, same amount of money that I had paid him.

[Lester Holt]

Chris said Alec only sent back $600,000.

[Chris Wilson]

I had to put $192,000 of my own money into my account to have that money available to pay the way that it should have been paid had it been done the right way.

[Lester Holt]

What Chris did not know was that he wasn't the only one getting suspicious of Alec. Murdoch's law firm had quietly started an internal investigation and found several missing payments related to his cases. On June 7, the CFO confronted Alec about it. That night, Maggie and Paul were killed. After that, no one was asking questions about missing fees. They were doing their best to surround Alec with support. Even Mark Tinsley had paused his civil case in the wake of Maggie and Paul's murders. He thought maybe for good.

[Mark Tinsley]

If Alec is the victim of some vigilante, the boat crash, probably as it relates to him, would have been over.

[Lester Holt]

But then Tinsley noticed another lawsuit related to Alec and had settled. It was the case of his longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who died after a fall at Moselle in 2018. The settlement seemed suspiciously small.

[Mark Tinsley]

The fact that she died her age, how long she lived. Case was worth a lot more than $505,000, which was the only thing reported in terms of the settlement.

[Lester Holt]

He was right. Gloria's family should have gotten over $4 million. Alec and two co conspirators didn't tell the family that and kept most of the money for themselves. And once that case became public, other allegations surfaced about Alex stealing money from clients. For years, the allegations were a bombshell. For the Large group of people who'd circle their wagons around Alec all summer. In September, Chris Wilson heard about those allegations, and he was shocked.

[Chris Wilson]

I told him that I needed to speak to him, and I wanted it to be face to face.

[Lester Holt]

That conversation was tense.

[Chris Wilson]

I looked at him and I said, alec, I need to know what. I'm sure I used a curse word. I said, I need to know what's going on. And he looked at me, started to cry and said, I can't right this second. Walked inside, grabbed some paper towels, came back out, dried his eyes off and said, look, I've been having. I've got a drug addiction. I'm addicted to pain, prescription pills. And it's been going on for 20 years. And I've been stealing from my clients and I've been stealing from my firm. And I've done you wrong. And I've done a number of people wrong.

[Lester Holt]

Wilson left the meeting furious, but also worried about his friend. And he was right to worry, because just a short time later, I'm on

[Chris Wilson]

my ride back to Columbia and I got a phone call and told me that Alec had been shot on the side of the road.

[Lester Holt]

Alec Murdoch dialed 911 again.

[Alec Murdoch]

Okay, what's going on? I started, I got a flat tire and I stopped and somebody stopped to help me. And when I turned my back, they tried to shoot me.

[Lester Holt]

Alec was on the side of this country road when he claimed the shooting happened.

[Alec Murdoch]

Did they actually shoot you or they tried to shoot you? They shot me. I'm bleeding a lot.

[Lester Holt]

When you heard about what had happened on the side of the road there, what was your initial thought?

[Chris Wilson]

Thought he tried to kill himself.

[Lester Holt]

Alec was airlifted to a Georgia hospital with a fractured skull and a minor brain bleed. But one week later, he confessed that he'd made up the whole thing. It was a failed attempt to get life insurance money for his son Buster. He also admitted publicly to that 20 year opioid addiction and promptly entered rehab. Alex seemed to be spinning out of control. He was fired by the law firm, and he was facing charges related to both the botched suicide attempt and the insurance fraud of his longtime housekeeper. During that tumultuous summer, Alex and his lawyer also had an ominous meeting with SLED Special Agent David Owen about the status of the murder investigation.

[Jim Griffin]

Everybody stays in that investigation until we can get them out. And right now, because of the questions that I have that I need explanations

[Lester Holt]

for, I cannot get Alec out.

[Alec Murdoch]

So does that mean that I am a suspect?

[Jim Griffin]

You were still in this with everything

[Lester Holt]

that we've talked about with the family,

[Jim Griffin]

guns, the ammunition,

[Lester Holt]

Nobody else's DNA.

[Jim Griffin]

I have to put my beliefs aside

[Lester Holt]

and go with the facts. In October 2021, Alec was arraigned for some of his alleged financial crimes. The Wilsons no longer recognized the man they considered family.

[Becky Hill]

We didn't want to believe it. More came out, kept coming out. More still coming out, probably. I mean, it's just like, who is this person? We don't know this person. Who was he?

[Lester Holt]

The world was about to find out.

[Creighton Waters]

What say you, Richard Elliot Murdoch? Are you guilty or not guilty of the felonies wherein you stand indicted?

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[Laura Jarrett]

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[Lester Holt]

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[Creighton Waters]

After more than a year of speculation and questions, investigators appear ready to name Alec Murdoch as the killer of his

[Dick Harpootlian]

wife Maggie and son Paul.

[Lester Holt]

On July 14, 2022, it happened. Alec Murdoch was indicted for killing his wife and son. He pleaded not guilty.

[Alec Murdoch]

How shall you be tried by God in my country?

[Lester Holt]

The trial was scheduled surprisingly quickly. On January 23, 2023, the Carleton County Courthouse in tiny Walterboro, South Carolina, felt like the center of the the universe.

[Laura Jarrett]

An invasion of cameras, tents and trucks on every corner of the courthouse.

[Lester Holt]

A nation now hooked on the spectacle was greedy for Every turn, every twist to come. The trial was going to be live streamed, but spectators were out at dawn anyway, lining up for courtroom pass. Food trucks served breakfast and reporters. The place was crawling with them.

[Michael DeWitt]

You will find every major TV network. The New York Times is here, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal.

[Lester Holt]

Alec Murdoch arrived in an unmarked van at the court's back door, straight from the jail cell where he spent more than a year, dressed in business casual, a jacket draped over his handcuffs. Why did you kill your wife and your son? Generations of Murdaughs have tried cases here. In fact, a Murdoch family portrait was taken down on the judge's orders before opening arguments began.

[Creighton Waters]

Listen to that gathering storm. That all came to a head on June 7, 2021, the day the evidence will show he killed Maggie and Paul.

[Lester Holt]

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters, a 24 year veteran of the state Attorney General's office opened with the prosecution's version of how the murders happened.

[Creighton Waters]

The defendant over there, Alec Murdoch, took a 12 shade shotgun and shot him in the shoulder.

[Lester Holt]

Paul Murdoch was shot first, but after

[Creighton Waters]

that another shot went up under his head and did catastrophic damage.

[Lester Holt]

Then Waters told the jury, Alec picked up an AR style rifle and turned it on his wife Maggie.

[Alec Murdoch]

Pow, pow.

[Creighton Waters]

Two shots, abdomen in the leg, and took her down.

[Lester Holt]

I've got multiple gunshots, two victims shot at close range. The scene bloody horrific. And the prosecution said, a pile of evidence pointing to Alec Murdoch as the killer. The motive? He was trying to deflect attention from his storm of troubles.

[Creighton Waters]

You're going to reach the inescapable conclusion that Alec murdered Maggie and Paul. That he was the storm. That the storm was coming for them. That they died as a result.

[Lester Holt]

Alec listened at the defense table, family members behind him, including his remaining son, Buster.

[Dick Harpootlian]

It is our honor to represent Alec Murdoch.

[Lester Holt]

Dick Harpootlian, a former member of the South Carolina Senate with decades of lawyering behind him, was the lead defense attorney.

[Dick Harpootlian]

I submit to you what you have heard from the Attorney General as facts are not. Now stand up. This is Alec Murdoch. And Alec was the loving father of Paul and the loving husband of Maggie.

[Lester Holt]

The facts were on his client's side. He told the jury there was no direct evidence tying Alec to the murders.

[Dick Harpootlian]

He didn't do it. He is presumed innocent.

[Alec Murdoch]

Please be seated.

[Lester Holt]

Next morning, the prosecution called its first witness.

[Simplisafe Announcer]

Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the test.

[Lester Holt]

Sergeant Daniel Green of the Colleton County Sheriff's Office was the first to respond to the murder scene.

[Alec Murdoch]

They are dead, aren't they?

[Lester Holt]

The prosecutor used Green's body cam footage and testimony to examine Alex behavior that night. He was able to answer all the

[Creighton Waters]

questions that I asked him. Was he panicking in any way?

[Lester Holt]

He seemed upset, but I wouldn't say panicky. The prosecutor said Alec immediately tried to divert attention to other suspects.

[Alec Murdoch]

My son was in a boat rig.

[Lester Holt]

Casting suspicion on how he pointed to Paul's boat crash as a possible motive for a revenge killing.

[Creighton Waters]

And who brought up the boat incident?

[Lester Holt]

Mr. Murdoch did.

[Creighton Waters]

And he offered that right out of the gate as a possible explanation for what happened here.

[Jim Griffin]

Is that right?

[Lester Holt]

Yes. Prosecutors went on to attack Alex alibi. Remember, Alec told everyone he had a nap after dinner while Paul and Maggie went down to the kennels. Alec insisted he did not go with them.

[Alec Murdoch]

I was at the house. I left the house and went to my mom's.

[Lester Holt]

But prosecutors unveiled an explosive exhibit that would gut Alex alibi. A video that had been discovered on Paul's cell phone. Recorded at the kennels at 8:44pm When Alec said he was napping at the house. And just minutes before, prosecutors say, Paul and Maggie were shot. Get back.

[Creighton Waters]

Get back.

[Lester Holt]

Jurors were told to focus on the voices, not the pictures. Paul is heard calling to this dog named Cash. Quick, Cash, quick. Then Maggie. Hey, he's got a bird in his mouth. And a third voice.

[Alec Murdoch]

Come here, Cash.

[Lester Holt]

A man's voice saying, come here, Bubba. To a dog. Come here, Bubba. Come here, Cash. Come here, Bubba. Cash. Half a dozen witnesses were asked to identify the voices on that video. The answer was always the same.

[Creighton Waters]

Which voices did you recognize on that video?

[Jim Griffin]

Paul Murdaugh. Maggie Murdo and Alex Murdaugh.

[Lester Holt]

Paul Murdick.

[Alec Murdoch]

Paul.

[Lester Holt]

Maggie Murdick. And alec Murdoch.

[Jim Griffin]

Paul. Ms. Maggie in it. Mr. Ellick.

[Lester Holt]

It was a major blow to Alec's defense, but hardly the last. The prosecution had more surprises up its sleeve.

[Simplisafe Announcer]

There were a significant number of particles

[DSW Announcer]

characteristic of gunshot primer residue on the

[Becky Hill]

inside of this jacket. Yes.

[Creighton Waters]

Disturbing new details coming to light in the Alec Murdoch murder trial.

[Lester Holt]

Alec Murdoch is charged with killing his wife and son.

[Michael DeWitt]

I'm half a century old, and there's never been a case like this in my neck of the woods.

[Lester Holt]

The prosecution had undermined Alec's alibi with that video at the kennels. Now they tried to poke holes in the rest of his story. Remember, Alec said he napped after dinner, then went to visit his mother. Shelly Smith was Alec's mother's caregiver. She was there when he arrived at his mother's house about 9:20 an unusual hour for him to stop by, she said. Like he was fidgety. Like fidgety, yes. Joe Chandler.

[Alec Murdoch]

Did he talk to his mother?

[Lester Holt]

She was asleep. Yes, she was asleep. She said he left after 15 or 20 minutes.

[Alec Murdoch]

Did she even know that he was there?

[Lester Holt]

No. Smith saw Alec again the next week. She testified they had an upsetting conversation where he appeared to be coaching her to tell investigators, if they ask, that he was at his mother's home longer than Smith said he was, his phrase

[Alec Murdoch]

was, I was here, or, you know,

[Lester Holt]

I was here 30 to 40 minutes. Days later, Smith testified, Alec was back at his mother's place this time early in the morning with something balled up in his hands.

[Alec Murdoch]

Like a blue tart?

[Lester Holt]

Like a tart?

[Alec Murdoch]

Blue.

[Jim Griffin]

Blue.

[Alec Murdoch]

Was it vinyl?

[Lester Holt]

It's like a tarp that you put on the car.

[Becky Hill]

You keep your car covered up.

[Alec Murdoch]

What did he do when he walked in?

[Lester Holt]

Went upstairs. Investigators later searched the house and discovered a blue raincoat similar to a tarp balled up in a closet. Agent Megan Fletcher, a trace evidence analyst, examined it for gsr. Gunshot residue.

[Simplisafe Announcer]

There were a significant number of particles

[Lester Holt]

characteristic of gunshot primer residue on the

[Becky Hill]

inside of this jacket? Yes.

[Alec Murdoch]

Your findings be consistent with that item

[Dick Harpootlian]

containing a recently fired fire?

[Lester Holt]

It is possible, yes. Other people in Alex circle also found his behavior after the murders strange. Prosecutors called Maggie's sister, Marion Proctor, to the stand.

[Becky Hill]

I'm Marion Proctor. P R O C T O R.

[Lester Holt]

She told the jury her family was terrified the killer would target Alec and Buster next. But Alec didn't appear worried at all.

[Becky Hill]

I was scared for Alec and Buster. I think everybody was afraid.

[Alec Murdoch]

And.

[Becky Hill]

Alec didn't seem to be afraid.

[Lester Holt]

Marion told the jury Maggie was only at Moselle that night because Alec had asked her to be there. He told her his father was gravely ill. The sisters talked on the phone as Maggie drove. Marion still haunted by that last call.

[Becky Hill]

And I said, well, Maggie, I said, you know, Alec and his dad are super close, and that's probably what you should do. Go be with him if you need to.

[Creighton Waters]

You encouraged her to go to Moselle.

[Becky Hill]

I did.

[Creighton Waters]

Was that the last time you talked to her?

[Becky Hill]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

One apparent weakness in the prosecution's case was the lack of blood evidence. They tried to turn this to their advantage by playing one of Alec's statements to police recorded just hours after the murders.

[Alec Murdoch]

I think I tried to turn Paul over first. You know, I tried to turn him over.

[Lester Holt]

Did you touch Maggie at all?

[Alec Murdoch]

I did. I touched him. Both. I tried to take. I mean, I tried to do it as limited as possible. But I tried to take their pulse on both of them.

[Lester Holt]

So why wasn't he covered in blood? The implication was that he'd washed up after the murders. Carleton county lead detective Laura Rutland was on the scene that night.

[Alec Murdoch]

How would you describe the defendant's hands when you saw him? When you were interviewing him, how would you describe his hands?

[Becky Hill]

They were clean.

[Alec Murdoch]

How would you describe his T shirt?

[Becky Hill]

Clean.

[Alec Murdoch]

How would you describe his shorts?

[Becky Hill]

Clean.

[Alec Murdoch]

Did he look like somebody who just changed his clothes?

[Becky Hill]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

Alex said something else prosecutors seized on in another statement to police three days after the murders.

[Jim Griffin]

Sitting here talking today is tough.

[Alec Murdoch]

It's just so bad. They did it so bad.

[Lester Holt]

The prosecutor asked senior special agent Jeff Croft to repeat the words.

[Creighton Waters]

What did he say?

[Jim Griffin]

It's just so bad. I did him so bad.

[Creighton Waters]

I did him so bad.

[Jim Griffin]

Yes, sir.

[Lester Holt]

Was it a slip of the tongue? An inadvertent confession? On cross examination, Alex defense attorney Jim Griffin played the tape at a slower speed. The question Did Alec say I or they

[Alec Murdoch]

so bad?

[Jim Griffin]

Did you hear they then? No, sir, I did not. You would agree the jury gets to decide what he. What he said on that tape. That's. That's the best evidence. I agree. That they get to hear the tape and make their own mind up as to what he said. Yes, sir.

[Lester Holt]

But no matter how much testimony prosecutors elicited about Alec Murdoch's inconsistencies and lies, they still had to answer the most basic question of all. What could motivate a man to brutally murder the wife and son he seemed to adore? They would throw a Hail Mary to try to make that case.

[Jim Griffin]

They've got a whole lot more evidence about financial misconduct than they have and evidence of guilt in the murder case.

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[Becky Hill]

Good morning.

[Lester Holt]

Prosecutors had punched holes in Alec Murdoch's alibi and cast doubt over many of his statements. But the biggest question of all lingered. Why? Why would Alec Murdoch kill his wife and son? Especially since they seem to be a close knit family Journalist Valerie Borlan and

[Becky Hill]

I think that is a high bar for the prosecution to have to get over to explain. Yes, those things do hold together.

[Lester Holt]

Prosecutors had an explanation. Alec Murdoch was a compulsive thief. They alleged a spinner of scams who stole money from everyone. And because those financial crimes were about to be exposed, they argued he murdered his wife and son to win sympathy and time.

[Becky Hill]

He was eager to keep concealed this long running financial fraud that would ruin his family and his family name.

[Lester Holt]

This issue is before me on the motion of the state. Normally, jurors are not allowed to hear about a defendant's past bad acts. But in this case, prosecutors believe they were crucial to explain motive. They asked the judge for permission to present testimony about Alex alleged financial crimes.

[Jim Griffin]

Your Honor, I would like to respond.

[Lester Holt]

The defense protested loudly.

[Jim Griffin]

They've got a whole lot more evidence about financial misconduct than they have about a murder and evidence of guilt in the murder case.

[Lester Holt]

But in a pivotal decision, Judge Clifton Newman decided for the prosecution. I find that it is so intimately connected with and explanatory of the crime charge that proof of it is essential to complete the story. Prosecutors exhaled and called Jeanne Seckinger to the stand.

[Becky Hill]

I would be CFO coo, Seckinger told the jurors.

[Lester Holt]

The Murdoch family law firm, pmped, operated on trust like a brotherhood, she said. Alec Murdoch was a successful lawyer largely because of his gift of the gab.

[Becky Hill]

He did it through the article, basically.

[Lester Holt]

In May of 2021, Seckinger learned of Chris Wilson's missing check. She discovered other financial irregularities involving Alec, too. She confronted him about it for the first time that month. And then again on June 7.

[Becky Hill]

He looked at me with a pretty dirty look One I'd not seen before and said, what do you need now?

[Lester Holt]

The conversation was interrupted.

[Becky Hill]

He took a phone call, and the call was saying that his father was in the hospital and he was terminal. So at that point, it turned into a personal conversation.

[Lester Holt]

Prosecutors argued that was the day, June 7th. Murdoch, Alec realized his crimes were about to be revealed. And that very night, Maggie and Paul were murdered. As prosecutors demonstrated, Alec got a reprieve from the firm's investigation.

[Creighton Waters]

After the murders happened, did it seem right to you to raise those issues to the defendant?

[Becky Hill]

No. We were concerned about the welfare of Alec, and we were trying to make sure that he was emotionally okay.

[Lester Holt]

Old friend Chris Wilson testified he also stopped asking questions about that missing check after the murders.

[Chris Wilson]

We all talk regularly about keeping an eye on him, about being there for him.

[Lester Holt]

If prosecutors thought evidence of Murdoch's financial crimes would provide a motive, they counted on their last witness to prove opportunity. Special Agent Peter Radovsky. The prosecution's final witness. Sled Special Agent Peter Rudolfski unveiled a digital tour de force. Using cell activity from Alex, Maggie's and Paul's phones and GPS data from Alex Carr, he built a timeline of the night of the murders. It showed Alec had time to kill. And to cover it up, how long

[Creighton Waters]

you've been working on this document? Right here.

[Lester Holt]

Roughly about a year. On this document, Rudofsky's timeline showed that not long after, Maggie and Paul's phones went silent forever. At 8:49pm, about the time prosecutors believed the two were killed, Alex phone, which had been inactive for nearly an hour, suddenly came alive. From 9:02 to 9:06pm it counted his steps.

[Creighton Waters]

How many steps?

[Lester Holt]

283 steps.

[Attorney General Allen Wilson]

70.75 steps per minute.

[Alec Murdoch]

Estimated.

[Creighton Waters]

He's a busy guy right then, wasn't he?

[Lester Holt]

At 9.07pm, Murdoch's suburban left Moselle, heading to his mother's home. As it neared the location where Maggie's phone was later found, the vehicle was

[Creighton Waters]

going 42 miles an hour after passing that location. As the defendant's vehicle start to accelerate, it does.

[Lester Holt]

Then the Suburban sped up to 74 miles an hour, reaching Murdoch's mother's home at 9:22pm it departed at 9:43pm traveling back to Moselle, this time clocking a maximum of 80 miles an hour.

[Creighton Waters]

Would you at night, or did you ever at night on the roads as they existed at the time of June 7, 2021, running code with your lights on, run 80 miles an hour down that road?

[Jim Griffin]

I would not know.

[Alec Murdoch]

We've heard.

[Becky Hill]

We're getting somebody out there to you.

[Lester Holt]

The Suburban arrived at the kennels at 10:05pm Alec called 911 less than 20 seconds later, telling the dispatcher he checked both bodies and neither was breathing. With that, prosecutors rested.

[Creighton Waters]

In the matter of the indictments, the State of South Carolina rests.

[Lester Holt]

In all, they'd called 61 witnesses, elicited hours of damaging testimony. But was it enough? The defense had its own cards to play, starting with insinuations of a botched and biased investigation.

[Dick Harpootlian]

What effort, if any, was made to take fingerprints at the scene?

[Jim Griffin]

None that I observed.

[Lester Holt]

Alec Murdoch's attorneys lead the groundwork for his defense long before the prosecution rested.

[Dick Harpootlian]

Is that preservation of the scene that your standards require?

[Alec Murdoch]

Not. Not exactly.

[Dick Harpootlian]

No, not exactly.

[Lester Holt]

And their cross examinations of state's witnesses, Dick Harpootlean and Jim Griffin criticized the way the murder investigation was handled.

[Dick Harpootlian]

Should the police be walking through the scene?

[Alec Murdoch]

No.

[Dick Harpootlian]

Do we know what other evidence they may have destroyed?

[Alec Murdoch]

I have no idea.

[Dick Harpootlian]

That's right, we don't.

[Jim Griffin]

You've described this investigative circle. So you draw a circle around potential persons of interest and Alex was in that circle. We don't draw a circle around any individual person. We work with the crime scene, which is what we consider the circle. There was a circle and it was only around Alec. He was the only living and breathing person in the circle, is that correct? That is the only person that we could place in the circle at that time.

[Lester Holt]

They accused law enforcement of conducting, conducting a sloppy investigation from the very start.

[Dick Harpootlian]

Do you know whether any of those showers or tubs were in any way swabbed or checked for blood or tissue or any DNA, anything that would indicate somebody had washed off evidence of a crime?

[Lester Holt]

Nothing that I'm aware of. The defense also called its own expert witnesses to make the same point.

[Dick Harpootlian]

If this had been your crime scene, would you have save that sheet and saved his clothes?

[Jim Griffin]

Definitely.

[Dick Harpootlian]

What effort, if any, was made to take fingerprints at the scene?

[Jim Griffin]

None that I observed.

[Lester Holt]

At the end of the day, the defense argued there was no physical evidence tying Alec to the murders of Maggie and Paul. No murder weapon, no blood evidence on him. Sure, Alec had lied about being at the kennels that night, the said, but that wasn't evidence. He killed his wife and son. The defense also called people close to Alec in the family to attest to Alex grief and pain after the killings.

[Creighton Waters]

He was devastated.

[Jim Griffin]

I mean, he was crying.

[Creighton Waters]

He was, I mean, just, just beside himself. He said, look at what they did. Look at what they, they did to them.

[Jim Griffin]

He was Pretty distraught. When I got there, he and I saw each other and he gave me a hug and just started crying and told me they were gone.

[Lester Holt]

Alex older son Buster had sat quietly in court for weeks. When it was his turn on the witness stand, he relived the horror of losing both his mother and brother.

[Creighton Waters]

My dad called me. He asked me if I was sitting down and I was like, yeah. And then he, you know, sounded odd. And then he. Then he told me that my mom and brother had been shot.

[Lester Holt]

Buster said his father didn't act like a man who had just slaughtered his own family.

[Creighton Waters]

His demeanor was. I mean, he was destroyed. He was heartbroken. I walked in the door and saw him and, and gave him a hug and just broken down.

[Jim Griffin]

Could he speak?

[Creighton Waters]

Not really.

[Jim Griffin]

He crying?

[Creighton Waters]

Yes, sir.

[Lester Holt]

Alex's brother, John Marvin also took the stand in his defense.

[Alec Murdoch]

As devastating as it was for me, it was a thousand times worse for him. So I knew as a brother, I needed to be there for him and. And I was. I would have to create a new word to describe how distraught he was.

[Lester Holt]

Pausing to wipe away his own tears, John Marvin told the jury about the morning after the murders.

[Alec Murdoch]

I walked over to the feed room. It had not been cleaned up. I saw blood, I saw brains, I saw pieces of skull. It was terrible. And for some reason I thought it was my. Something that I needed to do for Paul to clean it up. And I can promise you, no mother or father or aunt or uncle should ever have to see and do what I did that day.

[Lester Holt]

And he asserted his brother Alex innocence by revealing a promise he made to his nephew Paul, Alec's son. In that tortured moment at the kennels,

[Alec Murdoch]

I don't know, I just. I loved him. And I promised him that I'd find out who did this to him.

[Jim Griffin]

Have you found out?

[Alec Murdoch]

I have not.

[Lester Holt]

But when the story of Alec Murdoch's defense is ultimately written, it will not dwell on those emotional statements from family and friends or accusations about sloppy crime scenes or even withering cross examinations. It will focus instead on. On the testimony of one man.

[Jim Griffin]

The defendant, Richard Alexander Murdoch wishes to take the stand.

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You know that thing where you get an amazing pair of shoes at a really great price and want to tell everyone about it?

[Alec Murdoch]

Yeah.

[DSW Announcer]

So do we. Here at Designer Shoe Warehouse. We'll give you something to brag about. Like the latest styles from brands you love or the trends everyone's obsessing over

[Becky Hill]

or shoes that make you feel like.

[Lester Holt]

Well, you.

[DSW Announcer]

So go ahead, show off a little. Buying shoes that get you and prices that get your budget. Head to your DSW store or dsw.com today. DSW. Let us surprise you.

[Lester Holt]

As day 23 of the Alec Murdoch trial dawned, there was a lot of buzz around the Collaton County Courthouse. Would he take the stand? The decision was only one man's to make and Alec Murdoch gave his answer.

[Alec Murdoch]

I am going to testify. I want to testify.

[Lester Holt]

Attorney Jim Griffin started by cutting to the chase.

[Jim Griffin]

You take this gun or any gun like it, and shoot your son Paul in the chest in the feed room at your property off Moselle Road.

[Alec Murdoch]

No, I did not.

[Jim Griffin]

Mr. Murty, did you take this gun or any gun like it and blow your son's brains out on June 7th or any day or any time?

[Alec Murdoch]

No, I did not. I didn't shoot my wife or my son anytime, ever.

[Lester Holt]

For three weeks, prosecutors had branded Murdoch a serial liar and believe they caught him perhaps in his biggest lie. With that video placing him at the dog kennels that June night in 2021, Alec and his attorney confronted that head on.

[Jim Griffin]

Is that you on the Kennel video at 8:44pm on June 7, the night Maddie, Maggie and Paul were murdered?

[Alec Murdoch]

It is.

[Jim Griffin]

Were you in fact at the Kentucky Kennels at 8:44pm on the night Maggie and Paul were murdered?

[Alec Murdoch]

I was.

[Jim Griffin]

Did you lie to Sled Agent Owen and Deputy Laura Rutland on the night of June 7th and told them that you stayed at the house after dinner?

[Alec Murdoch]

I did lie to them.

[Jim Griffin]

Did you lie to Agent Owen and Agent Croft on the follow up interview on June 10 that the last time you saw Maggie Paul was at dinner.

[Alec Murdoch]

I did lie to them.

[Lester Holt]

So why did he lie? He said his addiction to painkillers was the reason. Up to 60 pills a day.

[Alec Murdoch]

As my addiction evolved over time,

[Becky Hill]

I

[Alec Murdoch]

would get any situations or circumstances where I would get paranoid thinking and it could be anything that triggered it. It might be a look somebody gave me. It might be a reaction somebody had to something I did. It might be a policeman following me in a car.

[Lester Holt]

He said he distrusted SLED intensely and his drug induced paranoia coupled with the shock from the murders fogged up his mind.

[Alec Murdoch]

On June 7th. I wasn't thinking clearly. I don't think I was capable of reason. And I lied about being down there, and I'm so sorry that I did.

[Jim Griffin]

You continued lying after that night, did you not?

[Alec Murdoch]

But once I lied, I continued to lie. Yes, sir.

[Dick Harpootlian]

Why?

[Alec Murdoch]

You know. Oh, what a tangled web we weave.

[Lester Holt]

Murdaugh went on to give a new account of that afternoon and evening, constantly using the nicknames Mags and Pawpaw for his wife and son and offering details he had never mentioned in his interviews with law enforcement. He described driving around Moselle with Paul on his son's last afternoon.

[Alec Murdoch]

You could not be around Pawpaw. You could not be around him and not have a good time. I love doing anything with Pawpaw. He was an absolute delight.

[Lester Holt]

After dinner that evening, he said Maggie asked him to go out to the kennels where she and Paul were checking on the dogs. And this was his new store. He said he drove a golf cart out there.

[Alec Murdoch]

I'm talking to Maggie for just, you know, a short time before Bubba catches a chicken.

[Lester Holt]

Alec said he tried to pull it away from him.

[Jim Griffin]

Did you get the chicken out of Bubba's mouth?

[Alec Murdoch]

I did. I took the chicken from Bubba and I put it on top of that. What looks to me like a portable dog crate.

[Jim Griffin]

What'd you do after you got the chicken out of Bubba?

[Alec Murdoch]

I got out of there. I left. I went back to the house.

[Jim Griffin]

So you went back to the house, you lay down on the couch and then what happened next?

[Alec Murdoch]

I'm not. I'm not positive. I dozed off for a minute, or didn't doze off for a minute, but I got up off of the couch and I was. I made up my mind I was going to visit my mom.

[Lester Holt]

He described that trip over to his mother house. All routine, he claimed. When he got back to the house about an hour later, he said he didn't see his wife or son anywhere. Inside. So he started searching.

[Jim Griffin]

Now, did you drive down to the kennels in your Suburban?

[Alec Murdoch]

I did.

[Jim Griffin]

What'd you see?

[Alec Murdoch]

Saw what y' all seen pictures of. So bad.

[Jim Griffin]

What did you do when you went up to Paul at some point in time.

[Alec Murdoch]

Paul was so. He was so bad at some point. I know I. I mean, I know I tried to check him for a pulse. I know I tried to turn him over.

[Jim Griffin]

When you say you tried to turn him over.

[Alec Murdoch]

What?

[Jim Griffin]

Why were you trying to turn him over?

[Alec Murdoch]

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know why I tried to turn him over. Me and my boys laying face down. He's done the way he's done. Head was the way his head was. I could see his. Could see his brain laying on the sidewalk. I didn't know what to do.

[Lester Holt]

He said in the weeks after the murder. Murders, he was ready and willing to give the police anything they needed, whether it exonerated him or not. But the bottom line for the defense was this. Murdoch had no motive to kill his wife or son.

[Alec Murdoch]

I would never hurt Maggie. And I would never hurt Paul, ever. Under any circumstances.

[Lester Holt]

But Alec wasn't finished on the stand. Now it was the prosecution's turn to question him.

[Creighton Waters]

And you've been able to lie quickly and easily and convincingly if you think it'll save your skin for well over a decade. Isn't that true?

[Lester Holt]

Alec Murdoch had lied to police for a year and a half. He told them he was not at the dog kennels before his wife and son's murders. Now, he said he was

[Creighton Waters]

all this time later. This is the first time you've ever said that.

[Alec Murdoch]

Yes, sir.

[Lester Holt]

Prosecutor Creighton Waters wanted to underscore that point. This defendant was a liar. And not just about the murders.

[Laura Jarrett]

For.

[Lester Holt]

For years, he'd been using one hand to shake with trusting clients and the other to rip them off.

[Creighton Waters]

You would agree with me that for years you were stealing money from clients?

[Alec Murdoch]

Yes, sir, I agree with that.

[Creighton Waters]

And that you were stealing from your law firm?

[Alec Murdoch]

Yes, sir, I agree with that.

[Creighton Waters]

And that had been going on since at least 2010.

[Alec Murdoch]

I'm not sure the exact date, but it's been going on a long time. I'll agree with that.

[Lester Holt]

This defendant said Waters stole millions of dollars, even from people he claimed to care about.

[Creighton Waters]

What was going through your head and how it went down when you sat there and looked them in the eye and convinced them that you were doing them right while you were lying to them and stealing their money?

[Alec Murdoch]

Yes, sir. I had a lot of confidence conversations with a lot of my clients that I cared about. And so I will tell you that I had conversations with them where I misled them and I lied to them and I took their money.

[Lester Holt]

The only reason Alec stopped lying about stealing money, the prosecutor argued, was because he got caught. Just as the only reason he stopped lying about being at the kennels.

[Chris Wilson]

Get it.

[Lester Holt]

Was the tape.

[Creighton Waters]

You agree that the most important part of your testimony here today is explaining your life for a year and a half, that you were never down at those kennels at 8:44.

[Jim Griffin]

Would you agree with that?

[Alec Murdoch]

I think all of my Testimony is important.

[Lester Holt]

Mr.

[Creighton Waters]

Waters, would you agree that that's an important part of your testimony?

[Alec Murdoch]

Sure.

[Lester Holt]

The prosecutor attacked Murdoch's new version of that night, which went like this. He was at the kennels at 8:44, but only for a minute or so to rescue a chicken in distress. Then he went back to the house.

[Creighton Waters]

So we got you back around 8:49 and you didn't hear anything at all? Did you hear anything at all, Mr. Murdoch, during that time period?

[Alec Murdoch]

No, I did not.

[Lester Holt]

That's possibly because he was napping. By then, Alex said he had missed his wife and son's murders by mere seconds. Missed the sound of multiple gun blasts, likely because he was out cold.

[Creighton Waters]

According to your new story, how long

[Alec Murdoch]

did you dose If. If I dozed? Extremely short time.

[Creighton Waters]

Extremely short time. Because you would agree with me that at 9:02 2 you're up and moving according to the data.

[Alec Murdoch]

I agree that according to that data, my phone's recording steps at whatever time it is. 9:02 something.

[Lester Holt]

So what was he doing? Creighton Waters asked.

[Alec Murdoch]

I know what I wasn't doing, Mr. Waters. And what I wasn't doing is doing anything, as I believe you've implied, that I was cleaning off or washing off or washing off guns or putting guns in a raincoat. And I can promise you that I wasn't doing any of that.

[Lester Holt]

Waters dismissed the latest alibi as the words of a man who routinely lied to escape trouble.

[Creighton Waters]

You've been able to lie quickly and easily and convincingly if you think it'll save your skin for well over a decade. Isn't that true?

[Alec Murdoch]

I have lied well over a decade.

[Creighton Waters]

And you want this jury to believe a story manufactured to fit the evidence that you brought forth just yesterday after hearing this trial's worth of testimony?

[Alec Murdoch]

No, sir, that's not correct.

[Lester Holt]

The trouble Murdoch was trying to save himself from this time, the prosecutor argued, was impending financial Exposure at his law firm. And in the Mallory beach civil case. To avoid that, he seized on a harebrained scheme. Commit a greater crime to blot out the lesser ones, kill two loved ones to attract sympathy instead of scrutiny.

[Creighton Waters]

Mr. Murdoch, are you a family annihilator?

[Alec Murdoch]

A family annihilator? You mean, like, did I shoot my wife and my son?

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Alec Murdoch]

No.

[Lester Holt]

Nothing further. As a former attorney, Alec Murdoch had a knack for reading juries. But all that mattered now was how these jurors were reading him. After 28 days of testimony, the case was theirs to decide. And they did it in less than three hours. Lieutenant will rise. Docket number it fell to the court clerk, Becky Hill, to read the verdict.

[Becky Hill]

Guilty verdict.

[Lester Holt]

Alec Murdoch was sentenced to life in prison. Outside the courthouse, Attorney General Allen Wilson celebrated the state's victory.

[Attorney General Allen Wilson]

It was all worth it because we got to bring justice and be a voice for Maggie and Paul Murdoch and bring justice for the people of South Carolina.

[Lester Holt]

He jubilantly thanked everyone who worked the case.

[Attorney General Allen Wilson]

I want to thank the Carlton County Clerk of court, Becky Hill, and her entire team and their staff, including that

[Lester Holt]

court clerk, Becky Hill.

[Attorney General Allen Wilson]

I call her Becky Booth. That's her nickname. But, Madam Clerk, wherever you are tonight.

[Lester Holt]

Little did he realize how quickly he'd come to regret that.

[Becky Hill]

Shout out, my name is Becky Hill.

[Lester Holt]

A whole new chapter in the Murdoch saga was about to begin.

[Laura Jarrett]

This is stunning. This is a bombshell. None of those are overstatements. This never, ever happens.

[Lester Holt]

It had taken jurors less than three hours to convict Alec Murdoch. They said they didn't come to that decision lightly.

[Jim Griffin]

You have to be very sure in your answer. That's not something that I want to live with if it wasn't right.

[Lester Holt]

Jurors James McDowell, Gwen Jeannerette, and Amy Williams talked to me just after the verdict. There's no doubt in any of your minds that Alec Murdock's the one who did it? I believe he did it. No question.

[Alec Murdoch]

No question.

[Lester Holt]

Becky Hill, the clerk of court who read the verdict, praised the jury's care and diligence when she talked to Dateline after the trial.

[Becky Hill]

This jury was definitely a jury sent by God. They were very persistent. They were prayerful.

[Lester Holt]

She also talked about the jurors at length in a memoir she published about the case just four months after the verdict. That book raised a lot of eyebrows. NBC News legal analyst Laura Jarrett.

[Laura Jarrett]

I could not believe it, that an officer of the court thought that she could cash in on something that she was supposed to take an oath to uphold. Her duty. As soon as I saw it, I knew that this was going to be a fight. This is going to come back to haunt this case for a long time.

[Lester Holt]

By that point, Alec's lawyers were hearing rumors that Hill had not just observed trial proceedings proceedings, but that she'd been an active participant allegedly trying to sway jurors toward a guilty verdict.

[Jim Griffin]

We had some indication that something really amiss went on in the jury room. And so we. We actually got in the car and went to the jurors homes on a Sunday afternoon. Yeah.

[Lester Holt]

Those who agreed to talk said the clerk had never not pressured them. But one of them remembered a specific comment Hill had made about the defense.

[Jim Griffin]

She said that Ms. Hill said, don't let them fool you. I mean, my world stopped. I mean, that is so improper and so unheard of that, I mean, you know, this woman had no reason. I mean, she was very suspicious of us. But once she said that, I mean, it was game on at that point.

[Lester Holt]

What the lawyers were hearing was a potential crime jury tampering. They filed a motion asking for a new trial.

[Creighton Waters]

Good morning.

[Lester Holt]

Please be seated. A special judge heard the defense's motion, and in a highly unusual move, she even brought back the original jurors to testify. Most of them said Becky's behavior did not influence them. Did you hear Becky Hill, clerk of

[Creighton Waters]

court for Collington county, make any comment about this case before your verdict?

[Simplisafe Announcer]

No, ma'.

[Alec Murdoch]

Am.

[Jim Griffin]

I wasn't purview to any of that.

[Lester Holt]

But one of them said she had pressured them.

[Creighton Waters]

Was your verdict influenced in any way by the communications of.

[Lester Holt]

Of the clerk of court in this case?

[Becky Hill]

Yes, ma'. Am.

[Creighton Waters]

And how was it influenced?

[Becky Hill]

To me, it felt like she made it seem like he was already guilty. My name is Becky Hill.

[Laura Jarrett]

That's correct.

[Lester Holt]

Then the clerk herself took the stand. She insisted she'd done nothing wrong at any time.

[Creighton Waters]

Did you tell the jury not to be fooled by evidence presented by Mr. Murdaugh's attorneys?

[Becky Hill]

I did not.

[Lester Holt]

The judge was less than convinced, but did not find that the clerk's actions warranted a new trial.

[Creighton Waters]

I simply do not believe that the authority of our South Carolina Supreme Court requires a new trial. In a very lengthy trial such as this. On the strength of some fleeting and foolish comments by publicity in.

[Lester Holt]

Clerk of court.

[Becky Hill]

Good morning, everyone.

[Lester Holt]

Becky Hill resigned her position and a year later faced a new set of charges. On a separate issue, leaking sealed crime scene photos to the media, she pleaded guilty to perjury and obstruction of justice. She was sentenced to probation and community service.

[Becky Hill]

I am truly sorry, and I do take full responsibility.

[Lester Holt]

But Becky's role in Alex case wasn't over. Late last year, his lawyers raised her behavior with jurors again when they appealed the case all the way to South Carolina's Supreme Court. When that court's ruling came out, it hit like a thundercrack. A shocking twist in a double murder case. Alec Murdoch's murder conviction was thrown out.

[Simplisafe Announcer]

South Carolina's Supreme Court has overturned the

[Becky Hill]

double murder convictions of Alec Murdoch.

[Lester Holt]

The court called Becky Hill's conduct shocking and stated that she placed her fingers on the scales of justice and denied Alec Murdoch a fair trial. What was Alex response when you told him that he was going to be getting a retrial?

[Jim Griffin]

He said, jim, I didn't believe it was going to happen. I'm reading the opinion, and I got to tell you, I still have a hard time believing it.

[Lester Holt]

We reached out to Becky Hill for comment. She did not respond. Mandy Pierce, one of the jurors who first raised the alarm about Becky, talked to NBC News after the decision.

[Becky Hill]

I was okay that, that he got a new trial, because I feel like

[Simplisafe Announcer]

some of the things that happened during

[Becky Hill]

his original murder trial, he didn't get a fair trial.

[Lester Holt]

Juror Amy Williams disagreed. I was like, what? Why?

[Alec Murdoch]

The evidence was overwhelming. He was guilty.

[Lester Holt]

In the middle of all the uproar, Attorney General Allen Wilson vowed to fight on.

[Attorney General Allen Wilson]

All I can promise the people of South Carolina is that we're going to continue to seek justice.

[Lester Holt]

But some wonder what the point of that would be. Murdoch is already serving 40 and 27 year sentences for his financial crimes. He pleaded guilty to those charges in 2023. Mr. Attorney General, to folks who might say, why retry the case? What would you say to those people?

[Attorney General Allen Wilson]

Well, I would ask those people to think about the position they would take if they had members of their family who were brutally murdered and the person who brutally murdered them were spending time in prison for financial crimes. Would you want us to abandon seeking justice for your murdered loved ones?

[Lester Holt]

Legal analysts say a new trial would likely be very different from the first. For one thing, in their decision, the Supreme Court court justices call the trial prosecutor's focus on alec's financial crimes excessive and prejudicial.

[Laura Jarrett]

The justices have made it clear, do not spend as much time as you did in that first trial trying to litigate all of this evidence of him preying upon vulnerable victims. The court is saying you cannot do that the second time around.

[Lester Holt]

A retrial would also give the defense opportunity to introduce new evidence. You've maintained from the beginning that it was someone else who killed Paul and Maggie. Do you have new evidence to back that up?

[Jim Griffin]

We've been given a lot of different leads and information. We got a call from someone who says that he knows where the guns were disposed of and by any and by who. Yeah, and we've been given other information from people, private investigators, and they've come up with some really solid information.

[Lester Holt]

The attorneys say they and their client are ready for a new fight. Would he consider a plea deal? No. That's a quick no.

[Jim Griffin]

No.

[Lester Holt]

Why not?

[Dick Harpootlian]

Because he didn't do it. How about that? Okay.

[Lester Holt]

The state is ready too.

[Attorney General Allen Wilson]

All options are on the table. But as of right now, today, at the time of this interview, we intend to go back to trial on this case.

[Lester Holt]

The attorney general told us his office may even seek the death penalty this time. So it seems like everyone involved in the Murdoch case is destined to do it all over again. Another weeks long trial in the low country with the whole nation tuning in. Another examination into the troubled life of Alec Murdoch. And another jury trying to find justice at last for Maggie and Paul.

[Dick Harpootlian]

That's all for now.

[Lester Holt]

I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.

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