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BOMBSHELL OPENS in Alex Murdaugh Murder Trial · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace we have left off. Finally,
0:17
Speaker 1: the double murder case against legal Air Alex and Murdog
0:22
Speaker 1: is off the ground. Sensational opening statements go down in
0:27
Speaker 1: a South Carolina courtroom. I mean, see Grace, this is
0:30
Speaker 1: Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at
0:32
Speaker 1: Fox Nation and Serious XM one eleven. First of all,
0:36
Speaker 1: listen to this. Prosecutors say forensics will prove Murdoch's guilt
0:41
Speaker 1: after a perfect storm of circumstances came to a head.
0:44
Speaker 1: The state contends Maggie was killed with a weapon owned
0:47
Speaker 1: by the family that was never recovered, and that a
0:50
Speaker 1: cell phone video captured at the murdency just before the
0:54
Speaker 1: time of deaths puts Alec at the scene, contradicting his
0:58
Speaker 1: alibi that he only reached when he discovered the bodies,
1:02
Speaker 1: and he was there just missed Laggie and Paul just
1:06
Speaker 1: minutes before their cell phones go silent forever. The defense
1:13
Speaker 1: argues there's no forensic evidence to tie Murdoch to the murders,
1:17
Speaker 1: no fingerprints, eyewitnesses, murder weapons, and despite the gruesome scene,
1:22
Speaker 1: no blood on Alec. When police arrive, he would be
1:25
Speaker 1: covered in blood from d to foot. The defense argues
1:31
Speaker 1: a video taken earlier in the evening shows Paul and
1:34
Speaker 1: Alec enjoying time together, and that police pinned Alec as
1:37
Speaker 1: a suspect before investigating, even suggesting the crime may have
1:41
Speaker 1: been the work of two people because two different weapons
1:45
Speaker 1: were used. They have pounded that square, pegging the round hole,
1:48
Speaker 1: and you're gonna hear about it. They've ignored some witnesses. Wow,
1:52
Speaker 1: the defense claiming the state ignored witnesses. Well, little known fact.
1:57
Speaker 1: The defense has subpoena power just like this. If they
2:00
Speaker 1: want a witness brought in, all they have to do
2:03
Speaker 1: is go hand them a piece of paper and it's done.
2:06
Speaker 1: I love it when the defense claims the state missed
2:09
Speaker 1: some witnesses that could exonerate the defendant. Guys, you were
2:13
Speaker 1: just hearing from our friends at NBC and hearing courtroom
2:16
Speaker 1: audio in the background. Well, we are off to the races.
2:20
Speaker 1: What happened and what's happening right now in court? Joining
2:24
Speaker 1: me an all star panel. But first to chief reporter
2:28
Speaker 1: for dailymail dot Com, our friend Jen Smith. Jen, tell
2:32
Speaker 1: me everything, don't leave anything out. I mean, what a
2:35
Speaker 1: way to kick off this trial. These opening statements really
2:39
Speaker 1: were a sensational we heard from the prosecutor. He calls
2:42
Speaker 1: Alec Murdo a storm that was heading towards his family,
2:46
Speaker 1: really painting a picture of this inescapable doom that was
2:50
Speaker 1: facing the victims, Maggie and Paul. Now we also heard
2:53
Speaker 1: some very strong words from the defense, a full throated
2:57
Speaker 1: defense by Murdoc's family and his attorney. He had his
3:01
Speaker 1: brothers in the courtroom supporting him. Another person who was
3:04
Speaker 1: in the courtroom, Nancy, was Buster Murdock, his only surviving son.
3:09
Speaker 1: We don't know whether or not he's supporting his father
3:12
Speaker 1: or if he's going to testify against him. Now, what
3:15
Speaker 1: the defense is claiming is not so much about what
3:18
Speaker 1: the evidence does show. It's about what evidence is lacking here.
3:23
Speaker 1: So we heard at the top of the show from
3:25
Speaker 1: those clips that you played, there's no murder weapon. Prosecution
3:28
Speaker 1: says that they haven't been able to find it. Defense
3:31
Speaker 1: is trying to use this to their advantage. The other
3:34
Speaker 1: thing that they're claiming is that there isn't a clear
3:36
Speaker 1: motive for Alex Murdo to commit these crimes. They say
3:40
Speaker 1: that he loved his wife and that he loved his son,
3:42
Speaker 1: and that they can prove it, and then lastly lack
3:46
Speaker 1: of forensic evidence. They say that he would have been
3:49
Speaker 1: drenched in blood had he been the one to pull
3:51
Speaker 1: the trigger at such close range. So it was just
3:54
Speaker 1: the beginning. But they're really laying out where this trial's
3:56
Speaker 1: going to go, and the best is yet to come. Clearly,
3:59
Speaker 1: opening statements are akin to a roadmap telling the jurars
4:04
Speaker 1: where the state and the defense are headed. Now, it's
4:08
Speaker 1: my understanding that the one Murdi family member remaining of
4:13
Speaker 1: that nuclear family, buster Murdike, is in court and we'll
4:16
Speaker 1: be a witness. And it's my understanding that he was
4:19
Speaker 1: on the state's witness list, which means he will be
4:22
Speaker 1: a witness for the state. That is a very very
4:25
Speaker 1: tricky maneuver because if he is still siding with his father,
4:30
Speaker 1: it could be a disaster to put him on the
4:33
Speaker 1: stand for the state. But you know what, sometimes you
4:37
Speaker 1: got to go to hell to get the witness to
4:40
Speaker 1: put the devil in jail. Guys, take a listen. Now,
4:44
Speaker 1: as the chief prosecutor Creighton Waters here he is in
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Speaker 1: his own words in opening argument on the evening of Juice,
4:59
Speaker 1: the defendants property off Mozelle Road and Colleton County, his
5:04
Speaker 1: son Paul Murdoch, just standing in a small feet room
5:08
Speaker 1: and some kennels they had on the property about eight
5:13
Speaker 1: fifty pm. And the defendant over there, Alec Murdoch, took
5:16
Speaker 1: a twelve shade shotgun and shot him and the shoulder
5:21
Speaker 1: and the chest and the shoulder with buckshot, and the
5:27
Speaker 1: evidence was going to show him amli into one shot.
5:29
Speaker 1: He could have survived that, but after that another shot
5:31
Speaker 1: went up under his head and did catastrophic damage to
5:37
Speaker 1: his brain in his head. I could just see that
5:40
Speaker 1: prosecutor pointing over at Alex and Murdog telling the jury
5:46
Speaker 1: that is who murdered his own wife and son. A
5:51
Speaker 1: lot going down in that courtroom. We're going to go
5:54
Speaker 1: back in and hear more of the opening statements, but
5:57
Speaker 1: almost immediately let me go. Cheryl McCollum is joining me.
6:01
Speaker 1: Forensic expert, founder of the Cold Case Research Institute, star
6:05
Speaker 1: of a new hit series, Zone seven podcast. You can
6:10
Speaker 1: find her at Coldcase crimes dot org. Cheryl, almost at
6:13
Speaker 1: the beginning, remember we knew at the very get go
6:18
Speaker 1: that one of the murder weapons was a Murdog owned gun.
6:24
Speaker 1: And now they didn't say they had the gun, but
6:27
Speaker 1: they knew it was a Murdog owned gun, and I thought, wow,
6:31
Speaker 1: how do they know that? Now it's all made very clear,
6:34
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum, it's all made very clear. And Nancy this,
6:38
Speaker 1: I'm telling you you mentioned a roadmap. This whole thing
6:43
Speaker 1: is incredible to me when you look at what they're outlining.
6:47
Speaker 1: And she already mentioned the reporter mentioned what's not there.
6:50
Speaker 1: Let's talk about what's they're not there. Well, hold on
6:53
Speaker 1: just a minute. Don't make me Q and A with myself.
6:56
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum, I'm leading you right up to the very beginning.
7:00
Speaker 1: Good gravy woman, talk about it. I guess I'll have
7:03
Speaker 1: to cross examin you, okay, Cheryl McCollum. Isn't it true
7:07
Speaker 1: that at the beginning of the investigation we were told
7:11
Speaker 1: that one of the murder weapons was a Murdoch family weapon?
7:14
Speaker 1: And now isn't it true, Cheryl McCollum. We know cops
7:19
Speaker 1: to you as a Murdoch family weapon because cartridges shells
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Speaker 1: from one of the murder weapons were found to match
7:27
Speaker 1: ballistically to other cartridges found throughout the property as target practice.
7:33
Speaker 1: They matched identically. That is how we know. Isn't that true, Cheryl,
7:38
Speaker 1: is absolutely true, that gravy. I might as well just
7:40
Speaker 1: go back in the courtroom. We tried cases for Pete's sake.
7:43
Speaker 1: If I've got a cross examine, you go ahead. But
7:46
Speaker 1: I'm desperate to mention the coat. So a week later,
7:50
Speaker 1: he's got this raincoat that he takes to his parents' house.
7:54
Speaker 1: Investigators find it. There's gunshot residue all over it. So
8:00
Speaker 1: it's not at the murder scene, but it's at mom
8:02
Speaker 1: and daddy's house that he's had with him the whole time.
8:05
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, you are so right. Not just a
8:10
Speaker 1: raincoat but a tark, you know what. Jim Smith, chief reporter,
8:15
Speaker 1: Daily Mail, listen to this and I want to hear
8:17
Speaker 1: what you have to say about it. Cheryl, you're right,
8:20
Speaker 1: and you know before I play dot to Bethany Marshall,
8:22
Speaker 1: percolate on this for a moment. Why does everybody always
8:26
Speaker 1: run home to mommy and hide under the bed? Guys,
8:29
Speaker 1: take a listen hour cut one five eight again, this
8:33
Speaker 1: is the chief prosecutor. Listen. Also going to hear evidence
8:36
Speaker 1: that about a week after the murders, mister ALC Murdoch's
8:41
Speaker 1: father had died. Mister Randolph, and about a week after
8:45
Speaker 1: the murders, he shows up early in the morning at
8:50
Speaker 1: his parents' home where his mother still is in late
8:53
Speaker 1: stage Alzheimer's. On Almida and Hampton, it's uncharacteristic for him
8:58
Speaker 1: to show up early on characters, for him to show
9:00
Speaker 1: up at all like that. And he comes in, he's
9:03
Speaker 1: currying something in a blue tarp and he takes it upstairs,
9:08
Speaker 1: and eventually law enforcement finds out about that, and they
9:12
Speaker 1: go upstairs and they find upstairs, they find they waded
9:16
Speaker 1: up a very very large raincoat and a blue color
9:19
Speaker 1: could look like a tart. And you're gonna hear evidence
9:22
Speaker 1: that it was coated with gunshot residue on the inside.
9:27
Speaker 1: Right row, Somebody hits the murder weapon inside oh raincoat. Oh,
9:36
Speaker 1: and then hides it at mommie's house. Okay, Jan Smith's
9:40
Speaker 1: chief of Order, dailymail dot Com, what about that? Yeah,
9:44
Speaker 1: I mean that's a hugely problematic detail for the defense here.
9:48
Speaker 1: They were kind of resting on this idea that there's
9:50
Speaker 1: no physical evidence that could time to the crime theme,
9:53
Speaker 1: and then we have this at gunshot residue inside this raincoat.
9:56
Speaker 1: Hugely problematic. I also want to point out more about
10:00
Speaker 1: his mother. So she's an elderly woman, and we've just
10:03
Speaker 1: found out that she is on her deathbed, she has Alzheimer's.
10:07
Speaker 1: Not only was her house the place where they found
10:10
Speaker 1: this coat, she is also the person that Alex Murdock
10:13
Speaker 1: claimed was her alibi. Now this hasn't come out in
10:16
Speaker 1: court yet, at least yesterday, it wasn't raised in opening statements.
10:20
Speaker 1: But back in November, the defense filed records with the
10:23
Speaker 1: court which said he was visiting his elderly mother at
10:27
Speaker 1: the time of the murders. Now, clearly she is not
10:29
Speaker 1: going to be able to be called as a witness.
10:32
Speaker 1: She is old, she has failed, she's no longer of
10:35
Speaker 1: sound mind. He maybe thinks that his mum might be
10:38
Speaker 1: his way out of this, or he definitely did at
10:40
Speaker 1: one time. But this is a problematic detail for the
10:44
Speaker 1: defense clearly. Nancy, Well, you know, Jesse Smith chefie Porter
10:48
Speaker 1: dailymail dot com, you just triggered a very very important detail.
10:54
Speaker 1: If the mother, Alex Mordog's mother is so old and
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Speaker 1: frail and is in light stage Alzheimer's, God bless her,
11:03
Speaker 1: who's the witness that places him coming into her home
11:07
Speaker 1: with the blue tarp? That turns out to be a
11:10
Speaker 1: raincoat covered in gunshot residue on the inside, waded up
11:15
Speaker 1: and hit it hidden. Who is the witness? We're gonna
11:18
Speaker 1: find out? Time stories with Nancy Grace to you. Doctor
11:36
Speaker 1: Bethany Marshall's psycho Alice joining us out of la You
11:39
Speaker 1: can find her at death Doctor Bethany Marshall dot com,
11:42
Speaker 1: star Bling Empire on Netflix, Doctor Bethany, why does everybody
11:48
Speaker 1: run home to mommy? There he's putting murder evidence under
11:52
Speaker 1: mommy's bed for Pete's sake? Oh, Nanthy, You know, our
11:55
Speaker 1: mothers often think we've never done anything wrong. They colluded
11:59
Speaker 1: with us, the tect us. They buffer our world against
12:02
Speaker 1: danger and insult. And I think these sociopaths have gotten
12:07
Speaker 1: their mothers to collude with them for so long that
12:11
Speaker 1: they just think the pattern is going to continue. You know,
12:13
Speaker 1: Alex Murdoch, he came from I keep saying intergenerational wealth,
12:18
Speaker 1: intergenerational power. He has to have gotten that entire family
12:23
Speaker 1: system to overlook and to collude with him. I mean,
12:27
Speaker 1: he has this seventeen hundred acre hunting estate. This is
12:31
Speaker 1: not even his private home. Pauld On. Let me just
12:34
Speaker 1: add something right there, anybody that knows about it, jump in.
12:38
Speaker 1: They've got this so called hunting lodge that doctor Bathley
12:42
Speaker 1: just pointed out, seventeen hundred acres. They've got a home somewhere,
12:46
Speaker 1: They've got a beach house somewhere. I don't know what
12:51
Speaker 1: all they've got. I'm not coming from place of jealousy,
12:54
Speaker 1: because you know what, every rich person I've ever known
12:57
Speaker 1: is miserable. All they think about is how to hold
13:01
Speaker 1: on to their money or get some more. And they
13:04
Speaker 1: always say somebody's trying to get their money. It's like
13:06
Speaker 1: a dragon sitting on a gold treasure. It's a horrible
13:12
Speaker 1: way to live. So doctor Bethany, you're right. It's not
13:15
Speaker 1: just the hunting lodge, but the home, the beach hown,
13:19
Speaker 1: the cars, the bank accounts, the blood, the blood, the minks,
13:22
Speaker 1: the jewels. Whoa. It's actually giving me a little bit
13:25
Speaker 1: of a headache. You know, this guy's not smart enough
13:27
Speaker 1: to have made all that money. He had to steal it. No,
13:30
Speaker 1: he got it from granddaddy and daddy and mommy who
13:34
Speaker 1: handle it from his law firm. Let's not forget these
13:37
Speaker 1: embezzlement charges. You're right, You and Bethany are right. Go ahead,
13:40
Speaker 1: Jen Smith, and I want to make clear that even
13:42
Speaker 1: though he's facing nearly a hundred financial crimes of stealing, siphoning, embezzling,
13:50
Speaker 1: outright taking money from his clients and his law firm,
13:53
Speaker 1: the jury is not going to hear about that because
13:56
Speaker 1: that would prejudice them under the law, unless and until
14:00
Speaker 1: the defense opens the door they bring it up somehow
14:04
Speaker 1: in the state can bring it in, or unless somehow
14:07
Speaker 1: the state is going to think of a way to
14:09
Speaker 1: use it as motive evidence without getting a darned reversal.
14:13
Speaker 1: That's going to be a very tough line to toe.
14:17
Speaker 1: Jan Smith and doctor Bethany, you're right, go ahead, doctor Bethany. Well,
14:21
Speaker 1: so what I was saying is that this guy is
14:24
Speaker 1: so unintelligent. He shoots his own wife, allegedly shoots his
14:28
Speaker 1: own wife and child in his own hunting lodge with
14:32
Speaker 1: his own guy. He uses his mother, who has Alzheimer's
14:37
Speaker 1: as as like an alibi. You know, Nancy. The research
14:41
Speaker 1: shows there's two types of sociopath. There's the organized and
14:44
Speaker 1: the disorganized. The organized is like the president of Enron.
14:48
Speaker 1: They amass more and more and more, and they're very
14:51
Speaker 1: slick at it. They're like the burning maidoffs of this world.
14:55
Speaker 1: And then there's the disorganized. They're messy. Everything goes wrong.
14:59
Speaker 1: It's like everything you do is like stepping into a
15:02
Speaker 1: pile of you know, you know what's c r ap?
15:05
Speaker 1: Did you just spell crap? I haven't too. I didn't
15:10
Speaker 1: want to. I don't want the children say crap either, Okay,
15:14
Speaker 1: and I only say it in secret. Go ahead. So
15:16
Speaker 1: he's the disorganized subtype. So everything is messy. So he
15:22
Speaker 1: couldn't have amassed all this wealth, He couldn't have gone
15:25
Speaker 1: gotten all this far. You know what all of that
15:27
Speaker 1: psycho talk means to me? And you say, disorganized killer
15:33
Speaker 1: means one thing. What he's leading leaving me loads of
15:37
Speaker 1: evidence because he is a textbook definition of disorganized killer.
15:42
Speaker 1: Yes he is. You know. Co Barger in Idaho tried
15:46
Speaker 1: his best to cover his tracks. Murdock did a much
15:50
Speaker 1: worse job. Another thing that happens in opening statements is
15:53
Speaker 1: we find out exactly how the state believes the double
15:58
Speaker 1: murder way down. I mean, I just thinking about not
16:01
Speaker 1: only murdering your wife who stood by you all these years,
16:05
Speaker 1: with your bs, your drug addiction, your money problems. You're
16:10
Speaker 1: showing out in public, your alcohol and your son. I mean,
16:18
Speaker 1: I just keep thinking and my husband and my son
16:20
Speaker 1: and my daughter, the thought of killing them, I just
16:25
Speaker 1: push it out of my mind. It's so awful. But
16:28
Speaker 1: the state is saying that's exactly what happened here, and
16:31
Speaker 1: this is how they say it went down. Take a
16:32
Speaker 1: listen hour cut one five one straight from the courtroom.
16:37
Speaker 1: Just moments later, he picked up a three hundred blackout,
16:42
Speaker 1: which is a type of ammunition, but an AAR style rifle.
16:45
Speaker 1: And the evidence is going to show that the family
16:47
Speaker 1: had multiple weapons throughout the property. Picked up that three
16:51
Speaker 1: hundred blackout rifle an open fire on his wife, Maggie
16:56
Speaker 1: just feet away near some shots that used to be
17:00
Speaker 1: camer how two shots adamant and the lette and took
17:04
Speaker 1: her down. And after that there were additional shots, including
17:09
Speaker 1: two shots to the head that again did catastrophic damage,
17:13
Speaker 1: killed her instantly, joining me a special guest. V Brandt,
17:19
Speaker 1: formerly US Marshall Service International Branch Chief, investigated with DJ
17:25
Speaker 1: author of Solo Shot Curse of the Bluestone that's on
17:30
Speaker 1: Amazon starting now, also author of Flying Solo. I could
17:35
Speaker 1: go on and on and on EARV Brandt, and they're
17:39
Speaker 1: talking about Maggie like she's a deer or some sort
17:47
Speaker 1: of animal prey. He shot at her, he shot her
17:51
Speaker 1: in the leg, he took her down, and then he
17:53
Speaker 1: went over to her and finished it off. It's just
17:57
Speaker 1: so brutal. So it is Nancy, and it's a highly
18:04
Speaker 1: highly emotional case. And when you when the prosecutor lays
18:12
Speaker 1: it out, how dispassionate it was take those shots, to
18:18
Speaker 1: take the initial shots that will bring somebody down, then
18:22
Speaker 1: to move in and take careful aim for kill shots
18:28
Speaker 1: to the head. It's hard to accept that it's done
18:32
Speaker 1: by by a loved one, but in most cases that's
18:36
Speaker 1: exactly how it's done. That's when someone is murdered, and
18:43
Speaker 1: you know this is what as well as your listeners.
18:47
Speaker 1: The first person they look at is the spouse. And
18:50
Speaker 1: there's no doubt, I mean no doubt, guilty, guilty guilty.
18:57
Speaker 1: Lawyers and cops make the worst criminals. You would think
19:02
Speaker 1: they make the best criminals. They make the worst criminals.
19:06
Speaker 1: This guy isn't good at anything. He's not good at fraud,
19:10
Speaker 1: he's not good at tax evasion. He's not good at murder.
19:13
Speaker 1: He can't stage his own murder. He's terrible at it.
19:18
Speaker 1: It's he is going to be convicted. There's no doubt.
19:22
Speaker 1: And I gotta tell you, guys, something Erv brand knows
19:26
Speaker 1: what he's talking about. What every member on our panel,
19:29
Speaker 1: they're all so experienced. Is that doctor Bethy jumping in
19:35
Speaker 1: hold on, I'm gonna lose my thought. You know, I
19:37
Speaker 1: just have the attigious man of a fruit fla hold on.
19:41
Speaker 1: Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author of Red Flags. Wendy Patrick
19:45
Speaker 1: PhD dot com. She's a star of Today with doctor
19:49
Speaker 1: Wendy KCBQ San Diego. Wendy. As erv Brandt was talking,
19:55
Speaker 1: I was thinking about a spouse. Now I little I know,
19:58
Speaker 1: a lot of people get angry and things happened, you
20:00
Speaker 1: get a divorce. But I was just thinking about David,
20:03
Speaker 1: my husband, who has been with me through thick and thin,
20:08
Speaker 1: really ever since my fancy Keith was murdered. He was
20:11
Speaker 1: there when I gave birth, when Lucy and I almost died.
20:15
Speaker 1: He was saved me from drowning once. He helps me
20:21
Speaker 1: take care of my mother. He raises our children. I
20:25
Speaker 1: think about our children and how that's the thing I
20:28
Speaker 1: look forward to most in life, and just the thought
20:33
Speaker 1: of raising a gun to them the way Brandt described it,
20:37
Speaker 1: like a kill shot on your spouse has been through
20:42
Speaker 1: everything with you and stood with you, shoulder to shoulder,
20:46
Speaker 1: through thick and thin. It's really hard to take in. Wendy, Yeah,
20:50
Speaker 1: you know, and Nancy, you brought up one of the
20:52
Speaker 1: points I was going to make. It's also going to
20:54
Speaker 1: be hard for some of those jurors. You have a
20:56
Speaker 1: wonderful husband. Some of those jurors might also have absolutely
21:00
Speaker 1: wonderful spouses, and they are so disconnected from the idea
21:04
Speaker 1: to begin with that right from the beginning, even though
21:07
Speaker 1: they've heard the prosecutors opening. What they're going to have
21:09
Speaker 1: to do through motives, through other things that they're going
21:12
Speaker 1: to bring it through the evidence is when those jurors
21:14
Speaker 1: over from the absolute disbelief that something like this could
21:18
Speaker 1: ever happen, especially when you're looking at a family that
21:22
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily have any outward signs of there being any problems.
21:27
Speaker 1: That out of course, will have to be developed during
21:29
Speaker 1: the course of the trial. But it's that mindset you
21:32
Speaker 1: just pointed out that's going to be difficult to overcome.
21:35
Speaker 1: Not that they can't be done, but they're going to
21:36
Speaker 1: have to do it through the evidence. Now you know
21:38
Speaker 1: I heard, oh go ahead, doctor Bethany. I know you
21:41
Speaker 1: were jumping in with something, and I'm going to circle
21:43
Speaker 1: back to what Whendy just say, go ahead. What I
21:45
Speaker 1: think is so heinous is that he killed them as
21:48
Speaker 1: a distraction from his other crimes, from being caught. Let's
21:52
Speaker 1: not forget that in most cases of domestic homicide, you
21:55
Speaker 1: have a very sick, disturbed spouse who's just a goished
22:00
Speaker 1: with jealousy or envy or they want to control their spouse.
22:03
Speaker 1: They want to like crush them under their heel. They
22:07
Speaker 1: envy their goodness and everything they're accomplishing in this world.
22:10
Speaker 1: So so you kind of take a deep dive, or
22:13
Speaker 1: at least I do, into the homicidal spouse's motivation for killing.
22:19
Speaker 1: And in this case, he kills as a distraction. That's
22:23
Speaker 1: what's heinous, not just that the murder, but the motivation
22:27
Speaker 1: I think is particularly cruel. There's so many other distractions
22:32
Speaker 1: on the space of this planet that he could have
22:34
Speaker 1: come up with. But that I mean, but you have
22:38
Speaker 1: to hold that in the back of our minds. To
22:40
Speaker 1: follow up on what Wendy, Bethany, Cheryl everyone is mentioned.
22:46
Speaker 1: The defense is fighting back, but I want you to
22:50
Speaker 1: listen to something they're saying in our cut one seven two.
22:54
Speaker 1: This is Aarpotian, former prosecutor, now defense lawyer. You're not
22:58
Speaker 1: going to hear a same goal of witness say that
23:02
Speaker 1: their relationship, Maggie and Alex's relationship, or anything other than loving.
23:08
Speaker 1: You can hear about how they went to a baseball
23:10
Speaker 1: game the weekend before. You can hear about their relationship.
23:14
Speaker 1: If you're going to see texts and emails indicating a
23:19
Speaker 1: loving relationship, Paul the apple of his eye, You're going
23:25
Speaker 1: to see a video somewhere between seven thirty eight o'clock
23:28
Speaker 1: the night of the murders, Paul and Alex riding around
23:33
Speaker 1: looking as some trees they planted. It's a snapchat faults
23:38
Speaker 1: into other people because the trees were not planted very well.
23:41
Speaker 1: They canna le ring over, they're laughing, they're having a
23:47
Speaker 1: good time. That would be about an hour before the
23:52
Speaker 1: Attorney General says he sladdered him. When I say he
23:55
Speaker 1: sladdered them, when they were swaddered, and no question, alt
23:58
Speaker 1: and how much that helps. The defense keeps saying they
24:00
Speaker 1: were slaughtered, no question, but correct me if I'm wrong.
24:04
Speaker 1: Everybody but wasn't Maggie seeing a divorce lawyer? And he's
24:09
Speaker 1: talking about that baseball game, and a witness says, at
24:13
Speaker 1: that baseball game, Harputleian is talking about Matt Murda goes
24:19
Speaker 1: and gets some popcorn, a bag of popcorn, and comes
24:22
Speaker 1: back into the box or wherever they're sitting and throws it,
24:25
Speaker 1: just throws it. Wow at Maggie. I tell you what,
24:28
Speaker 1: it'd be a cold day. And h E double l
24:30
Speaker 1: that David Lynch came up and threw a bag of
24:33
Speaker 1: popcorn at me, especially in front of people to witness
24:35
Speaker 1: my humiliation. That is not a loving marriage. Can anybody
24:41
Speaker 1: in this room with that? Is that? Okay? So I
24:43
Speaker 1: don't throw popcorn at you? Ah? And that sound in public? What?
24:47
Speaker 1: Who jump in? Thought free? So that's what you've got
24:52
Speaker 1: to remember. The locals down there, they know that this
24:56
Speaker 1: was not a happy marriage. Remember that Maggie texted her
25:00
Speaker 1: rand that something's up. She doesn't trust Alex going to
25:04
Speaker 1: Monselle that night. Oooh good, good point. Go ahead. Doctor Dupree.
25:08
Speaker 1: By the way, doctor Dupree, doctor Lee Dupree is doctor
25:12
Speaker 1: Michelle Dupree is joining us from South Carolina. She went
25:17
Speaker 1: with me side by side through a lot of this
25:20
Speaker 1: evidence there in South Carolina, and she's right. Everywhere I went,
25:25
Speaker 1: doctor Dupree, people will go, oh, yeah, Maggie's getting a divorce.
25:29
Speaker 1: They even knew it down at the Jimmy John sandwich shop.
25:32
Speaker 1: Everybody knew it. So I don'tber what Poulian is talking about,
25:35
Speaker 1: doctor dupre Hey, by the way, it's a forensic pathologist,
25:39
Speaker 1: medical examiner, former detective, and author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide.
25:44
Speaker 1: Go ahead, doctor Dupris. And it's not just Maggie. But
25:47
Speaker 1: remember that Paul might have been the apple of his eye,
25:50
Speaker 1: but he was a screw up from the very beginning.
25:52
Speaker 1: Sorry Paul, but it's true. Yeah, Paul Murdog was the
25:56
Speaker 1: son that got roaring drunk. Didn't he eat and have
26:00
Speaker 1: an eliots name? As friends would call him when he
26:03
Speaker 1: was so drunk? Another was it Chucky? What Jimmy? It
26:06
Speaker 1: was Timmy? Jimmy, Jimmy would take over evil Timmy and
26:10
Speaker 1: his whole body language changed. Yes. And he had just
26:15
Speaker 1: crashed Alex Murdog's speedboat into some pilings. I think it
26:21
Speaker 1: was into pilings. I don't think he hit the bridge.
26:24
Speaker 1: He hit pilings and Mallory Beach, nineteen years old, who
26:29
Speaker 1: was scared to death during all this, flies off the boat,
26:34
Speaker 1: dies on impact, and her body floats in the water
26:36
Speaker 1: for days and days and days. I talked to some
26:39
Speaker 1: of the rescue guys that were part of finding her body,
26:42
Speaker 1: and they say that little girl's body's bloated being out
26:45
Speaker 1: in the water. So I don't know how much Paul
26:49
Speaker 1: Murderog was the apple of his eye anymore, because Jim
26:53
Speaker 1: Smith delimail dot com. Isn't it true that part of
26:57
Speaker 1: the alleged motive for murder is the lawsuit regarding Malory
27:03
Speaker 1: Beach's death and Paul Lordog's coordinate was looming. Yeah, that
27:09
Speaker 1: is right. The prosecution hasn't nailed down specifically which financial
27:14
Speaker 1: stress component is what they believe caused Alex Murdot to
27:19
Speaker 1: actually do this, But you know there are a few
27:23
Speaker 1: There's this laws that, like you mentioned, Malory Beach's family
27:25
Speaker 1: was doing the Murdock family for wrongful death. Now if
27:30
Speaker 1: you hear that with the fact that Alex Murdock was
27:33
Speaker 1: already in financial trouble, he was trying desperately to hide it,
27:36
Speaker 1: and he also had a opioid addiction, which we haven't
27:40
Speaker 1: even touched on yet. And there's so much that he
27:42
Speaker 1: was stealing from his law firm and from his clients.
27:45
Speaker 1: Jan Smith, that's correct. Yeah, And all of this paints
27:48
Speaker 1: a picture of someone who was frantically trying to protect
27:50
Speaker 1: what little he might have had left. So, yes, the
27:55
Speaker 1: fact that Paul had put his family into shame or
28:00
Speaker 1: favorite at the very least, let's call it that for now,
28:03
Speaker 1: that doesn't bode well for this idea that he was
28:06
Speaker 1: an apple of his father's eye. But what is really
28:08
Speaker 1: crucial here in town and everyone who knew this family locally. Yes,
28:13
Speaker 1: sure they may be well acquainted with the rumors about them,
28:16
Speaker 1: but that's precisely why those people are not on the jury.
28:20
Speaker 1: When it really boils down here, what we have is
28:24
Speaker 1: whether or not the defense is going to be able
28:26
Speaker 1: to convince this jury, who have all gone on record
28:29
Speaker 1: and said that they do not know anything about this family,
28:32
Speaker 1: at least not enough to prejudice their decisions. It is
28:35
Speaker 1: the jury going to believe the defense that this was
28:37
Speaker 1: a happy family or are they going to be convinced
28:41
Speaker 1: by all the outside evidence? Well as the defense keeps
28:43
Speaker 1: claiming in court that they had a happy marriage. The
28:47
Speaker 1: state is going to have to bring on evidence and
28:49
Speaker 1: they had anything but a happy marriage. Effect. She was
28:53
Speaker 1: living at the beach house. They were not living together.
28:56
Speaker 1: That's right. Here's a tricky part of that, Nancy. This
28:59
Speaker 1: is why neither tricky part that is, you can't bring
29:01
Speaker 1: in all this bad behavior unless there's sufficient evidence to
29:03
Speaker 1: back it up evidentiarily and can they do that? It
29:06
Speaker 1: would be great if the jury were privy to all
29:08
Speaker 1: of what we're discussing on this call, but they're not
29:11
Speaker 1: going to be, so it's going to be a fight,
29:13
Speaker 1: to a real battle to get some of this in,
29:16
Speaker 1: from the popcorn throwing to the bad behavior of the
29:18
Speaker 1: sun means so much outside evidence is relevant, we know
29:22
Speaker 1: to motives, but how much in that balancing analysis the
29:26
Speaker 1: judge does is the jury going to get to hear?
29:28
Speaker 1: And the interesting thing about that is that can change
29:31
Speaker 1: as doors are opened and closed. In terms of the
29:34
Speaker 1: questions lawyers ask as the trop proceeds, Yeah, what she
29:37
Speaker 1: means by that windy passion when she says open the door,
29:40
Speaker 1: that's actually a legal term. If the defense starts going
29:45
Speaker 1: on and on and on. Second verse, sam as at
29:46
Speaker 1: first they were so happy in their marriage. That quote
29:50
Speaker 1: opens the door for the state to come in and pray,
29:54
Speaker 1: what a bad marriage it was. Go ahead us, Cheryl
29:56
Speaker 1: McCollum jump in. I just think it is critical that
29:59
Speaker 1: we mentioned and as a wife, nobody knew him better
30:04
Speaker 1: than Maggie did. Maggie told her friend something's fishing. He's
30:09
Speaker 1: up to something direct quote. She went to that family
30:15
Speaker 1: farm because she knew Paul was there. She went there
30:19
Speaker 1: to try to protect that child crime stories with Nancy Grace.
30:40
Speaker 1: According to the evidence Jen Smith dailymail dot Com, he
30:43
Speaker 1: Alex Murdog lured Maggie out to the Hunting Lodge, which
30:48
Speaker 1: is a good ways away from where she was staying
30:51
Speaker 1: at their beach house. She was not living with him,
30:54
Speaker 1: and he lured her out there, according to the evidence,
30:57
Speaker 1: claiming that he wanted her to go visit his father
31:01
Speaker 1: because Murdoch says his father, Daddy Murdock, didn't have much
31:07
Speaker 1: longer to live, and she Maggie actually said to one
31:12
Speaker 1: of her girlfriends before she went out there, I don't
31:15
Speaker 1: want to go. He taught me into it. I don't
31:19
Speaker 1: know what Alex Murdock is up to, but something is fishy.
31:24
Speaker 1: When he lured her to go out there. Isn't it true,
31:27
Speaker 1: Jan Smith? That is a whole reason she was even
31:30
Speaker 1: at the hunting lodge because Alex Murdock I've lured her there.
31:34
Speaker 1: That's exactly what has been suggested. Yeah. Absolutely, But again
31:37
Speaker 1: the problem is all of the people who can actually
31:39
Speaker 1: verify this none of them are alive anymore. So we
31:42
Speaker 1: just have Alex Murdock. His father died a few days
31:46
Speaker 1: after Maggie and Paul were killed. Obviously Myga and Paul
31:48
Speaker 1: aren't there to tell Atruth either, and then we have
31:51
Speaker 1: his ailing mother. It is the prosecution's argument that Alex
31:55
Speaker 1: Murdock lured his estranged wife, whether or not they were
31:58
Speaker 1: in the formalities of becoming it's strange. We don't know yet.
32:02
Speaker 1: We know that she consulted a lawyer. We don't know
32:04
Speaker 1: if she filed any paperwork. It doesn't look like she did.
32:07
Speaker 1: But that is what the prosecution is saying, that she
32:09
Speaker 1: wouldn't have even been there unless he called her there,
32:11
Speaker 1: and that is the last thing he wanted herv Brandt
32:15
Speaker 1: is for that divorce proceeding to get cranked up and
32:19
Speaker 1: her lawyer, her divorce lawyer, have full access to all
32:23
Speaker 1: of his bank accounts, because that's number one forensic accounting.
32:28
Speaker 1: That was going to happen. All their property, their possessions,
32:32
Speaker 1: their money was going to be divided, split down the middle.
32:35
Speaker 1: The last thing Murdoch wants is an astute lawyer going
32:40
Speaker 1: through his business and finding out he's been embezzling, stealing,
32:44
Speaker 1: outright taking money from his clients and his law firm.
32:48
Speaker 1: I mean millions of dollars. That's exactly right, Nancy, that's
32:52
Speaker 1: the motive right there. He didn't want someone competent, yes,
32:58
Speaker 1: going through his financial records, and he had to take
33:02
Speaker 1: care of the liabilities and took care of Paul Murdog
33:05
Speaker 1: at the same time. That ends that, and he was
33:09
Speaker 1: a liability also. But the wife filing for divorce and
33:15
Speaker 1: demanding the records of their assets is going to bring
33:18
Speaker 1: that house of cards down completely. And of course he's
33:21
Speaker 1: drug addled. And also he was right after the murders
33:28
Speaker 1: that the murder of Paul Murdog, his son. That lawsuit settled.
33:34
Speaker 1: It's settled, and there's nobody left to prosecute. And Paul
33:40
Speaker 1: Murdog is never going to take the stand. Nobody's going
33:42
Speaker 1: to be digging through their finances and there's no divorce,
33:46
Speaker 1: no astute lawyer in forensic account. It's going to be
33:49
Speaker 1: digging through his bank accounts anymore because they're both dead. Now.
33:53
Speaker 1: I don't believe if I were the defense attorney, which
33:55
Speaker 1: of course would never happened, that I would phrase it
33:58
Speaker 1: quite like this. But I want you to listen to
34:02
Speaker 1: cut one seven six again. This is straight out of
34:05
Speaker 1: the courtroom. This is the defense attorney for Alex Murdock.
34:08
Speaker 1: Dick are Puteley and listen. Now, Maggie is shot running
34:15
Speaker 1: to no defensive wounds because she's shot running and after
34:18
Speaker 1: she falls to the ground and had one voy that
34:22
Speaker 1: has hit her and probably traveled up and hit her brain.
34:25
Speaker 1: She's on the ground, and whoever the perpetrator was, walked up,
34:30
Speaker 1: took that r and put one in the back of
34:32
Speaker 1: her head, executed, executed. Why Well, if he keeps asking why,
34:44
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure the state's gonna tell him. I mean
34:48
Speaker 1: to you, Cheryl McCollum, can't you just see in that
34:51
Speaker 1: courtroom when the defense attorney is saying, and whoever the
34:55
Speaker 1: perpetrator was, and they probably all looked right over at
34:58
Speaker 1: Alex Murdock. He says, walked up took that r and
35:03
Speaker 1: put one in the back of her head executed right.
35:06
Speaker 1: And we all know long guns for moving targets. I mean,
35:10
Speaker 1: we know what he did here. It appears very simple. Gus,
35:14
Speaker 1: he waits an hour Nancy to call nine one one.
35:18
Speaker 1: Why would you wait for an hour? Because he's trying
35:20
Speaker 1: to hide that weapon into those of other evidence. And again,
35:24
Speaker 1: I want to go back to the one thing the
35:26
Speaker 1: prosecution is going to be able to show what's not there.
35:30
Speaker 1: There's no additional cell phone pings from an unknown person.
35:33
Speaker 1: There's no unknown footprints from an unknown person. There's no
35:38
Speaker 1: unknown tire track. You've got the gunshot residue. You waited
35:43
Speaker 1: over an hour, you lured her there, you hid the weapon.
35:47
Speaker 1: You said you were somewhere else at eight forty four,
35:49
Speaker 1: and we know now that's a lie. You have moted
35:52
Speaker 1: to kill your son, You had moted to kill your wife.
35:56
Speaker 1: Nobody else did. It's gonna come back to Alex Murdock
36:00
Speaker 1: every single time. You know. That brings up an interesting point.
36:04
Speaker 1: This is wendy negative evidence witnesses. That's where we call
36:08
Speaker 1: people to say, if someone else had been here, we
36:11
Speaker 1: would have found it. There would have been DNA or
36:13
Speaker 1: footprints or tire tracks or something from somebody else. So
36:16
Speaker 1: show brings up an interesting point. And sometimes these cases,
36:19
Speaker 1: especially when it's an alibi defense, are not just about
36:22
Speaker 1: what you found at the scene, but what you didn't
36:24
Speaker 1: find and what that means for the prosecution. You know what,
36:26
Speaker 1: I love cell phone pings. I love cell phone pings.
36:30
Speaker 1: I want you to take a listen and then we'll
36:32
Speaker 1: have Jen Smith explained to us what was just said
36:36
Speaker 1: at opening statements, and we're going to go back to
36:37
Speaker 1: the courtroom after this, taking us an hour, cut one five, four,
36:43
Speaker 1: cell phones and ballistics. Cell phones and ballistics, and the
36:46
Speaker 1: evidence is going to show that the definitive Alamurdoc over
36:49
Speaker 1: there told anyone who would listen that he was never
36:55
Speaker 1: at those channels. But the evidence is also going to
36:58
Speaker 1: show from these things and every one of us, most
37:01
Speaker 1: of his tray runner in our pocket, that he was there.
37:05
Speaker 1: And he was there just miss before with Maggie and Paul,
37:10
Speaker 1: just minutes before their cell phones go silent forever. And
37:18
Speaker 1: despite what he told people, I was never Kinnel's, the
37:21
Speaker 1: cell phones are going to show other ones, Okay, Jen Smith.
37:26
Speaker 1: A snapchat video taken just before the murders taken by
37:33
Speaker 1: Paul Murdog has come to light because it's my understanding,
37:37
Speaker 1: Alex Murdog is in the video showing that he's there
37:42
Speaker 1: at the hunting lodge just before the murders, although he
37:46
Speaker 1: said he wasn't. Is that correct, is correct, Nancy? So
37:49
Speaker 1: what this video shows is a dog. It's a dog
37:52
Speaker 1: that belongs to one of paul friends and I pulp
37:54
Speaker 1: this on his snapchat. You don't see Alex Murdog, but
37:58
Speaker 1: you do apparently in the back ground here Alex Murdock
38:02
Speaker 1: with Maddie Murgdoc and their son. Now, what's key about
38:06
Speaker 1: the video is the time that it was taken, the
38:08
Speaker 1: time that it was put out. Prosecutors say that minutes literally,
38:12
Speaker 1: I think it's three or four minutes after that, every
38:17
Speaker 1: inch of cell phone activity on Paul phone and on
38:21
Speaker 1: Maggie phone, it stops. It stops cold. So that's what
38:24
Speaker 1: they're trying to point towards as being the time of
38:27
Speaker 1: the murders. And this is a new piece of evidence
38:29
Speaker 1: and it's really really important because, like you say, it
38:32
Speaker 1: places Alex Murdock at the scene of the crime. When
38:36
Speaker 1: prosecutors say that it happened let's Serlon McCollum joining me
38:39
Speaker 1: for insc expert and everybody jump in on this. So
38:43
Speaker 1: Paul Murdoch sends the snapchat video to several people, and
38:47
Speaker 1: one of those people, within like two or three minutes,
38:50
Speaker 1: calls him right back. He never picks up his phone again,
38:55
Speaker 1: he never responds, he never sends another text. It's over.
39:00
Speaker 1: That's it forever. That is the time of the murder. Absolutely,
39:05
Speaker 1: and simultaneously, his mother, her cell phones never again has
39:11
Speaker 1: any activity that she initiates. Both of those podes simultaneously
39:17
Speaker 1: are inactive or ever. But about it, Wendy Patrick Stall
39:20
Speaker 1: phones are the perfect unbiased witnesses. They don't favor one
39:25
Speaker 1: side or the other. And that is one of the
39:26
Speaker 1: reasons we're talking about them, not only in this case,
39:29
Speaker 1: but they established the timeline dead victims cannot And that's
39:33
Speaker 1: one of the reasons is that we're all noting here
39:36
Speaker 1: that they're going to be such powerful evidence in a
39:38
Speaker 1: case like that. Yes, and we saw it come out
39:41
Speaker 1: as very powerful evidence in the Brian Coburger quadruple slaying
39:45
Speaker 1: in Idaho. So Jen Smith, what's going to happen now? Well,
39:51
Speaker 1: today we're expecting the prosecution to put their first witnesses
39:54
Speaker 1: on the stunt. They thought it is obviously going to
39:56
Speaker 1: be hugely telling. We're expecting some EMTs and some frest
40:00
Speaker 1: responders who are the first people to interact with Alex
40:02
Speaker 1: Murdock after the murderers. And then, and I think this
40:05
Speaker 1: is going to really tell an interesting story. The jury
40:08
Speaker 1: is going to see video of Alex Murdock's first police interviews.
40:12
Speaker 1: Now we don't know yet what he said in these
40:14
Speaker 1: interviews except from what we've read in previous transcripts or affidavits,
40:18
Speaker 1: but the prosecution is claiming he made strange statements, and
40:22
Speaker 1: they're also claiming that his lack of statements was incredibly
40:26
Speaker 1: strange too, So they're using this interview to point to
40:28
Speaker 1: his guilt. The defense claims that he was acting strangely
40:32
Speaker 1: because who wouldn't after their wife and their son had
40:35
Speaker 1: just been murdered. And they're also claiming that it's going
40:38
Speaker 1: to prove that Copp's only ever focused on Alex Murdock
40:41
Speaker 1: and ignored any other possible suspect because they were so desperate,
40:45
Speaker 1: as they put it, to fit this square peg in
40:47
Speaker 1: this round hole. So that's today. I can't wait. Nancy
40:53
Speaker 1: Race Crown Stories signing off Good Bass one