Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / Murder In Moselle: Othram, Genetic Genealogy, and the Defense’s New Murdaugh Strategy (7/2/26)

Transcript

Murder In Moselle: Othram, Genetic Genealogy, and the Defense’s New Murdaugh Strategy (7/2/26) · The Epstein Chronicles

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  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. One
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  of the most interesting cases maybe in the past decade
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  is most certainly the Alex Murdock case, And now that
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  we have the retrial coming up, there's a lot going on,
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  including a fight that's centered around DNA. Now Alec Murda
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  is trying to get this item thrown out and the State,
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  of course is saying, listen, buddy, there's no way. The
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  evidence is what the evidence is. And in the middle
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  of all of that is where the fight's going to
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  take place. And I think it's going to be a brawl. Look,
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  I'm not going to sit here and tell you that
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  I think Alex Murdoc is innocent. I don't. After the
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  first trial, I think there was a lot of evidence
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  that pointed directly to him. But what I will say
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  is this, I'm willing to look at it with a
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  sober eye. I'm willing to take a look at all
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  the new evidence and see where it goes. Just like
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  every other case we talk about, we know that things
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  can get missed at trial, and sometimes the government acts inappropriately,
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  and that's why it's important for the American people to
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  have access to courtrooms and to see what's going on,
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  and I think that this upcoming retrial is going to
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  be filled with twist and turns. So today we have
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  an article from Fox News and the headline Alec Murdoch
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  faces day pushback on Maggie DNA testing and prison laptop request.
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  This article was authored by Sarah rump Witten. South Carolina
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  prosecutors are trying to shut down Alex Murdoch's latest push
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  for a new look at evidence in the murder of
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  his wife and son, which includes DNA found under Maggie
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  Murdoch's fingernails. That's significant, right, I think that should be
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  looked at. And if she has a third person's DNA
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  under her fingernails, we need to know why. I want
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  the person responsible for these murders to be held accountable.
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  And the first time around it looked like Alec Murdoch.
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  But if there is new evidence and DNA evidence, I
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  think that's something that should be admitted in new court filings.
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  The state opposed to defense motions from the disgraced former attorney,
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  one seeking independent DNA testing tied to Maggie Murdoch's fingernails,
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  and another asking for Murdoch to be allowed to review
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  case material electronically while behind bars. Well why not? I mean,
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  considering that Epstein was allowed to be with his lawyers
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  for like twelve hours a day, why can't Alec Murdoch.
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  The filings come as Murdoch's team prepare for a retrial
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  after the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned his murder conviction
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  in May after finding that the former Carlton County Clerk
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  of Court, Rebecca Becky Hill's conduct had tankeed the jury.
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  And at the time I thought it would be a problem.
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  We talked about it, but they decided that it wasn't
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  as big of a problem at the time as we
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  thought it might be, and they allowed the verdict to stand. Well,
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  now that's all been thrown into chaos with the ruling
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  from the Supreme Court in South Carolina. So now it's
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  back to the starting gate. Right, they have to reprove
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  their case, and it always gets harder as the years
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  go by. Evidence diminishes, people forget, people die, A lot
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  can happen, and that's why you'll see in a lot
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  of big cases people will waive their right to a
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  speedy trial because they want it to be dragged out.
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  Look at Brian Colberger. The idea is to keep punching
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  and hopefully the prosecution screws up, and once they do,
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  you try to capitalize on that one way or the other.
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  Like with Lori Valo, the reason she didn't get the
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  death penalty is because the judge punished the prosecution over discovery.
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  So there's a lot that goes on in the courtroom,
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  and it's not just all black and white when it
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  comes to evidence. Right there's a procedure that has to
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  be followed, and if the government doesn't fly that procedure,
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  then the verdict is going to get tossed out more
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  times than not. The DNA fight centers on SLED Item
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  number seventy, identified in court filings as left fingernail clippings
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  from Margaret Maggie Murdoch. Murdoch's attorneys have argued that the
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  sample contained DNA from an unknown, unrelated mail and asked
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  that it be sent the Authorum Incorporated, a forensic genetic
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  genealogy company, for additional testing Matt Murdoch's expense, That is
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  what they should do. Authram is the place, and once
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  I found out that Authrum was involved in Idaho, I
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  knew they had the right guy, and I knew that
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  Brian Colberger's bitch ass was guilty because AUTHRAM is probably
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  the best at what they do, so getting them involved
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  here is a good idea. Look, don't we want to
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  know what happened? Don't we want to know who killed
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  Maggie and Paul? And keep in mind, I'm framing this
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  question with the new evidence. Of course, he's been convicted already,
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  but even if it was a technical recality that stood
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  in the way of that conviction standing, then we have
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  to look at everything with a sober eye. And I
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  think the best way to get to the bottom of
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  it and figure out what's what is to have that
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  kind of information right, especially from a place like Authrum.
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  Authram is a renowned Houston based lab which gain notoriety
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  by helping authorities identify Brian Kolberger as a suspect in
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  the twenty twenty two quadruple homicide for University of Idaho students.
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  Prosecutors push back hard, saying the evidence has already been
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  tested by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and produced
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  only a mixture of Maggie Murdoch's DNA and what the
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  state described as a very partial and incomplete profile from
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  another contributor. So let's see what Authuram has to say.
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  Why are they against that? If they think they have
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  the evidence, they shouldn't be against this because this could
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  slam the door shut on Alec Murdoch. Right, If this
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  DNA is his, forget it, he's done, he's cooked. But
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  they say it's not. So let's send it to AUTHRAM
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  and get an independent voice into the conversation. What's wrong
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  with that? The unknown profile, prosecutor said, did not contain
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  enough identifying information to be submitted to CODIS, the National
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  DNA database. The state also sought to undercut the defense
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  theory that the DNA could point to an unknown suspect,
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  arguing that trace DNA under fingernails does not automatically suggest
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  a struggle with an assailant. And that's true, it doesn't.
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  But we have to have all the facts. And I
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  think that in a case like this, where there's already
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  been government misconduct, having an independent testing division or agency
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  or a company involved is a good idea. I mean,
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  who are you going to trust the government that's already
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  shited the bed or an independent agency that has no
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  skin in the game. Prosecutors said so called touch. DNA
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  can be transferred through casual contact objects or the environment.
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  They also noted that Maggie Murdoch had her nails done
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  that day before she and her son Paul were killed.
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  Prosecutors have said that Murdock's attorneys have not shown whether
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  the remaining sample is suitable for testing. They want what
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  an outside lab could do that SLED could not, or
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  how further testing would likely produce useful evidence. Well, you
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  guys shit the bed the first time around. Nobody trusts you,
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  and please don't take that as me saying I think
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  Alec Murdock's innocent. I don't, at least not from the
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  evidence we've seen. But he deserves a fair shake like
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  everybody else. The state characterized the request as unsupported in
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  a more at public consumption than viable forensic evidence. Well, okay,
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  then just produce it. If it's no big deal, produce
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  it seems like you're hiding it, That's what it seems like.
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  During Murdoch's first status hearing on Monday, Judge Deborah McCaslin
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  did not rule on the DNA evidence, telling the attorneys
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  to clarify if the sample was viable. Murdoch's team is
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  also fighting for easier access to the massive trove of
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  case material as it prepares for another courtroom battle. His
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  attorneys had proposed allowing him to use a secure laptop
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  in prison with an encrypted, password protected hard drive, no
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  Internet access, and no cellular capabilities. That sounds fair. I mean, look,
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  the guy has to have a defense, right, here's the thing.
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  Give him everything he needs. That way, when you slam
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  the door on him the second time, he has no
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  room to stand. He can't complain that he didn't get
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  a fair shake when he obviously did. But prosecutors said
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  that Murdoch should not be trusted with unsupervised electronic access
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  in prison, citing prior South Carolina Department of Corrections disciplinary
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  issues involving his misuse of a prison tablet and unauthorized
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  use of another inmate's pen. Well, if that's the case,
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  then sorry, mister Murdoch, you broke the rules. You have
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  to be punished like any other inmate. They also pointed
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  to a previous contraband issue during trial, involving a book
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  that was all allegedly passed to Murdoch through defense staff
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  and later recovered from his cell. And that sounds like
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  a little thing but it's not you can't have contraband
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  in your cell. They're rules and Alex Murdoch has to
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  follow them. Judge mccaslyn weighed in on the laptop issue
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  during Monday's hearing, saying that the prison warden would not
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  allow Murdoch to keep a laptop in his cell due
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  to safety concerns. She suggested that defense attorneys could bring
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  a laptop and review materials within a conference room, but
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  someone must be with them, and that was the same
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  thing that happened with Epstein, So I think that's fair.
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  Put him in a conference room and have him supervised by,
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  you know, his lawyers, and maybe surveillance or something, whatever
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  it might be. She's expected to decide the issue at
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  the next pre trial hearing, set for August fourteenth. Fox
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  News Digital has reached out to Murdoch's defense team for comment.
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  All Right, so, look, things are moving, and now that
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  things are moving at a nice clip, we're gonna be
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  diving in because there's a lot to catch up on
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  and there's a lot to follow. So buckle in. We're
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  gonna be talking a lot more about Alec Murdoch in
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  the coming days and the coming weeks. All The information
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  that goes with this episode can be found in the
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  description box.