Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Alex Murdaugh Granted Venue Change for Double-Murder Retrial | Crime Alert 09.11.26

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Alex Murdaugh Granted Venue Change for Double-Murder Retrial | Crime Alert 09.11.26 · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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  Speaker 1: Crime Alert, hourly update, breaking.
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  Speaker 2: Crime news now.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Sydney Silvani. A South Carolina judge has officially granted
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  Speaker 1: Alex Murdaugh's request to relocate his upcoming double murder retrial
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  Speaker 1: to a new venue. Judge Deborah McCaslin ruled on Tuesday
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  Speaker 1: that proceedings for the disgraced attorney will take place in
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  Speaker 1: Sumter County. Defense lawyers argued that the jury pool in
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  Speaker 1: Colleton County was hopelessly tainted by intense media coverage surrounding
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  Speaker 1: his original 2023 trial. In her written order, Judge McCaslin
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  Speaker 1: concluded Murdoch can receive a fair trial in Sumter County.
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  Speaker 1: She noted the court considered several factors, including the financial
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  Speaker 1: impact on Colleton County, witness convenience, courtroom facilities, technological capabilities,
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  Speaker 1: and Murdoch's security. Defense attorneys had suggested Charleston or Richland
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  Speaker 1: County courthouses before the judge chose Sumter County. Murdaugh was
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  Speaker 1: granted a new trial after the state Supreme Court unanimously
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  Speaker 1: overturned his 2023 convictions and two life sentences. Justices determined
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  Speaker 1: his right to a fair proceeding was violated when former
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  Speaker 1: Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill improperly influenced jurors.
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  Speaker 1: Murdaugh faces murder and weapons charges in the June 2021
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  Speaker 1: shooting deaths of his wife Maggie and 22-year-old son Paul
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  Speaker 1: at their family estate. Although Murdaugh admitted during his first
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  Speaker 1: trial to lying about his location shortly before the killings,
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  Speaker 1: he maintains he did not shoot his family. More crime
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  Speaker 1: and justice news after this. In Florida, 23-year-old Lindsay Brooke
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  Speaker 1: Isaacs was asleep at home when police arrived to tell
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  Speaker 1: her that her car was involved in a crash that
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  Speaker 1: killed three people. Isaacs knew officers had the wrong person.
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  Speaker 1: Her black Dodge Durango showed no collision damage, and she
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  Speaker 1: had a receipt showing where she had been. The fatal
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  Speaker 1: crash occurred on October 4, 2025, along eastbound Interstate 4
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  Speaker 1: near DeBerry, Florida. Motorcyclist Joaquin Dino was killed alongside Flagler
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  Speaker 1: County Deputy Administrator Jorge Salinas and his wife Nancy. Investigators
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  Speaker 1: tracked Isaacs using a Flock automated license plate reader camera,
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  Speaker 1: which recorded her vehicle traveling eastbound near the Seminole and
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  Speaker 1: Volusia County line at 9.51 p.m., about three miles west
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  Speaker 1: of the 9.53 p.m. crash scene. However, a 911 caller
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  Speaker 1: described a maroon Dodge Durango, and investigators found maroon paint
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  Speaker 1: transfer on another involved vehicle. A specialized highway patrol team
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  Speaker 1: inspected Isaac's vehicle and found no damage, yet authorities impounded
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  Speaker 1: her SUV and forced her to turn herself in on
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  Speaker 1: eight felony charges, including three counts of vehicular homicide. Speaking
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  Speaker 1: on the Cyber Guy Report podcast, Isaac's recalled receiving the
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  Speaker 1: call from her attorney.
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  Speaker 2: It was interesting. I say it's a nightmare. It was
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  Speaker 2: worse than a nightmare. It's the worst nightmare you can...
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  Speaker 2: I got a phone call April 17th, 10 a.m.
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  Speaker 3: I thought it was just going to be good news
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  Speaker 3: or something else, but my attorney had told me, you
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  Speaker 3: have to turn yourself in today or they're going to
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  Speaker 3: come and get you for this crime.
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  Speaker 2: They'd They are arresting him for this crime.
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  Speaker 3: And he was just in the same amount.
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  Speaker 2: Of shock that I was in.
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  Speaker 1: Isaac spent 13 days in jail, spending her first several
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  Speaker 1: days locked away in solitary confinement with only a metal
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  Speaker 1: sleeping slab and thin mat, fearing her life was over.
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  Speaker 2: They said my charges were so severe that I was
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  Speaker 2: not allowed to go near any other people yet in
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  Speaker 2: the jail.
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  Speaker 1: On May 22, the state attorney's office formally dropped all
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  Speaker 1: eight charges after a time-distance analysis performed by her defense
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  Speaker 1: team proved she was already past the crash location when
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  Speaker 1: the collision occurred. Authorities subsequently arrested Alyssa Mee Montalvo, who
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  Speaker 1: prosecutors allege was driving a maroon Dodge Durango. Montalvo faces
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  Speaker 1: nine charges, including vehicular homicide and tampering with physical evidence. Isaacs,
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  Speaker 1: who received a face-to-face apology from the head of the
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  Speaker 1: Florida Highway Patrol, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit
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  Speaker 1: against two troopers alleging false arrest, wrongful imprisonment, and malicious prosecution. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: Flock Safety maintained its technology provided exculpatory evidence. The case
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  Speaker 1: has sparked major regulatory changes across Florida. On August 31st,
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  Speaker 1: the Florida Department of Transportation revoked permits for license plate
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  Speaker 1: reader systems within state highway rights-of-way, ordering their removal within
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  Speaker 1: 30 days. Finally, in North Carolina, state investigators have solved
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  Speaker 1: a nearly 50-year-old cold case, identifying skeletal remains discovered in
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  Speaker 1: a wooded area on December 29, 1977. The remains and
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  Speaker 1: clothing were found near a former firestone plant in Wilson.
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  Speaker 1: The medical examiner determined the victim was a white female
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  Speaker 1: between 16 and 23 years old who had been dead
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  Speaker 1: between six months and two years. While her manner of
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  Speaker 1: death was classified as undetermined, the State Bureau of Investigation
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  Speaker 1: treated the case as a homicide due to the suspicious location.
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  Speaker 1: Dental record comparisons in 1977 and CODIS database entries in
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  Speaker 1: 2010 yielded no matches. The breakthrough came in 2024 when
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  Speaker 1: SBI Special Investigator Andy Murr reviewed the case using modern
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  Speaker 1: forensic tools. DNA extracted from a bone sample generated a
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  Speaker 1: single nucleotide polymorphism profile, allowing a genealogy service to trace
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  Speaker 1: potential relatives. Investigators successfully identified the victim as Cindy Marcel Blizzard,
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  Speaker 1: a 15-year-old girl who ran away from Moncton, Maryland in
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  Speaker 1: the spring of 1977. Although her identity is confirmed after
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  Speaker 1: more than 49 years, her murder remains unsolved. Authorities urge
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  Speaker 1: anyone with information to contact the SBI Cold Case Tip
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  Speaker 1: Line or the Wilson County Sheriff's Office. For more crime
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  Speaker 1: and justice news, be sure to join us for Crime
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  Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace on Fox 1, YouTube, Sirius XM,
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  Speaker 1: and now streaming on Tubi. With this crime alert, I'm
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  Speaker 1: Sydney Silvani.