Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Murdaugh mom and son murders still a mystery

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Murdaugh mom and son murders still a mystery · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The double murders of a
0:15
Speaker 1: mother and son of South Carolina has given way to
0:20
Speaker 1: swirling conspiracy theories. Why because the case is still unsolved
0:26
Speaker 1: and cloaked in secrecy. We know very little about what's
0:33
Speaker 1: happening in the investigation and a mother and son murder
0:45
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The nine one one call
0:54
Speaker 1: came late Monday night. Officials say prominent South Carolina attorney
0:57
Speaker 1: Alex Murdock came home last week and called police after
1:00
Speaker 1: discovering his wife and son murdered. Fifty two year old
1:04
Speaker 1: Maggie Murdoch and twenty two year old Paul Murdog, both
1:07
Speaker 1: shot multiple times outside their home. According to investigators, it
1:11
Speaker 1: happened in Islandtown, South Carolina, about ninety minutes outside of Charleston.
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Speaker 1: Now more than a week later, seemingly little progress, no arrests,
1:20
Speaker 1: no named suspect, and from police, no motive. How can
1:24
Speaker 1: this be? How can there be a case so high
1:27
Speaker 1: profile where the cops are telling us basically nothing. With
1:33
Speaker 1: me and All Star panel to break it down and
1:34
Speaker 1: put it back together again, we are talking about the
1:37
Speaker 1: mysterious deaths of Maggie Murdoch and her son Paul, both
1:42
Speaker 1: gunned down with separate long arms on the family's hunting
1:48
Speaker 1: lodge estate with me. Doctor Bethany Marshall are now psychoanalysts,
1:54
Speaker 1: joining us out of LA. You can find her at
1:56
Speaker 1: doctor Bethany Marshall dot com. She's to starve a brand
1:59
Speaker 1: new Netflix series, Bling Empire. Susan E. Williams, South Carolina
2:05
Speaker 1: criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor, and you can find her
2:09
Speaker 1: at s Williams dash Law dot net. Patrick McDavid, partner
2:15
Speaker 1: with Quick Group Investigations, former Resident Agent in charge of
2:20
Speaker 1: Homeland security investigations there in South Carolina. Doctor Michelle Dupree,
2:26
Speaker 1: forensic pathologists, former medical examiner and author of Homicide Investigation
2:33
Speaker 1: Field Guide. Matt Harris joining US morning show host wl
2:38
Speaker 1: n K in Charlotte. You can also find him at
2:42
Speaker 1: a brand new podcast called The Murlog Family Murders. Impact
2:47
Speaker 1: of Influence. What do we mean by influence? Well, I
2:52
Speaker 1: will let him tell you. Let's start with you, Matt Harris,
2:55
Speaker 1: Thanks for being with us from wl n K. I
2:58
Speaker 1: normally start with the itself. The two victims shot dead,
3:03
Speaker 1: a mother and a son. We know by long guns.
3:06
Speaker 1: We know by two separate long guns. But what do
3:10
Speaker 1: you mean by the impact of influence. Well, the Murnoch
3:14
Speaker 1: family has been in control of the Solicitor's Office, which
3:19
Speaker 1: is most people can know it as the prosecution the
3:22
Speaker 1: Prosecutor's office for almost ninety years two thousand and five.
3:27
Speaker 1: Right there, did you say nine zero ninety years? Yes, yes,
3:31
Speaker 1: it's allegedly the longest running family rule, if you want
3:35
Speaker 1: to call it that, in all of the United States.
3:38
Speaker 1: It's been ninety years and two thousand and five, I
3:40
Speaker 1: believe it was they decided not to run again, but
3:44
Speaker 1: one of their law partners picked up the mantle, so
3:49
Speaker 1: they continued in a sense. So they have done a
3:52
Speaker 1: lot of money in lawsuits. An interesting it's it's help
3:56
Speaker 1: for companies to go into their hamlet and sue because
4:01
Speaker 1: they can sue. They had a system where they could
4:03
Speaker 1: sue you if a car crash happened in Charleston, but
4:07
Speaker 1: the tires were made somewhere else and the car was
4:10
Speaker 1: made somewhere else, they could make the lawsuit in their county,
4:15
Speaker 1: in Buford County, so it was a very very powerful
4:18
Speaker 1: little county they had running for a while. Well, hold on,
4:21
Speaker 1: right there, Matt Harris. You're saying if the crash occurred
4:25
Speaker 1: in their county, they could pursue will pursue a multimillion
4:29
Speaker 1: dollar lawsuit. Correct that that was well, the law has
4:32
Speaker 1: been changed since then. They made all their money up
4:35
Speaker 1: until two thousand something whatever, they could make it there.
4:37
Speaker 1: But they do handle tons of injury lawsuits. That's their
4:40
Speaker 1: big thing in their law firm. Well to you, Susan E.
4:43
Speaker 1: Williams now South Carolina criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor. That
4:47
Speaker 1: has always been the case under civil procedure. International shoe
4:51
Speaker 1: is a seminal landmark case where you established contacts in
4:55
Speaker 1: a particular jurisdiction and you can sue there. If the
4:58
Speaker 1: crash happened and the Murdog territory, it could be prosecuted there.
5:02
Speaker 1: If the tires were made in Detroit, the case could
5:05
Speaker 1: be prosecuted there, or the car was made there, the
5:07
Speaker 1: manufacturer could be sued there. So that's an age old
5:13
Speaker 1: landmark case. You have to establish minimal contacts in a
5:19
Speaker 1: jurisdiction for a lawsuit to be made, like you live there,
5:23
Speaker 1: you work there, the business was located there, So that
5:27
Speaker 1: doesn't strike me as unusual. Ninety years in power that
5:32
Speaker 1: strikes me as odd. Yes, Nancy, and what to just
5:37
Speaker 1: to add to that, this family has been part time
5:41
Speaker 1: solicitors and they ran this very successful plaintiff's firm all
5:46
Speaker 1: at the same time. That is that used to be
5:49
Speaker 1: in South Carolina, but it has since changed. But that
5:52
Speaker 1: is how they were able to run this very successful
5:57
Speaker 1: law firm with towns of lawyers and conflicts. Susan, Now
6:02
Speaker 1: I see what Matt Harris, W. L and K. Is
6:04
Speaker 1: talking about. For instance, when you take the bench and
6:08
Speaker 1: you become a judge, you leave your law practice. Why
6:12
Speaker 1: because cases will come in front of you where your
6:14
Speaker 1: law practice is representing somebody or your practice may be
6:17
Speaker 1: sued and you would have a conflict of interest. How
6:21
Speaker 1: can you be a prosecutor and run a civil law
6:24
Speaker 1: firm at the same time. Huge conflict. Now, let me
6:27
Speaker 1: understand something, Susan Williams joining me out of South Carolina.
6:32
Speaker 1: When Matt Harris says the solicitor's office, is that like
6:37
Speaker 1: the district attorney's office in other jurisdictions, what is that
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Speaker 1: it is? It's the prosecutor's office in South Carolina. And
6:44
Speaker 1: the Murdoch family actually coined that term. South Carolina is
6:48
Speaker 1: the only state in the United States that still uses
6:51
Speaker 1: that term. Interesting. So, for instance, in a highly metropolitan
6:56
Speaker 1: area like New York or Atlanta, LA, you have the
7:00
Speaker 1: district attorney that handles felonies, and they will have a
7:03
Speaker 1: fleet of ada's assistant das, and you have the solicitor's
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Speaker 1: office also prosecutors to handle misdemeanors like loitering or a dui.
7:13
Speaker 1: So you're telling me, in this jurisdiction, the solicitor is
7:17
Speaker 1: the DA that handles felonies. That's correct. In the solicitor's
7:22
Speaker 1: office in South Carolina, these solicitors are elected officials, and
7:27
Speaker 1: then they also have assistant solicitors, and either the elected
7:32
Speaker 1: official or the assistant solicitors are able to handle felonies
7:38
Speaker 1: and misdemeanors. Wow, so this is the fourteenth Circuit, is
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Speaker 1: it not, Matt Harris? It covers about five counties. That's
7:46
Speaker 1: a pretty big jurisdiction. It is a big jurisdiction as
7:50
Speaker 1: far as land goes. Population is not massive. A lot
7:53
Speaker 1: of country area out there. However, if you're dealing with
7:57
Speaker 1: most of the law enforcement, fled or even the wildlife folks,
8:02
Speaker 1: it'd be hard to imagine that most of the people
8:05
Speaker 1: have got log worst can happen. That's some sort of
8:07
Speaker 1: contact with the Murdocks. You know, I've gotten a soft
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Speaker 1: truck somehow. Talking about the background, the power that this
8:13
Speaker 1: one family, the Murdoch family, wells in that jurisdiction, hugely powerful,
8:19
Speaker 1: not only ninety years in the chief Prosecutor's office, running
8:24
Speaker 1: the office, deciding what gets prosecuted and what doesn't, what
8:28
Speaker 1: goes to trial, what gets plut out cheap and what doesn't,
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Speaker 1: and a highly lucrative civil practice as well, raking in
8:38
Speaker 1: millions of dollars a year. Time stories with Nancy Grace.
8:57
Speaker 1: Let's get back to the double For those of you
9:01
Speaker 1: just joining us, we were talking about the double murders,
9:04
Speaker 1: the shooting death, and there's no doubt they're murders of
9:07
Speaker 1: a mother and son, Maggie and Paul Murdoch. The wife
9:13
Speaker 1: of the reigning king of the murdochs Alex and the son,
9:17
Speaker 1: the twenty two year old son Paul, both shot dead. Guys,
9:22
Speaker 1: you earlier heard Blaine Alexander NBC. Now take a listen
9:26
Speaker 1: to Danay Bucci wc j L twenty two. The bodies
9:31
Speaker 1: of Margaret and Paul Murdoll were found at ten pm
9:34
Speaker 1: Monday night. Thecoulton County Coroner's Office tells us preliminary results
9:39
Speaker 1: so both died from gunshot wounds. Margaret Murdoll was fifty
9:42
Speaker 1: two and was the mother of Paul Murdoch, who was
9:44
Speaker 1: twenty two. Their bodies were discovered out of the family
9:47
Speaker 1: hunting lodge off Mussel Road. According to county records, Maggie
9:51
Speaker 1: owned the property. Interesting, let me talk to you about that.
9:55
Speaker 1: Matt Harris joining uson w l n K and you
9:58
Speaker 1: can listen to his pop. That's called the Murdo family murders.
10:02
Speaker 1: Impact of influence Matt. So it's referred to as Mozelle
10:09
Speaker 1: the hunting lotch. I guess because it's on Mozelle Road.
10:13
Speaker 1: This was not the family home, was it. No, it
10:16
Speaker 1: was not the family home. It was their hunting cabin.
10:21
Speaker 1: And was they kept dogs there? Hunting dogs there. There's
10:25
Speaker 1: just a massive amount of like swamp and woods and
10:29
Speaker 1: who whatnot around that area, which makes it even more
10:33
Speaker 1: difficult to try to find something that might have been
10:35
Speaker 1: left in this area because it's it's a large area.
10:38
Speaker 1: It is a swampy, a lot of fields and trees,
10:44
Speaker 1: and so you just can't go in there and easily
10:48
Speaker 1: find possible evidence because it's such a large, rough area.
10:53
Speaker 1: You know, Doctor Bethany Marshall joining us Psychoanalyst to the Stars,
10:56
Speaker 1: joining us out of Beverly Hills. Doctor Bethany Matt Harris
11:00
Speaker 1: from wl n K may rightfully call it swamp, but
11:05
Speaker 1: that means money. So we you know, you can fill
11:09
Speaker 1: in a swamp if the EPA doesn't stop you or
11:11
Speaker 1: the DNR and build a subdivision or a shopping mall
11:15
Speaker 1: on it. All that land, hundreds of acres equals money.
11:20
Speaker 1: But that aside who in the hey I mean, I
11:22
Speaker 1: don't think anybody on this panel or in this room, Jackie,
11:25
Speaker 1: unless you surprise me, has a home and a hunting
11:29
Speaker 1: lodge where you keep your dogs NC. This is a
11:34
Speaker 1: family who really wanted to accrue power. Power translated in
11:43
Speaker 1: being able to be free with the law will being
11:46
Speaker 1: conflict of interests, lots of land, lansing things for themselves,
11:52
Speaker 1: in other words, taking more than their fair share. I
11:56
Speaker 1: don't need to criticize when there's a fifty two year
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Speaker 1: old and it's funny three year old dead, but I
12:02
Speaker 1: know from my clinical practice in Beverly Hills when somebody
12:05
Speaker 1: walks through the door who relates to other people on
12:09
Speaker 1: the basis of power rather than affection, and their whole
12:13
Speaker 1: result the ettra and life is accruing power. That person
12:18
Speaker 1: also has a lot of interests of enemies, and they're
12:22
Speaker 1: so called blood ones. Also also hate them. As you know,
12:27
Speaker 1: love and hate is often succide with the same coin. Well,
12:30
Speaker 1: you have a lot of power. A lot of those
12:32
Speaker 1: attaching systems lean towards hatred more than they do lean
12:36
Speaker 1: towards love. Another thing about power and money, it affects
12:41
Speaker 1: the way that you're raised, the way you grow up,
12:45
Speaker 1: what you think is normal. Does that come into play.
12:50
Speaker 1: I'm going to circle back with Matt Harris on that.
12:53
Speaker 1: But we're talking about the hunting lodge where the mother
12:56
Speaker 1: and son are found murdered, still arrests and police are
13:02
Speaker 1: keeping it very close to the vest redacting or marking
13:06
Speaker 1: out with a black match at marker everything they don't
13:09
Speaker 1: want you to know. And then xeroxy. We basically know
13:12
Speaker 1: no more today than we did from about a week
13:15
Speaker 1: after the instant talking about this remote hunting lodge called Moiselle.
13:19
Speaker 1: I guess because it's on Moiselle Road. It's about a
13:22
Speaker 1: thousand acres. Take a listen to Evil Pilgrim, our friend
13:26
Speaker 1: at GMA. The Murdoch property is remote, it spans hundreds
13:31
Speaker 1: of acres, and the feeling in the community whoever killed
13:34
Speaker 1: the Murdas didn't end up here by accident or randomly.
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Speaker 1: Twenty two year old Paul Murda and his fifty six
13:42
Speaker 1: year old mother, Maggie, found shot to death near the
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Speaker 1: dog kennels outside the Families Hunting Lodge last week. County
13:48
Speaker 1: investigators turning the case over to state law enforcement. So far,
13:52
Speaker 1: there have been no arrests, no suspects have been named.
13:55
Speaker 1: Law enforcement being very tight lipped about this investigation. As
14:00
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, isn't it true, Matt Harris W. L. K.
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Speaker 1: Charlotte In that jurisdiction, cops are required to release police documents,
14:11
Speaker 1: certain police documents at request. All that's been released is
14:16
Speaker 1: what well, well, you said, lots of redacted things, lots
14:20
Speaker 1: of papers with large sharpies taken through them, so you
14:24
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of information. We found out a
14:27
Speaker 1: car was towed from there. We know that Maggie's phone
14:31
Speaker 1: was eventually found on the road near the camp, but
14:35
Speaker 1: not a lot and it's it's really been a battle
14:37
Speaker 1: with some of the newspapers like Posting Courier, et cetera,
14:40
Speaker 1: who have filing Freedom of Information Act papers to get
14:47
Speaker 1: some more information. And when they do release it's it's
14:49
Speaker 1: really redacted. It's there's no shortage of people who might
14:52
Speaker 1: have been on the bad side of the Murdocks, all
14:56
Speaker 1: the things that have happened over the last man. You
14:57
Speaker 1: can say that again. I'm going to get into some
15:00
Speaker 1: of those three of those prior incidents with the Murdocks
15:02
Speaker 1: that people are touting its potential motive for murder. But
15:06
Speaker 1: I want to talk about again where we are and
15:09
Speaker 1: the evidence that we know so far we believe do
15:12
Speaker 1: we not to Patrick McDavid, partner with Quick Group Investigations.
15:17
Speaker 1: You can find them at quick Group llc dot com.
15:20
Speaker 1: Former Agent in charge Homeland Security in South Carolina. This
15:26
Speaker 1: guy's been around the block a couple of times. Patrick,
15:28
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us. We know that one
15:30
Speaker 1: car was towed, which I find to be totally normal.
15:34
Speaker 1: But wait for it. The mother, Maggie's cell phone was
15:41
Speaker 1: found in a different place than her body was. That's
15:45
Speaker 1: not right. Yeah, that definitely is not right. And it
15:49
Speaker 1: sounds like somebody in a hurry might have tossed it
15:51
Speaker 1: out of window and just figured it wouldn't be found.
15:54
Speaker 1: But we can background that the alex has and the
15:59
Speaker 1: rest of his family, they're well aware of how investigations work,
16:03
Speaker 1: and how cell phones are critical cell power information and
16:07
Speaker 1: how easily those phones can be tracked as long as
16:09
Speaker 1: that SIM card is in that phone to you, Matt Harris,
16:13
Speaker 1: let's follow up on what Patrick McDavid is saying. Where
16:16
Speaker 1: Matt was Maggie the mother, fifty two year old Maggie Murdoch.
16:20
Speaker 1: Where was her cell phone found? It was outside of
16:23
Speaker 1: the what do you want to call it? A compound
16:25
Speaker 1: of the hunting area, on one of the roads, not
16:28
Speaker 1: far from the where the murders were. And I know
16:32
Speaker 1: that what we know is that something happened must have
16:35
Speaker 1: come up through the looking at that phone, because they
16:39
Speaker 1: reopened the case which we haven't got into yet of
16:42
Speaker 1: what was ruled to hit and run back in twenty fifteen.
16:44
Speaker 1: That case was reopened, and we think it's tied to
16:47
Speaker 1: the because they say it was tied to something they
16:49
Speaker 1: founded the investigation, which they found in the investigation, not
16:53
Speaker 1: necessarily on the cell phone, but I see you making
16:55
Speaker 1: that connection. I want to go back to where the
16:58
Speaker 1: cell phone was found. I under it was found on
17:01
Speaker 1: a road near the hunting lodge. Yes, it was on
17:04
Speaker 1: the on side of a road, the side of a
17:07
Speaker 1: road off the hunting lodge. You got about a thousand
17:10
Speaker 1: acres on that hunting lodge. But it was found out
17:12
Speaker 1: on a public road, correct, right cord is correct? Yes,
17:16
Speaker 1: so it was off the scene of the crime. It
17:20
Speaker 1: was off the property, either dropped or thrown out of
17:24
Speaker 1: a car window. So somebody got rid of that phone,
17:30
Speaker 1: either intentionally or unintentionally. Why now, let me go back
17:34
Speaker 1: to Matt Harris who found the bodies. The dad Alec
17:39
Speaker 1: did Alec is the father of Paul and the husband
17:45
Speaker 1: of Maggie, and they say it an aeric tate alibi.
17:49
Speaker 1: He was visiting his father, the grandfather, Randolph Murder, who
17:53
Speaker 1: died just a few days after the murders. So he
17:57
Speaker 1: was visiting them on what was this? What day the
18:00
Speaker 1: weight was this? Let's see that was it was June.
18:03
Speaker 1: That would be like a Wednesday, I guess maybe a
18:08
Speaker 1: chance to look it up Monday it was a Monday.
18:11
Speaker 1: By saying Monday, yes, Monday, So he says he's at
18:14
Speaker 1: his dad's bedside in the hospital. On Monday Night Time
18:32
Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we're talking about the brutal
18:38
Speaker 1: murders of a fifty two year old mother, Maggie Murdoch
18:40
Speaker 1: and her son Paul, both fund several feet apart, both
18:45
Speaker 1: shot multiple multiple times with long guns. And I bring
18:53
Speaker 1: the fact that they were shot with long guns because
18:56
Speaker 1: that suggests to me that there may have been more
18:59
Speaker 1: than one killer. Unless you're from Rifleman or you're from
19:04
Speaker 1: an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Who else comes out with two
19:09
Speaker 1: guns blazing that are long guns like a rifle or
19:14
Speaker 1: an AAR assault rifle like a shotgun that takes a
19:19
Speaker 1: lot of expertise to handle just one shotgun or one AR,
19:23
Speaker 1: much less two. And we know this because the ballistics
19:28
Speaker 1: show the two victims were shot with different weapons. Now,
19:34
Speaker 1: the husband, the father says there's an airtight alibi that
19:38
Speaker 1: he's at the hospital at the time they're shot dead.
19:45
Speaker 1: Take a listen now to our friend Brooke Butler, w
19:48
Speaker 1: JCL twenty two. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and
19:53
Speaker 1: the Colton County Sheriff's Office still not releasing much information
19:56
Speaker 1: about the shooting desks of Paul and Maggie Murdock, but
19:59
Speaker 1: a family end is providing some insights. Tangiomer was in
20:03
Speaker 1: her bedroom June seventh when she knew something was wrong.
20:06
Speaker 1: Usually when you hear that many sirens, it has to
20:08
Speaker 1: be something, something really tragic. Comer was devastated to learn
20:12
Speaker 1: Paul and Maggie Murdle had been shot. She says, Alex
20:16
Speaker 1: Murda found their bodies. I can only imagine when you
20:19
Speaker 1: come home and help and bind her, your wife and
20:21
Speaker 1: your son in the yard. Omer says, the day's leading
20:24
Speaker 1: up to their deaths were normal. I would have never
20:27
Speaker 1: never guess thought I'd gotten that kind of call about Maggie.
20:29
Speaker 1: Even now, she and this prominent South Carolina family of
20:32
Speaker 1: attorneys are counting a law enforcement to get them some answers.
20:36
Speaker 1: I think they have in that faith in the judicial
20:38
Speaker 1: system and law enforcement to do their jobs. They'll know
20:42
Speaker 1: some answers now. Omer says, just like everyone else, she's
20:45
Speaker 1: not sure if the shooting was targeted or not, but
20:47
Speaker 1: she does say the fact that they were shot multiple
20:49
Speaker 1: times does seem personal. Back to you, Matt Harris, But
20:53
Speaker 1: they weren't at home, so the father Alex Murdog says
20:59
Speaker 1: that husband and slash. Father says he came quote home
21:04
Speaker 1: and found them dead, but it wasn't home. What led
21:07
Speaker 1: him that night to go out to the hunting lots
21:10
Speaker 1: that was not their home. From what I understand, the mom, Maggie,
21:15
Speaker 1: and the son Paul were staying there. I don't know
21:18
Speaker 1: how long they had been staying there, but they were
21:19
Speaker 1: staying there at this time, and so Paul or Alec
21:26
Speaker 1: I mean, probably went there to see, I don't know,
21:28
Speaker 1: see how they were doing. I don't know if he
21:29
Speaker 1: was staying there or not. I know they were staying
21:31
Speaker 1: there for a few days. I don't know how many days.
21:33
Speaker 1: Let me understand something was the husband not staying there
21:36
Speaker 1: and the wife and the son were. That's where there
21:39
Speaker 1: is some confusion in rumors and whatnot about whether he
21:42
Speaker 1: was staying there or nottial interesting, so he may not
21:46
Speaker 1: have been staying with his wife. That's that is a possibility.
21:50
Speaker 1: That is a possibility. Yes, and he found them. I
21:52
Speaker 1: think he found them at ten in the corner or
21:54
Speaker 1: The ruled that the murders happened around nine thirty. So
21:58
Speaker 1: you're telling me he went out there even though he
22:01
Speaker 1: wasn't staying there at ten o'clock at night to check
22:04
Speaker 1: on them. I don't know if he was staying there
22:06
Speaker 1: or not. There's different that's not been confirmed, but that's
22:10
Speaker 1: the possibility. And maybe he was stating there that night.
22:13
Speaker 1: Since they had multiple homes, they could be moving back
22:17
Speaker 1: and forth. From what he made by multiple homes, there's
22:19
Speaker 1: a hunting lodge, there's a chief residence. What else is there? Yeah,
22:23
Speaker 1: I think that's uh, the chief resident. That's the multiple homes.
22:26
Speaker 1: There is the chief. The Bridge Presidence is a big
22:29
Speaker 1: house on the river in that county that you know
22:33
Speaker 1: they also live at. So that's their main residence right there. Guys,
22:36
Speaker 1: take a listen again to our friend Eva Pilgrim. He's
22:39
Speaker 1: a very caring person and she was a rock of
22:43
Speaker 1: their family. This morning, members of the Murdoch family speaking
22:47
Speaker 1: for the first time since their brother Elik Murdoch, found
22:49
Speaker 1: his twenty two year old son Paul, and his wife
22:52
Speaker 1: Maggie shot to death outside their South Carolina home last week.
22:56
Speaker 1: I got a call from Elick Monday night as soon
23:05
Speaker 1: as they entered a vote and knew something was wrong.
23:09
Speaker 1: Oh man, he just told me, he said, come as
23:13
Speaker 1: fast as you can. Paul and Magi have been hurt,
23:17
Speaker 1: his voice to fear he was just a straw. No
23:25
Speaker 1: arrest had been made, no suspects named. The Murdoch's issuing
23:29
Speaker 1: a plea for help this morning. The person that did
23:32
Speaker 1: this is out there and there's information. However, bigger hover small,
23:38
Speaker 1: it is back to you, Matt Harris. Is that the
23:42
Speaker 1: husband I like Murdoch speaking. No, that was his brother's Randy.
23:47
Speaker 1: I believe I was Randy, and I probably John Marvin.
23:51
Speaker 1: They also said in that interview that Paul had been
23:53
Speaker 1: getting threats, but they didn't take them very seriously. So
23:57
Speaker 1: that is something we wonder what that was about the son,
24:00
Speaker 1: Paul twenty two year old son Paul. Ye, okay, So
24:03
Speaker 1: has the husband made a public play? No, publicly at all.
24:08
Speaker 1: Not as far as I know. I've not heard anything
24:12
Speaker 1: coming out of from Alec. It's always been from his
24:17
Speaker 1: brothers or friends of Maggie. That's That's all I've seen
24:22
Speaker 1: or heard or read. Guys, what more do we not
24:24
Speaker 1: take a listen to? Katie came in wc SC Live.
24:28
Speaker 1: According to the Colton County Corner, Maggie and Paul were
24:31
Speaker 1: both shot in multiple times outside on their rural property
24:35
Speaker 1: near Island tent. Still, there have been no arrests for
24:39
Speaker 1: the murders, and law enforcement has not released information on
24:42
Speaker 1: any potential suspects or motives. Low Country attorneys Susan Williams says,
24:47
Speaker 1: in her seventeen years practicing law, she's not seen a
24:50
Speaker 1: case like this that has guarded such attention across the country.
24:54
Speaker 1: She tells us she too is looking for answers, and
24:57
Speaker 1: someone from law enforcement said that the public should not
25:00
Speaker 1: be in fear, and no one has been arrested today,
25:04
Speaker 1: and so it doesn't make sense to me. And I'm
25:07
Speaker 1: sure that there is an explanation for that that's plausible,
25:11
Speaker 1: but just as a member of the general public, I
25:15
Speaker 1: just don't understand it. We've got two murders in the
25:17
Speaker 1: Polton County and we've got no arrest. That is very,
25:22
Speaker 1: very interesting. Back to Susan E. Williams, South Carolina criminal
25:25
Speaker 1: defense attorney, former prosecutor and Somerville Susan to make the statement,
25:32
Speaker 1: you don't need to worry public, We've got this under control.
25:37
Speaker 1: You're not in danger. Why would they say that unless
25:42
Speaker 1: they think they know who is the shooter and that
25:45
Speaker 1: shooter poses no threat to anyone else. That's right. Nancy
25:49
Speaker 1: and the investigators have given the public little information, and
25:53
Speaker 1: they say that's to preserve the integrity of the ongoing investigation.
25:57
Speaker 1: So we're left to wonder if this was a random
26:00
Speaker 1: act of violence, or revenge killing, or something else. There
26:04
Speaker 1: has been a one hundred thousand dollar reward offered, and
26:08
Speaker 1: it does have an expiration date, which I also find
26:11
Speaker 1: interesting an expiration date. Tell me about that. The expiration
26:15
Speaker 1: date for the one hundred thousand dollars reward is at
26:19
Speaker 1: the end of September one. I find that very very interesting.
26:24
Speaker 1: I want to go to doctor Michelle Dupree joining me.
26:28
Speaker 1: She's forensic pathologists, former medical examiner author. She literally wrote
26:32
Speaker 1: the book Homicide Investigation Field Guide and to boot former
26:36
Speaker 1: police detective Dodger Dupree, Let's talk about what we know,
26:42
Speaker 1: not about influence what may have happened. Let's talk about
26:46
Speaker 1: what we know happened. We know a mother and son
26:50
Speaker 1: were shot dead in a remote hunting lodge area about
26:54
Speaker 1: a thousand acres that nobody was there. The husband slash
26:59
Speaker 1: father was at the hospital that night. I wonder what
27:03
Speaker 1: visiting hours are at the hospital. But he doesn't get home.
27:07
Speaker 1: While it's not home. He says he's going to quote
27:10
Speaker 1: check on them. This is what we've been told. It's
27:14
Speaker 1: ten o'clock at night, to go check on them. He
27:19
Speaker 1: finds the bodies. How do we know that there were
27:24
Speaker 1: two weapons used? And how can they be identified as
27:27
Speaker 1: an AAR and a shotgun? What? Nancy, That's an excellent question.
27:32
Speaker 1: And one of the ways that we do that is
27:33
Speaker 1: we look at the actual bodies themselves, and we look
27:36
Speaker 1: at the wounds. There may also be evidence of shell
27:39
Speaker 1: casings or something at the scene, which we do not
27:41
Speaker 1: know if they were recovered or not. But looking at
27:44
Speaker 1: a body, a shotgun does a particular kind of injury
27:46
Speaker 1: to a body that we can readily identify as does
27:49
Speaker 1: an assault rifle. There are two totally different kinds of wounds.
27:54
Speaker 1: I would want to know, was it close range? Was
27:57
Speaker 1: it contact? In other words, gun to skin? If I
28:03
Speaker 1: could figure out who was shot first, if the victims ran,
28:06
Speaker 1: were they shot in the back or did they know
28:09
Speaker 1: their attacker? Crime stories with Nancy Grace, guys, we were
28:28
Speaker 1: talking about the double murders of a mother and son
28:32
Speaker 1: founded a remote hunting lodge, their second home, so to speak.
28:37
Speaker 1: Maggie and Paul Murdog are their murders, multiple gunshot execution
28:43
Speaker 1: style murders connected to three previous incidents, one the boating
28:50
Speaker 1: death of a young nineteen year old girl, Mallory Beach,
28:53
Speaker 1: the trip and fall of a houseworker that worked with
28:58
Speaker 1: the Murdogs, and the death of a young man his
29:03
Speaker 1: body found on the side of the road, seemingly a
29:06
Speaker 1: hit and run. How could they be connected? Well, take
29:11
Speaker 1: a listen to our friend Stephen Fabian at Inside Edition.
29:16
Speaker 1: Investigators are trying to determine if there is any possible
29:19
Speaker 1: link with the tragic death two years ago of nineteen
29:22
Speaker 1: year old college student Mallory Beach, who was killed when
29:26
Speaker 1: a boat in which she was a passenger slammed into
29:28
Speaker 1: a bridge during a wild party. All five of us
29:31
Speaker 1: are owning one person and allegedly grossly intoxicated. Paul Murdoch
29:37
Speaker 1: was charged with boating under the influence. He was awaiting
29:41
Speaker 1: trial when he was slain with his mother. Mallory's family
29:44
Speaker 1: has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Murdochs. The
29:48
Speaker 1: Murdoch family is well known in South Carolina. For eighty
29:52
Speaker 1: seven years, three generations of Murdochs have served as local
29:56
Speaker 1: prosecutors over the decades. They've sent thousands of defendants to prison,
30:00
Speaker 1: in more than a dozen men to death row. The
30:03
Speaker 1: list of people who might hate the Murdochs and seek
30:06
Speaker 1: revenge is long, but local reports keep returning to the
30:10
Speaker 1: death of Mallory Beach. Interesting the theory straight out to you.
30:17
Speaker 1: Joining me an all star panel to make sense of
30:20
Speaker 1: it all Susan E. Williams joining me, former prosecutor now
30:23
Speaker 1: defense attorney in South Carolina. The theory would be like
30:26
Speaker 1: a vehicular homicide where you're drunk out of your gourd,
30:31
Speaker 1: you plow in to a mother and son, mother and
30:34
Speaker 1: child in the crosswalk, and it killed both of them.
30:37
Speaker 1: In this case, Paul Murdoch, no doubt about it was drunk.
30:44
Speaker 1: His alter ego had taken over. I think the name
30:47
Speaker 1: was Timmy that his friends called him. When he got
30:50
Speaker 1: so out of his mind drunk, acted like a different person.
30:53
Speaker 1: He had slapped one woman on the boat, was yelling
30:57
Speaker 1: and screaming, insisting on driving. When he plowed into pilings
31:03
Speaker 1: around that bridge, and Malory Beach was thrown off the boat.
31:07
Speaker 1: The theory would be like vehicular homicide it would be
31:11
Speaker 1: a like a voting vehicular homicide, right, correct. Yeah. He
31:16
Speaker 1: was charged with three counts of voting under the influence
31:20
Speaker 1: resulting in death or serious bodily injury. Death or serious
31:26
Speaker 1: bodily injury. Straight out to Matt Harris. Matt, I want
31:29
Speaker 1: you to take a listen to this. This is part
31:33
Speaker 1: of the nine one one call from a Malory Beach
31:36
Speaker 1: was killed. Are you in the water? Are you we're
31:43
Speaker 1: in the boat? Okay, I'm calling reference to the table.
31:53
Speaker 1: I'm sorry vote crash. Six people on board. They currently
32:00
Speaker 1: have one missing. All right. It's an Archer's Creek which
32:04
Speaker 1: is right there off of Parris Island. There's a bridge
32:06
Speaker 1: on Paras Island. They're underneath it. The crushed into the bridge.
32:10
Speaker 1: I want to go straight out to Matt Harris, morning
32:12
Speaker 1: show host w l n K and star of the
32:15
Speaker 1: Murdoch Family Murders, Impact of Influence. Matt, tell me about
32:19
Speaker 1: Mallory Beach's death. Well, the accidents was occurred after a
32:25
Speaker 1: night of partying by the well you called that party
32:30
Speaker 1: in sounds like a big drunk to me. Yeah. Well,
32:33
Speaker 1: they went to a bunch of places. They went to
32:34
Speaker 1: this oyster roast and they stopped by another bar that
32:38
Speaker 1: allegedly Paul insisted on stopping by to get more shots
32:43
Speaker 1: before they went home. And then he took off his clothes.
32:46
Speaker 1: It was only in his boxers with he was driving
32:48
Speaker 1: and screaming. And you're right, woman, Yes, that's allegedly that's
32:53
Speaker 1: the thing that he does it. That's in a deposition,
32:56
Speaker 1: that's in a sworn deposition. They came out of the
32:59
Speaker 1: civil against Paul Murdoch. He has been sued. His uh,
33:05
Speaker 1: the bar that sold them the drinks has been sued,
33:10
Speaker 1: and the brother of Paul Murdog as I recall, who
33:13
Speaker 1: let him use his ID to get the booze, has
33:17
Speaker 1: also been sued. Paul Paul wasn't sued, but you're right,
33:21
Speaker 1: Buster was, and Alec was the father because it was
33:24
Speaker 1: his boat, Buster the fake ID and the store that
33:27
Speaker 1: sold Paul all the liquor um. And you gotta remember
33:30
Speaker 1: when I said his clothes off. It was February and
33:32
Speaker 1: even in South Carolina, that's cold. It was a cold, foggy,
33:35
Speaker 1: really foggy night. And he was in his boxers driving
33:39
Speaker 1: the boat was on the on the in the driven
33:44
Speaker 1: a little bit. But he had said Paul took over
33:47
Speaker 1: and wouldn't let anybody else touch the wheel, and then
33:49
Speaker 1: he was going slow and they started screaming, you know,
33:52
Speaker 1: we got to get home quick. Utton around because he
33:54
Speaker 1: was dancing, and then he just floored it and that's
33:55
Speaker 1: when the crash happened. According to the death and isn't
33:58
Speaker 1: it true that? According to just sworn testimony under oath,
34:04
Speaker 1: it was stated that Paul Murdog the Sun had been
34:10
Speaker 1: overtaken by his altar personality. I believe the name was
34:14
Speaker 1: Timmy that his friends called him when he got so drunk.
34:19
Speaker 1: It was like he had a different personality. Yes, that
34:21
Speaker 1: is true. They called him, they called Timmy, and they
34:23
Speaker 1: said Timmy took over at some point during the evening
34:26
Speaker 1: when they had stopped at another bar after the oyster
34:29
Speaker 1: rose and drink some more shots. Can I ask you
34:31
Speaker 1: why was Paul Murdog out on bond, walking free after
34:34
Speaker 1: this girl's dad because him, well, he had to go
34:37
Speaker 1: in file petition to be able to leave and go
34:41
Speaker 1: to USC went to University of South Carolina, and the
34:46
Speaker 1: judge allowed him to do that, and so he was
34:49
Speaker 1: back at college in the fall. This happened in February.
34:52
Speaker 1: A judge a judge. He went back to a judge
34:55
Speaker 1: that works hand in hand with the District Attorney's office
34:57
Speaker 1: every single day. One of those judges, one of those judges. Okay,
35:03
Speaker 1: guys out walking free. Nineteen year old Mallory Beach is dead.
35:09
Speaker 1: But that's not all. Take a listen to our cut eleven.
35:13
Speaker 1: This is Sophia Desusair WCBDTV, Charleston. Stephen Smith was found
35:21
Speaker 1: dead in a roadway. Original reports say it was a
35:24
Speaker 1: hidden run, but the notes that detail highway patrols years
35:28
Speaker 1: long investigation point to a different story. We obtained photos, videos,
35:32
Speaker 1: and our's worth of interviews, the Murdoch's name coming up repeatedly.
35:37
Speaker 1: The twenty fifteen case now getting a second look by slid.
35:41
Speaker 1: I can't decay now what where's your emergency? It's the
35:43
Speaker 1: call that would spark an investigation into what troopers thought
35:47
Speaker 1: was a hidden run. I was going down a wrong rule.
35:53
Speaker 1: But incident report after incident report shows no sign. Stephen
35:57
Speaker 1: Smith was hit by a car. Steve Smith dead on
36:01
Speaker 1: the side of the road. His mother has always said
36:04
Speaker 1: there was a cover up in this case, that people
36:08
Speaker 1: made up lies because her son that to say Stephen
36:11
Speaker 1: Smith was gay, take a listen to Sophia again to
36:16
Speaker 1: Cisair w c B DTV Charleston. This is our cut.
36:19
Speaker 1: Twelve dozens of interviews we obtained show a complicated web
36:24
Speaker 1: of family members and classmates who knew the nineteen year
36:27
Speaker 1: old and the rumors spreading around Hampton County. You're after
36:31
Speaker 1: green with Stevens lifestyle, but they don't mean did he
36:37
Speaker 1: used to be killed? And nobody used to find out
36:40
Speaker 1: what happened? Within a month, those rumors were pointing to
36:43
Speaker 1: Buster Murdoch, the son and brother of the two Murdochs
36:46
Speaker 1: shot dead in June of this year. D investigators speaking
37:03
Speaker 1: with several people backtracking where the tip originated from and
37:07
Speaker 1: did he say where he heard that room or how
37:10
Speaker 1: he was backing that up? So he just said, oh
37:15
Speaker 1: I heard Mustard did it? Did he say how he
37:18
Speaker 1: did it? Or what happened to Matt Harris Morning show
37:26
Speaker 1: hosts A L n K. So you've got the Molly
37:30
Speaker 1: Beach death. Now you have Stephen Smith, and we don't
37:35
Speaker 1: care if he's gay or straight, or purple or blue.
37:38
Speaker 1: The reality is he's found on the side of the
37:40
Speaker 1: road and it's connected to the Murdoch family. According to
37:44
Speaker 1: reports that they deny. Then you've got a trip and
37:47
Speaker 1: fall of a housekeeper. But I want to circle back
37:50
Speaker 1: to Stephen Smith found on the side of the road.
37:54
Speaker 1: Matt Harris, How, if at all, is that death connected
37:58
Speaker 1: to the Murdoch family. Well, Stephen Smith, she was found
38:02
Speaker 1: in the middle of the road, which is the only reason,
38:05
Speaker 1: appears to be the only reason that the pathologists said
38:10
Speaker 1: it was a hit and run. Rolled it a hit
38:11
Speaker 1: and run because she said, well it's in the middle
38:13
Speaker 1: of the road. That's what I've got to go with.
38:16
Speaker 1: So how is it tied in? The thing that we
38:20
Speaker 1: know now is that something happens. They found some information,
38:23
Speaker 1: They discovered something that sledd during the investigation of the
38:27
Speaker 1: Burdock murders that allowed them to reopen the case because
38:31
Speaker 1: they have some something they found led them back to
38:35
Speaker 1: open the Stephen Smith case. And they went and visits
38:38
Speaker 1: Sandy Smith's home We've been in contact with for over
38:41
Speaker 1: a year now and told her they had opened it
38:44
Speaker 1: based on what they found during that investigation. So that
38:46
Speaker 1: is the immedia time. Now we know that that Stephen
38:49
Speaker 1: Smith was friends with the Murdock boys, played baseball with them.
38:53
Speaker 1: The dad, the older brother coached the team with them.
38:58
Speaker 1: The dad was involved with the team, and even Stephen's
39:02
Speaker 1: father had one of the murdocks representing him in a
39:06
Speaker 1: lawsuit that was going on as well. And Stephen Smith's
39:09
Speaker 1: dad passed soon after Stephen was killed. Now we also
39:13
Speaker 1: know that nineteen year old Stephen Smith was sprawled in
39:16
Speaker 1: the middle of the road, his head bashed in. He
39:19
Speaker 1: was alone. His car was found about two or three
39:21
Speaker 1: miles down the street. According to police, it looked as
39:24
Speaker 1: if he had run out of gas. To doctor Michelle Dupree,
39:28
Speaker 1: joining me, we're noowed medical examiner, doctor Dupree, How can
39:32
Speaker 1: you tell if somebody was beating in the head, dead,
39:34
Speaker 1: left in the middle of the road as opposed to
39:37
Speaker 1: a hit and run. Well, any we look at the injuries,
39:39
Speaker 1: I mean they tell us the facts. A depressed fracture
39:44
Speaker 1: of a skull is going to tell us that they
39:45
Speaker 1: were hit with an object, a baseball bat or whatever
39:48
Speaker 1: it may be. When we look at something to be
39:51
Speaker 1: an automobile accident, we want to see evidence of that.
39:54
Speaker 1: Are there abrasions in places that we would expect to find,
39:57
Speaker 1: are their road rash in other places? I don't think
40:00
Speaker 1: we found that in this case interesting to you, Patrick McDavid,
40:05
Speaker 1: partner with Quick Group Investigations, former Resident Agent in charge
40:10
Speaker 1: of Homeland Security there in Charleston. Patrick, you know, we're
40:16
Speaker 1: investigating the murders of the mom Maggie and the sun Paul,
40:20
Speaker 1: but somehow it's gotten very complicated and the tentacles of
40:27
Speaker 1: this beast are reaching far into very unexpected other cases. Well,
40:33
Speaker 1: there's no question. I think that's the strangest thing that
40:36
Speaker 1: come out of this whole investigation so far is the
40:39
Speaker 1: reopening of the case involving Stephen Smith. Why do you
40:47
Speaker 1: say that, Well, it's just it seemed like it was
40:50
Speaker 1: a cold case. It goes back to twenty fifteen, and
40:53
Speaker 1: there was always rumors about the family be having some
40:58
Speaker 1: knowledge about it and selling. After this investigation gets started,
41:03
Speaker 1: they've reopened that investigation has based on what Pashick McDavid
41:09
Speaker 1: is saying, Isn't it true there are allegations that the
41:12
Speaker 1: Murdoch family clammed up and would not cooperate with the
41:15
Speaker 1: Stephen Smith investigation. Well, I think the interesting thing was
41:20
Speaker 1: also about the Stephen Smith alleged we called it a
41:23
Speaker 1: hit and run at one point, is that the Murdochs
41:26
Speaker 1: were quick on the scene because the glaw firm and
41:30
Speaker 1: they know what these things, so they were there quickly.
41:32
Speaker 1: They even offered uh Sandy Smith, Stephen's mom, to offer
41:39
Speaker 1: to represent her and if she wanted to do a
41:42
Speaker 1: lawsuit and represented for free, and she thought that was odds.
41:45
Speaker 1: There was a court to Sandy, there was a rape
41:48
Speaker 1: kit taken, There was defensive wounds on Stephen Smith on
41:53
Speaker 1: his hands. There was also fingernail clippings that were taken,
41:56
Speaker 1: and now that evidence has been lost, she thinks, so
42:01
Speaker 1: if it was a hit and run for the it
42:03
Speaker 1: seems odd that they'd be doing a rape kit and
42:05
Speaker 1: they'd be doing a gunshot residue test. And because originally
42:09
Speaker 1: the first people on the scene, that the South caron
42:12
Speaker 1: On Highway patrol, thought it was a gunshot, and then
42:16
Speaker 1: they went on to think that people thought maybe it
42:18
Speaker 1: was a beating, and then when they went to the
42:20
Speaker 1: MUSC pathologists, she went with the hit and run. She
42:25
Speaker 1: was the first one in this long chain to say
42:27
Speaker 1: it was a hit and run, and the officers had disagreed.
42:30
Speaker 1: Todd Procts, a big went out there banging the drums
42:32
Speaker 1: saying it does doesn't add up. There was no, no,
42:34
Speaker 1: no debris from the car, a car that would have
42:37
Speaker 1: hit him. He would assume there was some debris. It
42:38
Speaker 1: was none of that because they were supposed to be glad.
42:40
Speaker 1: There was glass on or paint chips on Stephen's black
42:45
Speaker 1: Nike shirt that was a blue paint, which she would
42:48
Speaker 1: think they'd be able to identify what that might belong to.
42:51
Speaker 1: And so there was a lot of things that were
42:54
Speaker 1: adding up to something being not a hit and run.
42:56
Speaker 1: Even at the beginning. So many people are thrilled that
42:59
Speaker 1: it was open because there's only one pathologist that kept
43:02
Speaker 1: saying and run. Rest the people around the case, we're
43:05
Speaker 1: saying it wasn't. Man Harris. How far was Steven's body
43:08
Speaker 1: found from the Murdochs From the Murdoch We're like, the
43:11
Speaker 1: hunting cabinet is, yeah, yeah, it's it's it's it's I
43:16
Speaker 1: don't know how far it is, but this, the road
43:19
Speaker 1: that he was on, is a road that he was
43:21
Speaker 1: found on. I talked to his mom about it was
43:25
Speaker 1: a road that anybody there was a big I think
43:27
Speaker 1: it was a baseball game or a basketball game that night,
43:29
Speaker 1: but that's just the main road the people from that
43:31
Speaker 1: school use to go back and forth. So he went
43:35
Speaker 1: to the same general area. Okay, it's definitely where Murdochs
43:40
Speaker 1: and everybody that went to that high school a road
43:42
Speaker 1: and day traveled. We wait as justice unfalls. No one
43:47
Speaker 1: has been charged, no person of interest has been named,
43:50
Speaker 1: much less a suspect. The Murdock's assists they have nothing
43:54
Speaker 1: to do with any of these cases. So who murdered Maggie?
44:00
Speaker 1: Paul Nancy Gray's crime story signing off goodbye friend, m