Paul Murdaugh’s Cell Phone Video
A short video taken on Paul’s phone played an instrumental role in helping initially convict Alex. The Snapchat clip was recorded around 8:44 p.m., about five minutes before the murders. At the time, Paul attempted to record a video of a friend’s dog who was staying at the kennel. In that very clip, Alex’s voice can be heard calling to Bubba, one of the family’s dogs who had a chicken in his mouth.
“If Bubba didn’t have that chicken maybe we would not have heard Alex's voice on there. But we did, and that I think really helped the jury understand,” Prosecutor Creighton Waters told CBS News.
With multiple witnesses stating that the voice on the video belonged to Alex, he was placed at the scene just moments before the killings.
When Alex took the stand while on trial in 2023, he admitted that he had lied and it was, in fact, his voice on the video. He alleged that he had hidden the truth due to a decades-long opioid addiction that had made him paranoid, and he feared he would be suspected had investigators known he was at the scene.
Suspicious Activity on Alex Murdaugh’s Cell Phone
When evidence was collected from Alex’s cell phone, it was discovered that his phone had been sitting in the family’s home until 9:02 p.m. when there was a sudden burst of movement just minutes after the murders occurred. That included taking 283 steps in four minutes. When asked why he was so busy just minutes after the murders, Alex was unable to give details other than he was getting ready to visit his mother.
He also placed several calls to family and friends, and while it wasn’t unusual for him to be in touch with relatives, prosecutors argued it was an effort to manufacture an alibi.
Alex Murdaugh’s Visit to His Parents
In the hour following Paul and Maggie’s death, Alex paid a visit to his parents to see his ailing mother and father. His car’s GPS data recorded him driving as fast as 80 mph, far exceeding the speed limit on the rural roads that led to his parents’ house, roughly 15 minutes away. But just how long he remained at their home is unclear, marking an inconsistency in his timeline.
While Alex insisted that the visit lasted 40 minutes, in testimony from Mushell “Shelly” Smith, caregiver to Alex’s mother, she recalled that he only stayed for about 20 minutes. Not only was the visit quick, but Smith testified that the interaction made her uneasy enough to immediately contact her brother, who works in law enforcement.
In addition to the rushed visit, Maggie’s sister, Marion Proctor, believed it was “odd” that Maggie had not joined Alex for the trip. Proctor, as well as several other witnesses, testified that Alex had asked Maggie to leave their property in Edisto Beach earlier that day and join him at the family’s hunting estate, which they called Moselle.
While Maggie had not wanted to leave Edisto Beach, Proctor said she encouraged her sister to go support Alex and his ill parents.
“That’s the whole reason she went home that night,” she said in court.
Maggie Murdaugh’s Missing Cell Phone
When authorities arrived at the site of the murder, Maggie’s cell phone was nowhere to be found on the property. A day later, the phone was discovered on a road not far from Moselle. GPS records from Alex’s car revealed that he had driven directly by where Maggie’s phone was dropped on the night of the murders.
In court, the prosecution alleged that Alex threw the phone out of the window of his car while making an attempt to dispose of evidence.
Alex Murdaugh’s Missing Shirt
The morning of Paul and Maggie’s murder, Alex was wearing a blue polo shirt that has never been found. According to testimony from the Murdaugh’s housekeeper, Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson, she recalled fixing the collar of Alex’s shirt that morning. He was later seen wearing that shirt in a video taken by Paul just hours before the murders. Yet the shirt has completely disappeared.
Meanwhile, law enforcement also shared unusual observations about Alex’s clothing and inconsistencies in his stories on the night of the murders. While Alex claimed to have attempted to revive both victims at the scene, his clothing and body showed no traces of blood that he would have acquired if he had gotten that close to Paul and Maggie’s bodies.
The Weapons Used in the Murders
There were two different weapons that were used during the murder: Maggie was shot by a .300 Blackout assault-style rifle while Paul was killed by a 12-gauge shotgun. Prosecutors argued that the weapons belonged to the Murdaugh family, who stored a collection of guns and ammunition on their hunting property.
Although the murder weapons were never found, two Blackout rifles had been known to be a part of the collection. In fact, the crime scene contained rifle shell casings that matched tool markings on weathered casings found near the house—a sign that they had likely been used in the same gun. More cartridges for the rifle were found in a bookcase in the Murdaugh home.
Following the murders, one of the rifles that had belonged to Paul went missing and was never found.
Investigators theorized that Alex brought one of the murder weapons with him when he visited his parents the morning after the killings. Smith testified that Alex unexpectedly came to the house at 6:30 a.m. and appeared to be carrying a bundled up blue vinyl tarp. Although Murdaugh denied doing so, investigators found a blue raincoat with gunshot residue at the house.
It has been speculated that the coat was wrapped around a recently fired weapon which could have been used in the murder and later hidden or destroyed.
