Mallory Beach's Death and Its Connection to the Murdaugh Murders

South Carolina’s Supreme Court overturned the murder convictions of Alex Murdaugh on May 13, 2026, finding that a county clerk had intervened during the trial and suggested to the jury that he was guilty. Prosecutors said they intend to retry.

Alex, who was convicted of the murders of his wife and son in 2023, will remain in prison because he was also found guilty of financial crimes, including the theft of about $12 million from his clients. 

The case gained national attention because Alex is the fourth-generation son of an affluent family of lawyers in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. Different members of the family served as 14th Circuit Solicitor for over 80 consecutive years and ran a firm specializing in personal injury law.

Alex’s alleged crimes sent shockwaves through the entire country. However, the crumbling of South Carolina’s most prominent legal dynasty did not begin with him. Paul Murdaugh, the son Alex was previously convicted of killing, was a defendant in his own case, stemming from a boating accident two years before he and his mother were fatally shot on the Murdaugh estate.

Paul, the younger of Alex’s two sons, was a student at the University of South Carolina like his parents before him, studying criminology, though he frequently returned home on the weekends. On February 23, 2019, when he was 19, Paul used the ID of his older brother, Buster, to buy alcohol before arriving at a Murdaugh property on Chechessee Creek to begin a night of partying. He was joined by his girlfriend, Morgan Doughty, and four friends: cousins Connor and Anthony Cook and their respective girlfriends, Miley Altman and Mallory Beach. All of them were underage.

That night, the friends ate at an oyster roast before returning to the boat. Surveillance footage shows Paul and Connor ordering shots at a bar later that night, where Paul became aggressive with a patron.

Passengers attested that when they reunited with their friends, Paul appeared intoxicated.

They traveled on the water of Beaufort River for some time before Paul began driving the boat in circles, frustrating the passengers and prompting arguments between them. Morgan accused Paul of spitting on and slapping her as he defended his control over the boat.

Around 2:20 a.m., the boat accelerated and crashed into the pilings of R.C. Berkeley Bridge at Archers Creek, flinging three of them into the water, including Mallory. The fog on the water was thick. The friends were able to locate two of the people who had been thrown in, but Mallory remained missing.

A few minutes later, Connor, who broke his jaw in the incident, called 911 to declare the crash and report Mallory’s disappearance.

The influence of Paul’s family on the case became apparent as soon as police arrived.

At the scene, Anthony told police: “Do y’all know Alex Murdaugh? That’s his son. Good luck.”

He and three other passengers were taken to the hospital, and investigators soon followed to interview Paul and Connor. But when Alex and Paul’s grandfather arrived, all interviews reportedly ended. Alex attempted to speak to each of the injured passengers. Connor testified that Alex told him that he “didn’t need to tell anyone who was driving.”

Despite noting that everyone on the boat was “grossly intoxicated,” police did not give Paul a sobriety test at the scene. Instead, the hospital there sampled Paul’s blood around 4 a.m. and found his blood alcohol content was three times the legal limit.

Law enforcement and volunteers searched for Mallory for eight days. Her body was found in the water on March 3, 2019. Her family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Paul on March 29. Then, on April 18, Paul was indicted and charged with felony counts of boating under the influence, including one count resulting in death and two resulting in great bodily harm.

Judges in the 14th judicial district, where the boat crash occurred and where the Murdaugh family has the greatest influence, recused themselves, and instead a 15th circuit judge presided over Paul’s bond hearing. At the hearing, Paul was never handcuffed and wore regular clothes in his mugshot instead of the typical orange jumpsuit. 

Paul never stood trial for the charges against him. On June 7, 2021, he was fatally shot on his family’s rural hunting estate in Islandton, S.C., alongside his mother, Maggie, at about 9 p.m.

Alex claimed that he had visited his mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, at the time of the shootings, but his story was inconsistent with phone and driving data.

Slowly, prosecutors closed in on Alex, who was placed at the scene just moments before the killings. In the meantime, over the course of several months, Alex was arrested and charged with criminal financial charges. It wasn’t until July 14, 2022, that he was indicted for the killings of his wife and son.

Paul’s boat crash case had dragged on for years since he was indicted. His father’s case only took several months. On March 3, 2023, after weeks of testimony, Alex was convicted of murdering Maggie and Paul. Since the state Supreme Court decision, it remains to be seen where Alex will be retried.

Mallory's family has pursued wrongful death lawsuits against the Murdaugh family, the bar owner, the family who hosted the oyster roast and Parker’s Kitchen, the convenience store chain that sold Paul alcohol.

The family who hosted the oyster roast, the bar owner and Paul’s grandfather quickly settled with Mallory’s family. In 2023, Parker’s settled with Mallory’s family for $15 million, along with payouts for four survivors of the crash. But the family sued Parker’s again, claiming that the founder had hired people to harass the family during the case. 

Three years after Paul was murdered, Alex also settled with the boat’s insurer agreeing to pay out $500,000.

As for the killing of Mallory, the charges against Paul have been dropped.