Maggie Murdaugh’s sister cried on the witness stand today as she recalled Alex telling her that whoever shot his wife and son “had thought about it for a very long time”.
Marian Proctor told the court she found it “strange” that Alex didn’t seem concerned the killers might still be out there – he seemed more concerned with finding his son’s name in relation to a fatal boating accident , where he was drunk driving, to cleanse.
Proctor said she didn’t speak to Alex much after that because he was “just really busy.” The whole town came to see him. He was very, very, very torn.’
She later asked if he had any idea who shot Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, at the family hunting property. “We have to find her,” she recalled.
Alex told Proctor he had no idea who killed the couple, but added, “Whoever did it really gave it a lot of thought.” Proctor said she asked Alex if Maggie was suffering and he assured her she wasn’t.
“Now I’m not sure if that’s true,” Proctor told the court.
Marian Proctor told the court on Tuesday that Murdaugh appeared unconcerned that the killers might still be out there and appeared more intent on “clearing his son’s name” after a drunken boat crashed two years ago was.
Alex Murdaugh with his wife Maggie and their two sons Paul (right) and Buster
The 59-year-old said she and Alex never discussed finding the person who could have done it. Proctor found this “strange” because the rest of the family was afraid that whoever killed Maggie and Paul was still out there.
“We lived in fear because we thought this horrible person was living out there, we were mostly afraid for Alex and Buster,” Proctor said.
She said they thought it “probably had something to do with the boat case, and we thought things would change a bit by September”.
At the time of Maggie and Paul’s deaths, Alex and his son were facing a lawsuit over the fatal boating accident in February 2019 that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach. Paul was driving drunk in his father’s boat.
Proctor seemed to suggest that she had changed her mind after Murdaugh’s botched suicide attempt in September. However, it was quickly cut off when the defense objected and the jury was sent out.
Murdaugh allegedly hired his cousin Curtis Smith to shoot him to collect a $9 million life insurance payment for his surviving son, Buster.
In the absence of the jury, Proctor said that she was driving with her husband, Bart Proctor, when he received a call from a friend who offered him his condolences over the shooting of Alex.
“We literally stopped the car that was stopped on the side of the road. I thought whoever killed Maggie and Paul shot Alex by now, and I was horrified that Buster was next,” Proctor said.
Maggie’s sister said they then called Buster, who confirmed Alex had been shot but that “he was fine”.
Proctor said they then spoke to Alex’s attorney, Jim Griffin, who is also one of his trial attorneys. Griffin confirmed that Alex had been shot and that he had recently been fired from his law firm for being caught stealing.
Then, alongside the matter of the botched suicide scam, which the jury hadn’t heard, the state asked the judge if they could ask Proctor about an alleged affair Alex was having with an old college friend and his opioid addiction.
Judge Clifton Newman asked Proctor questions so he could understand what the prosecution wanted the jury to hear and what the defense objected to.
Alex Murdaugh listens during his double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, SC on Tuesday February 14, 2023
At the time of Maggie and Paul’s deaths, Murdaugh and his son were facing a civil lawsuit over the boatwreck that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach in February 2019. Murdaugh told officers Paul and Maggie were killed in revenge for the accident
Proctor confirmed that Maggie had confided in her about an affair she suspected Alex was having with an old college friend about 15 years ago. Alex denied the infidelity and the couple was able to resolve the issue.
However, Maggie’s sister said “it still bothered her” and she only “still brought it up” a year before her death.
Earlier, Proctor told jurors her sister was “cute” and “kind of a free spirit.”
She said Buster and Paul are “her world”.
Proctor said Paul was a “sweet, sweet boy” who was misrepresented by the media after the boat wreck.
When asked by prosecutor Creighton Waters about the accident, she said it was a “devastating blow” to the Murdaughs.
Maggie felt the Hampton community had turned against her, and that was one of the reasons she preferred to spend time at her home in Edisto Beach, Proctor testified.
On the day of the murders, she said she spoke to her sister on the phone while she was driving around 4 p.m.
Maggie told her that Alex “needed her to go home” to the hunting estate because of his father’s deteriorating health.
Later that night, Proctor’s husband received a call from Alex’s brother telling him that there had been a “tragedy.”
“I couldn’t believe it,” she told the jury. ‘I didn’t think it was true.’
Proctor said her husband, Bart, went to Summerville to personally inform her parents.
Her mother was in shock. She was so distraught that she couldn’t keep still and “kept making these noises,” Proctor told the court.
Prosecutors are still presenting evidence but are expected to drop their case tomorrow.
The state says Murdaugh killed the couple to distract from his financial crimes. He embezzled millions from his law firm and faced a lawsuit over his son’s drunken boating accident.
On the day Maggie and Paul were murdered, Murdaugh had been confronted with $792,000 he had stolen from the company.
A hearing was due later that week in the boatwreck lawsuit to determine the status of his finances.
Murdaugh told Beach’s family lawyers that he was broke and the court heard him divert funds from the company to his personal accounts to protect the money from the lawsuit.
Maggie recently confided in her housekeeper that they were being sued for $30 million.
The defense theory is that someone else killed Maggie and Paul in revenge for the boat accident.
They argue that their client was a “loving” husband and father who could never have killed his wife and son. They have branded the state’s alleged financial motivation as “ridiculous.”
Alex Murdaugh is seen at the crime scene of the family’s hunting lodge in Islandton, South Carolina on June 7, 2021. Murdaugh speaks on the phone in the video and tells the officer that his brother is on the line.
PAUL’S BODY: Paul’s body can be seen in front of a door at the Zwinger. The body is blurred
MAGGIE’S BODY: The body of Murdaugh’s wife is blurred in the extreme foreground as he paces near his parked Chevrolet Suburban in a white t-shirt
Murdaugh claims he went to see his mother around 9 p.m. on the night of the murder. The state says Maggie and Paul were killed just after 8:49 p.m. and that video taken by Paul at 8:45 p.m. proves he was at the scene.
Several witnesses, including close family friends, have testified that they can hear Alex, Maggie and Paul’s voices in the footage.
But the alleged killer told investigators he was never inside the kennel.
Murdaugh says the family had dinner together around 8:15 p.m. and that Maggie and Paul went to the kennel while he fell asleep in front of the television.
At 9:06 p.m., his Chevrolet Suburban was started and he visited his mother in Almeda, about 15 minutes away.
He claims he was there for around 40 minutes, although this is disputed by his mother’s caregiver, who said he was only in the house 20 minutes.
Murdaugh says he arrived at the hunting grounds to find Maggie and Paul dead in the kennel. He called 911 at 10:07 p.m.
First responders have testified that they did not examine Maggie or Paul because their injuries were so horrific that they were “incompatible with life”. Two shots went into Maggie’s head while Paul’s brain was completely detached from his skull.
The court has previously heard evidence that when police arrived, Murdaugh’s clothes looked so clean that police believed he had recently changed.
Buster arrives in court Tuesday with his girlfriend Brooklynn White (pink shirt) and Alex’s sister Lynn behind him
Blood tests done on his white T-shirt later came back positive. However, Murdaugh says he touched their bodies to look for signs of life.
Earlier video taken by Paul at 7:56 p.m. that evening shows Murdaugh in a blue shirt, long pants and brown loafers.
The family’s housekeeper, Blanca Simpson, testified last week that she never saw the clothes again.
The state intends to drop its case by Wednesday, at which point the defense will begin calling its own witnesses.
The trial takes place at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, a sleepy, rural town 50 miles west of Charleston in a low-lying region of South Carolina over which the Murdaugh family has wielded immense legal and political power.
In fact, in the courtroom where Murdaugh will be tried, a portrait of his late grandfather — legendary longtime 14th Circuit Solicitor Buster Murdaugh Jr. — hung on the wall before it was removed before the trial.
Maggie’s body was found a few yards to the right of a kennel, while Paul’s lay by the door at the end of the kennel. dr Ellen Riemer described how Paul’s brain was shot out of the back of his head with a shotgun and that the organ arrived at the morgue “in a separate bucket.”
Forensic pathologist Ellen Riemer indicates where the fourth shot at Maggie went through her left breast and into her brain from the underside of her jaw
Following the murder trial, Murdaugh faces more than 100 other criminal charges ranging from drug trafficking to allegations that he stole nearly $9 million from clients and other attorneys.
Prosecutors say Murdaugh lured his wife and son to their 1,700-acre hunting lodge and shot them.
The state also claims his life spiraled out of control amid years of opioid addiction and mounting debt.
Murdaugh pleaded not guilty in June, and the blockbuster trial is expected to include wild allegations of dark family secrets, financial ruin and hedonistic excess.
A total of over 220 people were able to testify against Murdaugh in the trial.
SCHEDULE: NIGHT OF THE KILLS
Alex Murdaugh, 54, is accused of shooting dead his wife Maggie, 52, and younger son Paul, 22, on the night of June 7, 2021 at the family’s hunting property in Islandton, South Carolina.
Here are the key events in the timeline established by the prosecution:
At 7.56pm, Paul sent a Snapchat video to friends showing the 22-year-old driving around the property with his father.
At 8:15 p.m., Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, came home and the trio had dinner together. Autopsies showed similar stomach contents for Maggie and Paul.
Around 8:30 p.m., Paul’s phone moves in the direction of the kennel.
Then, at 8.44pm, a second video taken by Paul in the kennel – soon to lead to a murder scene – allegedly proves Maggie, Paul and Alex were together.
At 8:49 p.m., prosecutors say Paul’s phone was locked and forever silent, never to text again or make another call.
Between 9pm and 9.30pm, Paul and Maggie were killed – according to the coroner.
At 9:06 p.m., Murdaugh’s car is set on fire.
The alleged killer said he was visiting his mother in Almeda, about 15 minutes’ drive away, who has late-stage Alzheimer’s disease.
At 10:07 p.m., Murdaugh called 911 and claimed he got home to find his wife and son shot.