Live: Jurors in Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial travel to Moselle, site of the slayings

The trial against Alex Murdaugh, the ginger-haired scion of a powerful legal family, began Jan. 23 in Colleton County. He’s charged with double murder in the June 2021 slayings of his wife and youngest son.

The Post and Courier has three reporters covering the criminal trial from the Walterboro courthouse. Frequent updates from testimony and court proceedings will be posted here throughout the day, with the latest information appearing at the top.

Read more about the Murdaugh saga, including our in-depth profiles and past trial coverage.

5:18 p.m. update:

Waters reminded jurors when he’d asked Murdaugh whether he was a “family annihilator.”

“Did you see him do this?” Waters asked, bobbing his head to mimic Murdaugh on the stand. “Did you see him do that on those videos, too, when asked questions where we now know he was lying?”

It’s the most “classic tell ever,” the prosecutor argued.

Murdaugh is “trying to sell” jurors on an idea that he was at the kennels, jetted back to the house, took the “shortest nap in the history of the South” and left the property mere seconds after a pair of 5-foot-2 vigilantes, Waters said.

These supposed vigilantes would have to know both Maggie and Paul were alone at the kennels, they’d have to know the spacious property well and they’d have to assume they were going to find weapons and ammunition there, he said.

“Those are the circumstances that you’d have to accept,” Waters told jurors.

Murdaugh was “facing complete ruin” on June 7, 2021, Waters said: His father, whom Murdaugh idolized, was dying; his son was facing criminal charges in the boat case; he was facing a civil action that threatened to expose his thefts; he had an opioid addiction.

“The entire illusion of his life was about to be altered. He couldn’t live for that,” Waters said. “He’s the kind of person for which shame is an extraordinary provocation.”

Murdaugh’s ego “couldn’t stand that,” Waters said, looking jurors in their eyes: “He became a family annihilator.”

Paul and Maggie were eyewitnesses to this crime, but prosecutors couldn’t bring them to jurors because they’re dead, Waters said. They still deserve a voice — common sense and human nature will have to speak for them, he said.

Murdaugh fooled everyone who thought they were close to him, Waters said.

“He fooled Maggie and Paul, too, and they paid for it with their lives,” the prosecutor said. “Don’t let him fool you too.”

Waters thanked the jury for their attention during such a lengthy trial before ending his argument.

Newman dismissed jurors until 9:30 a.m. March 2, when they’ll return to hear defense attorneys’ closing argument. 

4:46 p.m. update:

Waters went over the findings of the pathologist who performed Maggie and Paul’s autopsies as well as Kenneth Kinsey, the state’s crime scene expert.

Kinsey testified Feb. 28 that evidence shows the shooter could’ve easily been 6 feet 4 inches — Murdaugh’s height — given the situation’s fluidity and many variables at play.

Waters went over forensic evidence recovered from the crime scene, including gunshot residue on Murdaugh’s hands and the Suburban’s seatbelt. Its steering wheel also tested positive for blood and Maggie’s DNA.

The prosecutor spoke again about the testimony Murdaugh himself offered Feb. 23 and 24. Murdaugh said the multiple dogs kept at the kennels that night weren’t barking or acting as if someone unknown was nearby.

Waters reminded jurors of testimony that Murdaugh changed clothes that night, and that the ones he was wearing at the crime scene smelled like “fresh laundry.”

They’ve heard testimony from several witnesses who said Murdaugh didn’t seem overly concerned with figuring out what happened to Maggie and Paul, or about potential threats to Buster, the prosecutor said.

“He knows the only threat is him,” Waters said, pointing to Murdaugh at the defense table.

And he reminded jurors Murdaugh has never publicly said he wishes he’d been at the kennels when his wife and son were gunned down.

Murdaugh has never said, “If only I had gone to the kennels, if only I could have stopped it, if only I had been there a little longer,” Waters told them. Instead, he testified: “I got out of there.”

Murdaugh “tried to convince” jurors his paranoia and distrust of SLED caused him to lie about being at the kennels, Waters said. But this is the same man who testified he’d drive around with a badge from the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office displayed in his windshield, who had blue lights installed in his personal car, he said.

“People lie because they knew they did something wrong,” Waters said.

4:20 p.m. update:

Waters went over Murdaugh’s return trip to Moselle during which he makes a flurry of short phone calls, each one helping him to manufacture and alibi, the prosecutor said. 

“He spends a whole lot of time trying to call Rogan Gibson,” Waters said — including before calling Buster to tell him about the slayings.

Waters accused Murdaugh of seeing the text messages from Gibson on Paul’s phone when he picked it up, suggesting the defendant was worried about what Gibson might know.

Waters outlines what he calls Murdaugh’s “consciousness of guilt” in the wake of the killings. Shelley Smith, a caretaker of Murdaugh’s mother, testified he tried to get her to say Murdaugh was at Almeda longer than he was that night.

Smith also mentioned she saw Murdaugh place a “huge raincoat,” covered on the inside with gunshot residue, in an upstairs closet where SLED agents ultimately found it, Waters said.

The prosecutor played jurors clips from each of Murdaugh’s three interviews with SLED agents over the course of their investigation, encouraging them to pay close attention to his body language during the parts in which they now know he lied.

3:55 p.m. update:

Data shows Murdaugh left Moselle Road at 9:07 p.m. to visit his mother in Almeda.

Waters wondered why, after Murdaugh had made two unanswered calls to Maggie between 9:02 p.m. and 9:06 p.m., he wouldn’t have spent the minute it took to drive by the kennels and check on his wife and son.

Murdaugh arrived to Almeda at 9:22 p.m., according to his car data. But he doesn’t call his mother’s caretaker until 9:24 p.m. to be let into the house, Waters pointed out.

Murdaugh’s cell phone records 195 steps taken between 9:22 p.m. and 9:32 p.m. And two “system startups” are recorded on the Suburban around 9:31 p.m., which could be triggered by Murdaugh walking near his car carrying his key, Waters said. 

“He’s a busy guy during all of this,” the prosecutor said.

Prosecutors have previously suggested Murdaugh stashed evidence, including the murder weapons, on the Almeda property.

3:35 p.m. update:

Even if jurors give Murdaugh the benefit of the doubt, his new story about the events of that night doesn’t make sense, Waters argued.

Murdaugh testified he’d driven down to the kennels after Maggie and Paul in a golf cart. He chatted with his wife and son and caught a chicken from his dog’s mouth before driving back to the main house in the golf cart.

Even if Murdaugh did all of this as he claimed, quickly and wordlessly, it would still place him at the main house at 8:49 p.m., Waters said. Car data shows he left the house at 9:02 p.m. after taking the “quickest nap ever,” Waters said.

“It doesn’t make sense, ladies and gentlemen,” he told jurors. 

Murdaugh’s new alibi is the defendant’s most blatant lie yet, Waters said.

The prosecutor went on to describe his theory on how the killings went down. Murdaugh shot Paul first in his chest as the 22-year-old was standing defenseless inside the feed room. But that first shot didn’t kill him.

Murdaugh was startled to see his son walked through the doorway, clutching his bloody chest, Waters said. He was about to put down the shotgun so he could grab the rifle and shoot Maggie, but he shot Paul again and “blows his brains out,” Water’s said, supposing this explains the sharp upward angle. 

Murdaugh, a lawyer, would’ve thought through his crime, Waters said: He knew using two different guns would confuse people and make them think there were two shooters.

Maggie hears the two shots and is “running to her baby,” Waters said. Murdaugh picks up the .300-Blackout rifle and fires it at close range, firing two parallel shots into her chest and thigh, Waters said.

The wounds cause Maggie to “crumple over,” at which point her husband fires the final two fatal shots, Waters said.

The shootings occurred between 8:49 p.m. and 8:53 p.m., Waters said. He mentioned the hose kept at the kennels.

“If you’re going to wash off real quick, what better place to do it?” Waters asked, showing jurors photos of puddles at the crime scene. “It wouldn’t take long to strip down and wash yourself off, get in that (golf) cart and head back to the house.”

Murdaugh’s cell phone begins recording steps at 9:02 p.m. after nearly an hour of inactivity, data shows. It records 283 steps in a 4-minute period, and Murdaugh is “making calls like crazy,” Waters said.

The prosecutor pointed out that, when asked on the stand, Murdaugh said he couldn’t remember what he was doing in this short time period. Waters hypothesized he was stashing Maggie’s phone inside his Chevrolet Suburban.

Murdaugh knows he’s “got to compress those timelines” to be able to convincingly lie about his whereabouts that evening, Waters said. 

3:06 p.m. update:

Paul too was killed with a family weapon, Waters said — a shotgun that also remains missing.

The prosecutor walked jurors through three Benelli Super Black Eagle shotguns, each a different series.

Paul favored the Series 3, multiple witnesses testified. This is the gun Murdaugh said he grabbed for protection after finding Maggie and Paul’s bodies.

Shells found inside the feed room where Paul died had matching class characteristics with this weapon, Waters said. Human blood and Maggie’s DNA was found on its receiver.  

Buster had the Series 2, which SLED agents recovered inside the Moselle residence.

But the Super Black Eagle 1 — Murdaugh’s favorite, one witness testified — is still nowhere to be found, Waters said.

The prosecutor brought up SLED’s forensic timeline showing the family’s movements the day of June 7, 2021, based on car and cell phone data.

At 8:44:55 p.m., Paul recorded a video inside the kennels.

Investigators didn’t uncover it until April 2022, but when they did, it changed everything, Waters said: It placed Murdaugh at the crime scene and exposed his lies about the last time he saw his wife and son alive.

“Why in the world would an innocent, reasonable father and husband lie about that, and lie about it so early?” Waters asked. “Because he didn’t know (the video) was there.”

Waters’s timeline places Paul and Maggie’s time of death around 8:49 p.m., when their phones lock for the final time. Investigators now know Murdaugh had been with them, at the crime scene, minutes before they died, Waters said — despite Murdaugh’s story he’d been at the main house taking a nap.

And only after listening to multiple witnesses testify they could hear him in the video did Murdaugh cop to his lie, Waters argued. The defendant was “forced” into doing what he does all the time: coming up with a new lie after being confronted with evidence he can no longer deny, Waters said.

2:40 p.m. update: 

Jurors have returned from the lunch break. Waters is continuing his closing argument. He’s talking about the “means,” or tools Murdaugh allegedly used to kill Maggie and Paul.

Waters told jurors about the three .300 Blackout rifles purchased by the Murdaughs since 2016. The first, a Christmas gift for Buster, was found inside the gun room at Moselle. Multiple witnesses testified the second, a Christmas gift for Paul, went missing sometime in 2017.

The third — Paul’s replacement rifle — is the gun at issue, Waters said. This rifle was used to fatally shoot Maggie five times, he said, and has never been recovered.

Murdaugh “slipped up” and testified he and Paul did not have a Blackout rifle with them when they rode around Moselle the day of the killings, apparently looking for hogs, Waters said.

Murdaugh also told investigators he thought the family’s third Blackout had gone missing around Christmastime in 2020, the prosecutor said.

But another witness testified he was with Paul in spring 2021 when they shot this replacement gun near Moselle’s main residence. SLED agents later found .300 Blackout rounds in the same spot. They matched rounds recovered near Maggie’s body, Waters said. 

1:31 p.m. update:

Waters brought up Murdaugh’s admitted 20-year opioid addiction. The defendant testified he was taking 1,000 milligrams per day.

“Does that sound survivable?” Waters asked jurors, encouraging them to use their common sense.

The prosecutor said he has “no doubt” Murdaugh was addicted to prescription pills — just not the amount he claimed.

Murdaugh continued to look people in their eyes and lie, even on the stand, Waters argued.

In addition to the mounting pressure of Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes, Murdaugh faced pressure from Maggie and Paul surrounding his pill habit, Waters said. Paul had texted Murdaugh in May 2021 telling him they needed to talk because Maggie had found pills.

Newman dismissed jurors for their lunch break in the middle of Waters’ argument. Court will resume at 2:20 p.m.

1:24 p.m. update:

Waters stressed to jurors they are the ones who get to decide which witnesses and evidence are credible. “Beyond a reasonable doubt” — the burden which prosecutors must meet in their case — doesn’t have to overcome every possible doubt, he said.

And circumstantial evidence is just as strong as direct evidence, Waters told jurors. The law makes no distinction between the two. (Murdaugh’s defense attorneys have previously pointed out prosecutors have only circumstantial evidence in their case.)

Waters continued to break down the “gathering storm” around Murdaugh. The criminal and civil matters stemming from the boat crash endangered his family legacy and threatened to expose who he really was, Waters said.

If his alleged thefts were realized, Murdaugh knew he’d lose his career and lawyer’s license. He’d face consequences “like he’s never seen,” Waters said.

Waters reminded jurors Murdaugh is someone who’s trained to understand how to put together and prosecute a criminal case. He understands the law. He’s delivered closing arguments before, Waters said. And Murdaugh knows how to construct a defense and an alibi, he said.

The prosecutor recalled a moment from Murdaugh’s own testimony in this trial. Waters had painstakingly outlined several of Murdaugh’s cases in which he’s accused of stealing money from clients.

Each time, Murdaugh had to sit down, look someone in the eye and convince them he was doing the right thing, Waters said.

But Murdaugh wasn’t able to recount for jurors a single conversation he’d had with one of those clients that had stuck with him — that’s how easily the lies came to him, Waters said.

“He didn’t want to talk about any of those individuals who trusted him,” the prosecutor said, “as he looked you in the eye and asked you to do the same.”

12:47 p.m. update:

Murdaugh’s “saving grace” came in spring 2021, Waters said. He won a case with his close friend Chris Wilson, an attorney at a different firm. Murdaugh convinced Wilson to send the $792,000 he’d collected in legal fees directly to his personal account — not his law firm, thus violating an agreement.

But that money lasted only two months before Murdaugh ran out of money again, Waters said.

Meanwhile, the civil case relating to the 2019 boat crash loomed large. Attorney Mark Tinsley testified he was trying to get a personal recovery from Murdaugh of $10 million. Tinsley, like many others, believed Murdaugh was wealthy, Waters said. 

When Murdaugh claimed he was broke, Tinsley tried to get him to hand over his financial records. That hearing was scheduled for June 10, 2021.

On June 7, 2021, when Murdaugh was working on those financial disclosure forms, a law firm employee confronted him about missing fees from the case he’d worked with Wilson.

Murdaugh got word that same day his father Randolph was very sick. Randolph was always someone the defendant could rely on for money, Waters said. His declining health added to the mounting pressure, all of which ultimately caused Murdaugh to kill Maggie and Paul, Waters said.

The “forensic timeline” puts Murdaugh at the crime scene, he said, pulling out his cell phone for emphasis. The use of Murdaugh’s family weapons corroborates it, Waters said. And his “lies and guilty actions” in the wake of the killings confirm his guilt, the prosecutor said.

Everything changed after June 7, 2021.

“All those things that were coming to a head immediately go away,” Waters said. “It’s a different world now.”

No one asked Murdaugh about the missing legal fees. Tinsley believed a jury would no longer find Murdaugh responsible in the civil lawsuit. The financial hearing went away.

Everyone rallied around Murdaugh, Waters said.

But when accountability arrived at his doorstep in September 2021, after colleagues had discovered Murdaugh’s alleged thefts and confronted him, Murdaugh again became a victim, Waters said.

He crafted an elaborate lie about being shot on the side of the road by an unknown assailant, even going so far as to draw a composite sketch of the supposed shooter, Waters said.

This time, Murdaugh’s lies fell apart “a little quicker,” he said.

12:31 p.m. update:

Jurors are back inside the courtroom after their trip to Moselle. Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters is delivering the state’s closing argument.

He began by telling jurors Murdaugh is the person brutally killed his wife and son at the dog kennels on June 7, 2021.

An exhaustive investigation by SLED agents revealed only one person with the motive, the means and the opportunity to carry out these crimes, Waters said — and whose “guilty conduct after these crimes betrays him.”

Murdaugh was “living a lie,” Waters said. A “storm” was descending upon both him, Maggie and Paul, Waters said.

The prosecutor described Murdaugh as a person of “singular prominence and respect” in his community, and someone who’s also been able to avoid accountability all his life.

Waters outlined Murdaugh’s alleged financial schemes in which he’d steal money from his family members, law firm, legal clients and others who trusted him.

All the while, Murdaugh continued to earn a large salary at the firm while also borrowing millions from “wherever he can” — but it still wasn’t enough, Waters said. 

For a time, his schemes worked, Waters said. Murdaugh’s “slow burn” of theft and deceit continued until a boat crash in February 2019.

“That changed everything,” Waters said, mentioning both the criminal and civil charges ultimately brought against Murdaugh, his wife and two children.

The pace of Murdaugh’s stealing increased, and he became more bold in his thefts, Waters argued. His family suddenly found themselves in a negative spotlight as a result of media attention on the boat crash case.

11:03 a.m. update:

Vans carrying the jurors pulled out of the kennels and stopped in the middle of the road, per a Post and Courier reporter near the property. The jurors got out at 4152 Moselle Road, appearing to look at something.

They got back into the vans just before 10 a.m. and left the area. The jury’s viewing of the Moselle property ended after about an hour and 15 minutes.

10:48 a.m. update:

Bauerlain: At 10:07 a.m., Dick Harpootlian and co-counsel Margaret Fox came down the short driveway in Mr. Harppotlian’s black Mercedes. Mr. Harpootlian said the jury is now at the house and is wrapping up their tour. Defense lawyer Jim Griffin is delivering the closing argument as soon as this afternoon and was not with his colleagues.

Your pool was informed by deputies that Attorney General Alan Wilson is here, too, escorted by Sgt. Daniel Greene. It was Sgt. Greene’s bodycam video the jury viewed at the close of the prosecution’s questioning of Mr. Murdaugh late last week.

Your pool is still staged at the foot of the driveway. The birdsong is constant and beautiful; the sky is still overcast.

The grass on the property is tall and the shrubs outside the caretaker’s cabin are bushy and overgrown. The black mailbox at the entrance to the kennels is covered in pollen and spiderwebs. There is a “no trespassing” sign tied to a post at the top of the mailbox.

10:23 a.m. update:

Bauerlain: At 9:37 a.m., your pool turned on Moselle Road. We could see the truck carrying Ms. Hill and Ms. Harris ahead of us, but the jury was out of view as we travelled the last several miles to Moselle itself.

Colleton County is vast, one of the largest counties by square miles in the state. It is roughly the size of sprawling Horry County in square mileage with a fraction of the population. The jurors heard testimony that even though the 911 call came in at 10:06 p.m., it took until 10:22 p.m. for the first deputy to arrive on the scene. The vastness of the place and the remoteness of Moselle really hits home on the drive. Your pool can go a mile or more without seeing a home.

At 9:41 a.m., your pool turned into the kennel entrance at Moselle. There were at least six vehicles on the far side of Moselle Road with journalists taking pictures and videos. So the road is not blocked in the manner we had been told to expect though there are deputies guarding the entrance.

Your pool van pulled briefly up the short drive to the kennels and did a quick circle around the kennel area and shed before coming back to wait at the foot of the driveway on Moselle Road.

The jury preceded us by several minutes. We had a few seconds to view them as they walked the narrow path between the kennels and the shed. One juror was standing in the feed room door, glancing up at the doorway that has been the subject of so much wrenching testimony. Judge Newman was with them, standing still, looking down. He was in street clothes.

Some of the deputies on watch while the jurors tour are some of the key witnesses in the case, including Colleton County Detective Laura Rutland, who sat in on Alex Murdaugh’s first interview with State Law Enforcement Division agent David Owen in the early hours of June 8, 2021. They were parked that night in Owen’s SUV to get out of the rain.

It is overcast now and the air feels heavy. Your pool can hear birds singing and is writing this dispatch from the tailgate of a sheriff’s office pickup truck parked at the foot of the kennel driveway. Your pool is about 100 yards from the green caretaker’s cottage where Buster testified he had lived with friends over the years. There is a light breeze. 

9:47 a.m. update:

The 12 jurors and two remaining alternates gathered at 9 a.m. at the Colleton County Courthouse to leave for their viewing of Moselle, the Murdaughs’ spacious hunting property where Maggie and Paul were killed. Judge Clifton Newman agreed with defense attorneys Feb. 27 that jurors could see the site for themselves.

Only the jurors, Newman, attorneys from both sides, court personnel and law enforcement officers are allowed on the visit. Newman decided to permit one pool reporter, photographer and videographer to enter Moselle after the jury viewing. They’ll be allowed to stay for 30 minutes.

The Post and Courier will be including updates from the pool reporter, Valerie Bauerlein of The Wall Street Journal, as they come in.

Bauerlein: (The jurors) were loaded into three transport vans in the secured and gated area behind the courthouse. The windows were blocked to keep anyone from looking in. The vans left the courthouse at 9:10 a.m

Behind the jury was a phalanx of security vehicles and court personnel. Judge Clifton Newman rode in a pickup truck driven by Colleton County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jason Chapman. You may remember Capt. Chapman from the first full day of testimony; he was the lead local officer the night of June 7, 2021, at Moselle. He testified about Alex Murdaugh’s demeanor and the challenges of securing a scene in rainy conditions.

Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill and Court Reporter Elizabeth Harris followed the judge in a truck driven by Mike Atwood, who has led courthouse security for the duration of the trial. It was Mr. Atwood who told the judge about the bomb threat mid-trial.

It is a beautiful morning, sunny and warm. We are told the ground will be wet when we arrive and the warm weather is prone to bringing out snakes.

The logistics are: the jury will be taken through the kennel entrance and have a total of 30 minutes to view the property. They will spend the bulk of their time at the kennels and the shed where Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were killed. Towards the end of the visit, the jury will be taken to the main house for a view of the exterior. They will not go inside.

During the jury view, your pool will be staged on Moselle Road. The sheriff’s office will have the road blocked for security. It is not clear how much we will be able to see of the jury as they tour. Once the jury leaves Moselle, we will have 30 minutes to tour the property and like them, be taken up for a quick view of the exterior of the main house.