The 8:44 p.m. video on Paul's phone that placed Alex Murdaugh at the kennels
The phone was in Paul Murdaugh’s hand, or near it, at 8:44 p.m. on June 7, 2021.
The video it recorded captured voices.
Investigators later identified those voices as Alex Murdaugh’s and Paul’s.
Alex Murdaugh had told investigators he was away from the property that evening, visiting his mother.
The video places him at the kennels near the murder scene around the time of the shootings.
It is a single timestamp.
It contradicts an alibi.
What else did that video capture?
Did it capture the argument that preceded the shots?
Did it capture the moment before the shotgun and the rifle were used?
Did it capture a father and a son in a place where a father said he was not?
That would require evidence the record does not establish.
The video’s full contents beyond the voices are not in the record.
The exact time of the murders is not established.
The weapons were a shotgun and a rifle.
Neither was ever recovered.
The video remained on Paul’s phone after Paul was gone.
It remained after Maggie was gone.
It remained as a documented fact that Alex Murdaugh was at the kennels when he said he was not.
The timestamp is the weight.
It is small.
It is precise.
It unravels the story told to investigators.
THE 911 CALL AND THE BODIES
June 7, 2021.
Paul Murdaugh, 22, and his mother, Margaret "Maggie" Murdaugh, 52, were found shot to death at the family's hunting estate in Colleton County, South Carolina, near the town of Islandton.
Paul was shot twice with a shotgun.
Maggie was shot multiple times with a rifle.
Their bodies were discovered by Paul's father, Richard "Alex" Murdaugh, who called 911 that evening.
What Alex Murdaugh said during that call is not in the record.
The call brought law enforcement to the estate, and the scene they found was violent and immediate.
The weapons were different.
The killings were separate acts, distinct in their method.
The family was not anonymous.
The Murdaughs held legal and political prominence in the region, a name that carried weight in courthouses and county offices.
That prominence made the case national news within days.
It made the violence harder to square.
A prominent family, a hunting estate, two bodies found by the husband and father.
The timeline began with that call.
The investigation would follow the phone data, the video, the clothes, the tarp.
But the first fact was the discovery.
Paul was on the ground.
Maggie was on the ground.
Alex Murdaugh made the call that evening, and the record of what he said is absent.
The absence matters.
It is a gap the prosecution would later try to fill with other evidence, and the defence would point to as a missing piece.
For now, the bodies were found, the call was made, and the case had begun.
THE PROSECUTION'S CASE
The investigation was conducted by SLED, with David Owen as the lead agent.
It was SLED that pulled the phone data. It was SLED that watched the video on Paul's phone.
The video, recorded at 8:44 p.m. on June 7, 2021, captured voices later identified as Alex Murdaugh's and Paul's.
That placed Alex Murdaugh at the kennels near the murder scene around the time of the shootings.
It contradicted what he had told investigators. He had said he was away, visiting his mother.
Investigators also found that Alex Murdaugh had changed his clothes. They found he had disposed of a blue tarp.
The murder weapons — a shotgun and a rifle — were never recovered.
The trial began in January 2023 in Colleton County, with Judge Clifton Newman presiding.
The prosecution was led by Creighton Waters of the South Carolina Attorney General's Office.
Waters argued that Alex killed his wife and son to distract from an impending financial fraud investigation.
That is the prosecution's argument. The record does not establish it as fact.
The state presented extensive forensic and digital evidence. The phone video was a key piece.
Buster Murdaugh, the surviving son, testified at trial. He was not accused of any wrongdoing.
The defence, led by Dick Harpootlian, argued that Alex was a grieving father and husband. The defence contended the evidence was circumstantial.
The prosecution's case was a stack of small things. A video. A change of clothes. A tarp.
Each piece was physical. Each piece was placed.
The defence would need to break the stack. That would require evidence.
THE DEFENCE'S ANSWER
The defence, led by Dick Harpootlian and James Griffin, argued that Alex Murdaugh was a grieving father and husband.
The state’s case was circumstantial, they contended.
No motive. No weapon. No direct witness.
Prosecutors pointed to the 8:44 p.m. video on Paul’s phone, the change of clothes, the discarded tarp.
The defence argued those were the pieces of a grieving man’s fog, not a killer’s plan.
They said the state had not proven motive or opportunity beyond a reasonable doubt.
The specific rebuttals the defence offered to the 8:44 p.m. video are not detailed in the record.
That gap remains.
Not because the video was ignored. But because the trial record does not say how they answered it.
Buster Murdaugh, the surviving son, took the stand.
He testified.
He was not accused of any wrongdoing.
The jury heard his words, then weighed the stack.
On March 2, 2023, they found Alex Murdaugh guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.
The grieving father became the convicted father.
What tipped the scale?
The video. The clothes. The tarp.
Or the absence of a story that broke them.
The defence would need to break the stack.
That would require evidence.
The jury decided they had not.
AND THE STORY STILL ISN'T OVER
The sentence was two life terms, stacked, without parole.
Judge Newman denied the motion for a new trial.
Alex Murdaugh has since filed appeals.
In 2024, his defense team sought a new trial again, alleging jury tampering by a court clerk.
Hearings on that matter were ongoing as of late 2024.
The outcome of those hearings is not in the record.
It is not established that any tampering occurred.
What is established is that the verdict did not close the case.
It is a case that keeps producing motions, allegations, and appeals.
It is also a case with a hole in it.
The murder weapons — a shotgun and a rifle — were never recovered.
That is a fact the state did not need, and the defense could not use.
Alex Murdaugh, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to numerous federal and state financial crimes, including fraud and money laundering.
Those pleas brought additional sentences.
He is serving two life terms at a South Carolina prison.
The financial crimes were real, admitted, and documented.
The murders were contested, tried, and convicted.
The two things sit side by side in the record.
The appeals continue.
The weapons remain unfound.
The story still isn't over.
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