The 8:44 p.m. video that broke Alex Murdaugh's alibi — and the appeal that may decide his fate
The video is dark, grainy, and just over a minute long.
It was recorded at 8:44 p.m. on June 7, 2021, from Paul Murdaugh's phone.
It shows Alex Murdaugh at the dog kennels on the family's hunting estate in Colleton County, South Carolina.
The bodies of Paul, 22, and Maggie, 52, were found shot to death at those same kennels later that night.
Two weapons were used — a shotgun and a rifle, both owned by the Murdaugh family.
Alex had told investigators he was napping at the time of the murders.
The timestamp places him at the scene instead.
The prosecution presented the video during the trial as evidence that Alex's alibi was false.
He had sworn he was asleep.
The video says otherwise.
It is a documented piece of evidence, pulled from the dead son's phone.
It is not established that the video alone proves Alex Murdaugh's guilt.
It is one piece of evidence in a larger case.
Cell phone data, gunshot residue, DNA analysis, testimony about motive.
A jury weighed all of it.
The timestamp is the hinge.
The frame holds a man where he said he wasn't.
What else does the record hold?
THE 911 CALL AND THE BODIES
The 911 call came at 10:06 p.m.
Alex Murdaugh told the dispatcher he had found his wife and son shot at the family's hunting estate in Colleton County, South Carolina.
He said he had just returned from visiting his mother.
Paul, 22, and Maggie, 52, were dead at the dog kennels.
They had been killed with two weapons — a shotgun and a rifle, both owned by the Murdaugh family.
The exact time of death is not in the record.
The source does not specify when the murders occurred relative to the 911 call.
What is in the record is the call itself, and what came after.
The murders came months after Paul had been charged in a 2019 boating accident that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach.
That case had put the family under scrutiny.
SLED investigators built their case through forensic evidence.
Gunshot residue.
DNA analysis.
The evidence pointed away from a stranger, prosecutors would later argue.
Alex Murdaugh was arrested in July 2022.
He was charged with two counts of murder.
The call was the beginning of the public story.
The forensic reality was the rest of it.
THE TRIAL AND THE TWO STORIES
The trial began in January 2023 in Colleton County.
It lasted six weeks.
The prosecution presented cell phone data and testimony from witnesses who said Alex Murdaugh had motive.
That motive, prosecutors said, was financial crimes about to be exposed.
A key turning point came with the discovery that Murdaugh had been stealing from his law firm.
It led to his disbarment.
It led to a separate guilty plea on federal financial charges.
The defence argued the evidence was circumstantial.
The defence argued Murdaugh was the victim of a conspiracy.
That conspiracy theory was argued.
It was rejected.
The record does not establish it.
On March 2, 2023, the jury found Murdaugh guilty of two counts of murder.
It found him guilty of two counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
Two stories had been told from the same evidence.
One placed Murdaugh at the kennels at 8:44 p.m.
One placed him anywhere else.
The jury chose the first.
The defence chose to appeal.
The appeal argued the judge improperly allowed evidence of the financial crimes.
That evidence, the defence said, was prejudicial.
The prosecution said it was motive.
The prosecution said it was the reason.
The trial was over.
The argument was not.
THE SENTENCE AND THE APPEAL
Judge Clifton Newman sentenced Alex Murdaugh to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
The trial was over.
The argument was not.
Murdaugh's defence team filed an appeal, arguing that the trial judge had improperly allowed evidence of his financial crimes.
They said that evidence was prejudicial.
It was a different crime, they argued, and it had nothing to do with the murders.
The prosecution said it was the reason.
In January 2025, the South Carolina Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the appeal.
A decision had not been issued as of early 2025.
The outcome of the appeal is not known.
That is what the record does not establish.
In a separate case, Murdaugh pleaded guilty in 2023 to federal charges of financial fraud, including stealing millions from his law firm and clients.
He was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison.
That sentence runs concurrently with his state sentences.
He is serving his life sentences at a South Carolina prison.
The appeal is pending.
The family name is dismantled.
The financial crimes were real.
The murder conviction stands for now.
What remains is the question the Supreme Court will answer.
Was the trial fair?
Was the evidence too prejudicial?
Will the conviction hold?
That would require a decision.
As of early 2025, there is none.
AND THE STORY STILL ISN'T OVER
Alex Murdaugh is serving his life sentences at a South Carolina prison.
His appeal is pending before the South Carolina Supreme Court.
In January 2025, the court heard oral arguments.
There is still no decision.
That would require a ruling.
The legal saga is not closed.
Curtis Edward Smith, who helped Murdaugh in a scheme to steal settlement money, pleaded guilty.
Smith was sentenced to prison.
The 2019 boat crash case was settled in civil court.
The Beach family received a settlement.
Buster Murdaugh has largely stayed out of the public eye.
He was named in coverage.
He was not charged in the murders.
Other threads remain unresolved.
The 2015 death of Stephen Smith, a young man found dead on a rural road, was re-investigated by SLED after the Murdaugh murders.
No one has been charged in that case.
Authorities have not linked it to Alex Murdaugh.
That link is not established.
The record does not make it.
The family name has been dismantled.
The legal dynasty is gone.
The conviction stands for now.
The appeal could change that.
The appeal could confirm it.
That would require a decision.
As of early 2025, there is none.
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