The story unfolds, as more evidence has been discovered about the final moments of Alex Murdaugh’s family, and they are being released as his murder trial approaches.
The disgraced lawyer, 64, was charged with two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime for allegedly shooting his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, in 2021.
In new court documents filed recently, Senior Assistant Deputy Attorney General Creighton Waters revealed that Paul sent a Snapchat video “to several friends” at 7:56 p.m. on the night he and his mother were killed.
However, Waters didn’t say what the footage specifically contained. He did describe the video as critical evidence to the case and added the contents of this video is important to proving the State’s case in chief.
Waters petitioned for Snapchat to testify at the trial, which is scheduled to begin on Monday and is expected to last for three weeks.
Judge Clifton Newman signed the request and said a Snapchat representative must appear at the trial until after their testimony or the case is disposed.
The court also subpoenaed Google for records concerning the location data of devices when the killings occurred. Google replied and said the devices mentioned weren’t at the Murdaugh’s home at the time of the crime.
On the evening of June 7, 2021, Alex allegedly reached out to his wife Maggie, asking her to meet him at the family’s 1,770-acre estate in the small town of Islandton, S.C.
Alex allegedly told Maggie that his 81-year-old father, Randolph Murdaugh III, was in failing health and that she needed to see him before he died.
Several sources claimed Maggie and Alex had hit a rough patch in their marriage, and she was staying at the family’s beach house on Edisto Island, approximately an hour away from the family’s estate.
Maggie initially declined to meet Alex at the family home, suggesting instead that they meet at the hospital. Ultimately, she consented to meet at the property, planning to follow Alex to the hospital in her own vehicle.
On her way to the house, Maggie allegedly messaged a friend, saying that something about her husband’s behavior felt “fishy”.
“He’s up to something,” Maggie allegedly wrote to her friend.
Maggie arrived at the scene, she left her car running and walked to the dog kennels on the estate where her son, Paul, was taking photos of a dog he was watching for a friend.
After that, it’s unclear what took place next, but Maggie and Paul were gunned down close to the dog kennels. Paul’s body was found “half in and half out” of the dog kennels, authorities say.
Paul was shot in the chest and head with a shotgun at close range. Maggie was shot multiple times, including one shot in the back and additional shots while she was lying on the ground. She had been shot with 300 Blackout ammo from an AR-style rifle.
Both of them were pronounced dead at the scene.
