00:00:00
Tonight on Dateline. Mr. Murdoch, are you a family annihilator? A family annihilator?
00:00:06
You mean like, did I shoot my wife and my son? Yes. No. The verdict is in, in the riveting trial of Alec Murdoch, guilty as charged.
00:00:16
I sentence you to prison for the rest of your natural life. I believe that he loved Paul and Maggie, but I believe that he loved himself more.
00:00:24
Now, revealing new interviews. Prosecutors. Do you think Alec testifying on his own behalf was a mistake?
00:00:32
Absolutely. I knew that we could expose him for who he truly was. The defense. I think this jury had made up their mind about him being a horrible person.
00:00:41
Close friends speak out for the first time. Maggie was a great person. I still hear her laugh.
00:00:47
He looked at me and said, I've been stealing from my clients and I've done you wrong and I've done a number of people wrong.
00:00:52
This is a man who had a lot to lose. this defendant has fooled everyone everyone who was this person we don't know this person who was
00:01:04
he a trial full of twists and a stunner of a verdict you won't believe the latest in the
00:01:10
mind-bending mystery of the murdoch family dynasty i'm lester holt and this is dateline
00:01:24
Here's Craig Melvin with The Trial of Alec Murdoch. Alec Murdoch! Why did you tell your wife and your son?
00:01:43
It took 28 days and more than 70 witnesses. I would like to respond. There were arguments.
00:01:51
They've got a whole lot more evidence about financial misconduct than they have about a murder.
00:01:57
If you're implying that I would come in here and somehow shade truth in any way because of that, I would take high offense with that Mr. Hart-Poodley.
00:02:06
I'm concerned about your high offense. Are you angry at him for stealing your money?
00:02:10
And tears. It's just so bad. It did it so bad. Secrets exposed. He looked at me, started to cry, and said, I'm addicted to pain prescription pills, and it's been going on for 20 years.
00:02:26
And lies revealed. Effortlessly and easily lied to you for years, and you didn't know it.
00:02:33
Didn't know it and didn't catch it. He was always going to have to pay, and pay a lot of money.
00:02:39
I have lied well over a decade. in a case full of drama listen to that gathering storm that all came to a head
00:02:53
on june 7 2021 the day the evidence will show he killed maggie and paul and heartbreak it was hard
00:03:03
because i know she wasn't going to be coming back no mother or father or aunt or uncle
00:03:09
should ever have to see and do what I did that day. Alec, is there anything you want to say in your surviving champion?
00:03:17
And now it's over. Alec Murdoch will never set foot outside a prison again. Tonight, we'll show you with new video, new interviews.
00:03:28
This case really boiled down to the big lie versus the big why. Why would he do it?
00:03:35
And exclusive new details. will take you inside the trial of the year Oh, what a tangled web we weave.
00:03:42
to help you understand how a decade of deceit started to unravel until it led to two tragic deaths.
00:03:51
They are dead, aren't they? Yes, sir, that's what it looks like. And the lies finally came to an end.
00:03:59
I think the jury saw as lies for what they were, a tangled web, as he said. Alex Murdoch was his own worst enemy.
00:04:06
It was June 7th, 2021. A dark night in South Carolina's low country. Now I won't wait for emergency.
00:04:21
This is Alex Murdoch. My wife and Tom. At 10.07 p.m., a call came into the Colleton County Sheriff's Department.
00:04:31
There was an emergency at a remote home outside of town. Sergeant Daniel Green was the first to arrive.
00:04:39
Central 717 scene is secured. Got a Whiskey Fox, Whiskey Mike, both gunshot wounds to the head.
00:04:45
His body camera rolled. I want to let you know because of the scene, I did go get a gun and bring it down here.
00:04:52
It's in your vehicle? Do you have any guns on you at all? No, sir. It's leaning up against the side of my car.
00:04:57
You're fine, man. You're fine. Green came face to face with the caller, Alec Murda, right away.
00:05:03
near a row of dog kennels. It was bad. I checked the pulses. Yes, sir. There, by the kennels,
00:05:14
Maggie Murdoch, 52, and Paul Murdoch, 22, each had been shot multiple times, including to their heads.
00:05:23
Before Green could ask any other questions, Alec started talking. This is the firearm you brought from inside the house?
00:05:31
Sir. Yes, sir. This is a long story. My son was in a boat wreck months back. And while Alex said he didn't know who committed the murders,
00:05:42
he suggested the motive, retribution for a crash that killed a 19-year-old woman on a boat Paul Murdoch was said to be driving.
00:05:51
He's been getting threats. Most of it been benign stuff we didn take serious He getting like punched I know that what it is Murdoch also told the sergeant he had gone to visit his mother that night
00:06:09
When did you get home? Right when you called or did you go to the house first? Where is the house?
00:06:13
I came to the house first. My mom has late stages Alzheimer's and my dad is in the hospital.
00:06:18
Okay. I left. I don't know what time. I can go back on my phone and tell you the exact time.
00:06:24
As he told Green about the moment he found his wife and son, his emotions spilled over.
00:06:30
Did you check them? We got medical guys that are, that's what they're going to do, okay?
00:06:36
What are they doing? Can they hurry? They are, yes, sir. Once the EMTs arrived, Green confirmed Alec's worst fears.
00:06:44
They are dead, aren't they? Did I just turn on those? Yes, sir, that's what it looks like.
00:06:48
Alec frantically called his friends and family, and they started arriving too. Meanwhile, Green learned the central fact about the man who'd made that 911 call.
00:07:03
What's your first name, sir? My name is Alex Richard Alexander Murdoch. Murdoch.
00:07:11
That was a name known to nearly everyone in the Lowcountry. A name that meant power and influence for generations.
00:07:21
As more deputies arrived, they realized the gravity of what had happened here and just to whom it happened.
00:07:31
Y'all familiar with this family? Yes. I wasn't until you told me the names. I don't know the names.
00:07:37
Last name? Murdoch. Then, investigators from SLED, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, arrived.
00:07:47
They were crime scene specialists who soon had a lot of questions for Alec Murdoch.
00:07:53
How was your relationship with Maggie? Very good. As good as it could possibly be.
00:08:04
I mean, you know, we had our issues. and a lot of questions about his family's secluded property out in the woods.
00:08:12
What exactly was going on out here? There's a gun room with at least 27 guns and possible murder weapons.
00:08:36
Even before the sun rose on June 8, 2021, residents of tiny Hampton, South Carolina, were playing a game of telephone.
00:08:48
Keep in mind that Hampton County is a small town, small place. You can't be your gossip travels faster than you do.
00:08:57
Just a few hours earlier, one of the town's most prominent figures, attorney Alec Murdoch, said he had come home to find his 52-year-old wife Maggie and 22-year-old son Paul shot to death on the family's sprawling property known as Moselle.
00:09:15
They are dead, aren't they? Yes, sir, that's what it looks like. Reporter Michael DeWitt was born and raised in Hampton.
00:09:27
He's writing two upcoming books about the Murdoch family. That night and early in the morning, the people in the Murdoch circle found out.
00:09:38
They're getting phone calls. They're getting texts. Maggie and Paul have been shot and killed.
00:09:43
As the news spread, Colleton County Sheriff's deputies and agents from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, or SLED, continued to gather evidence at the scene.
00:09:53
A few things were clear right away. Maggie and Paul had been shot at close range, each with a different gun.
00:10:05
It was clear at the scene that Paul had been shot twice with the shotgun and she had been shot multiple times with this high-powered rifle.
00:10:13
That shotgun and rifle were nowhere to be found. But there were guns, a lot of them on the property, which was often used for hunting.
00:10:25
A lot of people hunt. The fact that the Murdoch family had at least 27 guns in their family gun room is not surprising.
00:10:36
Chris Wilson, a friend of the Murdoch family, who is speaking on television for the first time, was a regular at Moselle.
00:10:47
Just a very social place. They always welcome people into their home. His friendship with Alec goes back 35 years.
00:10:57
Grew up in towns that were close to each other, you know, 30 miles or so apart. Played some ball against each other and then a little bit of ball with each other.
00:11:04
The friends grew closer in law school, and by that time, Alec had met Maggie. Chris was in their wedding party.
00:11:16
They had a very close relationship. I mean, Alec did what he needed to do to take care of the things that Maggie needed,
00:11:23
and Maggie did what she needed to do to take care of the things that Alec and the boys needed.
00:11:27
The boys, Buster, and Paul became Maggie's world, according to Chris's wife, Dana.
00:11:33
also speaking here for the first time. When she had boys, she embraced that role
00:11:40
and would fish with them and hunt with them. She probably even threw ball in the yard with them.
00:11:46
But she was just such a great boy mom. Moselle was one of three properties the family owned And it where Alec taught his wife and kids to love the lifestyle of the Lowcountry What did Maggie ever say about her life at Moselle
00:12:06
She loved being out there. It was away from everybody. And I mean, it was just such a beautiful place and so quiet.
00:12:16
Quiet and remote. It was a special place for Paul, too. He was always outdoors and so good at it.
00:12:25
You know, so good at tending the land and hunting and just being outside. It was a great place.
00:12:37
1,700 or so acres. Hogs, turkey, deer, dove, quail. A huge house that would sleep and welcome a number of people.
00:12:49
The Murdoch's would have events, get-togethers, and you'd always find a who's who of anybody that was seemingly important in the community was always there.
00:13:02
Law enforcement, the mayors, whoever. But now, the property was the scene of a bloody whore.
00:13:12
Sled Special Agent David Owen was leading the investigation. him. He climbed into a car with Alec to ask him some questions. Can you go by Alec? Yes, sir.
00:13:25
Just start at the top, take your time. Alec told Owen he had been visiting his mother that night.
00:13:32
He described what happened when he got home. Maggie and Paul were not at the house, so he said
00:13:39
he went looking for them at the dog kennels on the property. I mean, I pulled up and I could see
00:13:45
and, you know, I knew something was bad. I ran out. I knew it was really bad. My boy over there, I could see it was...
00:14:00
Owen asked if the family had had any issues of late, and Alec repeated the theory he had given to Sergeant Green earlier.
00:14:12
earlier have y'all been having any problems out here trespassers people breaking in none that i
00:14:20
know of the only thing that what comes to my mind is my son paul was in a boat wreck a couple years
00:14:28
ago and there's been a you know he was charged with being arrested for being the driver there's
00:14:37
been a lot of negative publicity about that and there's been a lot of people online just really
00:14:42
vile stuff that 2019 boat wreck had upended the lives of paul and four of his friends
00:14:50
and caused the death of 19 year old mallory beach paul was indicted on three counts of
00:14:58
boating under the influence causing death and great bodily injury he faced a maximum of 55
00:15:04
years in prison and pleaded not guilty and awaited trial. But now he lay dead alongside his mother
00:15:12
on the family's beloved property. He's been getting threats. Was Alec right? Was this the
00:15:19
act of ultimate retribution? Has he received any direct threats related to the boat accident? Oh, yes.
00:15:34
From almost the very moment investigators arrived at his country home, Alec Murdock had been telling them the murders of his wife and son
00:15:50
had to be connected to a 2019 boat crash that killed a 19-year-old. This is a long story. My son was in a boat wreck.
00:15:58
That boat crash had turned the lives of Alex's family and several other families upside down.
00:16:06
911, where's your emergency? We're in a boat crash on Archer Creek. It happened in the middle of a February night at 2.30 a.m.
00:16:15
Six teenagers, including Paul Murdoch, were in the Murdoch's motorboat in a local creek
00:16:20
when the boat sped up and slammed into a bridge piling. One of the passengers, Connor Cook, made the call.
00:16:27
There's six of us and one is missing. Please send someone. No, I'm coming. We're coming. We're coming, okay?
00:16:36
Connor and several other passengers were rushed to the hospital. Marty and Christine Koch are Connor's parents.
00:16:44
How did you find out what had happened? Connor called me. He said, Daddy, we've been in an accident in Archer's Creek and we can't find Mallory.
00:16:54
19-year-old Mallory Beach was still missing in the dark water. Paul Murdoch was rushed to the hospital too.
00:17:02
His father and grandfather met him there. And Alec reached out to the cooks, who were still on their way.
00:17:10
Alec calling me, going on and on about an accident. And the girl was missing, and then Connor was driving the boat.
00:17:18
He told you Connor was driving the boat? Yes, he did. Multiple times he called. To check on you, to check on Connor?
00:17:24
No, hell no, to trying to get this scheme going. To telling us about how he... To convince us that our son was driving the boat.
00:17:33
That didn't make sense to the cooks. Paul usually drove his family's boat. The cooks also say Paul was a known troublemaker
00:17:42
and thought Alec was wielding his considerable influence that night at the hospital to keep him out of trouble.
00:17:49
It would be easier for him to get Connor out of trouble than his son. That was his exact word I can look out of Connor better than I can fall Meanwhile on Archer Creek the search for Mallory Beach went on for a week
00:18:05
Crews are continuing to search for a former USC student who went missing over the weekend near Paris Island.
00:18:12
It ended tragically when two volunteers recovered Mallory's body. You know, there were so many opportunities for this not to have happened.
00:18:23
Attorney Mark Tinsley filed a wrongful death suit on the Beach family's behalf. They wanted to hold all those people responsible for her death accountable.
00:18:31
But more than that, they wanted to make sure that it didn't happen to someone else's child.
00:18:37
The suit named Alec, who owned the boat, along with several others. And why name Alec Murdoch in that?
00:18:44
When you promote a certain kind of behavior, when you condone the sorts of things that Paul did
00:18:50
for the length of time without any consequences. He bears responsibility for what happened.
00:18:58
Tinsley requested Alec's financial records as part of the suit. What was the response?
00:19:05
Just an objection, a refusal. In fact, Tinsley said Alec told him he was broke. Tinsley didn't believe it.
00:19:15
He's making millions of dollars a year, a million dollars a year at least, every year.
00:19:19
Why would he have no money? He comes from money. The impasse dragged on until early summer 2021.
00:19:26
Finally, more than two years after Mallory's death, they were scheduled to appear at a hearing where Alec would likely be compelled to turn over his financial records.
00:19:38
Then, June 7th, 2021, just a few days before that hearing, the unthinkable happened.
00:19:46
I get a call about 1130 that Monday night that Paul and Maggie had been murdered.
00:19:59
Now, investigators had to find out if the boat crash had anything to do with those murders,
00:20:06
even as they seem to be losing control of a crime scene that was being overrun by Alex's friends and lawyers.
00:20:16
Moselle, the Murdoch family retreat that was known for parties and recreation, had become a place where people came to grieve
00:20:38
and offer support to Alec Murdoch and his remaining son, 25-year-old Buster. Alec's friend, Chris Wilson, was one of them.
00:20:48
When you got there, what did you find? When I got there, pulled into the main gate,
00:20:55
was kind of headed up the driveway towards the main house. I saw a lot of lights and people.
00:21:02
You could tell there was a lot of commotion going on down at the kennels, which turned out to be law enforcement and other people.
00:21:10
Alec was there. I walked over and hugged his neck, and we cried. He didn't say anything. He was whimpering and crying and seemed destroyed.
00:21:18
We hugged. It was just there. I mean, I was trying to be there for a friend that, you know, didn't know what to do for him, didn't know what to say, just wanted to be there.
00:21:28
But some of Alec's friends and lawyers offered more than emotional support. On the morning of June 8th, the day after the murders, they helped investigators search the house.
00:21:40
How you doing, sir? Even as investigators collected possible evidence from the gun room at Moselle, as well as shell casings found on the steps of the house, it was clear the Murdoch family held a certain status with law enforcement.
00:21:58
There are a number of lawyers and friends, including Chris Wilson, who are kind of circled up in the gun room at Moselle, which was, you know, there's a pool table in the middle.
00:22:08
There's some couches. It's a hangout spot in the house. And you can see him sitting there, you know, talking and, you know, have a red Solo cup with a drink in it.
00:22:17
Just, you know, present at not the immediate crime scene, but at the home, you know, adjacent to the crime scene.
00:22:25
Some questioned why the house wasn't cordoned off as a crime scene, like the kennels were.
00:22:31
It basically allowed the family and all these attorneys from the law firm to just move over there and set up and console the grieving Alex, console the family.
00:22:41
While some investigators searched the home and property, others were looking into Alec's theory about the 2019 boat crash.
00:22:49
They wanted to know where the surviving passengers and their families were on the night of the murders.
00:22:56
That meant Connor Cook and his parents, Marty and Christine. When you heard, what did you think?
00:23:02
My first thought was, thank God Connor was home with me. Did they question him? Of course. They questioned me.
00:23:11
They questioned you. I was his witness that he, you know, got home from work and that he never left the house.
00:23:19
They questioned every passenger in that boat. But despite Alec's theory, it appeared no one involved in the boat crash was near Moselle on the night Maggie and Paul were gunned down.
00:23:30
They did, you know, got an alibi from everyone. And I think they fairly quickly eliminated the boat crash passengers as possible suspects.
00:23:42
Still, the boat crash and the Beach family civil suit against him were never far from Alec's mind.
00:23:51
In another interview with Sled Agent David Owen three days after the murders, Owen asked Alec to take him through how he spoke.
00:24:00
that fateful day. Alec mentioned the upcoming hearing where he was likely to be forced to turn
00:24:06
over financial records. I'm a defendant in a civil case involving my son. I told you about the boat
00:24:13
wreck. Yes, sir. And there were some motions coming up in that on Thursday. And I was mostly
00:24:19
just getting ready for those things and then other junk. Alec also gave Owen more details about his
00:24:27
whereabouts that night. After work, he said he came home and rode around the property with Paul.
00:24:33
Paul can be heard laughing on this video from that evening as the two watched a tree bed.
00:24:41
Then they went home to eat. Maggie had gotten home and you know we sat down we ate supper
00:24:48
which we usually supper together. After dinner, Alex said Maggie went to check on the kennels and
00:24:55
Paul was outside too. I stayed in the house. Okay. And I was watching TV, looking at my phone, and I actually fell asleep on the couch.
00:25:06
Alec told Owen he left to visit his mom after he woke up, a little after 9 p.m. She lived about 20 minutes away, and Alec said he stayed there for a while before he returned home, a little after 10 p.m.
00:25:20
Paul and Maggie weren't there, he said, so he drove around the property. He found them lifeless at the kennels and dialed 911.
00:25:32
Once again, he got emotional about the moment he discovered his wife and son. I know it's hard.
00:25:43
And sitting here talking today is tough. It's just so bad. They did it so bad. He's such a good boy, too.
00:26:03
I'm sorry. Go ahead. After that second interview with Special Agent Owen ended, Alec got more bad news.
00:26:12
This time about his father, Randolph, who had been sick. On June the 10th, there's all this incredible activity going on in the background.
00:26:20
trying to figure out what happened to Maggie and Paul. And his father, Randolph III, comes over to kind of huddle up with the lawyers and the family
00:26:30
and then goes back home and dies just a couple hours after that interview. So it really is stunning to think that one of his last acts was to come and help,
00:26:39
if not strategize, at least comfort his son at that time. That weekend, the family buried Maggie, Paul, and Randolph.
00:26:50
A community gathering to remember a mother and son killed in the Lowcountry. On June 25th, two and a half weeks after the murders, Alec and Buster put out a statement.
00:27:03
They asked for help to bring justice to Maggie and Paul and offered a $100,000 reward.
00:27:10
By all appearances, Alec seemed to be a grieving father and husband. But that summer was about to unravel Alec's world and make so many question if they ever really knew him.
00:27:28
He asked me to write the checks to pay the fees on the case that would have been payable to his firm directly to him.
00:27:35
Had you written him checks like that before? No. The summer of 2021 was a time of grief and confusion for the Murdoch family.
00:28:00
Chris Wilson did his best to be there for Alex, his friend of more than three decades.
00:28:05
I mean, the guy seemed destroyed to me, not eating. I didn't seem to be sleeping. Didn't go back to Moselle to spend another night that I know of.
00:28:14
It was quite a contrast from their last happy time together. Alec had celebrated his birth date just one week before the murders. That's Chris giving him a bear hug.
00:28:27
Everybody was having a good time that night. It was Maggie, Paul, Buster, my wife, my family, a number of their friends, and we had had a good time together.
00:28:36
Alec and Chris were lawyers in neighboring counties and sometimes took on cases together to better serve their clients.
00:28:44
And it was a relationship of mutual benefit. It's not the mutual benefit for me or Alec or me and his firm.
00:28:50
I do what's necessary to benefit my client. And if I can bring in another law firm that can benefit my client at the end of the day, that's what I'm going to do.
00:28:59
But Chris would soon discover his apparently wealthy friend was hiding some secrets.
00:29:07
In the spring of 2021, Alec was facing mounting pressure to turn over his financial records to Mark Tinsley for the 2019 boat crash lawsuit.
00:29:18
Around that time, Chris says Alec asked him to do something unusual. Alec asked me to write the checks for the fees directly to him instead of to his firm, which I did in March of 2021.
00:29:31
He told me he had authority and approval from his firm. And you had no reason not to believe him.
00:29:35
I didn't have any reason not to trust the guy. I mean, we had been dealing with each other, business and professional, for 30 years with no problems whatsoever.
00:29:43
But a few months later, Alec changed his mind. He contacted me and said the fees can't be paid to me this way.
00:29:50
They have to be paid directly to my firm. He was supposed to send me back the same amount of money that I paid him Chris said Alec only sent back I had to put of my own money into my account to have that money available to
00:30:09
pay the way that it should have been paid had it been done the right way. What Chris did not know was that he wasn't the only one getting suspicious of Alec.
00:30:19
Murdoch's law firm had quietly started an internal investigation and found several missing payments related to his cases.
00:30:28
On June 7th, the CFO confronted Alec about it. That night, Maggie and Paul were killed.
00:30:39
After that, no one was asking questions about missing fees. They were doing their best to surround Alec with support.
00:30:48
Even Mark Tinsley had paused his civil case in the wake of Maggie and Paul's murders.
00:30:53
He thought, maybe for good. If Alec is the victim of some vigilante, the boat crash probably, as it relates to him, would have been over.
00:31:03
But then Tinsley noticed another lawsuit related to Alec had settled. It was the case of his longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who died after a fall at Moselle in 2018.
00:31:17
The settlement seemed suspiciously small. The fact that she died, her age, how long she lived, case was worth a lot more than $505,000,
00:31:27
which was the only thing reported in terms of the settlement. He was right. Gloria's family should have gotten over $4 million.
00:31:37
Alec and two co-conspirators didn't tell the family that and kept most of the money for themselves.
00:31:44
And once that case became public, other allegations surfaced about Alec stealing money from clients.
00:31:52
For years. The allegations were a bombshell for the large group of people who'd circled their wagons around Alec all summer.
00:32:03
In September, Chris Wilson heard about those allegations, and he was shocked. I told him that I needed to speak to him and I wanted it to be face-to-face.
00:32:14
That conversation was tense. I looked at him and I said, Alec, I need to know what, I'm sure I used a curse word,
00:32:23
I said, I need to know what's going on. And he looked at me, started to cry, and said, I can't right this second.
00:32:30
Walked inside, grabbed some paper towels, came back out, dried his eyes off, and said, look, I've got a drug addiction.
00:32:39
I'm addicted to pain prescription pills, and it's been going on for 20 years. and I've been stealing from my clients and I've been stealing from my firm and
00:32:47
I've done you wrong and I've done a number of people wrong. Wilson left the meeting furious but also worried about his friend and he was right to worry
00:32:58
because just a short time later I'm on my ride back to Columbia and I got a phone call and told me that Alec had been shot on the side of the road. Alec
00:33:09
Murdoch dialed 911 again. Okay, what's going on? I got a flat tire and I stopped and somebody stopped to help me.
00:33:21
And when I turned my back, they tried to shoot me. Alec was on the side of this country road when he claimed the shooting happened.
00:33:32
Did they actually shoot you or they tried to shoot you? They shot me and I'm bleeding a lot.
00:33:36
When you heard about what had happened on the side of the road there, what was your initial thought?
00:33:41
I thought he'd tried to kill himself. Alec was airlifted to a Georgia hospital with a fractured skull and a minor brain bleed.
00:33:50
But one week later, he confessed that he'd made up the whole thing. It was a failed attempt to get life insurance money for his son, Buster.
00:34:00
He also admitted publicly to that 20-year opioid addiction and promptly entered rehab
00:34:08
Alec seemed to be spinning out of control He was fired by the law firm and he was facing charges related to both the botched suicide attempt
00:34:18
And the insurance fraud of his longtime housekeeper During that tumultuous summer, Alec and his lawyer also had an ominous meeting
00:34:28
with SLED Special Agent David Owen about the status of the murder investigation.
00:34:34
Everybody stays in that investigation until we can get them out. And right now, because of the questions that I have that I need explanations for,
00:34:44
I cannot get Alec out. So does that mean that I am a suspect? You were still in this with everything that we've talked about,
00:34:52
with the family guns, the ammunition. nobody else's DNA. I have to put my beliefs aside
00:35:03
and go with the facts. In October 2021, Alec was arraigned for some of his alleged financial crimes.
00:35:14
The Wilsons no longer recognize the man they considered family. We didn't want to believe it.
00:35:21
More came out, kept coming out. More still coming out, probably. I mean, it's just,
00:35:27
who is this person? We don't know this person. Who was he? The world was about to find out.
00:35:34
What say you, Richard L. Murdoch, are you guilty or not guilty of the felonies wherein you stand and die?
00:35:40
After more than a year of speculation and questions investigators appear ready to name Alec Murdoch as the killer of his wife Maggie and son Paul On July 14th 2022 it happened Alec Murdoch was indicted for
00:36:08
killing his wife and son. He pleaded not guilty. How shall you be tried by God and my country?
00:36:15
The trial was scheduled surprisingly quickly. On January 23rd, 2023, the Colleton County Courthouse
00:36:23
in tiny Walterboro, South Carolina, felt like the center of the universe. An invasion of cameras, tents, and trucks on every corner of the courthouse.
00:36:34
A nation now hooked on the spectacle was greedy for every turn, every twist to come.
00:36:43
The trial was going to be live streamed, but spectators were out at dawn anyway,
00:36:49
lining up for a courtroom pass. Food trucks served breakfast. And reporters? The place was crawling with them.
00:36:59
You will find every major TV network. The New York Times is here. The Washington Post.
00:37:04
The Wall Street Journal. Alec Murdoch arrived in an unmarked van at the court's back door.
00:37:11
Straight from the jail cell where he spent more than a year dressed in business casual,
00:37:17
A jacket draped over his handcuffs. Generations of Murdochs have tried cases here.
00:37:27
In fact, a Murdoch family portrait was taken down on the judge's orders before opening arguments began.
00:37:35
Listen to that gathering storm that all came to a head on June 7th, 2021. The day the evidence will show he killed Maggie and Paul.
00:37:47
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters, a 24-year veteran of the state attorney general's office, opened with the prosecution's version of how the murders happened.
00:37:58
The defendant over there, Alec Murdoch, took a 12-stage shotgun and shot him in the shoulder.
00:38:05
Paul Murdoch was shot first. But after that, another shot went up under his head and did catastrophic damage.
00:38:11
Then Waters told the jury, Alec picked up an AR-style rifle and turned it on his wife, Maggie.
00:38:19
Pow, pow. Two shots out of him in the lead and took her down. I've got multiple gunshots out of him.
00:38:25
Two victims shot at close range, the scene, bloody, horrific, and, the prosecution said,
00:38:33
a pile of evidence pointing to Alec Murdoch as the killer. The motive? He was trying to deflect attention from his storm of troubles.
00:38:42
You're going to reach the inescapable conclusion that Alec murdered Maggie Paul,
00:38:47
that he was the storm, that the storm was coming for them, that they died as a result.
00:38:53
Alec listened at the defense table, family members behind him, including his remaining son, Buster.
00:39:00
It is our honor to represent Alec Murdoch. Dick Harputlian, lead defense attorney, a member of the South Carolina Senate with decades of lawyering behind him.
00:39:12
I submit to you what you've heard from the attorney general as facts are not. Now stand up.
00:39:23
This is Alec Murdoch. And Alec was the loving father of Paul and the loving husband of Maggie.
00:39:32
The facts were on his client's side, he told the jury. There was no direct evidence tying Alec to the murders.
00:39:41
He didn't do it. He is presumed innocent. Please be seated. Next morning, the prosecution called its first witness.
00:39:55
Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony... Sergeant Daniel Green of the Colleton County Sheriff's Office
00:40:00
was the first to respond to the murder scene. They are dead, aren't they? The prosecutor used Green's body cam footage and testimony to examine Alec's behavior that night.
00:40:11
Green didn't quite buy the seemingly distraught man he encountered. He was able to answer all the questions that I asked him.
00:40:18
Was he panicking in any way? He seemed upset, but I wouldn't say panicky. The prosecutor said Alec immediately tried to divert attention to other suspects.
00:40:28
My son was in a boat wreck. casting suspicion on how he pointed to Paul's boat crash as a possible motive for a revenge killing.
00:40:37
And who brought up the boat incident? Mr. Murdoch did. And he offered that right out of the gate as a possible explanation for what happened here. Is that right?
00:40:44
Yes. Prosecutors went on to attack Alec's alibi. Remember, Alec told everyone he had a nap after dinner while Paul and Maggie went down to the kennels.
00:40:56
Alec insisted he did not go with them. I was at the house. I left the house and went to my mom's.
00:41:04
But prosecutors unveiled an explosive exhibit that would gut Alec's alibi. A video that had been discovered on Paul's cell phone recorded at the kennels at 8.44 p.m.
00:41:19
when Alec said he was napping at the house and just minutes before prosecutors say Paul and Maggie were shot.
00:41:26
Get back, get back Jurors were told to focus on the voices, not the pictures Paul is heard calling to this dog named Cash
00:41:38
Quit Cash Quit Then Maggie Hey, he's got a bird in his mouth And a third voice Come here Bubba
00:41:48
Come here Cash Come here Bubba Cash A man voice saying come here Bubba to a dog Come here Bubba Come here Cash Come here Mama Cash Half a dozen witnesses were asked to identify the voices on that video The answer was always the same
00:42:05
Whose voices did you recognize on that video? Paul Murdoch, Maggie Murdoch, and Alex Murdoch.
00:42:12
Paul Murdoch, Maggie Murdoch, and Alec Murdoch. Paul, Miss Maggie, and Mr. Alec.
00:42:18
It was a major blow to Alec's defense, but hardly the last. The prosecution had more surprises up its sleeve.
00:42:29
There were a significant number of particles characteristic of gunshot primer residue on the inside of this jacket, yes.
00:42:46
Disturbing new details coming to light in the Alec Murdoch murder trial. Alec Murdoch is charged with killing his wife and son.
00:42:53
As one of the most infamous trials in South Carolina's history played out on the nation's screens, the prosecution was under a spotlight.
00:43:02
This has been a long, exhaustive investigation. No wonder the state's Attorney General, Allen Wilson, was a near constant presence at their table.
00:43:14
Journalist Michael DeWitt. I'm half a century old and there's never been a case like this in my neck of the woods.
00:43:20
The prosecution had undermined Alec's alibi with that video at the kennels. Now, they tried to poke holes in the rest of his story.
00:43:31
Remember, Alec said he'd napped after dinner, then went to visit his mother. Now call Miss Michelle Smith.
00:43:41
Shelly Smith was Alec's mother's caregiver. She was there when he arrived at his mother's house about 9.20.
00:43:48
an unusual hour for him to stop by, she said. Like he was fidgety. Fidgety? Yes.
00:43:55
Don't say no. Did he talk to his mother? She was asleep, yes. She was asleep? She said he left after 15 or 20 minutes.
00:44:04
Did she even know that he was there? No. Smith saw Alec again the next week. She testified they had an upsetting conversation
00:44:15
where he appeared to be coaching her to tell investigators if they asked that he was at his mother's home longer than Smith said he was.
00:44:24
His phrase was, I was here, are you now? I was here 30 to 40 minutes. Days later, Smith testified, Alec was back at his mother's place.
00:44:34
This time, early in the morning, with something balled up in his hands. Like a blue tarp.
00:44:42
Blue? Blue. Okay. Was it vinyl? It's like a tarp that you put on a car, you keep your car covered up.
00:44:49
What did you do when you walked in? Went upstairs. Investigators later searched the house and discovered a blue raincoat,
00:44:56
similar to a tarp, balled up in a closet. Agent Megan Fletcher, a trace evidence analyst, examined it for GSR, gunshot residue.
00:45:07
There were a significant number of particles characteristic of gunshot primer residue on
00:45:11
the inside of this jacket, yes. Would your findings be consistent with that item containing a recently fired firearm?
00:45:20
It is possible, yes. Other people in Alec's circle also found his behavior after the murders strange.
00:45:28
Prosecutors called Maggie's sister, Marion Proctor, to the stand. I'm Marion Proctor, P-R-O-C-T-O-R.
00:45:36
She told the jury her family was terrified the killer would target Alec and Buster next,
00:45:42
But Alec didn't appear worried at all. I was scared for Alec and Buster. I think everybody was afraid.
00:45:52
And, um... Alec didn't seem to be afraid. Marion told the jury Maggie was only at Moselle that night because Alec had asked her to be there
00:46:14
he told her his father was gravely ill the sisters talked on the phone as Maggie drove
00:46:21
Marion still haunted by that last call and I said well Maggie I said you know Alec and his dad are
00:46:30
super close and that's probably what you should do. Go be with him if he needs you.
00:46:36
You encouraged her to go to Moza? I did. Was that the last time you talked to her? Yes.
00:46:48
One apparent weakness in the prosecution's case was the lack of blood evidence. They tried to
00:46:55
turn this to their advantage by playing one of Alex's statements to police, recorded just hours after the murders.
00:47:02
And I ran over to Maggie. Actually, I think I tried to turn Paul over first. You know, I tried to turn him over.
00:47:14
Did you touch Maggie at all? I did. I touched them both. I tried to do it as limited as possible,
00:47:22
but I tried to take their pulse on both of them. So, why wasn't he covered in blood?
00:47:31
The implication was that he'd washed up after the murders. Colleton County Lead Detective Laura Rutland was on the scene that night.
00:47:38
How would you describe the defendant's hands when you saw him when you were interviewing him?
00:47:43
How would you describe his hands? They were clean. How would you describe his t-shirt?
00:47:47
Clean. How would you describe his shorts? Clean. Did he look like somebody who just changed his clothes?
00:47:53
Yes. Alex said something else prosecutors seized on in another statement to police three days after the murders.
00:48:03
Sitting here talking today is tough. It's just so bad. They did it so bad. The prosecutor asked Senior Special Agent Jeff Croft
00:48:14
to repeat the words. What did he say? It's just so bad. I did him so bad. I did him so bad.
00:48:22
Yes, sir. Was it a slip of the tongue? An inadvertent confession? On cross-examination, Alec's defense attorney, Jim Griffin, played the tape at a slower speed.
00:48:34
The question, did Alec say I or they? I did it so bad. Did you hear they then? No, sir, I did not.
00:48:46
You would agree the jury gets to decide what he said on that tape? That's the best evidence.
00:48:52
I agree that they get to hear the tape and make their own mind up as to what he said, yes, sir.
00:48:57
But no matter how much testimony prosecutors elicited about Alec Murdoch's inconsistencies and lies, they still had to answer the most basic question of all.
00:49:11
What could motivate a man to brutally murder the wife and son he seemed to adore?
00:49:18
They would throw a Hail Mary to try to make that case. They've got a whole lot more evidence about financial misconduct than they have in evidence of guilt in the murder case.
00:49:44
Prosecutors had punched holes in Alec Murdoch's alibi and cast doubt over many of his statements.
00:49:51
But the biggest question of all lingered. Why? Why would Alec Murdoch kill his wife and son, especially since they seem to be a close knit family? Journalist Valerie Borlai.
00:50:05
And I think that is a high bar for the prosecution to have to get over to explain. Yes, those things do hold together.
00:50:11
Prosecutors had an explanation. Alec Murdoch was a compulsive thief, they alleged,
00:50:17
a spinner of scams who stole money from everyone. And because those financial crimes were about to be exposed, they argued,
00:50:25
he murdered his wife and son to win sympathy and time. He was eager to keep concealed this long-running financial fraud
00:50:34
that would ruin his family and his family name. This issue is before me on the motion of the state.
00:50:40
Normally, jurors are not allowed to hear about a defendant's past bad acts. But in this case, prosecutors believe they were crucial to explain motive.
00:50:50
They asked the judge for permission to present testimony about Alex's alleged financial crimes.
00:50:56
I would like to respond. The defense protested loudly. They've got a whole lot more evidence about financial misconduct than they have about a murder and evidence of guilt in the murder case.
00:51:10
But in a pivotal decision, Judge Clifton Newman decided for the prosecution. I find that it is so intimately connected with and explanatory of the crime charge that proof of it is essential to complete the story.
00:51:27
Prosecutors exhaled and called Jeannie Seconder to the stand. I would be CFO slash COO.
00:51:37
Seconder told the jurors the Murdoch family law firm, PMPED, operated on trust like a brotherhood.
00:51:45
She said Alec Murdoch was a successful lawyer largely because of his gift of the gab.
00:51:50
He did it through the articles, basically. In May of 2021, Secondger learned of Chris Wilson's missing check.
00:51:59
She discovered other financial irregularities involving ALEC, too. She confronted him about it for the first time that month and then again on June 7th.
00:52:10
He looked at me with a pretty dirty look, one I'd not seen before and said, what do you need now?
00:52:16
The conversation was interrupted. He took a phone call and the call was saying that his father was in the hospital and he was terminal.
00:52:27
So at that point, it turned into a personal conversation. Prosecutors argued that was the day.
00:52:33
June 7th, Murdoch realized his crimes were about to be revealed. And that very night, Maggie and Paul were murdered.
00:52:44
As prosecutors demonstrated, Alec got a reprieve from the firm's investigation. After the murders happened, did it seem right to you to raise those issues to the defendant?
00:52:53
No, we were concerned about the welfare of Alec, and we were trying to make sure that he was emotionally okay.
00:53:01
Old friend Chris Wilson testified he also stopped asking questions about that missing check after the murders.
00:53:09
We all talk regularly about keeping an eye on him, about being there for him. If prosecutors thought evidence of Murdoch's financial crimes would provide a motive,
00:53:19
they counted on their last witness to prove opportunity. Special Agent Peter Rudofsky.
00:53:26
The prosecution's final witness, SLED Special Agent Peter Rudofsky, unveiled a digital tour de force.
00:53:35
Using cell activity from Alex, Maggie's, and Paul's phones and GPS data from Alex's car,
00:53:42
he built a timeline of the night of the murders. It showed Alex had time to kill and to cover it up.
00:53:51
How long have you been working on this document right here? Roughly about a year on this document Rudofsky timeline showed that not long after Maggie and Paul phones went silent forever at 8 p about the time prosecutors believe the two were killed Alex phone
00:54:09
which had been inactive for nearly an hour, suddenly came alive. From 9.02 to 9.06 p.m., it counted his steps.
00:54:18
How many steps? 283 steps. 70.75 steps per minute, estimated. He was a busy guy right then, wasn't he?
00:54:29
At 9.07 p.m., Murdoch's Suburban left Moselle, heading to his mother's home. As it neared the location where Maggie's phone was later found, the vehicle was going 42 miles an hour.
00:54:42
After passing that location, as the defendant's vehicle starts to accelerate. It does.
00:54:48
Then the Suburban sped up to 74 miles an hour, reaching Murdoch's mother's home at 9.22 p.m.
00:54:55
It departed at 9.43 p.m. traveling back to Moselle, this time clocking a maximum of 80 miles an hour.
00:55:05
Would you at night, or did you ever at night, on the roads as they existed at the time of June 7, 2021,
00:55:11
run in code with your lights on, run 80 miles an hour down that road? I would not, no.
00:55:18
Please hurry. We're getting somebody out there to you. The suburban arrived at the kennels at 10.05 p.m.
00:55:26
Allen called 911 less than 20 seconds later, telling the dispatcher he checked both bodies and neither was breathing.
00:55:35
With that, prosecutors rested. In the matter of the indictments, the state of South Carolina rests.
00:55:42
In all, they'd called 61 witnesses, elicited hours of damaging testimony. But was it enough?
00:55:52
The defense had its own cards to play, starting with insinuations of a botched and biased investigation.
00:56:00
What effort, if any, was made to take fingerprints at the scene? None that I observed.
00:56:12
Alec Murdoch's attorneys lead the groundwork for his defense long before the prosecution rested.
00:56:24
Is that preservation of the scene that your standards require? Not exactly, no. Not exactly?
00:56:32
In their cross-examinations of state's witnesses, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin criticized the way the murder investigation was handled.
00:56:40
Should the police be walking through the scene? No. Do we know what other evidence they may have destroyed?
00:56:48
I have no idea. That's right. We don't. You've described this investigative circle.
00:56:53
So you draw a circle around potential persons of interest. And Alex was in that circle.
00:56:59
We don't draw a circle around any individual person. We work with the crime scene, which is what we consider the circle.
00:57:07
There was a circle and it was only around Alec. He was the only living and breathing person in the circle.
00:57:13
Is that correct? That is the only person that we could place in the circle at that time.
00:57:19
They accused law enforcement of conducting a sloppy investigation from the very start.
00:57:25
Do you know whether any of those showers or tubs were in any way swabbed or checked for blood or tissue or any DNA,
00:57:33
anything that would indicate somebody had washed off evidence of a crime? Nothing that I'm aware of.
00:57:40
The defense also called its own expert witnesses to make the same point. If this had been your crime scene, would you save that sheet and save disclosed?
00:57:52
Definitely. What effort, if any, was made to take fingerprints at the scene? None that I observed.
00:57:58
A lot of the testimony has been about the failure to protect the crime scene and preserve whatever evidence was there.
00:58:06
Joe McCullough is a criminal defense attorney who has been in court almost every day throughout the trial.
00:58:12
He has a close relationship with Alec Murdoch's defense team. So the poor showing by sled that's alleged by the defense is intended to tell the jury if they had done their job,
00:58:26
If they'd taken fingerprints, if they'd done X, Y, and Z, then Alec Murdoch wouldn't be sitting here.
00:58:31
Somebody else would be. At the end of the day, the defense argued, there was no physical evidence tying Alec to the murders of Maggie and Paul.
00:58:41
No murder weapon, no blood evidence on him. Sure, Alec had lied about being at the kennels that night, they said, but that wasn't evidence he killed his wife and son.
00:58:52
Our guy may be a liar, our guy may be a thief, but he's not a killer. Correct. Yeah, absolutely.
00:59:02
The defense also called people close to Alec and the family to attest to Alec's grief and pain after the killings.
00:59:11
He was devastated. I mean, he was crying. He was, I mean, just beside himself. He said, look at what they did, look at what they did.
00:59:22
to them. He was pretty distraught. When I got there, he and I saw each other and he
00:59:28
gave me a hug and just started crying and told me they were gone. Alex's older son, Buster,
00:59:36
had sat quietly in court for weeks. When it was his turn on the witness stand, he relived the horror of losing both his mother and brother. My dad called me. He asked me if
00:59:50
I was sitting down and I was like, yeah. And then he sounded odd and then he told me that my mom and brother had been shot Buster said his father didn act like a man who had just slaughtered his own family
01:00:06
His demeanor was destroyed. He was heartbroken. I walked in the door and saw him and gave him a hug and just broken down.
01:00:17
Could he speak? Not really. Was he crying? Yes, sir. Alex's brother, John Marvin, also took the stand in his defense.
01:00:26
As devastating as it was for me, it was a thousand times worse for him. So I knew as a brother I needed to be there for him.
01:00:37
And I was. I would have to create a new word to describe how distraught he was. Pausing to wipe away his own tears, John Marvin told the jury about the morning after the murders.
01:00:48
I walked over to the feed room. It had not been cleaned up. I saw blood. I saw brains. I saw pieces of skull. It was terrible.
01:00:58
And for some reason, I thought it was mine, something that I needed to do for Paul to clean it up.
01:01:07
And I can promise you, no mother or father or aunt or uncle should ever have to see and do what I did that day.
01:01:16
And he asserted his brother Alex's innocence by revealing a promise he made to his nephew Paul, Alex's son, in that tortured moment at the kennels
01:01:29
I don't know, I just, I loved him and I promised him that I'd find out who did this to him
01:01:35
Have you found out? I have not He got very emotional at times, how effective do you think that was?
01:01:44
I think that's big. And I think what John Marvin succeeded in doing for the defense was humanizing their family. And he came across as a very nice person, a person who was suffering mightily.
01:01:58
And his true, genuine emotions to the jury, and especially ending with deciding that he owed it to Paul to go and clean up his remains, was just excruciating for the jury.
01:02:14
And I think it brought home the true tragedy. But when the story of Alec Murdoch's defense is ultimately written, it will not dwell on those emotional statements from family and friends or accusations about sloppy crime scenes or even withering cross-examinations.
01:02:34
It will focus instead on the testimony of one man. The defendant, Richard Alexander Murdoch, wishes to take the stand.
01:02:47
As day 23 of the Alec Murdoch trial dawned, there was a lot of buzz around the Colleton County Courthouse.
01:03:06
Would he take the stand? The decision was only one man's to make, and Alec Murdoch gave his answer.
01:03:15
I am going to testify. I want to testify. Now, most defense lawyers will tell you that putting a defendant on the stand only to be cut up by a prosecutor, not worth the risk.
01:03:27
But then again, this wasn't just any defendant. This was Alec Murdoch, a lawyer from a long line of lawyers.
01:03:38
Attorney Jim Griffin started by cutting to the chase. Did you take this gun or any gun like it and shoot your son Paul in the chest in the feed room at your property off Moselle Road?
01:03:51
No, I did not. Mr. Murdy, did you take this gun or any gun like it and blow your son's brains out on June 7th or any day or any time?
01:04:04
No, I did not. I didn't shoot my wife or my son any time. Ever. For three weeks, prosecutors had branded Murdoch a serial liar and believe they caught him perhaps in his biggest lie with that video placing him at the dog kennels that June night in 2021.
01:04:26
Alec and his attorney confronted that head on. Is that you on the kennel video at 844 p.m. on June 7th, the night Maggie and Paul were murdered?
01:04:38
It is. Were you in fact at the kennels at 8.44 p.m. on the night Maggie and Paul were murdered?
01:04:44
I was. Did you lie to Sled Agent Owen and Deputy Laura Rutland on the night of June 7th
01:04:53
and told them that you stayed at the house after dinner? I did lie to them. Did you lie to Agent Owen and Agent Croft on the follow-up interview on June 10th
01:05:05
that the last time you saw Maggie and Paul was at dinner? I did lie to them. So why did he lie?
01:05:14
He said his addiction to painkillers was the reason, up to 60 pills a day. As my addiction evolved over time, I would get in these situations and circumstances where I would get paranoid thinking.
01:05:32
And it could be anything that triggered it. It might be a look somebody gave me.
01:05:36
It might be a reaction somebody had to something I did. It might be a policeman following me in a car.
01:05:44
He said he distrusted SLED intensely and his drug-induced paranoia, coupled with the shock from the murders, fogged up his mind.
01:05:55
On June the 7th I wasn thinking clearly I don think I was capable of reason And I lied about being down there.
01:06:11
And I'm so sorry that I did. You continued lying after that night, did you not? Once I lied, I continued to lie, yes sir.
01:06:22
Why? You know, oh, what a tangled web we weave. Murdoch went on to give a new account of that afternoon and evening,
01:06:33
constantly using the nicknames Mags and Pawpaw for his wife and son and offering details he had never mentioned in his interviews with law enforcement.
01:06:43
He described driving around Moselle with Paul on his son's last afternoon. You could not be around Pawpaw.
01:06:53
You could not be around him and not have a good time. I love doing anything with Pawpaw.
01:07:04
It was an absolute delight. After dinner that evening, he said, Maggie asked him to go out to the kennels where she and Paul were checking on the dogs.
01:07:15
And this was his new story. He said he drove a golf cart out there. I'm talking to Maggie for just a short time before Bubba catches the chicken.
01:07:27
Alec said he tried to pull it away from him. Did you get the chicken out of Bubba's mouth?
01:07:33
I did. I took the chicken from Bubba and I put it on top of that what looks to me like a portable dog crate.
01:07:40
What did you do after you got the chicken out of Bubba's mouth? I got out of there. I left. I went back to the house.
01:07:46
So he went back to the house, he laid down on the couch, and then what happened next?
01:07:50
I'm not positive I dozed off for a minute or didn't doze off for a minute, but I got up off of the couch and I made up my mind I was going to visit my mom.
01:08:05
He described that trip over to his mother's house. All routine, he claimed. When he got back to the house about an hour later,
01:08:13
he said he didn't see his wife or son anywhere inside. So, he started searching.
01:08:20
And Alec, did you drive down to the kennels in your suburban? I did. And what'd you see?
01:08:30
Solid job seeing pictures of. so bad what did you do when you went up to Paul at some point in time
01:09:03
Paul was so so bad at some point I know I tried to check him for a pulse. I know I tried to turn him over.
01:09:20
When you say you tried to turn him over, why were you trying to turn him over? I don't know.
01:09:27
I don't know why I tried to turn him over. Me and my boys lay face down. He's done the way he's done.
01:09:37
His head was the way his head was. I could see his brain laying on the sidewall.
01:09:46
I didn't know what to do. He said in the weeks after the murders, he was ready and willing to give the police anything they needed,
01:09:54
whether it exonerated him or not. But the bottom line for the defense was this. Murdoch had no motive to kill his wife or son.
01:10:05
I would never hurt Maggie, and I would never hurt Paul. Ever. under any circumstances.
01:10:12
But Alec wasn't finished on the stand. Now, it was the prosecution's turn to question him.
01:10:19
You've been able to lie quickly and easily and convincingly if you think it'll save your skin for well over a decade.
01:10:26
Isn't that true? Alec Murdock had lied to police for a year and a half. He told them he was not at the dog kennels before his wife and son's murders.
01:10:51
Now, he said he was. All this time later, this is the first time you've ever said that.
01:10:57
Yes, sir. Prosecutor Creighton Waters wanted to underscore that point. This defendant was a liar and not just about the murders.
01:11:08
For years, he'd been using one hand to shake with trusting clients and the other to rip them off.
01:11:15
You would agree with me that for years you were stealing money from clients? Yes, sir, I agree with that.
01:11:25
And that you were stealing from your law firm? Yes, sir, I agree with that. And that had been going on since at least 2010?
01:11:33
I'm not sure of the exact date, but it's been going on a long time. I'll agree with that.
01:11:40
This defendant, said Waters, stole millions of dollars, even from people he claimed to care about.
01:11:47
What was going through your head and how it went down when you sat there and looked them in the eye
01:11:52
and convinced them that you were doing them right while you were lying to them and stealing their money?
01:11:58
Yes, sir. I had a lot of conversations. with a lot of my clients that I cared about.
01:12:04
And so I will tell you that I had conversations with them where I misled them and I lied to them and I took their money.
01:12:13
The only reason Alec stopped lying about stealing money, the prosecutor argued, was because he got caught.
01:12:21
Just as the only reason he stopped lying about being at the kittles was the tape.
01:12:26
You agree that the most important part of your testimony here today is explaining your life for a year and a half that you were never down at those kennels at 844.
01:12:38
Would you agree with that? I think all of my testimony is important, Mr. Waters.
01:12:45
Would you agree that that's an important part of your testimony? Sure. I think he was tired. I won't say his wheels came off, but they started to get wobbly.
01:12:56
Attorney Joe McCullough was in court for Alec's testimony. He could see Alec beginning to buckle as the prosecutor pressed into his ever-changing story about where he was the night of the murders.
01:13:09
That's a telling blow. It was set up well with a series of questions to kind of, I think, wear him out, kind of fool him into committing himself to that point of lie.
01:13:22
and then they showed that he was lying again. The prosecutor attacked Murdoch's new version of that night,
01:13:31
which went like this. He was at the kennels at 844, but only for a minute or so,
01:13:38
to rescue a chicken in distress. Then he went back to the house. So we got you back around 849
01:13:45
and you didn't hear anything at all. Did you hear anything at all, Mr. Murdoch, during that time period?
01:13:50
No, I did not. That's possibly because he was napping by then, Alex said. He had missed his wife and son's murders by mere seconds,
01:14:00
missed the sound of multiple gun blasts, likely because he was out cold. According to your news story, how long did you doze?
01:14:11
If I dozed, extremely short time. Extremely short time? because you would agree with me that at 9.02, you're up and moving according to the data.
01:14:23
I agree that according to that data, my phone's recording steps at whatever time it is, 9.02 something.
01:14:32
So what was he doing, Creighton Waters asked. I know what I wasn't doing, Mr. Waters, and what I wasn't doing is doing anything,
01:14:42
as I believe you implied that I was cleaning off or washing off or washing off guns putting guns in a raincoat and I can promise you that I wasn doing any of that Waters dismissed the latest alibi as the words of a man who routinely lied to escape trouble
01:15:03
You've been able to lie quickly and easily and convincingly if you think it'll save your skin for well over a decade.
01:15:11
Isn't that true? I have lied well over a decade. And you want this jury to believe a story manufactured to fit the evidence that you brought forth just yesterday.
01:15:36
After hearing this trial's worth a testimony. No, sir, that's not correct. The trouble Murdoch was trying to save himself from this time, the prosecutor argued, was impending financial exposure at his law firm and in the Mallory Beach civil case.
01:15:54
To avoid that, he seized on a harebrained scheme, commit a greater crime to blot out the lesser ones, kill two loved ones to attract sympathy instead of scrutiny.
01:16:09
Mr. Murdoch, are you a family annihilator? A family annihilator? You mean like, did I shoot my wife and my son?
01:16:20
Yes. No. Nothing further. As a former attorney, Alec Murdoch had a knack for reading juries.
01:16:27
But all that mattered now was how these jurors were reading him. After 28 days of testimony, the case was theirs to decide.
01:16:38
And they did it in less than three hours. The defendant will rise. 28 days had barely ended in the most watched trial in South Carolina's history.
01:17:06
The case was in the hands of the jury. And everyone was trying to catch their breath when the word came.
01:17:15
A verdict was in. Already. Guilty verdict. Guilty of the murders of his wife and son.
01:17:24
Bailiffs flanked and cuffed Murdoch, his surviving son Buster, watching from the gallery.
01:17:30
And he may be taken away. Alec, is there anything you want to say to your surviving family members?
01:17:36
As he was led out of the back of the courthouse to spend his first night in jail as a convicted murderer A jubilant prosecution team assembled in front of the building
01:17:56
There were cheers for lead prosecutor Creighton Waters, and he heaped praise on the jurors.
01:18:03
We had no doubt that we had a chance to present our case in a court of law that they would see through the one last con that Alec Murdoch was trying to pull.
01:18:13
And they did, and we're so grateful for that. The trial had drawn spectators from across the country, and now they also weighed in.
01:18:24
It's the demise of an entire family. This was the only way that Paul and Maggie will ever have any justice.
01:18:33
Justice was served. It was. Now maybe they can lay in peace. Mark Tinsley, lawyer for Mallory Beach's family.
01:18:43
It was interesting to me that the trial testimony ended on the anniversary of the boat crash,
01:18:50
but then for Elek to be held accountable for what he did and have to account for what he did in such a public manner
01:18:59
on the anniversary of them finding her body. It really has to be something more than just coincidence.
01:19:09
We knew that the lie, as we call it, would be a major issue. Alex defeated defense team Dick Harputlian and Jim Griffin.
01:19:19
How damning was that video at the kennels? Damning. Extremely. Extremely. I mean, we were talking about Jim and I were getting prepared four or five months ago.
01:19:30
And, you know, we were looking for a way to get around. We call it the lie. I mean, every time it's the lie.
01:19:35
How do you get around it? How do you explain it? And apparently he didn't. So this case really boiled down to the big lie versus the big why.
01:19:45
But South Carolina Attorney General Allen Wilson and Prosecutor Waters contend it was more than just that taste.
01:19:53
Alec Murdoch. I think his voice on the kennel video coupled with his testimony, I think that's ultimately what hung him with the jury.
01:20:00
South Carolinians, you know, they have a good, as you know, they have a good sense and a good meter for B.S.
01:20:07
And I think that that he looked them in the eye and told them lies. And that was all it took to get it over the finish line.
01:20:13
How does Buster feel about you being found guilty? His first day as a convicted man, Murdoch came to the courthouse
01:20:21
in a jumpsuit and shackles for sentencing. Would you like to address the court on any matters?
01:20:29
The judge asked each side if they wanted to address the court Mr Griffin and I would have no comment The defendant would like to address the court though I would never hurt my wife Maggie and I would never hurt my son Paw Paw
01:20:45
The judge had a question for the convicted man about something he said on the stand.
01:20:51
What tangle, web, we weave. What did you mean by that? It meant when I lied, I continued to lie.
01:21:01
And the question is, when will it end? And then, in the very courtroom where his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had prosecuted cases before him,
01:21:13
Alec Murdoch was sentenced for killing his wife and son. I sentence you for a term of the rest of your natural life.
01:21:22
Two life terms to be served consecutively. He is appealing. The trial may be over, but for old friends of Alec, the heartbreak will never end.
01:21:38
What's been the hardest part? The hardest part is two friends that we'll never see again, two people that we love,
01:21:45
knowing that we'll never see Maggie and Paul again. Who was the Paul that you knew?
01:21:48
The Paul that we knew was loving. He was funny. He had a big heart. What do you want the world to know?
01:21:58
about your sorority sister turned dear friend, Maggie Murdoch. The world lost a very special person.
01:22:09
I lost a dear friend. I still hear her laugh at a very loud laugh, and I miss her.
01:22:20
But when the talk turns to Allie, Chris Wilson struggles. Theft, lying, drug addiction.
01:22:30
It's a lot of secrets to have between two really good friends of more than 30 years.
01:22:36
I thought I knew him. At the end of the day, I thought I knew somebody that I didn't know.
01:22:41
A favored son of the Lowcountry. A life with all that glitter. A legendary family.
01:22:48
Now, with a tragic new chapter. As we sit here right now, how do you feel about him?
01:22:54
My thoughts right now aren't good at all about him, but I know I'm supposed to forgive him.
01:23:03
The Bible teaches us to forgive. One day I hope I can forgive him, but not this day.
01:23:11
Not this day. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us. Thank you.