In his own defense, Alex Murdaugh testified on Thursday and Friday. Disgraced ex-lawyer Paul Murdaugh of South Carolina is suspected of murdering his wife Maggie and son Paul, then 22. Paul Murdaugh’s death in a boating accident was commemorated by his first day of testimony.
Mallory Beach, also 19 years old, was killed when a boat driven by Paul Murdaugh, then 19 years old, crashed at Parris Island, South Carolina, on February 23, 2019. Morgan Doughty, Paul Murdaugh’s girlfriend, Miley Altman, her boyfriend Connor Cook, and Anthony Cook, Connor’s cousin and Beach’s boyfriend, were all on board. Hospitalization was necessary for four of the five survivors.
According to detectives’ findings, the group of friends had been out partying all night and, despite being minors, had consumed alcoholic beverages.
The surveillance footage revealed that Paul Murdaugh had bought alcohol from a convenience store earlier in the evening and had been drinking before to the deadly incident. Also, a beer cooler was rescued by law enforcement from the watercraft disaster.
Surviving passengers described Paul Murdaugh’s driving as erratic just before the collision.
“Paul was just driving, doing donuts,” Altman told investigators.
At one point, Altman said, Connor Cook tried to take the wheel, but Paul Murdaugh stopped him.
“He’s like, ‘No this is my boat, like let me drive,'” Altman said, according to “48 Hours.”
According to Altman, some of the passengers had pleaded to be let off, but Paul Murdaugh had refused. At about 2:20 in the morning, the boat slammed into the Archers Creek Bridge, sending Beach splashing into the river below. According to Connor Cook’s 911 call, “On Archer’s Creek, our boat has just capsized. One of the six of us has disappeared.”
First responders arrived and took the other four passengers to a nearby hospital. Anthony Cook, who was captured on tape looking disturbed, opted to remain at the scene.
Hospital workers reportedly informed detectives on “48 Hours” that they witnessed Alex Murdaugh walking from room to room, trying to make contact with the other survivors. Also, a security officer claimed to have overheard him stating, “None of us can find her now. Have no fear.”
The body of Beach was discovered more than a week after the boat capsized, on March 3, 2019, about five miles downstream from the disaster site.
On April 18, 2019, Beach’s 20th birthday, Murdaugh was charged with three felony charges of boating under the influence. He entered not-guilty pleas to all three counts. He didn’t get to face justice because he was killed.
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Alex Murdaugh, while being questioned by prosecutors about the double murder, brought up the accident. He connected it to his son’s murder, blaming “random vigilantes,” as the prosecution put it, for the deaths of his son and wife following the crash’s viral popularity on social media.
“I believe then and I believe today that the wrong person saw and read that because I can tell you for a fact the person or people who did what I saw on June the 7th — they hated Paul Murdaugh and they had anger in their heart,” said Alex Murdaugh.
“That is the only reason that someone could be mad at Paul-Paul like that, and hate him like that. I did then believe it was the boat wreck, and I do believe now that it was the boat wreck that had something to do with that.”
Police and prosecutors have cast doubt on Murdaugh’s claim that the accident was the trigger for the shootings. They say Alex Murdaugh plotted the murders in an effort to gain sympathy as he hid a series of financial misdeeds.
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