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Graphic footage of Alex Murdaugh sobbing yards away from the blood-soaked bodies of his wife and son has been revealed.
The redacted body-worn footage from the first officer on the scene was finally released Monday after it was shown to jurors earlier in his double-murder trial.
The disgraced legal scion, 54, is seen talking on the phone and asking an officer, ‘They are dead aren’t they?’ The bodies of Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, are blurred out after they were shot multiple times at the family’s hunting estate on June 7, 2021.
‘It’s bad, I checked their pulses,’ Murdaugh tells the cop as he paces up and down, wearing a white t-shirt, shorts and sneakers by the kennels on the property.
Murdaugh tells Sergeant Daniel Greene that he had been gone for about an hour and a half to visit his mother. ‘I saw them about 45 minutes before that,’ he says.
Alex Murdaugh is seen on June 7, 2021, at the murder scene at the family’s hunting lodge in Islandton, South Carolina. Murdaugh is speaking on the phone in the video and tells the officer it’s his brother on the line.
PAUL’S BODY: Paul’s body is seen outside a doorway at the kennels. The body is blurred out
MAGGIE’S BODY: Murdaugh’s wife’s corpse is seen blurred out in the extreme foreground as he paces around in a white t-shirt near his parked up Chevrolet Suburban
‘I rode around with Paul for two hours this afternoon in the pick-up truck,’ he tells the cop.
He then asks: ‘Has somebody gone to check ’em? They did check ’em? They’re sure that they’re dead?’
The officer confirms that they are dead.
Murdaugh’s Chevrolet Suburban is seen parked up close by with a shotgun leaning against it. He tells the officer he retrieved the shotgun but is otherwise unarmed.
The disgraced attorney is speaking on the phone in the video and tells the officer it’s his brother on the line.
The release of the footage comes as the prosecution is this week set to rest its case.
Murdaugh is accused of shooting Maggie five times with a high-powered assault rifle and shooting his son Paul twice with a shotgun.
No murder weapon has ever been found.
The State says he killed the pair to distract from his financial crimes. He embezzled millions from his law firm and was facing a lawsuit over his son’s drunken boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach in February, 2019.
On the day Maggie and Paul were murdered, Murdaugh had been confronted over $792,000 that he stole from the firm.
Later that week a hearing to determine the state of his finances was due in the boat wreck lawsuit.
Murdaugh told lawyers for Beach’s family that he was broke and the court has heard how he was siphoning funds from the firm into his personal accounts in an attempt to shield the money from the lawsuit.
Maggie had recently confided in their housekeeper that they were being sued for $30million.
The defense theory is that somebody else killed Maggie and Paul in revenge for the boat accident.
His Chevrolet Suburban is seen parked up close by with a shotgun leaning up against it. Murdaugh tells the officer he retrieved the shotgun but is otherwise unarmed.
Paul’s body appears to be lying outside a doorway and is blurred out in the redacted footage
Murdaugh gestures with a torch as he speaks to Sergeant Daniel Greene, the first officer who arrived at the estate on the night of the murders
WHERE MAGGIE DIED: A pool of blood is seen outside the kennels near the doghouse where Maggie Murdaugh was shot dead. Fire AR bullets in total, with two piercing her brain
WHERE PAUL DIED: Blood spatters on the floor inside the storage room at the kennels where Paul Murdaugh was shot dead. He was killed with a shot to the chest and a second to the head. Two shotgun shells were recovered by cops – two 12-gauge shells, two different brands – one Federal, the other Winchester
They argue that their client was a ‘loving’ husband and father who could have never killed his wife and son. They have branded the State’s alleged financial motivation as ‘ludicrous’.
Murdaugh claims that he went to visit his mother at around 9pm on the night of the murders. The State says Maggie and Paul were killed shortly after 8.49pm and that a video taken by Paul at 8.45pm proves he was at the scene.
Several witnesses, including close family friends, have testified they can hear the voices of Alex, Maggie and Paul in the footage.
But the alleged killer told investigators he was never at the kennels.
Murdaugh says that the family ate dinner together around 8.15pm and that Maggie and Paul went down to the kennels while he fell asleep in front of the TV.
At 9.06pm, his Chevrolet Suburban was fired up and he went to visit his mother in Almeda, around 15 minutes away.
He claims he was there for around 40 minutes, although this is disputed by his mother’s caregiver who said he was only at the house for 20 minutes.
Alex Murdaugh arriving at the Colleton County Court, South Carolina, on Monday
Buster, Maggie, Paul and Alex Murdaugh. Buster was staying with his girlfriend near Charlotte at the time of the murders
At the time of Maggie and Paul’s deaths , Murdaugh and his son were facing a civil suit over the boat wreck that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach in February, 2019. Murdaugh told cops Paul and Maggie had been killed in revenge for the accident
Murdaugh says he arrived back at the hunting estate to find Maggie and Paul dead at the kennels. He called 911 at 10.07pm.
First responders have testified that they did not check either Maggie or Paul because their injuries were so horrific as to be ‘incompatible with life.’ Two shots entered Maggie’s head, while Paul’s brain was completely detached from his skull.
The court has previously heard evidence that Murdaugh’s clothing when cops arrived appeared clean to the extent that police believed he had recently changed.
Blood tests carried out on his white t-shirt later came back positive. However, Murdaugh does say that he touched their bodies to check for signs of life.
An earlier video taken that night by Paul at 7.56pm shows Murdaugh wearing a blue shirt, long pants and brown loafers.
The family’s housekeeper Blanca Simpson testified last week that she never saw the items of clothing ever again.
The State intends to rest its case by Wednesday and then the defense will start calling their own witnesses.
Alex Murdaugh listens to his friend Chris Wilson testify during his double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse on Thursday
The family’s housekeeper Blanca Simpson testified Alex told her to go to the house and clean up the day after Maggie and Paul were killed at the kennels on the estate in Moselle, South Carolina, on June 7, 2021
The trial is taking place at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, a sleepy, rural town 50 miles west of Charleston in a low-lying region of South Carolina over which the Murdaugh family has wielded immense judicial and political power.
Indeed, in the courtroom where Murdaugh faces judgment, a portrait of his late grandfather – legendary longtime 14th Circuit Solicitor Buster Murdaugh Jr. – had hung on the wall before it was removed ahead of the trial.
Following the murder trial, Murdaugh will have to face more than 100 additional criminal charges, ranging from drug trafficking to allegations that he stole nearly $9million from clients and other attorneys.
Prosecutors say Murdaugh lured his wife and son to their 1,700-acre hunting lodge and shot them dead.
The state also claims that his life was spiraling out of control amid years of opioid addiction and ballooning debts.
Murdaugh pleaded not guilty in June, and the blockbuster trial is expected to include wild allegations of dark family secrets, financial ruin and hedonistic excess.
In total, over 220 people could testify against Murdaugh in the trial.
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