Editor’s note: HBO documentary series “The Lowlands: Murdo Dynasty” It chronicles the influence of family in South Carolina. Airs on CNN Sunday, February 19 at 8:00 PM ET.
CNN
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A jury in Alex Murdau’s double-murder trial Wednesday saw footage of a key interview with a state investigator who was asked for the first time whether he killed his wife and son.
According to testimony, the August 11, 2021 interview was with the South Carolina Department of Law Enforcement, who were investigating Murdau’s murder of his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdow, and his grown son, Paul Murdoh, three months earlier. It was the third interview for On Wednesday, SLED Agent Lieutenant David Owen.
The interview was about to end when Owen told Murdau, “I have a few more questions.”
“Did you kill Maggie?” Owen asked, according to footage played in court.
“No,” Murdoh said. “Did I kill my wife? No, David.”
“Do you know who did it?”
“No, I don’t know who did it,” Murdow said.
“Did you kill Paul?”
“No, I didn’t kill Paul,” Murdow said.
“Do you know who did it?”
“No, I don’t know who did it,” Murdoh said. “You think I killed Maggie?”
“I have to go where the evidence and the facts take me,” said Owen.
“I know, and you think I killed Paul?”
“I have to go where the evidence and the facts lead me,” Owen said again.
“So you’re saying I’m the suspect?”
“I’m still in this state,” Owen told Mardow, adding, “I have to put my beliefs aside and follow the facts.”
Owen’s testimony on Wednesday distracted Murdo from the mountain of financial crimes he was accused of committing, and to stave off a “computational day” when those crimes could have occurred, Murdoh’s wife and son It comes as we are nearing the end of a case in a state that claims to have killed come to light.
Murdow, whose defense has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a firearm, called 911 on the night of the killings after finding his wife and son shot at the family mansion. claims to have been a loving father and husband who reported to Islandton, South Carolina, known as the Moselle.
As of the Aug. 11, 2021 interview, Murdau was the “only known suspect” in the murder, Owen testified Wednesday.
The case was transferred from the local attorney to the Attorney General’s Office the same day, and the Murdow family’s long relationship with the local attorney has prosecuted the case.
Murdoh’s remarks in an August 2021 interview were voluntary, and Owen testified Wednesday. I said I want to ask you a question. Murdoh has demonstrated that he feels comfortable answering the agent’s questions.
Murdau claimed to law enforcement that the last time he saw Maggie and Paul was the night of the murder. They had dinner together and drove to Almeda to visit their mother before Murdo took a nap. He said he found the bodies of his wife and son when he got home at 10:07 p.m. and called 911.
Footage played in court Wednesday shows SLED agents confronting Murdow over evidence that appears to contradict his previous statements to law enforcement.
Owen testified that it was the first time Murdo was confronted with the fact that Paul’s friend Logan Gibson said he heard Murdo’s voice behind the phone with Paul that night just before the murder took place. was.
“I heard your voice in the background. It was before 9 p.m. Was it you?”
“Nine o’clock? No, sir,” said Murdo, “if my time is right.”
“Who do you think it was?”
“I have no idea.”
“And Logan has been around your family pretty much all his life,” Owen said, and Murdaugh agreed. Can you think of anyone else with a voice similar to yours that he might have misunderstood?”
“no.”
Months later, investigators found a video on Paul’s phone taken shortly after that call at 8:44 p.m. in the family’s kennel area near where the body was found. Witnesses at .Murdo’s voice, along with those of Maggie and Paul, were confirmed in the video, contradicting Murdoh’s statement to investigators that he had not been to the kennel prior to discovering the body. are doing.
Footage played on Wednesday also showed investigators confronting Murdoh over another footage filmed by Paul on the night of the murder: showing Murdoh looking at a sapling on the family property. Snapchat video. In it, Murdo is seen wearing pants and a blue shirt. But then he was wearing shorts and a white T-shirt.
“Paul’s phone had a video of you and him on the farm that night. You’re wearing khaki pants and a dress shirt…that night I saw you.” At the time, you were wearing shorts and a T-shirt,” said Owen. “What time did you change at night?”
“I’m not sure,” Murdoh said. “What time was that? You would have thought I had changed already.
Recent testimony similarly undermined statements Murdow made to SLED in an August 2021 interview. That means Maggie decided to go to the Moselle on the night of the murder because she was worried about him and his father, who were in declining health.
Two witnesses disagree: Maggie’s sister testified on Tuesday that it was Murdo who wanted Maggie to come to the Moselle. Maggie was staying at his family’s Edisto Beach property and he didn’t want to go to Islandton, Marian Proctor said, recalling a conversation the day of the murder.
Proctor encouraged Maggie to go, she said, smashing it out in court.
The family’s housekeeper, Blanca Simpson, similarly testified last week that Maggie told her on the day of the murder that Alex had asked both Maggie and Paul to come to the Moselle that night.
Earlier Wednesday, Judge Clifton Newman alleged that Murdoh asked another man to shoot him so his surviving son could get a multi-million dollar life insurance policy in 2021. A ruling was made not to permit testimony about the street shootings in September.
Prosecutor Clayton Waters said the roadside shooting showed “guilt” and accused Murdoh of being targeted by an unknown assailant after he pulled over to deal with a flat tire. This led people to believe that Maggie and Paul’s killers had returned to target Alex so that Alex could not be held responsible for their deaths. Waters said he came to believe.
Waters also claimed that the roadside shooting showed “symmetry” with the murders of Maggie and Paul, shortly after members of Murdau’s former law firm confronted him about theft from the firm and its clients. , both shootings occurred.
Defense attorney Dick Harputrian opposed including the testimony, saying it indicated a guilty admission of financial crimes rather than murder.
Newman acknowledged that evidence of Murdo’s alleged financial crimes showed motives, but determined that the roadside shooting was “a bridge too far” and “doesn’t meet the logical relevance test.”
Murdau later told authorities that he conspired with a former customer to kill him as part of an insurance fraud so that his son, Buster, could collect payments, according to court documents. I believed Harputrian would tell you on NBC’s “Today Show” that his life insurance policy included a suicide exclusion.
Murdow has been charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and filing a false police report in connection with the shooting. The shooter, Curtis Edward Smith, has been charged with assisted suicide. complicity in insurance fraud; pointing and presenting a firearm; The assault and battery of an advanced and aggravated nature, officials said.
The South Carolina Department of Law Enforcement later described the injury as a “superficial gunshot wound to the head.”
