Dramatic bodycam footage shows Alex Murdaugh sobbing and asking ‘are they dead’ on night of murders
In the footage, Mr Murdaugh repeatedly asks if his wife and son are dead, recounts a detailed alibi for his movements that night and says the murders are connected to a 2019 fatal boat crash involving Paul
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Dramatic bodycam footage has finally been released showing Alex Murdaugh on the night of his wife and sons’ murders, capturing the disgraced legal dynasty heir pacing around the dog kennels, sobbing and wailing, and repeatedly asking: “Are they dead?”
The footage was taken from the bodyworn camera of Colleton County Sheriff’s Sgt Daniel Greene when he became the first law enforcement officer to respond to the scene of the brutal slayings at the Murdaugh family’s 1,700-acre estate back on 7 June 2021.
In the video, the seemingly-upset legal scion is seen repeatedly asking the officer if his wife Maggie and son Paul are dead and asking “did you check” their bodies to see if they’re still alive.
“Has somebody gone to check ‘em? They did check ‘em? They’re sure that they’re dead?” he says.
Jurors at Mr Murdaugh’s double murder trial have heard Maggie and Paul’s slayings were especially brutal.
Multiple law enforcement officials have testified that it was clear there was no signs of life without checking the victims’ pulses, with both mother and son found lying in a pool of their own blood.
Maggie had been shot five times with an AR-15-style rifle while Paul was shot twice with a shotgun – one of the bullets shooting Paul’s brain right out of his skull.
In the bodycam footage, Mr Murdaugh is also seen regaling in great detail his alleged movements that night and telling the officer that he “knows” the murders are connected to a 2019 fatal boat crash involving Paul.
The footage begins with the officer walking into the grounds of the Murdaugh’s 1,700-acre estate passing by the bloodied bodies of Maggie and Paul – which have been blurred out.
Mr Murdaugh is seen standing close by with his arms folded, dressed in a white T-shirt and dark shorts.
He does not head towards the officer but speaks to him as he approaches.
The first thing he tells the officer is about the shotgun he armed himself with after finding his wife and son’s bodies.
“Sir I wanted to let you know because of the scene I did go get a gun and bring it down here,” he says.
The officer quickly checks Mr Murdaugh for any other firearms, before asking him: “And this is your wife and son?”
Mr Murdaugh confirms it is and becomes emotional.
“It’s bad, I checked the pulses,” he says, making sobbing sounds.
Unprompted, Mr Murdaugh then tells the officer that the murders must be connected to the 2019 fatal boat crash involving Paul.
“This is a long story. My son was in a boat wreck months back. He’s been getting threats, most of it’s been benign stuf we didn’t take serious... he’s been getting pinched ,” Mr Murdaugh says. “I know that’s what this is.”
At the time of Paul’s death, he was awaiting trial over the death of 19-year-old Mallory Beach.
Paul was allegedly drunk driving a boat of his friends including Beach in 2019 when it crashed and they were thrown overboard. The rest of the group survived but Beach’s body washed up days later.
Paul was charged with boating under the influence and faced up to 25 years in prison. Mr Murdaugh was also being sued by the Beach family – a lawsuit that prosecutors say was about to expose the powerful attorney’s slew of financial crimes.
When Sgt Greene asks Mr Murdaugh when he got home, Mr Murdaugh recounts what prosecutors claim is a carefully-constructed alibi he built in the aftermath of the murders.
“I came to the house first,” he says.
“My mom has late stage Alzheimer’s, my dad is in the hospital. I left, I don’t know what time. I can go on my phone and tell you the exact times,” he says, before suddenly saying: “Did you check?”
When the officer asks “did I check what?”, Mr Murdaugh replies: “Did you check them?”
Sgt Greene tells him that medics are on their way, with the disbarred attorney urging them to “hurry”.
“What are they doing? Can they hurry?” he says.
At one point, Mr Murdaugh is seen wandering away and calling his brother Randy to tell him Maggie and Paul are dead.
“They are dead aren’t they?” he asks, with his phone to his ear.
“Yes sir that’s what it looks like,” the officer responds.
Mr Murdaugh sobs and walks away on the phone, telling his brother: “Randy, Maggie and Paul are dead.”
He tells the officer he’s speaking to his brother and Sgt Greene asks when he last saw Maggie and Paul.
Mr Murdaugh continues to tell Sgt Greene about his alleged movements that night, outlining his alibi.
He claims that he was at the family home when Maggie and Paul went down to the kennels and then he went to his parents’ home to visit his mother. When he got back and found his wife and son missing, he drove to the kennels to find them and discovered their bodies, he claims.
In the bodycam, Mr Murdaugh tells the officer he had been gone to visit his mother for “about an hour and a half”.
“I rode around with Paul for two hours this afternoon in the pick-up truck,” he says.
Prosecutors say that a video taken on Paul’s phone shows Mr Murdaugh was at the kennels minutes before the murders, with four witnesses testifying that his voice is “100 per cent” heard in the footage.
Testimony from Mr Murdaugh’s mother’s carer and data from Mr Murdaugh’s car also indicates he only visited his mother for around 20 minutes. The journey to and from his parents’ home is around 15 minutes.
Once again, Mr Murdaugh asks the officer if they are dead.
“Has somebody gone to check ‘em? They did check ‘em? They’re sure that they’re dead?” he asks.
The officer confirms that they are dead.
Mr Murdaugh becomes emotional and appears to try to compose himself, apologising to the officer.
Moments later, he is heard greeting another officer: “How you doing?”
He later asks if the officers are “covering them up”.
In the footage, dogs are heard barking in the background as officers mark off the area with police tape.
Officers are also heard discussing a set of footprints and some tyre tracks around the scene.
Mr Murdaugh, 54, is facing life in prison for the murders of his wife and son.
He has pleaded not guilty and insists the killers are still at large.
The release of the bodycam footage came as the high-profile double murder trial was disrupted yet again on Monday when the judge revealed that two jurors had tested positive for Covid-19.
Judge Clifton Newman made the bombshell announcement on Monday morning in what marks the latest drama for the high-profile case.
One of the two jurors is asymptomatic while the other has a cough and sore throat, he said.
Following the revelation, the defence raised concerns that others could be infected but may not be testing positive yet – something which could threaten to derail the trial altogether if more jurors test positive in the coming days.
Defence attorney Dick Harpootlian asked Judge Newman for a delay to the trial saying that – while it would be costly to the defence – it could prevent a bigger problem down the line.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters agreed with the defence in asking for a delay for a few days, saying that neither side wants to see a mistrial declared because they are suddenly left without 12 jurors.
This could well be a real possibility as this has left only three out of the original six juror alternates remain.
Despite the concerns raised, Judge Newman declined to postpone the trial.
Instead, he recommended that jurors – and others in court – wear masks going forwards and said that the remaining jurors will be tested again on Wednesday.
Jurors 441 and 326 were then selected from the alternates and seated to replace the two jurors who tested positive.
This latest saga comes after a bomb threat, controversial GoFundMe account and the Murdaugh family’s bad behaviour sparked issues in the trial last week.
The prosecution is expecting to wrap up its case around mid-week – paving the way for Mr Murdaugh’s defence to lay out its case.
The murders of Maggie and Paul – who were shot dead on the family’s sprawling 1,700-acre estate in Islandton back on 7 June 2021 – catapulted the Murdaugh name to notoriety across the US, bringing to light a series of scandals including unexplained deaths, a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme and a botched hitman plot.
Days on from the shootings, an investigation was then reopened into the 2015 death of Stephen Smith, who was found dead in the middle of the road in Hampton County.
The openly gay teenager, 19, had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and his death was officially ruled a hit-and-run. But the victim’s family have long doubted this version of events, with the Murdaugh name cropping up in several police tips and community rumours.
In September 2021 – three months on from the murders – Mr Murdaugh was shot in the head in what turned out to be a botched hitman plot which he had orchestrated with alleged accomplice, distant cousin and drug dealer Curtis Eddie Smith.
He checked into rehab for a 20-year opioid addiction days later.
It then emerged that he had been ousted from his law firm PMPED for stealing millions of dollars from law firm clients.
Separate to the murder trial, Mr Murdaugh is charged with a slew of around 100 charges from multiple indictments for embezzling almost $8.5m from clients in fraud schemes dating back around a decade to 2011.
The attorney, who has since been disbarred, represented the clients in wrongful death lawsuits before allegedly pocketing the settlement money for himself.
An investigation was also reopened into another mystery death connected to the Murdaugh family – that of the Murdaugh’s longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield.
She died in 2018 in a mystery trip and fall accident at the family home. Mr Murdaugh then allegedly stole around $4m in a wrongful death settlement from her sons.