Alex Murdaugh can’t remember last conversation with wife and son – minutes before murders

In a bombshell move, Mr Murdaugh has now admitted that he was at the kennels at 8.44pm on 7 June 2021

Alex Murdaugh has claimed he can’t remember the last conversation he ever had with his wife Maggie and son Paul – just minutes before they were gunned down by the kennels on the family’s hunting estate.

The disgraced attorney was confronted by prosecutor Creighton Waters on the witness stand on Friday morning about his “new story” about the 7 June 2021 murders.

In a bombshell move, Mr Murdaugh has now admitted that he was at the kennels with his wife and son that night, confirming it is him in a video Paul took at 8.44pm – just six minutes before prosecutors say the shootings unfolded at 8.50pm.

When asked what he did at the kennels, he said that he was “talking to Mags”.

According to his version of events, this was the last time he ever saw his wife and son alive.

Yet, he was unable to recall what their final conversation was about.

“I don’t remember the exact details of what we talked about,” he said.

Under further prompting from the prosecutor, Mr Murdaugh said that Maggie was “very concerned” about Paul and so he believes they may have spoken about that.

He also said he believes he spoke to Paul was not sure what about.

“You remember a lot of detail about these new facts, but you don’t remember what you talked about?” Mr Waters questioned.

He also confirmed he did not tell his wife and son he was going to go to visit his mother minutes after leaving the kennels.

He also couldn’t recall his final words to his wife and son. “I can’t tell you what those were, but it would have been something to the effect of: I’m leaving,” he said.

Despite his inability to recollect the conversation, he said he was not withdrawing from opioids at that time.

Alex Murdaugh gives testimony during his murder trial (AP)

The testy exchange came as Mr Waters confronted the accused killer about his sudden and dramatic change in alibi for the night of the murders – which came only after jurors were shown a bombshell video placing him at the scene of the murders and more than half a dozen witnesses identified his voice in the footage.

Change of alibi

Mr Murdaugh shocked the court during on Thursday when he confessed for the first time that he had lied about not going to the dog kennels with Maggie and Paul that night.

“Oh what a tangled web we weave. Once I told the lie, and I told my family, I had to keep lying,” he testified.

This marked the first time that Mr Murdaugh has ever confessed publicly or to law enforcement that he had lied.

During a tense cross-examination, Mr Murdaugh was confronted about his “new story” which came after 20 months of lying to officials, friends and family members.

The prosecutor pointed out that this confession only came after jurors saw Paul’s damning cellphone video which places him at the scene of the murders with his wife and son at 8.44pm and after multiple witnesses had identified his voice in the footage.

Prosecutors say that Maggie and Paul were killed minutes after the video was taken at around 8.50pm. Data suggests they last used their cellphones at 8.49pm.

Mr Waters accused Mr Murdaugh of only turning to this “new story” because he had been backed into a corner and had no way of disputing the evidence placing him at the murder scene.

“You, like you have done so many times in your life, had to back up and make a new story to fit with the facts of your life,” Mr Waters said.

“The second you’re confronted with facts you can’t deny, you immediately come up with a new lie. Isn’t that correct?”

He continued: “You’ve done that over and over again. The second you’re confronted with facts you can’t deny you confront them with a new lie?

Mr Murdaugh denied this and instead gave a bizarre explanation for not coming forward with the truth earlier.

The disbarred attorney sought to blame the prosecution for his lies rumbling on until his trial testimony, claiming that he tried to tell the truth – but that the state would not speak to him.

In a dramatic moment – laced with objections from the defence – Mr Waters pointed out that Mr Murdaugh’s own attorneys were not apparently aware of his change in story either.

Jurors heard how – at a time when Mr Murdaugh claims he wanted to come clean – his attorneys did a national TV interview in November last year “repeating your own lies” about his alibi.

Jurors have seen how in the 911 call that night, multiple police interviews, conversations with friends, family members and colleagues, Mr Murdaugh consistently denied ever being at the dog kennels that night.

Mr Murdaugh admitted that Thursday marked the first time since the 7 June 2021 murders that law enforcement, prosecutors, friends, colleagues – and his own brother Randy – had heard him change his story.

Mr Waters grilled Mr Murdaugh about why – given his extensive experience of the justice system as an attorney from a long line of attorneys – “the last time you saw your wife and child you didn’t think was important” to share with law enforcement investigating their murders.

“I think it’s important,” he insisted.

Buster, Maggie, Paul and Alex Murdaugh left to right (Maggie Murdaugh/Facebook)

Later in the cross, Mr Murdaugh was asked to pinpoint the exact moment in his first interview with law enforcement on the night of the murders that he “consciously decided” to lie about his movements.

Mr Murdaugh insisted that it wasn’t a conscious decision to lie, saying: “When I got thinking in paranoid way… it didn’t go away in a matter of seconds and I decided to lie.”

Over several hours, the prosecutor built up a picture of Mr Murdaugh’s lies about his alibi for the night of the murders, his decade-long theft from law firm clients, the roadside shooting – and allegedly about killing his wife and son.

Jurors were shown how the accused killer kept up his alibi repeatedly for the night of the murders –seeing footage of his police interviews on the night of the murders as well as three days later where he lied about the last time he had seen them alive.

Accused of lying about lying

After an hours-long cross, a bombshell moment unfolded when Mr Murdaugh was accused of lying on the stand – about why he had lied over his alibi on the night of the murders.

Mr Murdaugh had testified that he had lied for the past 20 months because he was “paranoid” over his suspicions of SLED, warnings from his law firm partners about always have a lawyer present when speaking to the police and investigators having swabbed his hands for gunshot residue.

But, in a dramatic moment, Mr Waters poured cold water on this testimony as he played a clip from bodycam footage from the first officer to respond to the scene.

In the video, Colleton County Sheriff’s Sgt Daniel Greene asked Mr Murdaugh when he last saw Maggie and Paul.

At this moment – minutes after he claims he found his wife and son’s bodies – Mr Murdaugh gave his false version of events for the first time.

“It was earlier tonight. I don’t know the exact time,” he said.

“I was probably gone about an hour and a half to my mom’s and I saw them about 45 minutes before that.”

Mr Waters pointed out that none of the factors Mr Murdaugh claimed prompted his “paranoid” fuelled lies were present at that time.

“But you still told the same lie,” Mr Waters confronted him.

“And all those reasons you just gave this jury about the most important part of your testimony was a lie, too. Isn’t that true, Mr Murdaugh?”

Mr Murdaugh responded: “I disagree with that.”

The prosecutor said he had “nothing further” leaving Mr Murdaugh, looking somewhat dejected and defeated by what had just taken place.

‘Fuzzy’ memories

Throughout the hours-long exchange, the prosecutor repeatedly grilled Mr Murdaugh – and pointed out examples – about how he seems to have a “photographic memory” on some minute details but is “fuzzy” on other seemingly more critical things.

He pointed out that on Thursday Mr Murdaugh recalled a precise moment where he stopped in his mother’s driveway for a minute. He testified that he stopped to get his phone which had dropped down to the ground. Prosecutors have suggested he was disposing of murder weapons or bloody clothes at that time.

While remembering this, he was unable to recall his conversations with his family and what he did in the four-minute period before going to his mother’s home.

While Mr Murdaugh confessed to lying, he continued to insist his innocence of the murders.

Mr Murdaugh said that after dinner that night Maggie had asked him to go to the kennels with her but he didn’t want to go because he would get hot and sweaty.

In what appeared to be an unfortunate slip of the tongue, Mr Murdaugh explained his reason for not going: “I just had a shower. When you go to the kennels you always end up getting shot.

He added: “The dogs running round. You always end up doing more work. It’s hot. I already had a shower, I didn’t want to go to the kennels.”

Buster Murdaugh listens to his father testify on Thursday (AP)

He said he “very quickly” changed his mind “because Maggie wanted me to” so he took a golf cart down to the kennels – to find Maggie and Paul already there.

He claimed that he must have been there only a few minutes before Paul took the cellphone video at 8.44pm – as his son was in the driveway when he arrived and not in the kennels where he shot the video.

Mr Murdaugh was grilled about what he did while was there, claiming he sat on the golf cart most of the time before getting off briefly to wrestle a chicken from the mouth of Maggie’s dog Bubba.

He claimed he had been there “a couple minutes” before the chicken incident – and therefore Paul’s video.

In another bombshell comment, Mr Murdaugh insisted that there could not have been anyone else around at that time or the family’s dogs would have reacted.

“There was nobody around that the dogs didn’t know,” he said.

Small window of time

After getting the chicken from the dog, he said he quickly left, “because it was chaotic, it was hot”.

“I was getting ready to do exactly what I didn’t want to do. I was getting ready to sweat. I was getting ready to work,” he said.

Pressed about the specific time that he left, Mr Murdaugh estimated that he likely left around 8.47pm.

With the drive back up to the house in the golf cart taking a couple of minutes, Mr Waters pointed out that he would have got there at around 8.49pm.

Data indicates that Maggie and Paul last used their cellphones at 8.49pm and were shot dead around 8.50pm.

Mr Murdaugh testified that he didn’t hear any gunshots after arriving back at the house.

He sat down on the couch and then minutes later got up and drove to his mother’s house, he said.

The prosecutor questioned the speed with which Mr Murdaugh jetted back and forth between the house, the kennels and the house again, per his version of events.

“Does that sound like real life to you?” he said. “You jetted down to the kennels, you dealt with the chicken, and you jetted back.”

Cellphone data

Mr Murdaugh was also questioned about cellphone data showing the movements of himself, Maggie and Paul that night.

Mr Murdaugh said that he must have left his phone at the house when he went to the kennels.

His cellphone did not record any steps between 8.09pm and 9.02pm – roughly 12 minutes after when both Mr Murdaugh claims he was back at the home and when the murders took place – when he became “a very busy bee,” said Mr Waters.

In a four-minute period between 9.02 and 9.06pm, Mr Murdaugh’s cellphone then recorded 283 steps as though it was no his person. He also made multiple phone calls.

Under repeated questioning, Mr Murdaugh could not explain what he did during that four-minute timeframe – saying only that he was “getting ready” to go to his mother’s home.

He could not specifically say what he did to get ready, with Mr Waters pointing out that he was on the couch in the lounge and his SUV was parked just outside.

At one point he suggested that he may have gone to the bathroom – and then said he didn’t think he had gone to the bathroom.

“The real reason, Mr Murdaugh is that you as a lawyer and prosecutor are up at 9.02pm, finally have the phone in your hand, moving around and making all these phone calls to manufacture an alibi, is that not true?” Mr Waters said.

Mr Murdaugh denied this saying “I never manufactured any alibi in any way, shape or form because I would not and did not hurt my wife and my child”.

Car data, testimony and Mr Murdaugh’s version of events all reveal that he drove to his mother’s house – stayed 20 minutes – then drove home again.

After returning home, he claims he drove to the kennels to find Maggie and Paul and discovered their bodies.

Breaking down on the stand again, Mr Murdaugh said he called 911 right away.

911 call and touching the bodies

Mr Murdaugh was grilled about discrepancies in this part of his story, where he said he had touched the bloody bodies of his wife and son.

In the 911 call, in police interviews and on the witness stand on Thursday, Mr Murdaugh claimed he touched both Maggie and son to check for signs of life.

He also claimed that he tried to turn Paul over, causing his son’s phone to “pop out” of his pocket. He claimed he picked it up and put it back down on his son.

In direct questioning on Thursday, Mr Murdaugh stuck to that story – but appeared to change the timing of when he touched the bodies, saying he did it while on the phone to the 911 dispatcher.

Mr Waters confronted him about this saying that he had repeatedly told law enforcement that he had touched both Maggie and Paul prior to the 911 call.

“I know I checked them but I don’t think I checked them before calling 911,” Mr Murdaugh said.

In the 911 call, Mr Murdaugh does say he has “already” touched them but it is unclear if this was earlier in the call or prior to the call being placed.

However, Mr Waters suggested that this was another attempt by Mr Murdaugh to amend his story to try to fit the irrefutable evidence.

Data from the accused killer’s SUV has previously revealed that less than 20 seconds passed between his car arriving at the scene and him placing the 911 call – a brief time that thereby casts doubt on him touching the bodies beforehand.

The prosecution has also cast doubts in whether Mr Murdaugh touched the bodies at all.

Jurors have previously heard testimony from multiple law enforcement officers on the scene that Mr Murdaugh did not appear to have any blood on his hands or clothing.

Bodycam footage also shows him dressed in a clean white t-shirt which did not test positive for human blood.

As jurors have previously heard, the crime scene was especially violent and bloody, with Paul’s brain shot out of his skull and both he and Maggie lying in pools of their own blood, fuelling the prosecution’s theory that Mr Murdaugh killed his wife and son and then changed his clothing – disposing of the bloody clothes.

Denial of murder

While he has now confessed to lying about his whereabouts that night, Mr Murdaugh continues to deny murdering his wife and son.

“I did not shoot my wife or my son any time, ever,” he insisted on Thursday, breaking down in tears on multiple occasions as he recounted finding the bloody scene that night.

“My boy was lying face down... I could see his brain laying on the sidewalk. I didn’t know what to do,” he said of Paul’s body.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters holds up a 14th circuit solicitors badge of Alex Murdaugh’s (AP)

While insisting his innocence, Mr Murdaugh also volunteered his own theory about the killer’s motive for shooting his wife and son – claiming he still believes his wife and son were murdered by unknown assailants because of the 2019 fatal boat wreck.

“The social media response that came from that was vile. The things that were said about what they would do to PawPaw, they were so over the top,” he said.

“I believed then and I believe today that the wrong person saw and read that because – I can tell you for a fact that the person or people who did what I saw on June 7 – they hated Paul Murdaugh and they had anger in their heart.”

Breaking down in tears again, he said: “And that is the only, only reason that somebody could be mad at PawPaw like that and hate him like that.”

Prosecutor Creighton Waters scoffed at Mr Murdaugh’s theory of a “random vigilante” acting over the boat wreck – bringing up the defence’s previous theory that the shooter was just 5’2”.

He also pointed out that there was no evidence to support the accused killer’s theory.

“So what you’re telling this jury is it’s a random vigilante, the 12 year-old 5’2” people that just happen to know that Paul and Maggie were both at Moselle on June 7, that knew they’d be at the kennels alone on June 7, knew that you would not be there but only between the times of 8.49pm and 9.02pm,” he said.

“That they show up without a weapon assuming they’re going to find weapons and ammunition there.

“That they commit this crime during that short time window and then they travel the same exact route that you do around the same time to Almeda?”

Prosecutors claim Mr Murdaugh killed his wife and son to distract from his string of alleged financial crimes – at a time when his multi-million-dollar fraud scheme was on the brink of being exposed.

Jurors heard four weeks of dramatic testimony from the prosecution, covering a trove of circumstantial evidence, including cellphone and car data and numerous apparent holes in his alibi for the time for the murders.

The defence meanwhile is seeking to present the alleged killer and financial fraudster as a loving family man who would never have murdered his wife and son. Defence experts have testified about mistakes in the preservation of crime scene evidence and claimed Maggie’s shooter was 5’2” tall – not 6’4” like Mr Murdaugh.

Beyond the murders, the brutal double murders brought to light a series of scandals surrounding Mr Murdaugh including unexplained deaths, the multi-million-dollar fraud scheme and the botched hitman plot.

The 54-year-old is facing life in prison on the murder charges.