SC - Paul Murdaugh & mom Margaret Found Shot To Death - Alex Murdaugh Accused - Islandton #31

[Smelly Squirrel]

The Netflix show says that Alex took out insurance on Moselle one month before Gloria died. Very sus. Is that new info?

 

[KellySleuth]

The Netflix show says that Alex took out insurance on Moselle one month before Gloria died. Very sus. Is that new info?

I wondered that too. I had never heard that before.

 

[minor4th]

I just noticed something from Alex’s testimony today. He was adamant and even repeated “I never manufactured any alibi in any way, shape or form because I did not and would not hurt my wife and my child” and “I never, ever, ever created an alibi.” But that’s exactly what he did when he provided the fake napping alibi. He manufactured an alibi. So by his logic, I guess that’s an admission that he did hurt his wife and his child since that would be the only reason to manufacture an alibi. His lawyers must have been beside themselves.

 

[mickey2942]

I wish we could do a poll.
1. How long will the jury deliberate.
2. Guilty or Not Guilty.

It is a toss up to me. Sure, AM is a and a pathological liar. Does that mean he killed his wife and son? I don't see the evidence that is beyond a reasonable doubt.

No forensics
No weapon
No motive (?)
No witnesses

CW will pull a rabbit out of a hat if AM is convicted. Personally, I think he did it. But what will the jury do...the key point is the "236 steps" AM made at 9:04, what was he doing? He has no answer.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/02/24/alex-murdaugh-murder-trial-new-story/

 

[Pruddennce]

Yes! I think this scenario is a very real possibility. Paul's phone may have popped out while getting pills out of his pocket. He said he had a bag of pills in his pocket when being interviewed by sled. I just have a gut feeling they had tightened up on the pill proble

I got this too. Your son asks for an appointment and you're sooooo concerned about his feet - but I'd bet $10 to a doughnut NO appointment was ever made.

it was another ruse, IMO...warm and fuzzy everyday family conversation. NOT! anything he says about conversations he had with his wife or son on this particular day leading up to their death in the evening cannot be believed: they are gone and cannot refute, argue or agree.

 

[Warwick7]

The way I am thinking about the motive (to the extent that people even really need a great motive to kill) is (IMO):

- The pressure from the boat crash cases was mounting. Tinsley, the Beach family's attorney, had told him that he was going to have to pay a lot of money to settle the case. Alex told Tinsley that he was broke. Tinsley didn't believe it based on what he knew of Alex's caseload and was going to force Alex to turn over financial information. If his financial information came to light, it was going to become clear that he was stealing from clients. That would have gotten him disbarred and would have stopped him from making a legitimate living. Worse, it was going to turn off the spigot on his illegitimate income. Even worse, Alex would probably have to go to prison.
- If the boat crash case were to settle -- or go to trial -- he was going to lose everything, including Maggie's beloved beach house and Moselle, which was Paul's "absolute passion"
- Paul's criminal defense was costing a fortune and would have been making its way through the courts for years, which caused more financial pressure.
- Alex's usual modus operandi of tampering with the jury was not going to fly in the boat crash cases, because Tinsley told him that if he had even a hint of a whiff of tampering, Tinsley was going to immediately file new suits in Beaufort County -- where the Murdaugh family name isn't as powerful and Alex wouldn't be able to jury tamper -- naming Buster and Maggie. More financial pressure.
- Maggie was encouraging Alex to settle the suits, but Alex was backed into a corner and couldn't without all of the above consequences, which she did not know of.
- IMO, Maggie and Paul were becoming aware of financial issues through declined credit cards and bounced checks. Maybe Paul ("Little Detective") had even done some snooping and had unearthed some evidence of the ill-gotten gains.
- Maggie and Little Detective were putting pressure on him by finding drugs and confronting him. They were coming between him and opioids.
- IMO, Alex was having an affair and he also had to worry about that coming to light, because if Maggie divorced him, he would be financially ruined (I am basing my opinion about the possibility of an affair on Mushelle Smith's testimony that he had only been by at night to visit his mother a couple times in the years that she worked for Miss Libby coupled with testimony by Marian about how much time he spent there and Maggie's text saying that she was worried about Alex because he wasn't getting enough sleep due to all the time he was spending with his parents at night.)
- Alex's father, who was his protector and fixer for his entire life, was dying. There would be no daddy to help him soon.
- The above consequences -- becoming penniless and being found to be a thief and a liar and an addict -- would have ruined his social standing as a powerful Murdaugh.

Killing Maggie and Paul would remove several pressure points. The criminal boat case would be dismissed. Juries would be less likely to award big damages against him and maybe Tinsley would even drop the case. He wouldn't have to worry about letting down Maggie and Paul by being found out to be a con man and a thief and by losing Moselle and the beach house and the rest of the lifestyle they had become accustomed to. He would no longer have to worry about hiding things from Maggie and Little Detective. Maybe he would be able to find a way to replace some of the missing money before anyone became any the wiser, or at least before anyone made public accusations, enabling him to avoid prison.

Do I think these are great reasons for murder? No, of course not, but it doesn't matter what I think is a good reason -- these were good reasons to Alex. People have murdered for much, much less.

BAM!! You go girl!!

 

[Seattle1]

If Maggie was indeed considering divorce, perhaps she moved to Edisto to start the clock on the one year. While she probably had numerous reasons she could cite fault (which would negate the need for the one-year separation), I'm sure she also knew any fight with AM in a legal arena would be a nasty one with him backed by the power and influence of his family. Maybe she was trying to start the clock in the hopes that she could file for a divorce after a year of living separately? MOO.

^^rsbm

I believe it important to note that Edisto (Beach House) took on a new meaning to MM after Feb 24, 2019, the date PM crashed AM's boat where PM and the passengers were ejected from the boat, Mallory Beach was lost in the water and recovered deceased about a week later.

It was after the boat crash that MM no longer felt comfortable around the Hampton area and took shelter in Edisto to be away from Moselle as much as possible. Buster testified that his mom felt shunned around Hampton/Moselle and was consumed with all forms of media about the boat crash.

PM was charged with three felony counts on April 18, 2019. According to CBS News, the charges included “boating under the influence, including causing the death of Mallory Beach and seriously injuring two other passengers.” PM had pled not guilty and was out on bond, but he was murdered before he could stand trial.

In addition to PM's criminal charges, the Murdaugh family including Buster were all being sued for the wrongful death of Mallory Beach in civil court.

IMO, the absence of MM around Moselle/Hampton for very personal reasons related to the boat crash created an opportunity for rumors to fly about marital discord but there was no evidence given in court supporting such allegations.

Given the threat of divorce is one of the oldest motives to kill your spouse, I think if there was credible evidence about a future dissolution, AG/ Waters would have been certain to present such evidence.

Lastly, I think communication between MM and Blanca is the best evidence that MM and AM were very united at the time of her death and were prepared to fight tooth and nail to get PM acquitted of manslaughter (up to 30 years in prison).

Blanca also testified that MM told her she would give up everything for the Beach Family Suit to go away and said AM/MM could start over again if they had to.

IMO, MM was unaware of AM's financial wrongdoings and the revelation of AM's criminal activity coupled with the threat of PM being convicted would have really done MM in.

Given the brutality of MM's death (overkill), I think it possible that AM blamed MM for both PM's underage drinking troubles and AM's financial meltdown too. MOO

 

[minor4th]

My thoughts exactly. I even brought up the Hacking case on other social media platforms. Thank you for this post.

Hacking, Neil Entwistle, Chris Watts, John List, Christian Longi, that guy Bart something who had faked going to college until he was supposed to graduate - they all led secret lives that were about to be exposed when they killed their families.

 

[Kembo]

If, supposedly, AM didn't know what time the murders happened, then why would he need to lie about whether he was at the kennels with them at 8:44pm. What would it matter? The only reason why he would need to establish he last saw them at Moselle much earlier and was never at the kennels (until he found them) was to hide the fact that he was near the crime scene at the time of the shooting which occurred before he left at 9:06pm. And only if he already knew they were dead before he left.

Didn't he also lie on the 911 call? Before any LE even got there?

Isn't this a glaring logic mistake or am I misinterpreting his claims?

The defense could argue that it AM could have known the time of death without actually having killed them himself, meaning he knew who the killers were but for some reason he and the rest of his family were threatened with death if they said anything. This is of course ludicrous, but a desperate option for the defense to explain the answer to your question.

 

[TDoc72]

Filler till BK’s trial! Which won’t be for a few years I fear

Sad thing is there are always new crimes happening leading to new threads on here.

 

[LeeBee]

I can't remember if they said Maggie's phone was tossed 2 minutes before or after Alex passed by the spot so the phones were not synced up. If it was before maybe this is what happened. Since he claimed he used the golf cart to go to the kennels maybe he used it to go to the spot and toss her phone. The he drives the cart back to the house and grabs his phone and leaves for mom's house.

 

[Iwondertoo]

I missed most of the afternoon. Do you have a link to ‘trying to run over Paul’?

Start watching about 3:00

(Edited to correct time stamp)

 

[Seattle1]

MB testified AM lost big $$ on land investments during the recession. Appears he never adjusted their lifestyle, stole to support it. He stole way more than was necessary to buy his pills

IMO, AM does not seem to be much of a businessman. AM testified he was a minority shareholder in the land investment and when the majority owners stopped paying/forfeiting their investment, AM allegedly took on the project 100%. A prudent business person would have forfeited his minority interest too. What part of having to steal funds to meet the expenses of a bad investment makes sense? It's crazy thinking.

 

[rahod1]

Start watching about 3:13

GUILTY>>> Self serving BS

 

[303gmf]

He still will have the filing a false police report, insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and other felonies in relation to the roadside incident. Then there are narcotics charges. All these plus those pesky financial charges and some civil lawsuits resulting from his criminal crimes. DH and JG will no doubt have plenty of work for a long time.

That’s some expensive fees!
Does he have any more money after this one I wonder?

 

[justtrish]

Alex and Buster on the jail calls..

Alex: I hit 9 of 11 on Sunday. I won 6 soups and 4 beef sticks

Buster: well that's good.

It is rather satisfying to know Alex is reduced to winning soup and beef sticks.

 

[less0305]

I did what I did... Telling words from his own mouth

He remembers minute details of no consequence, but is often fuzzy on important details

That chicken died by the way. <smdh>

 

[pittsburghgirl]

We live in a rural area, we hear dogs from well over a mile away which is our closest neighbor, he would be able to hear the dogs barking

Yeah, I live on a road where the houses are all on 2 acre lots. I hear my neighbor's dogs all the time--that's nearly the same distance.

 

[Lucylu7]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1629204044743946241

 

[DeDee]

Insanity. It isn't like this family didn't have the resources to get help for their son.

It is. He had resources, support and funding. Alex refused did not want to give up his drug of choice. It gave him energy and felt creative. His cloudy thinking is one of the reasons they had to die.

They were narcing on him. Alex had been an addict since 2004. He carried his drugs on his person so no one could find them and take his pills away from him. He'd developed such a high tolerance that it required massive quantities to satiate his appetite or body's cravings the moment he awoke each day - first thing.

22 year old son, PauPau, was sending semi-threatening texts about needing to talk about the pills they found. He'd promised PauPau that he'd go to Rehab after his boating case was over or was that promise simply a new lie to the jury?

Alex did not think this through. He became, without the use of the Moselle property, essentially, a homeless man on June 8.