This is the exact reporting now on the events of that evening. They started drinking on Murdaugh property.
7 P.M. FEB. 23, 2019 — SEVEN HOURS EARLIER
About an hour after dark, six friends, ages 18 to 20 — Beach; Cook; his cousin, Connor; Paul Murdaugh; and two others — prepare to launch a 17-foot Sea Hunt boat from the dock of property owned by Murdaugh’s family.
They have brought more than $45 worth of alcohol aboard, purchased earlier by Murdaugh using his older brother’s ID at a Parker’s convenience store in Ridgeland, a lawsuit filed by Beach’s mother alleges. The stash includes a 15-pack of Natural Light beer bought on special, the suit says.
Before leaving, the group drinks at “The Island,” a $1.45 million property owned by Murdaugh’s grandfather on Chechessee Creek, less than 2 miles from Parkers. And then the boat takes off..
The first destination is an oyster roast at Kristy and James Wood’s waterfront home on Paukie Island, about 20 nautical miles away and 7 miles from U.S. Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort.
James and Kristy Wood, principal of Brunson Elementary in the Hampton District One Schools, allow the boaters to drink at their house “despite (the minors’) growing intoxication” and knowing they would be driving the boat later that night, the civil suit says.
It’s unclear how long the group stays at the Woods’, but once they leave, intending to return to the Murdaugh property, they stop first at Beaufort’s Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park, Anthony Cook, then 20, previously told The Island Packet.
2 A.M. FEB. 24
The group docks the boat downtown, and two of the boaters continue to drink, records show. They stop at Luther’s Rare & Well Done, described as “Beaufort’s best bar for nightlife and live entertainment” in the city’s 2019 Water Festival poster.
The boaters at the bar,
already intoxicated, are served more alcohol, according to the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Beach and Cook sit on a large wooden swing facing the Broad River, waiting for the rest of the group, Cook told the newspaper.
The boaters, he recalled, leave downtown Beaufort about 2 a.m.
Murdaugh is driving, Cook told police. The two of them argue, Cook said, because Murdaugh is too intoxicated to drive.
They are 5.6 nautical miles from the R.C. Berkeley Bridge.
Read more here:
https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/article240444896.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here:
https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/article240444896.html#storylink=cpy