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Court is back in session.
SLED digital forensics expert Britt Dove testifies Find My iPhone was running in the background of Maggie's phone at 10:05:13 p.m. on the night of the slayings. That was more than an hour after the state says Maggie was killed (8:50 p.m.)
A slight blow to the state's investigation: Dove testifies Maggie’s phone was not continuously recording GPS location data. Find My iPhone only tracked her phone when the app was in use, based on her settings. Dove says he couldn't find much location data in his search.
Dove testifies it was possible somebody used Find My iPhone to find/track Maggie's phone at 10:05 p.m., after it had locked for good. That is a potential cause for why the app was running in that moment with no one using the phone.
We are now entering data from Alex Murdaugh's phone into evidence.
Oh boy. Dove testifies there are calls missing from Alex Murdaugh's call log. Including Alex's calls to Maggie on the night of the slayings, which Dove found on Maggie's call log. “A gap like that would indicate that it was actually removed from there,” Dove testified.
Dove testifies the only way to delete those calls is to manually do it from the phone. Swiping right and hitting the delete button. Prosecutor: “So those calls were deleted, correct?” Dove: “It would appear that way.”
Dove testifies he can’t determine who removed the calls or when. But it happened sometime between 6/7/21, the night of the murders, and when he reviewed Alex Murdaugh's call log in September 2021.
Worth noting: As I understand it, for whatever reason, the jurors don't have notepads and aren't taking notes in this trial. A lot of numbers are being thrown around, and not in order. We spent several hours last night compiling a timeline just to make sense of it all.
The courtroom has been quite packed the past two days. About twice as many people as last week.
Dove testifies about Alex's text messages. Of note: Alex doesn't read texts he receives in a family group chat at 8:31 p.m. on 6/7/21 (night of slayings) until 1:44:49 p.m.
Dove now testifying about Alex Murdaugh's step data. Phones record steps when you walk around and move. They do not record steps if you place them in a car and drive, he said.
Alex Murdaugh's steps on the evening of 6/7/21 6:42:12 p.m-6:43:55 p.m. - 57 steps 6:52:27-7:02:05 p.m. - 283 steps 7:03:55-7:11:29 p.m. - 165 steps 7:15:35-7:21:52 p.m. - 200 steps 7:28:35-7:37:11 p.m. - 47 steps 7:55:32-8:05:07 p.m. - 270 steps 7:41:23-7:48:41 p.m. - 29 steps
Continued: 8:05:35-8:09:52 p.m. - 74 steps 9:02:18-9:06:47 p.m. - 283 steps Prosecutor John Conrad stops testimony to note the nearly hour-long break where Alex Murdaugh's phone stops moving entirely. Reminder: Prosecutors say Murdaugh killed Maggie/Paul at 8:50 p.m.
So far today, prosecutor John Conrad is doing a *MUCH* better job explaining to the jury what they are hearing. Yesterday was a bit of a disaster on that front, to be frank.
If I'm understanding correctly, prosecutors are implying Alex Murdaugh left his phone at the Moselle main house when he went down to the kennels,which lead prosecutor Creighton Waters said is out of character for Alex.
We are now moving onto Paul's phone. Dove testifies about taking the phone to John VanHouten with the U.S. Secret Service to break into it in March 2022.
We're now going over Paul's calls on 6/7/21, which we already covered in previous testimony. He spoke with Rogan Gibson twice before his phone locked for the rest of that evening. Once for 4 minutes, 14 seconds at 8:40:20: p.m. Then again for 11 seconds at 8:44:34 p.m.
Paul called Rogan both times. Those were the last calls he would ever make or receive. Now we are moving on to Paul's texts.
Prosecutor John Conrad establishes that Paul read a text from someone named Megan (apologies if misspelled) at 8:48:59 p.m. Then a text comes in from Rogan Gibson 36 seconds later at 8:49:35 p.m. It was never read.
Conrad establishes that the last text Paul read was at 8:48:59 p.m. The last text Maggie read was at 8:49:27 p.m.
Conrad acknowledges that Paul’s phone was at 2 percent battery at this time. Dove testifies that would not have prevented him from reading Rogan’s message. Dove estimates a phone on 2 percent battery, even while being used heavily, would last about 10-15 minutes max.
Dove testifies that Paul's phone died at 10:34 p.m. Well after he stopped sending messages or answering calls.
Dove testifies Paul's phone recorded his location data much more frequently than Maggie's phone did.
We are taking a 10-minute break.
