FULL INTERVIEW (Part 2) Murdaugh murder investigators speak candidly after trial

well Jason what were you saying about about when you were talking about Alec Murdock as far as in whatever you're comfortable talking about um as far as basically having to say out loud to you know your colleagues the people in this community all that kind of stuff like when when you were going through your head those first few minutes to hours to days to weeks this looks like it's Alec murder this looks like he should be in the circles they said like what what was when did you start saying that out loud hey we got a problem here that night when we when we finally got everybody in a circle and you know Laura had just got there with a search warrant um we pretty much got in the group played the 911 call um for everybody to hear as far as the investigators and that's when I I had a discussion with a few of them and said I don't like his body language is is like it's not just slightly off it's it's way off um really uncomfortable not making him a part of the scene not that he was the shooter at the time or not that he you know was the only shooter at the time but really really really hard for me with everything I had absorbed up to that point excluding him from being involved and then it was really in the next probably 72 hours after being able to go back and watch um agent Owens and Laura's interview but that transcribed the number one call and then all the stuff that I saw personally and then Daniel's video and you took those things and put them together in it within 72 hours I was like I've got a big problem here um and it wasn't necessarily A welcome thought you know um not that anyone was protecting or or looking out for Alec just because it was like how in the world could that even be possible and you know again we try to convince everybody we don't create evidence we only find it located develop it um collect it process it we can't make it I didn't make him act the way he was acting I didn't cause him to do all those indicators that he did he did those on his own I just sat back and absorbed them and then getting that big picture with Daniel's video and then the first few the first interview and that phone call I knew then that he was involved I just didn't know to what level well again we were working very tight Laura was originally picked as the is the the lime liaison between the Sheriff's Office and she can tell you that night when she walked up I said do you know Alex Murdoch and she said no I said do you know anything about the Murdoch's and she said no have you ever defended a case against a Meraki you've ever prosecuted the case I don't know them I said well congratulations because you're the only one here that does not have any involvement or any pre-conceived Notions or anything about them you're now the case liaison but she and I worked alongside everybody pretty much every bit of the way so what we knew they knew we shared yeah in the beginning we all met together every day every morning we were at sled headquarters and just helping with whatever it was that they wanted us to assist them with and and he's right he asked if I if I knew them and I didn't and then he asked if I knew agent Owen no okay get ready because he's your new best friend and uh we we worked really close for those first few weeks and got through the investigation and helped him with anything that they needed Laura I've been like literally within 24 hours like came out and said Community you're not in danger you're this is this isn't a you know what did that mean to you were you part of that conversation to put that out to the community no I'd never seen that before um I'm not sure where that originated but I will say this um I've never been to Moselle before but that night it felt like a very long drive it's such an isolated area and you would have to really know that property to to have found Maggie and Paul that night so I'm not sure where you know the danger of the public came from other than maybe it being such an isolated and incident that that could explain it but I mean as remote as it is on my dash camera which they didn't show any of my dash camera but even on my body camera you can see it I drive past the driveway like I'm looking for this place and I couldn't even find it so you see me drive past the driveway I've gotta do a quick U-turn and get back to the driveway because didn't even I didn't know what it looked like so so he's probably safe for them to say right off the bat this was targeted this is this is something that happened on the property does that make sense to you like again we didn't we didn't put that out and um I know it was a joint statement and Laura's not kidding me she says we didn't know it went out because we were working you know that that went out between the pios and the agencies but if you took the only statement the only information he provided was that it's probably something to do with the boat case um is that a now a threat to the public no I mean if you're working off of his only bit of information he provided it's not a threat to the public the threat would have been towards Paul and Maggie was in the crossfire so you know the whole everyone being hung up on the oh there's no threat to the public there's always a threat to the public evil Works around every corner but I don't if you work solely off what he said there was no nobody out there waiting to spring on someone else blue Rango covered in GSR maybe maybe Grandpa's maybe not um is that odd that you did you guys think it was odd that you know the murder weapons never came to surface what do you guys think about that do I think it's odd no you know why it's it's a staged crime scene I we kept hearing you're going to get us to go down that road now where we're going to talk about all the things that we didn't like and you hear over and over and over again just the bombardment that the AGS didn't have any evidence it was all circumstantial and it was primarily circumstantial evidence but I ask you this if which we Alex killed his wife and Alex killed his son and Alex did the best job that Alex could do and the amount of time he had to remove all evidence that would link him to that crime scene should we have found a bunch of evidence there no it's a it's a cleaned scene you think about this they're looking at the wrong angle look at how much evidence they found that he left behind by accident I don't know about y'all but I'm not using a cell phone anymore yeah we talked about I'm carrying a rotary phone or a cup and a string because I didn't know all we do this every day and some of the things they testified to surprised us I want to get a 1979 Ford Bronco with no electronics I thought the opposite I was like oh yes she was making me change my passcode for four digits yeah but does that make more sense now I mean you know it's not finding those things it's just more evidence put it this way sometimes lack of evidence is is still evidence of a crime the fact that we didn't find guns that we didn't find all these things they wanted to be there why weren't they there because he cleaned them up where were the bloody clothes they weren't on him he changed the video shows that he changed clothes um but that yeah you know oh it was all circumstances it was and that's why I said I give the ages office the team that did all the investigations the case agents the sled crops so much credit because all of that stuff they presented was a mistake everything they found was a mistake on Alex Park that was something he forgot or he meant to overlook or it's something he can't control like that body language was premeditated in your opinion like when you saw when you look at the body premeditated how much do you think he thought this through was this an act of Rage did it happen at last minute like I surely y'all have like sat up for the last year and a half like us wondering why what happened how do you do it we'll never know why truly only Alex knows why and he's never gonna tell us why but in my heart I feel like it was was not that planned I think everything was snowballing everything his world was Crashing Down and and that day everyone has their limit and he is way past his limit by the end of that day that's that's my feeling on it on what happened and you can see that on his body camera when he's looking at Paul I don't ever see him look over at Maggie but he keeps looking at Paul and that means something he he knows he's what he did and it was wrong and I think it you know I don't think a whole lot of planning went into it which explains the mistakes that he made it explains the mistakes yeah well two guns who who uses two guns in an act of rage and passion and but don't get so caught up where you're only looking at two guns from one angle that's it everyone has a tendency to get tunnel vision who carries two guns to her you know to go do a shooting no one said he carried two guns there um if it was a spur of the moment if it was a total just collapse a breakdown a Breaking Point and the shotguns left inside the feed room and it started with that uh Paul and it went sideways and the shotgun was used and then Maggie comes running to Paul's Aid and he has to find another weapon and just giving you examples of why you don't get tunnel vision uh you know everyone's imagining um Alex Murdoch showing up carrying two guns turning across his shoulder and you can't get tunnel vision like that you know I mean Farmers have a a snake gun in their shed or in their truck or in their car and it has whatever rounds were available at the time to put in there so you know the fact that it's you kept hearing why were they used why would someone going to kill someone use turkey leg well because it wasn't planned that's the whole thing is that you know something happened and it was a spontaneous deal and yeah the shotgun may have been used initially but then they had to find something else you know to deal with Maggie so don't you know we encourage everybody we may never know until Alex ever comes clean which he may never we might not ever know um was it premeditated I don't really think there was a whole lot of premeditation to it I agree with Laura 100 percent and one of the biggest things we heard out here in the streets everybody talking to us was I just don't think everyone is going to buy the motive of finances I don't think everyone's going to buy the motive of finances we never push motive of finances and and the AG's office really wasn't trying to say it was over money what they were trying to say is that every human being on this planet has a break-in Point everybody when you take the amount of money he had stolen and he had gotten confronted at work he's about to lose his only source of recouping any of that money and paying any of it back and covering it up the boat case his son's fixing to go to jail um you know there had been rumor that he was potentially harassing Witnesses in that case um all this stuff the his marriage they try to portray the marriage as being this this beautiful Spotlight marriage and it wasn't it wasn't so you imagine all that stuff and who knows what the trigger was like Laura said it could have been anything but it just piled and piled and piled on his shoulders and something triggered it and it went wrong was it a Gucci receipt or a dog or a dog killing a chicken and Maggie panicking you just don't know how does a woman strangle her three children you know right before this trial started you had uh you know the woman that strangle one by one her own three children she what she didn't have a bad life she had a nice husband they spent the day playing in the snow Yeah they played in the snow they had a pretty house they had good jobs they were great people no criminal background she strangled all three of her children one by one and then jumped out of a building trying to commit suicide why I mean you can't say that he would never kill his wife he would never kill his son we would like to think that morally as as human beings we think that's not possible but it is but y'all know because you've seen it before we had a case months ago with a father getting mad at his family after they had spent all day emptying out a shed he went to get lunch came back they'd put everything back in the shed he got mad got his gun killed his two guns yeah two guns two guns killed his son killed his wife shot at his other kids as they ran away I mean everybody has it yeah why do you say that marriage wasn't good they weren't living together they weren't living together you don't live in Edisto because you don't like the bugs there's bugs in that stuff yeah when you go home when you call your friend your significant other your boyfriend your girlfriend your spouse whatever and you say hey I'm on the way what do you say I'm on the way where home you know everything they read in the text messages they're referencing Properties by names you know if Maggie's saying I'm going to Moselle I mean she didn't say I'm going home she even say I'm going to the kennels I'm going to check on the dogs um and there are a lot of people that were afraid to come forward you know the information that we hear that someone didn't want to take a stand and say because they were afraid of you know repercussions or afraid of the family or whatever but it's just the impression that we got was that it was not the perfect marriage and and I understand nobody has a perfect marriage and again we weren't blaming it on that but it's just another bit of weight on the shoulders I just wanted to add with the two guns um he even testified that he drove up there on the golf cart and there was also testimony that the 300 Blackout was always on that golf cart so I just wanted to point that out that he did he did have access to it if it was something that wasn't planned the guns were there where was where was Maggie's ring underneath the seat yeah you remember that came up in court and how we were just such horrible crime scene technicians that we didn't find it was there he was located there we photographed it we logged it but we didn't take it why didn't we take it it's not evidence of the murder you know they made a big deal about that trying to make us and sled sound sloppy how would you just leave her ring under the seat it's her ring yeah it's not our car in her car but it wasn't on her hand it was underneath her seat not in the console not in the cup holder underneath her seat we talked a lot about it yeah we talked about that a lot we talked about that way because I was like what was she getting because we heard that she had been going for a pedicure and that maybe she took her ring off to get it in like second another thing and you know stuff like that because this is the defense this is what the defense said they poked holes in the defense in the sled case um they poked they tried to poke holes like when when you got there Daniel they were trying to say were you preserving it what were you doing everything um talk to me a little bit I mean we know this was a defense tactic right um what you were doing when you were out there tell me what what you do need to do Daniel like what did you have to do in order to be doing your job yeah so when you show up on a scene like that obviously the very first thing going through my mind is is everybody that's going to be getting here going to be safe you know is there a bad guy still around a suspect still around making sure I know where all the weapons are because everybody's safety first and foremost you know regardless of what we're about to protect here we need to make sure there's not going to be an additional crime while I'm here um so you know that's going through my head the whole time that I'm talking to him looking at everything in the area and then I want to start talking to him I it's hard for one person to secure a whole crime scene like that I know I've got deputies that are two or three four five minutes out so I'm this remote it's not like we're in the middle of a city like this and I was having to worry about 200 people contaminating a crime scene I'm out there with me and Alex and fire rescue show it up you know I'm not worried about people trampling all over the crime scene within the first few minutes that I'm there so I know I've got deputies that are coming so I'm talking to Alex getting a getting an idea of you know more or less locking him into a initial this is what happened you know the very first time I I go on scene on any crime scene you want to talk to somebody and get their first initial statements of this is what I did this is what I came up on um because that locks them into that statement because then if they change it you know an hour a day a week down the road you know why'd you change it it's easy to remember the truth it's a lot harder to remember lies so you know I'm doing that and I've got other deputies and you can see on my body camera as soon as other deputies get there I'm like hey this make sure this happens make sure this happens we need to get crime scene tape up get a crime scene log started um I even told one of them you know don't even let fire rescue put sheets on the bodies we don't want to contaminate anything you can hear it on my body camera me telling where the deputy's at now it still happened but you know those are the thoughts running through my mind and that just comes like he was saying earlier from experience you know it's not like I've been doing this as long as him but I've been doing it long enough to know that there are certain things you don't do on a crime scene that don't if it doesn't need to be touched you don't touch it um observe everything touch as little as possible this tactic didn't work because we wouldn't be you know Alex Puerto could not be in jail right now or in prison but when you heard this were there any points to it that you went oh yeah we could have done that in 2020 and if you know hindsight yeah we could have done yeah crime scene stuff was there anything that you look back now or do you still look at it and say no this is exactly where we needed to be when we were there we learned every day we evolve every day we change policies every day we might change a tactic after being going to one scene we might not change that tactic again and for another 100 scenes so to say that we didn't learn from a mistake sure were there a lot of things that they made out to be mistakes that were not 100 percent um and I'm gonna I'm gonna throw a few of them at you because it's it's time that everybody gets to hear the truth but you can talk about the booties aren't you I will start with the booties so let's start with the booties that was a big huge deal and even though they asked me and they asked uh crime scene about the booties um and then they brought in an expert or two and said should they should they have had on booties is it not um common practice or protocol I think is how they put it to wear booties so I pose a question to you booties are made out of paper or a paper-like material and the purpose of putting on a booty would be to not introduce any type of contaminant into a scene or to remove evidence out of a scene so let's talk about the feed room this is where they're saying that we should have bought protocol worn booties what was in the doorway of the feed room Paul what was all around Paul and we and this isn't something that we're we're assuming we see it on Daniel's body cam we see it with ourselves Alex testified to it all around Paul is water and blood and body parts and everything else all types of uh contaminants standing water and blood there's only one way in the feed room and one way out and all of those contaminants are all over the front of that feed room so what is less likely to introduce contaminants into a crime scene a rubber soled shoe or a paper booty a paper booty is going to do nothing but soak up all that water soak up all that blood mud everything else and the first step you take in that room is going to transfer all that stuff off that paper so if you if you go to any crime scene class it doesn't matter where you go in the nation and you actually sit through and read the crime scene manual it tells you that you use what is necessary it is not common protocol to wear booties at a crime scene especially an outdoor crime scene um but I can't think of any time that we've worn booties I even asked other crime scenes in other jurisdictions not slid when's the last time you wore booties in an exterior crimes you don't because it's not the right tool for the job but then they went from that to the bloody footprint the infamous bloody footprint that was left in the room because law enforcement is so careless and negligent and that could have been the you know the the real shooters footprint if you're starting to look at the very first crime scene pictures you see that the very first ones when we first got there you'll see that there's two prints in the center of the room and you heard Dr Kinsey testify that they had gravity drops all around those two prints and you heard agent Worley um Mindy testified that those prints matched Paul's shoes so Paul was standing in the middle of the room when he was first shot gravity dropped blood drop straight down on top of those prints so there's no really was no um discussion about whether or not that was pulse bloody Footprints and that was Paul's blood in the middle of the room they kept referencing another print that was left by law enforcement but if you look at all those pictures that print's not there that there were no other prints they talked about when uh Deputy McDowell and and everyone helped us raise this this sheet initially to make sure there wasn't a weapon there did you see how long it took Deputy McDowell to place his foot inside that room and go back and watch the video it took him forever to actually select the exact spot he was going to place his foot now making sure that he didn't touch anything or transfer anything that footprint they're referencing was left after almost around 3 30 almost four and a half hours after the crime after the phone call it was left by law enforcement after the room was processed during the removal of Paul's body we actually took a picture of us leaving the footprint because there was no way for us to get him out without stepping there but the room had already been processed so there were no mysterious Footprints left behind there was no negligence on any of us for processing it was done four out four four something hours later during the removal of Paul and you know that we're not going to remove him until we're done processing that area so and that photograph was for the coroner's office because sled takes photographs as well as the coroner's office and he asked for us to take that photograph while we were removing Paul's body wow Laura what did you did you you in the courtroom to hear when John matters make that count that counter to uh the defense expert wouldn't you just love to be a protected water did you hear that I did I bust out laughing because I was like oh Lord John where are you going with this um it was great um and then when he said he didn't know who I was I was hurt that's an ongoing joke ever since um no it he did so he was so fantastic he did a great job of pointing out that their hired expert 400 an hour on the stand had not even read the entire report my report was very detailed and very lengthy and for him to have not even read it just I mean it had to show the jury this guy doesn't even know what he's testifying to right now and I think that speaks to what also came out and from I think either that guy or another one is like I wasn't given the foal he wasn't given access that that helps frame everything we're hearing and seeing does it not yes exactly one thing that that I learned I got asked once earlier one thing if you could walk away was one thing you learned from this trial and I learned that you can pay somebody to say anything that you want because there were a lot of there was a lot of testimony from quote unquote experts that it I mean I won't go into detail about their expert testimony but there were some of it that was as far from the truth as possible and one one that kind of had us been out of shape in even uh aside from the bloody footprint was you know they brought in an expert who looked at a picture of the crime scene and he said I can tell from this picture they didn't process this room for prints well if you remember during his expert testimony he said the most popular way in the nation to look for Prince's fingerprint powder that's what we see most right everybody out there destined for prints do you remember what he said the most or the second most popular way was to look for prints he referenced what they call ALS or alternate light source and it's where we use lights to look for evidence of a print so a flashlight a fancy flashlight so if I cut a flashlight on and I cut a flashlight off and I take a picture what evidence is there that we used a flashlight in a still picture none the fact of the matter is Laura and I processed the whole inside of the feed room with an ALS looking for prints there were none it's a Dusty nasty feed room um you know Dusty environments like that are not typically conducive to leaving a a latent print typically you touch something Dusty like that and you pick your hand up you just take a layer of dust away from it but we process the whole inside of that the door the door knobs everything looking for latents and we used an ALS and there were no prints that's why there were no collected and none sent in but to look at a still image and testify as an expert that you can tell we didn't process the room for prints and to make it sound like we just didn't do it because we're lazier and competent is absurd when the whole room was processed but you just don't see evidence of an ALS it's just flashlight a fancy flashlight and if there had been prints of course now we know they would have been Alec Paul and Maggie's Prince and what would have been an argument there hey guess what we found Alec Murdoch's Prince all over the door and you found uh uh let's play the Jared Maggie's hand yes yes so that was some something mentioned in the defense closing to the jury that I testified to hair being in Maggie's hand well it was her hair when she had the wound to the back of her head and the bullet exited the back it removed that part of her skull and her scalp and her hair and it was all scattered around her body in the grass and when we removed Maggie's body a few strands not many were on her hand and went with the body and Sam I think you asked this like did you guys follow along with all the testimony obviously it was six weeks uh every day did you guys like did you feel invested to listen to it at all you know when you could or were you guys like I don't want to yeah we did we watched every every minute that we could watch where we weren't tasked with doing something right outside the courthouse do you have any idea when you I mean we knew who you knew who Alec murdick was you guys weren't as familiar with the whole scenario um but obviously this just starts snowballing afterwards and we start learning about more and things start unraveling more um do you have any idea that this was going to be no the reaction no and I just want to say I'm very proud of agent David Owen none of us envied him in this process being tasked with the lead agent on such a complex case gaining national attention and I don't know anybody else that could have handled it the way he did he I'm sure he's ready to retire now but we're all very proud of him and um he was very stoked through all that I said yes right behind him and Charles again yes yes two a stoic personalities because they just raped him over the colds every day something about agent Owen got brought up then you then yeah but still I mean you guys were at the center of a storm yeah sure you were as a prosecutor oddly put it I mean you were there to discover this first part and it just kept on going this has been your life for the last two years yeah what's that like every time you turn around there's another twist um I mean none of us had I didn't have any idea that it was going to Snowball the way it did none whatsoever and and I'm going to tell you you have to give Chief Keele at sled he's amazing he does not um he doesn't allow people to talk about things he doesn't disclose information that doesn't need to be disclosed he runs a very tight professional ship I got the utmost respect for him and he filters down and everybody that we work with from sled from crime scene to the Low Country office to whoever listen if we didn't need to know it they didn't tell us and vice versa and and we have the utmost respect for them for that sheriff Hill's team we all feel the same way we're not gonna we're not going to be offended we're not going to you know be angry there were things we didn't find out about until you guys did but they have lived and worked and lived and worked and when it touched our County and they needed our help they paid up the phone and we sent the calvary and over and over and over and over again we find ourselves at the same places helping out on the same case for the same suspect so no I had no idea well and also possibly more for you than you guys but I still living breathing you're right here did you have people in the community say hey watch it you're talking about the Murdoch's here like were you treading did people ever tell you tread softly be careful this is dangerous you could be you could get in trouble not with us no good we we didn't talk about it any more than anybody else did we're not going to disclose anything and they wouldn't bring anything to US unless they wanted us to use it uh you know we we didn't discuss this case um there were a lot of times that things went on that I might not know about uh the line my detectives might not have known about it the sheriff may have been the only one simply you know to keep things quiet and controlled and integrity to the case so most people didn't approach us about stuff um knowing that if you come and say something then we're going to add you to that witness list but they need all the help they can get obviously look at the feet that they're tackling and it keeps going and going and going and going yeah we're not done with this no what was the what was the feeling as as the stories came out as things changed and you you're knowing we were you were the first on the scene so you're eventually gonna have to take the stand probably you're probably thinking that but what what was the feeling is is all these pieces came out and maybe you're witnessing some of them as as an audience like we are leading up to the trial how how did y'all you know was there an anticipation like with every new development like in anticipation to get to a trial to get to sort of tell the story as best you could to testify if you will I didn't feel that way I I had a lot of family that would want to ask about it and I would just tell everybody that the same thing to remember that this is a double homicide at the end of the day two people are dead so while it's exciting to sit back and watch we have to remember that you know mother and son were brutally murdered and of course now we know by their husband and father so my response was usually the same it's really not that interesting it's actually very sad and then we would change the subject um as far as my testimony I knew what my involvement was and I just treat it like any other case except the world's watching literally we're still getting calls from the world they want to know more yeah yeah my dad lives in England and he watched every day and called me every day yeah I think you see the different the different Spectrum from the group you see sitting here it's not the it's not the excitement side and I say that because six months prior to this trial in this same Courthouse the same detectives you know or or group of investigators for the sheriff's office with help from a lot of the same agents you saw testify here and there we prosecuted a triple homicide and you know this was an individual that broke into a home and killed a mom dad and then gunned down a 13 year old kid in the street in front of a school bus and you know we he Not only was arrested for those three but still has a pending double homicide so he's a quintuple murder suspect and you know we took him to court and we did a phenomenal job and obviously he was found guilty on all three counts of murder and you know he's never going to see the light of day and no National media attention there because he wasn't a Murdoch you know to us it's it is about it's doing our job it's keeping the community safe it's being a voice for the victims um I was just as happy for that triple that we put all that work into as I was about the Murdoch case it just didn't get national attention Drew was in the courthouse every day covering it uh and I've and since you brought that up I will ask this and this is a small like tangent from that a lot of the commentary that happened early on in the trial from just observers like very what I what I interpreted to be ignorant to how trials work and the the analogy I used a lot was y'all have to not only tell us what time it is you got to tell us how to make the watch along the way before we get there from granted it's very very out of the ordinary in the length and the depth of the evidence but as far as the presentation and trials you've been a part of in cases you've helped prosecute how how much if at all was this a departure from a standard criminal trial as far as how things have to go check this box check this was it different at all really uh oh it was way different um ask a ask someone when the last time was that DNA um gunshot residue blood splatter Tire Impressions latent prints were the case breaking piece of evidence in a homicide um when we find that stuff and it's evidence of of the crime that we've got someone charged with that's that's great it's great evidence it we're excited to find it it helps us prosecute that individual hopefully get a guilty verdict bring Justice to the victims but I'll be honest with you a lot of the stuff is glorified uh you know through TV series and stuff we don't find a lot of the stuff that you think you're going to find I'm not sure exact percentage now but I know when when I went through the training only about 11 of fingerprints that are left behind are usable in other words only about 11 percent of the time that you touch something do you leave a a latent print that can actually be collected to the point that it has enough identified characteristics that we can say it's yours 11 percent um you know these things are not they're not as as hardcore or as definite as people think give a great example the gun that Alec handed over to uh detective green own body camera he hands him the gun or you know he says there's the gun right there that I had he surrenders the gun detective green collects it with rubber gloves puts it in his vehicle secures it it's never touched again until crime scene collects it is collected then with gloves what was the result of that that gun when they tested it for DNA against Alex did it have Alex's DNA on it yeah did they say it had Alex's on it do you remember I don't think so no no I had Maggie's blood had Maggie's blood right but they never came back with a definite saying we've we got a DNA matched uh but how is that possible he had the gun he put the gun against the car he went to the house and got the gun brought the gun back and put the gun against the car with his bare hands why is his DNA not only it is there it's just it's mixed in with a whole bunch of other stuff and it's not either they can't isolate to the point that they can say that is just his DNA so a lot of the stuff you see is it's not like it is on TV um so it is difficult but I don't think that you have all the aspects that that were mentioned in this case you don't find that all the time in a case a lot of times it is exactly what we've been talking about all along it's observations by by Keen officers that arrive first on scene it's them doing their job right and securing a crime scene to make sure nothing walks off um it may be nothing more than an interview I mean we had a recent homicide that listen we showed up there was no evidence nothing there but a set of footprints in in a on a dirt road and an hour later we've got a confession and it was done completely in an interview room were you in the car with the I didn't so that they didn't say that no that was the second one that was the second one did y'all listen to that yeah we listened to it in the trial what did you think uh yanny or Laurel blue dress or gold dress I hear both I think you hear whatever you're looking for if you went into it saying did he say they you're gonna hear they if you think ah you're gonna hear I don't know evidence kind of with Drew is like have you guys ever seen a case you know the state had like an 88 page timeline of cell phone data on car data um like is that common have you ever seen a case that literally pinpoints minutes seconds you know they they say that they died in the four or four minute time frame the same case that Drew just doing all the time with that triple homicide and we we drove that individual between uh telephone and surveillance footage from stores and Residences we literally drove him from where he met the victim all the way to Ruffin to the house to the minute they pulled the trigger does it always happen like that absolutely not it sometimes it's harder sometimes we have cases now we can't get any cell phone data at all oh they didn't have a phone the phone on top do you all have any theories about that why was the phone sitting on top of Paul well I know why it was there because Alex took it out of his pocket all I can say is that he was probably looking for the video that was one of the things that sealed his face he knew he was talking to Rogan we knew he was talking to Rose and it happened right afterwards so were you all in on that conversation with her no but did you know that it happened or did that just go straight into the all the other stuff that was being processed at that point yeah because the first time I've seen the video was during the trial that's the first time you saw the kennel video now we knew about the conversation we knew it existed and what was said yeah I had not seen it yeah but that was when we were talking about all that initial stuff remember and we're talking about how Bloody and how gory of crime scene is and how much water is everywhere how is that phone if you went with his story that he went over and he went to check his son and he tried to roll Paul and the phone fell out it fell out the entire sidewalk is covered in blood and water but yet here's the phone placed on the back of of pole and it doesn't have anything on it nothing not a speck of anything so did it fall out no it didn't fall out Alex took it out of his pocket just like he slipped up and told me when he got there but then changed during the interview was popped out of his pocket that it popped out but if it had popped out how to get clean so he told you that he took it out of his pocket he told me he took it out but he told them an hour later he tried to turn him try to check him and it popped out of his pocket so you saw that kennel video you were like holy cow that must have blown your mind when you saw that too definitely did I mean I had no idea that was coming so I was just as surprised we had only heard that they had recovered something I mean here you are we were with them all along but I told you they're not going to disclose to there was no need for them to disclose that to us we didn't need to know that at that point in time them having the video helped the case but telling us would have done nothing yeah so you know there we tell you we're best we're best work buddies we work well together we'll do anything for one another to help each other out but there was there was absolutely no reason for them to disclose that to any of us it was a surprise and it was a great surprise how close was Alec murdick to getting away with these double murders in your mind or do you think he was always going to be the one prosecuted for this and that's a hard question but do you know what I mean like how how close was he to walking away from this did he make to way too many mistakes or do you feel like he could have gotten away with murder no I definitely think he could have gotten away with it I mean personal feeling I think that you know the the hard work of that team and I mean from the top down the AG all of his in the um attorneys on that team sled everybody that had a handful everybody that had they all had a part in it um they knew that they had the unclimbable hill to face I mean the the attention that was getting the scrutiny it was getting uh you know harpulian and his team there they're nothing to toy around with there I mean they're great attorneys they're good at what they do so I was a monstrous feat so there was there a chance sure there was a chance but I think that they made it clear if if he won or if he was found not guilty it wasn't going to be because they didn't do everything they could but yeah I think it's there's obviously a good chance he could have gotten off yeah I was like you do you think it was a good chance he could have gone if they had not if they had not worked as hard as they had now as it stands with what they presented and how they presented and what they did uh he's he's guilty and I think your jurors show you that I mean to return in three hours absolutely I mean they did a phenomenal job so that it's not like they they've been anything or flexed anything in other words they did he's guilty because he's guilty um could he have gotten away sure he could have had they not done the work if they had not um done everything that they did I mean and I'm sure they look back just like you asked us is there anything we could have done in hindsight and I'm sure there's a there's a list as long as my arm of stuff they would have liked to have done but they obviously did enough and did it right is there anything that you would have done like just I'm just asking because I'm sure you all talked about this like is there anything that you would have done that would have been like ah man if we had known that he was going to take guns out of the house or or anything like that was there anything I don't know and they're probably there probably isn't it sounds like y'all have y'all getting everything but I was just curious I don't like I don't like to do that because everyone worked so hard and we all had the same goal and that was to get Justice for Maggie and Paul and we did that so it's not going to change anything so were you guys surprised at the two three hour verdict boom yeah actually we had our numbers and our bets going on inside the office out here and and uh Laura and I actually um yeah we bet between 6 30 and seven uh with guilty and it was 6 41. so we're only four minutes off and that's just from being able to read people read just you know the witnesses as they came off that stand and how you know remember we can't we couldn't see the George any more than anybody else can unless we were working inside security but you could see the people in the crowd and gauging uh gauging their response to individual Witnesses looking at what you know how they responded to testimony or to rebuttal testimony and we just sat back and watched and watched and watched and watched and watched and then we we took a vote at the end and for me Moselle field trip which was huge and being the security detail we had to escort the jury and the judge out there and we just stood back and observed the jury as they were looking at everything and that for me that's when I knew I was I could just read their faces as they were taking everything in so what was what do you think was going through their minds like what was it that you were reading what was it that they were expressing yeah just that what Alex was saying just wasn't adding up once they could see how close the house actually is to the kennels I think the light bulbs came on it's completely different seeing something in a picture yeah or body camera especially when you know my body camera was at night I mean it's so different seeing that on a screen versus standing right I mean they were out there literally standing right where the bodies were found they walked right through where I was walking where these guys were walking yeah and I think it it just the reality of it you could almost see it set in not I mean not just for the jurors but you know some of the other people yeah you know the other lawyers and stuff that were out there you can you can see that yeah the biggest surprise for me in the trial was that that request came from the defense we knew as soon as we walked up you you could see them literally stepping off things they stood in a group outside the door to the feed room and they discussed you know the opening of the door you could actually see them on their hands and knees looking at the doghouse looking for the hole where we pulled the round out of the doghouse inspecting the hole in the uh you know the Quail pen standing on the front watching the house walking on foot from the kennels to the house so they could see exactly how far away it was and what they could hear and what they could see in fact several of them if not all of them refused we allowed them to walk to the house and then the option was to get back in the Vans and drive back to the kennels and a lot of them refused and said no we want to walk it they paid attention I watched them every day too when I wasn't watching the agent Owens expression I was watching the terms because I just wanted to I was like what are they looking at a lot of them are looking it out yeah trying to read his body language trying to say hey did you do this yeah before we have to convict you did you really do this the other thing that um they said was tough was his testimony for him to get up there and testify when you listen to him try and explain well you're having flashbacks so like when he was talking to you guys I mean yeah a little bit he displayed a lot of the same stuff that he displayed to us here we go again like reliving you know his reaction that night it didn't seem anymore genuine or just genuine than I did that night were you guys surprised to hear him admit that he was there you know I was like right off I knew he had to once that kennel video came out once all that evidence got put into place you can't you can't deny it anymore there's no way no one with any amount of Common Sense is going to stand up on the stand and say I wasn't there yes you are so yeah we felt like he was going to admit to it but it was going to be what was the excuse for lying um but you know y'all heard or seen the interviews and I mean there was no coercion there's no Force there's no threats he's not in a little tiny hot room for six hours I think Mr harpulian in his opening statement described our interview as aggressive and accusatory well I'll let everyone else be the judge of that but but there's absolutely no way that that was you know any of those interviews in any way influenced him not to tell the truth saying I mean he was already talking about stuff when he talked to you and your your look you're counting you know law enforcement yeah I'm someone I'm someone that he'd given his argument he should have felt no threat from from for me and the first words out of his mouth are lies the 911 dispatcher yeah he's already he's obviously already lying to 911

Channel: ABC News 4

Views: 381,253

Keywords: Charleston, South Carolina, WCIV, WCIV ABC 4 News, WCIV-TV, murdaugh, Murdaugh, murdaugh tial, murdaugh trial update, alex murdaugh, Murdaugh family, paul murdaugh, maggie murdaugh, buster murdaugh, mallory beach, gloria stanfield, eddie smith, eddie smith murdaugh, murdaugh murder, murdaugh murders, murdaugh trial lawyers, murdaugh murders podcast, murdaugh investigator, lead murdaugh investigator

Id: 6QqLthW4o50

Length: 56min 16sec (3376 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 28 2023