Day 8 live updates: Alex Murdaugh cellphone expert testifies
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Alex Murdaugh Coverage
The Murdaugh family saga has dominated the news after another shooting, a resignation and criminal accusations — with Alex Murdaugh at the center of it all. Here are the latest updates on Alex Murdaugh.
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WALTERBORO, S.C.
Alex Murdaugh, a once prominent Hampton-based attorney from a well-known politically-connected family, is on trial in the deaths of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.
Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty. He faces life in prison without parole if found guilty. The trial started last week with jury selection, opening arguments and the initial round of witness testimony. It is expected, for now, to run through Feb. 10 in Walterboro.
12 p.m. — Witness says 3 voices heard in video before Maggie, Paul killed
In a brief video from Paul Murdaugh’s showed in court Wednesday, Lt. Dove said three voices can be heard at the Moselle kennels just minutes before Maggie and Paul’s phone activity stopped on June 7, 2021, the night of their deaths.
“The video looks like the inside of a kennel area with a fence around it,” Dove testified. “A dog, I believe to be a lab, (Paul) is trying to take a video of the tail of the dog.”
Dove added, “You hear three different voices in the video … because they’re so different, you can tell it’s three different voices.”
The video was taken from 8:44 p.m. to 8:45 p.m., roughly 50 seconds, Dove said. Three voices can be heard in the footage, though what the two voices in addition to Paul are saying is unclear. It was not immediately said whether one of the voices was Alex Murdaugh.
Murdaugh told investigators he last saw his family at dinner that night and was not near the kennels.
Dove is currently under cross-examination.
11:40 a.m. — Paul Murdaugh took 1-minute video just before death
Dove testified the activity report pulled from Paul Murdaugh’s phone shows the camera was active near the Moselle kennels from 8:44:49 to 8:45:47 p.m. the night he was killed.
Prosecutors said they have evidence that will place Alex Murdaugh at the scene of the crime minutes before the state’s timeline shows Paul and Maggie Murdaugh’s cellphone activity ended.
In opening statements, Waters said a video was taken at 8:44 p.m. and features Maggie and Murdaugh’s voices in the background.
11 a.m. — Witness talks timeline of phone activity from Paul, Alex Murdaugh
In an attempt to link Alex Murdaugh to the scene of his wife and son’s murders and establish a time of death, the state has presented timelines detailing phone activity from Paul’s and Alex Murdaugh’s cellphones on June 7, 2021.
In opening statements, lead prosecutor Creighton Waters described the Murdaughs as “prolific” phone users, particularly Paul Murdaugh. In interviews with investigators after Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were killed, Alex Murdaugh said Paul usually had his phone “in his hand,” or at least on his person.
Dove testified that the last activity from Paul Murdaugh’s phone occurred between 8:48 p.m. and 8:48 p.m. the night of his death. He received two separate text messages at 8:48 p.m. and 8:48 p.m., and both were read at 8:48 p.m., according to an activity report SLED pulled from the device.
Just seconds later, Paul Murdaugh received another text at 8:49 p.m. that was never read.
Dove testified Paul’s phone battery was around 2% at that time, but wasn’t drained fully until 10:34 p.m. the night of his death. Under normal use, the battery would only have lasted 10 or 15 more minutes, Dove said, indicating it lay unused for that time.
Prosecutors also highlighted activity on Alex Murdaugh’s phone they suggested was unusual based on Murdaugh’s habits.
Murdaugh’s phone didn’t record any steps from 8:09 p.m. to 9:02 p.m. the night of the murders, Dove testified. At 9:02 p.m., the phone began recording 283 steps.
Murdaugh also received a text in a family group chat that night that wasn’t read until the following day. Prosecutors previously suggested it would be unusual for Murdaugh to be without his phone for extended periods of time.
Conrad asked how quickly Murdaugh tended to read text messages on average based on the report, and Dove testified messages were usually read at least “within an hour’s time” but were often read earlier.
Prosecution also cast suspicion that given the text’s subject matter, Murdaugh’s father’s declining health, it should have been read sooner.
Murdaugh has maintained he last saw his family at dinner before taking a nap and leaving to visit his mother the night of the murders.
9:55 a.m. — Calls deleted from Alex Murdaugh’s phone
Although Maggie Murdaugh’s cellphone shows five missed calls from Alex Murdaugh on the night of June 7, 2021, data pulled from Alex Murdaugh’s cellphone shows calls made around that time were deleted.
Dove testified that when data was pulled from Alex Murdaugh’s phone in September 2021, the extraction showed Alex Murdaugh placed outgoing, unanswered Facetime calls on June 4, 2021 at 3:31 p.m. and 4:35 p.m.
The report showed a gap until June 7, 2021, at 10:25:49 p.m., — after the murders took place — when Alex Murdaugh placed an outgoing call to Maggie Murdaugh.
However, Maggie Murdaugh’s phone recorded several missed calls from Alex Murdaugh placed at 9:04, 9:06, 9:06, 9:45 and 10:03 p.m. the night of her death.
“Are those calls on Alex Murdaugh’s phone?” prosecutor John Conrad asked.
“No sir, they are not,” Dove answered.
“How could those calls be removed to create such a gap?” Conrad continued.
“A gap like that would indicate that it was actually removed from there. You can go in and very easily go into the call log. If you chose … to delete that call, you could do that,” Dove confirmed.
9:45 a.m. — State presents data from Alex Murdaugh’s cellphone
Prosecutors presented Alex Murdaugh’s cellphone early on Day 8 in the disbarred lawyer’s double murder trial.
Dove confirmed some data from the phone was redacted by a SLED attorney due to information subject to client-attorney privilege. No call records were deleted, Dove testified.
Prosecutors have said GPS data and a snapchat video taken by Paul Murdaugh minutes before his death will be key components in placing Alex Murdaugh at the murder scene around the time of the killings.
9:30 a.m. — Judge to resume court with forensics expert
Lt. Britt Dove, an agent with the State Law Enforcement Division who specializes in internet and computer crimes analysis, will be back on the stand at 9:30 a.m.
Dove, the 15th witness to be called by the state, is one of numerous names listed in the chain of custody for Paul Murdaugh’s cellphone. The locations of Paul and Maggie’s phones — particularly Maggie Murdaugh’s, which one SLED witness testified was found hundreds of meters from her body — have been long-standing mysteries surrounding the killings.
On Tuesday, prosecutors presented a report pulled from Maggie’s phone detailing the final text messages and phone calls she received before her death, using the data to support prosecution’s timeline of Maggie and Paul’s murders.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters claimed in his opening statements that Maggie’s phone “went silent forever” at 8:49 p.m. on June 7, 2021, placing her time of death around then. At 8:31 p.m. the night of her death, Maggie received a text message from Alex Murdaugh’s brother, John Marvin, which read, “I plan on going over to visit dad tomorrow afternoon, is anyone else planning to go?”
Maggie read the message at 8:31 p.m., Dove said Tuesday.
At 9:08 p.m., she a text message from Murdaugh that was never read.
Maggie received another text message at 9:34 p.m. from Rogan Gibson, a friend of Paul’s, who was attempting to contact Paul. It was left unread.
Roughly an hour before prosecution says she was killed, Maggie had a phone call with a contact, “Barbara,” that lasted nearly three minutes. That was the final phone call that Maggie answered.
She later missed five phone calls from Murdaugh that night.
Meanwhile, Dove also testified that phone activity consistent with someone picking the phone up and attempting to unlock it occurred after the last time Maggie’s cellphone was unlocked. Dove said the camera activated itself at 8:54 p.m. the night of her death. It was on for one second, which Dove said is similar to a phone attempting to recognize someone’s face for facial recognition unlock.
One orientation change occurred at 9:06 p.m. — the same time Murdaugh made one of several phone calls to Maggie’s phone.
This story was originally published February 1, 2023, 9:23 AM.
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Blake is the Hilton Head Island reporter for the Island Packet. A Tulsa, Oklahoma native, Blake has written for his hometown Tulsa World, as well as the Charlotte Observer. He graduated in May 2022 from the University of Oklahoma with a journalism degree.
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