Alex Murdo: Who is the disgraced lawyer and why is he being sued?
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Alex Murdoch’s chilling final message to his wife moments after he allegedly killed her and their son was revealed in court during his murder trial on Tuesday.
Mr. Murdo, the powerful heir to a prominent South Carolina legal dynasty, is accused of shooting Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, at the family’s Islandton estate on June 7, 2021. He has pleaded not guilty.
Jurors were shown data from the mobile phones of Maggie, Paul and Mr Murdo on the night of the murders.
Prosecutors say Mr Murdo shot Paul first at 8.50pm and then Maggie.
Almost immediately afterwards, mobile phone records show Mr Murdo made several calls to Maggie and other family members. His last text message to his wife came at 9:47 p.m., saying: “Call me honey.”
Minutes later, he called 911, claiming to have found their bodies.
Mr Murdo’s cousin also spoke, testifying that the 54-year-old had bought several guns from him in the years before the murders – guns that matched those used to kill Magee.
The trial is just one of Mr. Murdo’s problems in a saga spanning a failed assassination plot, multimillion-dollar fraud schemes and unexplained deaths.
Live: Day five of testimony in Alex Murdo’s murder trial
The case of the murder of Alex Murdo
Show latest update 1675265411
The prosecution now claims that Alex’s usual habit was to read texts quickly between 5-40 minutes with some deviations.
In the nearly hour that his phone had no recorded steps, Alex didn’t read texts from his family group chat about going to see his father in the hospital.
He didn’t read them until the next day, but that night he texted Maggie at 9:08 p.m. that he was going to see his mother, two minutes after his phone registered 283 steps in four minutes.
Oliver O’Connell February 1, 2023 3:30 pm
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Data from Alex Murdo’s phone showing steps and movements with health data has already been entered into evidence.
The phone recorded 49 steps between 18:02 and 18:07 on June 7, 2021.
A further 173 steps were recorded between 18.14 and 18.23.
Lt. Dove reminds the court that this is not the most accurate tracker, but it is indicative of movement. They were either walking or running and the phone was on them. It won’t track steps if it’s in a car cup holder for example.
42 steps were recorded between 18:42 and 18:43.
283 steps logged from 18:52 to 19:02.
165 steps logged from 19:03 and 19:11.
200 steps from 19.15 to 19.21.
47 steps from 19.28 to 19.37.
270 steps from 19.55 to 20.05.
29 steps from 19.41 to 19.48.
The tracker is chronologically slightly out of order in the report, as it was with Maggie’s phone.
Another 74 steps were tracked between 20:05 and 20:09.
Another 283 steps were recorded between 21:02 and 21:06.
At 9:08 p.m., Alex Murdo texted Maggie that she was going to see her mom.
Oliver O’Connell February 1, 2023 3:21 pm
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The testimony is now transferred to Alex’s text message history.
Looking at the family group text we previously saw on Maggie’s phone, the text from John Marvin and the reply from Lin Ji were not read on Alex’s phone until after 1pm on June 8th. Sent around 8.30pm on 7th June.
An earlier text from this chain about visiting their seriously ill father was sent at 4.30pm on 7 June and was read shortly afterwards. Another text was similarly read shortly after it was sent.
Moving on to the text messages sent by Alex, they match what was sent to Maggie’s phone – telling her she was going to check on her mother shortly after 9pm on the night of the murders, and then one later that same hour, when he chillingly said, “Call me, baby” after she was killed.
At 10:24 p.m. after the murders, he texted Paul’s friend Rogan Gibson: “Call me.”
Oliver O’Connell February 1, 2023 3:09 pm
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Call log entries deleted by someone between June 7 and September 2021
Oliver O’Connell February 1, 2023 3:00 p.m
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The call logs on Murdaugh’s phone from the night of the murder have been deleted
The first piece of data the court shows is a FaceTime call on May 30, 2021, then another on June 4 and another later that day.
On June 7 at 10:45 p.m., there is another outgoing FaceTime call.
None of the calls to Maggie’s phone from the night of the murders were logged.
Lt Dove explains that call log data lasts longer than most iPhone data because people don’t make as many calls as text messages or other data points.
The gap in the call log between June 4th and 10:45pm on June 7th (after the murders) cannot be explained by the phone overwriting old data.
Lt. Dove testified that the log of the conversations between them was intentionally deleted. He is asked if he has removed any of the calls and he says he has not.
Oliver O’Connell February 1, 2023 2:57 pm
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Lieutenant Dove will answer questions about Alex Murdo’s phone records
Alex Murdo’s iPhone has now been entered into evidence.
A full file system extraction of the phone data was performed by Lt. Dove and the data was stored on a hard drive.
Certain communications were redacted because they were subject to attorney-client privilege due to Murdo’s profession as an attorney.
The call log was not removed, mostly text messages and emails.
Oliver O’Connell February 1, 2023 2:47 pm
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Moving on to location data, most of the Magi apps were set to use location services only when using that particular app.
Also, there was no location saved in the phone’s cache while she was on the Mosel Road.
A card was used earlier in the day while she was away from the property.
Oliver O’Connell February 1, 2023 2:43 pm
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At 10:05 PM, Find My iPhone is triggered on Maggie’s phone, but it’s not clear if it’s running in the background or triggered by someone looking for the phone.
Alex Murdo called 911 at 10:06 p.m. that night to report the discovery of Maggie and Paul’s bodies at the dog kennel on Moselle Road.
Oliver O’Connell February 1, 2023 2:41 pm
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Lieutenant Dove returns to the stand
Court is back in session and the jury is out.
SLED Lt. Britt Dove returns to the stand to continue being questioned about data retrieved from Maggie Murdo’s phone from the night she was killed.
Yesterday, Mr Dove reconstructed an exact timeline of Maggie’s phone usage around the time she was killed.
Oliver O’Connell February 1, 2023 2:39 pm
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Evidence photos show Maggie’s phone with unread messages
Oliver O’Connell February 1, 2023 2:16 pm
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