#123: The Murdaugh Family Murders

Bramble. Better being burp. Welcome to this week's mini-sode, Ron Mingo. I'm your host Stephanie Sue and we're just going to jump right in. Now, it's said that family secrets are like vampires. The secrets never really die. They can always come back and bite you. The Murdock family knows this probably better than anyone. For decades, for generations, they were one of the most powerful, wealthiest families in South Carolina. Some even called them a dynasty. So when those around the family end up just dying in mysterious circumstances, people start wondering, "Is this family so untouchable that if they wanted to, could they get away with murder?" But when two of the Murdock's end up dead, people start asking questions. Is this someone getting their revenge? Is someone trying to get an eye for an eye? Or are the Murdock secrets finally out? And are they out for blood? Let's get into the Murdock family. The Murdock family. I saw it on TikTok, the running dark joke was that this is the, it's spelled like, "Murdo." Right? That's kind of how you want to pronounce it. So everyone's like, "Oh my god, the Murdo, murder, family." But it's pronounced the Murdock family. So I guess the questionable dark humor is lost there. This is not your average family. I repeat, this is not even your average rich family. This is a multi-generations of very powerful, aggressive attorneys type family. Like a force that you do not want to reckon with. This is a family that we've probably never heard their names until their crimes started coming to light, but they have been for generations essentially ruling an entire county in South Carolina called Hampton County. So from 1920 to 2006, yeah, 1920 to 2006, three members of the Murdock family consecutively served as what is essentially the district attorney for this area of South Carolina. And so with that comes power, a lot of it, the Murdock family is oftentimes referred to as the law of Hampton County and Hampton County is often referred to as Murdock County. I mean, they run this town. They run this whole county. The town itself isn't prospering. It's actually one of the poorest areas in South Carolina, the population, the industry, the economy. They're all at a decline. In this area where businesses are failing, there's just blocks on blocks of dusty old buildings. There's vacant lots that serve as warning to all the future shop owners. It's not uncommon to see these run down areas. But amongst all of this is the ever prospering Murdock family private firm. This is a law firm of the Murdock family. So a lot of the members either they become a DA or they are in the family firm as an attorney, a high powered attorney. They've got their hands in every little lawsuit and every little case in Hampton County. It's just the type of place that you definitely don't want to get sued. The county has a reputation of siding with the plaintiffs and rewarding astronomically high, crazy, monetary compensations for damages. And most of these high compensations are awarded by the Murdock's. They have had control of NSA over every single lawsuit, every single civil lawsuit that has happened in Hampton County in the past like 100 years. So it sounds scary. It sounds terrifying right? We'll get this. When Walmart decided to open up a store in Hampton, you know grand opening, let's do it. An attorney advised against it. They were told ominously opening a store in Hampton could jeopardize Walmart's business in all of South Carolina. Wait why? Lassoots on lassoots I guess Murdox don't want a Walmart. So there is no Walmart in Hampton County to this day. That's crazy. So if these people can scare Walmart, I mean, who are these people? How do you even? Just only scaring but kind of threatening? Yeah. Why would you do that to every business? Exactly. So who are these people? We've got the top. The head of the house that started it all. His name is Randolph Murdox senior. He was the beginning of the reign of power. He graduated from law school in 1910. This is how far back the power goes. And that's when you know it's like real power just centuries, almost a century of power over a century. So he goes on to start a one man law firm in Hampton. He also ran a local daily newspaper called the Hampton County Herald and eventually he becomes what is their DA. And he only stopped when his life ended. So he was killed in an accident involving his car and a train. So he passes away but have no fear because Randolph's son is going to take his voice. His name is also Randolph. But he goes by Buster. There's going to be a lot of Buster's in this one. He served from 1940 to 1986 and he didn't really do his father proud. At least I don't think. Like I don't know what Randolph senior likes but he was known for dramatically reenacting murders in front of juries. That was his thing. His whole spiel during murder trials. He would give them a little role play session. That's what he was known for. What a magnificent person. He was also briefly accused of telling a client, "Hey, why don't you evade the police by moving to a neighboring county?" So that's not really good. He has to retire over this and his son takes over and his name is super cool, super unique, very special. Randolph Murdoch III. Okay. He runs and wins. Every election held a office until his retirement in 2006. Well why didn't any other son take his position, right? None of them wanted to. They wanted to work in the family firm. Practice law. They didn't want to hold office. Personally I think that their private firm was probably a lot more lucrative. Probably a lot less work. Easier money. Now this is where the family tree gets important. Randolph III had a bunch of kids. Now the one that we want to focus on is Alec Murdoch. So it's spelled Alec's but it's actually Alec Murdoch and this is the one that becomes very important in all of this. He's the one. Well, you'll see. Randolph III is said to have been a true Murdoch. He got the red hair. He had the last name. He had the privilege, the pride, the spoiled attitude of, you don't know who I am, but pretty much none of the talent of any of the Randys before him. Nothing. Okay. He just got the red hair. That's it. And the money. He like his brothers starts working at the family firm and being a Murdoch paid off. Like literally. So Alec and his wife Maggie. I mean the way that Alec meant Maggie is interesting because she didn't actually run in the same circles as Alec. You would think that he would marry like another high-powered attorney, someone of his father's choosing, but Maggie was born in a super rural part of Kentucky. She was actually the, her grandpa was a barber, like a nobody barber. And when she grew up, her dad had a job that required him to travel a lot. They were always on the move, Nashville, Unionville, and then finally to South Carolina. And they definitely weren't a well off bunch. And in high school, Margaret, Maggie, was known for being incredibly thin. Just super skinny, super petite. She would even toxicly make fun of her friends who had a tiny bit of extra weight on them. Like she would just poke fun at their weight. And Margaret was always vocal about living that southern girl dream. Find a good husband, have kids, live a comfortable life, probably in a Range Rover. And she did just that. In college, she meets Alec Murdoch, and the Murdoch family just seemed to accept her. I'm sure that there was a lot of drama to their marriage. I can only assume, with something as crazy as the Murdoch family. But one of the relatives even said, Maggie was their favorite Murdoch. Even though she wasn't by blood, she was the most down to earth of them all. Now this is important later. So Alec and Maggie Murdoch had two kids, they're known as the Murdoch boys. She's got Richard who goes by Buster, and then the younger one, Paul. So Buster and Paul, and they are so spoiled. I mean Maggie, baby, the crap out of them, and everyone just Buster the older one. He was kind of considered the more nice, well adjusted, easy going. Don't get me wrong. He thought he was better than you. He thought he was better than the law. He was better than all of the peasants that resided near him. He has his family as a private island for crying out loud. So they're very, very wealthy. Yeah, but you know, easy going, they said. Buster's the easy going one. Yeah, that's what they said about Buster. Paul, the younger one. If that's what they say about Buster, get this. Get what they say about Paul. He was definitely the partier, the one that never believed rules for his thing. He was quote, a handful. He hated authority, didn't care about anything, and when he was 11 years old, he told his aunt, go fuck yourself, Nancy. So it's a charming boy, very charming. So the four of them, they live in pretty much two houses, two major houses. They lived on one plot of land, was called the Mozel, and it had their massive house on there, and it was 1700 acres of land that they would hunt on. That was their hunting property. That was just one of their properties. They owned two private islands, they had a beach house, which they would split their time with the hunting property, and what's fascinating later is that nobody had a schedule. Like the parents would split up, Alec would be in one house, Maggie would be in one house one day, and then they would be in the same house the next day. Sometimes I guess it's a situation where after school you're driving home and you're like, which house do I want to go to? Beach house or hunting house, and you just end up there. There's no schedule. This is important later, but I'll remind you, because it gets crazy. So, for years, most people outside of South Carolina, or even Hampton County, probably didn't know that this family existed unless you were in the same house. you know, we're like a journalist like Mandy Matney, myself included. Until some very mysterious deaths started taking place, all centered around the Murdoch's. So July 8th of 2015, there's a phone call placed to 911 dispatch. Hampton County 911, where's your emergency? I uh, I see someone laying out. Okay? Is it in the road or on the side of the road? He's kind of in the roadway, somebody's gonna hit him, it's dark. The police get to the scene, which is like this two-lane country road. It's pretty isolated, not a lot of cars coming. And there was a 22-year-old man named Stephen Smith laying on the side. And it was, it was bad. The crime scene was horrific. His face was completely bloodied. He had a seven-inch gash on the side of his forehead. The injuries were so bad that they said that his head was misshapen. And the police initially thought that he had been shot. Which, I mean, that's really graphic and that's really gruesome and brutal. So what happened? Strangely, he didn't have that many other visible injuries. He had a dislocated shoulder. He had some scratches on his arm. But that was about it. So keep this in mind, okay? Because that's weird. So how does he get here? The police find that his car is about three miles away and his wallet is inside. And the doors are still locked inside the car. But the gas tank is open. And the gas cap is hanging out off the side of the car. So this is their theory. Around 1 to, you know, around 4 a.m. Steven's driving. He runs out of gas. Gets out of the car and decides, I'll just walk home. Okay, that much makes sense. But who the hell would want him dead? I mean, why is he dead on the side of the road? Why didn't he just walk home? It didn't look like he was mugs. What happened? So Steven Smith was a 22-year-old nursing student. He came from a good family that didn't have a lot. But he was a good kid. Mandy was able to shine some light on the victims in this case in her podcast because most sources literally just glaze over their names. And that was about it. But according to Mandy's podcast, Steven would get allowance for doing chores. And he spent practically every single penny that he got on books. He loved to read his dream and his goal was to be a doctor one day so that he could go overseas and literally help people, help children in need. But med school, I mean, it's expensive. So he doesn't want to burden his parents. They're going to feel like, oh, I got to pay this tuition. It's going to be crazy. So instead, he goes into nursing. Again, this is Mandy's podcast. She is very close with Steven's mom. And there just really isn't a lot out there on Steven. So who would want him dead? I mean, what a pressing question. Well, it's one that the police did not care to answer. Like truly, don't care. Their initial reports where that Steven was probably walking home and was killed in a hidden run. Okay. But what? That doesn't make sense. So later, a patrol officer that worked the case said it was a little fishy from the get-go. I mean, think about it. Like really think about it. They're claiming that there was an accident. But there's no evidence to suggest it. There's practically no evidence to suggest that a car had made impact with anything. Let alone someone. I mean, there's no debris, no broken headlight shards, no glass, no skid marks, paint scrapes, nothing. Like just poof. The car magically disappears. And someone is hit by a car, their shoes get literally knocked off. I feel like we talked about a few cases where we go over this in every single time. I'm like, whoa, I didn't know that. And then you guys pointed out, I do know that now. It's just a strange detail. But a lot of the times people are knocked out of their shoes by the car. And Steven still had his shoes on. Sure, there's times that this doesn't happen, but Steven's shoes were loosely tied. So if he had been struck by a car more likely than not, it would have been knocked off. Now, the part that really got me when I was reading about this case is that again, there were no other injuries that were extensive. So a lot of ambulance drivers, EMTs, police on Reddit, like if you go through those threads, they say that sometimes the most gruesome scenes aren't even murders. Aren't any of that. Isn't true crime, but it's just straight up car collisions. It's just car accidents. Because the officer, according to CBS said, quote, "When someone is struck by a car going at a speed, and I don't mean 70 miles per hour. I mean even something like 25, 30, 35 miles per hour. You fly. Bodies get pushed a long way. Your body rolls and moves. There's road berms. There's rash marks. A lot of the times there's evidence on the road. But there was none of that. So highway patrol officer Seth, I mean, he was not the only one that was hesitant to accept this whole hit and run theory. Steven's friends and family, I mean, they were confused. He had a twin sister named Stephanie, and not only did they not believe this hit and run theory because it makes no sense, but they felt like Steven was murdered. Okay, listen, hear them out. So Steven is this very smart kid. He's hyper aware. Like, that's just his vibe. He had to be because he was gay. So he was in a small conservative town, where by the way, the Hampton High School name is a named after a slave owner. So it's a pretty conservative town. They didn't change it. They kept the name. So I'm just giving you a little bit of context. So he can't afford to not be aware of the situation of what's around him. Let's just say that a lot of people were not going to accept him for who he was. So you got this hyper aware kid walking down a pitch black silent road that's isolated. And you don't think he would have heard or seen or have any idea that a car is coming from a mile away. And you think if he ran out of gas and just going to walk home, he will leave his wallet in the car. Yeah, that's weird too. What if you passed by a gas station and you're like, "Come home, let me just buy a little bit." That's beyond weird. That's unnatural. Yeah. It just doesn't make sense. And also it's 2015. Yeah. Why would he just, yeah, it's weird. So who would want to murder him then? So you're like Stephanie, you're suggesting somebody would want to murder him? Well, Steven had gotten very secretive recently about who he was spending time with. That's what his friends and family said. He just was a little bit quieter. He used to tell them everything. I mean, this was strange for them, but before they could even figure out who or why or what he was doing, he died. Okay, we'll just investigate the case then. The police got it, right? Will the pathologists come out and rule his death? Blant forced trauma to the head, possibly, if a side view mirror of a passing truck hits Steven on the head. So they're saying it wasn't a hit and run technically in the sense like he wasn't hit by the front of a car, but just his head was. By a side view mirror of a passing truck. So the medical examiner concluded this was a hit and run death. I mean, I have never heard such an explanation in my life and I guess it makes just enough sense if you don't think about too much of it. You're just like, okay, in passing. Maybe it makes sense. Weird things do happen in life, but it's so bizarre. Yeah. Now, this is important. Mandy was able to get this information. When a sergeant called to locate Steven's body, he found out that an autopsy had been done and Steven's body was already in a funeral home. On top of that, his clothes that he was wearing that night, they were left unattended in a paper bag. So whatever was on those clothes, any evidence, I mean, it can't be used anymore. Because there's no chain of custody. It's been broken. Mandy said this is important because some blue paint chips were found on Steven's clothes. But now that means nothing. I mean, that means moot point. So the sergeant is kind of thrown off by all of this and he calls the medical examiner and I'm paraphrasing here, but it's a strange conversation. He's like, hey, what is she roulette a hit and run? Well, there's no gunshot wound or any other clear cause of death. And because the body is found on the side of the road, this really is the only logical conclusion. Okay. Well, did you find any glass fragments on the body or anything else that indicated that he was hit by the side view mirror of a passing truck? No. You don't think, okay, let's say, for example, someone is holding a baseball bat out of a window. You don't think that could have done the same thing? No. Okay. Could Steven have suffered the head wound from, let's say, a bat or any other object? Well, I guess that's possible. I guess I'm just confused why you concluded it was a hit and run then because it seems like there's no evidence to suggest such an event. Yeah, well, it's not my job to figure that out. It's yours. So it's just, I mean, nobody is really working on this case. The whole investigation and you're thinking, wow, the sergeant's cool. He's going to solve the case. Woohoo. No. The whole investigation. The whole offense is so sloppy. And again, Mandy's really shining a light on a lot of these details because other sources just kind of brushed past it. So for example, no neighbors were questioned. They weren't asked, did you hear something, see something like, did you see a car passing? You got any cameras? Nothing. But they did take a photo of a few of the houses for their police report. So it's like, okay, you were thinking about the neighbors because you took pictures of their houses. Why don't you just ask them? Steven's friends and families were interviewed, but part of their interviews just were left out of the reports. Steven's phone was taken into evidence and for years, it was just passed from one officer to the next and nobody even tried to unlock it. Nobody tried to figure out, is he meeting someone? Did he call someone to be like, hey, can you help get me gas? Wow. A rent kit was used to test Steven's body for signs of sexual assault. And Mandy said, the results were never mentioned in any official report ever again. It's just like they did it. And then they were like, let's never think about it. Goodbye results. I mean, I don't know. Maybe they still have it, but like, what are you doing with it? What are the results? So the whole thing feels like either this is the lazyest investigative work of ever or someone is trying to control the narrative and the investigation because can you really say that every single police officer is that dumb? No. Just feels like. feels like. Just like something weird is happening. Hear me out for a second. Okay, one of Stephen's relatives said that she was at the store one day and a complete stranger. Some of which he had never seen before. Came up to her and says, "You know, the Murdoch boys did this and walked away." Okay, so strange because Randy Murdoch, Alex brother, reached out to the Smith family and he was one of the first people to contact the Smith family after the coroner and offered to work on their case as their attorney. They don't even know Randy Murdoch. This is Alex brother. They don't know this guy. It's just a high-powered, I mean, what would a Murdoch have anything to do with this? Why would he even care? They're not the most generous, charitable people. They don't just take all these cases, you know, for grieving families. Yeah. Strange. Now, when everyone says the Murdoch boys, like I said, they're referencing Alex Murdoch's sons. So Steven's mom also claimed that kids from the neighborhood would come up to her and say, "The Murdoch boys murdered your son." How would people know that? Because the Murdoch boys are younger. So maybe this is like a conversation running in like a younger circle than police officers and adults. The officer that was handling all of this with the Smith family, I mean, he conveniently did not ask any follow-up questions. Like the family would go to the officer and be like, "Hey, someone just came up to me at the store and told me the Murdoch boys did this." And you're just like, "Oh, that's so strange." Anyway, how's your Tuesday? Like, what? You don't want to ask any follow-up questions? Like why would they say something like that? What else did they say? Did you, who said that? Nor did he mention the Murdoch's by name in his report. He just pretty much admitted it and was like, "It's fine. It's not a big detail at all." So were these just harmless neighborhood rumors or is there a connection? So the rumor is that Alex, son, the older one, Buster. Now this part is in a rumor. He actually was a former high school classmate of Steven Smith's. But the rumor is that even though they were never really friends at all, they ran in completely different clicks in high school. Buster was hanging out with rich kids. He was just doing his thing, you know, zooming around in his daddy's car, his daddy's Mercedes, but it is speculated. It is alleged that many of the sources believe that they had a much more intimate hidden secretive relationship. Huh, okay. No. Those close to Steven believe that Steven was killed for being gay allegedly and a group of young, privileged, rich kids allegedly decided that they were bored and they were bored of hunting allegedly on 1700 acres of private property allegedly and they decided to go hunt for this guy. And for a human, just fork stuff up, why? Because they can of course and because he's gay and we don't like that. And maybe allegedly their parents all came together and swore to protect their kids at all costs. Besides, I mean they were above the law or maybe they were the law allegedly. Now, of course this is not proven. It's merely a conspiracy theory if you want to call it that, but there was another anonymous witness came forward and again, like you can get a lot of this information way more in Death on Mandy's pod, but the anonymous witness says that they heard a rumor that three guys were riding down a country road one day when they passed Steven's car and then later, Steven. Now, these kids thought to themselves, "Hey, you know what would be hilarious? If we stop, turn around, stick about at the window and hit Steven on the head with it." Because you know, we're just in a silly goofy mood. Another anonymous witness claimed that Buster Murdoch was part of those guys in the car. So even though like more than half the people interviewed by the police at that time mentioned the Murdoch family by name and was like, "I heard one of the Murdoch boys were a part of it," or even talked about how Steven and Buster may have been romantically involved. The official reports pretty much omit all of this and the Murdoch family was never interviewed by any of the officers. If they're romantically involved, why would he hurt him? Maybe he felt like the secret was going to get out. Whatever witnesses are saying doesn't make it true, right? But someone should have investigated. I mean, if so many people are bringing up the Murdoch's, what would you do? I mean, I feel like I could ask a 10 year old and they'd be like, "I guess I'd talk to the Murdoch's, but they don't." Okay, so that's not necessarily true. There was one officer who tried. He'd always been a bit, you know, sussed about the whole investigation and he thought, the crime scene looked a little staged. So he tried. He tried to talk to the Murdoch's by calling Buster. He didn't pick up, so he leaves a voicemail for Buster. Buster ignores it and that was on. He's like, "Okay, well my job is done." So Steven's case goes completely cold. Now this is when something super convenient and strange happens and which by the way, the only people I've seen talk about this like in terms of sources where Mandy and Fitz news. I haven't seen any other like news outlets cover this and it's just so shady, it's so creepy. So in December, the police get a call from a man by the name of Daryl and he's like, "Hey, police officers, so an attorney named Randy Murdoch told me to tell you this because my stepson Patrick told me that he knows who killed Steven." Okay, wait, so your stepson knows who killed Steven. Yeah, yeah. So it's a kid named Sean Connelly. He was drunk that night, hit something with a side view mirror of his truck while he was driving home. He didn't even know he hit something because he was that drunk. He just thought, "Oh, that's crazy. What was that bump?" The next day he's home, turns on the news, sees that someone was killed on the side of the road. So he panicked. He called Patrick and my stepson was freaking out and he told me everything. He said that Sean was a wreck and Patrick himself was a wreck. He was crying. It was just crazy. They were traumatized. And the only reason that Daryl is coming to the police with this is because Randy Murdoch advised him to. That's so convenient. You know what else is convenient? Patrick had been facing first degree assault and battery charges as well as attempted murder charges at this point. Apparently in April, what makes this whole thing even more strange is that Patrick had been facing first degree assault and battery charges as well as attempted murder charges. So he was represented by an attorney. Yeah, he was all lowered up because of that one from earlier that year and guess who his attorney is. Murdoch. No. Oh. That would be. He said, "Oh, you set me up." No, that would be too simple. It's a guy named Corey Fleming. Now, this name is going to come up a bajillion times, okay? Corey Fleming. He was a roommate of Alec Murdoch's in college and allegedly Alec's best friend. So eventually, the charges against Patrick are dropped and on top of that, the police never attempted to reach out to Patrick or to Sean after hearing this crazy wild story. They were just like, "Okay." What? What do you mean dropped after that? Well, the charges for Patrick's like first attempted murder charges from a different thing were dropped later. But this one, they never really investigated. They were just like, "Okay, thank you for sharing." Oh. Yeah, thank you so much. What? So where does Steven's case stand now? So June of 2021, the investigation to Steven Smith had been reopened. But until then, I mean, it was just pure trauma for the families. Mom, Sandy, she said, "I've been waiting for this day for 2,174 days. Thank you, God." She just wants some answers. Did the Murdoch actually have something to do with this? Does it even matter if they did? Because people with privilege, power, deep pockets, does the truth even matter at this point? Does it really? It probably did matter to someone like Gloria Scatterfield, though. Now we don't know much about Gloria, but what I can tell from a lot of the interviews that her family has done is that she's this very heartwarming, nurturing, loving mother of two sons. She was incredibly close with her family. She's the type of woman that, from what I can gather, is like, you want her in your corner. Like you want her in your corner. She would do anything for you. She will stand up for you. She's one of those people. And for the past 20 years, she had a super stable. I'll be at very hard, but stable job, working as a housekeeper and nanny for the Murdoch family. Gloria's sister went to high school with Alec Murdoch. Maybe that's how they met, but regardless, Gloria had been working with them for 20 years. She honestly helped raise the Murdoch boys, Buster and Paul, and it's that that she loved them like her own two sons. She cared a lot about them. She was passionate about her job. Until February 2nd of 2018. So Maggie, this is Alex Wife, right? She picks up the phone, dials number one. Hello, my housekeeper has fallen and I can't get her up. She's fallen and she's bleeding from the head. How old is she? I'm not sure. Maybe 56. No, this is not pertinent to the story, but it just like really rubbed me the wrong way. How do you not know her age? She's been with you for 20 years. I mean, it just irks my gears. That's ridiculous. Anyway, the dispatcher is like, how did she fall? And she's kind of like struggling to tell the dispatch how she fell. Maybe it's the shock, but eventually she says she fell going up the steps. Outside or inside? Outside. Is she conscious? No, not really. She's not responding at all. She's like mumbling. Okay, so she's somewhat conscious. Is she bleeding anywhere? Yes, from her head. Okay, explain her injury in more detail, please. And she's stumbling with her words again before Maggie screams. She just fell back again. And the officer or the dispatch is like, okay, man, can you just bring the phone to go to the police station? Gloria's ear so I can talk to her, but instead of doing what she's told, the phone is passed to one of her sons, Paul Murdoch. And he sounds annoyed. I mean, he is described to be quote "snaffy" with the dispatch. Gloria cracked her skull and is bleeding from the head and left ear and on the concrete like he sounds like he's not having it. He has way better things to do. The dispatch is like, "Okay, well the other lady tried to tell me that she tried to stand up and she fell down again?" No, I was holding her up and then she fell back over. The operator starts asking more questions like, "What does that mean?" And he just says, "Man, can you stop asking all these questions?" And she's like, "Yeah, I already sent first responders and I'm asking very important questions and Maggie and Paul both continued to be a bit snappy. Now, if you give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they're in shock. Maybe they're like, "Stop asking questions and send someone, right? Maybe. Maybe." So the ambulance gets there. Gloria's rushed to the hospital and she had severe brain damage. For weeks, she would be hospitalized. She barely knew what was going on. She couldn't even comprehend who the people in the room were. And those people were her family members. They were her siblings. They were her sons that came to see her every single day. And after three weeks, Gloria passed away. Her sister said that her last words to Gloria were, "I'll be back tomorrow. I love you." And Gloria looked at her and said, "Love you too." And Gloria's sons were devastated. They said that they pray every single day to ask God for strength and for guidance. Now, this is the part that's going to make you mad. During her three week long hospital stay, only Maggie came to visit Gloria in the hospital. I get it. You might be busy terrorizing an entire county. Just kidding, don't sue me. But I'm sure you're busy. Maybe you want to give Gloria's family their space. But three weeks that's a long time. You couldn't even come once. She raised these two kids. Alec, your her employer for 20 years. I mean, technically you're like family. No? Nobody could come and check in on her. And you think that's shady? Well, let's get down to the real shady business of all of this. Gloria's death certificate stated that her death was, quote, "natural." And it was not filed as an accident. That's a red flag. A trip in fall. It's, I mean, sure. Maybe it's not homicide, but it's definitely an accident that's not a natural cause of death. I'm like, oh my god, I'm going to get old and trip in fall and die. That's not a natural. No. Where's the mixed up come from? That's just how they filed it. Maybe it's not a mix up. They did not do an autopsy and no corner was notified of her death. So when you file a natural, there's no need of any of that. Okay. So it gets worse. At Gloria's funeral, something strange allegedly happens. Alec Murdoch comes up to Gloria's sons, gives his condolences, but also tells them, I'm going to take care of you guys. I'm going to get a lot of money for you guys, so that you can be good for at least the rest of your lives for your future. I'm going to set you guys up for success. I'm paraphrasing. I imagine he's saying some slick, sleazy stuff like this. Here's what you're going to do. I have a lawyer you're going to see. Not me, a different lawyer. That person is going to help you sue me for a wrongful death suit. I will admit fault to the insurance company and they're going to pay you out a big chunk of change. Again, I'm paraphrasing, but he sounds this sleazy. I imagine. You're going to get a lot of money, but you can't tell anyone. You know, I just feel so bad. I want to take care of you guys financially. Look out for you. There's the best we can do it. There's his voice in my head. They're like, okay. I mean, we've known this guy for our whole lives, essentially. That makes sense. I mean, if I were in issues, I would want to help out Gloria's sons. Yeah. So these kids, I mean, they don't know the law. They're not in law school. They just go with that. They trust him. Okay, Alec, which attorney should we see? Well, I know this guy. Corey Fleming. So Tony and Brian, Gloria's sons, they trust Alec. They contact Corey Fleming. They trust Fleming, Hachito. Never trust a Fleming Hachito. They're like, wow, this is amazing. Well, not amazing, but wow, Alec is such a great guy. I mean, it's kind of selfless, isn't it? Like, he's like, sue me. Sue me. I'll handle it. I want you guys to be good. So they go see Corey Fleming, Hachito, and they get straight to work. Corey's like, okay, boys, let's do this. Let's go sue my good buddy, Alec. First you're going to need a banker, a man named Chad. I'm sorry. You got a Chad. I'm sorry to all the chats. Sorry. A man named Chad Westendorf. And he's going to rep your mother's estate. Oh, Chad. Yeah. He's going to represent your mother's estate. The boys agreed. They don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. Nobody knows what that means. You're like, this is an attorney. They've got my best interest at heart, right? So let's do it. They agree. This is bad because now Corey is pushing the boys out of the conversation. Now that Chad is the representative of Gloria's estate, Corey can just skip over the boys' heads and talk to Chad about the lawsuit and the settlement. Without the boys' knowledge, without the boys' consent. And for years, the boys don't get a single penny. And I'm sure these guys or someone else gave them the whole spiel like things like this take time. Google it. It's dragged up. Don't worry, boys. What's the rush? But three years after Gloria's death, the boys here on a news report. Gloria's scatterfield sons were compensated $500,000 of insurance money for their wrongful death lawsuit. What? That's not possible because they never got anything that's impossible. So they try calling Corey. No response. Chad? No response. Alec? No response. attorney and they sue Alec for conspiracy to steal money from Gloria's family, which by the way the family stated it was never even about the money. I don't even think they wanted to sue Alec. Alec is the one that's like, "Do it, do it, sue me." Like it's the fact that the Murdoch's treated their mom, their sister, their daughter as if she didn't matter and now, I mean, they're speculating that Gloria had dedicated her life to the Murdoch family and they're trying to use her death to allegedly launder money. That's the vibe. So the new attorney finds out that the boys were, they were gonna get way more than $500,000. The insurance settlement was about $4.3 million. That the insurance company paid out. And that's not all. Mandy also mentioned that on the lawsuit, there's no docket number, which means like a court case like tracking number. There's no stamp of approval and Alec convinced the court to take his name off the settlement. So it's just weird shady stuff. And the check went straight to Corey Fleming. Wait, so Hachito got it. Got the money. Yeah, so it seems like they're laundering the money and they're not giving it to the boys at all. This was all like an inside job between Alec, you know, Hachito. We're really professional here. For calling him Hachito. Corey Fleming. Mr. Fleming. Mr. Fleming. Mr. Fleming Hachito. You're an ass. Okay. That is a personal opinion. That's not slander. Is it kidding? So that lawsuit is in the works. The boys are going to sue Alec Corey for, you know, laundering this money for conspiracy to commit insurance fraud for conspiracy, you know, all of these things. Anyway, February 23rd of 2019 rolls around. Now, guess who's not affected by any of this. Alec? Well, him too, but Paul, Paul Murdoch, the youngest of the Murdoch boys. Now he's out here living his best life. He's 19. He's young. He's got a girlfriend. He's just living the dream. He doesn't care. That is a second mother figure. Someone who helped raise him for longer than he's been alive. No, he doesn't care that she passed in various suspicious circumstances and then his dad just tried to literally rip off the kids. No, he had a very, very rich life to live. He and his five friends. We're going to go spend the night at his parents' lake house on Murdoch Island. That's what they called it. So there was Paul. Paul's girlfriend Morgan. Connor. Connor. Cook is Paul's friend. And his girlfriend, Miley, Connor's cousin, Anthony Cook, and his girlfriend, Mallory Beach. So I mean, think of it as like a triple overnight date. They were going to go to a friend's oyster party at 8 p.m. on an island. And they were going to take Alec Murdoch's boat. Now the boat did have a problem. I know you're thinking of yacht because the Murdoch family is filthy rich, right? But it's more of like a smaller boat, right? And it didn't have working headlights, but it's fine. I didn't know they had headlights. We don't know anything about boats. Okay, but it's fine because if the kids didn't go by boat, they might have been some alcohol checks. Now I don't know if maybe there's like a bridge. Maybe it's like a known party spot. Maybe someone checks the car for alcohol entering the island or I don't know, right? So they were trying to avoid that. And that's why they wanted to take the boat because they had plans to do a whole lot of underage drinking that night. Miley said that everyone brought their own alcohol, even though they weren't of drinking age, but Paul had used Buster's ID to buy a bunch of alcohol. And he was the one drinking a lot of it. Most of it. Anyways, they fill up their cooler. They get. to the oyster party. The about, I don't even know what an oyster party is. Now the oyster party didn't provide alcohol since their friends were also underage, but the six of them they brought their own. And they weren't shy, they're drinking it, they're chugging it, especially Paula. And after about five hours at the party, everyone starts arguing. What are we going to do next? Mallory and Anthony kind of suggested, "Hey since it's dark out and the boat doesn't have working headlights, why don't we just call a cab? Go home." I don't know if maybe the friend hosting the oyster party was being nice or she felt like something, you know, Paula was being a little weird, but she suggested, "Well why don't you guys just spend the night here? I mean I have extra places for you guys to sleep. Well, don't go out in the boat, that's dangerous." But Paul Murdoch was dead set, he's like, "No, we're going to get on the boat and we're going to go to another bar." And he was clearly drunk. I mean, he wants to go to a bar and get more drinks, but you're already so drunk, dude. His friends at Newham said that he gets very aggressive and angry when he's drunk and Miley said, "It's just, he's kind of like a whole other person when he's drunk." They even gave drunk Paul an alter ego nickname called Timmy. And Timmy was evil. I mean Timmy was starting to come out. Timmy's like, "We got to go to a bar." I mean, what can they do? It seems like the friends were losing to Paul, so they all get back into Paul Murdoch's boat and he starts steering it to the bar. They dock the boat, they make it there. They head into the bar and a lot of this is caught on CCTV, like them walking on the dock. And Paul and Connor, they both ordered two shots. They were in there for about 10 minutes before leaving back for the boat. Now Paul is super drunk at this point. He's kind of swaying, giggling. He's even like yelling at his girlfriend, just like yelling at her with his arms in the air. So the friends probably very hesitantly boarded the boat. Now just to preface, again, this boat is pretty small. If I saw this boat, I saw the conditions of the night and who's going to be allegedly be driving this boat, you're not going to want to get in. It doesn't feel safe. Like from the get-go, you're like, "Oh, this is not a good idea." Especially with Paul steering the boat. He kept quote unquote, "acting drunk." I mean, he was really drunk. He starts taking off his clothes when it's only like 60 degrees outside. He's trying to freak out his friends because at first he's driving super slow. So freaking slow. Inching in the water. And at one point, he's even doing circles in the water. And his friends are getting nervous. They're honestly pretty annoyed. We just want to go home. Let's just go home. Anthony offers to drive the boat. And this just set Paul off. So he starts driving the boat faster. How dare you? This is my boat. It's my daddy's boat. Did your daddy have a boat? It's my boat. He drove faster. He like really fast, too fast. And they're headed straight into rough waters. Paul did not care. He only drove faster. Now it's said that Mallory was trying to stop this madness. You know, she's like, "Paul, I'm scared. You need to stop. Step away. Let someone else drive." And this guy lost it. How dare. Obviously, I don't know what goes on in Paul's mind. But this is what I imagine. How dare a girl tell me what to do. So he. Let's go off the wheel. Let's go with it. Head straight for Mallory. And it's trying to get up in her face. Anthony Mallory's boyfriend stands in between them and stares him down and tells him "Don't you dare, Paul." Now in the meantime, Connor, the other friend, jumps up, takes control of the wheel and he's trying to steer the boat. But he gets out of the boat. It's Paul. He's upset. He's like, "No, this is my boat. Let me drive." It's actually your daddy's boat, but don't get it twisted. So Paul's girlfriend decided it was time to step in and she told her boyfriend lesson. Maybe he'll listen to me. You'd need to slow it down, just let Connor drive. And Paul was so mad. So mad that he left the boat. Like he left the wheel three times to go talk to his girlfriend and fight with her. How dare you tell me not to drive my own boat. And on the third time, he slapped her and spit on her. Sheesh. Around 2.20 in the morning, Paul is still erratically driving the boat and refusing to dock the boat nearby, which is what all of his friends want, and then boom. They crash into a nearby bridge and they impact through Mallory and Anthony into the water. In a different source, it said that Miley told officers that Paul was also thrown overboard. But regardless, everybody surfaced and everybody was accounted for except for Mallory. So Connor rushes to get his phone. He's freaking out. His drive actually been broken by this impact. Is Mallory Connor's girlfriend? No, Anthony's girlfriend. Do you remember the one that he left the wheel initially to go try to yell at? Uh-huh. Yeah. So I mean, Connor's jaw was broken. So he's calling 911 and he's screaming, "Paul, what bridge is this? What bridge is this?" And the dispatch is asking how to help. And it's on YouTube. The 911 call, but it is really, really, really hard to listen to. Like you want to punch someone. You heard it? Yes. It's like the dispatch cannot fathom that they're in a boat crash. She spends the longest time just going in circles. She just can't believe that they're in a boat crash. What? Yeah, it's just so weird. So it's a dispatch being really off? Yes. A few days after the, she quit her job because it was just bad. It was bad. So you can hear the group in the back. They're freaking out. They're fully terrified. And Connor with his broken jaw is like, "We're in a boat crash on Archer's Creek and we hit the bridge. There's only one bridge on Archer's Creek." He even said like, "The only bridge on Archer's Creek." And she says, "What's going on? We're in a boat crash. What kind of boat? What kind of boat are you in? Are you at the docks? No. We just crashed in a boat. Are you in the water? Or are you? We're in the boat. We have someone missing. So she would go on to ask him random questions about, "Is the life jacket on the boat? Do you guys have life jackets? What does Mallory look like?" It was just weird. It was just so frustrating. All of that. And the whole 911 call is so redundant. And the first responders, it's not even like they made it out right away. They actually took 30 minutes because they were sent to the wrong location. Even though there's only one bridge on Archer's Creek. So the police get there. And Deputy Sheriff Steven was one of the first there. And the deputy said he saw Anthony pacing. Clearly he was in distress. He was trying to help. And Mallory Beach would not be found alive. And she actually wouldn't be found for another week. Her aunt Lynn said that Mallory was just this fun, really outgoing person. She's the type that you always got a hug, hello from, and a hug goodbye. She was loved by everyone. I mean, that's what everyone says. Like, truly, it's so hard. Like you just love her. She had so many friends. Even on the last day, there was a tender moment caught on CCTV with her and her boyfriend walking on the dogs. It just seemed like they shared a really special bond. She had this full, full life, just so much potential ahead of her. She was working at a clothing boutique and her dream that she was working hard to achieve was to become an interior designer. And she would never be able to do that. So as Anthony is being escorted to the deputy's car, Paul is nearby and Anthony flips out. And he's trying to get past the deputy and go straight to Paul and he says, get that motherfucker away from me. And Paul was set up and smiling, smirking. And Anthony is screaming hysterically. Why are you fucking smiling? Is this fucking funny because my fucking girlfriend's gone, bro? And the police are trying to calm him down. Anthony won't be calm to understand a bull and he's telling the police like this guy's drunk. He's operating this boat under the influence. That's why we crashed. Now, if I were to set a 15 year old down and ask them, what do you think would be the next step for the police? What do you think they'd say? This guy's drunk. He's underage. He's acting politic. Give him the brothelizer. Give him a sobriety test, right? Let's figure it out. You're just accusing him of like a B.U.I. boating under the influence. To the skits to the bottom of it, Connor, the dude with a broken jaw, he was given a breathalyzer test, an alcohol test. So give Paul one. I mean, his dad owns the boat. Anthony just accused him of boating under the influence. That seems like the most logical thing to do, right? But they don't. Do they know who he is? The police report from that night says it's unclear who was driving the boat. The officer would say that it was later his personal opinion that it was unclear who was driving the boat at the time of the crash. Because Anthony said, last time I checked, Paul was steering before we crashed. But he should have said, Paul was steering when we crashed. He said, last time I checked. So, wait, is it unclear? That makes sense, you know? I mean, regardless of who is driving the boat, these are underage kids. So you should be giving them all alcohol tests. I mean, who cares about the boat right now? Like, well, I mean, yeah, we care. But does that make sense? Give them the test. What, I don't understand? Maybe it was spectacular incompetence? Or maybe it wasn't? So later, Connor, the one with a broken jaw, the one that called 911, the one that was given an alcohol test, he will file a lawsuit against three police officers, accusing them of conspiring to frame him for the boating accident and shift blame away from Paul Murdoch. The kids were transported to the hospital except Anthony who wanted to stay behind. And Connor had a broken jaw. Morgan's hand was badly injured. And Paul, well, according to the hospital staff, he was acting blidrantly towards them, towards police officers. Miley said that he got all up in a police officer's face and screamed, "You can't treat me like this!" But you know, he's drunk, underage, pointing fingers, kind of threatening police officers and medical staff, does he get arrested? No, because there is some really crazy magic in being a rich white boy. It's just wild. "Fonly we were all lucky." But he didn't stop there. He asks Miley to borrow her phone. What does he do? In rich privilege fashion, he calls his Gramps. The former DA ran off the third. Ah yes, Grandpa. Attorney Grandpa, former DA to the rescue. I can't like use textbook privilege and it makes my blood boil and I feel like I'm taking so many digs at him. I'm sorry. I'm not. It's just hard not to. But Paul won't stop throwing a fit. Then the police felt like they had to do something. Do they arrest him? No, they do not. Like babysitters, they strap him down and they watch over him until his daddy gets here. Yeah. Paul was acting so aggressively that some of the nurses really thought to themselves, "I think that this guy has brain damage." Like, we gotta do something. So they run tests, they draw his blood. And that's when they find out that the blood test at the hospital would prove that Paul's blood alcohol levels were three times the legal amount. So Alec, along with the other parents of all the group, you know, they get to the hospital. Each parent is staying with their child. I'm sure freaking out. Asking a million questions like, "How could you let this happen?" "Did we raise you like this?" "I'm sure they're comforting their child." "I'm sure it's a lot of emotions." But Alec was not. No. Alec was busy. He was going from room to room, talking to each survivor, attempting to, quote unquote, "get their story straight." A security officer reported that he overheard Alec Murdoch say on the phone, "She's gone. Don't worry." What? Referencing Mallory Beach. "She's gone. Don't worry." Like, "It's it." Yeah. Like, "She's gonna take care of it." Yeah. It seemed Alec was much more concerned about getting the story straight rather than trying to find Mallory. Or, I don't know, discipline his son. Find out what the hell happened. "Did I raise you like this?" None of that. After talking to Alec, Connor didn't tell the police that Paul was the one driving the boat. He would later say it was because he was scared. So he never lied about who was driving the boat, nor did he deny that Paul was driving the boat. But he said that while he was waiting to be x-rayed, Alec had come up to him and said, "Hey, you don't need to tell anyone who is driving the boat." Like, just, you know, lawyerly advice. You can just stomit that information. Doesn't matter who was driving the boat, probably not. You know, I'm a good attorney. Besides, you probably need a lawyer, Connor. It would be a conflict of interest to find your lawyer. Again, this is how I think he sounds. But I know a great one in town. You guessed it. Your boy, Flamin'Hot Cheeto. Cory Fleming. Don't sue us. So after this great talk, Alec tries to talk to Paul's girlfriend, but she refused to let him in the room. I don't know. Okay, he just kept telling someone, I don't know who this someone is, like a witness, but he just said, "No, I have to talk to her because I have to tell her what to say." Probably something along the lines of, "Hey, maybe don't tell them that Paul, my son, you're a boyfriend, slapped and spit on you." And he was driving the boat. That's not all. Paul's phone was taken by police officers, but it was never submitted as evidence. So where did the phone go? I mean, what? And then I didn't see anyone else with this information and Mallory or Mandy dropped a bombshell on us. Missing from police reports was an audio recording of Anthony accusing Paul of murdering Mallory. Anthony was talking to Detective Michael Brock and accused Paul of murdering Mallory Beach. I mean, that's a huge thing, right? Now we got to investigate, was this a homicide? Was it truly an accident? What are we looking at? Well, unfortunately for everyone, Michael Brock is a close friend of the Murdox and he was the lead investigator on Mallory Beach's case. I mean, this guy sure knows how to run an investigation. Again, this is crazy. I've only seen this information on Mandy's pod because when one of the officers wrote in his own report that Anthony said Paul was driving the boat, that officer was fired from the department. For alleged drug use, but no charges were filed. After eight days of searching for Mallory, via rescue boats, divers, helicopters, two volunteers found Mallory's body about five miles down the river from the crash site. And they had a big funeral for her. Mallory's aunt said hundreds of people were in attendance. There were so many people, it took four hours to greet everyone. She said she had never seen so many people before. And Paul and his family were there too. A month after the crash, Mallory's family, they're not getting answers from anyone. Not just the Murdox, but nobody. So they file a wrongful death suit. So now they can try to subpoena the survivors of the fatal boat crash. Now, let's do a quick little sidetrack of all the lawsuits going on. Mallory's mom filed a civil lawsuit against Alec and his brother Buster. Accusing them of facilitating Paul's drinking, because Paul had used Buster's ID to buy liquor. You know, and I mean, you would assume that Alec knew what was going on. All of this Alec knew that they were going to be drinking and he still lent his son the boat, knowing that his son was going to drive the boat. So all of this leads to Mallory's death, right? That's what she's claiming in the lawsuit. She also named the convenience store that Paul bought alcohol with Buster's ID before the party in the lawsuit. Connor Cook filed a lawsuit against the police, but also against Alec Murdoch, accusing him of obstructing justice and conspiring to frame him for the boating incident, while shifting blame from Paul. So all of this, you know, this is going to kind of force the police to do something. Well, they arrest Paul finally. It took them two months. He was arrested on what would have been Mallory's 20th birthday. Are you screaming finally some justice? Well, don't get excited. Because Paul was never handcuffed. He was taken into the hallway of a courthouse and his mug shot was taken with his clothes on and with an iPhone 7. He never spent a day, not an hour, not even a second in prison before trial. They just literally arrested him, took him to the courthouse, took a picture of him, and was like, "Okay, bye." I've seen people thrown in jail for absolutely nothing, compared to this. Are you kidding me? The prosecutor on Paul's case asked the judge, "Hey, since this guy is allowed to be free till the trial, can we at least force him to wear an alcohol monitor?" Request denied. Okay, what? So he's facing three felonies and potentially 25 years in prison. His hearing was scheduled for June 10th, 2021. But just three days before that, Paul Murdoch would be found murdered. What? June 7th, 2021. Around 10 p.m., a 911 call is placed by Alec Murdoch. He says, "This is Alex Murdoch. My wife and child." Yeah, he says Alex. He says Alex and the 911 call. I think maybe just to make it easier. Okay. "My wife and child had been shot badly." Now mind you, he's a sterical. Like he's not talking the way I'm talking. He sounds like he's falling apart. You said your wife and son? Yes, my wife and son. Are they in a car? No, they're on the ground. Is he breathing at all? No, nobody's breathing. Do you see anyone in the area? No, ma'am. What color is your house? It's white. You can't see it from the outside. Did you hear anything? Or did you come and find them? He says, "No, I've been gone. I just came home to find them. Please hurry." And he continues to stop. So he's sobbing. While sobbing, all of a sudden, he stops and goes, "Uh-huh." So imagine and goes back to sobbing. So imagine you're sobbing and you compose yourself just enough to say, "Uh-huh." So Alec said he was alone, but it just sounds like someone standing next to him, asking him a question. It's just so weird. He's like, "Uh-huh." Yeah, that's weird. Yeah, I just. Totally weird. Yeah, he wasn't asking a question by dispatch, so it's weird. What's her name? Maggie, Maggie and Paul Murdoch. So this is his wife and his son. Are you sure they're not breathing? It's silent. Now, there are some redacted parts where he gives the dispatch his phone number, and then Alec says, "All right, I'm gonna go back down there." That's so weird because he just said that you were standing next to them. I mean, it's just so strange. The rest of the 911 call is redacted. You can actually hear a part of the redacted part on Mandy's pod, which is insane. But essentially, the dispatch asks Alec if he's touched the bodies, and don't touch them in case there's evidence on the bodies. And he pretty much just says, "Well, have already done that to truck if they're breathing." And the dispatch says, "Okay, Alec, do me a favor redacted." Alec put redacted up when you see law enforcement approaching. So apparently the redacted word in this, so Alec put blank up when you see law enforcement approaching is three letters. I can only think of one weird gun, but that's just me. What? It's been redacted. Which, I mean, it makes sense. This is their hunting property. Maybe he carries, maybe I don't know. So it makes sense you wouldn't want to have a gun in plain sight or near you when the police are approaching a murder scene. But it's just, I don't know, the whole thing is weird. I think in this context, it's with these people it's weird. So at the end of the call, Alec is like, "Man, I'm on a call. I need to call somebody." Yeah. The police get there. Both Paul and Maggie were found near the dog kennels outside the house. The dogs were fine, but Paul and Maggie had been shot multiple times. At least two murder weapons were used. At least one of the two murder weapons belonged to the Murdoch's. But again, this was their hunting lodge, so it could be possible that the killer picked up one of the nearby guns, one of the Murdoch guns. Now here's the part that gets to the police though. The Murdoch's like I mentioned in the very beginning, they don't have a set schedule. So how would the killers or killer know that Paul and Maggie were at the house at this time? It's gotta be someone close to the family. But that's assuming Paul and Maggie were the targets. What if the killer just wanted to get back at Alec? And he just was like, "I'm just gonna kill all the wife and child." So then that could be technically anyone. It didn't need to be someone who knew the family schedule. So Alec was a person of interest from the get-go, but allegedly he had an airtight alibi. He was taking his former district attorney, Randolph III, dad to the hospital. And he had checked on his mom before going home and discovering the bodies. We don't know where Buster was at this time. I'm not gonna do any like theories. You can find some on Reddit. 'Cause we're dealing with a lot of attorneys and flamin' hot cheetos. I'm not trying to get sued. So June 25th, the Murdoch's announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer. But oddly they like set a deadline. They're like, "You gotta tell us your tips by September 30th, 2021." The day passes, September 30th passes. No arrests. And the family puts out this bizarre statement. We are disappointed that no one has stepped forward with any leads to solve the murder and claim the $100,000 reward. At this time, the family is evaluating what additional steps can be taken to solve the murders of Maggie and Paul. What? Here's where I get shady. Allegedly six weeks before losing her life, Maggie Murdoch met with a high-profile divorce attorney in Charleston. Some people who knew Maggie said that they weren't surprised because Maggie was probably unhappy in their marriage. She is not the type to air dirty laundry. She wasn't the type to go around telling her friends like this guy sucks, you know? But I mean, they said, "Alex and his dad, Randy, were just running the show. They were ruling with an iron fist." And I'm sure there's just no way to be happy in that situation. Others who knew Maggie said, "That's nonsense." But let's say it's true. I mean, the motive is very strong, like, clear as day. A divorce attorney is probably outside of your significant other in your family. If you ever have to deal with a divorce attorney, going to be one of the most intimate people in your life. They're going to be the first person that you share all your darkest secrets with. Someone who knows your finances in and out all the bad decisions you've made, how you parent your children, they might even know some of the nastiest fights you in your significant other have had. So think about it. Allegedly. Allegedly think about it. Don't actually think about it. Just allegedly do it. Because you don't want to get sued either, do you? So, "Alex" is probably feeling a ton of pressure. His dad, the one that was making all the big decisions, the patriarch of the family, the one that everybody called in these emergencies, we had cancer. He'd actually passed away a few days after Paul and Maggie. What? Paul had a sentence hearing for his voting incident. Well, voting, whatever you want to call it, in three days, Maggie is threatening to divorce him allegedly, and all of his financial secrets are going to come to light with that divorce. Would "Alex" be desperate enough to make sure that all of this stops? If Paul and Maggie are dead, no more problems, no more divorce, no more sentencing, no more voting incident, let's just move on with life. Now, there's some crazy unethical law stuff that's also involved, but also another shooting. Yeah, it gets weird, okay? So, regarding this double homicide case, Duffy Stone is a prosecutor for this, and he. A ton of sources say that Duffy was actually handpicked by the Murdoch's to succeed Randolph III. You know how they stopped taking over office? They handpicked someone, who they could essentially control, their puppet. Duffy had been close with a family for at least 15 years, and he did not recuse himself from this case until late August. Late August was when people were like, "Wait a minute, maybe you shouldn't be working this case." In an interview, he said that his personal ties with the victim and family had nothing to do with his decision to step down. It's like, "Wait, what?" He said, "It doesn't conflict me out of this case." My relationship with the. Yes, it does. But he said, and I quote, "I knew that there was an ethical issue, and I needed advice, and I got the advice. You don't just get out of a case because it makes you uncomfortable, or because people are saying you should." Wow. So an interviewer asked him, I mean, so are you saying that something changed before you sent out that letter requesting recusal from the case? Essentially something happened that made you change your mind? That's correct. Was it something you can talk about? I cannot tell you what it is, because then I would be violating the exact same ethics that I have followed since the very beginning of this case. How noble. So what if I asked you, does it have something to do with the suspect in this case? Alec Murdock? I wouldn't tell you. Now what makes it weird is that Duffy was the DA for a Mallory Beecher's case, but he immediately recused himself. But for this one, he waited over two months to recuse himself. Just weird. And then on September 4th, 2021, another Murdock was shot. Another strange 911 call, around 1.30 pm in the middle of nowhere type road, Alec calls 911. I had a flat tire, I stopped, and somebody stopped to help me. When I turned my back, they tried to shoot me. Were you shot? Yeah, but I'm okay. Did they actually shoot you or did they try to shoot you? They shot me. Okay, do you need EMS? Well, I mean, yes, I can't drive. I'm bleeding a lot. And if you're like, wow, Stephanie, this is really great acting. Why are you talking like this? No, it he, it sounds like he's ordering pizza. He's so calm. Like the last one, he was hysterical, he was sobbing, and he was ah-hung. But this one just, like he's calling for a pizza takeout order. Where did they shoot you? Somewhere on my head. He's calm, he's cool, he's collected. It's so weird. He says, it was a white fella. I would say a fair amount younger than me, really, really short hair. Meanwhile, another call comes in to dispatch. A couple had happened to be driving on that road, and they saw a man on the side of the road covered in blood, and he was just waving his hands. But he looked fine, like he wasn't frantic. So they thought it was like a setup. It was weird, it's like straight out of a horror movie, so we didn't stop. So the dispatch goes silent, not because of this call, but for another reason, she's like trying to get, you know, first responders out there, trying to get him help ASAP, but he just think that she hung up. So he hangs up the phone, calls back, and re-explains the whole story, and he's like, "Mam, I'm on the side of the road, I've been shot." Just like no sense of urgency, nothing. So when the police get there, they airlift this man to the hospital. He had no apparent life-threatening emergencies, but they're like, "Yes, let's airlift this guy." So the hospital treated him for, and I quote, "Superficial gunshot wound to the head." So "Superficial gunshot wound typically means it doesn't penetrate the skull. You're not going to die." I mean, yes, is it painful? Yes, is there probably going to be some complications, a lot of after-treatment? Yes, trauma? Yeah. But it's just like the skin and the soft tissue. It's not life-threatening, but it's going to look life-threatening because you're going to be bloody everywhere. It's going to be like a horror movie scene. Okay, well who the hell shot Alec? Okay, well you have to go through the little red flags first. With the police. Red flag number one is that the initial police report stated that Alec had, and I quote, "No visible injuries." But it was later changed because Alec's legal team insisted and aggressively informed them that Alec had actually indeed suffered fractures in serious bleeding. So they changed it. Red flag number two. Alec had a state-of-the-art tire from Mercedes-Benz. According to Fitz news, it was something called their special tires called Run Flat Tires. It allows the car to travel some 50 miles with little or no tire pressure. Like your tire could be flat and you can still go an extra 50 miles. Yeah, I mean there's like a reinforced sidewall. Yeah, I don't know how tires work. I'm sure you're going to be bopping on the road, like bonk bonk, but you can still go 50 miles. Okay. So why don't you just drive to a tire shop or drive home? Oh, I thought he was too injured to drive. No, he said he stopped on the side of the road to change his flat tire and someone stopped and was like, can I help you boom, shot him? Like what? Why didn't you just drive home? Alec Murdoch really doesn't like rub people as the type of guy that likes to do his own stuff. He's like, you know, getting in there, greasing his elbows. No, he doesn't seem like the type. Why stop in the middle of nowhere? Or why not wait for someone to get you? I mean, your rich, you can have like 50 assistants. I don't know. It's just weird. Red flag number three. The biggest of them all. One day before Alec Murdoch was shot, he had resigned, slashed, been fired from his job at his family's firm. It's very hard to get fired from your own family's business, but he managed. He did it by misusing funds. He was siphoning millions of dollars for his own personal use that he was using to purchase drugs. What? So after Alec is shot, he releases a statement that he's entering rehab. He has been in a long battle with drugs and it has been exacerbated by these murders. It's said that he allegedly was addicted to opioids for the past few years. decades. Now, Alec was arrested a little over a week after, on September 16th, in regards to his own shooting. So the man is shot, then he gets arrested for the shooting. He was charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and filing a false police report. Okay, you're thinking, "What insurance fraud for being shot?" What does that make sense? No, for his death. I know. Hear me out. There's a guy named Curtis. Curtis Eddie Smith, a former client of Alex, and it said that the two of them were staging Alex's own murder. So Alec wanted to die, but he didn't want to commit suicide. He wanted it to look like he had been murdered. Why? So Buster, his surviving son, could get a big life insurance payout to the tune of $10 million. Bro, are they rich? They were having a lot of financial problems. What? Yeah, and he just got fired. It seems like Alec is a troublemaker, a troublemaker, a little child. And he's a full grown man, but I'm sorry, but who's Curtis? Well, he's a handy man. They had history. The two men knew each other for close to 35 years. Curtis said that he always saw Alec as a brother to him. He worked on and off for Alec, and they slowly became friends. That's what Curtis said. More popular theory is that Curtis was Alec's drug dealer, and Alec had personally been Curtis's attorney for at least two different lawsuits. So it's speculated instead of committing suicide, and there potentially may be no pay day for his son, Alec wanted it to look like murder. And maybe that's also beneficial, allegedly, in another way, in the sense of maybe after he's dead, people won't assume or think or even speculate that he killed his wife and son. They'll think of damn, someone's out here for the murder dogs. So Curtis denies all of this. I'm paraphrasing here, but his whole side of the story is I didn't shoot him. Alec called me and asked me to meet him, so I did. I didn't know what his plans were. I showed up, and there he is with the gun. And he's like, you're gonna shoot me. I'm like, no way. He said you're gonna do it. I moved. He moved. I grabbed his arm. The gun went off, but it didn't hit him. There was no blood on me. There was no blood on him. The bullet had bounced off his card, hit the dart, so I don't know how he ended up shot. I left, essentially. Curtis was charged with assisted suicide, assault, battery of a high and aggravated nature, pointing and presenting a firearm insurance fraud conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and his bond was set at $55,000. A handyman's. Meanwhile, Alec was essentially free to go, because his bond was $20,000. He checked himself into a drug rehab in Florida, and while in Florida, he's arrested again. This time, for his connection with Gloria Scatterfield. Remember, she passed away. This time, he was arrested for trying to launder the money, trying to scam the sons, insurance fraud, all of that. And this time, he's gonna be held without bail. Thank God. Murdoch's attorney's released a statement that said that Alec intends to fully cooperate with the investigation, and he has, with the investigation into the murder of his wife and son. He deeply regrets that his actions have distracted from the efforts to solve their murders. So Alec was facing 27 charges. Money laundering, breach of trust, fraudulent intent, forgery, he defrauded victims, laundered close to $5 million in various schemes. It's alleged that he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from clients. I mean, you can get all of the newest updates on Mandy's pod. Honestly, that's where I will personally be keeping up with the case, because it's just constantly new crazy things happening. It's insane. Alec had 21 new charges added to his existing ones, and he now faces 48 charges. And there might be more charges coming. They're actually where I think it's like 50 something now. I like to spoke out for the first time since his arrest. He said that this is the longest stretch in 20 years that he's been sober. His attempt to have someone kill him came just after he told his brother and other associates that about his addiction issues, you know? Just who is me? And he was in the throes of withdrawal. He doesn't believe he is a danger to himself or anyone else. He wants to make amends to his family and the others that he hurt. September 4th was a dark day. He's still detoxing, mourning the loss of his wife Maggie and his son Paul. Now that he's sober, he wants to be there for Buster, and he wants to deal with everything he has to. Alec's attorney said that he's improving mentally, and that it'd be best for him to be allowed to continue his treatment outside of prison. The prosecutors requested a $4.8 million bond. The judge said it at $7 million. Thankfully, finally someone. And even if he gets out, he would have to go to a rehab facility in South Carolina and be under like ankle monitoring. He would be under house arrest, a renderer is passport. He can't contact witnesses or co-defendants. He will receive mental health and substance abuse counseling. Another update is that Anthony Cook is also suing Alec Murdoch. So this is Mallory Beach's boyfriend. He's suing Alec Murdoch and the convenience store that sold Paul alcohol that night for both their roles in his girlfriend's death and his trauma. The lawsuit claims that Alec knew that Paul was using his older brothers ID to buy alcohol illegally and knew that Paul was drinking but still let him use the boat. The max sentence that Alec is facing amounts up to 508 years in prison. He is facing 53 charges right now. And that is where the case is as of now. Man, this whole family. Yeah. So we have five people who lost their lives. And I mean, I really hope all the families get answers but especially Steven and Gloria and Mallory's families because. So hopefully this is going to be. Hopefully everything will come to light. There's a lot of Reddit theories of how the whole shooting went down in terms of Maggie and Paul. You can look that up on Reddit. But there's like, you know, theories of maybe Paul was trying to kill his mom and then Alec found and then Alec killed him or Alec killed both or, you know, there's a lot of like, cause the two murder weapons being used to different murder weapons. Maybe that could kind of get people's brain cells going. Like maybe it wasn't one person doing all the shooting. Maybe someone shot person A and person C shot person B. But again, I'm not trying to get sued by Flamin'Hot Cheeto or anybody. So all of this is a legit and at the end of the day I know nothing. But you know who does know something. Mandy Maddeni, go check out her podcast and fit snooze. The podcast is The Murdock Murders. But I hope you guys enjoyed this week's mini-sode and that was a rough one. I will see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye!