Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Mystery of Alex Murdaugh's Clothes Worn Night of Double Murders SOLVED

Episode Date: February 10, 2023

A housekeeper for Alex Murdaugh testified today that the day after the double murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, that she was asked by Alex Murdaugh to clean the house.   Blanca Simpson revealed that when she went to the house several “very unusual” things stood out to her. They included food pots being in the fridge instead of left out for her to clean and Maggie Murdaugh's pajamas and underwear stacked neatly in the doorway of the laundry room. Simpson said first that Maggie Murdaugh did not wear underwear with her pajamas and she also usually left pots and pans out for Simpson to clean. Simpson then dropped a bombshell. She said when she went into the shower she noticed a small puddle of water, a tower,l and a pair of khaki pants which she washed.    Ms. Simpson says she has never seen those khakis or the seafoam-colored shirt Murdaugh was wearing the night of the murders, or his house shoes ever again after that day. Joining Nancy Grace today:   Eric Bland - Attorney for Gloria Satterfield’s sons- Founder/Partner- Bland Richer, LLP Attorneys at Law; Twitter: @TheEricBland Dr. Bethany Marshall – Psychoanalyst; Netflix show: 'Bling Empire;' Twitter: @DrBethanyLive  Bill Daly - Former FBI Investigator and Forensic Photography; Security Expert Dr. Michelle DuPre - Former Forensic Pathologist, Medical Examiner and Detective: Lexington County Sheriff's Department; Author: 'Homicide Investigation Field Guide' & 'Investigating Child Abuse Field Guide;' Forensic Consultant Kelly Skehen - Fox Nation Senior Producer  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Hello everybody, Nancy Grace here. We are on the lunch break in the Alex Murdoch double murder trial and the shooting deaths of his wife Maggie and adult son Paul. Another bombshell day in the courtroom and I've got to tell you I love this woman Blanca Simpson. You know what instead of me telling you what she said let's just listen to what she had to say. Warning, put on your seatbelt. Take a listen to our cut seven. Maggie told me she had to go to a doctor's appointment.

And she said that in the text, Maggie said, Alec wants me to come home. And she said, and in a phone conversation, she told me, she said, I left some food in the refrigerator. Is there any way that you can cook? Paul likes the way you cook. So she said, because I don't think I'll be back in time. So I said, yeah, sure.

I said, I'll do it. We had another conversation on the phone where she told me, she said, Alec wants me to come home. And she kind of sounded like she didn't want to come home because she really liked being at Edisto. She sounded like she was a little disappointed. And then she said, well, Alec asked Paul to come home too because he's got to fix the mess up out there. Alec had told Paul to come and fix it because they were planning on having a hunt that weekend. You are hearing Blanca Simpson, who worked for the Murdochs. Now, something interesting, and I'm leading you up to the good part. Something

interesting I picked out and what she said right there is that Maggie loved being in Ediston. Ediston is there at Edisto Beach where Maggie was living. She was not living with Murdoch. And here we're hearing it again that Alex Murdoch asked her to come to Moselle. She did not want to go. He lured her there. Wait for it. Let's take a listen to Hour Cut 8. How did you hear? Alex called me. He called me early the next morning. He sounded shaky on the phone. He said, B, they're gone. They're gone. And my initial thought was, did she go back to Ediston? That thought didn't cross my mind that he meant that they were dead at that time.

You just didn't comprehend what was going on? No, sir, I did not. So he told me again, he said, no, B, they're dead. And at that point, I don't remember because I believe I dropped the phone. My husband got the phone. I don't remember after that. You literally dropped the phone? Yes. All I remember is when he said that they were dead. I dropped the phone. And I believe I said, I'll be

right over. I'll be right over. Blanca Simpson describing the moment when she's on the phone with Alex Murdoch and he tells her that Maggie and Paul are, quote, gone in a shaky voice. At first, she didn't even understand what he meant. She thought, well, did Maggie go back home to Edisto Beach, Edison? Because everyone knew they were living apart. And how she dropped the phone.

Her husband had to pick it up when she realized Maggie and Paul were dead. Now, take a listen. Paul and Maggie dead. Alex Murdoch thinks to send Miss Simpson out to Moselle to clean up. She cooks for them.

She cleans up their kitchen and their home and keeps it running. Now, maybe I'm projecting. Okay, I am projecting. But after my fiancé was murdered, the last thing I was thinking about was somebody cleaning up his place. That's crazy talk. Who could do that? But that's where his head was.

Not even 24 hours after the murders. It was the very, not even 24 hours after the murders. It was the next morning. Now I want you to hear what Miss Simpson says about being sent out to the hunting lodge, Moselle, by Alex Murdoch to clean up. Take a listen to Hour Cut 9. And then when I got ready to leave Almeda, he said, well, when you go to the house, go in the front because there's a lot of sled agents by the kennels. You can't go in that way. And he said, just try to straighten up the way Maggie liked everything, you know, in the house. He said, you knew her the best.

So I did. I went to the house. He said there was going to be people probably stopping by and bringing food and stuff. He said, I just want the house to look the way Maggie would like for it to look. It was hard because I know she wasn't going to be coming back. And I didn't want to move her stuff. It was just a weird feeling going through when I unlocked the front door to get in. It felt cold.

You really cared for her, didn't you? I did. Okay, so she gets there. What, if anything, does she find? Listen to our cut tip. Her pajamas were laid neatly in the middle of the doorway going into the laundry room. It was her pajama pants, a pair of underwear, and her pajama top. Was that unusual?

That was very unusual. She wouldn't lay her clothes out like that, not in the middle of the door like that. The underwear there with the pajamas, unusual? Yes. Why? She didn't wear underwear with her pajamas. I turned around and I said,

well, I wonder where the pots are. And the pots were sitting inside the refrigerator with lids on them. That was not normal for the pot, the whole pot to be sitting in the fridge. In the master bathroom, her clothes were sitting next to the tub. On the floor next to the shower was a slight puddle of water, a towel, and a pair of khaki pants. And in the closet was a white damp towel on the floor. It appeared that a t-shirt had fallen off of the stack of t-shirts that were on top of the shelf right there in the closet. It was laying on the floor next to the towel. Man, I could take that testimony

and dissect it all day long. First of all, Maggie's pajama pants and a pair of underwear and a pj top folded up and laid neatly in the middle of the doorway of the doorway going into the laundry room. Now we all know Maggie did not stay there the night before and fold up her underwear and lie it on her PJs in the floor going into the laundry room. That did not happen. She was not there the night before. So when did the PJs in the underwear get laid there. It may sound like nothing to someone that's not understanding what these facts mean. It means the scene was staged. That's what it means. Why? And the only one left living that would have done that is Murdoch. So why? Why would he stage the scene? You all know where everything is in

your kitchen, right? Except my 91 year old mother comes in our kitchen at night and like rearranges things. But I've even figured that out. I know where she hides things. What I'm saying is when Blanca comes into the kitchen, it was as if a stranger had put away all the food. Number one, the food from dinner the night before. Maggie would always leave it just sitting out because she wanted Blanca to clean it on the days Blanca was coming. So Maggie would never have put stuff back in the fridge. The food wasn't eaten. Remember when Murlock said they all had a big dinner or

they were gonna have dinner then he took a nap? Just so much is happening here. Now who took a shower and left out water on the floor, a wet towel, and a pair of khaki pants. Guys, this is what I'm building up to. Has the mystery of Alex Murdoch's missing clothes been solved? Take a listen to our Cut 11. After June 7th of 2021, did you ever see that shirt again? No, sir. There was like a pink one, a white one, a baby blue in the closet. I do not remember that shirt being in there. And on June 8th of 2021, in the morning hours,

when you came back over there, was that shirt there? No, sir. Were these shoes that you called house slippers, were those there? No, sir. Did you ever see those house shoes again? No, sir. And where did you usually keep them? In the closet. Did you hear that? I hear all the guests are in place having just come out of the courthouse,

but I want you to hear the last bit of this. Has the mystery surrounding Alex Murlock's missing clothes, clothes he was wearing, we believe at the time of the double murders, been solved? Take a listen to our Cut 12. During the month of August, do you remember him having a conversation with you about a shirt? Yes, sir. Did you find that to be unusual? Yes, sir. He said, B, I need to talk to you.

And he said, come here, sit down. And he was pacing back and forth in the living room. And he said, I got a bad feeling. He said, I got a bad feeling. He said, something's not right. And then he said, well, you know, there's a video. You remember the shirt I was wearing, that Vinny Vines shirt? That's what he said to me.

And in my mind I was saying I don't remember a Vinny Vines shirt. It was the polo shirt. But I didn't mention. He said, well, you know what? I was wearing that shirt. And I was kind of thrown back because I don't remember that. I don't remember him wearing that shirt that day when he left. I know what shirt he was wearing because I fixed the collar.

I was basically confused. I didn't really know whether he was trying to get me to say that that shirt if I was to be asked that if that was a shirt he was wearing the day. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Did the housekeeper wash the khaki pants Murdoch was wearing the night of the double murders after he left them by the shower and changed into shorts and apparently she never saw the shirt or the shoes from that

evening again. They disappeared. With me, an all-star panel to make sense of what has just happened in the courtroom. First of all, I'm going to go to Eric Bland. This is the lawyer for Gloria Satterfield's family. Gloria Satterfield was a lovely woman who worked for the Murdochs for years and years. She fell down the steps to her death. There was a huge lawsuit surrounding that death, and Alex Murdoch pocketed millions of dollars meant for her family until the truth came out. Eric Bland, did you hear what Ms. Blanca had to say? I did, Nancy. Thanks for having me on the show. What we've seen in the past two days is a murder in the courtroom. Alex was murdered by Ronnie Crosby, his best friend, Chris Wilson,, his paralegal Annette Griswold, and today Bianca. I think what we saw is the explanation of what happened. And what Alex tries to do, Nancy,

is draft those closest to him to give him the explanations and alibis that he needed to try to get out of this murder and they weren't playing baseball bianca just laid it out and said he laid out those khakis she ended up washing them you could tell that he left the house in haste after he showered probably after the murders that's why the towel was on the floor he put the uh the food back in the refrigerator. I know Harpootlian suggested it was done by lawyers, but you hit the nail on the head, Nancy. There isn't male lawyers in the world that would have touched Maggie's underwear and pajamas and laid them out that way.

The only person that could have done that is Alex Murdoch. You know what? I'm glad you said that because her pajamas and her undies, who else would have done that beside Miss Simpson, Blanca, or Alex Murdoch? Paul Murdoch, the son, is not going to go in there

and fold up his mother's underwear. That's not happening. None of those lawyers would touch her clothes with a 10-foot pole. It was Murdoch, which leads me to the why. You know, I'm just really curious about how the jury is reacting to all of this. So let me ask you another thing

while I've got you, Eric Bland. What's the word in the courthouse? Because you know in the courthouse, people walking up and down the halls, even they know what's going on. What's the word? The word is that the defense really in the past two days has sensed that there's a seismic shift in change. When my client, Tony Satterfield, testified, you saw how insistent Dick Harpootlian was to try to exclude his testimony. And then when the judge overruled that, he said, we'll stipulate to it. I'm telling

you, Nancy, that there were three jurors that looked at me after it came out that he stole $4.3 million of the Satterfield's money. They looked over at me and they shook their head. Now, whether all 12 jurors think that Alex is a miscreant, there is a significant portion on that jury and everybody except the defense sycophants see exactly what Alex Murdoch is. One, he's a guy that has no loyalty to his friends. He's a guy that steals from his clients, family and friends and law partners. And he's a guy that lies to his family, friends and law partners. Now, whether all that translates into murder, we're going to have to wait and see. But this guy had a bad week, Nancy. Eric Bland, do you know you just made tears come to my eyes when you said 4.3 million dollars not that I'm crying for the desire of

money but I was thinking about the Satterfield family do you know how hard my parents worked to help me and my brother and my sister get through college and get through law school and the whole thing my dad working for the railroad my mom working at a canning plant for Pete's sake 4.3 million dollars to the Satterfield family oh I'm gonna leave you with this fact I'm gonna leave you with this fact this will tell you what kind of monster Alex Murdoch is after he got that money and it was in his pocket Gloria's son Brian Harriet who was the vulnerable adult that Tony talked about was living in her mother's in his mother's trailer the bank foreclosed on that trailer and sent papers to Alex Myrdal he knew the kid was getting the

trailer foreclosed on he didn't spend a dime and give the kids any money to keep the trailer and Brian Harriot was pushed out on the street and then had to go live with relatives. He sat by with the money in his pocket and let that mobile home be foreclosed on. He's a monster. Guys, I got to get my mind off of what happened to the Satterfield family and try to think about the trial strategy that is being employed in this courtroom. Joining me right now, and I can see her on the screen, my producer, Kelly Skin, senior producer at Fox Nation. Kelly, tell me everything. Don't leave anything out.

I mean, Nancy, talk about a bombshell day. And you stated it perfectly. Put your seatbelts on. Eagle-eyed viewers have been waiting for blanca simpson's testimony and now we know why one we learned that alec murdoch possibly took a shower the night of the murders two the clothes he was seen leaving the house in that day and the clothes he has seen in the snapchat video were never found again except for the khaki pants which she says she washed and three after the murders she found maggie murdoch's wedding ring in her mercedes

you cannot understate what a big day today was for the prosecution and what a blow today was for the defense at one point they even tried to declare a mistrial and the judge said absolutely not. They didn't want any kind of testimony regarding money issues involved and they lost that. There will not be a mistrial. So the grounds for the motion for the mistrial was about the financial misdeeds? So the prosecution wanted to question Blanca Simpson on a conversation that she had with Maggie Murdoch. Maggie was saying that she was concerned about this $30 million lawsuit and the defense did not want this admitted into evidence.

Guys, there are going to be many, many motions for mistrial throughout this trial. That does not mean that they are really worth the salt that goes in their bread. Very often, the defense, because the state typically doesn't move for a mistrial. The state doesn't want a mistrial because they have to do it all over again. The defense will move for a mistrial because it may break the flow of what the prosecutor or the witness is doing. It stops everything and there's always a chance the judge might grant it so they get to start all over again, which is always a benefit to the defense, not the state. But I see where the defense for Hart Polian is going. He doesn't want this trial to be about all the financial misdeeds. And when I call it financial misdeeds,

that is certainly putting perfume on the pig. That is a euphemism. I mean, this guy outright stole millions and millions of dollars. Now, you know, I want to go back to the wedding band issue, especially with Kelly Skin and Dr. Bethany Marshall. But first, Dr. Bethany, I want to talk to you about something. Again, I know I'm projecting, and this may not be true for every tangential victim of murder. But when my fiance was murdered shortly before our wedding, the last thing I was thinking about was taking a shower or changing clothes or cleaning the house. I didn't care if it all burned up and went straight to H-E-L-L. Nothing mattered. Much less.

I mean, that was before I had children. I mean, who is thinking about a wardrobe change and straightening up the kitchen and putting away some food into the fridge? Who would think about that when your child is dead? Nancy, remember Jeannie and Annette, the CFO of the law firm and Annette, his paralegal? They testified that Alex Murdoch would always turn into the Tasmanian devil just as he was about to commit some misdeeds so as to throw everyone off track so when I listened to miss Blanca Simpson's testimony I thought you know she was so credible she loved this family she would

have done anything for them. She knew every item of clothing, where everything was placed in the house. She knew their habits. She knew their personalities. And what I thought was that she had this carefully constructed world with Maggie and that Alex Murdoch, the night of the murders and the morning after, was like the Tasmanian devil. I mean, there's no rhyme or reason. Why would he put the pajamas with the morning after was like the Tasmanian devil. I mean, there's no rhyme or reason. Why would he put the pajamas with the clean underwear on the floor in the doorway? That's a Tasmanian devil move. Why would he take a shower? Why would he, you know, it just always is a little crazy. I was trying to make sense of this testimony and it leaves me a

little confused. Hold on, Dr. Bethany. Hold on. I can shed a little bit of this testimony and it leaves me a little confused. Hold on Dr. Bethany. Hold on. I can shed a little bit of light on why he would want to take a shower. And of course you're dealing from the emotional end because you have all those rich clients. Dr. Bethany is joining me. She's a high profile psychoanalyst out in Hills, smack dab on Rodeo Drive. But we'll circle back to that in a moment. I'll tell you why to get rid of evidence.

Joining me, Bill Daley, former FBI investigator, forensic photography security expert. Think of all that gunshot residue and blood spatter that went right down the drain. Yeah, you know, Nancy, opportunity lost. But, you know, certainly as you're talking about here, some really compelling moments about this case so far as both certainly the testimony today with Bianca. I mean, somebody was really felt part of the family. They asked that question. She felt part of the family. So whatever she had to say really has to resonate well with the jury. The fact that she was in in part of the family. The other things that strike me and I think two real other compelling elements to this case,

which I hope will drive the jury to understand what really happened that day, you know, one was the fact that there's the video, the video that his son Paul took, where now we have testimony, both Bobbi Hock and other people, that the voice on that video was the three of them, was his wife, was Alex, was his son Paul. Moments, moments before they were found dead, and also at a time when he said he wasn't there, is that the last time he saw them was at dinner. So we have a big disconnect there. The other, on the forensic side, is the collection of this kind of supposedly raincoat and tarp found at his mother's house.

He went to his mother's house at some point after the murders, and they found inside, inside the lining of the raincoat, gunpowder residue. Now, how, why would that be? Unless you wrapped a gun around that coat, unless you did something else that caused it to be inside a raincoat, it wouldn't be normally inside the raincoat. And there's some testimony there regarding his, the time he spent at his mother's house, what was left there, and now what police have found. So I think there's some other, even though people are saying it's more circumstantial, to me there's a bit of forensic evidence entering into this, which really certainly can drive that compass, you know, towards the jury,

towards the jury to think twice about all the other testimony they're about ready to hear, probably from the defense. Guys, you're hearing our friend bill daly former fbi investigator and forensic photography expert a security expert as well dr michelle dupree i think that was you jumping in and please do so pathologist medical examiner former detective and this says it all author of the homicide investigation field guide which I love Dr. Dupree weigh in on Murdoch and I'm not talking about the emotional aspect of taking a shower I'm talking about forensically what is the significance of Murdoch taking a shower after the double murders? Well, Nancy, obviously that is to get rid of some evidence. But one of the things I just I feel compelled to say

is that we keep talking about all of this blood spatter that should be on Murdoch and his clothes. And yes, there should be some. But remember, most of this bloody blood spatter is going to be forward at the crime scene on the victims. There should be some on Murdahl, but not, you know, he shouldn't be covered in blood, as people have said. I think it would be well worth the prosecution to do a simulation. How much blood spatter or back spatter would actually appear on someone shooting with these

two different guns? And it would not be a massively bloody scene. There would be minute specks. There may be some other blood spatter there, but it may not be readily visible to a housekeeper who's simply picking up laundry and tossing it in the laundromat. Christine, running our New York control room. Christine, again, you know what I want to see? That two-shot of the before and after wardrobe change because I'm pretty sure based on what he was wearing, there should have been blood spatter, yeah, at least on the bottom, the shirt tail in front. There should have at least been blood spatter on that and since he was using a long gun, maybe around the chest or the armpit

area, around the sleeve. Guys, earlier you heard Kelly Skin, our Fox Nation producer, talking about Maggie's wedding band. Christine, if you could please play cut

13 about that. In addition to cleaning the house did you ever look at maggie's mercedes to try to clean it afterwards i did what if anything's you find but she still had um paint um for the edisto house pillows that she was going to return. And as I moved the seat to vacuum underneath the driver's side seat, I found her ring, her wedding band. And leading up to the murders, was she anxious about anything? She was concerned about the amount of money that they were requesting on the lawsuit. $30 million is what she told me. She said she knew the amount of money that they were asking, but she felt that Alec was not being truthful to her with regard to what exactly was going on with

that lawsuit. She said he doesn't tell me everything. Okay, Eric Bland joining us, high-profile lawyer representing the Gloria Satterfield family. Look, there are plenty of women on that jury and they know what it means when you take off your wedding band. Yes, they do, Nancy. I think what we have seen is not one single piece of explosive evidence, but a mosaic that now is turning into a picture in the totality of what the state is putting forward regarding Alex and Maggie and what existed it didn't exist in their life at that time I think now we see why Alex may have decided to take that ultimate decision in taking the life of his wife and his son murder isn't't perfect. You know it more than anybody. You've prosecuted more murder cases.

Sometimes a decision that a murderer makes, in his mind, is a perfect decision. It makes perfect sense why I decided to take my wife and my son. To us, the other people, we would say, really, that's the reason you decided to do it? And that's the reason why Nancy's motive isn't an element of murder. It can prove malice, but it's not an element of murder

because somebody's decision-making process can be flawed. Alex is a sociopath. The decision that he chose to murder his wife and son were based on his own reasoning, not logic. Nancy, if I could add to this, remember there was a confluence of events. There was a perfect storm on July 7th. That is that the boating accident trial was going to be the next day. He found out after Jeannie, the CFO, confronted him that his dad was going into the hospital, he then lures Maggie and Paul to Moselle. And I think that this could have been part of a homicide-suicide scheme in his mind, that the ship was going down and he was going to take everyone down with him. Wait, did you just say you think this could have originally been a homicide-suicide plan?

Because I can tell you right now, Alex Murdoch loved himself. There's no way he'd ever kill himself. That would never have happened. There's a suicide for hire just a couple of months later. Now, I know I was spoiled. Are you still buying into that BS technical legal term? Come on. Bland, bland, bland.

I know one thing about Chris A. Smith. That man can shoot a gun. And if he missed Murdoch the first time, he would have gotten him the second time. That was not, I don't care what anybody says, that's not real. Nancy, we know how to kill down here. If we're going to pull out a gun, we're going to shoot. What that was on the side of the road was a diversion. Alex wanted to take the law enforcement eyes off of him, so he faked a shooting so that he could say,

you see, there's people out there that are trying to kill my family. Well, if that's what he believed, then the day after those murders, he would have gathered up his son, Buster, his brothers, Randolph and John Marvin, and gone to law enforcement and said, protect us. But he let Buster walk the streets of Columbia, South Carolina, because he knew he wasn't in danger, because he knows who the killer is. Kelly Skian joining me, our producer, my producer on Fox Nation. Kel, I haven't actually seen somebody shoot a bird in the courtroom since Jody Arias shot one at me during her trial of the good times. But I understand there's some bird action going on in the courtroom. What happened? So for the past two days, Alec Murdoch's defense team has had Buster Murdoch stand up in the courtroom so the jury can see him. And that

is because Buster Murdoch has been moved farther back behind his dad for alleged misdeeds within the courtroom. We are hearing that Buster Murdoch flipped Mark Tinsley, the bird, during an in-camera hearing. There is footage of this. Some are arguing he was biting his nail. It's an interesting nail to bite, if you ask me. But the Murdoch family has been asked to move back. We also heard that Buster Murdoch passed one of Alec's paralegals a John Grisham novel, and that is another reason why they were pushed back, because that is contraband. You cannot pass Alec Murdoch things in court. Okay Kelly every time I would go in the courthouse

of course I would adhere to all the rules and not try to sneakily break any rules including including my pathetic old Fitbit, no cell phone, nothing. But I did see the Murdoch relatives breaking all the rules, wearing Apple watches that you can take pictures and send texts with, drinking stuff. I see Murdoch eating things. Who cares? But my point is, is that why they were all moved to the back of the courtroom?

Because up until now, they've been sitting front and center right behind Murdoch. Oh, there he is eating again. Does the man never stop? So why were the Murdochs exiled to the back of the courtroom? It's been a series of different things. One is the alleged bird. Two is Buster Murdoch passed his dad a book through a paralegal. And three, Alec Murdoch's sister also allegedly

passed him something. So the judge in this case said, enough's enough, you guys, you're moving back. And if they keep it up, they could be kicked out of the courtroom in general. You know, I've been very curious, and I'll throw this to Eric Bland. Eric, a lot of viewers and listeners have been asking me online why we are not following the rule of sequestration in this case. What that means is an outmoded word to sequester or keep apart. Witnesses typically are kept out of the courtroom until after their testimony. And sometimes even then, in case they're called on redirect examination, you don't want their testimony to be shadowed, to be painted

or tainted in any way by hearing somebody else's testimony. Because, you know, like Eric Bland just said something. I'm like, oh yeah, that's what happened. Now I remember it. No, you don't, you don't want that. So what happened? Did nobody invoke the rule? Oh, this has been by design, Nancy. I've been allowed in the courtroom and I'm on the witness list. Up until yesterday, I was going to testify until Tony did such a great job. The reason that Dick Harpootlian hasn't made a motion to sequester the witnesses is he wants the Murdalls to be able to be seen behind the camera, behind Alex, because it sends a message to the jury that they support him. They're not sitting on the prosecution side, even though the prosecution is spending millions of dollars in vindicating the deaths of Maggie and Paul. Dick does not want them to be

sequestered because they are witnesses for the defense. So this is all by design. Yes, you're correct. Normally, every witness would have been sequestered. But can you imagine what it would look like to the jury if none of Alex's family was sitting behind him? So he can't have them sit behind him and then ask that every other witness be sequestered. This is like a Broadway play, Nancy. It's been, you know, I find it very offensive the way Alex has behaved at the council table to be able to eat, to be able to communicate with his family. I think it sends a bad message because that courthouse is the people's courthouse. It's not the Murdoch courthouse.

Not just that. Not just that, Eric. He should be treated no differently than any other defendant in the criminal courts, regardless of their crime, their gender, their background, their race. The Murdochs are not above the law. The last time I looked. Nancy, when I argued that Alex should not get bond and Judge Newman agreed with me for financial crimes, first time in our state's history, I said he needs to drink from the same cup of justice that we all do. And that's how the name of my podcast came about. But Alex needs to drink from the same cup of justice that every other criminal defendant does. He should have come in the courtroom when you're charged with murder in shackles, just like every other murder suspect does in our state.

Unless they're in front of a jury, then they don't. Nancy, this family had intergenerational wealth and power. They wielded control over that state for generations. Do you know that after the Mallory Beach death, after she was ejected from the boat because Paul Murdoch was boat driving drunk, do you know that Maggie was allowed to the crime scene? She was allowed to go down to the boat to see Paul, but Mallory Beach's mother was sequestered behind tape, the yellow police tape, and was not allowed to go see what had happened to her

daughter. This is the type of entitlement that this family has that not only are they displaying in the courtroom, but it seeped into the entire culture. Even the police culture there allowed Maggie in, but not Mallory Beach's mother. So I think this sends a bad message to the jury. I don't think they're seeing a loving family who's there to support their father. I think they're seeing an entitled bratty family who has been brainwashed by Alec Murdoch and who is behaving badly in the courtroom just like their father behaves badly in society. I don't like the message it's sending to the jury. But guys, I want to follow up on what was just said about Mallory Beach's mother. Her mother.

I saw those cement pilings where Paul Murdoch raced into them, throwing Mallory Beach off the boat in the middle of the night to her death. I spoke to the EMTs, the boat patrol that went out searching for her body every day and finally found this beautiful teen girl bloated and dead from being in the water. And her mother was not allowed down. Take a listen to our cut five. After the boat crash, the law enforcement had cordoned off, had a rope up or yellow flag, yellow taping up. And so Miss Beach wanted to go down to see where her daughter had died. And she wasn't allowed.

Almost immediately thereafter, a car pulled up, driven by Alec's father. Alec's wife, Maggie, was in the front seat. They were waved down to the bridge and that caused her a great amount of distress. Did he ultimately hire you to represent? That day I got involved. I started to investigate, but I started to try to put pressure on law enforcement, which is, you know, I'm drawing a distinction there almost immediately because the concern was that it was going to get covered up by the Beach family and they didn't want that to happen. And there is more. No wonder that Buster Murdoch allegedly shot a bird at Tinsley. You're seeing Tinsley on the stand.

Take a listen to our cut four. There were a number of reasons that I wanted the case in Beaufort. I had substantial evidence. And so one of the things that I discovered was that Paul's girlfriend had tons of videos, videos of alcohol, videos of Paul drinking in front of his parents, videos of him gross in front of his parents, videos of him grossly intoxicated. And so that evidence I shared with Ellick's lawyers as well leading up to it. I didn't share it. They didn't serve the same discovery on

me because they didn't want the other defendant, Greg Parker, to have it at that time because they were so entrenched in that there was some sort of venue-friendly lawsuit going on between Ellick and myself, but there wasn't. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Kelly Skin joining us. Do you believe that the jury is getting any, let's just say, unwanted message by the way Murdoch is being treated in the courtroom, by the way his family, extended family has been treated in the courtroom, because I really don't think they're paying any attention to that, but maybe they are. You know, we've heard throughout this trial that there are two systems of justice in South Carolina. One for normal people like you and me, and two for

people like Murdoch, whose family has run that community for generations. We don't know if any of these jurors knew the Murdoch family or any of their acquaintances. I can't really say if the Murdoch family being moved is having an impact on the jury. But what I do know is that Alec's defense attorneys definitely want Alec's family to be seen by that jury as supporting Alec Murdoch. But on that note, people who I have not seen in the courtroom yet is Maggie's family. I have not seen them sitting behind Alec Murdoch one day of this trial.

And that really hurts the state. That hurts either side when the families you're trying to represent are not present. But I'm wondering if there is a very strong reason for that. You know, another thing, and I want to throw out to Bill Daly, former FBI investigator, forensic photography security expert. Bill, I'm sure you've testified in a lot of trials. Juries notice pretty much everything. It's really hard to get something over on the jury. It is, Nancy. And even when there are objections in the courtroom, obviously a lot of that resonates with those people in the jury. They hear what was said. They can't kind of distract that, take that out of their recording of their mind. You know, we talk about here about the

family, the Murdoch family being so strong and powerful in that community. You know, on one hand, certainly that's evident by some of these kind of liberal kind of stances they're able to get away with in the courtroom. But I think it will also play into the defenses where they're going to say they are so well known, they are so high profile, they have so much money, is that there are many people who are envious. So every people, people who got to get them, nonetheless, people who may have, they may have crossed paths with in this courtroom setting with regard to past grievances or financial issues. So I think what they're going to try to do is pick this case apart. It's going to be very difficult because in my view, as I said before, extremely compelling. Having sat

actually myself on a criminal case, believe it or not, years ago, I could tell you by listening to some of what I'm hearing here will resonate very well with the jury if they can remain impartial, if they're not in any way blinded by the kind of the bright light of this family and their extended family in the community. Well, I can tell you this much. They know darn well that the Murlock family has now picked up camp and moved to the back of the courtroom where nobody wants to be. I didn't want to be in the back. I couldn't see a thing. I had to get on the very front row possible behind the Murlock family and get all the way to the end and look out into the aisle so I could see what was going on. And so they are exiled to the back.

And I know the jury has noticed that they may come up with an entirely different reason why than we are. But I guarantee you they noticed it. Hey, Kelly Skin, did the housekeeper state, I'm talking about Ms. Blanca, did she state that Maggie's wedding rings were under the mat in the car? She did. She cleaned Maggie Murdoch's Mercedes about a week after the murders and found her wedding rings in that car now since that testimony i have looked back at alec murdoch's interviews with sled and i think it's very noteworthy that i also did not see alec murdoch wearing a wedding band so throughout this trial at the defense it's

trying to tell that for me you totally saw that for me you and I were sitting there on day one together and I said Murdoch's not wearing his wedding band Kelly and you mm-hmm and now you're spitting it out on camera like it was your idea but you know what go ahead and steal it but I do have something to tell you Kelly skin they're not gonna hire you over at the New York Post to write the banner, the headline, because to me, Kelly, and please fight with me about it, the banner would be Maggie Murdoch puts her wedding rings under the floor mat of the car. I mean, I'm going to have to go to our shrink, Dr. Bethany Marshall, and I mean that in a loving, way Bethany but to put your wedding

rings I mean I don't have any room to talk because I'm not wearing mine but I am wearing my husband's mother's ring but under the floor mat I mean is that that's got to have some hidden meaning under the where you put your feet your wedding rings or where you put your feet nancy that was a big ouch to the defense and to murdoch when miss blanca said that that the wedding ring is under maggie's floor mat and you know what that told me is that maggie has to have that ring somewhere available to her when she's going to see her husband. But when she's away from her husband, she doesn't want to wear it. So she's taking the ring on and off like a prop.

And then my mind went to, as a psychoanalyst, is there domestic violence in the relationship? Is there antipathy? Is there some kind of abuse where if she shows up without that wedding ring, she's going to get in trouble, but when she's away from him, she doesn't want to wear it? That's what I thought. I didn't go that deep. To me, it was like, I felt that she, by taking off her wedding bands, and this is the woman that always wore her wedding bands and her rings. She took, so this is unusual for her. For me, it's not. For her, it is. And then to put them down on the floor under your feet, I mean, I'm certainly not a shrink like you are. But to me, that tells me she doesn't give a flying fig about wearing her wedding bands or being known as being married to Murdoch.

It was over. And I'll tell you why. Because even with all their money, Murdoch was bouncing checks. Take a listen to our cut three. August 6, 2021. What the balance was in the defendant's account with Palmetto State Bank? On August 6, 2021, the balance was a negative $347,784.67. Had the bank continued paying expenses for Alec Murdoch from June 7 to this date

to the tune of $347,000 in money he did not have? Correct. What is that right there? Overdraft charge. How much to pay overdrafts over the course of a month for $347,000? No, sir. Eric Bland, help me out. Why is it that rich people, I just, and their money, a $347,000 overdraft. I mean, if I go one minute over my credit card, I start getting texts and emails from the credit card company. And I mean, there's no way in H-E-double-L that a bank is going to carry you to the tune of $347,000? I subpoenaed and got those records early on in my litigation against Alex Nancy,

and it is the most generous overdraft policy in the history of banking. Not only does he get to overdraft to the tune of $300,000, but he gets to get loans in advance of any paperwork. Where do you get money? And then the bank says to you four weeks later, let's come on in and document the money I gave you four weeks before. But it's indicative of what actually happened at the crime scene. And I know, Nancy, that you have commandeered probably 30 crime scenes more when you were a prosecutor. And you never would let a family member on the crime scene, five lawyers, and a best friend to sit there while a search warrant was being executed. I've seen on TV if a spouse comes up to the yellow tape and they tell him that his wife is murdered inside the house and he's trying to get in they bear hug him and say no we're processing a crime scene the rules for the murder are not the

rules of the road for everybody else they just aren't Nancy guys I want you to hear our cut one speaking of Gloria Satterfield because I don't want she's not the victim in this murder case, but I want you to hear to how she was referred on that 911 call. It's cut one, Christine. Guys, it's just remember as you're hearing this, Gloria Satterfield had not been just a housekeeper, which is enough for all of their estates. But she helped raise these two boys. She helped raise them. Okay, listen to Hour Cut 1. What's going on out there? My housekeeper has fallen and her head is bleeding.

I cannot get her up. How old is she? I'm not sure, like 58 maybe. Where'd she fall from she fell going up the steps up the brick steps uh no not really do you guys know who she is yes she works for us she works for us she made ten dollars an hour nancy they paid her ten dollars an hour works for us she probably changed their diapers washed their clothes cleaned up their messes dragged them back and forth

probably to whatever they had to go to uh growing up and how was she described? Yeah, she works for us. I mean, that just rubs me the wrong way. What about it, Kelly Skian? She works for us. Yeah, she works for us. And what we heard from Tony Satterfield on the stand this week, too, was that Alec Murdoch, at the outset of this, told Tony that he would be able to get Tony and his brother a hundred thousand dollars Alec Murdoch knew full well he was always going

to be able to get those boys more than a hundred thousand dollars he did and they never saw a dime of it and I've actually been to Gloria Satterfield's grave and I also want to point out that where she is buried is much much different from where the Murdochs are buried which just goes again to speak to this difference in levels of status her cemetery has a chain-link fence around it the Murdoch cemetery is this beautiful place surrounded by brick buildings and Gloria Satterfield is buried somewhere surrounded by a chain-link fence hey Kelly, just recently you were out looking, and that's where we're headed when you and I are back together,

to Maggie and Paul's graves. The last time you looked, have they gotten a headstone yet? They still do not have a headstone. I was there about a year ago, checked it out again recently, and no headstones, which is a little bit strange for this family that it supposedly had tons and tons and tons of money. You would think that there would be a headstone for Paul and Maggie. Okay, guys, I got to tell you something. I don't know that it's like this in every region of our great country but in the south the first thing you try to do is to get

the best you can afford anyway a headstone for the person you loved that has gone on and who would know about this dr.. Michelle Dupree. No headstone for Maggie and Paul? Nancy, that's unbelievable. I mean, so much time has passed. It takes a month or so to get a headstone, but this is way too long. And a family of that stature, well-respected in the community, someone that you love, your wife and your son I cannot imagine this I wanted to say one other thing though about this family remember during the boat accident and Paul was Paul's booking picture is in his civilian clothes in the hallway it isn't even a proper booking picture and this just goes to more substantiate

how differently this family was treated okay Okay, hold on just a second. I've got to tell Eric Bland something. Eric, my mother, Elizabeth, she just turned 91, lives with us, and she was in such bad health that she couldn't see from an eye operation. And she had me get in the car, drive to our hometown of Macon, Georgia at like five o'clock in the morning because she wanted me to take a video and a picture of my father's headstone and the flower arrangement we have there and bring it back to her so she can look at it from her good eye and see if it met her approval. And since then, can I tell you how much money and time we spent getting his plot the way

she wants it to look? It's a sentimental thing. It doesn't matter what your stature in the community is or how much money you have or don't have. It's out of respect for the person that you love that has gone on and i i just think it speaks volumes that they haven't they have taken so long to take care of that headstone yeah i'm going to tack that from a different angle i agree with everything that we've talked about this i do take a different tact on, and that is, unfortunately, their grave area has become

a sensational destination for people to come. And it may be that the family has decided that they need for all of this to die down to actually put up headstones on that. I haven't given the family the benefit of the doubt at all in three weeks during this trial, but I just may because I have heard that there are people that have tried to camp out and do stuff at the grave site. So I may understand a little bit and have a little bit of empathy that they may have delayed the marking of those graves. That's all I'm going to say on that. Nancy, I have a completely different perspective that in this crazy, wildly dysfunctional family that Maggie and Paul were already being devalued, discredited,

pushed out of the family, treated as if they had no value because perhaps Maggie was the one who was beginning to see Alec Murdoch clearly. She didn't like what he was doing. She saw the drug addiction. She saw the financial malfeasance. He slept all day. There was no drug addiction. There was no drug addiction. Don't peddle that. There was none. He was not addicted to drugs. Let's take the drug addiction out of it. Let's take the drug addiction out of it. And let's just say prior to Maggie and Paul's deaths, they were already, you know, you just say prior to Maggie and Paul's deaths they were already you know you use the term murdered in the courtroom maybe they were already murdered in the family devalued discredited pushed out you know we see in really dysfunctional families that the

parents and the family will choose one child to love and one child to hate one child gets fed the other one gets abused maybe in this case paul was the one who was starting to be devalued and buster was being elevated so buster got to live well you know what you uh dr bethany joining me from rodeo drive in beverly hills and you eric bland a hired gun and i mean that in the best sense of the word, in the courtroom. You can say whatever y'all want. You can fight till you're blue in the face. But it would be a cold day in H-E-double-L that I would have my father laying out in a field with his grave unmarked.

Oh, no. That is not going to happen. And what it says to me is that nobody cared. Nobody cared enough to honor them or take care of them now or the night they were murdered. Nancy, I might add to this is that I think, you know, we talk about what's on trial here. Perhaps it is privilege on trial. You know, we can boil it down to it, whether it's in Washington, D.C. or what happens to be in South Carolina. This is privilege. And we're hoping that we're going to get not Lady Justice peeking underneath her eye blind, but we're going to get our true justice

out of this. And I think a lot of us are saying this privilege, which has kind of run rampant through their community and has allowed them to be able to kind of, you know, fester and get away with what they've gotten away with to this point. Perhaps that is really what we're talking about here, that the jury needs to kind of peer through and not be influenced by what either was or what could be influenced by the family. We'll see where all the chips land. Guys, we got to go back in the courtroom. They said they were unbiased. Let's just take that with a box of salt and believe them. They were under oath when they took the jury selection oath that they were unbiased and that they would be fair and impartial. And let's pray to God that they do.

I'm going back in the courtroom. I'm going to leave you guys to argue amongst yourselves. Goodbye, friends. This is an I Heart Podcast.