Murdaugh Murders Podcast - MMP #26 - Who Killed Maggie & Paul? Part Two

Starting point is 00:00:01 This is Alec Murdoch. I need police and an ambulance immediately. Murdoch, Death in the Family Official Podcast, is here. I'm joining Patricia Arquette, Jason Clark, and the cast to uncover all things Murdoch. Family first. To unravel the story piece by piece was really surprising because you don't want to believe it. Murdoch, Death in the Family Official Podcast, Wednesdays. And stream Murdoch, Death in the Family on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers.

Starting point is 00:00:30 Terms apply. I don't know who killed Paul or Maggie Murdoch, but it looks like we will be getting answers soon. As I exclusively reported this morning, direct physical evidence links Elyke Murdoch to the double homicide of his wife and son. And that is a big deal. In the past seven months, we have learned a lot about the circumstances surrounding the Murdoch family around the time of the murders. it's time that we put all of that into context. Just like sources told me from the beginning, all roads lead to Ehrlich. My name is Mandy Matney and I've been investigating the Murdoch family for almost three years now. This is the Murdoch Murdoch murders podcast with David Moses

Starting point is 00:01:20 and Liz Farrell. Happy New Year, MMP fans. With your support and encouragement, we were able to do amazing things in 2021. We launched social media pages on Facebook and Instagram recently. And just for a reminder, please follow us by searching Murdoch Murder's podcast on Facebook and Instagram or click the links in the episode description. We have lots of exciting giveaways coming up and new announcements that you will not want to miss. So be sure to check out those social media pages.

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Starting point is 00:02:39 so grateful. We plan to continue this trend of delivering better episodes with more in-depth coverage on all of these investigations and plan on providing answers, enclosure to victims in each case this year. So keep listening and let us know what you think so we can continue to get better. And on that note, we are so grateful for our listeners and our supporters. We are grateful for you for listening to us right now. So thank you. We want to start out this episode by saying, that we heard you. Listeners told us they wanted an update in the murder investigation of Maggie and Paul Murdoch. Well, we got one for you, and it is serious. After seven months, we too were wondering what the holdup was at the South Carolina law enforcement division. So Liz Farrell and I went back

Starting point is 00:03:32 to our sources with some information that we've been hearing for months, that there was direct physical evidence that placed Elyke Murdoch at Mozel at the very moment his wife and son were murdered. Turns out this is absolutely true, according to our sources. And that is a big deal. We can't say what that evidence is exactly, but we have been told that it is substantial, and I would not be reporting it right now if it wasn't. However, direct physical evidence sometimes is it enough to hang a case on? So in this episode, we're going to take you through everything that we know about the murders.

Starting point is 00:04:10 We're going to talk about the surrounding circumstances, possible motives, theories, and evidence. So due to the unforeseen amount of crimes that we've uncovered during the course of this podcast, it's been a long time since we've talked about the double homicide. I figured we could all use a recap. So here we go. 52-year-old Maggie Murdoch and her 22-year-old son, Paul Murdoch, were found dead on their 1,700-acre hunting property in Colleton County, South Carolina, around 10 p.m., June 7th, 2021. Paul Murdoch was killed by two shotgun blast, one to the chest, and another through the arm and head. Maggie Murdoch died of multiple gunshot wounds by a semi-automatic rifle.

Starting point is 00:04:58 The bodies were found near the dog kennels on the Moselle property by Alec Murdoch, who called 911 at 10.07 p.m. Soon after they arrived on scene, the Colleton County Sheriff's Office, asked the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to take over the case due to both the complexity of the investigation and the agency's multiple ties to the Murdoch family. Sled agents arrived on scene at 1147 p.m., more than an hour and a half after Alec first called 911. And remember, Maggie Murdoch's phone was discovered by law enforcement on a rural road outside of Moselle on the day after the double homicide, according to our sources. Ehrlich Murdoch was a person of interest in the murders, which was later confirmed by one of Ehrlich's attorneys, Jim Griffin, in an interview with Fox Carolina News this past October.

Starting point is 00:05:51 During that same interview, Jim also told viewers that Ehrlich had no motive to kill Maggie or Paul. We beg to differ, Jim. In the past two weeks, there have been a crazy number of reports with big screaming headlines about how Maggie left all of her assets to Elie. as if this were the smoking gun that clearly implicates him in her and Paul's deaths. But lawyers we've spoken to have told us there really is nothing out of the ordinary with that. It's pretty standard. Husbands typically leave their assets to their wives. Wives typically leave their assets to their husbands.

Starting point is 00:06:29 And if both have died, they leave their assets to their kids. And if the kids are minors, the assets go into a trust for them. The will doesn't really do anything for us. So we're thinking it's much more important to focus on the events of what led up to Maggie's and Paul's deaths. So the walls began closing in on Ehrlich in 2019 with the Mallory Beach lawsuit. Ehrlich had just hired two of the state's most expensive attorneys to defend Paul after Paul was charged with three felony counts of BUI. Incidentally, these are the same two attorneys who are now defending Ehrlich. Paul's case was not only high profile, it was destined to be drawn out for years and increasingly.

Starting point is 00:07:07 At this very same time, however, Ehrlich was putting out the word to the Beach family attorney, Mark Tinsley, of Gooding and Gooding Law Firm in Allendale, that he was flat broke, and therefore wouldn't be able to offer a settlement, never mind pay whatever a jury decided his liability to be. Of course, the Murdox didn't appear to be all that broke, on the outside anyway. As we all know now, they definitely weren't. One thing we want to note here is that in 2019, sources had told us that Maggie and Ehrlich were headed toward divorce, but the boat crash and Paul's situation, derailed their plans. More recently, sources have told us that shortly before Paul's and Maggie's deaths, a realtor had shown them houses for sale in the Hilton Head Island area. Also something we want to note here because it's important when we're talking about Ehrlich's situation leading up to the murders. Paul's reckless behavior didn't seem to change at all after the boat crash. In fact, he seemed to learn nothing from the whole experience and was becoming an even bigger liability for Ehrlich.

Starting point is 00:08:01 The summer after the crash, we heard from people who had seen Paul out partying, drinking, and boating around Edisto Beach. And up until his murder, Mandy and I receive regular reports of Paul's excessive partying and drunken outbursts in and around the low country area and in Colombia. In the meantime, the public was calling for justice for Mallory, and people were starting to talk more about the shady boots way the Stephen Smith case was handled. Because Ellick was claiming to be poor, Tinsley decided to call his bluff and began formally demanding proof of Ellick's financial situation. In the fall of 2020, Murdox attorneys made it clear to the court and to Tinsley, Tinsley that Ehrlich had no intention of answering any of the questions he was being asked,

Starting point is 00:08:41 calling the questions irrelevant and immaterial. He wasn't going to share information about his checking, and savings, his retirement accounts, the properties he owned, or had an interest in, his stock holdings, his life insurance policies, or his investments. And he certainly wasn't going to provide the name of the person who prepared their taxes for the past three years. As we now know, he apparently had a lot of reasons not to share that information. The pressure on him to open his books kept increasing, though, and a hearing was scheduled for June 10th when the judge would hear arguments in the Beach family's motion to compel Murdoch to show them his money. Also looming out there, Maggie and Paul could be sued at any moment by the Beach family for their

Starting point is 00:09:19 roles in the boat crash, and Ehrlich knew this. But first, the absolute worst was starting to happen. Around April 2021, word began to spread that Randolph Murdoch, the family patriarch, the revered and powerful former solicitor, who put bandages over the good old boy's cuts and scrapes and bandanas over the eyes of anyone who witnessed their falls, had terminal cancer. Shortly after, sometime in May, Elyck's law firm allegedly discovered a check on his desk that led them to believe he had stolen money from them. At some point after that, the firm hired a forensic accountant in Columbia to take a deeper dive. Then, on June 7th, just three days before his financial reckoning in court, Ehrlich told investigators he had come home to find

Starting point is 00:10:02 his wife and son murdered. And we'll be right back. From the beginning, we have been working off of a timeline that I'm not sure that we can rely on, that Paul and Maggie Murdoch were murdered between 9 and 9.30 p.m. on June 7th, 2021. It's suspicious because it's based off of the Colleton County Coroner's account, which likely relied on when Ehrlich said he got home, which we all know that we cannot trust. Remember, at the time, a lot of public officials in the area feared the Murdoch family and would have never second guessed anything they said. So the chances that local officials took Elyke at his word to establish the timeline is pretty high.

Starting point is 00:11:03 Let's look at the science of this real quick. When a person dies, rigor mortis, or a stiffening of the muscles, starts to set in. This becomes detectable usually within two to four hours of a person's passing and can take up to 18 hours. to fully set in. A coroner can determine whether it's started by trying to move the person's jaw or their fingers to see how much resistance there is. If it hasn't set in, they can generally guess that the person died within the past two to four hours. Generally speaking, coroners aren't making official declarations on time of death like this one did. And they're definitely not using narrow timeframes like this one did, unless investigators have already established a time frame based on when

Starting point is 00:11:41 the person was last seen alive. So, according to Elek, he arrived home around 10 and discovered the bodies. Let's assume there was no rigor mortis at that point, based on the coroner's estimate that they died shortly beforehand. This means they could have died much, much sooner than the coroner said. And again, we keep going back to the fact that we cannot trust anything here, especially when it comes to the local first responders. And despite the fact that the Murdoch camp claimed that Ehrlich had a rock solid alibi, he does not. And if he actually had a rock solid alibi, we really haven't heard it. So 10 days after the murders,

Starting point is 00:12:21 Ehrlich's brothers John Marvin and Randy Murdoch spoke to Good Morning America, who reported that Ehrlich took his father to the hospital that day on June 7th, then he checked on his mother at her home in Hampton County before returning home to Moselle

Starting point is 00:12:37 where he allegedly found the bodies. That is not an ironclothal alibi by any stretch of the imagination. We have heard that Randolph was actually released from the hospital that night, not taken to the hospital. And based on conversations that we've had with sources, we have reasons to question Randos released from the hospital. Was it actually authorized by medical personnel, or was something else going on? If Elek was actually on camera at the time that

Starting point is 00:13:06 the murders allegedly occurred, why haven't his bulldog defense attorneys released that footage? Or at least told us about it. Was he ever really at the hospital that did? Was he ever really at the hospital that day, there's something really off about this hospital story, and we plan to get more details about that soon. When Alex's attorney Jim Griffin was interviewed by Fox Carolina in October, Griffin claimed that his client's whereabouts were completely accounted for during that 9 to 930 window that night, which is also, again, the window that we cannot trust. The transcript of that interview reads, and I can assure you that we have Alex whereabouts, accountants. for completely during that period of time that night. He is sitting on the bedside of his mother

Starting point is 00:13:53 at her house when the coroner says these murders happen. She has dementia. There's a house sitter or a caregiver with around-the-clock care, Winnie, and they're watching a game show and watching a game show on television. But despite what Jim says, this is not an ironclad alibi. In this version of the alibi that we're hearing, he mentions that Elyke saw his mother, who has dementia, and a caregiver who is probably terrified of the Murdoch family and a TV show that was on? If, for instance, Elyke was caught on a ring camera outside of his mother's house at 9.15 p.m., you would think that he would have mentioned that. So what we're saying here is that Ehrlich does not have a solid alibi.

Starting point is 00:14:37 And if he did, and his attorneys didn't reveal it clearly and publicly, while the whole world watches this case and questions Elyke Murdoch, then his defense attorneys are worse than we thought they were. were. On top of the physical evidence that links Elyke to the murders, there are a few other things we want to note about the crime scene. Let's start with the 911 call. Mandy discussed the call with you guys in episode six. When the episode aired, listeners noticed a peculiar detail. It seems like Ehrlich says, for God's sakes, Paul, why did you get involved? Take a listen. Obviously, this raises a few questions, namely this one, involved in what? We should also take a look at

Starting point is 00:15:24 who was at Moselle after the call. It's positively surprising that we haven't heard anything about photos from the scene being passed around over the past seven months, given the number of Bubba's with smartphones and poor judgment who stopped by the Murdox for a looky-loo that night. There were so many people at the scene. Generally speaking, the number of people who should enter a crime scene is very, very small. Investigators are very cognizant of limiting every opportunity for evidence to get tainted.

Starting point is 00:15:50 They are very careful not to allow anyone behind the tape who doesn't absolutely need to be there. According to the crime scene log, a whopping 24 people went behind the crime tape when all was said and done. And here's the crazy part. Most of those on the list were with Colleton County Sheriff's Office, which is very disturbing given that they immediately handed this case over to SLED. They knew that SLED was on its way. They should have stopped what they were doing and stayed outside the perimeter until SLED could get there. And how many South Carolina coroners does it take to declare two people dead? Turns out the answer is three. Three corners went behind the crime scene tape. Three. We question whether they even needed to be behind the tape until after

Starting point is 00:16:29 the investigators cleared out, especially because any one of the four EMTs who were behind the tape would have already been able to declare Maggie and Paul dead. And then there's the 14th judicial circuit solicitor in his band of roving investigators. For some reason, they were on the property that night and for days afterward, and even got caught on camera chumming around with Elyke's younger brother, John Marvin. Remember, these are Elyke Murdoch's. guys who were, apparently conducting their own shadow investigation to make sure SLED didn't mess up. Defense lawyers survive in the courtroom by throwing doubt on every piece of evidence presented. They only need to persuade one person on the jury that there's a problem with an investigation.

Starting point is 00:17:10 Having so many Colleton County Sheriff's Office deputies, law enforcement officers who live in work in Murdoch country, behind the tape is certainly something that Ehrlich would like seeing. And one more important piece of information about the crime scene, the guns. sources had told us that at least one of the weapons used in the double homicide belonged to, you guessed it, the Murdoch family. And we'll be right back. So let's talk about the summer of 2021 and where Ehrlich was for a minute. Throughout the summer, I kept hearing reports on Ehrlich's whereabouts.

Starting point is 00:17:49 We heard that he was having a good time in Key West in July. Also in July, several people reported seeing Ehrlich in a sunbuster at the Governor's Cup fishing tournament. in Edisto, South Carolina. On both occasions in July, Murdoch was described as carefree, having a good time, and specifically not someone whose wife and son were killed. That's the language that was told to me. I was also told that he was not wearing a wedding ring, for whatever that's worth. Ehrlich was spotted again on Hilton Head Island in August.

Starting point is 00:18:20 This time, people told me that he looked like hell, quote unquote. In fact, there were rumors about Solicitor Duffy Stone, the prosecutor who took after Randolph III being spotted with Elyke Murdoch on Hilton Head Island that same weekend at the trial lawyer's convention. Then, suddenly, just days after the convention, Duffy recused himself from the case, which was a really big deal at the time. In an August 11th letter to the South Carolina Attorney General, Stone asked Wilson to handle prosecution in the case, quote, considering the events of today's sled investigation.

Starting point is 00:18:57 end quote. However, he did not elaborate on his exact reason for stepping away in the case. We were told by sources close to the investigation that this indicated that SLED was narrowing its investigation. Stone had a long list of conflicts of interest, starting with the fact that Ehrlich had a special position in his office that allowed him to use a badge and lights on his car like he was a prosecutor. Previously, Stone justified his unusual involvement in the case by saying there was, quote, no clear, suspect in the case. So when Stone recused himself, many of us closely watching this thing unravel thought it had to be because his employee was now a suspect. Around the same time, behind the scenes, we kept hearing that an arrest was coming soon. While Duffy Stone recused himself on August 11th, the public was not alerted until August 25th. And behind the scenes, it was clear

Starting point is 00:19:57 that pressure was building on Elek Murdoch. So just a week and a half after it was publicly known that Duffy Stone stepped out of the double homicide investigation, Elyke did something very stupid. And there is no alleged with that sentence. Whatever Ehrlich did on September 4th was very stupid and sent his life spiraling out of control. We're not going to talk about what actually went down on September 4th. We're not going to debate on whether or not Ehrlich was shot, but we're going to talk about something we haven't talked about. The why. Ehrlich admitted to hiring Eddie Smith to shoot him on the side of the road in broad daylight on September 4th, 2021.

Starting point is 00:20:40 He claimed that this was so his son could collect a $10 million insurance payout, one that he did not read the suicide clause on, according to his own lawyers. But the reasoning for the September 4th shooting makes sense to no one. Why would anyone commit suicide and leave their son who just lost their mom? mother and brother in a horrific double homicide without any immediate family members. And all for money? And if Eddie Smith would have killed Elyke and made it look like a random shooting, wouldn't that have left Buster scared to leave his home and fear that someone was after his family? Who would want that kind of life for their son? Which makes us wonder,

Starting point is 00:21:24 why did Ehrlich want it to look like someone was after him? Why did he set up a scenario? going as far as allegedly slashing his own tires and lying to the police. Unless he had a good reason to make it look like someone was after his family. What if Elek never actually intended on dying that day? What if he just wanted someone to shoot at him and make it look like people, perhaps drug traffickers, were after him and his family? And that leads us to the suspects and the theories. In the immediate hours after word got out about Maggie and Paul on June 8th, those with deep connections to the Murdox began to circulate with a lot of certainty in some cases that Paul and Maggie were killed by a groundskeeper at Moselle after Paul had gotten into an argument with him over a hunting field getting seated too soon.

Starting point is 00:22:23 In the meantime, people on the internet were speculating that the Murdox were killed in an active revenge for the boat crash, Stephen Smith's death or Gloria Satterfield's death. And then the Labor Day weekend situation happened. All of this leads us to wonder if this theory was leaked by the Murdoch camp to tie up sled and send armchair detectives in a new direction. Whatever Ehrlich was planning on accomplishing on September 4th, it backfired in ways that no one could have ever predicted. In the next month, Eleg's entire reputation crumbled in the public eye as we found out about his scheme to still millions of dollars from clients, allegedly.

Starting point is 00:23:02 During this downward spiral, an interesting story emerged from the Post and Courier in Island Packett, two newspapers whose coverage on this saga has noticeably favored Murdoch and his defense attorneys. The newspapers reported that a local gang called the Cowboys was being investigated by the state grand jury in connection with the Murdoch murder saga. Specifically, the newspapers reported that they were investigating if a trail of absurdly large charged checks Murdoch allegedly made to his drug dealers linked back to this cowboy gang. And then, like clockwork, soon after the story broke, lots of people on social media started to question if this gang was involved in the double homicide. All of this leads us to wonder if this theory was leaked by the Murdoch camp to tie up sled

Starting point is 00:23:54 and send armchair detectives in a new direction. Finally, we need to talk about the few calls for justice from the Murdoch family. Typically in a case like this, when nearly every major news outlet in the country is covering a murder, you usually hear the family on the news, often calling for justice and accountability on behalf of their murdered loved ones. But in this case, we barely heard from the family. A week after the murders, neither the Murdoch family nor PMPED have offered any reward money for information leading to an arrest in the double homicide. Then, just a few days later, Randy and John Marvin suddenly appeared on Good Morning America and asked the public's help in finding Maggie and Paul's killer.

Starting point is 00:24:40 This was the first and only time they did this. And again, we know everybody grieves differently, but if the Murdoch family truly believed that a random person or gang targeted and killed two of their family members, wouldn't they want to publicly pressure law enforcement to solve the case? Wouldn't they be begging news outlets to continue to write about the double homicide to get answers for them? And then there was that strange $100,000 reward they offered a few weeks after the double homicide to anyone who provided information on the murders of Maggie and Paul that led to an arrest. The award was announced by MP Strategies, a PR firm hired by the Murdoch family. But here is the thing.

Starting point is 00:25:27 That reward expired on September 30th, which was really odd. And when it expired, the PR company, working for the Murdox, released the following statement. The transcript of that interview reads, 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. We haven't heard anything from the family or MP strategies calling on justice in this case since they released that statement in September. On Tuesday, we reached out to sled officials who declined to comment on the status of the investigation. So what does all of this mean?

Starting point is 00:26:15 Like we said, all roads seem to lead to Ehrlich. And now that we know physical evidence directly links him to the homicides, the only question we have now is when can we expect him? an arrest. So before we end this episode, we have an important update from last week's podcast about attorney Justin Bamberg taking on PMPED. Since the last podcast aired, I think people have started to look a little more at what's going on and how they were done by Alec in their situation. I've had multiple calls, but we have been retained to represent another five individuals over misappropriated. money, including a couple of individuals for whom no indictment have been levied as of yet. Those people also have not actually even been given their money back.

Starting point is 00:27:09 And that is something that we are presently working on. Okay, wow. So what Justin is saying here is that since the podcast aired, which was last Wednesday, five alleged victims of Alec Murdoch have stepped up and hired him as their attorney. That is a total of seven clients for Justin Bamberg and his fight against the firm. And some of those victims haven't been included in the indictments yet, which means, as we already knew, that more financial charges are coming down for Ellick. People in general have always have reservations.

Starting point is 00:27:47 And it's, you know, well, I don't want my name in the newspaper. Or, you know, my loved one. And they mentioned my father who passed. And it makes them nervous. Again, I think it is important when someone is a victim, who they are matters. And the fact that you're not just a number, you're not just a victim number five or a Jane Doe with no identity. You, your loved one was a living, breathing person or someone who unfortunately passed away. who was done wrong.

Starting point is 00:28:26 And we want the public, we want society to understand that Alec wasn't stealing from numbers on a piece of paper. He was stealing from people whose lives were drastically altered because of his greed. And you don't have to be afraid. You don't have to be scared. You don't have to worry about backlash or someone bothering you or intimidating you.

Starting point is 00:28:53 There are processes in place to protect you. And victims of crimes in this state have certain rights under the South Carolina Constitution. There's a victim's bill of rights. And you have the right to be free from intimidation. You have the right to be informed as to what's going on as the perpetrator is prosecuted by the state government. and I think that the South Carolina law enforcement division, I think that the South Carolina Attorney General's office has been doing a very good job. The victim's advocates that are at SLED and at the AG's office have been doing an amazing job in making sure that the victims of Alex's misdeeds and crimes are comfortable. And that's one thing that my office has been focused on in this process is, yes, we're pursuing claims against Alex Murdoch.

Starting point is 00:30:00 We're pursuing claims against the firm and the bank's involved, right? But we also want the clients to know and other people to know that there are people who have your back. You're not going at this alone. As I said at the beginning, I hope everyone had a happy holiday and a happy new year. We have loved hearing all of the stories about families getting together and talking about the podcast. We've heard about grandmothers and granddaughters bonding on a long drive while listening to the podcast. We heard one story about sisters reconnecting after years when one of them brought up the podcast over Christmas dinner. We love it.

Starting point is 00:30:57 We are here for it and we are thankful for you, the listener, for being a part of this. Our audience is why we have been able to make such a huge impact and hold agencies accountable. You are the reason why we are seeing change unfold before our eyes. Thank you for listening and thank you for helping us expose the truth wherever it leads. There is so much more to unpack in the seven investigations related to Alec Murdoch. We're only two workdays into 2022 and I have been hit with non-stop, insane, news that I haven't all uncovered yet. We have so much more news on PMPED, Alex alleged financial crimes, and a lot of other things

Starting point is 00:31:42 that are happening behind the scenes. Stay tuned to the Murdoch Murders podcast for the latest updates in this case. See you next week. The Murdoch Murdox podcast is created by me, Mandy Matney, and my fiance, David Moses. Our executive editor is Liz Farrell. Produced by Luna Shark Productions. We're

Murdaugh Murders Podcast - MMP #26 - Who Killed Maggie & Paul? Part Two

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