Murdaugh Murders Podcast - Transparency or Trickery? John Marvin And The Murdaugh Money (S01E38)

Episode Date: March 30, 2022

Are the Murdaugh’s in the middle of PR push? And what happened to all of the money? In episode 38, Mandy Matney, and Liz Farrell unpack a ton of information that came out about the Murdaugh family in the last week.   We talk about possible tampering with evidence at the double homicide scene. And a mysterious check from Alex to a local police chief.  To view Gregory Alexander's full campaign video click here. And a special thank you to our sponsors: Cerebral, Hunt-A-Killer, Priceline, Embark Vet, VOURI, Hello Fresh, Babbel, Article, and others. The Murdaugh Murders Podcast is created by Mandy Matney and produced by Luna Shark Productions. Our Executive Editor is Liz Farrell. Advertising is curated by the talented team at AdLarge Media. Find us on social media: https://www.facebook.com/MurdaughPod/ https://www.instagram.com/murdaughmurderspod/ For current and accurate updates: Twitter.com/mandymatney Support Our Podcast at: https://murdaughmurderspodcast.com/support-the-show Please consider sharing your support by leaving a review on Apple at the following link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murdaugh-murders-podcast/id1573560247 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I don't know when we will see charges filed in the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdock. But an interview with Ellic Murdock's younger brother published this past weekend gives us more insight into his role with Maggie's estate and tells us what might have happened at the crime scene in the days after the double homicide. What we're seeing is concerning, to say the least. My name is Mandy Matney. I've been investigating the Murdock family for more than three years now. This is the Murdock Murders Podcast with David Moses and Liz Farrell.

In the last week, we have learned a lot of new information about the Murdock family, those close to them in their mysterious financial situation around the time of the murders. But we want you to know that we've heard some of you on social media saying that you want to know more about the murders of Maggie and Paul. We do too. I can assure you that we're trying our absolute best at Fitznews and the Murdock Murders Podcast to get more information about the murders. And we know investigators are working hard too.

The tricky thing is, this is an open investigation until there is an arrest. This means that police aren't going to release a lot of information to protect the integrity of the investigation. This is an incredibly complex investigation and as frustrating as it is, I understand why investigators are remaining silent for now. We are being respectful of the process, but we will continue to call out public officials when we think transparency is necessary. As you guys will hear in a bit, we're going to talk about evidence at the scene and we

explain why we think now is the time to talk about this. On Sunday, the Island Packet newspaper published an extensive interview with John Marvin Murdock. Some of it was pretty shocking. I honestly had to read it in pieces to fully digest what was happening. And another interview with John Marvin and his wife Liz was published the same day in the Charleston Post and Courier, and that one was even more puzzling than the packets. For those of you who don't know who John Marvin is, he is the youngest child of Randolph and Libby Murdock and he's two years younger than Ellick.

Sources have told us that John Marvin was the Paul of his generation and that Paul was the John Marvin of his. We know that the two were very close and that Paul's murder has been especially hard on John Marvin and his family. We've also heard through mutual friends that John Marvin's wife Liz and Maggie weren't just sisters-in-law, they were very good friends. You guys probably remember Liz from our episode on Ellick's Jailhouse phone calls. She's the one that Ellick kept trying to track down to put money on another inmates

account. On the day of Paul's funeral, the weather switched abruptly from oppressively hot to a major downpour, soaking everyone there. John Marvin later wrote on social media that he felt sure this was the work of Paul, whom he affectionately called rooster. Like Paul, who had no aspirations of becoming a lawyer, John Marvin, as the interview noted, was jokingly considered the black sheep of the family because he didn't pursue a career in law.

Sources have told us that Paul was most at home in the outdoors and happiest in the woods. This was another thing he had in common with his uncle John Marvin. John Marvin lives in Buford County, a short distance from the family's river home in Ocady, South Carolina. He's married and has three kids. Around town, you can find him at his tractor rental business in his boat called the Black Sheep or at the Sandbar. Just weeks after the double homicide, John Marvin was spotted in the Bahamas with his

friends and family. His vacation photos were widely circulated on Reddit and in Facebook discussion groups. John Marvin is also who Buster Murdoch was pictured with in Las Vegas last October, just a day after Alex first spawned hearing in the Satterfield case. So there is a lot to unpack with these recent interviews, but first, we need to talk about the big question that both Liz and I had while reading these stories. Why would he want to do this? We know that in the aftermath of the murders, the Murdoch family was working with a public

relations company called MP Strategy to help them manage their reputation. We're not sure if the family is still working with that public relations firm or any firm actually, because honestly, these interviews don't seem like something a savvy publicist would recommend doing, especially not after John Marvin and Randy's interview with Good Morning America in 2020 last summer. Viewers did not respond well at all to them, and every time they appeared on screen, a whole new round of beavers and butthead memes would get tweeted. John Marvin and Randy's comments about how the Murdochs were just regular people struck

a particular nerve with folks on social media. To actual regular people, it was insulting because regular people don't have multi-million dollar law firms in multiple properties, and they certainly don't have strings to pull when it comes to law enforcement. John Marvin apparently didn't see any of those comments, though, because he echoed that same tone-deaf sentiment in the Island packet story, specifically stating that he wanted people to realize that they were not privileged. We're just truly like any other citizen, he said.

It was not a good look for him. Which brings us back to the question of why would he do this? According to the packet, John Marvin agreed to do this interview because he wanted to discuss the handling of Maggie Murdoch's estate. This is where things get really weird, which is saying a lot in this story. And while we tell you this, keep in mind everything you know so far about Murdoch's relationship with the probate courts and how he seemed to be able to use them as he wished in his alleged quest to take money from clients.

According to Maggie's will, which appears to have been written in 2005, Maggie had designated her sister Marion to serve as personal representative of her estate, but Marion's name was struck out by someone using a pen and ran off Murdoch's third name was handwritten over it. Randolph, of course, only outlived Maggie by three days, so he could never serve as PR. But, as it turns out, and as any South Carolina lawyer who took a probate class, which is required to graduate, by the way, already knows you can't make any handwritten changes to a will because you run the risk of invalidating it all together.

You'd think the Murdochs, a family of attorneys, would know this. Are you wondering whether Maggie's will was altered after Maggie's death? So are we. Because if this couldn't be any more like a murder mystery dinner theater plot, here comes Jim Griffin, one of Ellick's bulldog attorneys with an explanation for the handwriting on the will. This is what he told the packet in December. And here's David's voice as Jim Griffin.

My understanding is that the will that is probated is the original will. So that would have been something Maggie did during her lifetime. It was not done after her death, I can tell you that. No one did that after her death. So that would have been something done during her lifetime by her. Convincing. As always. Anyway, that's the first strange thing.

Here's the next one. On December 7th, 2021, six months to the day after Maggie died, an affidavit from Marion, Maggie's sister, was filed in Colleton County probate court saying that she had been unaware that she was Maggie's PR until she received a renunciation of rights document from E.W. Bennett, who was one of two lawyers for Maggie's estate. The other is William G. Newsom from Columbia. How did Maggie's estate hire lawyers when Maggie is deceased and her sister had just found out about the will at the very same time she was being asked to renounce her rights

to the role? Such a great question. Now on November 8th, one month before Marion found out she was being asked to renounce her rights to a role she didn't know she had, Buster Murdoch renounced his rights to serve as personal representative. Buster had been nominated as co-personal representative by Ellick, who had renounced his rights on October 29th. Funny thing though, Maggie's will never made Ellick the personal representative.

He was the sole heir of her estate, but not the PR. You know what might have made Ellick the personal representative? A will that got pencil whipped and then invalidated. An invalidated will would have then been treated as if there were no will at all, which means that the state law would kick in and Ellick, the spouse, would be made personal representative. In the Packets December article on the will, John Marvin addresses the crossed out name and the fact that Marion didn't find out about the will until the day she received the renunciation paperwork.

And David will be doing the voice of John Marvin in this episode. I think that affidavit kind of clarifies any question that may arise, whether Marion Proctor got pushed out if you're somebody speculating. See, the affidavit does the opposite of clarify. Instead, it tells us that a woman who was murdered who clearly did not want her husband to be the personal representative, which we're told is highly unusual, a woman leaving her entire estate to her husband, but not making him PR. This murdered woman wanted her sister to serve in that role as PR.

But at some point, in a family of lawyers who should have known this was going to be a problem, someone, maybe Maggie, how can we know? She didn't initial the change, crossed out Marion's name and wrote in the name of a very old man who was likely going to die before her. In his recent interview with the packet, John Marvin says something that is meant to sound reassuring, but because people who follow the law generally don't point out that this is what they're doing, his words hit a little like a waiter, telling you he didn't take a bite out of your burger.

I talked to Maggie's family and essentially what I told them is I'm going to discharge my duties as the PR in a lawful manner that makes them proud, Maggie proud and Buster proud. I want them to know that it's being handled the best that it can, everything's transparent. He wants transparency. Remember this in a minute. Here's the next odd thing. Ellick, as we said, is the sole heir of Maggie's estate. As you guys know, he owes a lot of people a lot of money.

At the beginning of March, he filed paperwork in Colleton County, renouncing his right to his wife's estate, which is a problem for a few reasons. One is that John Marvin didn't seem aware that his brother had done this, which seems suspect. Here's what he told the packet at the time. I don't know much about probate law. Ellick is essentially saying, listen, I don't want it. Pass it along is how I've understood it.

Whatever the court tells me to do, I'm doing. The last line is important because the court, as we've said earlier, and as we've seen over and over again in Ellick's alleged schemes, seems to go along to get along when it comes to Ellick's whims. The second problem with what Ellick did here is that he might have violated the November court order that froze his assets and put the entirety of his finances, at least the parts that they could find, in the hands of a receivership. So the receivership, of course, had something to say about this maneuver and filed a motion

for the court to find Ellick in contempt of court. It's hard to say what Ellick was doing there. Was he simply trying to be a good dad, wanting to pass on Maggie's estate to his only surviving son? Or was he doing yet another thing to keep his money out of the hands of the Beach family and the other boat crash victims, as well as the other clients that Ellick allegedly stole from? Or, and this seems to be the prevailing thought in certain legal circles, are Ellick and his

attorneys preparing for something big to come down the pipeline? And we'll be right back. Another issue is Moselle, the hunting property where Maggie and Paul were killed. That of course was owned by Maggie at the time of her death, as was her beach house. Some of this you guys already know, but we want to bring it up briefly so you can understand how it fits into the bigger picture. In February, Fitznews was the first to report that the Moselle property had been secretly put up for sale and there were at least two buyers already lined up to purchase it.

The land was never publicly listed. Now, a lot of real estate agents reached out to us after we wrote that story, to be like, so what, that happens all the time? Why list it publicly if the broker can get a good deal going? Well one, the broker is Todd Crosby, which is the last name of one of Ellick's key partners at PMPD, Ronnie Crosby. This doesn't mean they're related, but let's be clear, everyone in these parts is connected to everyone else, so it is only natural that people would have questions about how the

broker might be connected, if at all, to the Murdoch family. Remember, John Marvin said he wants to be transparent. He gets that this is necessary. All motivations need to be on the table. There's no room for further shady deals that ultimately serve to hide Ellick's assets and scroll them away so he can retrieve them when everyone has moved on. So questions need to be asked there. The other thing is that the beach family's attorney has a lien against the property.

The receiver first has to approve the sale, and then the court has to approve it. One of the things the judge will have to consider is whether the sale price is based on a good faith offer. This piece of property is at the center of what is likely going to end up being the biggest scandal to happen in South Carolina's history. People all over the world know the words Moselle and Murdoch. Not listing this property publicly would have meant that potential buyers were being left out when obviously all parties would probably prefer to have a bidding war.

This is important because the money from the sale will ultimately go to Ellick's victims. At any rate, Ellick and the Murdochs haven't earned the benefit of the doubt here. Obviously this land deal got a lot of people wondering if something nefarious was afoot, and that's why John Marvin says he did this interview. He denied all the rumors out there about his role as personal representative and wanted to make it clear that his position as PR was not part of another Ellick scheme. But here is the thing. When you take a look at the probate filings that he's made in Maggie's estate so far,

things do not add up. The documents John Marvin filed in probate court recently present a confusing and likely incomplete picture of Maggie Murdoch's finances at the time of her death. Colleton County probate documents filed this month reveal a troubling financial state for Maggie Murdoch, the 52-year-old mother of two, who was known to flaunt expensive clothes and purses before she died. From what John Marvin chose to disclose, Maggie Murdoch looked to be cash-poor but rich in assets.

According to the documents, Maggie Murdoch had just $57.77 left in her Bank of America account, the only bank account solely in Maggie's name that was listed in the documents. But Maggie did have a lot of assets. At the time of her death, Maggie had an estimated worth of more than $4.1 million in real estate holdings between our ownership of the Moselle property and the Edistoe home. The probate documents also claimed Maggie owned over $100,000 in other assets, including four cars. However, while she had a lot of assets, Maggie had a lot of unpaid bills.

Over $2.1 million was still owed in mortgages on both of the properties. It looks like the Murdochs weren't paying their mortgages. And on top of that, she owed more than $6,500 for unpaid bills to a Somerville interior design company. She was apparently redecorating the Moselle property sometime before the murders. If Maggie Murdoch was truly cash-poor, why would she be spending this kind of money redecorating Moselle? She also owed more than $2,400 for her electric bill and more than $1,300 for her Belk Rewards

Mastercard. You might remember a while ago we told you about a Daily Mail article that said a source close to the family told reporters that Maggie had been worried about their financial situation in the months leading up to the murders. The source told the Daily Mail that Maggie was upset because a check she had written to a local charity had bounced a few months before the murders. Did something happen? All of this added up.

We all have to ask. Did something happen to change the Murdoch's financial situation last spring? But perhaps the strangest part of these documents was the section about life insurance policies. Did Maggie have a life insurance policy? This has been one of the biggest questions surrounding Maggie Murdoch's murder since last June. Unfortunately, the documents don't really provide a full answer. In the probate filings, John Marvin wrote none when asked to list the insurance on the

life of Maggie Murdoch, which is payable to the estate. He also wrote none under life insurance that would be payable to the beneficiaries. However, sources close to the investigation have a hard time believing that Maggie Murdoch didn't have any life insurance. For nearly a century, the Murdochs made millions of dollars by suing insurance companies through their law firm. Are we really supposed to believe that Maggie Murdoch wouldn't have any life insurance? Especially when we know for a fact that Ellick Murdoch had a big life insurance policy on

himself. Remember, after his alleged suicide for hire ordeal, he told the police the main reason he wanted Eddie Smith to shoot him on the side of the road that day was so his son Buster could collect on his $10 million life insurance policy. And it is absolutely possible that there was a life insurance policy that wasn't listed. But remember, John Marvin said he was being as transparent as possible when it came to his role as personal representative. That takes us to other news that's happened since we last talked.

Last Thursday, Ellick filed a confession of judgment in the Satterfield case for $4.3 million. In his filing, he admitted to taking the money, which wasn't a surprise to anyone, but still felt like one. We all knew this confession of judgment was coming since December, when Ellick's other bulldog attorney, Dick Harputlian, pulled it out of his magic hat and offered it up as a major generosity in the hopes that Judge Allison Lee would be like, my my, jail has certainly changed Ellick Murdock for the better.

I shall set him free. What was galling about this was that just weeks earlier, Dick was trying to get Ellick removed from the Satterfield case because everyone else had already cleaned up his mess and the family had already recovered what was stolen from them and then some. Therefore, Ellick, in their opinion, shouldn't have to pay. So what does this mean? Does it mean that the Satterfield family will get another $4.3 million? Probably not, but they've secured a spot in line as one of Ellick's creditors.

This is going to be a bit of a complicated process. First, the receivers have to find all of Ellick's money. This might require shovels and headlamps as well as trips to the Bahamas, and I'm only half-kidding about that. Then all nine of the lawsuits against Ellick will have to settle or get judgments from juries. I say nine, but that number will likely go up as more victims are identified and others file suit.

Then a judge will have to look at all of Ellick's assets, all of his creditors, and decide the most fair way to distribute the money. It's likely that the victims will only be getting a piece of what is owed to them. John Marvin said he agreed to these interviews with the media because he wanted to clear things up about the probate proceedings. But sources continue to tell Fitznews that they believe the timing of his interview as well as some legal maneuvers, such as Ellick withdrawing as heir of Maggie's estate, is a part of a broader strategy in preparation for something bigger that hopefully will become

more clear to all of us very soon. I know this is a cryptic thing to say. I'm mentioning it only because in reading John Marvin's interview, it is clear that the Murdoch family is beginning to draw a more clear and distinct line between themselves and him. We think that these interviews are probably helping them do that. That said, here are some of the most notable parts of John Marvin's interviews with the island packet and posting courier.

As we said, the family clearly wants to be seen different from Ellick. This appears to be a part of a public relations strategy to rebrand the family, and it seems like the island packet and posting courier were only too eager to help them clean up their image. In the interview with the packet, John Marvin said he was embarrassed for the things that his brother is accused of doing and he urged his brother to fess up. He also made sure to express a lot of sympathy for Ellick's victims and said he wants to help in any way he can.

Which is really nice and I hope he does that because this is a guy who allowed his lawyer back in January to write in a lawsuit that a grieving mother, Renee Beach, was holding him hostage because he couldn't liquidate Maggie's properties with the leans her lawyer put on them. Also it seems like everything John Marvin has done as it relates to Ellick's assets before the receivership was put in place and as it relates to the sale of Moselle and the regularities seen in the probate process, has been to benefit the Murdochs, not to benefit the victims.

One of the things John Marvin offered to the packet was a list he said he gave to the lawyers in charge of combing through Ellick's assets. This list was a round up of farm equipment and other assets that were sold off before Ellick's finances were frozen. If you'll remember, the reason the judge agreed to the receivership and to freezing Ellick's assets was because he agreed there was evidence to show that the family was cashing out Ellick's things and moving the money away from where victims could find it. In the list, John Marvin included where nearly $725,000 in Ellick's assets went.

There was $15,000 for Ellick's rehab which is in addition to the $15,000 Ellick apparently borrowed from his brother Randy to pay the initial rehab fee. Another $2,000 for Ellick's Cobra payment which seems awfully high and the rest went toward paying family members, friends and Palmetto State Bank. Not mentioned by the packet is that this list seems to prove that the Murdochs were picking and choosing who got to be paid back and quickly, all the while knowing that Ellick had already been accused of stealing $10 million from his law firm. And let's talk about this alleged Palmetto State Bank loan by the way.

The packet reporter discovered that more than $400,000 of the money they liquidated went toward a loan that was allegedly taken out by Randolph Murdoch III. There are a lot of questions about the legitimacy of the loans and mortgages that Palmetto State Bank gave to the Murdochs and we will be getting to the bottom of them in future episodes. What's hilarious about this is John Marvin was pouting because the receivers didn't give him credit for being so nice as to share this handmade list with them. I thought the receivers should have announced and made it abundantly clear to the court and to anybody else involved that, hey, we've talked to these guys, they're very open, they're

transparent, they're cooperative, they're doing exactly what they should be doing. Not just to help us, but they're doing what they should be doing. They're doing the right thing. So after John Marvin sat for the interview with the packet, he apparently was worried he didn't come across a sorry enough and he emailed an additional statement about how sorry he is for the victims. He said, As difficult as this has been for my wife, Lizzie, my children and me, I want to tell

you that we are also so upset about what the victims and their families are going through. Everyone who has suffered because of this. I want to help and that's where my efforts are. How do I pick up the pieces? What can I do to help everyone move forward and put their lives back together, even though nothing will ever be the same? The grief and loss all the way around is very tough to accept. I pray for the victims every day.

John Marvin's wife, Liz, was interviewed in the Post-Encarrier and expressed her regret that people were stolen from. She also wanted to draw a distinction between Ellick and the rest of the family. She said, To paint a broad brush that the entire family is corrupt, that is not fair. To say the corruption of the Murdochs, I mean, there may be one, but you can't throw all of us into that category. While we agree that family members generally shouldn't be held accountable for the actions of a single bad actor among them, we wish the Murdochs understood that everything they

have now, everything they've been able to do with their lives, is because of who they are and because of how each generation has kept a stranglehold on the community. But they don't understand it, as evidenced by this one quote of John Marvin's. Nobody has asked any of my friends for opinions of the family. I don't think there's anybody that knows our family that's fearful. If they are, they have no reason to be. A theme emerged in these interviews in which the Murdoch camp seemed to be building a case that investigators are too distracted by Ellick's alleged financial crimes and are not looking

into who killed Maggie and Paul. This is important, we want you to file this away. If Ellick is charged with Maggie and Paul's murders, he has very few defenses available to him, given everything we've learned about his actions and his financial situation which could all be seen as motives, right? If he is charged and that is a big if, one defense is likely to be malicious prosecution with insinuations that Sled and the AG's office couldn't find the real killer and therefore are pinning the murders on an easy target.

To be clear, we have no doubts whatsoever that the AG's office, Creighton Waters and Sled are being meticulous about these investigations. They know what they're up against and we're confident that they are preparing for a battle no matter who ends up getting charged. But still, it seems like the Murdoch team is laying some groundwork in these interviews. In the post and courier, Jim Griffin even made an appearance to put in his two cents. He said Ellick hired private investigators to find the killer, but ran out of money after he was arrested apparently.

Griffin did not explain how he and Harputlian are being paid by a client who has run out of money, but like John Marvin, he wanted to make sure to put it out there that there's some sort of lack of focus on the murder case. Griffin said that he would like things to refocus on trying to solve the murders of Maggie and Paul. Now this is where things get wild. And we'll be right back. The packet ran a second story based on their interview with John Marvin.

In this story, John Marvin explains why he was accidentally captured in multiple photos taken by a post and courier photographer the day after the murders while standing and walking with three investigators from the 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office. While we tell you this, we want you to think about this key point. At the time of the murders, Ellick Murdoch and his family and law enforcement were all under investigation by the state grand jury for obstruction of justice in the boat crash case. There have been multiple accusations that Ellick and his brothers interfered with the boat

crash investigations. In the Murdoch's entire legacy, the one they want everyone to forget is that for generations and even now, they have been seen as the law in Hampton and Colleton counties. Now Solicitor Duffy Stone is who took over for John Marvin's father in 2006 after he retired. Forces tell us he was handpicked by the Murdoch family to assume this role and up until September 7th, which is after he was publicly identified as a person of interest in a double homicide case.

Ellick was a volunteer solicitor at Duffy Stone's office. A FOIA request that I filed in August of last year conveniently came back on September 10th, three days after Duffy Stone fired Ellick in just days after Ellick's roadside shooting incident. I have had multiple sources tell me that Ellick carried a badge and Solicitor's office credentials and he wasn't afraid to use them. So I asked his office when Ellick was first sworn in as a volunteer. They couldn't tell me.

I also asked for a list of cases that he worked on as a volunteer. They were able to cite one. They said he got a guilty plea in October 2019 for a failure to stop for Blue Lights case in Colleton County against someone named Immanuel Buckner. What they didn't include in their letter to me is that Immanuel Buckner was being tried for trafficking cocaine and meth. Ellick and his father prosecuted the case. It ended in mistrial.

Ellick did not get a guilty plea in the failure to stop for Blue Lights case. The jury found Buckner guilty of that charge. Multiple sources with direct knowledge of Ellick's participation in prosecuting cases as a volunteer have told us that Ellick would just pop up with no warning. Full time prosecutors would find out that out of nowhere Ellick had struck deals with defense attorneys in drug cases. When the prosecutors raised the issue they were told by Duffy Stone who may or may not have been aware of what was happening that Ellick was a special advisor on the case and

quote whatever he says goes. Obviously that is a big deal and it's something we're looking into more and we'll check back with you guys when we get more information. In the meantime we read a very detailed piece about Ellick and Duffy in Fitznews this week and we highly recommend you read it. The story lays out point by point why the presence of Stone's investigators at the murder scene was a problem. So in the interview with the packet John Marvin explains why he was hanging out with Stone's

investigators. The problem is Jojo Woodward who is currently running for the Republican nomination to become sheriff of Buford County. It's simple John Marvin was helping the investigators locate Maggie's phone. Now on June 23rd the packet wrote a story about how Maggie's phone was found down the road from the murder scene in a wooded area. They said sources had told them that a family member had found the phone and then handed it over to sled.

Note that I said handed it over to sled. At the time this only raised the typical Murdoch alarm bells meaning we were like well that's suspicious but okay it's good they gave it to sled after they found it. In the meantime there had been multiple calls for Duffy Stone to recuse himself because of this massive conflict of interest. A conflict he easily recognized in 2019 the day after the boat crash when he tapped out of the case altogether but then tried to downplay while his team was on site. Investigators at the time had indicated to us that Duffy's investigators were there

because they had specialized knowledge related to phones. Because of John Marvin's interview we now know what they did. First we want to mention that sources close to the investigation have told Fitznews that John Marvin's account of what happened is not accurate. Second we want to be clear we in no way think that this compromises the investigation in so far as the information that was contained on Maggie's phone was retrievable through other methods. But John Marvin says that he helped Stone's investigators locate Maggie's phone by using

an app on Buster's phone. Then they got the location of the phone and together they drove to retrieve it. Then John Marvin says he called Elec or Buster he thinks it was Elec to get the code to unlock Maggie's phone. Then they and by they John Marvin seems to mean Stone's investigators because they are the only ones mentioned in the story unlocked Maggie's phone. According to John Marvin they then gave the phone to sled. When this story published our phones began to blow up.

People were stunned that John Marvin appeared to be describing what could be considered tampering with evidence. There are so many things wrong with what he says they did. Colleagues of Elec, men who had no investigatory authority at the scene, went with the brother of the immediate person of interest in the case who for all they knew at the time could have also been identified as a person of interest to retrieve critical evidence that they then handled. If this phone were located away from the crime scene that means there was a secondary crime

scene that should have been treated as such. It also means that the last person to have touched the phone before Stone's investigators would have ostensibly been the suspect. But don't worry everything is totally cool here according to John Marvin anyway. They were able to open the phone on site. Of course none of this is disclosed to me as far as it wasn't like I was sitting there peeking over their shoulder while they were doing this. Now we need to talk about some other big news that we found out this week involving a man

whose name will likely come up in this podcast again. Gregory Alexander. Fitznews was first to report that Elec Murdoch wrote a $5,000 check to a local police chief named Gregory Alexander. Alexander is the police chief of Yemisee, a tiny town in the low country between Buford and Hampton and he is also currently running for sheriff of Hampton County, South Carolina. He is a longtime friend of the Murdoch family and his name has come up in a lot of shady places.

In 2012 Alexander was indicted by the state grand jury for allegedly stealing nearly $11,000 from motorists and misusing police funds. However in 2016 a Hampton County grand jury known historically for siding with the Murdochs in their allies found him not guilty of those charges. He was allowed to go back to the Yemisee police department after this and he was promoted from captain to police chief. Police chief. Fine.

We get it. The man was acquitted by a jury of Elec Murdoch's peers. He is now innocent in the face of the law but it's still amazing to watch good old boys help each other up, dust each other off and then be like what? That thing with the criminal charges? I barely remember that. Go say hi to the new police chief. Alexander was again investigated by Sled in 2021 and we will get into both of those investigations

in a later episode. But something that seems to be important about Greg Alexander when it comes to this story sources have told us that he was on scene on the night of the double homicide which is concerning because Moselle is definitely not in his district nor is it in the county of his district. And something else about Greg Alexander we need to note. After Elec Murdoch's first bond hearing, the first and probably the last one to be held in Hampton County, when Dick Harpoolian made a sexist joke about Mandy which he still

hasn't apologized for, the one where Murdoch's bond amount appeared to be decided and appeared online before the hearing was held, that one could have been an SNL skit because it was such a mockery of our justice system. Well, the presiding judge of that court, Tanya Alexander, is Gregory Alexander's sister in law who should have definitely recused herself from the case, but didn't. Gregory Alexander spoke to Fitznews founding editor Will Folks about this strange $5,000 cheque that Murdoch wrote Alexander just a few weeks after the double homicide. Alexander claimed that the cheque was a loan for his parents to pay for their home.

Why wouldn't Elec just write the cheque to Gregory's parents? Why would Gregory ask Elec whose wife and son were just murdered for $5,000? How would that conversation go? And why would Elec pay Gregory $5,000 when he apparently owed more than $2 million on his mortgages and thousands of dollars in bills? He couldn't pay for the electric bills or the decorations on Moselle, but he could pay a police chief $5,000? But don't worry, Gregory Alexander says he's an honest man who is very transparent and

according to an interview on his campaign page, there's one thing he is not. He's not a cat. He doesn't cover up doodoo. Don't get mistaken, citizens of Hampton County, understand what I'm telling you right now. Just because I sit as a police chief, I sit as a sheriff Hampton County, we go error. We go error, but we got to be held accountable when we do error. And I've had officers that error before, and I ain't no cat. I don't try to cover no doodoo up, nothing up.

If it's wrong, it's wrong, if I've done it, if it's wrong, I'm going to be transparent with the citizens, let them know I've done wrong, and we got to do it, get to do it and make it right. He's not a cat. He doesn't cover up doodoo. The Murdoch Murders podcast is created by me, Manny Matney, and my fiance, David Moses. Our executive editor is Liz Farrell, produced by Luna Shark Productions.