Murdaugh Murders Podcast - Who Killed Mallory Beach? Part Three - (S01E7)

Starting point is 00:00:00 We did it. I still can't believe we got this project done so fast and so well. When I'm in New York. I'm in Chicago and I'm in LA but we're making it happen in Miro together. Our best work just happens faster on Miro's collaborative online whiteboard. No more scheduling meeting after meeting for work that could happen from anywhere. Whether it's getting design feedback here. Mapping timelines or brainstorming next steps here. It all just happens on the Miro board. Exactly and it's nice not having to wait an entire day to get sign off from this guy. Hey well it is true. See how Miro users save up to 80 hours every year by meeting less and doing more. Get on board

Starting point is 00:00:52 at Miro.com. The first three boards are free forever. That's M-I-R-O.com. I believe I know who killed Mallory Beach and now that more evidence has come to light I'm troubled by what we know happened during the investigation of her death. My name is Mandy Matney. I'm the news director for Fitznews.com and I've been investigating the Murdoch family for more than two years now. This is the Murdoch murders podcast. So before we start this episode I want to give a quick shout out to all of the low country locals who have supported us with this podcast. We've been fortunate to receive feedback from people literally all over the world but the support we have from our own backyard means the most to us.

Starting point is 00:01:51 From the very beginning we've been sponsored by a local law firm the Band and Law Group and so many businesses have helped us with little things along the way. If you've noticed our theme song got a little facelift this week thanks for our new friends at a local business called October Genius Music. We've also been featured in the Celebrate Hilton Head September issue also known as CH2 magazine so be sure to check that out. Finally I want to thank my company Fitznews.com for supporting me 100% during this podcast endeavor. When I first started reporting on the story in 2019 I was working for a soulless corporate news organization for employers that didn't care about me this story or any of my sources. I almost quit journalism

Starting point is 00:02:38 in 2019 and I am forever thankful of my boss will folks for offering me a job when I knew I had to leave the island packet and for encouraging me and always having my back while reporting on the story. And thank you to every single person who subscribes to Fitznews and believes in our mission. Investigative journalism is not dead and I believe our company is the future of news. So for all updates on this case in the best news in South Carolina check out Fitznews.com. In the two months since Paul Murdock and his mother Maggie Murdock were murdered on their hunting property about 60 miles west of Charleston South Carolina we've learned a whole lot about the 2019 bow crash that killed Mallory Beach. For a recap when Paul Murdock was murdered he

Starting point is 00:03:32 stood accused of three felony voting under the influence charges in the boat crash. On February 24th 2019 he allegedly crashed a 17 foot center console fishing boat into a piling just outside a parasailing South Carolina. While the criminal investigation of Paul Murdock ended with his death authorities are now looking into obstruction of justice allegations involving his powerful family members according to Fitznews sources and attorneys representing boat crash victims. In the weeks since Paul's murder officials and attorneys have released a mound of information in the case. That information has been released for two reasons one because the criminal investigation is over and two because one of the passengers on the boat Connor Cook recently filed a bombshell

Starting point is 00:04:17 petition alleging that law enforcement officers conspired against him before Paul Murdock was charged. And in the last few weeks we've learned so much we've read hundreds of pages of depositions from officers who responded to the scene. We've watched hours of dash cam footage from the scene and listened to horrific audio. We've read shocking affidavits from hospital staff members who watch Alec Murdock and his father who was a solicitor for decades moved from room to room and allegedly orchestrating a plan. And we've read heartbreaking statements from the survivors on the boat who witnessed Mallory Beach's last few moments. But this week the Beaver County Sheriff's Office released more than an hour of video a huge missing piece in this puzzle. The recently released

Starting point is 00:05:01 dash cam videos raised questions about the alleged conspiracy between the Murdock family and their law enforcement connections. The videos released in response to a Fitznews Freedom of Information Act request further confirm what attorneys have previously alleged in depositions that Mallory Beach's boyfriend Anthony Cook who was also Connor Cook's cousin was very clear with officers who was driving the boat. The audio from the dash cam is gut wrenching. Here Anthony Cook is sobbing as he speaks to Stephen Domino, a beaver county sheriff's deputy. He's in disbelief that his girlfriend is gone and he's hesitant to get in the back seat of a cop car when he's instructed. Domino reassured Anthony that he's not in trouble but he wants him to calm down.

Starting point is 00:06:22 So that's Anthony saying that his mother works for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. This is interesting that he feels the need to say that in that moment. So on the phone Anthony tells his mother what happened. Where are we at? We're at Parris Island. Parris Island Bridge. So it's just telling all the interests of Parris Island that you're going to miss the Parris Island. The interests of Parris Island. I don't know mom there's 50 cops out here. Everybody's shit up. I said there's 50 cops out here and one of the cops is nice enough to let me call you.

Starting point is 00:08:06 Mom there's 50 cops here, Coast Guard, everything. We can't find Mallory. It's been 30 minutes mom. You probably need to call Mr. Mayor, Mr. Bill. He's telling his mom to call Mallory's parents and tell them the news. So here Domino takes the phone and speaks to Anthony's mother. Your son's not in trouble or anything right now. Like I said he's very asking you to have the right to be in the shop right now. I probably do get up and actually coming down this way. He told me you're in law enforcement.

Starting point is 00:08:56 Okay. All right. Yes, man. We're here. Like I said, I'll let you come see your son. I got him pretty much as calm as I can get him. I fully understand. So me and him work, I'll be hanging out with him the entire time. Just Google Parris Island. Yeah, just Google Parris Island, the main entrance gate. Yes, we're all around the main roads one way and one way out. Do not miss us. All right. Just Google Parris Island. Yeah, the Marine Corps base. First gate. So while Domino was on the phone with the Anthony's mother, Paul Murdock apparently walked past Domino's car, according to the dash cam recordings.

Starting point is 00:09:40 We're on the main road. You want me to get that motherfucker right there away from me? Yes, man. We'll be here. All right. He told me on that one with no shirt off. Hey, do not. I don't want you getting in trouble. You hear me? Just let me get in trouble. Do you hear what I said? Well, I was on the way. I told him, hey, let's talk. Let's let me drown. Let's get out, man. I'm hanging with you.

Starting point is 00:10:16 Okay. Well, you're fucking smiling like you're fucking funny. My fucking girlfriend's gone, bro. You think you're fucking funny? Oh, he's right fucking hell. Sit down. Sit down. Hey, somebody put him in the car. I'm going with the towel. Go ahead. Where's your cigarette at? Where's your cigarette? You need another one? Here. Here. I ain't got a lot now. Don't waste them. Here.

Starting point is 00:10:55 Here. Throw the cigarette and I got you. He's going away. Don't even look at the car. Put him in the car. All right. On another View for County Dashcam video, you can hear officers speaking to Paul Murdock and they are not at all treating him like a suspect. After y'all hit the bridge, did y'all beach the boat up there on the side of the thing or did it at the boat? That's where we ended up. Okay. Do y'all think y'all hit one of the markers in the beginning of it? Sure. Can I use your phone? Can I use your phone? Hey, bro, I ain't got my phone on me, brother.

Starting point is 00:11:37 You ain't got your phone on you. No, you dropped yours in the grass right back there. Hey, you can check out my name, bro. Hey, buddy. You can check out my name, bro? Yeah, I'm fine. Sure? I think we should check it out, right? Yeah, I'm fine. Hey, I'm in. Hey, what's your last name, buddy? My name is N. U. R. D. A. U. G. H. Okay, which person? Paul. Paul, B. A. U. L. We're looking right now for the down there looking like that. Okay, they got a good search on it, right? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:12:13 Yeah, they probably don't have anything. They've been finding you, okay? They're down there looking right now, okay? You know they got a good search, right? Yeah. Yeah, they got a good team down there looking for it, okay? Hey, can I use your phone? I don't have my phone on me, buddy. Here, stay right here. I'm gonna go get that one you dropped on the ground back there, all right? You got it already? Okay. So, there were six total people in the boat. Okay. They hit, I think, one of the virgin piles and where you see the boat before it ended up.

Starting point is 00:12:48 Okay. One of the young ladies got ejected. She still has not been found. Tide's going out and we tried walking down the marsh a little bit later, but the young lady down there seems to notice the beer so far of the people that we have, the five that we have. Okay. So, we got five, six total, five of those. Yes, sir. Okay. Tide's going out and they were running this way when they hit the bridge, so she probably got ejected and the current security carried her down that way. So, while sitting in the back of Domino's police car,

Starting point is 00:13:19 Anthony Cook told Domino what happened that night. What about the driver of the boat, C-21? No. Does everybody on the boat have been drinking? Yeah. Especially the driver? How big to drive that boat? But the driver, how much as he had to drink. Anthony then told Domino that most of the group wanted to go home after the oyster roast on Pocky Island around midnight. Dude, I can tell you this much. We left, I don't even know where the fuck we were.

Starting point is 00:13:49 We left and stopped fucking downtown Buford. And I, me and him about fought on the fucking dock because I told him not to go up there to the fucking bar that we need to be going home. Downtown? How are y'all drinking down there in New York? Hell, I wasn't. I stayed on the damn boat. But he was drinking actually at the bar? I reckon. I didn't go up there. The group left downtown Buford around 1.17 a.m. on February 24th, 2019. So y'all came from downtown through the creek and that's when it was going way too fast.

Starting point is 00:14:24 So seconds before the crash, GPS data showed that the boat was traveling at around 29 miles per hour, which is very fast for a boat as it approached the narrow winding waterway of Archer's Creek. So I don't even know. I finally got to the point. I grabbed my girlfriend and put her in my lap in the bottom of the boat and was holding on with my eyes closed the next thing. Paul, Mallory, and Anthony were ejected into the water. Connor Cook and Paul's girlfriend were severely injured and taken to the hospital while Anthony, who dislocated his shoulder, stayed on scene. Anthony Cook sensed that the Murdoch family influence would play a role in the investigation. Anthony, a Hampton County native who grew up with Paul Murdoch,

Starting point is 00:15:13 knew of the Murdoch's power in the Low Country criminal justice system. Three generations of Murdochs all served as solicitors, which is South Carolina's version of a district attorney over a five county region in the Low Country from 1920 to 2006. This enabled the family to amass hundreds of political, prosecutorial, and law enforcement connections. Here, Domino rejected this assumption that good old boy politics would play a role in this investigation. He said, well, it don't matter who you know to Anthony. Here, Domino asked Anthony one more time who was driving the boat. So several minutes after talking to Domino, Austin Pritcher, who is the first officer from the

Starting point is 00:17:03 lead investigating agency, SCDNR, asked Anthony Cook who was driving the boat. Okay. And Paul was driving, not Connor. If Connor was driving it happened, the Italian one with the fire department is with the DNR. Both sitting on the front seat. You're laying in the back of the bottom of the boat. Before you hit. Yes. Okay. And Paul and Connor were sitting on the front behind the console. Yes. I fought with both of them for 30 minutes about letting me drive. And both of them thought it was fucking funny. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, we're gonna do everything we can find there. Okay. Appreciate it. Yes.

Starting point is 00:18:21 But Pritcher did not write this in his SCDNR report. Instead, he wrote that Anthony, quote, did not know, unquote, who was driving the boat. Pritcher wrote in his report that other officers who arrived on scene before him thought it was Connor Cook or Paul Murdock driving the boat. Yet in all of the police reports, there is no evidence of any witnesses on scene telling law enforcement that Connor was driving. On the other hand, Domino's Beaufort County Sheriff's Office report reflected exactly what Anthony Cook told him. Domino was the only deputy on scene who identified Paul Murdock as the driver. Whereas Corporal Jack Keener, a deputy who had connections to the Murdock law firm, offered a different assessment of the situation. At the time of the crash,

Starting point is 00:19:13 the Sheriff's Office had said it was merely assisting SCDNR, the lead agency in the investigation. Beaufort County deputies who arrived on scene before SCDNR laid the groundwork for the entire investigation. And Keener wrote in his report that it was unclear who was driving the boat. But he admitted in his deposition that this assessment was his personal opinion and that no one else had said anything to him that would indicate Connor Cook may have been driving the boat. Specifically, when he was asked if anyone told him if Connor Cook may have been driving the boat, Keener gave a strange answer about how he didn't think girls could handle driving the boat and that's how he basically deduced it to either Paul or Connor. He said, I personally run this

Starting point is 00:20:04 creek. I was born and raised here. It can get narrow and skinny at some times and the tide was going out. I don't think any of the girls were driving the boat. I don't know what kind of experience they may have, but it has to be one of the three boys. Mrs. Beach's boyfriend was mad. He just said he wasn't driving the boat and then he's mad at Paul Murdock. Also, keep in mind that the Murdock law firm previously represented Keener's family in a 2.5 million dollar lawsuit. In Keener's dash cam video that was recently released, there is no indication that he ever questioned any of the other passengers about who was driving the boat. Keener's two driver theory was subsequently passed to SCDNR. Austin Pritchard, the SCDNR officer who

Starting point is 00:20:50 is accused of manipulating his reports to favor Paul Murdock, only offered Connor Cook a field sobriety test that night. SCDNR never sought a warrant to compel the hospital to draw Paul's blood that night, but the hospital did anyways because he was perceived as behaving so erratically. However, in the last few weeks, SCDNR has revealed that Paul Murdock's blood at 4 a.m. on February 24, 2019 was about 3.5 times over the legal limit. But you have to think about it. If the hospital had not taken it upon themselves to obtain Paul's BAC, who knows if SCDNR would have had enough to file charges? Three weeks after the boat crash, the Buford County Sheriff's Office recused itself from the investigation due to its long-standing

Starting point is 00:21:41 relationship with the Murdock family. Still, its involvement prior to this recusal clearly impacted the direction of this investigation. And because of the initial confusion in the investigation, it took two months for authorities to charge Paul Murdock with three felony boating under the influence counts. And unlike the vast majority of felony BUI cases, Paul Murdock never stepped foot in jail. At the time of his death, he was facing 25 years in prison for the charges. And I want to talk about those charges for a minute because it's another story, yet most of the media and the public is just not understanding. The Attorney General's Office told a local newspaper last week that they were dropping charges against Paul Murdock. That is not at all

Starting point is 00:22:26 to say that they are clearing his name or that the charges wouldn't have stuck had he been alive. They were dropping the charges simply because you can't have a trial for a dead person. While the investigation of Paul Murdock ended with his death, authorities are now looking into obstruction of justice allegations involving his powerful family members, according to both Fitznews sources and attorneys representing boat crash victims. Soon, a judge should decide on Connor Cook's petition, which asks the court for permission to depose several law enforcement officers in connection with a potential lawsuit. According to the petition, the officers may have information of a collusion or a civil conspiracy to shift the blame of the boat accident away from

Starting point is 00:23:18 Paul Murdock by wrongfully shifting the focus to Connor Cook. In the explosive depositions attached to that petition, attorneys' questions suggest that several pieces of evidence appear to be missing, including Paul's phone, which was picked up by another officer on scene, which you heard in the audio earlier. Also, DNA swabs from the boat and photographs of DNA processing, which could have proven where Connor was positioned in the boat at the time of the crash, considering a pool of his blood was on the right side of the boat. And an audio recording of Anthony Cook telling Michael Brock that Paul Murdock killed Mallory Beach. Michael Brock has a long list of personal ties to the Murdock family, yet he was named as a lead investigator in the case. Brock spoke with

Starting point is 00:24:06 Anthony Cook on scene on February 24, 2019, later that day. He said that Paul Murdock killed his girlfriend, according to a Paris Island military police officer's sworn affidavit. But Brock didn't write that in his report. Instead, Brock wrote that Anthony flipped out and was yelling at Paul, failing to note why he was angry at Paul Murdock in the aftermath of Mallory Beach's disappearance. In Mallory Beach, the beloved, bubbly, 19-year-old who lit up every room she walked into, unfortunately gets lost in the chaos of the story. Anthony refused to leave Archer's Creek Bridge on the day she went missing. Beach's body was found a week later by two men in a boat about five miles from the crash site.

Starting point is 00:25:30 Beaver County Coroner Ed Allen determined that she died of blunt force trauma and drowning. The three officers who are accused of falsifying their reports, Michael Brock, Jack Keener, and Austin Pritchard, still work in law enforcement. Domino, the officer who showed kindness and compassion to Anthony and identified Paul Murdock as the driver of the boat in his report, was fired from the Beaver County Sheriff's Office for alleged drug use in July 2020. However, he was never charged. So a few days after we said we were going to be taking a break, the Beaver County Sheriff's Office suddenly filled our Freedom of Information Act request and gave us hours of audio, which is what you heard in this episode. We didn't get much of a

Starting point is 00:26:14 break and we still need it. My wonderful fiance, David Moses, has a busy couple months ahead of him as he is spearheading the Savannah Seafood and Spirits Festival at the end of August and the Polo for Heroes event and bluffed in this October. So check both of those events out at seafoodandspirits.com and polo, the number four heroes.com. Those events and others help us support organizations making the world a better place. They assist with children that have nowhere to go, victims of violence, wounded military, first responders, and much, much more. Check out the links in the descriptions and we hope to see you there. Thank you, David. So while David is busy, I have a lot of reporting, digging, and FOIA requesting to do on this case. I need some time

Starting point is 00:27:02 for that. But again, as we plan, if anything major breaks, we will be back and we can promise you that. Be sure to subscribe to the Murdoch Murders podcast in the meantime so you don't miss an episode and follow me on Twitter at Mandy Matney or on Instagram at Mandy underscore in underscore hillbinhad for updates on the latest episodes. And in the meantime, to support this podcast, visit murdochmurderspodcast.com. And thank you all for all of the support we've had over these last few crazy weeks. Thank you to everyone who gave us a five-star review. Thank you to everyone who shared this podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, all of it. We so appreciate you and thank you. We will be back soon. So stay tuned. The Murdoch Murders podcast is created by me, Mandy Matney,

Starting point is 00:27:57 and my fiance, David Moses produced by Luna Chef Productions.

Murdaugh Murders Podcast - Who Killed Mallory Beach? Part Three - (S01E7)

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