Murdaugh Murders Podcast - Who Killed Mallory Beach? Part Two - (S01E5)

Starting point is 00:00:00 I think I know who killed Mallory Beach and the more that I find out about what happened in the first few hours of the investigation, the more I'm disturbed with our criminal justice system. I think several things went wrong in the criminal investigation after her death, but I want you to listen to the facts of the case and decide for yourself. My name is Mandy Matney. I'm the news director at fitsnews.com. I have been investigating the Murdoch family for more than two years now, and this is the Murdoch Murders podcast. So before I get into this week's episode, I want to say thank you for all of the support. We have well over 100,000 listens and more than 60,000 downloads in just four episodes,

Starting point is 00:00:50 which is incredible, so thank you. But some of you, especially some on Facebook, have not been so supportive, so this podcast is produced by my fiancee and I in our free time. But I get my salary from fitsnews, and my job as news director will always be my first priority. The news I'm reporting on this podcast is only possible because of my job at fitsnews, which is supported by our subscribers. Investigative journalism is expensive, and we need subscribers to support our work. It is not cool to copy a journalist's entire exclusive story and post that story to a sleuth group on Facebook. I work really hard on these stories, and copying and pasting my work only hurts me and the company that I work for. The news

Starting point is 00:01:38 industry is broken right now, and a big reason for that is because people refuse to pay for news online. Sharing the link is totally fine, just don't screenshot or copy and paste every single word of the story and paste that into Facebook. So I will say this again, for the latest updates in this case, subscribe to fitsnews.com. It's less than a Netflix subscription and your money goes a long way. So thank you again to all of our subscribers. In the last episode of the Murdoch Murders podcast, we left you on several cliffhangers and the Stephen Smith case. But in the last few days, huge news broke in the Mallory Beach investigation, and we think it's important to dedicate this week's episode to the Boat Crash investigation. I made this podcast so that people

Starting point is 00:02:30 could get a better understanding of the current news surrounding this national news saga, because I understand just how complicated the story is, and I want to help guide you through the twist and turns before jumping to conclusions. So on Friday, July 16th, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, also known as SEDNR, released hundreds of documents and several video clips in the 2019 Boat Crash investigation. So for a recap, on February 24, 2019, Paul Murdoch allegedly crashed a 17-foot center console fishing boat into a piling just outside of Parris Island, South Carolina. 19-year-old Mallory Beach was ejected in that crash. Her body was found a week later. In the third episode on Argers Creek Part 1, we told you about the information that was released

Starting point is 00:03:17 in the investigation, mostly through depositions in the civil lawsuit filed by Beach's mother. If this is your first time on this podcast, please go back and listen to that episode, so this episode makes a lot more sense. On Friday, the giant file released by SEDNR included chilling videos that show surveillance footage of Mallory Beach, Paul Murdoch, and four of their friends in the last hour of Mallory Beach's life. You can see these videos compiled together on our new Murdoch Murders YouTube channel, and we'll also be releasing the podcast on that channel too, so stay tuned. In this episode, we're going to go through all of the new information in the case. Let's go back to the beginning. On February 23rd, 2019, which was date night for

Starting point is 00:03:58 Paul Murdoch, his girlfriend at the time, her two best friends, and their boyfriends. Newly released video shows Paul Murdoch, who was a small 19-year-old, purchase beer and white claws from Parker's Gas Station in Ridgeland, South Carolina around 5.30 p.m. on February 23rd. Paul fidgets as he's buying the booze. According to court documents, he was using his brother Buster's ID. While Buster had red hair like Paul, Buster was about 60 pounds heavier and seven inches taller. But the ID works. After he illegally purchases the alcohol, Paul Murdoch heads to the parking lot, where he raises his boxes of booze in the air, signaling victory to his friends waiting for him. Around 6.30 p.m., the friends meet at the Murdoch River Home, which is owned by

Starting point is 00:04:45 Paul's grandfather, Randolph Murdoch, before they leave in Paul's father's boat and head to an oyster roast. Around 8 p.m., the six friends arrive at the home of Christie Woods for an oyster roast. In her statement to police, she said she only served water and lemonade at the oyster roast. While at the Woods home, the three young couples consume the alcohol that they stored on the boat, according to depositions. Several adults at the party and Mallory Beach's boyfriend Anthony Cook, who was the oldest in the group, suggested that the group get an Uber because of the alcohol that they consumed. Christie told police that she offered for them to stay because it was cold outside. It was about 60 degrees, which is not pleasant on the water at night. Paul, who was already

Starting point is 00:05:26 allegedly intoxicated, then decided that he wanted to get a shot from Luther's in downtown Buford, according to depositions. On the way to downtown Buford, Paul's driving got worse, according to witness statements that said he almost hit the Woods Memorial Bridge. It took two tries to park the boat in downtown Buford. So while only Paul and Connor wanted to get shots, the rest of the group stayed behind. Surveillance video at the waterfront park captures the group. You can tell that Paul and Connor's girlfriends look annoyed that they are going to Luther's. According to depositions, they were just tired and wanted to go home at this point. Security cameras capture Paul and Connor entering Luther's at around 12.55 a.m. They sit down for a few minutes and order shots.

Starting point is 00:06:11 Paul and Connor then purchased two rounds of shots, one lemon drop and one Jaeger shot each. While Connor said in deposition that Paul almost got into a fight and was throwing chairs while inside Luther's, this is not shown on the video. Paul used his Mother Maggie's credit card for the shots. His math does not add up on the tip. While Paul and Connor were at Luther's, the rest of the group waited at waterfront park. This footage is heartbreaking to watch. Mallory and her boyfriend Anthony appear to be doing their best to make light out of the situation. You can tell Mallory and Anthony really love each other. She lights up when she looks at him. In the video, they share an inside joke and they both laugh. These are some of their last moments

Starting point is 00:06:52 together. Paul and Connor meet up with the group. Paul's girlfriend looks angry and they fight. Paul throws his hands up in the air and appears to yell at her. Paul looks drunk and is swaying as he walks. At around 1.17 a.m., the kids load into the boat and they leave downtown Buford. In the video, you can see just how small a 17-foot boat is. They look crammed. Once the boat entered Archer's Creek, it only took them seven minutes to travel 1.7 miles. According to witness statements, Paul's behavior and driving became worse at this point. You think you know this river better than me, Paul Murdock said, according to a witness statement? This is my boat and I'll be damned if anybody else drives. Everybody in the boat was trying to get Paul into letting Mallory's boyfriend Anthony

Starting point is 00:07:39 Cook drive the boat, according to depositions, but he refused. Paul started to scream horrible things at his girlfriend, according to a witness statement. As we said before, there was one final argument for Paul's girlfriend at the time, then says, what are you going to do? Hit me like you did all those times before, according to a witness statement. Paul Murdock pushed, spit on, and slapped his girlfriend in the face, according to multiple depositions. He then headed back to the helm of the boat and accelerated. According to GPS data released from SADNR, the following times and speeds were recorded in the last seconds of their voyage. 2.20 a.m. and 3 seconds, 25 miles per hour. 2.20 a.m. and 31 seconds, 24 miles per hour. 2.20 a.m. and 33 seconds, 29 miles per hour.

Starting point is 00:08:29 2.20 a.m. and 40 seconds, GPS coordinates placed them at the bridge. Paul, Mallory, and Anthony were ejected into the water. Connor and Paul's girlfriend were severely injured, blood was everywhere, and Mallory was gone. Miley, who is Mallory's best friend, was able to brace herself a split second before the crash. The next day, she spoke with SADNR about what happened during the crash. So Anthony was like all the way over there, like where we had hit, and Paul was on like the closest pile to the shore, or like the second closest one to the shore. So like I think like whenever we, the boat started going again, like I think like he got like, you know, like thrown out then, because I just, I don't really know

Starting point is 00:09:24 about that park because I wasn't, I didn't see any of it, but like he was closer to the shore than Anthony was. And he stayed in the water for like 10 minutes, just like holding on to the pile and just screaming Mallory's name. And then Anthony was out there screaming Mallory's name, like I couldn't hear anything because Mallory was screaming so loud. So I was like, and I was like the first person I checked on was Connor because like he's my boyfriend and like I wanted to make sure he was okay. And so I went and found him and like Mallory was just like nowhere to be seen, like it was just like she disappeared. And then Anthony was screaming in the water for Mallory, and that's when like I knew like something bad had happened, like that Mallory was missing.

Starting point is 00:10:04 I, Connor had his phone still on him. So I was like calling on one and it took us like five minutes, like we group ourselves to like be able to call. And so it was like maybe like five or 10 minutes before we even called anybody. And like we didn't know where we were, what the bridge was called. So we didn't know like what to say. Like you know, we didn't know like what bridge to say we were at or when we really only thing we knew was that we were in Archer's Creek. Police fire at you guys. Hello. We're in a boat crash on Archer's Creek. Where we're about to Archer's Creek. Archer's Creek. The only bridge on Archer's Creek. Archer's Creek. Archer's Creek. Archer's Creek. And then Paul came up and he was just in his underwear, like no pants or anything.

Starting point is 00:11:08 So I don't know like when like if he took off his pants before he hit the water or just like because I'm pretty sure he's wearing a belt. So I don't know if like the water, the impact, just he took off his pants. I don't know. But then he came back short and he tried to help Morgan and she was didn't want anything to do with him. She was like get away from me. She didn't want to talk to him at all. And like he didn't care that Mallory was missing because she was like upset because she was like get away from me like fine but Mallory's missing. You know, it's kind of something. It just didn't register with him and like she's missing. And I'm sorry about this audio. Apparently in the only recorded interview of the entire investigation file,

Starting point is 00:11:52 SCDNR decided to vacuum in the middle of it. So I apologize. It's hard to hear. And he just like didn't say anything besides just wanting to call his granddad or something. He called my granddad and he took my phone because it's only 1% so that's why I was like hasn't it called 911 because I was like it's only 1% like I don't know if like it's going to go through or not. So he took my phone and he called his granddad the first person he called and just told him to come. Did you hear the conversation? Anthony was just like you know he was just like belligerent about everything like he was just like so upset and he didn't want to like you know cooperate with me but I mean that's understandable because it was his girlfriend he just wanted to

Starting point is 00:12:32 stay. While they were waiting for the ambulance to arrive, Paul and Anthony almost got into a fight. Paul came to call and like wrapped his blanket around him and I was sitting right there next to him and Paul like smiled or something and Anthony saw him smile and he was like he think this is funny you know this kind of stuff and he like was like about to like go and like fight him because he was that mad because he was like smiling about it. So then they told us I mean the ambulance and all of them had gotten nearby them and they told us that we needed to go into the ambulance and sit down because it was warm in there and Paul had fallen in but I was just like so hot. I just remember like I was so hot and I just couldn't like breathe like I had a seat belt

Starting point is 00:13:13 on me and like I felt like I was gonna like suffocate because I just like I couldn't breathe. Miley like so many others from that night described Paul as belligerent and out of control. Paul apparently got into a deputy's face and was so out of control to the point where they had to strap him down in the ambulance and he still was not arrested. And Paul was just like going on and on and on and like got into several like officers, like officers faces and were like just like saying like because they were trying to get him to calm down and sit down and because they were like we need to take you to the hospital and he was just like being like really about it just saying because it was like if the officer was a man there was two of them lady e-messages and the lady was trying

Starting point is 00:14:04 to be nice and just like calm him down at first and then he got into a guy's officer's face and was like you think that you're like a bigger man than I am and all this kind of stuff and was just like I need to like get out right now and then um Paul was having this conversation with the officer the police officer he was like in this phase like cussing at him. Miley tells investigators something interesting she says that Paul begged her to use her phone so that he could call his grandfather former solicitor Randolph Murdoch for a reminder Paul's grandfather great grandfather and great great grandfather all served as a solicitor over a five county region from 1920 to 2006 a solicitor is South Carolina's district attorney an elected official who is considered

Starting point is 00:14:55 by many to be the most powerful position in our judicial system it's interesting that Paul skipped the chain of command in his family and went directly to the most powerful person even while he was drunk you said Paul took your phone to call his granddad why did he call his granddad did he say why why why didn't he call his dad or what was there well because like you know they're lawyers and stuff and he wanted to handle me at first he was because um he just called his granddad because that's what he does in every day his dad a lawyer yes um but he didn't want to call his dad he just wanted to call his granddad and then like we're in the English and you want he's kept on going back and forth about calling

Starting point is 00:15:36 his dad he's like I need to call big red that's what they call him he's like I need to call him big red is and like his dad and so he just kept on going back and forth like I need to call him I'm with Paul and he's like no no no I can't call him and I'm like you know I think he finally called him so what Miley says here is that Paul called his grandfather because his family is full of lawyers and that's what he always does in situations like this call his granddad new court documents allege that law enforcement officers might have conspired a cover-up in the investigation the documents were filed by attorneys representing Connor Cook the young man who was heard in the 911 call the documents are explosive they allege that officers from

Starting point is 00:16:20 DNR and the beaver county sheriff's office possibly conspired to essentially frame Connor Cook as the driver and intentionally shifted the investigation away from Paul Murdock that is a big deal most of the alleged conspiracies circled around three officers Michael Brock and Austin Pritchard of SEDNR and John Keener of the beaver county sheriff's office all three of the officers have some ties to the Murdock family in depositions attorneys question and almost accuse those officers of falsifying the reports to favor Paul Murdock which would then create confusion about who was driving the boat in multiple depositions attorneys played audio from the scene where Mallory Beach's boyfriend Anthony Cook was very clear about who was driving the boat

Starting point is 00:17:07 Anthony got angry at Paul while officers were on scene Anthony Cook told DNR officer Austin Pritchard that Paul was driving that conversation was picked up on car audio according to depositions but Pritchard did not write this in his report instead he wrote that Anthony said he didn't know who was driving this is very different from what the audio said according to depositions a Paris island officer said in a sworn affidavit that he was there when Anthony Cook told officer Michael Brock of DNR that he knew Paul was driving the boat and that Paul killed his girlfriend but Brock did not write that in his report instead he wrote that Anthony flipped out and was yelling at Paul John Keener of the beaver county sheriff's office wrote in his report that it was quote

Starting point is 00:17:57 unquote unclear who was driving the boat but he admitted in deposition that this was his personal opinion and no one said anything to him that would indicate that Connor may have been driving one thing that nearly all of the reports and depositions are clear about is that Paul Murdock appeared grossly intoxicated in the hours after the crash one beaver county sheriff's office report said that Paul was almost aggressive toward EMS personnel during the ambulance ride to the hospital deputy John Keener of the beaver county sheriff's office testified that Paul was quote being belligerent and stupid in quote to the point where they had to send a deputy in the ambulance to ride with him at the hospital DNR officer Austin Pritchard said that Paul appeared to be intoxicated and was

Starting point is 00:18:44 quote acting pretty out of control in quote he said that he was strapped to a gurney and there was a security officer monitoring him at the hospital Paul Murdock was never offered a field sobriety test that night which was a move highly criticized by the public at the time Austin Pritchard testified that his superior at DNR Michael Brock ordered him to only offer Connor Cook a field sobriety test that night Pritchard said that he offered Connor Cook a field sobriety test because he was starting to quote unquote zero in on him as a main suspect Pritchard wrote in a report that Connor refused to take a field sobriety test such a report does not exist for Paul Murdock son of the owner of the boat who was heavily intoxicated according to multiple police reports

Starting point is 00:19:32 Pritchard said that he was trying to get a statement from Paul Murdock when Paul's father Ellick Murdock and his grandfather Randolph Murdock the third walked in and stopped him quote they came in and said Paul's not saying anything else and I told him I'm talking to Paul and they said no you're talking to us now in quote Pritchard testified that that moment was when quote everything clicked in who the Murdochs were in quote so about 10 minutes after Paul Murdock arrived at Buford Memorial Hospital on February 24 2019 Paul's father Ellick Murdock and grandfather former solicitor Randolph Murdock appeared according to witnesses Ellick Murdock appeared to be more concerned with orchestrating a plan

Starting point is 00:20:23 in the criminal investigation than he was with finding Mallory Beach who had just gone missing in fact a security guard overheard Ellick Murdock on the phone saying she's gone don't worry about her multiple nurses noted that Ellick Murdock was often looking at the emergency room screen trying to track down boat crash victims several nurses noted that they observed Ellick Murdock moving from room to room a lot while the other patients parents stayed with their children the charge nurse also told a security guard to keep an eye on Ellick Murdock because he was trying to enter other patients rooms specifically Ellick Murdock was seen multiple times trying to get into Paul's girlfriend's room the same woman Paul had spit on and slapped moments before

Starting point is 00:21:11 the crash according to witness statements Ellick Murdock tried to get into a room and was telling the nurse that he had to tell her what to say while Ellick Murdock was allegedly going from room to room orchestrating a plan Paul was restrained in his hospital room Paul's nurse described him as one of the most arrogant teenagers to ever come through the ER she said he was the most intoxicated and most belligerent of all those involved in a security guard had to stay with Paul because he was so out of control family patriarch Randolph Murdock kept telling Paul to keep his mouth shut according to a security guard another security guard said that Randolph seemed angry at Paul and said his grandson was quote as drunk as cooter brown unquote remember Ellick

Starting point is 00:21:53 Murdock is a volunteer for the solicitor's office which means he works with solicitor Duffy Stone who will later recuse himself from the criminal case against Paul due to conflict of interest Ellick was also seen multiple times talking to Connor Cook who broke his jaw in the crash and telling him that they were going to figure everything out nurses also reported seeing Ellick Murdock attempting to talk to Connor Cook on the way to his CAT scan an ER tech told SEDNR that she overheard Ellick Murdock tell Connor Cook he was handling it and told him not to say anything Paul's friends told SEDNR that they were afraid of the Murdock's and assumed that they were working on a cover-up mentioning previous similar incidents Paul's girlfriend told her nurse that Paul in

Starting point is 00:22:44 his drinking habits almost killed them in a vehicle accident before all of this happened she didn't mention details but said that they were in a truck was this another cover-up because there does not appear to be any law enforcement records of this crash Anthony Cook Mallory's boyfriend told DNR several days after the accident that Connor was not driving the boat and he said that his cousin was scared because quote the Murdochs are out to pin it on him unquote but while testimony is one thing physical evidence is another attorney suggests that several pieces of evidence appear to be missing in this case including Paul's phone which was picked up by another officer on scene according to audio Paul's pants which attorneys assume contain his wallet with his fake

Starting point is 00:23:30 ID inside DNA swabs from blood on the boat and corresponding photographs of DNA collection which could prove where Connor was positioned in the boat at the time of the crash and an audio recording of Anthony Cook telling Michael Brock that Paul Murdock killed his girlfriend Mallory Beach SEDNR never sought a warrant to compel the hospital to draw Paul's blood that night but the hospital did anyways because he was behaving so erratically they thought he might have a head injury at 4 a.m his BAC level was about 0.286 which would mean that he was 3.5 times over the legal limit to drive because of the confusion in the initial investigation it took two months for authorities to charge Paul with three felony counts of boating under the influence

Starting point is 00:24:23 unlike the vast majority of felony B.Y. cases Paul Murdock never stepped foot in a jail at the time of his death he was facing 25 years in prison for the charges Paul Murdock was murdered on June 7th which ended the criminal investigation of the boat crash however there is another criminal investigation ongoing in this case now years later sources are questioning if obstruction of justice took place that night this obstruction of justice investigation is currently before the statewide grand jury in Columbia South Carolina according to Fitznews sources so one big question remains in the case did the Murdochs and their law enforcement connections conspire to frame Conor Cook and create confusion in the investigation stay tuned to the Murdock Murders podcast

Starting point is 00:25:17 in Fitznews.com for the latest updates in the case or follow me on twitter at twitter.com slash Mandy M-A-N-D-Y Matney M-A-T-N-E-Y and don't forget to leave a five star review unless you're going to be nasty and talk about my vocal fry the Murdoch Murders podcast is created by me Mandy Matney and my fiance David Moses produced by Luna Shuck Productions

Murdaugh Murders Podcast - Who Killed Mallory Beach? Part Two - (S01E5)

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