Alex Murdaugh Defense: ‘Killer is Short’
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.2 • 8.1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 February 2023
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Alex Murdaugh's defense team began their day in court by calling Buster Murdaugh to the stand. He insisted that his father was “heartbroken” and “destroyed” after finding the bodies of his wife and son.
The disgraced lawyer seemed to wipe away tears as his son said, “He asked me if I was sitting down … he sounded odd and then he told me that my mom and brother had been shot.”
We also learned in testimony that just after discovering the bodies, Murdaugh searched online for a popular South Carolina restaurant. His phone records show a search for ‘Whaley’s Edisto’ in Safari browser” at 10:40 p.m. This timeline shows Murdaugh was still at the crime scene just 15 minutes after the first cop arrived. The restaurant he searched is one of the oldest in Edisto — where the Murdaughs’ main house is located.
Later in the testimony, a forensic expert testified that Alex Murdaugh was too tall to be the shooter.
Joining Nancy Grace today:
- Joshua Ritter - Criminal defense attorney, partner at El Dabe Ritter Trial Lawyers, former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, Twitter @joshuaritteresq,
- Chris McDonough -Director At the Cold Case Foundation, Former Homicide Detective; Host of YouTube channel- ‘The Interview Room’
- Dr. Heidi Sievers -Founder- Sievers Forensics; Bloodstain pattern Analyst/Lead Consultant; Author: 'The $#*+ You Can't Make Up: Dark humor and Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms;' Twitter:@thebloodstaindr
- Dr. Michelle DuPre - Former Forensic Pathologist, Medical Examiner, and Detective: Lexington County Sheriff's Department; Author: 'Homicide Investigation Field Guide' & 'Investigating Child Abuse Field Guide;' Forensic Consultant
- Anne Emerson - Senior Investigative Reporter, WCIV ABC News 4 (Charleston, SC); Host of Award-Winning DAILY Podcast: 'Unsolved South Carolina: The Murdaugh Murders, Money and Mystery;' Twitter: @AnneTEmerson
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The jury is on their lunch recess. We all hustled away from the testimony to join you live. A lot happening in the courtroom. The defense is taking the lead right now. |
| 0:23.0 | We saw the remaining surviving son, Buster Murdoch, on the stand. And boy, did they need a friendly witness? Because let me tell you something. We now learn that as he is standing next to his dead wife and dead son, their bodies riddled with bullets. |
| 0:47.0 | Alex Murdoch takes time to look up a local restaurant and take a gander at a bikini picture. Yes, you heard me right. Take a listen to this. |
| 1:02.0 | I think you have in the timeline later on, he reads some spam text message about, I think there's a picture of a woman in a bikini. |
| 1:12.0 | He doesn't call a spam text message. It's from Michael Gunn, who would be one of his friends. He Googles the name of a restaurant and that is so beach. That is what comes up on his phone. |
| 1:24.0 | So he would seem to be in a state of shock. None of that makes any sense. You're not going to Google the name of a restaurant after you find your son murdered. |
| 1:31.0 | I'm not Alex Murdoch. I don't know what he was thinking at that moment. I probably wouldn't be on my phone. |
| 1:36.0 | Do you believe he was Googling a restaurant or do you think he was fat fingering the phone because he was in shock? I have to go off of the data. That's what the data shows. |
| 1:44.0 | And you believe that calling family and calling someone that the protest of money was, was like another son, is unreasonable in the circumstances. |
| 1:53.0 | I would say so, yes. Given the fact that you just arrived to the scene. |
| 1:58.0 | fingering the phone. No, no. That can't be when you look up a restaurant by name. If you put in the wrong letters, you'll get some crazy result. |
| 2:10.0 | Not a local restaurant. What was he planning to go out for dinner after? |
| 2:15.0 | And you hear the lawyer trying to rehabilitate these awful facts that are coming from the witness stand by saying, well, you know, wouldn't you expect him to call his family? |
| 2:25.0 | Yes, but that's not the first call that Alex Murdoch made after finding his wife and son dead. Take a listen to this. |
| 2:36.0 | The first person he called after hanging up with 911. Was it Rojin? |
| 2:43.0 | I have at 1017-46. He calls Randy Murdoch. |
| 2:47.0 | And that's his brother, correct? That's correct. |
| 2:50.0 | Who was the second person he called? |
| 2:54.0 | The I message is Randy and then calls Randy Murdoch again. And then John Marvin. |
| 3:03.0 | John Marvin is another brother, correct? |
| 3:05.0 | Yes, at 1019. |
| 3:08.0 | And then the third time person he calls is Rojin, is that correct? |
... |
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