SC - Paul Murdaugh, 22 and mom Margaret, 52, found shot to death, Islandton, 7 June 2021

New Posts

Status
Not open for further replies.
From the link..
Arrests made in arson, armed robbery cases

MDL , 40, of Xxxx, Islandton, is facing arson charges after previously being arrested on five counts of failure to pay laborers. List appeared before municipal judge John Stanley Thursday for a bond hearing.
According to warrants, List allegedly sprayed flammable liquids on the furniture and the walls of the Murdaugh residence and then attempted to ignite the dwelling.’

So he was inside the house. Was he a contractor of some sort? Why wasn’t he prosecuted…certainly a man so,deranged as to spray the inside of a house with flammable liquid and set a deliberate fire…is a threat to the community or anyone who hires him.

Add this to the weird list…if this was just dropped…especially by a family that are prosecutors and personal injury lawyers.
 
stmarysmead said:
Local attorney victim of attempted arson

This happened in 2009.

HAMPTON - Local and state police are still searching for a suspect in connection with an apparent arson attempt at the home of a local attorney.
Firefighters responded to a reported structure fire at the home of Alex Murdaugh at 515 Holly St. Extension around 7:30 Friday morning. While the fire was quickly distinguished, evidence at the scene has prompted an arson investigation, said Hampton Police Chief Perry McAlhaney.
“We suspect that sometime Thursday night or Friday morning someone spread some kind of accelerant around the house and tried to set it on fire from the back door,” said McAlhaney. “Luckily, for some reason it didn’t spread through the house and the only thing that burned was the floor mat.“
McAlhaney said that as of Wednesday morning the incident is still under investigation by the Hampton Police Department with assistance from the State Law Enforcement Division Arson Team, the Hampton County Sheriff’s Office, and the Varnville Police Department.
McAlhaney added that an estimate of the amount of damage to the Murdaugh home was not known at this time. Murdaugh is an attorney with the Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, & Detrick law firm in Hampton and the son of retired solicitor Randolph Murdaugh III.
Click to expand...

This is why saying they have no enemies is inaccurate.
 
Warwick7 said:
I don't mean to be irritating here, but, I feel stumped on this night of the murder. I am questioning a few things.

1. "After visiting his ailing elderly parents on Monday, June 10, Alex Murdaugh...returned to the house."

Ok, so he was "visiting" his parents. Not out hunting, not taking his father to the hospital? (Which we've been told numerous times.)

2. "There, lying on the grass more than 100 yards from the main house, he found Paul’s body..."

100 yards is the length of a football stadium. Its not like he pulled up at 10pm at night and just happen to glance up and see his family on the ground.

I've looked at the layout of the property already. Unless there was were flood lights equal to stadium lights no one can come home and just happen to see his family.

3. LE said early on that Alex was a “person of interest” in the investigation of his wife and son’s deaths, but now say he was not. Yet others say he is
Is he or isn't he...

4. Maggie was found some distance away from PM. What is "some distance"?
We've been told "few yards."
So what is that: 3ft, maybe 4 ft??
That is not "some distance away."

5. Solicitor Duffie Stone — is the Murdaugh’s hand-picked replacement for their late father....

Stone has still not rescue himself from the case — despite mounting pressure due to his many conflicts of interest.

6. Some MSM state charges against PM for the boating incident will be dropped. Other MSM state the Beach family won't drop charges.

These are just a few....
Click to expand...
There are indeed conflicting sounding reports coming out but I think a lot of it is journalistic churn, reporting agencies wanting to publish a new article but there being so little new information being released that the articles are just rephrasing (and sometimes mild speculation) so as to sound different than the articles their competition posted the previous day. I'll try to provide answers for your very understandable questions as I recall from the many many articles already posted in this thread. Again, this is clarification purely to the best of my understanding from various reported sources. If anyone has info that I am not recalling or that I am recalling incorrectly please help me to clarify.

1. This is indeed conflicting but I believe the most official story is going to turn out that AM was at the hospital with his father at the exact time established for the killing, a very small window for the facts as we currently know them but the family's explicit references to an "iron clad alibi" feel like that's it, that Alex was on camera and witnessed by many hospital staff. Some people might think that it is almost improbably lucky for him. The reports that he was "out shooting" might mean that he had guns with him and that he had been shooting earlier than the 30 minute window the crime was established to have taken place in. There are reasonable explanations for why that window might be so narrow but we haven't been given one yet.

2. The shooting took place near outbuildings, presumably tree ones at the end of the diagonal drive through the woods and that presumably had their own lights, AM's car would have headlights and it wouldn't have even been completely dark at 9:30pm.

3. AM is not currently considered a "person of interest" by law enforcement

4. This one is definitely unclear and I would like to know more specifically as well. "A few yards" is the most specific figure I also have read which to me reads as around 12 feet or perhaps about as far as someone might run after being shot before they fall.

5. I'm not even going to touch that one other than to say again that I strongly believe the FBI should be involved in this case now that murder is officially a part of it - and the FBI shouldn't be waiting to be invited either.

6. I believe this had already been answered but it is normal for criminal charges to be dropped against deceased individuals while civil charges can proceed against their estate. I'm this case I believe the civil case had already processed beyond Paul anyway.

Again this post is to the best of my recollection and might as well be considered entirely my personal opinion or conjecture
 
stmarysmead said:
On one hand, a very brutal double murder takes place. On the other hand, authorities tell the public…don’t worry about it…no risk to general public though the murderers are still at large.

On one hand, LE is being unusually secretive about this case, to the extent that newspapers are taking them to court. On the other hand, this very private family feels compelled to do two consecutive interviews on two popular morning shows. Yes, a tipline is set up, but this very wealthy family offers no reward for the apprehension of the killers.

On one hand, the family members tell the public that their family has no enemies. On the other hand, 10 yrs ago, someone tried to burn down the home of the these same victims. And if they have no enemies, then it is a random crime, in which case, the general public certainly is at risk.

On one hand, the family tells the public that their brother has an air-tight alibi. On the other hand, doesn’t that mean two dangerous killers are loose in the community? So how in the world does all this secrecy by LE benefit the general public???

On one hand, the family tells the general public that they are no dynasty, are just an ordinary family like the rest of us, but on the other hand, nothing about the way this case is being handled is ordinary?

Just my opinions as always. Truly befuddled on this one.
Click to expand...
BAM!! Exactly!!!!
 
After watching that TV piece, I am convinced that media just makes up and fills in gaps with conjecture. The only verified part is 2 people are dead and it has been ruled homicide. I’ll go back to lurking…as I am not confident in swiftly working agencies…JMO
 
<modsnip - quoted post has been removed>

Sustained said:
Some new information can be found here in the released redacted crime reports :

Redacted Murdaugh murder crime scene reports offer some new details

Of most interest is that one of two vehicles at the scene was towed to the police impound lot for further examination.
Click to expand...
Might be something as simple as it having been struck by gunfire but any new info is better than nothing.

Edited to add : I just read through all the redacted documents
https://www.scribd.com/document/512...Reports-Colleton-County-Sheriff-s-Office-SLED

And from the tone of them, especially page 8 about "making contact with a ____________" I think law enforcement does have a suspect or suspects in custody, probably being held on lesser charges for the time being. From the amount of redaction about the security cameras I think significant useful information has already been taken from cameras.

I also found Sgt Greene's statement particularly interesting. It seems he was the first responder and quite quickly established that the scene was clear based on some details that were redacted. I wonder what those were. I would be pretty reluctant to enter a killing field like that even with a jacket and rifle.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
evilwise said:
And from the tone of them, especially page 8 about "making contact with a ____________" I think law enforcement does have a suspect or suspects in custody, probably being held on lesser charges for the time being. From the amount of redaction about the security cameras I think significant useful information has already been taken from cameras.

I also found Sgt Greene's statement particularly interesting. It seems he was the first responder and quite quickly established that the scene was clear based on some details that were redacted. I wonder what those were. I would be pretty reluctant to enter a killing field like that even with a jacket and rifle.
Click to expand...

Snipped and BBM i agree this is a possibility. If there is someone being held on a lesser charge, my guess would be burglary. They might have evidence from surveillance footage of trespassing on the property at night which is sufficient for burglary. There is someone who was arrested for burglary early on and the Detective on that case is mentioned in the case file. I have also seen a bunch of drug arrests though in the county.
 
Canaille said:
Why does the report state murder and non negligent manslaughter?
Click to expand...


I was wondering that too but it’s possibly just how the charge is coded in the police documents system?

ETA I found this online:
Criminal Homicide-Murder and Nonnegligent Manslaughter: The willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by another. Robbery: The taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear.
 
evilwise said:
And from the tone of them, especially page 8 about "making contact with a ____________" I think law enforcement does have a suspect or suspects in custody, probably being held on lesser charges for the time being. From the amount of redaction about the security cameras I think significant useful information has already been taken from cameras.
Click to expand...

Snipped and BBM

Page 7 is a statement from someone who was paired with the sergeant making the bolded statement on page 8 to canvass local residents looking for video surveillance possibilities.

IMO, "making contact with a _____" could be as innocent as "making contact with a homeowner/resident" as the location is redacted as well.
 
MoeInVA said:
Snipped and BBM i agree this is a possibility. If there is someone being held on a lesser charge, my guess would be burglary. They might have evidence from surveillance footage of trespassing on the property at night which is sufficient for burglary. There is someone who was arrested for burglary early on and the Detective on that case is mentioned in the case file. I have also seen a bunch of drug arrests though in the county.
Click to expand...
Drugs are usually the easiest thing to arrest career criminals over

Sustained said:
Snipped and BBM

Page 7 is a statement from someone who was paired with the sergeant making the bolded statement on page 8 to canvass local residents looking for video surveillance possibilities.

IMO, "making contact with a _____" could be as innocent as "making contact with a homeowner/resident" as the location is redacted as well.
Click to expand...
The black space in the document strikes me as the right size for "suspect" or "witness" but there's a lot more than just what's clearly an address redacted after that, a paragraph or two in its entirety.

There has to be some reason law enforcement so immediately made a statement that there was no danger to the community.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

DNASolves

Who is Escambia County John Doe (1989)?

Staff online

Members online

... and 206 more.
Total: 4,112 (members: 207, guests: 3,905)

Online statistics

Members online
207
Guests online
3,905
Total visitors
4,112
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
591,818
Messages
17,959,559
Members
228,620
Latest member
ohbeehaave
Back
Top