SC - Paul Murdaugh, 22 and mom Margaret, 52, found shot to death, Islandton, 7 June 2021 #3

[LetsSolvIt]

• Shortly after 10:30 p.m., a CCSO deputy was instructed to divert to headquarters and get a large tent to cover evidence potentially exposed to the elements.

• Interior and exterior crime scene perimeters were taped off, and a crime scene log was kept of everyone who entered the crime scene.

SLED June 21 Update: New documents released in Murdaugh homicides

*** Hey, glad to see more people have rejoined us!! Lots of brain power!! ***

This article is new to me -- "interior and exterior crime scene" points to the possibility of B&E? or at least engaging one or both of the victims in a building (IMO the caretaker cottage).

Additionally, this is one of the articles that describes the bodies as found outside their house ("...victims on the ground outside the residence...") near the kennels. Again, sounds to me like the caretaker cottage. "Outside the residence" doesn't seem to fit with the main dwelling four football fields away and nowhere near the kennels. The deputy sees a house a few hundred feet away and refers to it "the residence."

Augusta Chronicle writer: "Their bodies were found outside the residence, relatively close to each other, on the ground near a dog kennel."

SLED June 21 Update: New documents released in Murdaugh homicides

- - - - -
What I'm picturing now is: PM is staying in the caretaker cottage during the summer break. He may be a little worse for the wear with his recent court hearing, death threats, and probably no friends and no parties. In his sober moments, he might be clinically depressed and feeling remorse -- like he's ruined his life. MM knows AM is running late, so as the loving and concerned mother she seems to be, MM's down checking in with her son, maybe brought him dinner, maybe trying to keep his mind off his situation, maybe they are watching a movie. The hit man/men show up . They might only have knocked on the door and were probably only looking for PM, but they don't want a witness. They march them both outside (IMHO out across the driveway and around a loosely wooded area to left of kennels) where evidence could be distorted by weather and animals or not found at all in the leaves and brush. It's neater -- no walls to capture a stray bullet, no blood splatter patterns, etc. They tell MM to run but then shoot her (I don't know if she was shot in the back but this works if they were trying to spare her the anticipation of death -- she wasn't the target and she was a woman). Then they execute PM -- might even have made him beg for his life. Horrible story -- JMO. I hate writing it.

We don't know whose guns they used.

I am still trying to imagine how AM would have found them unless the lights were on in the cottage and the door left ajar, but no one home. He is concerned, maybe the dogs were still barking, and as he walks over to check the dogs, he encounters the bodies. Only something that might work with what we know -- my options only.

 

[girlhasnoname]

This is what's sticking out to me <snipped & BBM>

The incident was reported at 10:07 p.m. on June 7 under the incident code "O9A Murder and Nonnegligent Manslaughter."

Definition: The willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by another. As a general rule, any death caused by injuries received in a fight, argument, quarrel, assault, or commission of a crime is classified as Murder and Nonnegligent Manslaughter (1a).

I think someone went after PM and shot MM after she defended him in fight, verbal altercation. I don't think MM was the target after all.

MOO

ETA: spelling

 

[Data Sleuth]

With regard to SLED officially mentioning firearms:

A) the redacted LE report item 4 mentions “a firearm (singular) seized from the crime scene.
(See attached SLED report excerpt)

B) Items 14 and 15 from the redacted SLED report (attachment) lists the vehicles found at the scene and states ...”and the firearms(plural) seized”

Based on these three SLED report excerpt it is my opinion that a singular firearm was seized from the actual crime scene (close proximity to the victim’s bodies).
Additionally multiple firearms were seized that were either in the vehicles or in close proximity to them.

However we still do not know if any of these firearms were used on the victims that evening.

QUOTE="LetsSolvIt, post: 16967848, member: 291559"]I get very confused! I feel like initially what we were told was no weapons retrieved and then later stories and our posts mentioned retrieving guns or something that made me think LE came back and took possession of some family guns. A few posts back someone wrote the guns were found in the river after a tip. Maybe we aren't being careful enough about citing facts? Or more likely, reporters have written and rewritten this story so many times that they word things a little differently to make the story sound new? JMO.

Following tire tracks and shoeprints would likely be part of processing the scene and I would think more effectively performed in day light. If the gun facts changed, it might be that by artificial light the night of June 7, they didn't spot them, and then found them a day or two later in the daylight (or in the river, as alleged). JMO.

As impatient as I am, I do want LE / SLED to do their investigations (PM, AM, MB, SS, GS) very carefully and get this right All the victims deserve justice and the community needs to know what has really been going on.[/QUOTE]

 

[clearskies1]

This is what's sticking out to me <snipped & BBM>

The incident was reported at 10:07 p.m. on June 7 under the incident code "O9A Murder and Nonnegligent Manslaughter."

Definition: The willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by another. As a general rule, any death caused by injuries received in a fight, argument, quarrel, assault, or commission of a crime is classified as Murder and Nonnegligent Manslaughter (1a).

I think someone went after PM and shot MM after she defended him in fight, verbal altercation. I don't think MM was the target after all.

MOO

ETA: spelling

I think that incident category just covers non-accidental killings., ie., they were intentionally killed -- it wasn't caused by negligence/or an accident.

 

[clearskies1]

We don't know where MM and PM were in the time leading up to their deaths, correct? For all we know they drove onto the property together, were somehow stopped and forced to get out of the car, and then shot. JMO.

 

[shefner]

Could MM have heard gunfire and come down with a weapon of her own....and this is the firearm found near the bodies?

 

[clearskies1]

Could MM have heard gunfire and come down with a weapon of her own....and this is the firearm found near the bodies?

Is there a confirmed report of a gun found near the bodies?

 

[Sustained]

Could MM have heard gunfire and come down with a weapon of her own....and this is the firearm found near the bodies?

Was there a firearm found by the bodies or did SLED confiscate Alex's personal weapon at the scene ?

 

[LetsSolvIt]

For those who were asking about the Rte. 63 bridge over the Salkehatchie River, where it's alleged that LE was searching for evidence, I have posted two aerials with annotations below and on our document/resource thread (#6) for this case. Learn more about the bridge and view more photos taken in 1997.

 

[Sustained]

For those who were asking about the Rte. 63 bridge over the Salkehatchie River, where it's alleged that LE was searching for evidence, I have posted two aerials with annotations below and on our document/resource thread (#6) for this case. Learn more about the bridge and view more photos taken in 199.7

Nice work !

 

[shefner]

Was there a firearm found by the bodies or did SLED confiscate Alex's personal weapon at the scene ?

My understanding is that there was one gun seized from the crime scene and then other firearms seized from the vehicle.
I am making the assumption that the gun seized from the crime scene was within a certain distance of the bodies. But nothing specific has been released since details about the gun have been redacted.

https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/crime/article252778263.html

 

[Colorado303]

I get very confused! I feel like initially what we were told was no weapons retrieved and then later stories and our posts mentioned retrieving guns or something that made me think LE came back and took possession of some family guns. A few posts back someone wrote the guns were found in the river after a tip. Maybe we aren't being careful enough about citing facts? Or more likely, reporters have written and rewritten this story so many times that they word things a little differently to make the story sound new? JMO.

Following tire tracks and shoeprints would likely be part of processing the scene and I would think more effectively performed in day light. If the gun facts changed, it might be that by artificial light the night of June 7, they didn't spot them, and then found them a day or two later in the daylight (or in the river, as alleged). JMO.

As impatient as I am, I do want LE / SLED to do their investigations (PM, AM, MB, SS, GS) very carefully and get this right All the victims deserve justice and the community needs to know what has really been going on.

To be clear, I never posed guns being found in the river as a fact. Just that I think if they found them in the river it could explain the “no weapons found on scene” and “weapons recovered” discrepancies in LE statements.

 

[Warwick7]

Are these the right ones?

https://publicindex.sccourts.org/Ha...907685101106761141136569112971189898878811277

https://publicindex.sccourts.org/Ha...486751741034784574311752117122105101888411569

Thank you!
I haven't tapped on it yet. I need to on my laptop.

 

[Razz]

Cops investigating Stephen Smith's death questioned his ties to Buster Murdaugh, docs reveal | Daily Mail Online

This is an excellent article and names another young man who was interviewed in the SS case.

I cannot figure out how to bring what I want to highlight from this article so I'll bring over part of the text in another reply.

Doggone, it didn't highlight! I'm fit to be tied.

 

[Hair of the Dog]

Cops investigating Stephen Smith's death questioned his ties to Buster Murdaugh, docs reveal | Daily Mail Online

This is an excellent article and names another young man who was interviewed in the SS case.

I cannot figure out how to bring what I want to highlight from this article so I'll bring over part of the text in another reply.

Doggone, it didn't highlight! I'm fit to be tied.

Try highlighting the text you wish to copy, then right click, click copy, come back to your websleuths post and right click, click paste to insert it in your document where you want it. Control C/Control V doesn't always work but using the right click usually does for me.

 

[Razz]

Try highlighting the text you wish to copy, then right click, click copy, come back to your websleuths post and right click, click paste to insert it in your document where you want it. Control C/Control V doesn't always work but using the right click usually does for me.

OK. Here it is from the above referenced article from the Daily Mail:

Investigative notes also show that officers quizzed one subject about whom they had received a tip-off.

The tip-off which came via anonymous email stated that, 'Dontereo Aiken along with another black male and a white male (Murdaugh) are the ones involved in the death.'

Investigators followed up on this and spoke with Aiken about his knowledge of, 'anyone with the last name Murdaugh.'

Aiken said that 'he knew one that graduated with the victim.' But when questioned, he himself denied being friends with any Murdaughs on Facebook and then appeared to indicate he was unsure.

Officers subsequently found that Aiken was Facebook friends with Buster Murdaugh.

When pressed, he 'stated he never hang (sic) out with him or went to any parties hosted by the Murdaugh subjects.'

In another curious inclusion, an officer noted a tip called in on December 18 by a man claiming that his stepson had named a local guy as the one who 'struck and killed Stephen Smith.'

 

[swedeheart]

https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/crime/article253120553.html

"Pat Conroy, the legendary author whose books about the Lowcountry spawned Oscar-nominated films and numerous awards, recalled in his 2013 memoir the first time he met Randolph “Buster” Murdaugh Jr., Paul’s great-grandfather.

In “The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son,” Conroy describes the conversation he had with his father about hiring Randolph Murdaugh III, Buster’s son and Paul’s grandfather, for his parents’ upcoming divorce trial in the 1970s.

Conroy and Murdaugh III were both recipients of The Order of the Palmetto. The award, the highest civilian honor given by the governor of South Carolina, recognizes a person’s lifetime achievements and contributions to the state."

 

[LetsSolvIt]

Something came to me -- we don't really know where BM was the evening of June 7, do we? He lives in Rock Hill, which MapQuest will tell you is about 2hrs, 40 min North of Moselle Rd. But how many people his age have a landline? When his uncle was calling him that Monday night, he could have been anywhere answering on his cell phone.

Also, isn't he working for the PMPED law firm? Presumably not the office in Hampton (that would be over 2 hrs. from Rock Hill), but the other two offices in Ridgeland and Walterboro seem like they are kind of a long commute from Rock Hill, too. But who knows, maybe he was part time or was a remote worker.

Only some thoughts. JMO.

 

[Elley Mae]

Something came to me -- we don't really know where BM was the evening of June 7, do we? He lives in Rock Hill, which MapQuest will tell you is about 2hrs, 40 min North of Moselle Rd. But how many people his age have a landline? When his uncle was calling him that Monday night, he could have been anywhere answering on his cell phone.

Also, isn't he working for the PMPED law firm? Presumably not the office in Hampton (that would be over 2 hrs. from Rock Hill), but the other two offices in Ridgeland and Walterboro seem like they are kind of a long commute from Rock Hill, too. But who knows, maybe he was part time or was a remote worker.

Only some thoughts. JMO.

Not sure where he works, thought I had read he was doing work/working at the law firm, not sure when.

But, he is not on the Directory of members for sc bar.

https://www.scbar.org/media/filer_p...575b/2020_directoryofmembers_20200819_2a2.pdf

 

[worm]

I follow wis tv and can’t believe we haven’t seen an update on this. Even if it’s just to say they are still at it. My negatives continue to grow with this case.