The Murdaugh Case Files: A boat crash heard around the world

For more than 100 years of South Carolina Lowcountry history, the Murdaugh name meant legal power and money. The Murdaughs quietly enjoyed their wealth, privilege, sprawling estates and waterfront property — even naming one parcel “Murdaugh Island” — until the early morning hours of Feb. 24, 2019, when the grandson of a former solicitor allegedly drove a 17-foot Sea Hunt watercraft into a Beaufort County bridge at more than 30 miles per hour.

It has proven to be a boat crash heard around the world, a fateful and fatal accident that would grow to become another chapter in a tangled and intriguing tale that has captured the attention of media outlets and readers around the world.

After a controversial investigation, Paul Terry Murdaugh, 19 at the time, was charged with three felony counts of boating under the influence in the accident that killed Mallory Beach, also 19, and injured at least two of his friends. Murdaugh, grandson of former 14th Circuit Solicitor Randolph Murdaugh III, pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Murdaugh was out on bond awaiting trial when he and his mother, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, were shot and killed June 7, 2021, outside their Colleton County estate. The double homicide  is still under investigation; no arrests have been made.

Last week, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office released a trove of photos, videos and other documents related to its investigation of the boat crash.

The photos reveal closeup images of damage to the boat, the location of where the crash occurred, the alcohol found on board, and even bloodstains inside the vessel.

Although charges against Murdaugh were officially dismissed due to his death, the boat crash investigation remains open due to an ongoing wrongful death suit by Beach’s estate, and questions surrounding law enforcement’s handling of the case involving well-connected members of a family that has run the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office for more than 85 years.

A spokesperson for the AG’s office would neither confirm nor deny if the investigation is now centered on possible obstruction of justice or other alleged wrongdoings by law enforcement or members of the Murdaugh family.

SCDNR responds to allegations of civil conspiracy in fatal 2019 boat crash

On Aug. 18, a month after a survivor of the boat crash filed a petition alleging civil conspiracy, the SC Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) has released new information it hopes will convince a judge to dismiss the petition.

The information comes after a pre-suit discovery petition was filed in Richland County Court of Common Please on July 7 by Columbia, S.C., attorneys Joseph M. McCulloch Jr. and Kathy R. Schillaci on behalf of Connor Cook, one of five survivors of the crash, alleging a civil conspiracy possibly connecting law enforcement and members of the Murdaugh family.

The civil petition, Connor Cook vs. South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, et al (including the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office and others), seeks the court’s permission to allow Cook’s attorneys to depose several law enforcement and former law enforcement officials, as well as to obtain their personal and law enforcement cell phone records.

According to the petition filed in July in South Carolina’s Fifth Judicial Circuit, Cook “believes the depositions and phone records are necessary to confirm or refute evidence of a civil conspiracy arising from testimony contained in the depositions of law enforcement officers” taken in an associated civil case (Estate of Mallory Beach v. Parker, Inc., et al.)

The petition adds that Cook “is informed and believes these potential deponents may have information regarding a conspiracy to misdirect the criminal investigation away from now deceased Paul Murdaugh, and to wrongfully shift the focus to Petitioner.”

On Wednesday, Aug. 18, attorneys for SCDNR filed the motion in opposition to Cook’s petition, calling it a “fishing expedition” and stating that it is “procedurally deficient, improper, and potentially frivolous, especially considering Cook’s own testimony.”

The SCDNR brief states: “As Connor Cook’s testimony reveals, he lied early and often to investigators, refusing, even to this day, to provide a statement to SCDNR indicating he knew Paul Murdaugh was driving.”

Attached to the SCDNR filing was a copy of Cook’s deposition that was taken by investigators as part of the Beach wrongful death suit. SCDNR makes reference to that deposition several times.

“Connor Cook testified he chose not to tell any investigators because Alex Murdaugh (Paul’s father) told him to keep his ‘mouth shut,’ and he was doing what he was told… Cook testified he witnessed Paul Murdaugh, while on the phone on the way to the hospital, tell his grandfather that Connor Cook was the driver, and he became worried the Murdaugh family would try to ‘pin’ the incident on Connor.”

SCDNR attorneys also contend that Cook has no cognizable claim against SCDNR because he has suffered no damages, as Paul Murdaugh was the only person charged in the incident.

What else did the Cook deposition reveal?

While being questioned by attorneys in regards to the Beach wrongful death suit, Cook told investigators that he did what Alex Murdaugh told him to do because “I was told not to, and being who they are, I was doing what I was told.”

Paul Murdaugh was the grandson of the late Randolph Murdaugh III, the former 14th Circuit Solicitor for the five-county area that includes Beaufort County. Randolph III, along with his father and grandfather, ran that office for more than 85 years.

In his testimony, Cook indicated that there were several rumored or alleged Hampton County incidents involving members of the Murdaugh family that gave him pause in telling the truth to police.

Cook stated, “There’s a couple of things that had happened in Hampton that I heard about… one was said that Paul had pushed his housemate (housekeeper) down the stairs and she died and nothing ever happened.”

Gloria Harriott Satterfield, 57, died on Feb. 26, 2018, according to her obituary. Her obituary stated that she worked for the Murdaugh family and loved them like family.

On Dec. 19, 2018, a representative of Satterfield’s estate filed a wrongful death suit against Alex Murdaugh, claiming she died from injuries sustained in a trip and fall accident in Hampton County. The claim was settled on Oct. 5, 2020, according to court documents.

“And another one,” Cook stated, “there was something that Paul was supposedly involved with a guy, got found beat up in the middle of the road that they got out of.”

While investigating the Murdaugh double homicide, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division recently opened an investigation into a cold case involving Stephen Smith, who was found dead on a rural Hampton County road in 2015.

“I mean, just anything they get in they get out of,” Cook testified. “I’ve always been told that.”

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