The defendant claimed that Paul left his wife and son by the dog kennel shortly after recording the Snapchat video, which ended at 8:45 p.m. Asked if he could have left as late as 8:47 p.m., Murdaugh said it was possible, but he believed it would have been earlier, and that he was back at the house by 8:49 p.m.
(Prosecutors say McGee and Paul were killed around 8:49 p.m., and investigators say they stopped actively using their phones after that.) The SLED phone expert was found on the side of the road on January 31, more than 400 meters from their home. She testified that data suggested someone had taken possession of Maggie’s cell phone at 8:54 p.m. and 9:06 p.m., but that it had not been unlocked.The cell phone recorded five missed calls from her husband between 9:04 p.m. and 10:03 p.m.
Murdaugh’s suburban data shows he left for his mother’s home in Almeda at 9:02 p.m., but when asked if he heard “anything” before driving away, Murdaugh replied, “I didn’t.”
Waters noted that Murdaugh previously told investigators that he thought he heard Maggie and Paul drive up to the main house, adding, “He said he probably didn’t hear the Blackout gunfire, but he did hear it.”
Waters again questioned how cooperative Murdaugh really was with investigators.
The defendant was “cooperative in all aspects of this investigation except for lying about going to the kennel,” the statement said.
The prosecutor responded, “You have been very cooperative, except perhaps the most important fact is that you were at the murder scene minutes before the victim died.”
Waters played a video of Murdaugh being questioned by investigators on June 8, 2021, in which Murdaugh said he was at home while his wife was in the kennel. Asked when she decided to lie, Murdaugh said it wasn’t a conscious lie that she didn’t say she was in the kennel with Maggie and Paul. He reiterated his previous explanation that he had become paranoid due to drug abuse and did not trust SLED.
