Two people likely responsible for Murdaugh family murders: expert

A blood-spatter expert testified Monday in Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial that two people are likely responsible for the slaying — not one.

University of New Haven professor Timothy Palmbach, who was called by the defense, told the Colleton County Court “the totality of the evidence” suggests Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were killed in a “two shooter scenario.”

Palmbach said it’s clear Paul — who was found dead next to his mother in the property of the the family’s Islandton, South Carolina hunting lodge — was killed by someone standing directly over him who, in his opinion, most likely put the gun right on his head.

Noting “large amounts of tissue that were projected all the way up onto the ceiling and the door… hair all the way up into the door, and of course…blood literally everywhere,” the forensic expert said the person who shot him was likely injured due to the close range killing.

“Minimally, that shooter is getting covered with his material, getting more or less the shock wave of that effect and more than likely getting hit with at least something that could have done injury — a bone fragment and or a pellet fragment,” Palmbach said. “I think that particular shooter for a brief period of time is, is kind of out of this.”

Paul, 22, was killed with a shotgun while his mother, 52, was killed with a rifle, but Palmbach believes the two were killed shortly after one another. He said the evidence also points to Paul being shot first.

“It’s not as if [the shooter] could instantaneously suffer that, drop the shotgun and run to wherever the rifle is and then, in any kind of a reasonable time period, engage in a meaningful assault” of Maggie, he said.

The expert then said he doesn’t think it’s practical to imagine one shooter bringing both weapons to the scene. 

Palmbach said he believes Maggie was in motion while she shot despite facing the shooter.

Alex Murdaugh pled not guilty to the June 2021 murders, and has repeatedly broken down during the trial, especially when he described the scene where he said he came acrioss his son and wife’s dead bodies. His son Paul had no defensive wounds, according to Palmbach, who said the 22-year-old was likely “startled by that shot.”

Alex’s brother, John Marvin Murdaugh later took the stand and gave highly emotional testimony. He explained how Paul had worked for him and they had been close and then how he visited the home the day after the murders and came across a grisly scene.

“I needed to see for myself what had gone on,” he admitted, before describing how when he went to the kennels where the murders had taken place, “it had not been cleaned up. I saw blood, I saw brains, I saw pieces of skull,” he said.

John Marvin then tearfully described how he called a police officer friend of his to ask permission then set to cleaning up “what was left of Paul,” saying he felt he owed it to him and that he cried uncontrollably throughout.

He also described how he had talked to Paul as he cleaned up, saying how he loved him and vowing to find out who had committed the double killing.

When asked if he had found out who had killed his nephew, he replied that he had not.

John Marvin was also critical of the police investigation into the murders and spoke of his brother’s strong bond with his two sons and Maggie as he gave testimony for the defense.