Murdaugh's Sister-in-Law Noticed an Odd Comment

She and Alex Murdaugh had different No. 1 goals after death of Maggie, Paul
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 15, 2023 1:00 AM CST
Updated Feb 15, 2023 6:29 AM CST
Murdaugh's Sister-in-Law Thought Comment Was Odd
Alex Murdaugh arrives for his double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023, in Walterboro, S.C. The 54-year-old attorney is standing trial on two counts of murder in the shootings of his wife, Maggie and son Paul, at their Colleton County home and hunting lodge on...   (Grace Beahm Alford/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)

Alex Murdaugh's sister-in-law testified Tuesday in his double murder trial that she thought it was odd that he didn't seem scared in the weeks after his son Paul and wife Maggie were killed at their South Carolina home. Marian Proctor told jurors her family was distraught after the killings. She said Alex Murdaugh was devastated too, but that he said a few odd things about the deaths of his wife and son, including that "he thought whoever had done it had thought about it a really long time," Proctor said. "I just didn’t know what that meant."

Proctor said Tuesday she had a great relationship with her nephew and her brother-in-law, who spent time with her family after the killings as they all sorted through their grief. But Proctor said that as time went on, there were some nagging doubts that entered her mind, especially Alex Murdaugh's focus on Paul Murdaugh's role in a 2019 boat crash where a teenager died. Investigators said Paul Murdaugh was driving the boat and charged him with boating under the influence.

"He said that his number one goal was clearing Paul's name," Proctor said. "And I thought that was so strange because my number one goal was to find out who killed my sister and Paul." In fact, "we never talked about finding the person who could have done it," she said, per the New York Times. "It was just odd." Earlier Tuesday, prosecutors called their 53rd witness of their case. Dale Davis lived down the road and fed and took care of the family dogs at their kennels.

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Davis detailed where he kept each dog in the kennel, how and where water would pool when he washed out the kennels, and how he made sure the water didn't pool near the feed room. "I’m very particular about how I roll that hose up," Davis testified as he examined a picture taken by police after the killings. "It's kinked up. There's pressure on that hose ... somebody used that hose after I did.” Prosecutors have suggested, but haven't directly said or presented evidence, that the lack of items connecting Alex Murdaugh to the killings indicate Murdaugh cleaned up the crime scene before heading to visit his ailing mother that night.

(More Alex Murdaugh stories.)

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