A bombshell voicemail message has revealed that Alex Murdaugh’s wife Maggie and son Paul found “bags of pills” in the accused killer’s bag just one month before their murders.
The message, on 6 May 2021, shows Paul confronting his father about the discovery of the drugs – at a time when the disgraced attorney claims he was spending up to $60,000 a week to feed a 20-year opioid addiction.
“I am still in EB because when you get here we have to talk. Mom found several bags of pills in your computer bag,” it says.
It is not clear whether Mr Murdaugh responded to the message left by his son or if the family members confronted him about the drugs in person.
The message came just over one month before Mr Murdaugh is accused of shooting dead Maggie and Paul by the dog kennels of the family’s sprawling 1,700-acre Moselle estate in Islandton, South Carolina.
Days later on 26 May 2021 – 12 days prior to her murder – Maggie then carried out several internet searches seeking to identify different types of pills.
Among the searches was: “white pill 20 on one side rp”, “green gel pill p30”.
The pills appear to be oxycodone and chlordiazepoxide – opiates which Mr Murdaugh was addicted.
Then, on 3 June 2021 – four days before he allegedly killed his wife and son – Mr Murdaugh sent a voicemail to then-Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Laffitte asking him for money.
“I need to extend farm credit line another 600k. My dad will sign also if needed. How much turnaround will that take?” he asked.
Once again, it is unclear what came of this conversation but Mr Murdaugh’s father Randolph was in ill health and his condition deterioated on the day of the murders. He was admitted to hospital that day and died on 10 June 2022 – ruling out a possible signature.
Mr Laffitte meanwhile is now also behind bars after being convicted of financial fraud charges in connection to Mr Murdaugh in November. His conviction came on the basis that he was the co-defendant of Mr Murdaugh in his sprawling multi-million-dollar fraud scheme.
Jurors have heard other testimony about the accused killer’s drug abuse, with Mr Murdaugh’s sister-in-law Marian Proctor saying that the family knew about his opioid buse.
Maggie even nicknamed Paul the “Little Detective” as he kept an eye on his father’s behaviour and opioid use, she told the court.
In September 2021 – days after he was ousted from his law firm for stealing millions of dollars from clients and then orchestrated a botched hitman plot – Mr Murdaugh checked into rehab for his addiction.
In a police phone interview where he confessed to the bizarre hitman plot, he told investigators he was spending up to $60,000 a week on drugs.
But, the voicemails and Maggie’s search history have never before been revealed, marking a bombshell moment as the prosecution wraps up its case in the high-profile murder trial.
Agent Rudofski testified in Colleton County Courthouse in South Carolina on Friday as the last witness for the state, telling jurors how his role in the investigation was to put all the data together into a timeline of the murders.
