Murdaugh used a rifle and shotgun to kill wife and son, indictment says
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Murdaugh murders in Colleton County
Two members of a powerhouse legal family were shot and killed June 7 in Colleton County, SC. Read more of our coverage.
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Alex Murdaugh was charged with two counts of murder in the June 2021 deaths of his wife and youngest son Thursday, and South Carolina officials revealed the weapons used in the killings.
A Colleton County grand jury indicted the disbarred Hampton County attorney, and the charges were shared by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office.
Beyond the charges, there wasn’t a lot of information included in the indictments about the deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh other than they were both fatally shot.
Murdaugh used a shotgun to fatally shoot his 22-year-old son, according to the indictments. He used a different weapon, a rifle to murder his 52-year-old wife, it said in a possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime charge included in the indictment.
In all, Murdaugh was indicted on two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.
Information about why different guns were used and the number of shots fired from each weapon were not included in the indictment.
The indictments did not mention motive, not did they mention how Murdaugh is alleged to have carried out the killings.
Evidence in a double murder case like the deaths of Maggie and Paul, where there were no eyewitnesses, is likely to include much expert testimony on matters such as blood splatter, fingerprints, weapons, cellphone and text records, as well as “black box” information from Murdaugh’s Suburban SUV, former U.S. attorney Pete Strom told The State.
“Black box” information from a vehicle can include data on GPS location and stops, he said. Because Murdaugh’s defense team will likely need to retain its own experts to study the technical evidence, it might be six to 18 months before a trial can take place, Strom predicted.
Reporter John Monk contributed.
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This story was originally published July 14, 2022 at 11:58 AM.
