About a month before Paul Murdaugh and his mother were murdered outside the dog kennels of their South Carolina hunting estate, the 22-year-old left his father an accusatory voicemail about a drug stash.
“I am still in EB because when you get here we have to talk,” Paul said in a May 6, 2021 voicemail message to Alex Murdaugh, seemingly referring to the family’s Edisto Beach house, where his mother, Maggie, preferred to stay. “Mom found several bags of pills in your computer bag,” he said.
The bombshell message was revealed Friday in Colleton County court, where Murdaugh is on trial for murdering Paul and Maggie in a desperate attempt to evade questions about stealing money from his law firm and clients. Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty to four crimes in connection with the June 7, 2021 murders and faces upwards of 30 years in prison.
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Throughout the trial, jurors have heard about Murdaugh’s two-decade pill addiction. At one point he was spending $50,000 a week on drugs that he was buying from a distant cousin. Last week, Maggie’s sister revealed that the Murdaugh family was aware of Murdaugh’s ongoing struggle with prescription pills, noting that Maggie even referred to Paul as the “little detective” who kept an eye on his father.
“He was always looking to make sure his dad was behaving,” Marian Proctor told jurors as she explained her sister’s concern with Murdaugh’s addiction.
However, Paul’s voicemail was the first time jurors saw the family’s internal dynamics about Murdaugh’s drug struggles—and the first time jurors heard that Murdaugh’s son had confronted his father just weeks before his murder. It’s not clear if Murdaugh responded to his son’s message or if a conversation ended up happening in person.
While cross-examining South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agent Peter Rudofski, defense attorney Phillip Barber revealed that Murdaugh sent his wife an apology text the day after Paul’s voicemail.
“I am very sorry that I do this to all of you. I love you,” he texted Maggie on May 7, 2021, according to Barber.
“So his family was aware of his drug issues, correct, from the texts?” Barber asked Rudofski, who noted that Maggie did not respond to Murdaugh’s text.
Rudofski revealed that days later, Maggie’s internet history showed that she was researching different types of pills. In a May 26, 2021 search, Maggie looked up “white pill 20 on one side rp” and “green gel pill p30.”
An online search suggests the pills appear to be oxycodone and chlordiazepoxide. (Murdaugh has previously confirmed that he was addicted to opioids.)
The prosecution is set to rest its case on Friday.
