Murdaugh double murders: South Carolina AG drops boat crash charges against man killed before trial
Paul Murdaugh was awaiting trial in a deadly boat crash when he and his mother Maggie were shot to death in an unsolved crime
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}South Carolina’s attorney general has formally dropped charges against the boat operator in a deadly 2019 crash after both he and his mother were murdered in late June – before the case went to trial.
Paul Murdaugh, 22, faced three felony boating while intoxicated charges in connection with an accident that left one of his friends dead and others injured. He and his mother, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, were found shot to death on a family property in Islandton.
The local prosecutor had recused himself from the BUI case because of close ties to the Murdaugh family – which has century-old ties to the office and remains a prominent legal family in the area.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MURDAUGH DOUBLE MURDERS: FATAL BOAT CRAS HSURVIVOR ALLEGES ATTEMPTED COVER-UP IN SOUTH CAROLINA
Murdaugh, 20 at the time, was accused of being drunk and driving his father’s 17-foot boat with 5 other young adults aboard when it crashed near Parris Island in February 2019. Mallory Beach was thrown overboard, and the survivors were rushed to the hospital. Her body turned up a week later.
Paul Murdaugh mugshot (South Carolina Attorney General's Office/WTAT-TV/DT)
The charges were dropped as a formality, authorities said, as Murdaugh was killed before the case went to trial. But another passenger on the boat, Connor Cook, is seeking to depose some deputies and state wildlife officers who responded to the crash after alleging they and "unknown others" may have initially tried to frame him as the boat operator.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The double homicide brought national attention to South Carolina’s Lowcountry region and the Murdaugh family.
Early in the murder investigation, authorities said they found information and were reopening the probe into another suspicious death in the area – that of Stephen Smith, a 19-year-old who was found dead on a rural road near a different Murdaugh property in 2015.
MURDAUGH DOUBLE MURDERS: SOUTH CAROLINA INVESTIGATORS RELEASE HARROWING 911 CALLS
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}His death was ruled a hit-and-run, but some investigators have cast doubt on that conclusion.
"There was no evidence that pointed towards this being a hit-and-run, or a vehicle even being involved in it," former South Carolina State Trooper Todd Proctor, who led the preliminary investigation into Smith’s death, told Fox News in June. "It looked like it was more staged, like possibly the body had been placed in the roadway."
In fact, an incident report from July 8, 2015, states that the responding officer saw "no evidence to suggest the victim was struck by a vehicle."
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Smith had suffered blunt force trauma to the head, but there were no vehicle debris, skid marks, or other injuries to suggest he’d been struck by a motor vehicle, according to the report. And his loosely tied shoes hadn’t fallen off, which investigators said likely would have happened upon impact.
Authorities haven’t gone into detail about what evidence they uncovered that led to the renewed investigation into Smith’s death.