Recently released audio depicts the heated aftermath of a fatal boat crash, whose alleged pilot became a victim of an alleged double murder more than two years later.
Paul Murdaugh, 22, was shot and killed with his mother Maggie Murdaugh, 52, at family property in June 2021, while he faced a pending criminal case for allegedly driving a boat when it crashed and killed passenger Mallory Beach, 19. Audio from the night of the boat crash has now been released, and it shows Beach’s boyfriend Anthony Cook accusing Paul Murdaugh of “smiling” as Beach was nowhere to be found.
“Are you fucking smiling like it’s fucking funny?” the man could be heard saying to Murdaugh after the crash, in audio obtained by FITSNews. “My fucking girlfriend’s gone. Do you think it’s fucking funny? I hope you rot in fucking hell.” You can hear this at around the 8-minute mark of the video above.
The Murdaugh murders in South Carolina remain unsolved, but the sudden, violent nature of their deaths raised eyebrows in part because of Paul’s fraught past and also because of his family’s long history of running the local prosecutor’s office. Murdaugh men have held the position of 14th Circuit Solicitor–the area’s top prosecutor–for almost a century. Paul Murdaugh was out with friends during a night on February 2019 and was allegedly driving the boat when it crashed into a piling under a bridge.
According to authorities, six people were flung from the Murdaugh-owned craft. Beach was found dead a week later. Five survivors were “grossly intoxicated,” police said. None of them, however, took sobriety tests. Beach’s mother Renee Beach sued members of the Murdaugh family over the underage drinking.
Paul Murdaugh’s well-heeled background was touched upon in that newly released audio. The distraught Cook told a responder that Murdaugh was the son of attorney Richard Alexander “Alex” Murdaugh, 53.
“So good luck,” he said, suggesting authorities wouldn’t be able to go after Paul.
Cook was livid at Murdaugh, cursing him out several times through the aftermath.
“Get that motherfucker right there away from me,” Anthony Cook said.
The man, who described himself as Mallory’s boyfriend, told the investigator that everyone had been drinking before the boat ride.
“Connor’s fucked up,” he added at one point in the audio. “Connor’s messed up bad. We can’t find Mallory. Morgan’s messed up bad.” He repeated, “We can’t find Mallory.”
Connor Cook, one of the survivors, recently sued, suggesting the possibility of a cover-up by law enforcement.
The man in the audio described his memories of the crash.
“I don’t even know,” he said. “I finally got to a point, I grabbed my girlfriend and put her in my lap in the bottom of the boat and was holding on with my eyes closed and next thing I know I’m in the fucking water. I can’t find her, man.”‘
Audio from the night of the Murdaugh murders was recently released as well.
“My wife and child were shot badly,” Alex Murdaugh said, pleading for first responders to hurry to the scene.
[Image, footage, and audio via FITSNews]
