John Marvin Murdaugh explains why he was photographed with investigators at crime scene
In an interview with The Island Packet earlier this month, John Marvin Murdaugh told the story behind a series of controversial photos taken the day after his nephew and sister-in-law were found shot to death in June at the family’s Colleton County property .
Murdaugh explained the photos during a lengthy interview with the Packet — his first public comments since a June interview on national TV.
On June 8, 2021 — the day after nephew Paul and sister-in-law Maggie were killed — two photographs published by the Charleston Post and Courier depicted John Marvin Murdaugh walking near the crime scene with three investigators from the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office. A video from ABC’s “Good Morning America” showed the same investigators walking with Murdaugh.
At the time, the photos and video sparked controversy and numerous questions about why Solicitor Duffie Stone — whose office has close ties to the Murdaugh family — had not yet recused himself from the investigation. Stone had previously recused himself in 2019 after Paul Murdaugh was involved in a fatal boat crash.
He later stepped away from the double homicide investigation in August 2021, citing an undisclosed conflict.
Earlier this month, the photographs were used as campaign fodder against Jojo Woodward, an investigator in the photos who is running for Beaufort County Sheriff.
“If (Woodward) can explain why he’s running again,” Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner told FITSnews earlier this month, “then he should be prepared to debate this time, where he can explain to people why he was caught hanging out at the Murdaugh murder scene.”
Maggie’s missing cell phone
Asked about the photos this month, John Marvin Murdaugh said they show him and the investigators trying to find Maggie Murdaugh’s cell phone using an app on Maggie’s remaining son Buster Murdaugh’s phone.
In June 2021, The Island Packet reported that although Paul Murdaugh’s cell phone was found near his body on the night of the killings, investigators found Maggie’s phone the next day on a road outside of the family’s Colleton County property.
John Marvin Murdaugh said he was sitting inside the house on the Moselle property and asked Alex Murdaugh if he could ping Maggie’s phone. Buster, he said, told him that he and his mother shared locations with each other and he could ping it.
Marvin Murdaugh drove down to the crime scene to a group of investigators and told them that Maggie’s phone was active and could be tracked, he said.
The photographs were taken when he and the investigators were looking at Buster’s phone and began walking toward where Maggie’s phone was located, he said. The group soon realized that the phone was further away, so they drove together and found it “east of the gates” of the property, he said.
Murdaugh said he called either Alex or Buster (he said he thinks it was Alex) and asked them for the password to Maggie’s phone so investigators could unlock it.
“They were able to open the phone on site,” he said. “Of course, none of this is disclosed to me as far as, it wasn’t like I was sitting there peeking over their shoulder while they’re doing this.”
Once the police opened the phone, “they gave me a ride back to my car,” he said.
The phone, the Packet previously reported, was given to the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED).
Police still have not said whether any new evidence was uncovered from Maggie’s phone. And they still have not announced a suspect in their deaths.
Alex Murdaugh is the only publicly known person of interest in the murders, which remain unsolved.
This story was originally published March 27, 2022 at 4:55 AM.
