Here is a look at some of the evidence and motives law enforcement have explored during the course of their investigation. by: JAMES POLLARD and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, Associated Press. Still, Waters said there is enough evidence to link the killings to the financial crimes and to Alex Murdaugh being the only person with the means and opportunity to kill his wife and son. " much to the concern of her son Buster (Tony Hale). This photograph shows a boarded-up bar in a town where Mollies sister, Anna Brown, was seen before vanishing: This is what the prairie looks like today: I interviewed many of the descendants of the victims, including Margie Burkhart, who is a granddaughter of Mollie Burkhart. Today Vaughn is charged with all four murders, but his defense team argues his wife turned the gun on him and the children before killing herself. Alex Murdaugh told investigators early in the case that he was not down by the kennels that night and had last seen his wife and son at dinner before finding bodies upon returning home from visiting his mother. [5], Smith rarely had a stable home life growing up. In many ways, Mollie, who was born in 1886, straddled not only two centuries but two civilizations. It was not immediately clear why they went into the tree area. He carried a badge and authority. Crime scene expert refutes defense claim that Maggie's shooter was short Sutton testified that the angle of the shots indicated that the shooter had to have been between 5 foot 2 and 5 foot 4. Hes smart. He understands these issues, Waters told the jury. When jurors are taken to the scene of a crime, they are generally advised not to share their thoughts with one another because deliberations dont begin until both sides are done presenting evidence. The tour of the crime scene happened before jurors were to head back to court in Walterboro to hear closing arguments in the closely watched murder trial. But there was no blood spatter or DNA linking the killings to Alex Murdaugh or anyone else, and prosecutors never laid out how they think Murdaugh could have killed his family, cleaned himself up, disposed of the clothes and weapons, and composed himself in the 15-minute window before GPS data shows he left the property to visit his ailing mother. (Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool), Alex Murdaugh enters the courtroom before closing arguments begin in his trial for murder at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C. on Wednesday, March 1, 2023. Taken in 1924, the picture showed a seemingly innocent pageant of members of the tribe alongside white settlers, but a section had been cut out. Why in the world would an innocent, reasonable father and husband lie about that? Dont let him fool you, too.. 231. I can see how both sides can benefit from a jury seeing that, Nettles said. In the interest of justice, it is probably a good thing for them to see it.. The documents show the Vaughn familys trip to Knights Water Park in Springfield also was planned the night before the murders, after Vaughns wife accused him of spending too little time with their kids. Finally, it appears the Oswego man wrote an ominous blog entry just weeks before the shooting about wrapping up a few last things before disappearing into the remote wilderness. Initial water searches did not locate the car because the police believed it would be within 30 feet of the shore, and did not search farther; it turned out to be 122 feet from the shore. The forensic timeline puts him there. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool), Dog kennels at the Murdaugh Moselle property on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 in Islandton, S.C. This defendant has fooled everyone everyone who thought they were close to him, Waters said. The tour of the crime scene happened before jurors were to head back to court in Walterboro to hear closing arguments in the closely watched murder trial. Matthew Vaughn is an English film director, producer and screenwriter born in 7 March 1971. March 1, 2023. Only 16 minutes passed between when the victims stopped using their cellphones and Murdaugh left the house about 1,100 feet (335 meters) from the crime scene. Vaughn also confessed to an affair in December 2006 after a trip to Mexico. WebJOHN VAUGHAN was his heir. Always have to literally beg, borrow and steal for over a decade to have the truth from being exposed, Waters said. On Wednesday, Vaughn, 31, died while in custody at Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee, where he had been housed off and on since his arrest on Dec. 14, 2015. WHY DOES MURDAUGHS TEAM WANT JURORS TO GO THERE? In the early 20th century, the members of the Osage Nation became the richest people per capita in the world, after oil was discovered under their reservation. Jurors in Alex Murdaugh s murder trial on Wednesday arrived at the crime scene where the disgraced lawyers wife and son were fatally shot in June 2021. The pressures on this man were unbearable. After searching, All rights reserved. March 1, 2023. "You asked me what kind of lawyer Alex was, and I told you he was a good lawyer," Crosby said. Kim was shot once under the chin, and the children were each shot twice in their SUV on the side of the road. However, it was determined that the light would not have turned red for her unless a vehicle was present on the intersecting road. In the early 1870s, the Osage were driven from their lands in Kansas onto a rocky, presumably worthless reservation in what was then Indian Territory, and would later become part of Oklahoma. [11] She said that there was no motive nor did she plan the murders, stating that she was not in a right state of mind. The jury in the double murder trial of disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh -- who is accused of killing his wife and younger son at the family's property in 2021 -- will travel to the site of the brutal killings on Wednesday ahead of closing arguments. John Marvin Murdaugh took the stand as the defense's final witness in the Walterboro, South Carolina, courtroom. Will county prosecutors and Vaughns public defenders declined to comment Monday on the dewoodsman entries found online. (Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool), The hanger and dog kennels are seen where the bodies of Paul Murdaugh and Maggie were found at the Moselle property on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 in Islandton, S.C. He argued that, with the true extent of his financial crimes on the cusp of being exposed, Murdaughs ego couldnt stand that, and he became a family annihilator.. He fooled Maggie and Paul, too, and they paid for it with their lives. He relied on his family name. The tour of the crime scene happened before jurors were to head back to court in Walterboro to hear closing arguments in the closely watched murder trial. Defense attorneys argued that Kathleen Peterson had died in a 2001 accidental fall. Someone had planted a bomb under her sisters house that killed everyone inside, including Rita. Investigators said his 22-year-old son, Paul, was shot twice with a shotgun and his 52-year-old wife, Maggie, was shot four or five times with a rifle outside of the kennels on their property. Jurors have visited the South Carolina estate where prosecutors say disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh shot and killed his wife and son. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Once closing arguments are finished, the jurors will get their instructions and begin deliberating what they learned during a trial that has included more than 75 witnesses and lasted more than six weeks. See. Waters concluded his closing argument on Wednesday by stressing to the jury to use common sense and human nature to give justice to Maggie and Paul who deserve a voice., They need a voice because they can no longer speak. The tour of the crime scene happened before jurors were to head back to court in Walterboro to hear closing arguments in the closely watched murder trial. Many of them went up to about the fourth, fifth step and would turn back and look, even wave their hands to see, look behind them to see if they can fall or if they can possibly catch themselves.. The tour of the crime scene happened before jurors were to head back to court in Walterboro to hear closing arguments in the closely watched murder trial. The defense has called 14 witnesses, including Alex Murdaugh himself, who during hours of at-times emotional testimony admitted to stealing from his clients and lying to investigators about his whereabouts the night of the murders but repeatedly denied fatally shooting his wife and son. Bill Nettles, a criminal defense lawyer and former South Carolina U.S. attorney who is not involved in the case, said the visit could give jurors a sense of scale to make more-informed decisions about the timeline and other questions such as whether Murdaugh could have heard the gunshots across the grounds that have arisen during the trial. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. When I visited the Osage Nation Museum, the director had retrieved, from the basement, an image of the missing panel. Send it to The Daily Beasthere. Always having to stay one step ahead of the game. COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) Jurors in Alex Murdaughs murder trial will get to see for themselves the rural hunting estate where his wife and son were killed, following in the footsteps of other juries that have viewed crime scenes in cases that captured the nations attention. In some cases, however, crime scene visits can be useful to give jurors a sense of distance or other physical features that dont come across in photos and other evidence presented in court, said Steven Benjamin, a Richmond, Virginia, defense attorney who is not involved in the Murdaugh case. The relationship was rocky due to mutual allegations of infidelity, and they separated several times. Christopher Vaughn, of Oswego, was was sentenced to four life terms on Nov. 27, 2012, for fatally shooting his wife and three children after pulling off Interstate 55 near Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. Courtesy the Bartlesville Area History Museum, Courtesy the Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoman Collection, Courtesy the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Courtesy the Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries, Rose No. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool), Several vehicles leave at the Murdaugh Moselle property on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 in Islandton, S.C. Part of HuffPost News. By the time of the Osage murder case, he wore a suit and filed paperwork and had adopted the modern techniques of investigation, such as fingerprinting and handwriting analysis. The distance between the kennels where the bodies were found and the home where Murdaugh says he had been napping has been a key component of the trial. 1525, Found: A Ceiling Dripping With Honey and, Oh, 120,000 or So Bees. A beekeeper also removed 60 pounds of honey. Demand for access to the vast oil deposits under the reservation was so great that there were regular auctions for leases held in Pawhuska, a city in Osage County. Court records show the couple had been fighting, and he would sometimes sleep at the office. Courtesy the Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries, Finney No. Simpson and last years trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz. Rockefeller Audio 2022. His attorneys said his visit was irrelevant. But Aided by his knowledge of how criminal cases are constructed, he hatched a clever plan to make sure they were at the familys Colleton County property on the night they were killed, June 7, 2021, he said. The defense has said state agents conducted a poor investigation that focused too quickly on Alex Murdaugh and missed evidence such as fingerprints and shoe prints that could have led to the real killers. After the shootings, Vaughn was not initially a suspect; in fact, he voluntarily spoke with police on several occasions. The records show someone using his e-mail address set up a blog site for a user named dewoodsman, and at least one man knew Vaughn as Flint.. Those experts testified that they believe Paul was standing about five inches into the feed room when he was first shot in the chest. The 12 jurors and two alternatives gathered around 9 a.m. at the Colleton County Courthouse before loading into three secured transport vans and leaving 10 minutes later. Prosecutors have said Vaughn was frustrated with his life and wanted to live in the Canadian wilderness. Some of them posed as cattlemen, another as an insurance salesman. Earlier on Wednesday, jurors went to the scene of the crime that has been detailed throughout the six-week trial. Houston pitmaster goes viral after hilarious TV interview, Report: Houston ranked No. By the second day of the investigation, the police suspected that she knew their location and hoped that they were still alive. The case gained international attention because of Smith's false claim that a black man had kidnapped her sons during a carjacking. No one knew who this man was. Hes manufacturing an alibi. Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said the jury must see the sprawling 1,700-acre (690-hectare) property to appreciate the spatial issues.. 7.2. In many cases, it doesnt happen because the trial is taking place years later, so the scene has changed and taking jurors there could provide a false impression of what happened. The jurors will visit the property Wednesday morning. "[14] The defense's theory of the case was that Smith drove to the edge of the lake to kill herself and her two sons, but her body willed itself out of the car. The timeline puts him there. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Director: Doug Liman | Stars: Vince Vaughn, Heather Graham, Jon Favreau, Ron Livingston. He did not deny, however, that he spent a half hour at Mega Sports Shooting Equipment and Range in Plainfield the night before his family was killed. Jurors have visited the South Carolina estate where prosecutors say disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh shot and killed his wife and son. IN WHAT OTHER CASES HAVE JURORS VISITED THE CRIME SCENE? https://casetext.com/case/people-v-vaughn-194, https://investigatinginnocence.org/christopher-vaughn, https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2021/9/5/22656272/effort-underway-free-christopher-vaughn-conviction-murdering-wife-kids, https://patch.com/illinois/shorewood-il/blood-expert-pokes-holes-in-chris-vaughn-s-killing-story, On September 20, 1988, Tara Calico left her home in New Mexico to go on a bike ride she took, In November 1981, actress Natalie Wood mysteriously drowned off the coast of Southern California during a boating trip with her, In July 2014, 52 year old Lynn Messer mysteriously disappeared from her familys 260-acre farm in Bloomsdale, Missouri. But as Will County, Illinois judge Daniel Rozak made evidence in the case public last Thursday, it appears the prosecution has some damning evidence to contradict that theory. The defense will get to sum up its case on Thursday. Defense attorney Jim Griffin is expected to begin his closing argument on Thursday morning. When Nicole Brown Simpson was found stabbed with her throat slashed outside of her Brentwood, California home on June 13, 1994, officers entered the house to find what looked like a silent vigil: Candles were lit and a bath had been drawn. This is a carousel. WebThe Scene of the Crime Around 5:20 a.m. on June 14, 2007, a man driving to work along the frontage road of Interstate 55 south of Joliet, Illinois encountered Christopher Vaughn, 32, The visit in that case was requested by prosecutors, who said jurors needed to see the scene to understand the horror of what happened. At the time of the murders, Waters said, Murdaugh was facing questions about finances in a lawsuit related to a fatal boat crash caused by Paul. WebVaughn told police the family was driving to a Springfield water park. Kimberly Vaughn was shot once under her chin, the records say. Web20 titles. At 5:15 am, a motorist driving on I-55 spotted Christopher Vaughn bleeding and limping away with his parked SUV. I am working on wrapping up a few last things and then I am headed out for the long walk. This is a case about despair and sadness. The judge has agreed with a defense request to let jurors visit the Murdaughs property in Colleton County, South Carolina. Earlier on Wednesday, jurors went to the scene of the crime that has been detailed throughout the six-week trial. Nine days later, Will County authorities arrested Vaughn and charged him with the four murders. On September 28, 2000, David Camm came home at approximately 9:26 p.m. and found his wife Kimberly, and his two children Bradley, 7, and Jill, 5, shot to death in the garage of their home in Georgetown, Indiana. Had planted a bomb under her sisters house that killed everyone inside including... December 2006 after a trip to Mexico appreciate the spatial issues.. 7.2 Nexstar Media |... 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