WARNING: ARTICLE CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT
A South Carolina detective who responded to the scene of the Murdaugh double murders on the evening of June 7, 2021, addressed lingering questions about details of the scene and about Alex Murdaugh following her testimony at Murdaugh’s trial in January.
A Colleton County jury convicted the disgraced 54-year-old lawyer on March 3 for fatally shooting his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and younger son, Paul Murdaugh, multiple times on his hunting estate in Islandton. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Det. Laura Rutland was one of the first few investigators to interview Murdaugh at the crime scene and noticed that he was wearing a clean, white t-shirt and cargo shorts, even though the former lawyer told investigators that he had tried to take Paul’s pulse and turn his body over, which struck her as odd.
“Paul and Maggie were shot multiple times. Paul was shot by a shotgun, which caused catastrophic damage to the top of his head. In addition to the biological matter around his body, there was also a lot of water,” Rutland, the state’s first witness in the Murdaugh trial, told Fox News Digital. “And [the jury was] able to see that on Sergeant Green’s body cam. It was just so odd that even Alex’s shoes were as clean as they were, including the soles of the shoes.”
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Laura Rutland, an investigator for the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office, looks at photos of shoeprints left on the Murdaugh property after a double murder on June 7, 2021. (Fox News screenshot)
“Anybody walking around Paul’s body would have had that watery, bloody mixture on their shoes,” she added.
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Rutland also clarified a question Murdaugh’s defense asked her in court about hair found in Maggie Murdaugh’s hand after she was shot to death.
A photo of the Murdaugh family taken days before Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were shot to death. From left, Buster, Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh. (Defense exhibit)
‘I just wanted to clarify that when she had suffered her injuries, and the bullet exited the back of her head, it created a large hole, which displaced that part of her skull, including her scalp and her hair,” the detective explained. “So, all around her body, there were small clumps of the back of her hair in the grass around her body. Some had fallen near her hands and her arms. And when we removed her body, some of the hair that was on her fingers. It was just a few strands went with her.”
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Rutland was assigned to work the case at the time, because she was not familiar with the Murdaugh family and their family’s legal legacy in the South Carolina Lowcountry.
States evidence presented in the Alex Murdaugh trial Friday Jan. 27, 2023 at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro. (Grace Beahm Alford/The Post and Courier/Pool.)
“I got there and was kind of surprised by how many law enforcement [vehicles] there were. And I was like, ‘Okay, this must not be a normal double homicide. Something’s going on,'” Colleton County Sheriff’s Office Det. Laura Rutland, the state’s first witness, told Fox News Digital. “They asked me if I knew the Murdaugh family, and I didn’t, so I got chosen to work with [South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Agent] David Owen. . . . I went in there with the thought to just handle it like every other case.”
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Alex Murdaugh was wearing a clean, white t-shirt and cargo shorts at the scene of his wife and son’s double murder. (Colleton County Sheriff’s Office)
Re-watching video of her interview with Murdaugh, Rutland said it seemed like he was “trying to . . . make himself cry” when recounting what he had witnessed at the dog kennels that evening.
Murdaugh initially told investigators he hadn’t been to the dog kennels at all that night. He said he had taken at nap at the house on the hunting property and then driven to see his sick mother before returning to find Maggie and Paul dead near the kennels. A video that Paul snapped on his phone later revealed Murdaugh’s voice at the dog kennels just before the murders took place.
“I’ve seen it in person and now, I’ve seen it in all of the interviews, how he can turn it on and off,” Rutland said of Murdaugh’s crying.
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Now that he has been convicted, the detective believes Murdaugh’s tears in court were indicative of him reliving his crimes.
Alex Murdaugh cries while listening to testimony during day 25 of Murdaugh’s double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse on Monday, February 27, 2023. (Jeff Blake/The State/Pool)
After the guilty verdict, jurors exiting the courthouse thanked Rutland and Colleton County Cpt. Jason Chapman for their work, Rutland said.
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“I’m very proud of the jury that they were able to follow such a complicated case and understand all the facts and evidence that we brought to them the night of the conviction,” she said. “It was kind of crazy in the courthouse afterwards with the media and everybody. We were trying to get everyone out of the courthouse safely. My captain and I just happened to come out of a side door where the jury was being escorted . . . and they wanted to shake our hands. I’ll never forget that moment. I was very impressed with the jury and appreciative of their service to Colleton County.”
