The Re-Trial Of Alex Murdaugh

Alex Murdaugh's next murder trial may feature independent analysis of evidence taken from beneath Maggie Murdaugh's fingernails and from her phone. At an October 16 hearing, the defense said its review found unknown male DNA in samples from both hands. Counsel also pointed to male genetic material on the phone that, they argued, includes a contribution not from Alex. None of that identifies a new suspect by itself.

The defense sought Y-STR testing because it may reveal more about a male contributor to samples containing predominantly female DNA. Prosecutors were concerned that using what remains could prevent later testing. Judge Debra McCaslin granted the request. Defense lawyers told the court that analysis could take approximately 90 days, leaving a substantial question unresolved ahead of the April 2027 retrial.

The DNA discussion was only one challenge to the original case record. The defense cited a large body of evidence it said arrived just before the 2023 proceedings, including 73 gigabytes three days before jury selection. Harpootlian also faced a correction from the judge for describing a polygraph as a success. The examination was about financial conduct, not the murders, and Murdaugh failed it. McCaslin declined to allow a wide-ranging examination of unrelated shooting evidence, urging both sides to focus on the coming trial.

Tony Brueski and Robin Dreeke ask what the samples might tell a jury and how much damage an overstated courtroom claim can do. Murdaugh's earlier murder convictions were overturned following improper jury influence. His new trial is set for April 5, 2027, in Sumter County, and he denies killing Maggie and Paul.

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Alex Murdaugh's defense wants to know if prosecutors are investigating a police officer friend who allegedly reached Moselle before other officers, and the state won't say. Eric Faddis joins me to cover that fight, the October 16 hearing, and a second case with police at its center: Sandra Birchmore.

Judge Debra McCaslin let Murdaugh's lawyers test unknown DNA from Maggie Murdaugh's fingernails and phone, corrected Dick Harpootlian's polygraph claim, and ordered the state's crime-scene scans handed over.

In Boston, Matthew Farwell is on trial for Sandra's death. Prosecutors say his DNA was on the strap, and the officers who first handled the case have testified about the steps they missed.

Eric compares how a police connection plays in front of each jury.

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Alex Murdaugh's defense walked out of the October 16 hearing with permission to test the unknown male DNA tied to Maggie Murdaugh. Eric Faddis joins me to weigh whether it's a real lead or a long shot.

The samples come from under Maggie's fingernails and from her cellphone. Prosecutors said any new testing could use up everything left. Judge Debra McCaslin let it happen anyway.

The defense also says prosecutors suggested a police officer who was friends with Murdaugh got to Moselle before other officers and could have helped hide the guns and bloody clothes. The state won't confirm or deny a grand jury, citing secrecy rules.

The judge warned Harpootlian and Creighton Waters to stop the sniping. Eric tells me who that warning was really for.

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The judge corrected Dick Harpootlian in open court. Harpootlian had claimed Alex Murdaugh passed a polygraph with flying colors. Murdaugh failed it. The polygraph measured whether he hid assets — it had nothing to do with the deaths of Maggie and Paul. No test about the murders was ever administered. The judge warned Harpootlian that when he makes a representation to this court, it must be truthful and accurate. The hearing's other battle: evidence dumps. The defense laid out what the state delivered before the first trial — 73 gigabytes three days before jury selection. And a SLED ballistics expert's testimony that he'd never seen .300 Blackout in a homicide was contradicted by the agency's own intake records. The judge told both sides this case will be tried in a courtroom, not in the press. Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty. April retrial in Sumter County.

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SLED told the first jury about unknown male DNA under Maggie Murdaugh's left fingernails and left it at that. The defense now says the same unknown male profile appears under her other hand and on the cell phone discarded from the car after she was killed. Alex Murdaugh is excluded from all of it. A federal prisoner's sworn statement also sat untouched in the state's files — Ryan Spencer North detailed $15,000-a-week pill sales to the family and a $165,000 debt owed by Eddie Smith to a violent drug gang. The statement landed in an evidence dump three days before the first trial. The judge granted independent Y-STR testing and set a 90-day clock. Retrial is April in Sumter County. He has pleaded not guilty.

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Alex Murdaugh's retrial has opened a new battle over evidence that never made it into the first trial. His defense is demanding records tied to allegations that local law-enforcement officers may have handled the missing guns used to kill Maggie and Paul Murdaugh. The State has not adopted those allegations, and the officer most prominently named in the reporting denies them.

The September 30 motion asks for grand-jury material, witness interviews and investigative files concerning the alleged movement or concealment of weapons and clothing. It focuses in part on Yemassee Police Chief Greg Alexander, a Murdaugh family friend who was at Moselle the night of the killings. No murder weapon has ever been recovered.

At the same time, prosecutors are rejecting the defense's claim that it lacks crucial cellphone evidence. The State says it already produced the cellphone material in its possession during discovery before the 2023 trial. The defense says it needs the underlying extraction files so its own experts can independently test the timeline rather than rely on the State's summaries.

There are also established forensic disputes that do not depend on any new allegation. Defense appellate filings say Maggie's phone lost location data after it was recovered. Trial testimony showed confirmatory testing found no human blood on the tested stains from Alex's white T-shirt. Analysts identified a small amount of male DNA under Maggie's fingernails that excluded Alex and Paul, and a judge has now allowed additional testing.

Murdaugh's original murder convictions were overturned in May 2026. His new trial is set for April 5, 2027, in Sumter County. Before that jury hears a word, the court must decide which evidence disputes are real discovery failures, which are newly testable facts, and which remain allegations.

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On October 6, 2026, the State filed its response to the defense's motion to compel cell phone discovery — and attached the defense's own correspondence as exhibits. Exhibit H is Jim Griffin's January 19, 2023 email to Creighton Waters calling the State "very accommodating and cooperative" on cell phone production and acknowledging the timing problem was the defense's own making.

The defense's September 28 motion claims the data arrived January 30. Griffin's email is dated January 19. Harpootlian's email acknowledging a prior delivery to Maggie Fox is dated January 20. The motion builds its argument on a timeline the defense's own paper trail contradicts by ten days.

But the cell phone fight isn't what matters for the retrial. The investigation underneath it is.

SLED never used a Faraday bag on Maggie's phone — the GPS data from June 7 is gone. David Owen told the grand jury blood was on the white T-shirt; SLED's confirmatory testing came back negative. Sarah Zapata found male DNA under Maggie's fingernails — three foreign alleles, no Y-STR testing performed, no CODIS upload, no identification attempt for five years until Judge McCaslin ordered Othram testing in August 2026.

Harpootlian's polygraph claim fell apart in five days. The Allendale ballistic link didn't exist. The two-shooter theory produced no evidence.

The defense has real problems with this investigation. They keep making it impossible to see them.

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At Alex Murdaugh's trial, prosecutors said he hid both murder weapons at his parents' home in Almeda and moved them in a blue raincoat. Police searched three months after the killings. The guns weren't there. A grand jury is investigating whether the weapons went to a different location entirely — into the possession of Police Chief Greg Alexander, a Murdaugh family friend who was at the Moselle crime scene the night of the murders. Alexander was acquitted of misconduct charges with the Murdaugh family's backing. Alex paid him $5,000 by check after the killings. Alexander gave conflicting accounts of when the check was written. He denies everything. On September 30, the defense filed a Brady motion alleging the state hid a witness statement about Alexander since 2023 — and asking whether prosecutors plan to change their theory before the April 5 retrial.

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Alex Murdaugh’s retrial has a new home and a new evidence fight forming around it. Judge Debra McCaslin ordered the murder case moved to Sumter County after concluding that the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit could not provide the kind of impartial jury the Constitution requires. During the original 2023 selection process, fewer than one in seven prospective jurors qualified. McCaslin said that figure likely understates the problem now because the first convictions were overturned, Becky Hill was criminally convicted, and the case generated another wave of national attention.

The defense wanted Charleston badly enough to offer a permanent waiver of venue appeals. Prosecutors objected to Charleston but did not dictate another county. McCaslin chose Sumter for its larger jury pool, separate judicial circuit, courtroom infrastructure, and security. The retrial begins April 5, 2027.

Then there is the issue the first jury could never resolve because the guns were never found. Recent reporting says SLED and statewide grand-jury prosecutors are investigating allegations that Yemassee Police Chief Greg Alexander and another officer handled the missing murder weapons and bloody clothing after the June 7, 2021 killings. Alexander has not been charged, and his attorney strongly disputes the claims.

Alexander’s longstanding connection to the Murdaugh family is documented, including a $5,000 check Alex Murdaugh wrote him weeks after the murders. Alexander said years ago that the money was connected to a loan for his parents. That history does not prove the new allegations, but it explains why investigators and defense attorneys would want clear answers before another jury hears the case.

Tony Brueski puts the court order and the weapons inquiry side by side: what is settled, what is alleged, and what still has to be proven before Sumter County jurors hear the Murdaugh murder case again.

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On June 7, 2021, somebody used a 12-gauge shotgun and a .300 Blackout rifle to kill Maggie and Paul Murdaugh at the family’s Moselle hunting estate in Colleton County. Both weapons disappeared that night. Alex Murdaugh was convicted of both murders in March 2023 without either gun in evidence. He was granted a retrial, now scheduled for April 2027.

FITSNews reported on September 25, 2026, that the missing weapons are now at the center of a statewide grand jury investigation. SLED investigators and prosecutors are looking into allegations that Greg Alexander — the police chief of Yemassee, South Carolina, and a close friend of Alex Murdaugh — helped dispose of the firearms.

Witnesses have allegedly testified before the grand jury that they saw the weapons in Alexander’s possession in the immediate aftermath of the killings. The Post and Courier reported that a second Yemassee town policeman is also under investigation. Both officers are accused of transporting weapons and bloody clothing into the Yemassee police department the morning after the murders.

Alexander’s attorney acknowledged his client was at the Moselle crime scene that night — a property outside his jurisdiction. About one month after the killings, Alex wrote Alexander a check for $5,000. Alexander told FITSNews the money was a loan for his parents. He didn’t say whether it was repaid.

When Alexander ran for Hampton County sheriff, Murdaugh family members contributed $5,500 to his campaign. At Alex’s first trial, Nathan Tuten testified that Alexander was present in Alex’s office when Tuten delivered envelopes of cash.

In 2012, Alexander was indicted for stealing nearly $11,000 in seizure money. He was acquitted in Hampton County with the Murdaugh family’s support and eventually made chief of police.

Alexander has not been charged with any crime. His attorney, Joe McCulloch, calls the allegations absurd. Neither SLED nor the attorney general’s office has confirmed the investigation.

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The defense wanted Charleston so badly that Harpootlian offered to permanently waive all venue appeals if McCaslin agreed. She didn't agree. Instead, McCaslin's eight-page order landed on Sumter County, a location roughly eighty-six miles from Walterboro with three times the population of Colleton County. Nobody on either side had suggested it. The order traces the problem back nearly a century. The Murdaugh family held the prosecutor's seat across five counties from 1920 to 2006. McCaslin found that the dynasty left the entire 14th Circuit incapable of producing an impartial jury. Hill's criminal convictions for tampering with the original jury made the courthouse itself inseparable from the legal violations that overturned the verdict. When the first trial was held in 2023, fewer than one in seven summoned jurors qualified to sit. McCaslin described that figure as a starting point, not a final tally. Sumter sits in a separate judicial circuit and is home to Shaw Air Force Base. The prosecution had opposed Charleston on logistical grounds but left the ultimate decision to the judge. The retrial is scheduled for April 5, 2027, with McCaslin running jury selection directly. The venue waiver the defense dangled is now worthless, and Murdaugh's appellate options remain intact.

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Alex Murdaugh's lawyers have accused a SLED agent of fabricating evidence used to charge him with murder in the first place. That motion is now sitting in front of Judge Debra McCaslin, one of several bombshells to come out of an August 14 pretrial hearing. Tony Brueski and retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer cover the full hearing, start to finish. McCaslin pulled the retrial entirely outside the 14th Judicial Circuit, ruling that a county where Murdaugh's family ran the prosecutor's office for three generations can't seat an unbiased jury. She ordered independent lab testing on unidentified male DNA recovered from under Maggie Murdaugh's fingernails, agreeing with the defense that SLED's own retesting process could destroy the sample. She ruled the state can replay Murdaugh's 2023 sworn testimony for the new jury, including his admission that he lied about being at the kennels the night his wife and son were killed. And in the hearing's final stretch, the defense told the court that weapons tied to a recent Allendale County homicide may be ballistically linked to the Moselle murder weapons — a claim prosecutor Creighton Waters says caught him completely off guard despite talking to SLED every day. McCaslin is now personally overseeing jury selection after questions surfaced about Becky Hill's interference in the original trial. Next court date: November 14. Retrial: April 5, 2027.
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Alex Murdaugh's defense raised something in the Lexington County courtroom on August 14 that Creighton Waters did not see coming. The defense told Judge Debra McCaslin that weapons from a recent Allendale County murder may connect to the Murdaugh murder weapons. Waters told the court he had never heard a word about it, despite daily communication with SLED.

Jennifer Coffindaffer, a retired FBI Special Agent, joins Tony Brueski to cover the August 14 hearing and what it tells an investigator about how SLED managed the evidence in this case.

McCaslin ordered SLED to release fingernail DNA from Maggie Murdaugh to the defense for outside testing. The standard SLED analysis detected unknown male DNA under her fingernails but could not identify whose it was. The defense argued SLED's retesting protocol would destroy the remaining sample.

The venue was moved entirely out of the Colleton County circuit. McCaslin said she will personally oversee how jurors are selected. The first trial conviction was reversed after the clerk of court was found to have improperly influenced the jury.

The court ruled Murdaugh's 2023 testimony will be played in the retrial. That includes his admission he lied about being at the kennels. The Supreme Court previously excluded roughly twelve and a half hours of financial crimes evidence it said went too far, and the prosecution will not have that material in the second trial.

The defense has separately alleged that SLED's lead case agent testified about blood on a T-shirt that the agent himself acknowledged was not there, and that SLED's forensic division stopped testing the shirt after the first result came back negative for human blood.

Alex Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty. He is presumed innocent.

Tony Brueski and retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer.

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A motion filed on August 10 asks Judge Debra McCaslin to dismiss Alex Murdaugh's murder indictments entirely. The defense alleges SLED's lead case agent gave false testimony and presented fabricated blood evidence on a T-shirt to the Colleton County grand jury that charged Murdaugh in 2022. No prosecution response has been filed and McCaslin has not ruled.That pending motion was the backdrop for an August 14 hearing where the defense gained ground on every other contested issue. McCaslin granted a change of venue out of the 14th Judicial Circuit, citing the high rate of jurors disqualified in the original trial and the Murdaugh family's generations-long role in the local legal establishment.She ordered the release of unknown male DNA recovered from Maggie Murdaugh's fingernails for independent defense testing. She ruled Murdaugh's 2023 testimony conditionally admissible, limited to statements about the deaths of Maggie and Paul, rejecting the defense argument that his decision to testify was compelled by improperly admitted financial crimes evidence.McCaslin took personal control of jury selection, responding to Dick Harpootlian's concerns about when former clerk Becky Hill began shaping the original pool. The hearing ended with the defense raising a potential ballistics link between the murder weapons and a recent Allendale County homicide. Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters told the court he had never heard of the connection despite daily contact with SLED. Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty. The retrial remains set for April 5, 2027.

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Alex Murdaugh's defense wants independent DNA testing ahead of his retrial. Prosecutors are fighting that request. Tony Brueski and retired FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke dig into why the state doesn't want a second lab involved, and what it's asking for instead.
Prosecutors are also seeking a fresh review of digital evidence and moving to admit Murdaugh's own 2023 testimony at the retrial, including his admission that he lied to investigators for about eighteen months about being at the kennels the night Maggie and Paul were killed, and his denial of the killings themselves. The state is renewing two pretrial wins: keeping third-party guilt evidence from the jury, and barring any reference to a polygraph, after Murdaugh's own attorneys once told a court that Curtis Eddie Smith failed one when asked about the murders.
Murdaugh's defense has filed its own countermove, a supplemental Brady and Giglio motion demanding prosecutors search again for favorable evidence generated since the first trial and certify in writing, within thirty days, that nothing was missed. Ten categories are listed, from plea deals to lab proficiency testing, and the motion names no specific witness or document. A sanctions motion from the first trial is still outstanding, and prosecutors haven't responded.
Judge Debra McCaslin has tentatively set the retrial for April 5, 2027. Alex Murdaugh's murder convictions were overturned by the South Carolina Supreme Court over the clerk of court's conduct with the jury. He is presumed innocent and remains imprisoned on unrelated financial crimes.
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Alex Murdaugh's defense wants a South Carolina judge to order something rare: a full search of every file, agency, and personnel record connected to his case, across ten categories, with prosecutors swearing in writing that nothing favorable to Murdaugh remains hidden. Judge Debra McCaslin hears arguments on that motion August 14, 2026. Tony Brueski breaks down what's actually being asked for, and why.
The motion leans on the record of lead investigator David Owen, who led the Murdaugh case and, years earlier, a separate 2015 murder investigation a judge later quashed after ruling the state withheld favorable evidence for nearly a decade, including a mother's account Owen denied under oath. It also notes agent Ryan Kelly, who told Murdaugh's jury nothing tied alternate suspect Eddie Smith to the murders before being fired from an unrelated Charleston County job in June 2026.
Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer joins to weigh whether the demand is a fishing expedition or something this investigation has genuinely earned, and covers the fight over the white shirt Murdaugh wore the night Maggie and Paul were killed, tested negative for human blood, then rendered permanently untestable by a chemical used in SLED's own analysis.
All of this comes days after a federal judge dismissed Murdaugh's $600,000 lawsuit against former clerk Becky Hill, whose jury tampering overturned his original convictions. Hill has pleaded guilty to obstruction, perjury, and misconduct and received no prison time. Murdaugh is presumed innocent heading into his April 2027 retrial, and this motion may decide what the jury does or doesn't get to see.
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Alex Murdaugh's lawyers want a signature from the prosecution, and the reason sits in a case most people have never heard of. Tony Brueski takes the listener mail with retired FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke.

The defense filed a supplemental motion under Brady and Giglio. It asks the court to order prosecutors to search again for favorable and impeachment material generated since the 2023 trial, then certify in writing that the search was diligent and current. Thirty days.

Now the case that gets a fraction of the coverage. Last spring a circuit court judge quashed the murder indictment in the Michael Colucci prosecution after concluding potentially exculpatory evidence had not been properly disclosed. Former SLED special agent David Owen, the lead investigator in the Moselle murders, faced renewed credibility scrutiny in connection with that matter. Owen retired in June 2024 after twenty-eight years of service.

At Murdaugh's first trial, Owen acknowledged under cross-examination that SLED waited roughly three months to search the family's Almeda property, even though investigators later theorized Murdaugh may have taken weapons or evidence there. Asked whether that was an opportunity missed, he answered that it probably was.

The current motion names neither Owen nor anyone else. It asks the state to repeat the entire discovery process against everything that has happened since.

Prosecutors have not yet filed a response. Judge Debra McCaslin has tentatively set the retrial for April 5, 2027, with pretrial proceedings in Lexington County.

Maggie Murdaugh and Paul Murdaugh were killed at the family's Colleton County hunting property on June 7, 2021.

Murdaugh's convictions were overturned by the South Carolina Supreme Court, he awaits retrial, and he is presumed innocent. He has denied the killings of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh throughout.

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Alex Murdaugh is getting a second trial because of a court clerk. That is the whole reason any of these new filings exist, and it is worth keeping in front of you. Tony Brueski takes listener questions with retired FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke.

The South Carolina Supreme Court vacated Murdaugh's 2023 murder convictions after jurors said Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill told them to watch his body language and not be fooled by his testimony. The justices ruled that amounted to a suggestion he was guilty. Hill later pleaded guilty to perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office, and was sentenced to probation.

Now prosecutors have moved to put the very testimony Hill commented on in front of a new jury. Their filing asks Judge Debra McCaslin to admit Murdaugh's 2023 trial testimony at the retrial, including his admission that he lied to investigators for roughly eighteen months about being at the kennels the night Maggie and Paul were killed.

The same filings renew the state's motions to exclude polygraph evidence and third-party guilt, seek a fresh review of digital evidence, and oppose the defense's request for independent DNA testing.

The listener question landing hardest is the circular one. The verdict fell because of what a clerk said about him testifying. The state's answer is to make sure the next jury hears him testify anyway.

McCaslin has tentatively set the retrial for April 5, 2027. Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters told the court the state could have been ready before the end of 2026. Dick Harpootlian said the defense has eight new expert witnesses and that DNA work alone could take six months.

Murdaugh's convictions were overturned, he awaits retrial, and he is presumed innocent. He has denied the killings since 2021 and remains in prison on financial crime convictions.

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The Brady motion filed August 5, 2026, is the widest evidence demand of the Alex Murdaugh retrial so far, and this breakdown goes category by category. The filing renews the defense's July 2022 discovery request and stacks ten new categories on top: new or modified witness deals, statements that contradict old ones, updated disciplinary and internal affairs files, DNA and forensic developments down to analyst proficiency tests and software, fresh search warrants, and post-trial material touching the verdict's integrity. It reaches SLED's Eddie Smith roadside-shooting file and the narcotics investigation. And it asks Judge Debra McCaslin to make prosecutors certify in writing — within thirty days — that a diligent, current search found nothing else favorable to the defense.

Tony Brueski lays out why that certification matters more than it sounds. If the state signs it and favorable evidence surfaces at trial, the defense holds the evidence and the state's own paper saying it didn't exist. The Colucci case shows the stakes: a June 2025 quash order, a decade of undisclosed evidence, and David Owen — Moselle's lead investigator — testifying he was never told what a witness swore she gave him in 2015. Ryan Kelly's June 2026 firing from a Charleston County internal affairs post gets the same careful treatment: records don't describe the conduct, and nothing links it to SLED or to this case.

Attorney General Alan Wilson's office hasn't responded; the first hearing on the motion is set for August 14, 2026, in Lexington County. McCaslin can grant it, narrow it, or deny it. Murdaugh is presumed innocent, with retrial set for April 2027. If you're following the retrial gavel to gavel, this is the filing that shapes everything after it.

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South Carolina taxpayers are about to fund a second Alex Murdaugh murder trial because Becky Hill talked to a jury while selling a book about the case. That means a new prosecution, courthouse security, and months of court time. On August 5, a federal judge ruled Hill owes Murdaugh nothing for the first one. His $600,000 lawsuit against the former clerk is dismissed, on the logic that he'd have paid his defense lawyers whether she tampered or not. She pleaded guilty in December to obstruction, perjury, and misconduct: charges about a book photo, bonuses, and sealed exhibits, not the tampering. She received no prison time. She keeps whatever the book made. Everyone is paying for what happened in that courtroom except the person who caused it.

Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer joins Tony Brueski to work through that math, and through the second filing that landed a day later. Murdaugh's defense is demanding prosecutors search every file, every witness deal, and every disciplinary record, then certify in writing that nothing favorable to him remains hidden. The motion names no specific missing evidence. It doesn't have to — the state's record does the arguing. Lead investigator David Owen is connected to a separate murder case dismissed over undisclosed evidence. Agent Ryan Kelly, who cleared Eddie Smith on the stand, was fired this June from an internal affairs job for unrelated and undisclosed reasons. And the white shirt at the center of the forensic case tested negative for human blood before a testing chemical destroyed any chance of a second opinion.

Coffindaffer answers the questions this channel's audience has been asking all week: why Hill isn't in prison, who searches SLED besides SLED, and whether the shirt was ruined by accident. Murdaugh is presumed innocent. April will test the case. This episode tests the casework.

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