“Murdaugh" Episode Seven | The Interrogations Part One

0:00 [Music] June 10th of 2021, the day of the passing of Randolph-Mertall, Alex gets a call from Sled wanting to meet and get more information into the murders of Paul and Maggie. [Music] Alex agrees and with his lawyer present, an interview is conducted in the parking lot of a business in Collerton County. [Music] Alex in great detail covers his steps leading up to, during and immediately following those murders and what he reveals would eventually become the key piece of evidence in the double murder at Mozel and with it, release a shocking chain of events that would spend this small community into the global spotlight.

1:07 [Music] Welcome to Exposed, scandalous files of the elite, Murdall, Episode 7, the interrogations, Part 1. [Music] Hey, everyone and welcome back to Exposed, scandalous files of the elite, I'm your host, Jim Chapman, and we are continuing the Murdall series with this 7th episode.

1:52 And when we left you last, we told you the story of Gloria Satterfield's untimely passing on the Murdall property. And we covered the details on that story, so we're going to move on and as I told you in the last episode, just a few days after Maggie and Paul Murdall were murdered, Randolph Murdall, Alex's dead, he died at the age of 81 and that was on June 10th of 2021. And interestingly enough, something else occurred of major consequence that day, and that was an interrogation or as it was referred to an interview of Alex Murdall by sled investigators.

2:38 And this was the second time they had talked to him since the murders. Now, present in that interview, which took place in a vehicle, and I know they seemed to love doing interviews and interrogations and vehicles in South Carolina, but that's, this is the second one inside of vehicle, third one inside of vehicle, if you count busters, bestie that they interviewed in a vehicle. But inside this vehicle were Alex Murdall, one of Alex Murdall's lawyers, the primary investigator from sled and another investigator from sled. And they were seated in a small vehicle. Alex Murdall was in the front seat with the primary investigator in the back seat was Alex Murdall's attorney and that other investigator. And here's how I'm going to approach this particular episode because these interrogations, these interviews, whatever you want to call it, they're very important.

3:35 This is probably the most important aspect of this podcast is that you hear this in full. And there's no way I can tell you the story without you hearing these and really grasping what's going on. The one I'm going to play you today, it's about an hour in length, but I'm not going to play the whole interrogation/interview straight third. I'm going to play a little bit of the clip, and then we're going to talk about what we heard in that aspect of the club. And then I'll continue on with the club and so on until the end. So here's what that first interrogation sounded like, and a few minutes into it, we'll talk about when these key points happen. This is June 12th of 2021.

4:28 One thing I want to do before we start is I'd like to get a cell phone exam so we can just cooperate with everything. I'm going to get a consent and I got a guy here that's going to do it. Are you going to download it now? Yes sir. Okay great. So I'll get to keep my phone. Yes sir. Good. What, how much attorney-client privilege stuff is on there? A lot. Okay. We do have a tank attorney that's going to examine it before we ever do. What does a tank attorney? A tank attorney. They look at somebody who's not affiliated with the case that makes sure that there's Jim Dino in the case plan. I mean it's a privilege attorney that doesn't, if there is attorney-client privilege information, it's as redactual or an extravagant body at a tank attorney. How did they know who's the client?

5:22 I know. It doesn't matter. Yeah. Whatever it is. You know what? But if you all get someone attorney-client, let's know. You know what would go through me. So signature. Just write your name here. So Alec, I've had situations where they smell a big deal. Give me a list of all his clients or home. I know what the problem is. I think the big thing, Joe, is I mean when you download that phone, if I don't, emails come with it or not, because that's probably where all is. Turn client privilege stuff. And we can actually isolate the emails. Yeah, that's probably where you don't text. My email clients. No, I do my text a lot of clients. Okay. I'm not a big emailor. Is that an 11 or 12? Do you know?

6:07 I do not know. All right, so when we spoke the other night, I got kind of a basic overview. Yes, sir. And it was pretty traumatic. That's okay. I know you need to ask me. You asked me what you need to do. So I just I want you to let's start Monday morning and and take me through your day. Monday morning. You know, that I do Monday morning. My wife and my older son had gone to the baseball games that weekend. I really can't remember what I did Monday morning. I know I went to work.

6:50 You know, I think I was dragging a little bit from the weekend and I went to work. I usually mess around on my farm and then I go to work. I was at work. Got you know. We at the office in Hampton or? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Is that my office in Hampton? You know, I mean, I was just at my office doing legal work. Yes, sir. I'm sure I can go back and probably recreate some specifics if you need me to, but I can't like sit here and recall on the top of my head exactly what I was working on. I know one thing I was working on was we had some we had some big motions coming up and a dominion energy case. I was getting ready for those and I was getting ready for some motions. I'm a defendant in a civil case involving my son. I told you about the boat wreck. Yes, sir. And there was some motions coming up in that on Thursday and I was mostly just getting ready for those things.

7:58 And then other junk. What time did you leave the house to go to the office? I'm not sure. Who, who, who I was at the house when you left? To go to my office that morning or when you got up who was at the house? I'm sure my wife was and I can't remember if Blanca had made it out there yet or not. And who was Blanca? Blanca is our housekeeper. Okay, okay. And she comes different. She doesn't have set hours but she comes most days. She'll be out of tell you if I was there when she left or not. I just can't remember.

8:39 And so you, when in the office you did some motions. What time did you leave the office? I left a little bit earlier than normal because my son Paul was coming home because he had not been with us during the weekend and he was coming home. We were going to, we were going to replant some sunflowers the next day. Okay. And so he was calibrating, doing and getting everything ready. So he got home a little early. I left a little early. So he and I could knock around and we knocked around for you know just doing things we like to do out there. You know, we're riding around looking at food plots, looking for hogs, a little bit of target shooting, just bullshit. Yeah.

9:37 You said Paul wasn't with you over the weekend where does he live with you at the house on Mozilla? Well, I mean that's his home. He has an apartment in Columbia. And he goes to Charleston a lot of weekends with his buddies. And he had been in Charleston for the weekend. And then Paul works for my brother John. This is out here. You met John. So Paul works for him. So Paul decided to go to, he went to spend a night with my brother, his uncle John. They were very, very close. Okay. Sonny night. And then he worked for John Marvin and he came home Monday afternoon.

10:26 Okay. About roughly what time in the afternoon? You know, I would think it would be somewhere in the five o'clock range a little bit. It was it was broad daylight when we were. It wasn't dust darker late. You know, and we rode, you know, we just rode around. We rode around our doof feel looking at how the corn was doing. He had he had an eye at planting corn in the doof feel. And he planted a corn in the duck pond and he was, you know, showing me how much better his corn was doing than mine was. And we rode around the duck pond. I mean, we just, you know, we rode the property. Yes, sir. You know, we just, we rode the property. Then, you know, I mean, we, we rode around so much.

11:14 We just rode probably. It was a good little while. It was more than 20 minutes, 30 minutes. And you know, was it two hours? I don't know. I'd say it was more than an hour probably. Really wasn't keeping track of time. And it wasn't, you know, it wasn't getting dark, mama wasn't home yet. She'd gone to a doctor's appointment. So, you know, just out of curiosity target practice. Look, don't shoot. Just a little bottle. He, he, he gave me what gun? Yeah. A 22 magna.

11:59 Bradshot. I think no, what a Bradshot. I think he shot, I think he shot two times and I shot one time. So after y'all got finished riding around and try to take me through the rest of the evening. All right. Um, you know, at some point, we were all back at the house together. Um, Maggie had gotten home and, you know, we sat down, we ate supper, and which we usually supper together. Um, so, um, the one thing I remember, I don't know how much detail y'all want. So if I start talking about something that you don't need, just tell me and I'll move to something else. The more detailed, the better. So Paul has been having, um, high blood pressure and his mama was worried sick about it.

12:49 So we were actually, you know, this was a direct thing getting him, he'd unlike go to doctors, making him go get his blood pressure checked, his feet are swollen up recently. So, you know, that was, it was a, it was a big huge deal. Okay. You know, we hung around the house for a little while. I know that Maggie went to the kennels. Um, I don't know exactly where Paul went, but he left a house too. Okay. How did Maggie get down to the kennels? I don't know exactly, but on normal occasion, she would drive, drive a buggy, drive a four wheeler or very common for her to walk.

13:34 Okay. How about Paul? What's Paul wasn't much of a walker, but he would use all of the others. Okay. Um, but it, I mean, it could be anyway, you know, I don't know exactly, I wish I could help you with that. So, so they left and went down to the kennels? Well, Maggie went to go to the kennels and Paul left. And I'm assuming, you know, I'm assuming Paul left because of, you know, what happened. I mean, I'm assuming Paul went to the kennels. Okay. Um, and what did you do when, once Maggie had Paul left? I stayed in the house. Okay. And I was watching TV looking at my phone and I actually fell asleep on the couch. Okay. And what time did you, you know, I don't know exactly what time I woke up, but when you all get my phone, you know, I think one of the first things I did when I got up was called Maggie because I was going to my mom's. And I know I texted her because I check my phone and what time do we say the text was Jim like 906. I didn't see it. Yeah, I got it written down for me.

14:50 I showed you the other night, yes, yes, so I got to. So, you know, I texted her, so I called her just before that. And I mean, she, she didn't answer at that point. And I left to go to my mom's. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Y'all just have to look, I don't, I'm not sure if I called Paul. And that, and that's why we're getting the phone so we can nail down the times and everything. So I left a drove. Well, you know, I'm gonna tell you all this, even though I think it's kind of crazy, you know, I was certain that I heard them pull up. I mean, I was positive that I heard and people don't just come out there. You know, we don't get like pass through. I was certain that I heard them pull up, but I, but they didn't. Okay. Well, if you heard something pull up, what did it sound like?

15:45 You know, I don't, I can't tell you what it sounded like. I just noted, I thought they, I thought that that my wife had pulled up or had pulled up. Would it would have been the buggy that she normally drives or would it be a car? No, no, I had the impression that a car pulled up. Okay. You know, yeah. So as you just heard, Alex gets into the car and the first thing the detective did is ask for his cell phone. So the detective in the back seat, he's got a laptop and he's gonna download that information while they talk. Now, at first, Alex Murdole, he seems like he's more than willing to do this, but as they're discussing it, Alex is getting more and more irritated. And in the actual video version of this, you can see it on his face, how irritated he's getting. Clearly. So if you're a national slab or above on Patreon, I'm going to upload that video and you can check that out for yourself. I highly recommend you check out the video that I'm uploading as well because there's a lot of things that you're going to see in his mannerisms that are very disturbing, but we'll move on.

17:03 In that clip, you also heard him go through his day on that Monday and he's very detailed. Almost two detailed. Very few questions were asked by the investigator in that clip. Yet, Alex could not shut up with these extremely intricate details. And the problem with that is that Emma seems rehearsed. I mean, think about it. If someone asked you what you did four days ago, would you be able to be that detailed on the spot? Like that. Now, a couple of that with having a tragedy such as your wife and your son getting their heads blown off. Are you going to be able to be that detailed on what happened? The day that all that occurred in your family. And here's the gist of his claims so far. He wakes up that Monday. He goes to work. He leaves the house early because Paul was coming home. Paul finally gets home and he and Paul hang out. They shoot guns at a bottle on the property and then they get back to the house. Maggie leaves. She goes to the kennels, presumably to see the dogs and play with them. Paul walks out of the house and Alex, he's not sure where Paul went, but he falls asleep on the couch. He wakes up. Nobody's there. He calls. Nobody

18:37 answers Maggie's phone so he texts Maggie and he doesn't get a response and he leaves and he goes to visit his mom. But as you just heard, he mentions right before he left that he thought he heard a car pull up. He actually says, you know, you're going to think I'm crazy, but he goes into that claim. And I submit to you, this is a deflection tactic by Alex and he's he's basically trying to get the focus off of himself and onto a potential car pulling up full of his sassins, right? When he dismisses it with, you're going to think I'm crazy, but to me, that's a sign and we'll get into that more detail in a little while, but I'm going to continue with the interrogation club.

19:34 And had you woken up by that time, but hadn't left for your moms? Yep. Okay. And and but it wasn't much time in between there because I left pretty damn close. It wasn't much time between me waking up and me leaving the house. And when I went outside, you know, there's a cat, a wild cat that lives around that house. I'm pretty sure it was the cat that ran from my car, but you know, I never had the impression it was a person, but there was something.

20:17 Okay. You know, but I really don't think, you know, I'm just throwing out at it because it was in my mind. Yeah, nope, that's fine. I left, I drove to, I drove to my moms. I checked on my mom. She lives right out here. She lives in Almeida. She checked on my mom, talked with Shelly for a few minutes. You know, shelly is the caregiver. And, um, you know, I noted, I called some people on the way to, I know I returned to call from a brother, John. Um, I noted, I called Chris Wiltson. Um, I noted, I talked to Buster.

21:07 Um, so I made a few phone calls. Okay. And where was Buster? Buster was in Rockville. Okay. Is that where he lives or? No, he lives in Columbia, but he just started a new job. He's going back to law school in January. Okay. So he's working a little part time job with wild wings. Okay. Uh, through January. Gotcha. You know, just kind of killing time. And he was in, um, his girlfriend lives in Rockville. She's studying for the Barg Sam. So he had to be in Charlotte.

21:47 So he was staying with her in Rockville, her and her mom. Okay. Can I open the store? So, I, so where are we? So then I left your mom's and making phone calls. I left my mom's and I went back home. I got to the house. I went inside. Nobody was there. I got in the car. I went back to the kennels and, you know, when you went back to the kennels besides Maggie and Paul, did you see anybody? Any cars?

22:30 I didn't see anything right then. No, sir. Take your time. You know, I saw Maggie and I saw Paul laying down. I knew, you know, I didn't know, you know, I knew it was bad. I went over there and, you know, I saw it. Yeah. And, you know, I called 911. Okay. And, yeah, what, what made you decide to go back to the house and get it going? I thought, yeah, this thing, the whole scene had me freaked out. Okay. Did you, you take your car back up there? Or do you run up there? No, I drove. Okay.

23:10 And of course, you shot gun that we have is the one you brought back. They were asking me earlier. I'm not sure which one it was. Jim it was a 12 gauge. I know. Yeah, Ronnie had a question. If it was 12 or 20, it was a 12 gauge. And it was that camo? Yes, sir. I think it was the 12 camo finale. But now the finale. Thanks for that. But that's about all you got. The now they got it right? So there you heard it again. Something made a noise. And he says, it could have been a wildcat or something. He brings that up, but he's planning seeds with that detective, right?

23:53 He goes to his mom. He talks to the caregiver, Shelley. And you'll put that in your back pocket, especially Shelley. Remember that name for the future, Shelley, because it plays the second most critical role in this case, upcoming. So he says he went to his moms and then he returned some calls at his mother's house, presumably in his truck, right? Before he leaves, he picks up a cell, find these returning calls, making calls, leaves his moms, gets back to Mozel, goes inside. And he sees, no one's no one's here. According to him, he remembers the last time he saw Maggie, she was going to the kennels. So he heads out there and that's where he finds his wife and son dead in calls, no one.

24:49 Now the most important clues about this section, I just played you were not in his words, but his actions in that video version. You can clearly see a lot of visual clues that he's lying. And as I said, I'll upload that to the Patreon, but you can hear him sniffing several times in this clip. Yet there's no snott. And every time the investigator looks at him, he rubs his eyes. But there's no tears to white. Those or distinct tells you that Alex is giving off what a tell is is something you do every time you lie. Or if you feel like you have to be doing something. So if he's talking about finding them at the kennels and his mind racing through, he's thinking, I should be crime right now.

25:51 And I'm not. So when the detective looks at him, he wipes away these fake tears that don't exist. His eyes aren't red, they aren't swollen, there's no tears coming out. He's wiping dry eyes. You can see all that in the video version. And remember a few episodes ago, I think it was the Kennel episode. I told you about Paul's bestie and that he and Paul, they were face timing about his besties, doll being hurt. And Paul's bestie said that Alex was at those kennels because he heard Alex talking in the background of the video. And he heard Maggie talking in the background of the video. Yet, Alex just claimed that he didn't go to the kennels until after he got back from his moms, and they were already dead. But what Alex doesn't know at this time is that the investigators already know, or they're quite confident that he was at those kennels. So the second that he left that out, I submit to you, he became the prime suspect because why would you lie about that, right? The interrogation continued. And we talked about this a little bit the other night too.

27:22 I know Paul had been getting some threats and getting some some been and being assaulted from you know, the boat. Who stands out in your mind besides the boat incident, who stands out in your mind that would want to come after Paul and or Maggie. I mean sir, I can't think of anybody who would want to go to that extreme, you know? I mean, he got a bunch of threats is mostly from, you know, I mean, I have no idea.

28:14 How would he receive most of those threats? What do you mean? I mean, would people call and hang up on them or send them to the taxi or social media? Now it was mostly like in-person confrontations or the ones that I learned about. Now, I suspect his friends can probably tell you about more because I doubt Paul told me about all of them. Okay. But I knew about a lot of them, you know? There were a lot of times where people would come up to him and he'd be like, they'd say something about, you know, you're going to tell me who was driving that boat or you little piece of shit. Were you driving that boat, you know, stuff like that?

28:55 Okay. Who did he go to Charleston with on the boat that weekend? I don't know, for exactly. I know that, I mean, I know who his buddies are but specifically who was on the boat with him, I'm not sure. You know, but I can give you a list of names of who it probably was. So Joe, I don't know if you want me to boy in here and you may want to put your pins down, but um, a good buddy of mine, Simon, fishin with me yesterday, out of the notion and he has a best friend and his dad's name is Lee Chapman, but yeah, the kid said, Lee Sun said that Paul slept on his couch in Charleston two nights before he was born. So as Lee Chapman's son, I can give his name, he probably know Lee's police son, but he goes to a son, but that's where Paul are.

29:49 Okay. And I learned that yesterday, I don't fish a show when he's, I have to stand. Look cool. I mean, yes, sir, if you could get me Lee Chapman's son's contact information. There was a bunch of Chapman cousins that Paul was very close with, the closest one being Will's Chapman and Frank Chapman. Will's Chapman's his name, but I'll get you number one. Frank is John Chapman's son and Will's is Lee Chapman's son. Yeah, okay. That's where you want. And those boys are, you know, they're just really good boys and friends of Paul's. And one of them is Will's with the nests, right? That's right. And Will's goes to the Citadel. Let's show him a stand.

30:31 No, he's graduated from the South graduate school. Okay. And Frank was in the Citadel, but I think he had some kind of, you know, academic troubles. But I mean, I'm telling you now, I can promise you that, I mean, those boys love Paul. Well, it's none of it's absolutely. Well, you know, I just want to talk to them about their weekend, didn't you? Sure. Yeah. I can tell you this, and right around with Paul, he was his normal bright. You know, just remember those. He was a really great kid. So being a dad myself, what was the biggest issue you had with Paul when you had to call him down and scold him or correct him? What was the biggest issue you had with Paul?

31:25 You know, I mean, I had a responsibility, you know, he was ADHD. He was bad about jumping from and he had so many wonderful qualities now, but he was bad about jumping from. He'd start this, maybe not quite finish it, move, do something else. And, you know, you'll find out from his friends, he had clothes strung out all over the state. He did that with clothes, he did that with guns, he did that with my boots. So he lost what? He would miss play stuff, or just leave stuff behind, right? Yes, everywhere, everywhere. I mean, he would go off for the weekend, sometimes he wouldn't back clothes because he's got clothes in somebody's house.

32:13 And then Paul, Paul was one, he, he wouldn't understand how you go out, you know. You and one, you and a girl go out on the date, he, he, he liked the crowd. And who was his girlfriend? He didn't have a girlfriend right now. Okay. Now, the last time I told him, it was like two weeks ago, although we texted, he was going to Greenville where we cannot, he had friends of their, girl friend of them. No, no, we had a family, we had a family thing in Greenville and he came up on, he came up, Paul didn't play golf, he came up on Friday and stayed Saturday and then he left to go to Charleston and we were staying another day to play golf.

33:08 My niece, my wife's side is having a baby and we went up for that. And you said on Monday, Maggie had a doctor's appointment in Charleston and then we talked about this on Monday. Do you call the doctor that she went to or for what the reason was? Maggie had a couple little things going on and I personally think she was going to see Dr. Gordine but I'm not positive. I'm pretty sure that's who it was. I can find out specifically though her mom will know.

33:48 Okay. And you said she and she and Buster were at the ball games all weekend? Yes. What about with me? With you and what ball games? Carolina regional. They didn't make it past those, did they? No. Did Paul, when no Paul was in Charleston so he didn't hang out with you all that weekend? No sir. And what time did Maggie get back home Monday night? It was, it was after Paul and I had gone.

34:30 She was not there when Paul and I left to go mess around. Okay. So you know it was sometime after that so there was a point when you know she got back we got back. When you all got back from riding around and messing around on the farm was she home or? Yes. Okay. So and I don't believe she'd been home too long when when and what's her core? And you said Bianca prepared dinner that night?

35:15 Yeah Blanca, Blanca Cook, cook dinner that night because Maggie cooks, you know, when the boys were home or she tries to really for me but she wasn't going to be there that day. So she had Blanca cook a meal. How is your relationship with Maggie? Very good. That's good as it could possibly be. I mean you know we had our issues but wonderful. And I'm just trying to understand the family dynamic. Understand you got to do what you got to do.

35:57 I promise. What was y'all's biggest arguments? What your biggest argument? The things that y'all would argue about the most? What would they be over? I mean we really didn't argue but the basic, I'd say the really the only thing that caused any friction between us is she was always wanting us to go and I love her in laws. I mean they're wonderful people. I love her death. She was always wanting to go there stay there a little longer than me and the boys wanted to stay. That was really and it really, you know she'd get ticked off. Yeah. You mean her family? You said you're in laws.

36:37 You mean her family? I mean her family. I mean we really didn't argue about much. Man how much to argue about? I mean I'm sure there was an occasional thing that came up that we argued about but I can't tell you what it is. Take it time.

37:18 Go. It's too sweet. Go. It's hard. I'm sure it's a wonderful girl. I'm a wonderful wife. And she was a great mother. She you know she didn't work and she always said it was her job. She was pretty much enough not to work. She was gonna make sure she took care of me and the boys and I mean she did everything. She did absolutely everything.

38:00 I'm sorry. No no no you know they're right to do that. I'm good you go ahead. That afternoon we're here in the time you and Paul were right. Yes sir. Did you go up to around the cannel for anything? Did you all do anything up toward the canals? I'm sure we did. You know my that's our main shop is you know right there.

38:44 But you know I mean we're normally in there for long times tinkering and I will say that particular day we we did not tinker around there a bunch you know. When y'all rode around the farm what were y'all y'all in truck or well we were actually in two trucks we rode in one truck and then we rode in another truck some. One was the black one and one was the white one that was out there. That's rally.

39:33 Yes sir. You know the other day when we were there we came in and we were talking a little bit. Sure. And you obviously got a lot of I say a lot in September or 25 with us. Yes sir. And you know kind of what you got as far as any kind of going what kind of welcome you may have. I'm pretty much yes sir. I know you might not own them all but you can kind of run that one. Of course you kind of want your hand. What you have you know that there. That I own or that's in there now. That's you all.

40:14 All right that I own. That's in there. You know all the way over there right. And you know I mean Paul has guns scattered all over the place so you know some of our guns aren't there but so you want to know all of them or you want to know what I think is in my house or what was in my house on Monday. Yeah what was in your house. Let's start with what was in your house on Monday. Okay whatever was in my house on Monday is exactly what was there minus one shotgun that I got that y'all got. Okay. No guns have been moved for you know there hadn't been any guns moved in and out of there other than when Paul was home you know when Paul came home he would ride around and shoot hogs a lot.

41:08 He shoot hogs with you know I mean primarily he would shoot them with busters gun because Paul Paul had a 300 blackout. Okay. And it got you know he says it got stolen. Um you know it has been gone for some time but anyway so he would use his brother's blackout a lot of time. So a buster had a also had a 300. I gave him both one. Okay. When was that? About years ago.

41:51 Okay. More than a year ago. More than a year ago. Okay. All right so but he would do anything. Paul had this um you know like a little light that I used um that night. Paul would take that thing up to you know by 308 and I mean he was always rigging something. Um you know so sometimes shotguns for when he would go try to kill the hogs because you know the piglets would be grouped up but normally he would have a rifle when he went to shoot pigs.

42:38 So all right so going back to the gun you want me to tell you all what was in there I don't you know I mean having an inventory? I video that the thing I didn't write down everything that you had. I just took a random just like a record of what was on the gun rack or on the gun wall in the gun room that day. And there are some more guns that aren't in that gun room you know I don't know how many but you know like I do know there's a shotgun in my bedroom. Yeah I think Miss Katie, Katie, Walter John and saw that one. Okay and I imagine there's probably some in some other rooms.

43:29 I know that um I think it was the neck we have two gun cases one small one and one big one and I moved some guns from the little case to the big case just because you know her mom and dad were in there and I just took all the guns to the back room but that's after the fact. Were those guns with those guns have been in the room been the gun room when we came up with Joe? I can't remember exactly when y'all came but probably I think y'all came a little bit because it was a good while before y'all came. It was probably two blocks or so that afternoon before we get there. Did you all keep any guns out at the y'all?

44:18 Kels? He didn't keep guns out there but there were always guns out there. Okay. You know um I mean and I'm gonna be honest with you we were all a little bit bad about it but Paul was the worst you know he was the worst. He would leave a gun out there. He would leave anything anywhere and you know it was not unusual for there to be guns out there. Did y'all take the um? But like I can tell you that I mean they told me that 300 blackout was used in this that 300 blackout you know it was it was not out there.

45:05 So y'all y'all didn't use that for target practice or he didn't have it out there with him on Monday? No. Okay no that's right because it was in the house. So Paul said that one um was stolen or lost and it was some time ago. Did was that reported anywhere? It was an officially reported because I wasn't totally convinced it was stolen. Okay. You know as opposed to lost but I mean you know I mean there was people told about it. Yeah. I noted I told John Beddingfield about it um I noted I told some other local officers about it you know just in case it turned up in a drug thing. Okay. But I did it do an official report.

45:59 Okay. The two that you bought for the boys that each one I'm had one and the one Paul lost is that the only ones that you have? Well I'm gonna tell you this I thought we replaced I thought that Paul got another one replaced. The buster said we did it but I was certain that we did. [Music] But I mean my memory has been gone for a substantial while too.

46:53 Do you remember anything about them as far as were they the same colors? They were identical except for colors. Okay. Who had that which one was busters? Busters the one we still have. Paul's the one that lost is. Okay. One of the two colors. Black and tan. Busters is black. Paul's was tan. Okay. [Music] Let me say you thought you replaced it after you lost it. I'm not a buster.

47:36 I'm not a buster it says you didn't. I believe that we did. Okay. I mean there'll be a record of that on it. It should be yesterday. I know we replaced. [Music] But you know I wouldn't I know we replaced it because I wouldn't replace it again. Maybe I just think that now I don't know but I'm certain we replaced it. [Music] Have you talked to CB Row since Monday or Tuesday?

48:27 Yes sir. Because I know we talked about what he had done on the farm have you all as he's still employed? He's still employed because I got to have somebody keeping it clean but I mean I can't keep him. I mean he's an idiot. Yeah. And you know I know I told you I don't know why that story seemed important to me the other night. Yeah. I really can't see CB Row doing I just can't I really do not believe that. Well it's I mean it's a not story. It's a messed up story. And you know and I just being in law enforcement for so long and working these type cases and I don't know the Ellington area area but talking to Callen and County and seeing the property and how isolated it is.

49:22 Finding somebody that's just going to randomly come up there that late at night that doesn't know the property. You know that's so of course I have to look within and then start working my way out. So you feel like it's not random? You feel like it's intentional? I mean plain. I don't know what to feel right now. And I hate to say that. I don't know what to feel right now. So do y'all have any good clues? All of the evidence that we collected. Tuesday morning and we collected additional evidence on Tuesday on Tuesday afternoon.

50:09 They collected evidence at autopsy today. So we we're trying to put a rush on that to get an answer quick and hoping that's going to tell us something. By evidence I mean is it things you think are going to be helpful? Well I mean the like the shot shells out there the the the casings the DNA swabs that we took from the door handle to see if anybody touched the door handles any other places that we think somebody may have touched while they were out there. You know we're trying to collect DNA from that and analyze that which at the conclusion of this what what I'm going to also ask is that we get a vocal swab the DNA swabs from you. Your DNA is going to be there but we need to eliminate it when it wants us to develop. So you know we don't need that unknown and it actually is a family member.

51:05 First you know I mean we we have talked to close to a hundred people trying to track people down and we're still tracking people down and that's why you know who who I'm Paul was with. I want to tell you one thing while I'm thinking about it. Yeah. Paul was really and incredibly intuitive little dude. And I mean he was like a little detective and I mean Paul would you know he you know I'm trying to say yeah.

51:46 Which leads me to let's go back to Paul right quick while we're on him. So we have his phone. Do you know his passcode? I don't. And I'm gonna tell you this right now. There's a few people I can point you to. Yeah. But I can tell you that he was super super super secretive with that. I mean cell phone. I asked his brother if he knew it. Did the ones that they got the other day didn't? Did you all get any other day? Not for Paul's phone but I know they got I know they got Maggie's too. I know Maggie. Yeah. And it works or it works. Yeah. I've not gotten it but there's a lot of people out moving parts that you know may have gotten that information to with follow up on it. If you believe somebody gave us a code for Paul's or a possible code for Paul's. You know maybe it was Maggie's out of it. Okay. But I'll find out I'll try to find out Paul's cause. Yeah.

53:01 But it was surprised me greatly if somebody knows it. Now in that clip you heard the name CB Row again. But Alex he dismisses him much like he did the night that Maggie and Paul were murdered and he was sitting inside the police car that first that very first interview. He dismisses it because he thinks he's being slick. He knows if he hammers that theory too much it will seem too suspicious. So he dismisses it not realizing the detective he knows that's a tell sign when you bring up someone's name as well this person could have done something and then you dismiss it real quick but I don't think they would do that. That's a tell that you are trying to deflect again. All right. Also in that segment the detective asked Alex what about Paul did you not like? Now why would he ask this? Well that's also a tactic and it's used to put Alex off guard and to see what Paul could have done to set Alex off. That would be a question Alex probably didn't prepare for. So his answer would probably be an honest answer because he didn't consider it in advance he didn't think he would be asked that and certainly he doesn't want to look like he's thinking about it right there on the spot when the detective asked it. So he has to be honest and he probably was you also heard in that

54:36 clip Alex totally broke down when he was talking about Maggie and let me tell you I've heard some aggravating cries in my time this guy cries like the worst little bitch you've ever heard in your life. I have never heard I mean it is so dramatic it's just obvious to me it's fake but you hear and break down when he talks about Maggie and he screams and cries but there's one problem with all of that as soon as he quits crying he looks over at the detective to see what he's riding in his notebook and when he looks over you get a real good shot of his face in that video he has no tears zero tears but he's crying like a little bitch you just heard it because he is a little bitch but there's no way if you break down to that point that you're absolutely hysterically crying that you're not going to have snott you're not going to have tears running down your face your eyes aren't going to be red or glassy and I mean you know how it is when you bust out crying like that none of that the detective asked about those 300 blackouts in that clip and they have two of those guns one for Paul one for his other brother right buster but one of those guns is missing and it just so happens that's the

56:12 same exact gun type that was used to kill Maggie and remember Maggie and Paul got killed with two different guns and we'll get into that in more detail later on in this series but a 300 blackout was used to kill Maggie now a 300 blackout is a very rare gun in comparison to most and not everybody has a 300 blackout they're just not that common now the mardalls had two of them once missing Maggie was killed with one and you hear in that clip he's trying to say that that gun was missing for quite a while it wasn't missing the day of the murder it was missing before that and when the investigator asked him what did you follow report on the missing gun no because I wasn't sure it was lost you know he was basically saying that Paul was so irresponsible with guns and he may have in fact been irresponsible guns but he was trying to say he was so irresponsible guns he wasn't confident that it was stolen so he didn't want to turn in a report saying it was while that might make a little bit of sense the fact that your wife was killed with that gun or a gun just like it that's really coincidental now lastly in that last clip you heard the detective

57:42 make what I think was the most genius statement of the day and some pretty good detective work when Alex asked him do y'all have any clues or if that's Alex talks do y'all have any clues? his voice show but when he asked about those clues and the detective stated it would be unprecedented to him in all his years in law enforcement and investigations that someone would randomly go to such a remote property kill two people and just leave no motive they didn't even steal the cell phones of the people that they killed they weren't there to steal anything they could have killed them and went all through Alex Murdole's house and probably got a ton of stuff and still anything but they killed them in law and that's around about way of saying whoever did these things knew the Murdole's they knew that property and they knew the Maggi and Paul would be those kennels and they went there specifically to kill him that's basically what that investigator was saying he was saying I don't see any evidence to the contrary and then that's when Alex said so you don't think it was random anyway his voice

59:16 the interrogation continues I mean certainly you know talking about the investigation certainly we're looking at every angle trying to figure out what fits um then we're talking we're talking to you know people that were involved in the boat case we're talking trying to track down people that Paul knew and were friends with that's why I asked who he was in Charleston with so we can go try and see if they might know something or try to figure something out um we're trying to get into his phone um to see if there's any information see if you got like a direct threat from somebody there um I mean the people that are here are not the only ones working on this we've got people out doing things right now thank you um I mean we're just we're trying to pull everything in um just the area island and unfortunately they don't there's not a lot of people moving around I mean I've got got somebody looking at videos right now back at the office coming through hours of videos that we've gone out and collected well thank you all yeah very much so Mr. out you don't have to call me miss you just tell me I like thank you for that policy when when when you and Paul got back to house Miss Maggie's there and y'all eat supper which has been prepared and you say you said you laid down and and took a little nap and when you got up Maggie and Paul was gone or

1:00:52 did they leave when you laid down I'm I'm believed that I'm not I'm not sure but they weren't there when you woke up around the nine o'clock mark or so when when you made the call to Maggie to let her know you don't know nobody was in that house when I when I left so I'm just trying to narrow that the last time that Paul and you saw Paul and Maggie's when y'all were eating supper yes sir up until you came back from your moms and yes I found what you found yeah and his Alex probably told you all this he did check for a pose and that's why we want to do the DNA when you when you tried to turn Paul over do you know if you tried to turn him

1:02:31 like towards the kennels or away from the kennels and his phone fell out away I think I turned him away was he left and at a right handed he was right handed where did he normally keep his phone I don't I mean usually in his hand but I mean it was all you know there's always only pocket hand truck where did Maggie carry her phone anywhere is your good yes sir did y'all get fingerprints on her phone I haven't gotten that back yet when when the when when Paul's phone came out did you you just pick it up and put it on you know place it back down only more you know yeah I did not try to open it or anything you know I just I don't know how I had my mind that

1:04:03 I needed to not mess anything up I had that I had that you know somehow I had that presence of mine that I needed to not mess anything up and so I tried not to you and then you definitely saw a traumatic picture and I know it's not hard or not not easy I know it's hard and sit there talking to me is tough it's just so bad I did it so bad yeah it's such a good boy too but I'm sorry, go ahead and but you know the little the little things that we've got to understand is is necessary that we can we can get a little better picture as to just you know to what may have happened well I just thank y'all for everything you know my in-laws my parents my in-laws I would like

1:05:35 somebody to update me or my brother or somebody so that I can tell them as y'all discovered things unless there's some reason y'all don't do that well I mean they just have so many questions I understand in I mean they may even well know they don't well I mean how I know Maggie's mother just had a knee replacement how was their health overall other than that you know they're a little bit they're getting on up there daddy has some neuropathy but I mean they're in good physical health they they're in good you know their fortitude is good they're just you know they're they're just getting age on them you know yes or um are they in summer or are they at the house on moseil no they didn't they live in some real okay but there's I mean they're here now oh they're here in this house no they're in moseil okay because I mean I'll go by and and speak with them and meet with them um if you think that would help I think that would help with tremendous amount if you would just be willing just to sit down and let them I mean you know hand from me and John Marvin and Danny and whoever what little tidbit y'all get I just you know what I think it would give them peace of mind and know that y'all got a team of people out there own it

1:07:08 yes sir and and you know just to really have something you know a tangible person instead of being told you got contact number 4 ready now I'm getting ready to get that okay [BLANK_AUDIO] How's the ability?

1:07:50 The number of the main-- the headphone time for the Fedsky. I know y'all have the phone, y'all can jump in there with some towers. >> Yeah, I'm a dad, it's such good people. I mean, they're just-- >> Do you want to buy some of those guys or back at home? >> There's so much in it. >> Everybody behind you would. >> They really would make them feel good. >> What are their names? >> A lot of technical. >> My father-in-law's name is Terry. >> Yeah, but yes, we do. >> My mother-in-law's name is Kennedy. >> It's also good. >> And they're brand status. >> And my sister-in-law who-- >> Still brand status.

1:08:32 >> BREN, STETTER. And then my sister-in-law who was closest to Maggie in the whole world is Marion Proctor. And her husband is Bart Proctor. And they live in Charleston. Do you have a contact number for-- >> I know their numbers. >> Okay. >> All right, so we have Victor's advocate, Miss Marion Walker. >> Thank you. >> That's her cell number.

1:09:13 >> Thank you. >> There's some information for you on the back. >> And the Victor's advocate program, they help with different things. I think more specifically what would be more beneficial, especially if you and Buster is some counseling down the road. >> I do some assistant solicitors work. >> Yeah. >> So you're familiar with it. >> But thank you so much. >> I know y'all planned out the funeral today.

1:09:53 When is the funeral? >> Tomorrow. >> Tomorrow? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. >> You all have this business. >> We're doing a service tomorrow. Maggie and Paul aren't going to be ready and do them next week. So we're doing a service tomorrow. And then we're going to have a private family thing one day next week. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Are y'all doing anything tonight? >> I can run by and talk to Terry and Kennedy tonight. >> I think the sooner you can come and talk to them, the piece of mind that would really help them. That's convenient for you. So we're just out at the house tonight.

1:10:36 And for some reason they go back early because of the service tomorrow. They may be staying tonight. They may not be. I'm not sure. I'm not sure if you're going to be there tonight. I'm not sure if you're going to be there tonight. I'm not sure if you're going to be there tonight. I'm not sure if you're going to be there tonight. I'm not sure if you're going to be there tonight. I'm not sure if you're going to be there tonight. I'm not sure if you're going to be there tonight. I'm not sure if you're going to be there tonight. I'm not sure if you're going to be there tonight. I'm not sure if you're going to be there tonight. I'm not sure if you're going to be there tonight. I'm not sure if you're going to be there tonight. I'm not sure if you're going to be there tonight. I'm not sure if you're going to be there tonight.

1:11:16 All right. Do you have any other questions that I might be able to answer right now that we hadn't gone over? No sir. It's as soon as I get something. And if it's okay with you, John Marvin asked me to go through him. That's fair. So I'm not bothering you in case you're doing something. What time is the service tomorrow? 12 o'clock. Okay. Where is that going to be? Hampton. What? At the church or? Scraves that. Okay. So if I get something around that time, I won't bother you.

1:11:57 I'll wait one, one, thirty and... If you get anything important, you can call me anytime. Okay. Anytime. Yeah. Yeah. Are you all going to publicize the service or is it just going to be for family and friends? No sir. It's going to be open, but I got TC in those making sure there's no... I don't want any press anywhere near. Yeah. So... No, they don't deserve to be near. They're going to make sure, you know, and then town of Hampton. You know, there's no press.

1:12:37 Okay. All right. All right. Well, y'all got my numbers. Thank you for the phone. I think we're all on the... Yeah, I'm going to go check on it. Y'all going to go back in the house when it's done. I'll bring it. So yeah. So there you have it. And after that conversation, I would imagine these detectives are really wanting to turn up the heat on Alex. They got the crosshairs on him by this point. No doubt. That's when they've watched the video version of that interrogation. And they saw that he was crying with no tears and looking over at that notebook every chance he got to see what that detective was writing down.

1:13:22 So you're going to turn up that heat in our next episode. And I'll give you a little snippet here of one of the things that comes as a question in that interview, that detective looks straight at Alex Mertel during the next interrogation and says, "Alex, did you kill your wife and son and you won't believe Alex Mertel's response?" So look forward to that. [Music] While I'm saying that, if you're listening to this on whatever platform, make sure you subscribe to it.

1:14:15 You can...there's a bell. There might be a bell. If you're on Apple Podcast or a favorites button and ad button, a plus sign, whatever. Make sure you subscribe and the reason that I say that is, we drop a lot of things on this podcast as they come out, especially with the Ditty series. And so are official drop days for this podcast or Tuesdays and Thursdays we've increased to twice a week now. But if something major happens, it doesn't happen until Tuesday, we may drop it on that Wednesday. So if you hit that plus button or the bell or whatever, it's going to automatically alert you that we just dropped a new episode.

1:15:00 Thank you so much for listening, supporting, please rate us on whatever platform you're listening to and make sure you put one word, even if you just put awesome or great or love gem or whatever. It is huge and our success on this show. I really can't tell you how important that is until next time for exposed, scandalous, files of the elite. I'm your host, Jim Chapman. Much love. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]