Disgraced South Carolina legal scion Alex Murdaugh and his deceased wife Maggie ‘knew about their son Paul’s underage drinking before a fatal boat crash and did nothing about it,’ the victim’s mother claimed in an amended lawsuit.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday by the parents of Mallory Beach, who was killed aboard a boat helmed by Paul Murdaugh in 2019, depicts his parents as willful contributors to their son’s underage drinking.
‘Paul Murdaugh’s consumption of alcohol was condoned, encouraged and facilitated by Richard Alexander Murdaugh and Margaret Kennedy Branstetter Murdaugh,’ the lawsuit said.
Paul, 22, and his mother, 52, were found gunned down on their hunting estate in Islandton last June in a murder that remains unsolved.
Maggie’s husband, Alex Murdaugh, has been rotting in jail since being accused of hiring a hitman to kill him in an insurance fraud scheme and for embezzling money from his law firm.
The Murdaugh family on the same boat used by Paul, pictured in green shirt and blue shorts, in the fatal accident that left Mallory Beach dead in a 2019 crash
Pictured: Paul Murdaugh’s mugshot, taken after a drunken 2019 boat crash that left Mallory Beach, right, dead
The lawsuit, filed by the parents of Mallory Beach on Wednesday, depicts his parents, Alex and Maggie Murdaugh, pictured with Paul, as willful contributors to their son’s underage drinking
The lawsuit by Beach’s family was filed one day before the three-year anniversary of the wreck, which added the estates of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh as defendants.
The suit claims that a drunk Paul Murdaugh, who was only 19 years old at the time of the fatal crash, had spoken with his mother on the phone around two hours prior to the crash, and that she ‘failed to stop’ him from driving the boat despite being him being clearly intoxicated.
The amended complaint, filed by Allendale attorney Mark Tinsley, accuses the mother and son of negligence. The boat smashed into Archer’s Creek Bridge in Beaufort County in February 2019, killing Beach and injuring five others aboard.
Beach, 19, died when she was thrown from the vessel. Her body was found on in the water by a fisherman a week later.
Paul Murdaugh was charged with three felony counts, including causing Beach’s death. He was awaiting trial when he and his mother were killed.
Paul was ‘highly intoxicated,’ ‘drunk’, and ‘belligerent,’ after spending an evening drinking before he and his friends got on the boat, according to legal documents seen by DailyMail.com.
Alex Murdaugh at his bond hearing at the Hampton County Jail in Varnville, South Carolina
Alex and Maggie Murdaugh, pictured, on the boat used by son Paul during th e2019 fatal boat crash that left Beach dead
In police dashcam footage on the night of the 2019 accident, posted on YouTube by the Murdaugh Murders Podcast, one of his friends can be heard yelling: ‘Paul, you smiling like it’s f*****g funny! My f*****g girlfriend is gone.
The video does not show who’s talking – but it picks up a male voice – possibly that of Anthony Cook, who was Beach’s boyfriend – cursing at Murdaugh and telling him to ‘rot in f*****g hell.’
Meanwhile, Paul’s disgraced South Carolina lawyer father, Alex Murdaugh, faces 74 criminal charges after being hit with four new indictments last month accusing him of stealing another $2.6 million, bringing the total amount he’s accused of swindling to nearly $8.8 million.
Murdaugh, 53, has been slapped with 23 new charges issued by the state grand jury from four new victims who were reportedly swindled by the wealthy scion in similar schemes, including the family of a deaf quadriplegic.
The new indictments extend Murdaugh’s crimes back more than a decade to 2011, about four years before he was accused of opening two fraudulent accounts with Bank of America in 2015.
As part of his plan, Murdaugh would negotiate settlement money for his clients without telling them what they earned and then deposit the checks meant to pay for their pain and suffering, or the anguish of the death of a loved one, into his own personal accounts to pay off loans or debts in ways prosecutors have not yet fully detailed.
Prosecutors say Murdaugh used money orders given to an unnamed family member to get his hands on the cash.
Murdaugh, 53, allegedly hired Smith and provided him with a gun to shoot him in the head so that Murdaugh’s son, Buster, could inherit a $10million life insurance policy. The incident took place on September 4th
Murdaugh has been in jail since October for the ever-growing list of breach of trust, forgery, money laundering and computer crime charges.
He was indicted by a grand jury after hiring alleged hitman Curtis Smith in a failed suicide scheme in September.
Murdaugh, 53, allegedly provided Smith with a gun to shoot him in the head over Labor Day weekend so that Murdaugh’s son, Buster, could inherit a $10million life insurance policy.
Both men were charged with presenting a false claim for payment, while Murdaugh faced further indictments for conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, along with filing a false police report.
Smith, 61, was additionally charged with assisted suicide, assault and battery of a high aggravated nature, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.
A judge set his bail at $7 million and refused to reduce it, even as Murdaugh’s lawyer argued his bank accounts were seized in civil lawsuits and he could barely afford to buy underwear at the Richland County jail.
Last month’s indictments included charges for Murdaugh’s handling of the aftermath of a wreck that caused a deaf man to end up quadriplegic.
