Alex Murdaugh trial – live: Timeline of murders delivers new revelations about pills, money, and phone records

Rachel Sharp explains who’s who in the trial that is gripping the nation.

A crime scene expert testified about where the shots were fired at the wife and son of Alex Murdaugh and in what order during Thursday’s testimony at the disgraced South Carolina attorney’s double murder trial.

Kenny Kinsey also told jurors that a mark on 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh’s thigh appeared to be a tread from a golf cart tire that she fell on after she was shot near dog kennels on the family’s property. Defense lawyers had asked several witnesses about the blemish and whether it could be a mark from a shoe.

A visibly uncomfortable Alex Murdaugh grimaced as prosecutors played the 911 call in which he reported being shot in the head - in what turned out to be a botched hitman plot.

Andrea Blanco has the story.

Disgraced legal scion Alex Murdaugh looked up a restaurant online just minutes after finding the butchered bodies of his wife and son, records show.

Prosecutors in Mr Murdaugh’s double murder trial on Friday presented a timeline of the evening on 7 June 2021, when Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were shot dead on their property in Islandton, South Carolina. Mr Murdaugh is accused of executing the slayings to distract from his growing legal and financial troubles.

To build a chronology of the events, agents with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) pulled records from the disbarred lawyer’s phone, as well as the victims’. The information collected from 6pm to 11pm on the day of the shootings shows several interactions between Maggie, Paul, Mr Murduagh and other relatives.

The report also shows a bizarre search by Mr Murdaugh at 10.40pm, just 34 minutes after alerting 911 dispatchers that he had found his wife and son’s bodies by the property’s dog kennels — and 15 minutes after the first deputy arrived on the scene.

“Alex Murdaugh searched ‘Whaley’s Edisto’ in Safari browser,” the timeline states.

The restaurant in Edisto Island is nearly an hour and a half away from the Murdaugh’s hunting state.

The Independent’s Andrea Blanco has more:

Alex Murdaugh spent a staggering $50,000 a week on drugs which he was buying from the man accused of being his co-conspirator in a botched hitman plot, jurors heard in dramatic courtroom testimony on Wednesday.

That seems like a lot. More than one person could physically consume.

Here’s our report:

The jury in Alex Murdaugh’s trial has finally been presented with evidence of his botched hitman plot months after the murders of his wife and son - including a sketch of the nonexistent man he claimed shot him.

SLED Senior Special Agent Ryan Kelly was called by the prosecution on Thursday to testify about the day Mr Murdaugh was shot in the head on the side of a road in Hampton County on 4 September 2021.

Megan Sheets has the story.

Alex Murdaugh allegedly ambushed his son Paul in the feeding room of the family’s dog kennels before turning on his wife Maggie who tried to flee only to be shot and killed on her knees, according to chilling testimony from a top crime scene expert.

Dr Kenny Kinsey, an Orangeburg County sheriff’s deputy and crime scene expert, gave graphic testimony in the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina on Thursday, where he walked jurors through each moment of the horrific 7 June 2021 attack.

Rachel Sharp reports.

Newly-released footage has revealed the dramatic moment that Alex Murdaugh was first confronted by law enforcement for the first time about allegedly killing his wife and son.

Footage of a police interview with the disgraced legal dynasty heir was shown for the first time in Colleton County Courthouse on Wednesday as the prosecution nears the end of its case in his double murder trial.

The interview was Mr Murdaugh’s third since the 7 June 2021 murders – and came two months on from the slayings on 11 August 2021.