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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Alex Murdog is on trial

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Speaker 1: for the double murders of wife Maggie and son Paul

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Speaker 1: the American. My wife Alex was the loving father of

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Speaker 1: Paul and the loving husband Maggie. Two shots adamant and

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Speaker 1: the lad and took her down. Eight women and four

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Speaker 1: men will spend the next several weeks following the evidence

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Speaker 1: Sir Al Murdoch took a twelve shade shotgun and shot him.

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Speaker 1: Maggie his shot running executed. Why. Dramatic opening statements laid

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Speaker 1: out strategies from both the prosecution and defense and the

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Speaker 1: Alex Murdoch murder trial. Prosecutors say forensics will prove Murdoch

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Speaker 1: fifty four, killed his wife and son. Defense attorney Dick

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Speaker 1: Carpoutlian says, however, that there is no forensic evidence to

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Speaker 1: time Murda to the murders. Let's look at the people

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Speaker 1: in the names connected to the murders and this trial,

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Speaker 1: the Murdoch family overall. The legal legacy of the Murdoch

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Speaker 1: family began one hundred years ago when Randolph Murdas Senior

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Speaker 1: became the fourteenth Circus Solicitor covering five counties This is

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Speaker 1: similar to a state or district attorney. Until two thousand

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Speaker 1: and five, a Murda has served in that position. The

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Speaker 1: family Law firm was established in nineteen ten and continues.

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Speaker 1: Three Murdahs are practicing attorneys with the firm Peters Murdah, Parker, Elstrothendietrich.

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Speaker 1: The firm is known for handling and winning multimillion dollar cases.

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Speaker 1: Now the victims Maggie and Paul Murdaugh Margaret Kennedy Brand's letter.

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Speaker 1: Maggie Murdaugh fifty two years old and wife to Alex Murdah.

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Speaker 1: The two met at the University of South Carolina in

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Speaker 1: the late nineteen eighties. After they married, Maggie was a

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Speaker 1: homemaker and mother, not working outside the home except for

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Speaker 1: a brief period of time when she opened a gift

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Speaker 1: shop on Main Street. The one thing everyone says about

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Speaker 1: Maggie Murdoch is that she lived for her children, attending

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Speaker 1: all school functions. In the months before her death, Maggie

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Speaker 1: had been living at the family's cottage in Adesto Beach,

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Speaker 1: while Alex Murdos stayed at the Hunting Lodge in Islington.

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Speaker 1: Maggie was found lying face down after being shot five

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Speaker 1: times with a rifle. A forensic expert suggests three of

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Speaker 1: the blasts came while she was standing. One of those

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Speaker 1: first shots went through her left breasts, the other was

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Speaker 1: fired into the back of her head. At least one

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Speaker 1: seemed to be fired while she was on her knees.

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Speaker 1: The second victim is the youngest Murdoch's son, Paul Terry

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Speaker 1: Murdoch twenty two. Paul was well known as a drinker

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Speaker 1: and a bit of a troublemaker in his community. At seventeen,

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Speaker 1: he earned an MIP charge, that is a conviction of

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Speaker 1: minor in possession of alcohol. At nineteen, he was charged

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Speaker 1: in the boating crash that killed Mallory Beach. Murdoch was

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Speaker 1: allegedly grossly intoxicated and was charged with boating under the influence.

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Speaker 1: Murdav pleaded not guilty. He was awaiting trial when he

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Speaker 1: was killed. Charges were dismissed after his death. The surviving

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Speaker 1: immediate members of the Murdoch family are Richard Alexander Alex

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Speaker 1: Murdoch fifty four and Richard Alexander Buster Murda twenty six.

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Speaker 1: Buster is the Murdah's oldest son. Buster currently lives about

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Speaker 1: seventy miles from his childhood home with his girlfriend, Brooklyn White,

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Speaker 1: and a golden retriever. They share a modest, one bedroom

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Speaker 1: Hilton Head Island condominium. Buster was on his way to

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Speaker 1: continuing the family legacy studying law at the University of

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Speaker 1: South Carolina, but he was allegedly kicked out in his

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Speaker 1: second semester for plagiarism. Buster Murda was also named as

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Speaker 1: a defendant in the Malorie Beach lawsuit for allegedly allowing

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Speaker 1: an underage Paul Murda to use his ID to buy

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Speaker 1: alcohol for the doomed voting trip. He was ultimately dropped

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Speaker 1: from the suit, which has now been settled. Richard Alexander

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Speaker 1: Alec Murdoch, fifty four is at the center of this

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Speaker 1: family and case. He's a nineteen ninety undergraduate of the

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Speaker 1: University of South Carolina, where he met his wife. Murdah

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Speaker 1: received his jd. Juris Doctor in nineteen ninety four. This

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Speaker 1: degree is required to practice law. He was admitted to

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Speaker 1: the South Carolina Bar in November of nineteen ninety four

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Speaker 1: and became a partner at Peter's Murdah, Parker, Elstroth and

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Speaker 1: Dietrich law firm. He was part time prosecutor for the

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Speaker 1: fourteenth Judicial Circuit Court and Assistant Solicitor for the fourteenth

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Speaker 1: Judicial Circuit Court. Murdoch was also president of the South

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Speaker 1: Carolina Association for Justice twenty twelve to twenty sixteen and

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Speaker 1: chairman of the Hampton County Democratic Party from nineteen ninety

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Speaker 1: six to two thousand and six. On the night of

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Speaker 1: June seven, twenty twenty one, Alex Murdah called nine one one,

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Speaker 1: reporting his wife and child had been shot. Over the

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Speaker 1: course of the investigation into the murders, it is learned

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Speaker 1: that Murdah is an opium addict who stole millions from

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Speaker 1: his clients and his own family's law firm. Today, he

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Speaker 1: is on trial for the murders of his wife and son.

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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace Alec. Murdah has two brothers,

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Speaker 1: Randy Murdah the oldest, John Marvin Murdah the youngest. John

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Speaker 1: Marvin owns two equipment rental companies in Low Country, while

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Speaker 1: Randy Murdah continued in the family business, earning his jd

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Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety one. There is one other family member

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Speaker 1: connected to this case, a distant cousin, sixty one year

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Speaker 1: old Curtis Eddie Smith. Smith allegedly was Alex Murdah's drug dealer.

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Speaker 1: Murdah also claims that he hired Smith in his suicide attempt. Originally,

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Speaker 1: Murdoch called nine one one saying that someone had tried

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Speaker 1: to kill him and that he had been shot in

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Speaker 1: the head. Smith was arrested, but he says he didn't

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Speaker 1: shoot Alec Murdoch. Murdas says he came up with a

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Speaker 1: plan to kill himself so buster Murdah would receive a

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Speaker 1: ten million dollars payout. Smith says he and Murdah struggled

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Speaker 1: over the gun and it went off. Smith is charged

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Speaker 1: with assisted suicide, a salton, battery of a high aggravated nature,

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Speaker 1: pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to

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Speaker 1: commit insurance fraud for the Murdoch shooting. The courtroom where

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Speaker 1: the case four and against Alec Murdah is taking place

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Speaker 1: is the domain of Judge Clifton Newman seventy two. Newman

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Speaker 1: has a solid leader background. He earned his undergraduate degree

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Speaker 1: at Cleveland State University and his jd at Cleveland Marshall

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Speaker 1: College of Law. After passing the bar in nineteen seventy six,

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Speaker 1: he served as a working attorney until two thousand. From

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Speaker 1: two thousand to present, he has served as an at

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Speaker 1: large judge for South Carolina's circuit courts. Lead Consecutor Crayton

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Speaker 1: Waters fifty two, has been the Chief Attorney State Grand

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Speaker 1: Jury Section at South Carolina Office of the Attorney General

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Speaker 1: since twenty ten. Waters also attended the University of South

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Speaker 1: Carolina and its law school, graduating in nineteen ninety six,

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Speaker 1: two years behind Murdoch. He clerked for two years for

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Speaker 1: the late South Carolina Court of Appeals judge Jasper Cureton.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety eight, Waters started at Attorney General's Office

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Speaker 1: Sappella Division under a Deputy Attorney General, Don Zelenka, who

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Speaker 1: is now his co council on the Murdock case. Alec

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Speaker 1: Murdaw's defense team is led by a well known attorney

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Speaker 1: in South Carolina, State Senator Richard Dick Harpootlian seventy five.

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Speaker 1: He received a BA from Clemson University and his j

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Speaker 1: d from the University of South Carolina. Harputlian's credentials include

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Speaker 1: managing partner Richard A. Harputleian PA. Nineteen ninety five to present,

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Speaker 1: Deputy Solicitor for a Fifth Judicial Circuit in nineteen seventy five,

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three, Richland County Council nineteen eighty seven, ninety

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Speaker 1: ninety one, Solicitor for the Fifth Judicial Circuit nineteen ninety

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five. Admitted to US District Court District of

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Speaker 1: South Carolina nineteen eighty two. US Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit,

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five. There are three other names that you

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Speaker 1: have likely heard connected to the case and the Murdaw family,

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Speaker 1: and all three have also died. First, Gloria Harriet Saderfield

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Speaker 1: fifty seven. She was the Murdas family housekeeper for twenty years.

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Speaker 1: Sanderfield died after reportedly tripping over the family dogs and

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Speaker 1: falling on stairs outside the Murdah home. Saderfield was taken

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Speaker 1: to the hospital where she died. Her death, however, was

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Speaker 1: listed as natural causes and no autopsy was conducted at

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Speaker 1: the time. The Murdas said her death was an accident,

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Speaker 1: and Alec Murdau reportedly approached the Saderfield children and said

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Speaker 1: they should sue and he would help them. Her family

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Speaker 1: alleges that Murdah never paid them the two million dollars

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Speaker 1: he agreed to pay out to her estate. As part

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Speaker 1: of a settlement over her death, a lawsuit was filed,

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Speaker 1: which has now been settled. Now Sadderfield's body is said

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Speaker 1: to be exhumed. Mallory Beach, as we mentioned before, died

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Speaker 1: in a boating crash. The nineteen year old was among

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Speaker 1: a group of six friends on the Murdoch family boat

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Speaker 1: being driven by an intoxicated Paul Murdaugh when it crashed.

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Speaker 1: Three of the six were rejected, including Mallory. Her body

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Speaker 1: wasn't found until a week later. Stephen Smith, nineteen, was

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Speaker 1: killed in twenty fifteen and what was ruled a hit

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Speaker 1: and run in Hampton County, South Carolina. His body was

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Speaker 1: found three miles from his car, which was out of gas,

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Speaker 1: but first sled said the LGBTQ activist and nursing student

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Speaker 1: had been shot and beaten up. South Carolina Highway Patrol

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Speaker 1: incident reports lists Stephen's injuries as being blunt forced trauma

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Speaker 1: to the head, with no vehicle to bring nearby, then

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Speaker 1: the agency said hit and run. At the time Smith died,

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Speaker 1: there were rumors that the Murdahs were involved, but there

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Speaker 1: is no evidence that is true. Followed the Alec Murdah trial,

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Speaker 1: at crime online dot com. Listen to crime stories with

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Speaker 1: Nancy Grace