Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal (2023) s01e01 Episode Script
Where is Mallory?
1
[mysterious music plays]
[woman 1] The Lowcountry,
this place that we call home
it's a beautiful place.
[mysterious music continues]
But there's a dark side.
[indistinct conversation]
[woman 2] It didn't have to happen.
They should've made it home.
They should've made it home safe.
[woman 1] Anthony loved Mallory,
and Anthony knew
how much Mallory loved him.
[Anthony] Paul was outta-his-mind drunk.
[woman 3] We had all, like,
made it a point to say to him,
"You need to let Connor drive
or you need to let Anthony drive."
But he wouldn't listen to anybody.
[woman 1] Everyone was like,
"Paul don't drive,"
and Paul would snap back, and be like,
"Well, this is my fucking boat,
and I know this river,
and you're not driving my boat."
[Anthony] The boat
was just steady makin' circles.
We were just round and round,
zigzaggin', arguin', you know.
Everybody's mad.
He would just leave the wheel unattended.
Connor would have to come up and grab it.
[Anthony] All I could hear
was her screamin',
and then the bow of the boat stood up.
I heard a scream, and then a bang.
- [operator] 911, where is your emergency?
- [Anthony] Paul, what bridge is this?
[woman 3] Everything was going crazy.
People were screaming.
[woman 1] It fucking hurts!
[Anthony] Soon as I got on the bank
[gasps]
Miley came running straight up to me
and asked, "Where's Mallory?"
And then that's
when we all started screamin' for Mallory.
[woman 3] Mallory!
Where the fuck is Mallory?
[Anthony] Bo, you fuckin' smilin'
like it's fuckin' funny?
My fuckin' girlfriend's gone, Bo!
[reporter 1] Five made it ashore alive,
19-year-old Mallory Beach did not.
[Anthony] Do y'all know Alex Murdaugh?
[deputy] I know that name.
[Anthony] That's his son.
Good luck.
[reporter 2] The controversy
isn't about the crash,
but why Murdaugh
hasn't been booked into jail.
[man 1] This was a family
that you didn't want to mess with.
They could have something
swept under the rug,
and no one would ever know about it.
[reporter 3] Paul Murdaugh observed
driving grossly intoxicated.
[reporter 4]
Some in the community questioning
if the family used their connections
to protect Paul.
[man 2] He wanted to make sure that
lips were sealed.
It does say in the Old Testament,
"An eye for an eye."
I think Paul was afraid.
- [gunshot]
- [woman whimpers]
[operator] Hampton County 911,
what's your emergency?
This is Alex Murdaugh.
My wife and child have been shot badly.
[woman 1] The boy I dated
for four years was murdered.
I mean, this is scary.
How did so many people lose their lives?
[operator] 911, where's your emergency?
[driver] I see somebody layin' out
in the road.
Why did he not kill me too?
[gunshot]
[man 3] Everybody has a skeleton
in the closet.
I'm thinkin', "A skeleton in the closet?
What the hell's he talkin' about?"
[Anthony] I did hear names.
[man 4] She was like,
"You'd never believe who did it."
[woman 4] Her head is bleeding.
I cannot get her up.
[operator] Do you guys know who she is?
[woman 4] Ma'am,
can you stop asking all these questions--
[man 1] Five bodies in six years
tagged to this family.
That is absolutely frightening.
[intriguing music plays]
[reporter 5] Still no sign
of a teenager thrown overboard.
The boat she and five friends
were riding on
hit a piling in Archers Creek.
19-year-old Mallory Beach hasn't been seen
since 2:00 Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, dozens of family members
and friends have been standing by,
hoping for a miracle.
[Mallory] Where's Mal?
- Lily, where's Mal?
- [dog barks]
Where's Mal?
Your ear don't itch. Where's Mal?
Says my name is Mallory.
[announcer] Enjoys playing softball
and playing with her friends.
Her ambition is to become a veterinarian.
[Anthony] I met Mallory when we were kids.
My sister and her sister
were best friends,
and even if we didn't like it,
we were kind of stuck together, you know.
[man 5] They'd go to church with us
and we'd carry 'em to Sunday school.
Anthony's dad built my first house.
[babbling]
Mallory was about three or four years old
and jumpin' on the trampoline
while we were tryin' to work.
[Anthony] I'd honestly say
me and Mallory were probably best friends
before we were anything, you know?
[Miley] He was always scared of her.
He was scared to date her.
Because she was intimidating to him.
[laughs]
[Beverly] She brought out a side of him
that we had not seen in a long time.
[laughter]
[girl] Mallory!
[Anthony] I was,
you know, a little bit of a partier.
When I finally changed all that
and settled down,
it really did make me happy.
As we got older, we both knew
that we wanted to be together.
[Miley] They started datin', New Year's.
She was like, "Oh my gosh, like, finally."
She loved him so much.
Hands up, they're playin' my song ♪
The butterflies fly away ♪
[Miley] I mean, it's Mallory.
Like, how can you get any better than her?
My friends are Miley
[Miley] Mallory's my best friend
since Pre-K.
She came up to me and told me I was pretty
and, um, the rest is history.
I was just this little shy girl.
She was this little fireball,
just talking nonstop.
And Morgan, she came later in life.
Once we got to know Morgan,
we just started to hang out a lot more.
We became really close.
The first time I met Mallory,
we had gone to a party.
Hey, I like that one.
[Morgan] Mallory came right up to me
and she complimented my shoes,
so I knew we were gonna be
really good friends after that.
Morgan, Miley, and Mallory.
We are all M's.
We all have really big personalities
and so, like, they all kind of just
mesh into, like, one,
and we'd feed off of each other.
The girls were all really good friends,
and then so were the boys.
[Anthony] Connor was my cousin,
That's been my best friend
since I can remember.
If I was hangin' with Connor,
I was hangin' with Miley and Mallory.
How are you supposed to do that?
[woman 5] I don't know. [laughs]
[Miley] It just worked out perfectly.
I was dating Connor,
Mallory was dating Anthony,
and Morgan was dating Paul.
I felt like an outsider
whenever I started high school.
And that's where I met Paul.
He was in my history class.
Like, our energies kinda matched.
We would just have fun,
just the two of us,
and we would just goof around.
So I think it was
his playful personality that really
That brought me into him at first.
[Morgan] Get him, Sam!
We started dating my junior year.
[Anthony] Paul had never had a girlfriend.
I think I probably
got on her nerves a little bit
'cause I showed up so much.
There was a few times when she was like,
"I wish this stupid joker would go home."
You know? Like, I was always intrudin'.
I liked Morgan,
and they loved each other,
and I was happy for 'im.
I've known Paul since I was a kid.
We did from A to Z together.
Huntin', fishin'.
I loved bein' around Paul.
And Morgan, I'm sure she fell in love
with his personality fast.
Just as funny of a person
as you'll ever meet.
[Morgan] Hey! ♪
[Paul] Hey! ♪
[woman 6] Paul was always there.
Valentine's Day, birthdays,
and everything else, with gifts.
[Bill] Banners for the prom.
The things he would do.
It was like he's this wonderful young man.
[pleasant music plays]
We're dating.
You want your families to mingle,
but my family wasn't from around here.
[chuckles]
We're both from Long Island.
I'm a nurse in a prison.
I'm a landscape architect and designer.
We keep to ourselves.
We all work and just do our thing.
I had no idea who he was.
[mysterious electronic music plays]
[man 1] Hampton County is a beautiful,
wonderful part of South Carolina.
Nobody ever comes here
unless you are from here.
Everybody knows everybody.
And everybody knows who the Murdaughs are.
Because the Murdaugh family
run the biggest law firm in town.
The Murdaugh family
has been around Hampton County for years.
It all started
with Paul's great-great-granddad,
Randolph Murdaugh Sr.
And then it went to Randolph's son,
Buster Murdaugh.
And finally it went to Randolph Murdaugh,
Paul's granddad.
All of them had the law firm together,
and then they served as solicitors.
A solicitor is basically
a lead prosecutor or district attorney.
And so, for over a century,
the Murdaughs were law and order
here in the 14th circuit.
They ran both sides of the legal ledger,
from civil cases to criminal cases.
They had a network
that varied from judges and lawyers,
to law enforcement, to sheriffs,
to the average man on the street
who served on the jury.
They were the law in this area.
And at times, they were above the law.
[light music plays]
[Morgan] My family and Paul's family
came from a different class.
They just came from
two totally different worlds, I think.
There was really
no togetherness with our families.
I loved Paul, and I wanted to be
what he wanted me to be,
and I wanted to be what
his family wanted me to be.
[Bill] I mean,
they took her to the Kentucky Derby.
They took her
to the final four of basketball.
Deep-sea fishing for marlin in Guatemala.
So they were always going somewhere.
[light music continues]
[Morgan] I'm taking you
by the house that Paul grew up in.
Where is this?
That's Randolph Murdaugh's house.
So this first driveway
is Paul's old driveway.
You can't see it. It's a big house.
They have a private drive.
They have multiple different houses.
One example is Moselle.
I think it's like a thousand acres
that are owned by Alex,
and it's like on the outskirts of Hampton.
Moselle was my paradise.
Me and Paul,
we'd set catfish lines, go huntin'.
I mean, you never got bored.
[Morgan] Paul was
really big into hog hunting,
so he had a bunch of dogs.
They had a tractor shed
where they'd keep their equipment under.
They had a skinning shed,
they had multiple ponds.
You know,
what country boys would usually do.
It was just, tear it up and have fun.
They had an airplane, so they had actually
like a landing strip for the plane,
and then the plane
would land inside of the shed
that had a door that opened up.
[male interviewer] What was the strip for?
Well, the way Paul told it,
it was for everything you could imagine.
Drugs and strippers and everything.
You can't believe
everything Paul says neither, you know.
[Morgan] It's like a massive playground
for Paul.
We were always there.
[quiet music plays]
[Morgan] Here's the law firm.
Every year, Hampton County
hosts a watermelon festival,
and it's just a big gathering.
They shut down the streets.
They have vendors, food, and like drinks.
Um
But Alex always allowed us to go
to the firm and sneak in the back door.
And so we'd go into Alex's office,
and he always had handles of liquor
that he would offer to us
and the law firm partners' children.
And when I say children,
we were probably, like,
around 16 to 14 years old.
Um
And that's the back entrance
we would always go in.
Yeah.
I didn't come
from a family that drank a lot.
Like, my dad would probably
have a drink here and there, but
I never saw my parents drunk.
And so whenever I came
around the Murdaughs, like, it was so
It was very normal for them to be drinking
and just have a lot of alcohol,
like, always stocked in the house.
Um
But just for, like,
Paul and I,
being the age that we were, like,
they were okay with us drinking,
and they would always get us alcohol.
And that's when I really started to drink.
[boy] Oh shit, bro.
[Morgan] Alcohol definitely changed Paul
in his manner and
Um
We called Paul "Timmy" when he was drunk.
That's his name
that Anthony Cook actually gave him.
It was just a random name,
just for, you know
He was just a different person,
'cause he wasn't Paul anymore.
He was just Hey, that's Timmy.
[boy] Damn, son!
[Morgan] He would go
from being, like, sweet,
and then, like, two drinks in,
he'd be a completely different person.
What do you have to say for yourself?
Three billfish, right, babes.
[Morgan] No.
Give some quality life advice, Paul.
All right.
Get you an SC Wahoo Series boat,
'cause you don't stand a chance.
[Morgan] Okay.
- SC Wahoo Series.
- [Morgan] Okay.
He would He would start doin'
some weird things with his hands, but
the biggest thing
I looked at was, like, his eyes.
It was like
he was lookin' through you, you know?
But all it was, was he was tryin' his best
to understand what you're sayin',
you know?
Because he's so drunk that he
He can't really function.
People would say, "He looks scary."
You know what I'm sayin'?
"He looks like he's about to kill me."
No, he's just tryin' to understand you.
What the fuck?
What the fuck? Did you see that?
One thing a lot of people know about Paul
is he liked attention.
Uh
And I think
I think that was
where that drinkin' part came from.
Something troubled him enough
to make him drink the way he drank.
You drink like that to escape something.
[Diane] You know, you do wonder with Paul.
Did he truly know
that drinking as much was bad?
Did he truly know that there really
are consequences when you do something?
You know? Because maybe he didn't.
I don't know.
Morgan said that a couple of times
she would try to tell his mom, Maggie,
about how Paul would be drinking too much,
and she would kind of just blow it off.
[Bill] His family just
looked the other way,
and thought it was funny, and
That would've put
such a blemish on the family.
They didn't wanna choose
that option and say,
"Let me send him to a rehab."
[indistinct cheers and chatter]
[Morgan] I felt like Maggie, as a mother,
she wasn't as loving on to Paul
as she was on to Buster,
and I feel like she was
a very detached mother from Paul.
Buster is Paul's older brother.
[applause]
[announcer]
Richard Alexander Murdaugh Junior.
[scattered cheers]
[Morgan] Buster went to Wofford.
He graduated, perfect. Maggie loved it.
He was in a fraternity. She ate it up.
He went to law school,
and she was over the freakin' moon.
Buster wanted
the life that his father had.
He wanted to be a big-name lawyer.
He wanted to have
the wealth and the power.
He was following his father's footsteps.
Paul never really wanted to be a lawyer.
Paul was more like
the black sheep of his family,
and I think that he thought
that his parents thought
that he was a disappointment.
For Paul, the acceptance and the love
came from Miss Gloria.
She worked
for Randolph and Libby for years.
And that's why Alex and Maggie
had her start working for them.
I see Gloria as being Paul's second mom,
and she basically raised Paul.
She was with him
from the time that he was two.
Paul really clung to her
because Gloria gave Paul
what Maggie didn't.
[Anthony] Miss Gloria was one
of the best ladies you'll ever meet.
She took care of Paul
like no family member ever did.
Miss Gloria would've walked
off the end of the moon
for Paul Murdaugh.
Paul loved Gloria.
And, actually,
I don't remember him
having a picture of anybody in his wallet,
but he had a picture of Gloria
in his wallet.
[Morgan] But when Paul
started getting older,
that's when his reckless behavior
became much worse,
and he was always getting in trouble.
Paul confided
in his grandfather Randolph so much.
Any time Paul got into any trouble,
he would call his granddad.
And from there, like,
Randolph would call Alex,
and then they'd come up
with a storyline, basically.
When I tell you it's like,
you snap your fingers and it was gone,
that's how it was.
Obviously, yes, I was dating him,
but I knew he was a troublemaker.
And it kind of made some people worried
and weary of Paul coming around.
[indistinct chatter]
Mallory and Paul were friends.
Like, they They got along really well.
Like, not really well,
but, like, they got along.
It was almost kind of like they
That she tolerated Paul.
Miley hated Paul.
It wasn't really like a friendship.
In the beginning,
I was like, "Morgan likes him,
so obviously there's
something to like about him."
But at the same time, this is not,
like, someone that I think that,
first of all,
should be dating one of my best friends,
second of all, we should be hanging around
whenever he's this intoxicated.
Because it's not only dangerous for him,
but it's dangerous for us.
[intriguing music plays]
[Morgan] One time, we were comin' home
from this Christmas party,
and we got in the truck,
and he told me
I needed to get out of the driver's seat.
And I was like, "Why?"
And he's like, "I'm driving."
And we got in this huge fight,
and Paul was being really aggressive.
And at first, he was drivin'
like it was gonna be okay and that
we'd make it home safely.
And on that turn, Paul lost control
and wrecked us into a ditch.
[intriguing music continues]
The truck was, like, sideways.
He had so many guns in his car,
so, like, guns were everywhere.
Beer cans were everywhere.
So I dial 911,
and Paul hangs it up and throws my phone.
And Paul calls Randolph.
He tells him exactly where we're at,
and then Then, he calls his dad.
And then Randolph,
Alex, and Maggie showed up.
Before they even checked on us,
they opened the back of the truck
and they took out all the guns,
and they cleared the bed of the truck
and the floors of all these beer cans.
I'm like, "Are you kidding?"
And they're like, "Did you call 911?"
I was like, "Yeah."
And they were like, "Why?"
[Morgan] They kept tryin'
to talk to me and, like,
tell me that I didn't need to call 911
'cause I could've gotten
their son in trouble.
We could've been dead, but,
you know, nothin' came of it.
[Miley] It was
kind of a strange relationship.
It wasn't normal in the way
that they fought with each other.
It was very uncomfortable for,
like, other people to witness.
He would just break up with her,
you know, for the weekend,
then get back together with her
and things like that.
They were just like nothing
you would want anybody close to you
or that you love to go through.
Me and Mallory were both like,
"You need to be done."
And then, like,
we'd convince her that she was.
And then for some reason
it was like she would always go back.
And it was very frustrating
to see her do that,
as one of her best friends.
[Morgan] I think that our relationship
is just something that, like,
I really clung to just because
when it was good, it was really good.
But when it was bad, it was just
It was really bad.
Our relationship had gotten,
like, really physical and
Um
Then I broke up with him,
but then Paul would just do
and say anything
to make up for what had happened.
I'm sorry. And
So, like, I knew that, like
And just being, like,
a young 16, 17-year-old girl, like
I don't know.
You have this picture of just,
like, a relationship in your head,
and I just feel like I looked past it
because what I really wanted was, like,
the Paul that I knew.
Gloria knew how Paul was,
and she had seen him at
Every emotion, every step of life,
she was there.
Gloria was like,
"You know how he is,
and you're either gonna have to learn
how to deal with his temper,
or you need to get out."
I remember her saying,
"Baby, it's okay to love someone.
Love 'em from a distance."
"But if it's gonna hurt you more
to be with them, then you need to go."
Yeah, I got really worried one night,
and it was, um
[sniffs]
We were celebrating Buster's graduation.
We were staying at a hotel.
He had been so intoxicated.
We had finally gotten to bed,
and for some reason Paul kept kicking me.
I yelled at him,
and then he got on top of me,
and I just remember him screaming,
"I told you to shut up."
Just holding down my throat.
I just remember then he, like, punched me
really hard, like, in the knee right here.
And
Um
I am sorry. [cries]
[Morgan] In 2019,
I was just working at Retail Therapy,
selling clothes.
Miley, Mallory,
and I were all working there.
Paul and I, I was ready to get out.
But at the same time my mind
I was so back and forth.
[Miley] She would come to work and,
you know,
you could tell
she'd been cryin' or something,
and me and Mallory would both
just be like, "This isn't normal."
"We're both in relationships
and neither of us are going through this."
"We don't think you need to be with him."
I was like,
"You are more important than him."
[Morgan] Mallory was my support, you know,
system, just because she saw me every day.
Mallory made it a lot easier, um, for me.
["Hold On" by Wilson Phillips plays]
Gonna make you wanna turn around
And say goodbye ♪
Say goodbye ♪
[Morgan] I mean, she'd make sure
that I was always laughing.
She'd be so extra about it.
And I'd cry at work and she'd just hug me,
or she would just send me
really uplifting messages and just, like,
reminded me that I am someone without him,
and that it's gonna be okay.
[quiet organ music plays]
Having Mallory and Miley, just
They were friends that really cared.
[indistinct background chatter]
Good. Sit up straight.
[quiet organ music continues]
Anthony's my first cousin.
I'd say probably my closest cousin,
honestly.
Me, Anthony, Miley, Mallory.
We all started hangin' out together.
If Miley was off doin' something
or whatever with her family,
then it was always
me and Mallory hangin' out.
I knew Mallory before I knew Miley.
[female interviewer] How does it feel now
to talk about the incident?
Uh We're not gonna get into that.
[quiet organ music continues]
Do I think that maybe
some things could've happened
a whole lot differently?
I can look at you
right here today and tell you,
yes.
[quiet organ music fades out]
[Morgan] February 2019,
a friend had messaged us,
wanting us to go to the oyster roast.
[Anthony] Oyster roast is just the kind
of the things you do in Lowcountry
when it starts to get a little bit cold.
You know, you roast oysters.
Mallory asked me, you know,
"Hey. Everybody else wants to do this."
"Can we go?"
And I said, "No."
It was cold.
I didn't wanna be goin' to a party.
Mallory wanted to go bad, you know.
She, um, gave a little puppy-dog face,
you know,
and asked again, and I finally gave in.
[Morgan] Paul was messaging me.
"Your girlfriends are goin'."
Like, "You need to be with me."
I felt like Paul was more,
like, guilt-tripping me into going Um
But I mainly went
to go be with my best girlfriends.
[male interviewer] Why do you think
the decision was to take the boat?
Just to be spontaneous.
I've made the trip up and down
Beaufort River a thousand times.
I had never been that far.
Paul and Connor
knew what they were doin',
so I trusted 'em.
[Morgan] We just docked the boat
at one of the docks,
and from there I think everyone
kinda started drinkin' pretty early.
Right before we left,
Miley and I were on the dock
and we looked back, and Paul had a funnel,
and he was just funneling beer.
[Miley] And then we just took off
on the boat to go to the oyster roast.
On the way there, it was freezing.
Me and Mallory were sitting on the cooler,
so, like,
we had to get up to get people drinks.
[intriguing music plays]
[Miley] We pulled up to the dock.
We'd gotten there later
because it took us so long to get there.
[Morgan] We left the cooler on the boat,
and we'd go back and forth
from the dock
to get our alcohol out of the boat.
[Anthony] There was quite a few people
that made the comment,
"Hey, this thing got late, you know.
It's cold."
"Might not be a very good idea
to drive the boat back."
We had several people offer to drive us.
Leave the boat and they would drive us.
I think Paul was just
a little too proud to do that.
[Morgan] Even if someone was to take
the keys from Paul and be like,
"You're not getting on that boat,"
Paul would have a conniption.
And Murdaughs
don't really get told "no" much.
I know that Miley, Mallory,
and I should've been smart enough
to just stay.
I'll never stop regretting that we didn't.
[foreboding music plays]
[Morgan] We left around 12:00.
[Miley] After the oyster roast,
me and Connor did get into an argument.
We were arguing
about him going to the bar.
You know,
Paul and Connor wanted to make a pit stop
nobody else wanted to make.
[intriguing music plays]
[Morgan] Paul wanted to go to the bar,
and when Paul gets set on something,
like, it's gonna happen.
There wasn't no talkin' him out of it.
There wasn't no stoppin' him.
[Morgan] So we actually get
to the Day Dock,
which is downtown Beaufort.
[intriguing music continues]
And we were just waiting
for the boys to get back.
At that time,
Mallory and Anthony were so new
and they were in that,
like, honeymoon stage.
They were obsessed with each other,
and they were on their own little swing.
Just talkin'.
Miley and I were probably talkin'
about how much we hated Paul and Connor.
[Miley] After leaving Luther's,
Paul comes out and,
like, plastic chair right next to him,
and he just flips the chair over.
I remember him, like,
comin' back and him just, like,
raising his arms and sprawling his hands.
[Miley] That's a dead giveaway,
pretty much,
that he was the whole Timmy alter ego.
He was outta-his-mind drunk.
[Miley] We had all made it a point
to, like, say to him,
"You need to let Connor drive
or you need to let Anthony drive."
But he wouldn't listen to anybody.
Everyone was like, "Paul, don't drive."
It's late, it's cold. We wanna get home.
[Anthony] We talked about
gettin' an Uber or somethin'.
But, uh, Paul didn't wanna leave
his boat there,
didn't trust leavin' his boat there,
and I'm not gonna
just leave everybody else, you know?
I'm not gonna leave
Connor, Miley, Morgan, Paul.
[Miley] We got back on the boat
to go home.
[Morgan] Everyone was like,
"Paul, don't drive,"
and Paul would snap back and be like,
"Well, this is my fucking boat,
and I know this river,
and you're not driving my boat."
[intriguing music continues]
The way Paul was driving
was honestly terrifying.
[Anthony] The boat
was just steady makin' circles.
We were just round and round,
zigzaggin', arguin', you know.
Everybody's mad.
[Miley] Paul would just
leave the wheel unattended.
Connor would have to grab it.
I literally stood up and yelled at him,
"If you're not gonna
let anybody else drive, take us home."
He got in my face and pointed at me, like,
"You just need to shut the fuck up
and sit down."
Anthony was getting extremely pissed.
I yelled at Paul, Morgan, Miley, Connor.
I yelled at all of 'em.
[Morgan] Paul is yelling at me
and he's like,
"Why don't you have my back?"
And I was like,
"Why would I have your back?"
"You're screaming at us
and you're not making sense."
"You're acting crazy."
And he looked at me and he said,
"You know what's crazy?"
"Your father not making enough money
to support your family."
I started crying,
and that's when, uh, Paul got in my face,
and he just started screaming, and, uh,
that's when Paul slapped me.
Then, um
Sorry.
You know, you could tell by the way
he did it that it wasn't the first time.
It's just heartbreaking to see
one of your best friends be abused
in front of your face.
I was like, "You can't hide it anymore
from any of us."
"Like, this is not okay."
At that moment in time,
everybody was like, "You know what?"
"Let's just go."
You know, we went from that idle to
The bow of the boat stood up.
[Miley] He would just leave the wheel
when we were goin' full speed.
[Anthony] Connor would
just reach over there from the side
and straighten the wheel up.
[Miley] Connor came up to me
and he told me he loved me,
and I could tell,
like, he was gettin' scared too.
Miley screaming, "Connor, Connor,"
and I felt her grab me.
I slid down.
I put my feet up, pulled Mallory to me.
[Miley] I was looking at this bridge
and I was like, "We're about to hit this."
[Anthony] I heard a scream,
then I was out.
[scream]
[Morgan] Everything was going crazy.
People were screaming.
- [Anthony] As soon as I got on the bank
- [gasps]
Miley came runnin' straight up to me
and asked, "Where's Mallory?"
Then that's when we all
started screamin' for Mallory.
[Miley] Mallory!
[Morgan] Where the fuck is Mallory?
[Morgan] Anthony stayed in the water
as long as he could.
He would come up. He would go down.
I jumped back in the water
over and over and over.
[Miley] The water under the bridge,
it was goin' so fast.
[Anthony] I was goin' against the current.
There you are, scared for your life.
It's either do or die.
[Connor] I just remember wakin' up.
First thing I could do
was just get on my phone and call 911.
[operator] 911, where's your emergency?
[Connor] We're in a boat crash
on Archers Creek.
[operator] You're by the bridge?
[Connor] There's only one bridge
in Archers Creek.
[operator] Did you crash into the bridge?
[Connor] We're under the only bridge
in Archers Creek.
[operator] All right,
so you're under the bridge, okay.
[Morgan] Mallory! Mallory!
[Connor] Please send someone.
[operator] No, we're comin', okay?
[Anthony] I walked up
to the top of the bridge.
I remember seein'
blue lights comin' from both directions.
[Morgan] It was cops that came first.
[indistinct conversation]
[operator] The one missing is a female.
I just sat in the boat, bleeding.
It hurts! It fucking hurts!
So the cop that came up to me,
he's like, "You're gonna be okay."
He kept patting my back, and I was like,
"Tell me y'all found Mallory."
And he said,
"No, we haven't found Mallory yet."
I remember my face bein' really warm.
My bottom teeth
were in front of my front teeth.
I knew somethin' wasn't right.
[Miley] Paul was only in his underwear,
and his only concern
was calling his granddad.
- [Paul] Can I use your phone?
- [officer 1] I ain't got my phone on me.
[Paul] You ain't got your phone?
[officer 1] No, you dropped yours
in the grass back there.
[Paul] That don't surprise me.
I remember Anthony just like,
"You did this. This is all your fault."
[Anthony] Bo, you fuckin' smilin'
like it's fuckin' funny?
[officer 1] Sit down.
[Anthony]
My fuckin' girlfriend's gone, Bo!
Hope you rot in fuckin' hell!
He's just agitated.
[Miley] It took them 15 to 20 minutes
to get Paul
to actually get in the ambulance.
And he's not really responding
to me or any of us.
[Miley] Once we were actually on our way,
Paul called his granddad and was like,
"Yeah, we were in a boat accident."
Like, "Oh yeah, they can't find Mallory."
And was just like,
"It was Cotton Top that did it."
Cotton Top is Connor's nickname.
[Connor] I was like, "Really?"
I wanted to beat the shit out of him,
because I wasn't drivin'.
[Anthony] Mom, y'all need
to come to Beaufort, quick.
[Beverly] Obviously, when you get a call
in the middle of the night,
you know something's wrong.
[Anthony] What if she's at the bottom
of the river, man?
[Beverly] All he could say is,
"We can't find Mallory."
"They can't find Mallory."
And I said, "We're comin'."
"We'll be there.
We're comin' as fast as we can."
[officer 2] We've got
water search and rescue out.
The Parris Island Fire Department's out.
They've all got
their water assets out there looking.
Anthony kept sayin',
"Has somebody called Mr. Phillip?"
"Has somebody called Miss Renee?"
"Do it right now,
because they need to know."
[officer 1] Last name's Beach.
Melanie? Mallory?
I was just askin' about Mallory's family.
I do have phone numbers,
but I don't wanna make that phone call,
and I don't know
[mobile phone rings]
[mobile phone clatters]
[theme music plays]
[mysterious music plays]
[woman 1] The Lowcountry,
this place that we call home
it's a beautiful place.
[mysterious music continues]
But there's a dark side.
[indistinct conversation]
[woman 2] It didn't have to happen.
They should've made it home.
They should've made it home safe.
[woman 1] Anthony loved Mallory,
and Anthony knew
how much Mallory loved him.
[Anthony] Paul was outta-his-mind drunk.
[woman 3] We had all, like,
made it a point to say to him,
"You need to let Connor drive
or you need to let Anthony drive."
But he wouldn't listen to anybody.
[woman 1] Everyone was like,
"Paul don't drive,"
and Paul would snap back, and be like,
"Well, this is my fucking boat,
and I know this river,
and you're not driving my boat."
[Anthony] The boat
was just steady makin' circles.
We were just round and round,
zigzaggin', arguin', you know.
Everybody's mad.
He would just leave the wheel unattended.
Connor would have to come up and grab it.
[Anthony] All I could hear
was her screamin',
and then the bow of the boat stood up.
I heard a scream, and then a bang.
- [operator] 911, where is your emergency?
- [Anthony] Paul, what bridge is this?
[woman 3] Everything was going crazy.
People were screaming.
[woman 1] It fucking hurts!
[Anthony] Soon as I got on the bank
[gasps]
Miley came running straight up to me
and asked, "Where's Mallory?"
And then that's
when we all started screamin' for Mallory.
[woman 3] Mallory!
Where the fuck is Mallory?
[Anthony] Bo, you fuckin' smilin'
like it's fuckin' funny?
My fuckin' girlfriend's gone, Bo!
[reporter 1] Five made it ashore alive,
19-year-old Mallory Beach did not.
[Anthony] Do y'all know Alex Murdaugh?
[deputy] I know that name.
[Anthony] That's his son.
Good luck.
[reporter 2] The controversy
isn't about the crash,
but why Murdaugh
hasn't been booked into jail.
[man 1] This was a family
that you didn't want to mess with.
They could have something
swept under the rug,
and no one would ever know about it.
[reporter 3] Paul Murdaugh observed
driving grossly intoxicated.
[reporter 4]
Some in the community questioning
if the family used their connections
to protect Paul.
[man 2] He wanted to make sure that
lips were sealed.
It does say in the Old Testament,
"An eye for an eye."
I think Paul was afraid.
- [gunshot]
- [woman whimpers]
[operator] Hampton County 911,
what's your emergency?
This is Alex Murdaugh.
My wife and child have been shot badly.
[woman 1] The boy I dated
for four years was murdered.
I mean, this is scary.
How did so many people lose their lives?
[operator] 911, where's your emergency?
[driver] I see somebody layin' out
in the road.
Why did he not kill me too?
[gunshot]
[man 3] Everybody has a skeleton
in the closet.
I'm thinkin', "A skeleton in the closet?
What the hell's he talkin' about?"
[Anthony] I did hear names.
[man 4] She was like,
"You'd never believe who did it."
[woman 4] Her head is bleeding.
I cannot get her up.
[operator] Do you guys know who she is?
[woman 4] Ma'am,
can you stop asking all these questions--
[man 1] Five bodies in six years
tagged to this family.
That is absolutely frightening.
[intriguing music plays]
[reporter 5] Still no sign
of a teenager thrown overboard.
The boat she and five friends
were riding on
hit a piling in Archers Creek.
19-year-old Mallory Beach hasn't been seen
since 2:00 Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, dozens of family members
and friends have been standing by,
hoping for a miracle.
[Mallory] Where's Mal?
- Lily, where's Mal?
- [dog barks]
Where's Mal?
Your ear don't itch. Where's Mal?
Says my name is Mallory.
[announcer] Enjoys playing softball
and playing with her friends.
Her ambition is to become a veterinarian.
[Anthony] I met Mallory when we were kids.
My sister and her sister
were best friends,
and even if we didn't like it,
we were kind of stuck together, you know.
[man 5] They'd go to church with us
and we'd carry 'em to Sunday school.
Anthony's dad built my first house.
[babbling]
Mallory was about three or four years old
and jumpin' on the trampoline
while we were tryin' to work.
[Anthony] I'd honestly say
me and Mallory were probably best friends
before we were anything, you know?
[Miley] He was always scared of her.
He was scared to date her.
Because she was intimidating to him.
[laughs]
[Beverly] She brought out a side of him
that we had not seen in a long time.
[laughter]
[girl] Mallory!
[Anthony] I was,
you know, a little bit of a partier.
When I finally changed all that
and settled down,
it really did make me happy.
As we got older, we both knew
that we wanted to be together.
[Miley] They started datin', New Year's.
She was like, "Oh my gosh, like, finally."
She loved him so much.
Hands up, they're playin' my song ♪
The butterflies fly away ♪
[Miley] I mean, it's Mallory.
Like, how can you get any better than her?
My friends are Miley
[Miley] Mallory's my best friend
since Pre-K.
She came up to me and told me I was pretty
and, um, the rest is history.
I was just this little shy girl.
She was this little fireball,
just talking nonstop.
And Morgan, she came later in life.
Once we got to know Morgan,
we just started to hang out a lot more.
We became really close.
The first time I met Mallory,
we had gone to a party.
Hey, I like that one.
[Morgan] Mallory came right up to me
and she complimented my shoes,
so I knew we were gonna be
really good friends after that.
Morgan, Miley, and Mallory.
We are all M's.
We all have really big personalities
and so, like, they all kind of just
mesh into, like, one,
and we'd feed off of each other.
The girls were all really good friends,
and then so were the boys.
[Anthony] Connor was my cousin,
That's been my best friend
since I can remember.
If I was hangin' with Connor,
I was hangin' with Miley and Mallory.
How are you supposed to do that?
[woman 5] I don't know. [laughs]
[Miley] It just worked out perfectly.
I was dating Connor,
Mallory was dating Anthony,
and Morgan was dating Paul.
I felt like an outsider
whenever I started high school.
And that's where I met Paul.
He was in my history class.
Like, our energies kinda matched.
We would just have fun,
just the two of us,
and we would just goof around.
So I think it was
his playful personality that really
That brought me into him at first.
[Morgan] Get him, Sam!
We started dating my junior year.
[Anthony] Paul had never had a girlfriend.
I think I probably
got on her nerves a little bit
'cause I showed up so much.
There was a few times when she was like,
"I wish this stupid joker would go home."
You know? Like, I was always intrudin'.
I liked Morgan,
and they loved each other,
and I was happy for 'im.
I've known Paul since I was a kid.
We did from A to Z together.
Huntin', fishin'.
I loved bein' around Paul.
And Morgan, I'm sure she fell in love
with his personality fast.
Just as funny of a person
as you'll ever meet.
[Morgan] Hey! ♪
[Paul] Hey! ♪
[woman 6] Paul was always there.
Valentine's Day, birthdays,
and everything else, with gifts.
[Bill] Banners for the prom.
The things he would do.
It was like he's this wonderful young man.
[pleasant music plays]
We're dating.
You want your families to mingle,
but my family wasn't from around here.
[chuckles]
We're both from Long Island.
I'm a nurse in a prison.
I'm a landscape architect and designer.
We keep to ourselves.
We all work and just do our thing.
I had no idea who he was.
[mysterious electronic music plays]
[man 1] Hampton County is a beautiful,
wonderful part of South Carolina.
Nobody ever comes here
unless you are from here.
Everybody knows everybody.
And everybody knows who the Murdaughs are.
Because the Murdaugh family
run the biggest law firm in town.
The Murdaugh family
has been around Hampton County for years.
It all started
with Paul's great-great-granddad,
Randolph Murdaugh Sr.
And then it went to Randolph's son,
Buster Murdaugh.
And finally it went to Randolph Murdaugh,
Paul's granddad.
All of them had the law firm together,
and then they served as solicitors.
A solicitor is basically
a lead prosecutor or district attorney.
And so, for over a century,
the Murdaughs were law and order
here in the 14th circuit.
They ran both sides of the legal ledger,
from civil cases to criminal cases.
They had a network
that varied from judges and lawyers,
to law enforcement, to sheriffs,
to the average man on the street
who served on the jury.
They were the law in this area.
And at times, they were above the law.
[light music plays]
[Morgan] My family and Paul's family
came from a different class.
They just came from
two totally different worlds, I think.
There was really
no togetherness with our families.
I loved Paul, and I wanted to be
what he wanted me to be,
and I wanted to be what
his family wanted me to be.
[Bill] I mean,
they took her to the Kentucky Derby.
They took her
to the final four of basketball.
Deep-sea fishing for marlin in Guatemala.
So they were always going somewhere.
[light music continues]
[Morgan] I'm taking you
by the house that Paul grew up in.
Where is this?
That's Randolph Murdaugh's house.
So this first driveway
is Paul's old driveway.
You can't see it. It's a big house.
They have a private drive.
They have multiple different houses.
One example is Moselle.
I think it's like a thousand acres
that are owned by Alex,
and it's like on the outskirts of Hampton.
Moselle was my paradise.
Me and Paul,
we'd set catfish lines, go huntin'.
I mean, you never got bored.
[Morgan] Paul was
really big into hog hunting,
so he had a bunch of dogs.
They had a tractor shed
where they'd keep their equipment under.
They had a skinning shed,
they had multiple ponds.
You know,
what country boys would usually do.
It was just, tear it up and have fun.
They had an airplane, so they had actually
like a landing strip for the plane,
and then the plane
would land inside of the shed
that had a door that opened up.
[male interviewer] What was the strip for?
Well, the way Paul told it,
it was for everything you could imagine.
Drugs and strippers and everything.
You can't believe
everything Paul says neither, you know.
[Morgan] It's like a massive playground
for Paul.
We were always there.
[quiet music plays]
[Morgan] Here's the law firm.
Every year, Hampton County
hosts a watermelon festival,
and it's just a big gathering.
They shut down the streets.
They have vendors, food, and like drinks.
Um
But Alex always allowed us to go
to the firm and sneak in the back door.
And so we'd go into Alex's office,
and he always had handles of liquor
that he would offer to us
and the law firm partners' children.
And when I say children,
we were probably, like,
around 16 to 14 years old.
Um
And that's the back entrance
we would always go in.
Yeah.
I didn't come
from a family that drank a lot.
Like, my dad would probably
have a drink here and there, but
I never saw my parents drunk.
And so whenever I came
around the Murdaughs, like, it was so
It was very normal for them to be drinking
and just have a lot of alcohol,
like, always stocked in the house.
Um
But just for, like,
Paul and I,
being the age that we were, like,
they were okay with us drinking,
and they would always get us alcohol.
And that's when I really started to drink.
[boy] Oh shit, bro.
[Morgan] Alcohol definitely changed Paul
in his manner and
Um
We called Paul "Timmy" when he was drunk.
That's his name
that Anthony Cook actually gave him.
It was just a random name,
just for, you know
He was just a different person,
'cause he wasn't Paul anymore.
He was just Hey, that's Timmy.
[boy] Damn, son!
[Morgan] He would go
from being, like, sweet,
and then, like, two drinks in,
he'd be a completely different person.
What do you have to say for yourself?
Three billfish, right, babes.
[Morgan] No.
Give some quality life advice, Paul.
All right.
Get you an SC Wahoo Series boat,
'cause you don't stand a chance.
[Morgan] Okay.
- SC Wahoo Series.
- [Morgan] Okay.
He would He would start doin'
some weird things with his hands, but
the biggest thing
I looked at was, like, his eyes.
It was like
he was lookin' through you, you know?
But all it was, was he was tryin' his best
to understand what you're sayin',
you know?
Because he's so drunk that he
He can't really function.
People would say, "He looks scary."
You know what I'm sayin'?
"He looks like he's about to kill me."
No, he's just tryin' to understand you.
What the fuck?
What the fuck? Did you see that?
One thing a lot of people know about Paul
is he liked attention.
Uh
And I think
I think that was
where that drinkin' part came from.
Something troubled him enough
to make him drink the way he drank.
You drink like that to escape something.
[Diane] You know, you do wonder with Paul.
Did he truly know
that drinking as much was bad?
Did he truly know that there really
are consequences when you do something?
You know? Because maybe he didn't.
I don't know.
Morgan said that a couple of times
she would try to tell his mom, Maggie,
about how Paul would be drinking too much,
and she would kind of just blow it off.
[Bill] His family just
looked the other way,
and thought it was funny, and
That would've put
such a blemish on the family.
They didn't wanna choose
that option and say,
"Let me send him to a rehab."
[indistinct cheers and chatter]
[Morgan] I felt like Maggie, as a mother,
she wasn't as loving on to Paul
as she was on to Buster,
and I feel like she was
a very detached mother from Paul.
Buster is Paul's older brother.
[applause]
[announcer]
Richard Alexander Murdaugh Junior.
[scattered cheers]
[Morgan] Buster went to Wofford.
He graduated, perfect. Maggie loved it.
He was in a fraternity. She ate it up.
He went to law school,
and she was over the freakin' moon.
Buster wanted
the life that his father had.
He wanted to be a big-name lawyer.
He wanted to have
the wealth and the power.
He was following his father's footsteps.
Paul never really wanted to be a lawyer.
Paul was more like
the black sheep of his family,
and I think that he thought
that his parents thought
that he was a disappointment.
For Paul, the acceptance and the love
came from Miss Gloria.
She worked
for Randolph and Libby for years.
And that's why Alex and Maggie
had her start working for them.
I see Gloria as being Paul's second mom,
and she basically raised Paul.
She was with him
from the time that he was two.
Paul really clung to her
because Gloria gave Paul
what Maggie didn't.
[Anthony] Miss Gloria was one
of the best ladies you'll ever meet.
She took care of Paul
like no family member ever did.
Miss Gloria would've walked
off the end of the moon
for Paul Murdaugh.
Paul loved Gloria.
And, actually,
I don't remember him
having a picture of anybody in his wallet,
but he had a picture of Gloria
in his wallet.
[Morgan] But when Paul
started getting older,
that's when his reckless behavior
became much worse,
and he was always getting in trouble.
Paul confided
in his grandfather Randolph so much.
Any time Paul got into any trouble,
he would call his granddad.
And from there, like,
Randolph would call Alex,
and then they'd come up
with a storyline, basically.
When I tell you it's like,
you snap your fingers and it was gone,
that's how it was.
Obviously, yes, I was dating him,
but I knew he was a troublemaker.
And it kind of made some people worried
and weary of Paul coming around.
[indistinct chatter]
Mallory and Paul were friends.
Like, they They got along really well.
Like, not really well,
but, like, they got along.
It was almost kind of like they
That she tolerated Paul.
Miley hated Paul.
It wasn't really like a friendship.
In the beginning,
I was like, "Morgan likes him,
so obviously there's
something to like about him."
But at the same time, this is not,
like, someone that I think that,
first of all,
should be dating one of my best friends,
second of all, we should be hanging around
whenever he's this intoxicated.
Because it's not only dangerous for him,
but it's dangerous for us.
[intriguing music plays]
[Morgan] One time, we were comin' home
from this Christmas party,
and we got in the truck,
and he told me
I needed to get out of the driver's seat.
And I was like, "Why?"
And he's like, "I'm driving."
And we got in this huge fight,
and Paul was being really aggressive.
And at first, he was drivin'
like it was gonna be okay and that
we'd make it home safely.
And on that turn, Paul lost control
and wrecked us into a ditch.
[intriguing music continues]
The truck was, like, sideways.
He had so many guns in his car,
so, like, guns were everywhere.
Beer cans were everywhere.
So I dial 911,
and Paul hangs it up and throws my phone.
And Paul calls Randolph.
He tells him exactly where we're at,
and then Then, he calls his dad.
And then Randolph,
Alex, and Maggie showed up.
Before they even checked on us,
they opened the back of the truck
and they took out all the guns,
and they cleared the bed of the truck
and the floors of all these beer cans.
I'm like, "Are you kidding?"
And they're like, "Did you call 911?"
I was like, "Yeah."
And they were like, "Why?"
[Morgan] They kept tryin'
to talk to me and, like,
tell me that I didn't need to call 911
'cause I could've gotten
their son in trouble.
We could've been dead, but,
you know, nothin' came of it.
[Miley] It was
kind of a strange relationship.
It wasn't normal in the way
that they fought with each other.
It was very uncomfortable for,
like, other people to witness.
He would just break up with her,
you know, for the weekend,
then get back together with her
and things like that.
They were just like nothing
you would want anybody close to you
or that you love to go through.
Me and Mallory were both like,
"You need to be done."
And then, like,
we'd convince her that she was.
And then for some reason
it was like she would always go back.
And it was very frustrating
to see her do that,
as one of her best friends.
[Morgan] I think that our relationship
is just something that, like,
I really clung to just because
when it was good, it was really good.
But when it was bad, it was just
It was really bad.
Our relationship had gotten,
like, really physical and
Um
Then I broke up with him,
but then Paul would just do
and say anything
to make up for what had happened.
I'm sorry. And
So, like, I knew that, like
And just being, like,
a young 16, 17-year-old girl, like
I don't know.
You have this picture of just,
like, a relationship in your head,
and I just feel like I looked past it
because what I really wanted was, like,
the Paul that I knew.
Gloria knew how Paul was,
and she had seen him at
Every emotion, every step of life,
she was there.
Gloria was like,
"You know how he is,
and you're either gonna have to learn
how to deal with his temper,
or you need to get out."
I remember her saying,
"Baby, it's okay to love someone.
Love 'em from a distance."
"But if it's gonna hurt you more
to be with them, then you need to go."
Yeah, I got really worried one night,
and it was, um
[sniffs]
We were celebrating Buster's graduation.
We were staying at a hotel.
He had been so intoxicated.
We had finally gotten to bed,
and for some reason Paul kept kicking me.
I yelled at him,
and then he got on top of me,
and I just remember him screaming,
"I told you to shut up."
Just holding down my throat.
I just remember then he, like, punched me
really hard, like, in the knee right here.
And
Um
I am sorry. [cries]
[Morgan] In 2019,
I was just working at Retail Therapy,
selling clothes.
Miley, Mallory,
and I were all working there.
Paul and I, I was ready to get out.
But at the same time my mind
I was so back and forth.
[Miley] She would come to work and,
you know,
you could tell
she'd been cryin' or something,
and me and Mallory would both
just be like, "This isn't normal."
"We're both in relationships
and neither of us are going through this."
"We don't think you need to be with him."
I was like,
"You are more important than him."
[Morgan] Mallory was my support, you know,
system, just because she saw me every day.
Mallory made it a lot easier, um, for me.
["Hold On" by Wilson Phillips plays]
Gonna make you wanna turn around
And say goodbye ♪
Say goodbye ♪
[Morgan] I mean, she'd make sure
that I was always laughing.
She'd be so extra about it.
And I'd cry at work and she'd just hug me,
or she would just send me
really uplifting messages and just, like,
reminded me that I am someone without him,
and that it's gonna be okay.
[quiet organ music plays]
Having Mallory and Miley, just
They were friends that really cared.
[indistinct background chatter]
Good. Sit up straight.
[quiet organ music continues]
Anthony's my first cousin.
I'd say probably my closest cousin,
honestly.
Me, Anthony, Miley, Mallory.
We all started hangin' out together.
If Miley was off doin' something
or whatever with her family,
then it was always
me and Mallory hangin' out.
I knew Mallory before I knew Miley.
[female interviewer] How does it feel now
to talk about the incident?
Uh We're not gonna get into that.
[quiet organ music continues]
Do I think that maybe
some things could've happened
a whole lot differently?
I can look at you
right here today and tell you,
yes.
[quiet organ music fades out]
[Morgan] February 2019,
a friend had messaged us,
wanting us to go to the oyster roast.
[Anthony] Oyster roast is just the kind
of the things you do in Lowcountry
when it starts to get a little bit cold.
You know, you roast oysters.
Mallory asked me, you know,
"Hey. Everybody else wants to do this."
"Can we go?"
And I said, "No."
It was cold.
I didn't wanna be goin' to a party.
Mallory wanted to go bad, you know.
She, um, gave a little puppy-dog face,
you know,
and asked again, and I finally gave in.
[Morgan] Paul was messaging me.
"Your girlfriends are goin'."
Like, "You need to be with me."
I felt like Paul was more,
like, guilt-tripping me into going Um
But I mainly went
to go be with my best girlfriends.
[male interviewer] Why do you think
the decision was to take the boat?
Just to be spontaneous.
I've made the trip up and down
Beaufort River a thousand times.
I had never been that far.
Paul and Connor
knew what they were doin',
so I trusted 'em.
[Morgan] We just docked the boat
at one of the docks,
and from there I think everyone
kinda started drinkin' pretty early.
Right before we left,
Miley and I were on the dock
and we looked back, and Paul had a funnel,
and he was just funneling beer.
[Miley] And then we just took off
on the boat to go to the oyster roast.
On the way there, it was freezing.
Me and Mallory were sitting on the cooler,
so, like,
we had to get up to get people drinks.
[intriguing music plays]
[Miley] We pulled up to the dock.
We'd gotten there later
because it took us so long to get there.
[Morgan] We left the cooler on the boat,
and we'd go back and forth
from the dock
to get our alcohol out of the boat.
[Anthony] There was quite a few people
that made the comment,
"Hey, this thing got late, you know.
It's cold."
"Might not be a very good idea
to drive the boat back."
We had several people offer to drive us.
Leave the boat and they would drive us.
I think Paul was just
a little too proud to do that.
[Morgan] Even if someone was to take
the keys from Paul and be like,
"You're not getting on that boat,"
Paul would have a conniption.
And Murdaughs
don't really get told "no" much.
I know that Miley, Mallory,
and I should've been smart enough
to just stay.
I'll never stop regretting that we didn't.
[foreboding music plays]
[Morgan] We left around 12:00.
[Miley] After the oyster roast,
me and Connor did get into an argument.
We were arguing
about him going to the bar.
You know,
Paul and Connor wanted to make a pit stop
nobody else wanted to make.
[intriguing music plays]
[Morgan] Paul wanted to go to the bar,
and when Paul gets set on something,
like, it's gonna happen.
There wasn't no talkin' him out of it.
There wasn't no stoppin' him.
[Morgan] So we actually get
to the Day Dock,
which is downtown Beaufort.
[intriguing music continues]
And we were just waiting
for the boys to get back.
At that time,
Mallory and Anthony were so new
and they were in that,
like, honeymoon stage.
They were obsessed with each other,
and they were on their own little swing.
Just talkin'.
Miley and I were probably talkin'
about how much we hated Paul and Connor.
[Miley] After leaving Luther's,
Paul comes out and,
like, plastic chair right next to him,
and he just flips the chair over.
I remember him, like,
comin' back and him just, like,
raising his arms and sprawling his hands.
[Miley] That's a dead giveaway,
pretty much,
that he was the whole Timmy alter ego.
He was outta-his-mind drunk.
[Miley] We had all made it a point
to, like, say to him,
"You need to let Connor drive
or you need to let Anthony drive."
But he wouldn't listen to anybody.
Everyone was like, "Paul, don't drive."
It's late, it's cold. We wanna get home.
[Anthony] We talked about
gettin' an Uber or somethin'.
But, uh, Paul didn't wanna leave
his boat there,
didn't trust leavin' his boat there,
and I'm not gonna
just leave everybody else, you know?
I'm not gonna leave
Connor, Miley, Morgan, Paul.
[Miley] We got back on the boat
to go home.
[Morgan] Everyone was like,
"Paul, don't drive,"
and Paul would snap back and be like,
"Well, this is my fucking boat,
and I know this river,
and you're not driving my boat."
[intriguing music continues]
The way Paul was driving
was honestly terrifying.
[Anthony] The boat
was just steady makin' circles.
We were just round and round,
zigzaggin', arguin', you know.
Everybody's mad.
[Miley] Paul would just
leave the wheel unattended.
Connor would have to grab it.
I literally stood up and yelled at him,
"If you're not gonna
let anybody else drive, take us home."
He got in my face and pointed at me, like,
"You just need to shut the fuck up
and sit down."
Anthony was getting extremely pissed.
I yelled at Paul, Morgan, Miley, Connor.
I yelled at all of 'em.
[Morgan] Paul is yelling at me
and he's like,
"Why don't you have my back?"
And I was like,
"Why would I have your back?"
"You're screaming at us
and you're not making sense."
"You're acting crazy."
And he looked at me and he said,
"You know what's crazy?"
"Your father not making enough money
to support your family."
I started crying,
and that's when, uh, Paul got in my face,
and he just started screaming, and, uh,
that's when Paul slapped me.
Then, um
Sorry.
You know, you could tell by the way
he did it that it wasn't the first time.
It's just heartbreaking to see
one of your best friends be abused
in front of your face.
I was like, "You can't hide it anymore
from any of us."
"Like, this is not okay."
At that moment in time,
everybody was like, "You know what?"
"Let's just go."
You know, we went from that idle to
The bow of the boat stood up.
[Miley] He would just leave the wheel
when we were goin' full speed.
[Anthony] Connor would
just reach over there from the side
and straighten the wheel up.
[Miley] Connor came up to me
and he told me he loved me,
and I could tell,
like, he was gettin' scared too.
Miley screaming, "Connor, Connor,"
and I felt her grab me.
I slid down.
I put my feet up, pulled Mallory to me.
[Miley] I was looking at this bridge
and I was like, "We're about to hit this."
[Anthony] I heard a scream,
then I was out.
[scream]
[Morgan] Everything was going crazy.
People were screaming.
- [Anthony] As soon as I got on the bank
- [gasps]
Miley came runnin' straight up to me
and asked, "Where's Mallory?"
Then that's when we all
started screamin' for Mallory.
[Miley] Mallory!
[Morgan] Where the fuck is Mallory?
[Morgan] Anthony stayed in the water
as long as he could.
He would come up. He would go down.
I jumped back in the water
over and over and over.
[Miley] The water under the bridge,
it was goin' so fast.
[Anthony] I was goin' against the current.
There you are, scared for your life.
It's either do or die.
[Connor] I just remember wakin' up.
First thing I could do
was just get on my phone and call 911.
[operator] 911, where's your emergency?
[Connor] We're in a boat crash
on Archers Creek.
[operator] You're by the bridge?
[Connor] There's only one bridge
in Archers Creek.
[operator] Did you crash into the bridge?
[Connor] We're under the only bridge
in Archers Creek.
[operator] All right,
so you're under the bridge, okay.
[Morgan] Mallory! Mallory!
[Connor] Please send someone.
[operator] No, we're comin', okay?
[Anthony] I walked up
to the top of the bridge.
I remember seein'
blue lights comin' from both directions.
[Morgan] It was cops that came first.
[indistinct conversation]
[operator] The one missing is a female.
I just sat in the boat, bleeding.
It hurts! It fucking hurts!
So the cop that came up to me,
he's like, "You're gonna be okay."
He kept patting my back, and I was like,
"Tell me y'all found Mallory."
And he said,
"No, we haven't found Mallory yet."
I remember my face bein' really warm.
My bottom teeth
were in front of my front teeth.
I knew somethin' wasn't right.
[Miley] Paul was only in his underwear,
and his only concern
was calling his granddad.
- [Paul] Can I use your phone?
- [officer 1] I ain't got my phone on me.
[Paul] You ain't got your phone?
[officer 1] No, you dropped yours
in the grass back there.
[Paul] That don't surprise me.
I remember Anthony just like,
"You did this. This is all your fault."
[Anthony] Bo, you fuckin' smilin'
like it's fuckin' funny?
[officer 1] Sit down.
[Anthony]
My fuckin' girlfriend's gone, Bo!
Hope you rot in fuckin' hell!
He's just agitated.
[Miley] It took them 15 to 20 minutes
to get Paul
to actually get in the ambulance.
And he's not really responding
to me or any of us.
[Miley] Once we were actually on our way,
Paul called his granddad and was like,
"Yeah, we were in a boat accident."
Like, "Oh yeah, they can't find Mallory."
And was just like,
"It was Cotton Top that did it."
Cotton Top is Connor's nickname.
[Connor] I was like, "Really?"
I wanted to beat the shit out of him,
because I wasn't drivin'.
[Anthony] Mom, y'all need
to come to Beaufort, quick.
[Beverly] Obviously, when you get a call
in the middle of the night,
you know something's wrong.
[Anthony] What if she's at the bottom
of the river, man?
[Beverly] All he could say is,
"We can't find Mallory."
"They can't find Mallory."
And I said, "We're comin'."
"We'll be there.
We're comin' as fast as we can."
[officer 2] We've got
water search and rescue out.
The Parris Island Fire Department's out.
They've all got
their water assets out there looking.
Anthony kept sayin',
"Has somebody called Mr. Phillip?"
"Has somebody called Miss Renee?"
"Do it right now,
because they need to know."
[officer 1] Last name's Beach.
Melanie? Mallory?
I was just askin' about Mallory's family.
I do have phone numbers,
but I don't wanna make that phone call,
and I don't know
[mobile phone rings]
[mobile phone clatters]
[theme music plays]