Alex Murdaugh texted his secretary from rehab asking for forgiveness after being fired for stealing millions from his law firm. His double murder trial was heard today.
“The worst thing is that I’ve done the most harm to those I love the most,” the alleged killer wrote to Annette Griswold while in rehab for a crippling opioid addiction four months after the murder of his wife and son .
“The better I get, the more guilt I have,” Murdaugh said in the submissive message.
The disgraced attorney, 54, is accused of killing Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, on June 7, 2021 to gain sympathy and deflect from the “coming storm” of his financial crimes.
Griswold said in the weeks leading up to her death he had been “restrained” in the office, yelled at employees and that a pending lawsuit over a fatal boating accident in which his son was drunk “used up his life”.
At the time of Maggie and Paul’s deaths, Murdaugh and his son were facing a civil lawsuit over the boatwreck that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach in February 2019.
Murdaugh wrote a submissive message to his secretary, Annette Griswold, while he was in rehab for a crippling opioid addiction, four months after the murder of his wife and son. “The worst part is that I’ve done the most harm to those I love the most,” he said
Alex Murdaugh enters the courthouse Wednesday before his double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina
At the time of Maggie and Paul’s deaths, Murdaugh and his son were facing a civil lawsuit over the boatwreck that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach in February 2019. Murdaugh told officers Paul and Maggie were killed in revenge for the accident
The court heard yesterday from his company’s chief financial officer, Jeanne Seckinger, who testified that Murdaugh stole money from the company and deposited it into Maggie’s account “because of the boat fall.”
Prosecutors say Murdaugh killed Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, because he was “out of time and options” and racking up millions in debt.
Griswold told the jury: “You could tell the boating accident was taking its toll on him. It almost took his life.”
She referred to him as “his ass on his shoulders” and said he’s “just not himself with us anymore.”
SCHEDULE: NIGHT OF THE KILLS
Alex Murdaugh, 54, is accused of shooting dead his wife Maggie, 52, and younger son Paul, 22, on the night of June 7, 2021 at the family’s hunting property in Islandton, South Carolina.
Here are the key events in the timeline established by the prosecution:
At 7.56pm, Paul sent a Snapchat video to friends showing the 22-year-old driving around the property with his father.
At 8:15 p.m., Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, came home and the trio had dinner together. Autopsies showed similar stomach contents for Maggie and Paul.
Around 8:30 p.m., Paul’s phone moves in the direction of the kennel.
Then, at 8.44pm, a second video taken by Paul in the kennel – soon to lead to a murder scene – allegedly proves Maggie, Paul and Alex were together.
At 8:49 p.m., prosecutors say Paul’s phone was locked and forever silent, never to text again or make another call.
Between 9pm and 9.30pm, Paul and Maggie were killed – according to the coroner.
At 9:06 p.m., Murdaugh’s car is set on fire.
The alleged killer said he was visiting his mother in Almeda, about 15 minutes’ drive away, who has late-stage Alzheimer’s disease.
At 10:07 p.m., Murdaugh called 911 and claimed he got home to find his wife and son shot.
She told the court: “I took care of him. I respected him. I loved him… It was hard to work for him at times. He was a bit unpredictable. Yes, despite all the respect and love I had for him, he was still very difficult to work for.
She read part of a text she received from the legal heir while he was in rehab on September 26, 2021.
Murdaugh wrote: “I was worried about you guys and I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you myself. I know that both of you have been badly hurt by me. I know it sounds hollow, but I’m really sorry. The better I get, the more guilt I feel.
“I’ve got a lot to do to get it right when I get out of here. The worst part is knowing that I’ve done the most harm to those I love the most.
“I’m not sure how I got myself to where I got to. I am striving to get better and hope to mend as many relationships as possible. Both of you are special people and important to me.
“Please know how sorry I am for making you a part of my misdeeds. I hope you are all doing as well as possible. I love you very much.’
Griswold disclosed a fake Forge Consulting account that Murdaugh set up to embezzle company funds and divert them to his personal bank accounts.
The jury heard yesterday that Murdaugh was confronted on the day of the murders with over $792,000 he stole from Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth and Detrick (PMPED) company.
He had allegedly transferred this money to Maggie’s account to protect it from the upcoming lawsuit over the boatwreck.
It was later revealed that he had stolen millions dating back to 2011. It cost the law firm more than $5 million to reimburse clients.
Griswold said she encountered checks on the fake Forge account, which worried her because they weren’t the right way for attorneys to get money owed to the firm for cases.
She was trying to track down $792,000 that had gone missing from a case recently handled by Murdaugh when she learned that Maggie and Paul had been killed.
Her efforts came to an end when everyone at PMPED rallied around Murdaugh and she went into “mama bear mode” to protect and take care of her boss.
But in September, she found a check related to the case that proved Murdaugh had stolen from the company. He was released the next day.
The paralegal was asked to explain how she uncovered his thefts at the office.
Griswold told the court that Murdaugh would write checks into the fake Forge account while she was out of the office, usually late on a Friday when not many people were around, and had another paralegal to handle the cases was unfamiliar to process the payments.
Waters asked, “Did the defendant take the opportunity that you were out of the office to enforce these things?”
Griswold said, “Yes.”
She told the jury about a case in which Murdaugh forged a signature to steal $125,000 owed to a customer.
In the spring of 2021, Griswold learned that the $792,000 from the so-called Faris case (Faris vs. Mack’s Trucks) that Murdaugh had been working on had not been paid to PMPED.
District Attorney Creighton Waters questions Annette Griswold, Alex Murdaugh’s former paralegal, during Murdaugh’s double murder trial Wednesday at the Colleton County Courthouse
Alex Murdaugh with his son Paul and his wife Maggie. The couple were 22 and 52 when prosecutors said the disgraced lawyer shot and killed them at the Moselle estate on June 7, 2021
The defense theory is that someone else killed Murdaugh’s wife and son in revenge for a boating accident (Murdaugh’s Sea Hunt boat pictured) in February 2019 in which Paul was driving under the influence of alcohol and killed a 19-year-old woman had
Bottles and cans of beer found on board the boat that Paul Murdaugh was driving while under the influence
The court has previously heard that the money lawyers made on cases always went to the firm and that it would be “theft” if they went to the partners in person.
Griswold said: “I assumed they gave Alex the checks and he lost them. You are out of place. They’re somewhere in his truck. They’re in a file.”
But when she asked Murdaugh for the money, he said he never got the checks.
The paralegal then went to her boss and the offices of Chris Wilson, a close friend of Murdaugh’s and colleague with whom he worked on the Faris case, to find out where the missing $792,000 went.
Griswold said Jeanne Seckinger, PMPED’s chief financial officer, who “was immediately on high alert because it wasn’t looking good.”
They both hoped there was a misunderstanding, but suspected “something was wrong.”
Seckinger told the court yesterday she confronted Murdaugh about the missing funds on June 7, 2021, hours before Maggie and Paul were shot.
As a result of the murders, Murdaugh’s colleagues stopped asking for the money.
Griswold recounted how she learned about the murders and said Murdaugh’s brother Randy, another partner at PMPED, texted her to call when she could.
‘It’s bad, Annette. It’s really bad,” Randy said to her, telling her that Maggie and Paul had been murdered.
Griswold said she was scared for Alex, Randy and legal offspring Buster’s surviving son, saying that she and her colleagues were “in complete Mama Bear mode.”
Randy Murdaugh, Alex’s brother, is due in court Tuesday. Seckinger said that after a senior partners meeting on September 3, 2021, Randy confronted Alex about the thefts to demand his resignation
Evidence will be presented against Jeanne Seckinger for financial crimes during Tuesday’s double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh at the Colleton County Courthouse
“We didn’t want them to have to go out and talk to reporters, we didn’t want them to have to run out and meet someone. We were afraid for them,” she said.
“We were very protective, everything suspicious out the window, we were on high alert.”
She said the Faris charges were “the furthest thing from her thoughts.”
It wasn’t until September, when she was searching Murdaugh’s office for files, that the missing funds tumbled back into her life.
The paralegal said, looking around his desk, “a check floated off like a feather to the ground.”
It was a March check from the Faris case.
‘He lied all the time. He had those means. He lied to me. That feeling in the back of my mind was right. He took those funds,” she testified.
She said she brought it up to Seckinger and Murdaugh was fired the next day, September 3.