Two Murdaugh family friends 100 percent certain that Alex’s voice can be heard at scene of murders

WALTERBORO, S.C. (WIS) -Two Murdaugh family friends testified on Wednesday that they were 100 percent confident that they heard the voice of Alex Murdaugh at the scene of Moselle’s dog kennels five minutes before Alex’s wife and son were murdered.

The cell phone video was recorded on Paul’s device at 8:44 P.M. on the night of June 7, 2021. It was played for the jury just before noon Wednesday, during the testimony of Lt. Brett Dove, a forensic data analyst for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

State prosecutors allege that Murdaugh shot and killed his son at 8:50 that night and his wife a few moments later.

In the video, three distinct voices can be heard.

Paul is checking on a chocolate Labrador named Cash, being housed at the Moselle kennels.

The dog belonged to Rogan Gibson, one of Paul’s best friends. Gibson is also the last person Paul spoke to on the phone before he was killed.

The two had an arrangement that the dog would stay at Moselle because was living in a rental that did not allow dogs.

Gibson took the stand as a key witness for the state on Wednesday and said the Murdaughs was like a “second family” to him.

He also testified that he could not envision Alex carrying out the crimes, as he never detected any problems with the family.

Gibson testified that he and Paul spoke on the phone at 8:40 P.M., and Gibson testified he heard Maggie, Paul, and Alex on that call. On the call, Paul said he would take a video of Cash’s injured tail and would send Gibson the video.

He did not see that video until November 2022.

When asked by lead prosecutor Creighton Waters about how certain he was that Alex’s voice was heard on that video, Gibson said, “Positive.”

“100 percent?” Waters asked.

“That’s correct,” Gibson replied.

The revelation that Alex was at the kennels at the time of that video contradicts his statement of alibi.

He claimed in interviews with investigators that he was taking a nap at the main house at this time, and the last time he saw Maggie and Paul was at dinner.

Alex has asserted that he never went to the kennels.

After he got up from his nap, Alex claimed he got up and drove off to see his sick mother shortly after 9 P.M.

As the video played in the courtroom on Wednesday, Alex could be seen crying and rocking back and forth.

A second witness to the video, family friend Will Loving, also confirmed from the stand that he was 100 percent certain he heard Alex’s voice on the video at the kennels.

Loving also received a Snapchat from Paul on June 7 at 7:56 P.M. In the video, which has been made public, Alex is seen wearing different clothes than he was wearing when investigators arrived later that night.

The suggestion from prosecutors is that Alex changed clothes for some reason.

Last week, the state highlighted the fact that Alex’s clothes appeared clean during his first interview with law enforcement, despite reporting that he had checked the pulse of his slain wife and son.

Earlier Wednesday, Dove testified that both Maggie and Paul received texts at 8:49 P.M. that were never answered.

He also testified to phone activity and movement from Maggie, Paul, and Alex’s phones.

While Maggie’s phone indicated 5 missed calls from Alex on June 7 after 9:06 P.M., his device showed a clean record from that evening. The calls were missing from his phone’s data.

Dove testified that the evidence shows Alex Murdaugh likely manually erased the call log from that night.

“So at some point between when those calls are placed on the night of June 7 and when you got the phone in September, those calls disappeared off that phone, correct?” state prosecutor John Conrad asked Dove.

“Those calls were not on the phone anymore,” he replied. “How it happened, I don’t know.”

“Did you do anything in your investigation, in your extraction or analysis, to potentially remove those calls?” Conrad asked.

“No, sir, I did not,” Dove said.

Dove also testified that a group text among family members regarding the condition of Alex’s ailing father Randolph appeared on Maggie’s device on the evening of June 7.

Alex did not read the texts about his hospitalized father until the following afternoon, however, despite a text pattern that suggests Alex would check his texts between 5 and 30 minutes of their receipt, according to testimony from Dove.

In the cross-examination of Dove, the defense asserted that Alex could not have been the killer because Maggie’s and Alex’s phones were not in the same place when Maggie’s phone recorded its final movements.

While Alex’s device recorded steps at that time, Maggie’s did not.

Testimony resumes at 9:30 A.M. on Thursday.

DAY SEVEN COVERAGE: Testimony from phone data expert is crucial to state’s case against Alex Murdaugh

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