A portion of the article talked about making deaths appear like suicides. Is that an aggressive interview? The records inside show his three children Abigayle, 12, Cassandra, 11, and Blake, 8 were each shot twice. His defense team argues that his wife shot their children before turning the gun on herself. 1 most stressful city for U.S. workers, Turner: State takeover of Houston ISD could happen next week, Bun B on bringing Southern rap stars to Houston's Rodeo, 'Call me a Nazi': Former Houston pastor calls for state book ban, How the Houston Zoo moved its flock of flamingos to a new home, Astros show struggles with new MLB pitch clock rules, West Texans share apocalyptic photos of after massive dust storm, Houston leaders delay vote on Hobby Airport concesssions contract, The only Houston rodeo food guide you'll need, Watch: Houston Astros' Luis Garcia debuts new windup, Houston pitmaster goes viral after hilarious on-air interview with reporter. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. His family has a history of prosecution. [18], She will be eligible for parole in November 2024. Alex Murdaugh's theft of millions of dollars was about to be revealed so he killed his wife and son to buy time to figure a way out, a prosecutor said Wednesday during closing arguments in the disgraced South Carolina attorney's murder trial. The jury ultimately voted against imposing the death penalty. And once crime scene technicians arrived, they found blood inside the familys SUV where blood shouldnt have been found. WebJOHN VAUGHAN was his heir. What it is not is a scene reenactment, Benjamin said. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said the jury must see the sprawling 1,700-acre (690-hectare) property to appreciate the spatial issues.. Only 16 minutes passed between when the victims stopped using their cellphones and Murdaugh left the house about 1,100 feet (335 meters) from the crime scene. One early morning in June 2007, the Vaughn family left their home to drive to a water park in Springfield, Illinois. Hes smart. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. In many cases, it doesnt happen because the trial is taking place years later, so the scene has changed and taking jurors there could provide a false impression of what happened. Sign up for our newsletter and enter to win the second edition of our book. The murder made people in a fairly safe town feel imperiled. We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the worlds hidden wonders. Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. Many of the old boomtowns of this era now resemble ghost towns. For her family, friends and others in Laramie, Ms. Wileys murder became a festering wound. This is a case about despair and sadness. Follow us on social media to add even more wonder to your day. "[14] The defense's theory of the case was that Smith drove to the edge of the lake to kill herself and her two sons, but her body willed itself out of the car. 1. The tour of the crime scene happened before jurors were to head back to court in Walterboro to hear closing arguments in the closely watched murder trial. William, Julie and Sean Grissom were the first three lives taken by serial killer Danny Rolling who spread his terror between two states in the late 1980s into the early '90s. Once closing arguments are finished, the jurors will get their instructions and begin deliberating what they learned during a trial that has included more than 75 witnesses and lasted more than six weeks. Through an investigation, a suspect was identified and taken into custody at the scene. Investigators started to search the nearby lakes and ponds, including John D. Long Lake, where their bodies were eventually found. The attorneys are typically present but instructed by the judge not to say or point out anything to the jurors, Benjamin said. The defense has said state agents conducted a poor investigation that focused too quickly on Alex Murdaugh and missed evidence such as fingerprints and shoe prints that could have led to the real killers. After searching, All rights reserved. Old School (2003) R | 88 min | Comedy 7 Rate 54 Metascore Rebecca Rosenberg. Investigators said his 22-year-old son, Paul, was shot twice with a shotgun and his 52-year-old wife, Maggie, was shot four or five times with a rifle outside of the kennels on their property. "You asked me what kind of lawyer Alex was, and I told you he was a good lawyer," Crosby said. He fooled Maggie and Paul, too, and they paid for it with their lives. The records show someone using his e-mail address set up a blog site for a user named dewoodsman, and at least one man knew Vaughn as Flint.. Jurors have visited the South Carolina estate where prosecutors say disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh shot and killed his wife and son. And it wasnt just Mollies family that was being systematically eliminated. Prosecutors opposed the visit, saying the scene looks different than it did in June 2021, as trees and vegetation have grown and no one has lived on the property since the killings. Got a tip? WebVaughn told police the family was driving to a Springfield water park. This story originally appeared in the June 27, 2011 edition of the Chicago Sun-Times: A magazine article about staging crime scenes and making the death appear to be a suicide was taken by police from the home of Christopher Vaughn after the June 2007 shooting deaths of his wife and three children, newly released court records show. I am working on wrapping up a few last things and then I am headed out for the long walk, it reads. The records inside show his three children Abigayle, 12, Cassandra, 11, and Blake, 8 were each shot twice. A filing from February 2011 says Christopher Vaughn, who had been shot twice, waved down a passing motorist and said he thought his wife shot him. In the early 1870s, the Osage were driven from their lands in Kansas onto a rocky, presumably worthless reservation in what was then Indian Territory, and would later become part of Oklahoma. They were also cautioned to watch for snakes. Her father committed suicide when she was six years old, and Smith herself attempted suicide at age 13. This conflicted with her statement that she did not see any other cars there when the carjacking took place. Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. Her mother then married Beverly Russell, a member of the local chapter of the Christian Coalition, who later was revealed to have molested Smith when she was a teenager. At 5:15 am, a motorist driving on I-55 spotted Christopher Vaughn bleeding and limping away with his parked SUV. He did not deny, however, that he spent a half hour at Mega Sports Shooting Equipment and Range in Plainfield the night before his family was killed. Aided by his knowledge of how criminal cases are constructed, he hatched a clever plan to make sure they were at the familys Colleton County property on the night they were killed, June 7, 2021, he said. 231. No purchase necessary. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. By this time, the Vaughn family had also arrived on the scene, and saw that the elderly woman needed help. This photograph shows an Osage camp on their new reservation: Around the turn of the century, oil deposits were discovered under this land. Heres a later photograph of White with Hoover: To unravel the mystery, White assembled a team of undercover operatives, including an American Indian agent. I can see how both sides can benefit from a jury seeing that, Nettles said. [14] Smith's defense psychiatrist diagnosed her with dependent personality disorder and major depression. 12 pick, A new musical spotlights a Texas bank-robbing legend, This Houston rodeo food vendor wants you to eat his rattlesnake. Hes manufacturing an alibi. Jurors have visited the South Carolina estate where prosecutors say disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh shot and killed his wife and son. 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The most notable recent example was the sentencing trial for Cruz, who pleaded guilty to killing 14 students and three staff members at Parklands Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The pressures on this man were unbearable, and they were all reaching a crescendo on the day his wife and son were murdered by him, Waters said. 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John Marvin Murdaugh took the stand as the defense's final witness in the Walterboro, South Carolina, courtroom. Large pools of dried blood still stained classroom floors. Courtroom evidence from the Chris Coleman triple murder trial is now open to the public. And who drives way off the highway to a frontage road when a passenger begins to feel ill? He lived a wealthy life, Waters said. Today Vaughn is charged with all four murders, but his defense team argues his wife turned the gun on him and the children before killing herself. This has been a tough job, Waters said. It was not immediately clear why they went into the tree area. [3] Her defense attorneys, David Bruck and Judy Clarke, called expert witnesses to testify that she had mental health issues that impaired her judgment when she committed the crimes. 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She had claimed that a traffic light had turned red causing her to stop at an otherwise empty intersection. The tour of the crime scene happened before jurors were to head back to court in Walterboro to hear closing arguments in the closely watched murder trial. The pressures on this man were unbearable. Murdaugh's fear that his decade-long theft would be exposed and his desire to maintain his lofty standing in the community led him to make sure his wife and younger son were at the family's Colleton County home on June 7, 2021, so that he could kill them as part of a clever plan aided by his knowledge of how criminal cases are constructed, prosecutor Creighton Waters told jurors. Winner will be selected at random on 04/01/2023. Judge Clifton Newman allowed the visit but cautioned jurors about the differences in how the property looks now. 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Defense attorneys argued that Kathleen Peterson had died in a 2001 accidental fall. Rate. When the FBI took up the case, in 1923, agents badly bungled the probe. The use of the family weapons collaborates it. Judge Milton Wharton did not release all of the courtroom evidence. They asked for jurors to be allowed to visit the property in order to help them understand how small the storage room is where Paul Murdaugh was killed and the distance between the two bodies. On Monday, in one of their last witnesses before resting, the defense brought a crime scene expert to the stand who said he believed the killings were likely committed by two people. The 12 Defense attorney Jim Griffin is expected to begin his closing argument on Thursday morning. Christopher Vaughn, of Oswego, Illinois, is seen in his police interview declining to even say the names of his murdered three children and wife. Much of the Osages oil money was swindled, and over time the oil deposits on their land have also diminished. He has been doing it for 10 years.. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. ( Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool), A view from where Maggie Murdaugh was found at the Murdaugh Moselle property on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 in Islandton, S.C.. The judge has warned them that some things have changed on the property since the crime occurred. The jurors are slated to travel to the property, which is under contract for $3.9 million, Wednesday morning amid tight security. [5], Smith rarely had a stable home life growing up. Vaughn also allegedly used the online screen name "dewoodsman" to write about his desires to flee his life and move to the Canadian wilderness. Within two months, Mollies mother died of suspected poisoning. 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