Caretaker Claims 'Fidgety' Alex Murdaugh Showed Up To Mom's House Unannounced After Murders, Returned Days Later To Allegedly Hide 'Blue Tarp'
Feb. 6 2023, Published 9:00 p.m. ET
The murder trial for once-prominent South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh continued in court with testimony from his mother's caretaker, Michelle "Shelley" Smith. The caretaker claimed he showed up at his mom's house "fidgety" and unannounced — and carried a "blue tarp" under his arm — the night that his wife and son were murdered, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Alex is on trial for the alleged brutal slayings of his wife Maggie, 52, and their youngest son, Paul, 22. The father claimed he left to visit his mother and returned to the gruesome crime scene at his family's private hunting ranch, in Moselle, on the night of June 7, 2021.
The prosecution called several witnesses to testify in an attempt to poke holes in Alex's alibi while they try to prove their theory that the father allegedly killed Maggie and Paul to deflect attention from several financial crimes he was accused of.
Smith was the caretaker for Alex's elderly mother, Elizabeth "Libby" Murdaugh, at the time of the brutal killings.
The caretaker claimed that Alex's visit to Libby, who was battling Alzheimer's, was unexpected and unusual for him.
Smith said Alex showed up "fidgety" and stayed only "15 to 20" minutes between 8:30 and 9:30 PM, shortly after Paul and Maggie were killed.
The caretaker then claimed that days after the murders, Alex showed up again unannounced at around 6:30 AM with a "blue tarp" under his arm.
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Smith struggled to pinpoint the item exactly but insisted that it was blue. She claimed he went upstairs after she answered the door.
Smith also claimed that Alex instructed her to say "it was 30-40 minutes if someone asked" his whereabouts on June 7.
The timeline provided by Smith's statement was relevant to the prosecution's claims that Alex was at Moselle at the time of the murders and allegedly used a visit to his mother's home to establish an alibi and crucial witnesses.
Smith's recollection of the night of June 7 assisted the prosecution's cell phone video evidence that was introduced. The video was allegedly taken by Paul at the ranch's dog kennels, where his body was found.
State attorneys claimed that the video featured the voices of Paul, Maggie, and Alex — and it was recorded minutes before their deaths.
The prosecution attempted to further back their theory with a tarp they alleged was collected by investigators after a search was conducted at the mother's home.
South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) agent Kristin Moore was called to the stand by the state. Moore was among investigators who carried out the search of the mother's home after the brutal killings.
Moore testified that agents found a "blue tarp" in a "storage container" at the home, as well as a "blue raincoat" that was discovered "balled up" in an upstairs closet.
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Moore stated that while the tarp was not tested for blood evidence, the raincoat was, but no blood evidence was found.
On cross-examination, Smith testified that she saw a blue tarp under Alex's arm the night of the murder, but when investigators showed her the unraveled tarp recovered from the home, she said that was not what she saw.
Prosecutors attempted to pursue the court that Smith could have seen the "balled up" blue rain jacket, according to the Daily Mail.
The defense attempted to discredit the caretaker's testimony and stated the rain jacket failed to link Alex to the crime scene, as the trial adjourned for the day.
