The brother of a disgraced lawyer accused of murdering his wife and youngest son tearfully told of cleaning up his nephew’s remains at the scene of the crime.
John Marvin Murdo testified as the final witness for the defense of his older brother, lawyer Alex Murdo, who has pleaded not guilty to the murders of his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22.
In a Walterboro, South Carolina courtroom on Monday, John wept as he told jurors that cleaning up Paul’s remains was “the hardest thing” he had ever done.
“I saw blood, I saw brains, I saw pieces of skull,” John said. ‘It was awful.’
John went to the dog kennels at the crime scene on Alex’s hunting estate and found Paul’s remains across from the feeding hall. John said he felt he needed to collect the remains of Paul, who had worked at his hardware store.
“I felt it was the right thing to do. I felt I owed him and I started cleaning up and I promise you no mother or father or aunt or uncle would ever have to see or do what I did that day,” John said. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever been through in my life.”
John said he made a promise to Paul as he cleaned up.
“I told Paul I loved him and I promised him I would find out who did this,” John said.
When asked by defense attorney Jim Griffin if he found out who the killer was, John said, “I haven’t.”
Investigators had told John and his brothers that they knew Alex was responsible for the double murder because of the T-shirt he was wearing.
“They told us it was full of blood,” John testified. “They went so far as to tell me on the police body camera that he takes his shirt and wipes his face and that’s how they knew Alex was on the scene and it was him.”
According to the defense team, the jersey did not test positive for blood.
An expert said Alex’s shirt was “stained with high-velocity blood from shooting Maggie and Paul,” but prosecutors failed to present evidence to support the claim.
The defense rested its case after calling 14 witnesses over two weeks. Monday also marked the sixth week of Alex’s trial. Among the defense witnesses was Alex’s surviving son Buster, 26, who wept as he remembered his father calling him to say Maggie and Paul were dead.
Alex has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two counts of weapons.
Judge Clifton Newman ruled that jurors would be allowed to visit the Murdo family estate where the two bodies were found after rebuttal of witnesses and before closing arguments.
Contact our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.