She was in his arms, and then she wasn’t. It’s been a year since boat crash killed SC teen
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2019 Boat Crash Coverage
The crash of a Murdaugh family boat in 2019 killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach and started a chain of events that would remain in the news two years later. Here are the stories from that crash.
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This story first published Feb. 23, 2020.
Around 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 24, 2019, six young adults were in a speeding boat when it crashed into a piling by the bridge in Archers Creek near Parris Island, S.C.
Mallory Beach, 19, was ejected — and became a missing person. It took searchers a week to find her body.
Paul Murdaugh — then a 20-year-old from a powerful Lowcountry family — was later charged with multiple counts of boating under the influence.
Since the fatal boat crash, the staff of the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette has pored over documents, questioned officials and interviewed people familiar with the tragic events of one year ago.
The timeline below is based on those records and interviews and contains details not previously reported about the horrific crash.
The crash
Mallory Beach’s boyfriend, Anthony Cook, remembers nothing after the boat hit the piling.
He knows that moments earlier, sitting in the boat, he had wrapped Beach in his arms.
When he comes to, he is in the water.
Beach is nowhere to be found.
7 p.m. Feb. 23, 2019 — seven hours earlier
About an hour after dark, six friends, ages 18 to 20 — Beach; Cook; his cousin, Connor; Paul Murdaugh; and two others — prepare to launch a 17-foot Sea Hunt boat from the dock of property owned by Murdaugh’s family.
They have brought more than $45 worth of alcohol aboard, purchased earlier by Murdaugh using his older brother’s ID at a Parker’s convenience store in Ridgeland, a lawsuit filed by Beach’s mother alleges. The stash includes a 15-pack of Natural Light beer bought on special, the suit says.
Before leaving, the group drinks at “The Island,” a $1.45 million property owned by Murdaugh’s grandfather on Chechessee Creek, less than 2 miles from Parkers. And then the boat takes off..
The first destination is an oyster roast at Kristy and James Wood’s waterfront home on Paukie Island, about 20 nautical miles away and 7 miles from U.S. Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort.
James and Kristy Wood, principal of Brunson Elementary in the Hampton District One Schools, allow the boaters to drink at their house “despite (the minors’) growing intoxication” and knowing they would be driving the boat later that night, the civil suit says.
It’s unclear how long the group stays at the Woods’, but once they leave, intending to return to the Murdaugh property, they stop first at Beaufort’s Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park, Anthony Cook, then 20, previously told The Island Packet.
2 a.m. Feb. 24
The group docks the boat downtown, and two of the boaters continue to drink, records show. They stop at Luther’s Rare & Well Done, described as “Beaufort’s best bar for nightlife and live entertainment” in the city’s 2019 Water Festival poster.
The boaters at the bar, already intoxicated, are served more alcohol, according to the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Beach and Cook sit on a large wooden swing facing the Broad River, waiting for the rest of the group, Cook told the newspaper.
The boaters, he recalled, leave downtown Beaufort about 2 a.m.
Murdaugh is driving, Cook told police. The two of them argue, Cook said, because Murdaugh is too intoxicated to drive.
They are 5.6 nautical miles from the R.C. Berkeley Bridge.
The crash
The boat slams into the bridge piling.
Cook, unconscious, is thrown in the water at the bank of Archers Creek.
When the young man regains consciousness, his girlfriend is no longer in his arms.
He swims to a piling and screams for her.
Another boater screams from the opposite bank. Cook swims there, looking for Beach.
She has vanished.
2:26 a.m.
A phone rings in the Beaufort County Dispatch Center.
The dispatcher hears screams on the other end of the line.
“Mallory! Mallory! Mallory!”
A voice that seems calm breaks the screams. Connor Cook, Anthony’s cousin, tells the dispatcher there’s been a boat crash in Archers Creek.
Meanwhile, Anthony Cook has stripped off his clothes and, still combing the water, continues looking for his girlfriend.
2:28 a.m.
“Uh, a female named Mallory Beach is missing,” Connor Cook tells a dispatcher.
As he describes the boat, a woman in the background screams about losing blood.
Anthony attempts to swim back to the bank where he first came to. He needs to find Beach.
The cold water and swirling current force him to turn around.
2:36 a.m. — 10 minutes after 911 call
The U.S. Coast Guard in Charleston broadcasts a message asking that all vessels watch for a female in the water in Archers Creek.
Connor Cook and his girlfriend climb the causeway above the crash to wait in the road for emergency crews.
He has described Beach to the dispatcher: blonde, 19 years old, wearing a pink shirt and suede booties.
As Connor waits, Parris Island Military Police receive a notification of the water emergency. Dispatchers describe it erroneously: under the Bell Bridge, 1.5 miles from the crash scene.
Anthony Cook stands on the bank of the creek and weeps.
2:40 a.m.
Police start arriving at R.C. Berkeley Bridge. Cook recalls officers all around.
The 911 call ends. Two officers tell dispatchers they are at the scene.
They find a young woman still in the boat beached on the bank. She’s bleeding from her hand. Two other injured boaters are nearby.
Five boaters are now accounted for. The focus shifts to finding the sixth.
But a thick fog makes it difficult to see, even with flashlights, police reports say.
2:46 a.m. — 20 minutes after 911 call starts
“Confirm and copy,” an officer says as police start to learn details of the crash. “Sitting in her boyfriend’s lap when they hit the bridge about 20 minutes ago traveling at a high rate of speed.”
Some officers search the banks; others talk to the victims. They note in a police report that they can walk only about 100 yards west of the creek before the pluff mud becomes too soft.
Fire trucks arrive at the Bell Bridge after hearing the wrong location.
Paul Murdaugh, dressed in just boxers, is talking on the phone, a police report notes. He starts to sob as he tells the person on the phone that Beach is missing.
2:54 a.m.
A dispatcher calls the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office emergency management director, waking him.
“We have a water emergency,” the dispatcher says. “We had a boat crash, and it’s gonna be at Archers Creek, right up on Malecon Drive by Parris Island.”
“All right,” he responds.
“Had a boat crash, six people on board. One is missing. A 19-year-old girl,” she continues.
A couple of minutes later, Beaufort Water Search and Rescue officers call dispatch to relay that a boat will be launched soon at The Sands in Port Royal, about 1.65 nautical miles from the R.C. Berkeley Bridge.
Soon after, officers ask for an estimated time of arrival for S.C. Department of Natural Resources officers.
3:19 a.m.
An ambulance confirms it is transporting three patients, including Murdaugh, to the hospital.
Murdaugh becomes uncooperative and “almost aggressive” toward EMS personnel, a police report says.
A deputy rides in the ambulance to ensure everyone’s safety.
During the ride, one of the victims asks EMS if their friend has been found.
3:44 a.m.
More than an hour after the crash, a dispatcher calls the Beaufort Memorial Hospital emergency room looking for an officer with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.
Dispatcher: “You don’t happen to have a DNR officer in there speaking with the subjects that just came in from the water emergency, the water, the boat call?”
The emergency room employee finds the Beaufort County Sheriff’s deputy who rode with the victims to the hospital.
Dispatcher: “Uhh, I’m looking for DNR. Do you know if they came there with you guys? They told me they might be in that hospital... Did he come there with you guys?”
Deputy: “No, we don’t have a DNR officer, just me from the Sheriff’s Department.”
By the time a DNR officer arrives, DNR officials later tell a reporter from The State, Murdaugh’s father and grandfather have shown up. Telling the officers they are lawyers, they stop all interviews and prevent sobriety tests.
4:50 a.m. — 2 hours, 24 minutes after crash
Beaufort Water Search and Rescue calls Beaufort County Dispatch asking for more details.
“Can someone tell me when this accident actually occurred?” a man asks. “ We are getting conflicted stories here. I would like to talk to whoever called in so we can see exactly where the boat hit and where she flew out so we can search the area better.”
11:58 a.m.
The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette publish a story about the crash as more than 20 family members and friends of Beach sit on the causeway near the base of the R.C. Berkeley Bridge.
The family releases Beach’s name to the newspaper and asks the community for prayers in finding the teen.
Anthony Cook, Beach’s boyfriend, remains at the scene. He refuses to go the hospital.
Boats, divers, and helicopters from local, state, and federal law enforcement offices continue searching.
4:30 p.m.
A Beaufort County Sheriff’s deputy meets with a SCDNR officer at the Parris Island Boat Landing, where the damaged boat has been relocated.
The SCDNR officer takes photos as the deputy collects evidence in an effort to determine who was driving the boat. He lifts fingerprints from the area around the driver’s seat.
DNA swabs are taken from various locations on the boat, a police report says.
The boat has been sitting in the open for more than 12 hours, including during periods of rain, waiting to be processed for evidence.
Law enforcement officers find no usable fingerprints.
6 p.m.
The first day of searching pauses for nightfall.
Beach remains missing.
Cook agrees to go to the hospital.
The Coast Guard cancels its Urgent Marine Information Broadcast.
8 a.m. Feb. 25
The search resumes with rescue boats, dive teams and the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office helicopter.
SCDNR tells the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette that rescuers still hope to find Beach alive, but as time goes on, the likelihood increases that the search will become a recovery effort, not a rescue effort.
At noon, community members bring hot food and chairs for family members and friends who line the causeway.
At nightfall, the search pauses for the second time.
Feb. 27 — three days after the crash
Law enforcement officers continue searching.
In the evening, Beach’s family asks the boating community to help with the search.
“We are asking crabbers and fishermen to keep their eyes open,” her uncle, Randy Beach, says during a call with the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
Boaters are asked to search the Broad River and any inlets, but to stay away from Archers Creek, where SCDNR is continuing to search.
March 3
For the first time in a week, Beach’s father, Phillip Beach, and other family members start the day at church rather than the causeway.
The family prays for Mallory to be found.
Two brothers are among hundreds of people who respond to the family’s plea for help.
Around 1 p.m., the men launch their boat and begin searching near Broad River Boat landing, where volunteers have gathered to organize search efforts. One brother drives the boat; the other sits on the T-top, scouring the water.
About 20 minutes into the search, and near low tide, the brother on the T-top sees blond hair floating in the marshline.
They call 911 and remain there until Sheriff’s Office deputies, SCDNR officers, and the county coroner arrive.
The body is identified: Mallory Beach.
March 7 — 11 days after the crash
More than 500 people pack the Opens Arms Fellowship Church in Hampton for Beach’s funeral.
“She went early; she went young; she loved her family; she loved her friends; she loved her rescued pets,” the Rev. Nelson Foster says. “I’m blown away by the legacy this teen woman leaves behind.”
The service focuses on Beach’s love for God and calls for others to seek the Lord.
Showing the depth of the teen’s faith, Foster recalls the words Beach had scribbled on a chalkboard in her room when she was about 12:
“Be strong in the Lord and never give up hope,” it reads. “He’s gonna do great things. I already know.”
The months after
On April 18, on what would have been Beach’s 20th birthday, Paul Murdaugh is indicted on three felony criminal charges: one boating under the influence causing death, and two counts of boating under the influence causing injury. He is never jailed, is out on a $50,000 personal recognizance bond, and is free to travel throughout the state. No trial date has been set.
SCDNR, the lead investigating agency, and the S.C. Attorney General’s Office, which is prosecuting, both say there are no updates in the case. The S.C. Law Enforcement Division has an open investigation into the sale of alcohol to minors, a spokesperson said Friday.
Two lawsuits have been filed related to the crash.
Beach’s mother, Renee Beach, has filed a wrongful death suit, naming the Parker’s store where the lawsuit says Murdaugh purchased alcohol; Murdaugh’s father, Richard Alexander Murdaugh; and his older brother, Richard Alexander Murdaugh Jr.
Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance also has sued, asking the court to relieve the company of financial responsibilities for any claims by 20-year-old Paul Murdaugh’s father and brother.
One year later
In the days before the anniversary of the tragedy, little reminders of the crash and the life it took remain scattered throughout the Lowcountry.
Family and friends continue to visit Beach’s grave in Hampton, placing fresh flowers, balloons, memorial stones and photos, among other things.
A large patch of grass beside the R.C. Berkeley Bridge is still matted where the boat was pulled ashore.
A few miles away, a photo of Beach hangs in the window of It’s Retail Therapy, the Beaufort clothing store where she worked on Bay Street. Taped below her photo is a white sheet of paper with “MALLORY” sketched across the top, decorated with angel wings and a halo. There’s a Bible verse, too, Psalm 45:5: “God is within her, she will not fall.”
This story was originally published February 23, 2020 at 6:25 AM with the headline "She was in his arms, and then she wasn’t. It’s been a year since boat crash killed SC teen."
