6 things to know from new court documents filed on the 2019 deadly Beaufort boat crash
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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 July 8, 2021.
New court documents filed Thursday in a civil petition stemming from a 2019 fatal boat crash near Beaufort reveal discrepancies in testimony, arguments among boat passengers and failure to collect evidence that could be critical in understanding what happened that night and who was responsible.
Hundreds of pages of sworn testimony attached to the petition submitted in Richland County were originally conducted for the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the mother of Mallory Beach, who was killed in the crash. They include interviews with law enforcement officers from the S.C. Department of Natural Resources and the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, who were among the first people investigating the Feb. 24, 2019 crash.
The lawsuit and DNR’s criminal investigation of the crash are in the spotlight again because the man accused of driving the boat, Paul Murdaugh, was found shot to death last month, along with his mother, Maggie.
The charges against Murdaugh — three felony counts of boating under the influence — were dismissed, but the investigation by the S.C. Attorney General’s Office into the crash is still open.
Their interviews provide some insight into why it took two months to charge a driver; what happened in the moments after the crash, including at the scene and later at the hospital; and why one investigator was removed from the case.
Among the key points:
▪ Police were looking at two possible drivers: Who was driving the boat was not immediately clear just after the crash because boaters provided different accounts. Anthony Cook, Mallory Beach’s boyfriend, told police that Paul Murdaugh was driving. Morgan Doughty, Murdaugh’s girlfriend at the time, initially said Connor Cook was driving. Doughty would later say she wasn’t sure of her first statement.
Neither Murdaugh nor Connor Cook admitted to driving the boat. Hours after the crash, Cook told police he didn’t know who was driving, while Murdaugh denied being the driver.
One officer noted in his report that Murdaugh said: “Why do you need to know who was driving? That isn’t going to help find Mallory. What if it was me driving the boat?”
Previous documents obtained by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette said there was confusion over who was driving the boat, but only one report clearly stated that Anthony Cook told police Paul Murdaugh was driving. Until the new court filings, it had been unclear why police were looking at two people as possible suspects.
Murdaugh was charged two months later with three counts of felony boating under the influence. Connor Cook has not faced charges in the crash.
▪ New details about a heated exchange at the crash scene: In the sworn deposition of DNR Lt. Robin Camlin, Renee Beach’s lawyer asks whether investigators at the scene reported Anthony Cook telling police “Paul Murdaugh killed my girlfriend” or that Anthony Cook yelled “I hope you rot in f------ jail,” at Murdaugh. She said she didn’t recall either of those details.
However Cpl. John Keener, who was at the scene of the crash, told lawyers that Anthony Cook “was trying to fight the Murdaugh kid. So that’s why we thought the Murdaugh kid was driving at the time.”
Another officer who was at the scene wrote in a report that Anthony Cook was screaming, his language laced with profanities.
”I hate them mother------- for not letting me drive the G-- damn boat. That mother------ needs to rot in f------ prison. He ain’t going to get in no f------ trouble. Bo, you f------ smiling like that like it’s f------ funny.· My f------ girlfriend’s gone, Bo. You think you’re f------ funny? I hope you rot in f------ hell.”
When read the quote in court, Keener said he didn’t remember exactly what Anthony Cook said but agreed he was “hot” with anger.
▪ A lead investigator was removed from the case: DNR officer Michael Brock, who was referred to as the “point man” in the investigation at one time, was taken off the case because of his ties with the Murdaugh family. In his deposition, he said he had gone to the Murdaughs’ river home once, twice, or three times.
At one point, Beach’s attorney asks Brock: “You can see how people — given the fact that you were removed from the case — do you see the conflict, how that doesn’t look good?”
“Sure,” was Brock’s response.
▪ Another investigator says he likely would have done some things differently: Sgt. John Keener, of the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, who assisted at the crash scene, says he did not try to collect evidence, despite being at the scene before the lead investigating agency, DNR, arrived. Beach’s attorney asked Keener why he didn’t take any evidence, such as the cell phone of one of the suspected drivers. Would he do that today, he asked?
“Looking back now, hindsight is 20/20, sir,” Keener said. “There’s a lot of things I would have done differently probably....”
▪ An interview with one of the boaters: During an interview at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston before surgery for the jaw injury he suffered in the crash, Connor Cook told a DNR officer he remembered where everyone was sitting in the boat ahead of the crash. But he said he didn’t know who was driving before or during the collision.
Cook said he was standing to the right side of the console, while Murdaugh was standing to the left. Their girlfriends were sitting on the seat in front of the middle console, while Mallory Beach and Anthony Cook, Connor’s cousin, sat on the helm seat from the stern of the boat.
▪ What the Murdaughs did at the hospital after the crash: The DNR officer who was interviewing Paul Murdaugh when his father, Alex Murdaugh, and grandfather, Randolph Murdaugh III, arrived was told to stop the interview. The elder Murdaughs told the officer Paul was not saying anything else. When the officer told them he was talking to Paul, one of them responded, “No. You’re talking to us now.”
Another officer said a nurse told him she saw Alex Murdaugh going into other boaters’ rooms at the hospital to speak with them and their families. At one point, according to the depositions, the nurse said she overheard Alex Murdaugh tell Connor Cook “they were going to figure everything out.” She also said he told a different investigator that his son Paul Murdaugh wouldn’t be giving a statement because he was intoxicated.
This story was originally published July 8, 2021 at 8:26 AM with the headline "6 things to know from new court documents filed on the 2019 deadly Beaufort boat crash."
