SLED file details 3 boaters’ intoxication levels at time of crash, how Murdaugh got ID
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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 Aug. 16, 2021.
Three of the six occupants of the boat that crashed near Parris Island in 2019, killing one, were legally intoxicated, according to the S.C. Law Enforcement Division’s investigative files, released Friday. The files also detailed how 20-year-old Paul Murdaugh, accused of driving the boat, obtained an over-21 ID to purchase alcohol weeks before the crash.
Mallory Beach, 19, who died in the crash, had a blood-alcohol content of .155 at the time of her death. The crash on Archer’s Creek resulted in Murdaugh being charged with three counts of felony boating under the influence, charges which were recently dismissed after Murdaugh and his mother were found shot to death in June.
Several law enforcement agencies were involved in the investigation. The S.C. Department of Natural Resources led the investigation into the crash, but four days later the agency requested that SLED investigate whether alcohol was a contributing factor. SLED’s deputy general counsel, Paul Ahearn, wrote recently that the agency provided only forensic assistance in the case.
SLED’s investigative files, obtained through a public records request by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette, largely repeats information from DNR’s investigation but offers some new details including how four of the passengers refused to meet with investigators twice in the weeks after the crash.
Three boaters’ BAC
Hours after the crash, blood was drawn from Murdaugh and Connor Cook, whose blood-alcohol content (BAC) levels were .24 and .17 respectively, according SLED’s notes on the medical records and previous reporting.
Murdaugh’s nurse later told a SLED agent he was “grossly intoxicated and told her he had been drinking and doing drugs all night long.”
Connor Cook’s nurse said he smelled of alcohol and admitted to drinking.
The three other survivors of the crash were not tested for blood-alcohol levels. An attending physician at the hospital later told SLED agents that “a blood draw was not medically necessary” for Miley Altman or Morgan Doughty. Anthony Cook was still at the scene of the crash and not at the hospital when the others had their blood drawn.
A toxicology report from NMS Labs showed Beach’s BAC at the time of her death was .155.
Murdaugh’s over-21 ID
Murdaugh and Connor Cook were the only ones on the boat with over-21 IDs, according to one boater.
After a night of drinking at the Murdaughs’ home on Chechessee Creek and at an oyster roast on Paukie Island, the boaters stopped at downtown Beaufort’s docks so Murdaugh and Connor Cook could continue drinking at Luther’s Rare & Well Done.
Doughty told DNR agents that she, Altman, Beach and Anthony Cook didn’t go into Luther’s because they didn’t have fake IDs.
A bouncer checked Murdaugh’s and Cook’s IDs, which allowed them into the bar.
A Luther’s bartender later told DNR officers “Murdaugh asked if she would let their underage friends in, which she refused.”
It’s unclear where Connor Cook obtained his ID, but Doughty told agents Murdaugh got the one he used from his brother.
More than a month after the crash, Doughty told investigators she went with Murdaugh — her boyfriend at the time — on Feb. 8, 2019, to meet his brother Alexander “Buster” Murdaugh at the Thomas Cooper Library on the University of South Carolina’s campus in Columbia. She said the reason for the trip was so Murdaugh could get his brother’s ID. “This was not the first time the brothers had done this,” she said.
Buster Murdaugh, she said, would give his younger brother his over-21 ID to purchase alcohol and would in turn use his passport if he needed an ID.
Missed interviews and search warrants
At 10:45 a.m. on March 6, 2019, two DNR investigators and a SLED agent met at the scene of the crash to discuss the accident and conduct further interviews with the Cook cousins, Doughty and Altman. Almost two hours later, they reached Doughty by phone, and she said the group wouldn’t be coming.
They rescheduled for two days later. Again, none of the boat passengers showed up for the interviews.
At that time, one of the DNR officers reached Anthony Cook, who said Connor Cook told him he was not driving the boat. He then said that once he provided a written statement, “he did not want anything more to do with the investigation,” the file says.
SLED obtained multiple videos, including from Beaufort’s day dock, showing the group’s arrival and departure from the downtown area; from Parker’s 55 showing Murdaugh purchasing alcohol; and at Luther’s, where Murdaugh and Connor Cook entered, bought two shots each, then left.
SLED also obtained search warrants for the social media accounts of all the boat occupants. They received records from Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat but “nothing of evidentiary value ... was discovered.”
They also had search warrants for Beach’s phone and smartwatch but were unable to obtain any information because both devices were damaged from water.
This story was originally published August 16, 2021 at 3:31 PM with the headline "SLED file details 3 boaters’ intoxication levels at time of crash, how Murdaugh got ID."
