Alex Murdaugh Brother Testifies About Murders And Clean Up

On June 7, 2021, John Marvin Murdaugh talked on the phone to his brother, Alex Murdaugh, and he’d sounded completely normal. Later that night, Alex called again, sounding “absolutely hysterical,” John Marvin testified at his murder trial. 

“As soon as I heard his voice, I knew something bad was going on,” he said.

John Marvin described the phone call in which he learned that Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, his nephew and sister-in-law, had been killed as he testified on Monday as a witness for Alex’s defense. They rested their case Monday evening, with John Marvin serving as the final defense witness to testify in the weekslong South Carolina trial, where his older brother stands accused of the June 2021 murder of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul. 

In his testimony, John Marvin painted a picture of a happy, all-American, “normal” family who hosted tailgates, went to country music concerts, and vacationed together. Alex was “very close” with his sons and had a “great relationship” with his wife, John Marvin said.

“I mean, all marriages have hiccups here and there, but I’m telling you it was a good marriage,” John Marvin said. Though he did not expand upon what those “hiccups” were, the family’s housekeeper, Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson, previously suggested in her testimony that Alex and Maggie might have been having marital problems shortly before the murders.