Mallory Beach, 19, who died after being thrown from the boat due to Paul Murdaugh's erratic driving, according to sworn testimony.
Nearly two months after Paul Murdaugh and his mom Maggie Murdaugh were fatally shot in front of their South Carolina home in a brutal double-homicide that remains unsolved, new illustrated video based on testimony documents has given new insight into the 2019 boating accident that ended with 19-year-old Mallory Beach’s death.
The video, illustrated by Hilton Head-based newspaper The Island Packet, gives a detailed look into where all six underaged people aboard the boat may have been sitting ahead of the boat crash in the early hours of Feb. 24, 2019. The illustration is based on recounts by three of the passengers, released by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR).
Paul, 20 years old at the time, had been sitting at the helm of the 17-foot Sea Hunt fishing boat, to drive it.
His girlfriend, Morgan Doughty, sat on a cooler seat just in front of the helm, next to her friend Miley Altman.
Miley’s boyfriend Connor Cook had been moving around the boat, mostly standing behind the center console.
Mallory and her boyfriend Anthony Cook, Connor’s cousin, were sitting at the stern, or back of the boat. Mallory had been in sitting his lap, and both were sitting on the deck of the boat due to Paul’s erratic driving, both Miley and Anthony said in their sworn statements. Anthony later said
The group intended to use the boat to travel to a friend’s party earlier in the evening, FITS News reported, citing the SCDNR documents. Paul was intoxicated while driving the boat, and “everybody” in the group had been urging Paul to let Anthony drive instead, FITS News reported.
Paul drove the boat for several minutes at speeds of up to 30 MPH before hitting pilings under a bridge at around 10 to 17 MPH and crashed.
“We all of a sudden were right in front of the bridge and it came out of nowhere,” Miley wrote in her statement, according to Island Packet. “Next thing I know, we are all screaming, and I checked on my friends and my best friend [Mallory] is missing. She’s gone.”
The crash threw Mallory from the boat. Her body was later found five miles from the crash site by divers after days of searching.
“[Paul] needs to rot in f***ing prison,” Mallory’s boyfriend Anthony said in a deposition, Island Packet reported. “He ain’t going to get in no f***ing trouble.”
At the time of Paul’s murder at the family’s Colleton County hunting lodge two months ago, he was facing three felony counts of boating under the influence charges concerning the accidental death of Mallory.
The prominent South Carolina family’s lineage in the town’s solicitor’s office dates back a century, and the family runs a well-known law firm in the area.
No suspects have been named in the double-homicide investigation.
