'I felt like I owed him': Alex Murdaugh weeps as brother John Marvin says he cleaned up nephew Paul's brain and skull
WALTERBORO, SOUTH CAROLINA: Alex Murdaugh's brother John Marvin Murdaugh detailed how he cleaned up slain nephew Paul's brains the day after the murders because "it felt like the right thing to do, I felt like I owed him." The accused killer's younger brother said he returned to the estate with police permission on the night after Alex's wife and son were shot dead.
He said the grass where Maggie's blood-soaked lifeless body had lain was covered with dirt "so there was really nothing to do." But Paul who was shot twice with the gun was found in the feed room at the kennels, still covered in blood and brain matter.
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John Marvin Murdaugh details the incident
While sobbing, John described the horrifying scene. "I saw blood, I saw brains, I saw pieces of skull, I saw tissue - and when I say brains it could just be tissue - I don't know what I saw, it was just terrible," he told the jurors, according to Daily Mail. "And for some reason, I thought it was something that I needed to do for Paul to clean it up. It felt like it was the right thing to do, I felt like I owed him and I started cleaning. I can promise you no mother or father or aunt or uncle should ever have to do and see what I did that day. I'm not blaming anybody but I was just overwhelmed and I did everything I could and I would have moments where I would stop crying for a moment, just in disbelief."
As John described the nightmare, Alex wept at the defense table. "At one point I called my brother Randy and told him what I was doing and he immediately told me to stop doing it, it was not good for me and it was not healthy for me to be there," said John. "And I couldn't stop. I had to do it for Paul. It's just what I had to do. It was probably 15 or 20 minutes later, Mark Ball (a close family friend) shows up, y'all heard Mark Ball testify and came and hugged me and told me it was okay to leave. Okay to leave what was rest of Paul and that they would clean it up," he added, He also went on to say, "It's the hardest thing I've ever been through in my life."
"I had to do it for Paul." #AlexMurdaugh's brother John Marvin Murdaugh breaks down testifying about cleaning the crime scene after #PaulMurdaugh & #MaggieMurdaugh’s murders.
— Court TV (@CourtTV) February 27, 2023
He said the scene had been cleared by police but not cleaned.#CourtTV #MurdaughTrial pic.twitter.com/UMjRYwQI6N
John previously described his brother's relationship with his sons, saying that "the boys always came first" and that Maggie and Alex had a "good marriage." "Excuse me I'm gonna have a hard time speaking about Paul because we had a very special relationship", the heartbroken brother apologized to the jurors. He said that Paul, who was nicknamed "Little Rooster" worked at his construction vehicle rental company in the summers.
"That boy would work and whatever was asked of him he would do ... He was an excellent worker," John Marvin said as Murdaugh grew emotional. The court was informed that Paul and his older brother Buster "always came first" for Alex. Buster was reportedly staying with his girlfriend near Charlotte the night of the killings.
John Marvin Murdaugh detailed how his brother, #AlexMurdaugh, had "uncontrollable diarrhea" while driving to a detox center in Atlanta. "He messed himself," he said. pic.twitter.com/VaTL5kbUnV
— Law&Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) February 27, 2023
"It was a great relationship anything that the boys were doing Alex wanted to do, and the boys always came first for him," he said. "To this day I don't believe has ever come hunting with me without his boys, since they've been old enough to hunt," he added.
Alex's relationship with Maggie
John Marvin, while describing Alex's relationship with Maggie, said they had a "great relationship. All marriages have hiccups here and there but I'm telling you it was a good marriage." He recalled an incident when he and his wife, Liz and Maggie, and Alex attended a Darius Rucker concert. John said he looked down and they were "holding hands and swaying together and [Liz] said 'Why aren't you holding my hand?' So my beer got put down."
He also claimed that Alex called him the night he killed his wife and son. "Alex called me absolutely hysterical. As soon as I heard his voice I knew something bad was going on," John Marvin said. "I think he said Maggie and Paul had been hurt really badly and said can you come here as fast as possible." He said that he ran over to his brother when he arrived at the hunting estate in Moselle, South Carolina. "He was just broken, he was distraught. All we did was hugged and cried. I don't even know that we talked," John said. He said that he spent a lot of time with his brother following the tragedy.