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by WILL FOLKS
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Heading into last week’s big status conference for accused killer Alex Murdaugh‘s impending retrial, we knew ahead of time most of the subject matter that would be discussed in open court.
Debates over venue, DNA evidence, polygraph results and the admissibility of testimony from Murdaugh’s internationally watched first trial dominated the proceeding. But as noted in a special edition of our Week in Review, defense attorneys dropped an unexpected bombshell on these proceedings.
To recap: Murdaugh is once again facing two counts of murder and two weapons charges tied to the graphic slayings of his wife, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh, and their younger son – 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh. Those murders took place on the evening of June 7, 2021 at the family’s Moselle hunting property in Colleton County, South Carolina.
The weapons used in the murders have never been recovered…
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Unpacking a shocking revelation made during Alex Murdaugh’s recent retrial status conference ??https://t.co/CnVkDkYUZ7 pic.twitter.com/Dv4hYtEsME
— FITSNews (@fitsnews) August 18, 2026
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Murdaugh was convicted of both murders in March of 2023, but those convictions were unanimously overturned by the South Carolina supreme court in May after justices concluded former Colleton County clerk of court Rebecca “Becky” Hill put her “fingers on the scales of justice” when she improperly inserted herself into the jury’s deliberative process.
Murdaugh’s lawyers have repeatedly pointed to other parties as being potentially responsible for the double homicide, and last week those theories appeared to finally have some basis in reality.
During a discussion about prosecutors’ ongoing discovery obligations ahead of Murdaugh’s retrial, defense attorney Jim Griffin told S.C. circuit court judge Debra McCaslin that he had seen a FITSNews report on a recent murder in Allendale County rumored to tie back to weapons associated with the Murdaugh case.
“There was a recent murder, we believe, in Allendale County,” Griffin told McCaslin. “It has come out of that investigation – and what has been leaked to the press – is that Murdaugh murder weapons were connected to the Allendale County murder.”
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“We would like to know, were Murdaugh murder weapons connected to this Allendale murder?” Griffin asked, arguing his client was entitled to information about any subsequent analysis of cartridge cases recovered in that investigation.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters seemed genuinely surprised by Griffin’s assertion.
“That’s the first I’ve heard of that,” Waters told McCaslin, adding he would be “flabbergasted” if SLED had developed such information without notifying prosecutors.
McCaslin was similarly shocked by the revelation.
“You’ve certainly raised my eyebrows,” she told Griffin.
A short time later, Waters told the court he had received information from SLED’s general counsel confirming .300 Blackout ammunition had been used in the Allendale homicide – but insisted the agency had run the evidence through the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) and found “no leads or hits on the Blackout that was used in the Allendale shooting.”
SLED subsequently issued a statement claiming .300 Blackout cartridge cases from the Allendale homicide were “triaged” with NIBIN on August 13, 2026 – the day before the hearing – and “no investigative leads were developed to any previously entered evidence.”
Those definitive-sounding statements raised as many questions as they answered, however…
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THE ALLENDALE MURDER
For the past few weeks, FITSNews has been investigating the April 25, 2026 murder of Frank Alexander Brown III in Allendale, S.C.
According to his obituary, Brown was from Islandton, S.C. — a tiny Colleton County community where the Murdaugh family’s Moselle hunting property was located. In fact, Brown’s last known address was his mother’s home on Dopson Road in Islandton – approximately 2.4 miles southeast of the Moselle dog kennels where Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were murdered (and just 1.25 miles northeast of where SLED conducted an extensive search for the missing murder weapons on June 16, 2021).
FITSNews was investigating Brown’s murder based not just on this convenient geography, but on information which suggested multiple connections between his case and other individuals who have surfaced during our years-long inquiry into the broader Murdaugh saga.
These inquiries included – but were not limited to – questions about the firearm used to kill Brown. During our previous Week in Review episode – which aired on August 8, 2026 – we let our viewers know we were investigating reports that a firearm potentially connected to the Murdaugh family had been used in a subsequent crime.
That report did not identify Brown – nor did it make any reference to Allendale County.
“We have not been able to validate a lot of it and I’m not sure if it’s even the gun,” FITSNews research director Jenn Wood cautioned.
As our investigation continued, FITSNews submitted a pair of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) – the lead investigative agency working both the Murdaugh Murders and the Allendale murder inquiries.
Those requests, submitted on the morning of August 12, 2026, were accompanied by a detailed list of questions related to the agency’s investigation into Brown’s murder…
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???? #Murdaugh
— FITSNews (@fitsnews) August 15, 2026
Regarding the "Allendale murder" referenced during today's Alex Murdaugh status conference, there is no "FITSNews reporting" on this crime because our inquiries are ongoing.
Our @TheWillFolks and @IndyJenn_ will share more details on tomorrow's 'Week in Review,'… pic.twitter.com/DF1xYc7n5x
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THE TIMING…
While SLED has not provided responses to our questions or acknowledged our FOIA requests, its statement from last week indicated spent .300 Blackout cartridge cases recovered from the scene of Brown’s execution-style homicide were “triaged and entered into (NIBIN)” last Thursday (August 13, 2026) – one day after our request was submitted.
That “triage” entry took place nearly four months after Brown was killed – but one day prior to the high-profile Murdaugh status conference.
Why did the agency wait so long to test the evidence? Was their “triage” entry prompted by the questions FITSNews submitted the previous day? Or by the looming hearing the following day?
Perhaps most significantly for the Murdaugh case: when was evidence from the June 7, 2021 murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh entered into NIBIN?
SLED has stated that submitting ballistic information to NIBIN is standard operating procedure in all of its cases involving firearms – and that the casings from the Murdaugh double homicide were previously uploaded to the system.
As of the publication of this report, however, the agency has not indicated when it uploaded this evidence.
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WHAT DOES “NO MATCH” ACTUALLY REVEAL?
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As discussed in our Week in Review report, lead Murdaugh attorney Dick Harpootlian was skeptical of SLED’s conclusions – reminding the court that David Owen, the lead agent on the murder investigation into his client, admitted under oath to misleading grand jurors on the initial probable cause affidavits leading to his indictment.
In fact, the dismissal of the original indictments against Murdaugh is the focus of another pending motion ahead of his retrial – as are proposed sanctions tied to the alleged fabrication of the blood spatter “evidence” used to obtain them (and used to convict Murdaugh in the court of public opinion).
Harpootlian pressed prosecutors for more definitive evidence.
“Did they pull the shell casings from the Murdaugh trial and compare them to the shell casings to this?” Harpootlian asked.
That’s an excellent question. Why would the lead investigative agency in both cases – the agency which retains custody of all of the evidence tied to both cases – rely on a computer-generated analysis from a national database when it could make a direct comparison?
The defense also sought specific documentation from prosecutors showing exactly what SLED submitted – and what comparisons were actually performed.
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SLED statement on the Allendale murder referenced in #Murdaugh hearing today… pic.twitter.com/abZ4EU6yO2
— FITSNews (@fitsnews) August 14, 2026
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“We want to see if they submitted it,” Harpootlian said. “What was the result? Is there a written result?”
That is a critical distinction. SLED’s statement did not say its firearms examiners physically compared the Allendale cartridge cases side-by-side with the .300 Blackout cases recovered at Moselle. It said the Allendale cases were entered into NIBIN and that the process generated no investigative leads tied to “previously entered evidence.”
For that result to meaningfully address a potential connection to the Murdaugh murders, evidence associated with the Murdaugh crime scene would need to have been available for comparison within the relevant system. If the relevant Murdaugh evidence was entered prior to August 13, 2026 the lack of a NIBIN lead from the Allendale submission would be significant evidence against a ballistic connection between the two cases.
If it was entered afterward — or if the relevant evidence was otherwise unavailable for comparison when the Allendale cases were searched — the August 13 result would tell us something very different.
It’s also unclear whether SLED ever obtained shell casings from a .300 Blackout belonging to Paul Murdaugh that was allegedly stolen four years before his murder. That gun went missing in the fall of 2017 and was replaced the following spring.
Could that have been the weapon used in the Allendale murder?
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WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE MURDAUGH CASINGS
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Like Paul Murdaugh’s stolen rifle, the .300 Blackout rifle used to kill Maggie Murdaugh has never been recovered. At Murdaugh’s first trial, however, SLED firearms examiner Paul Greer testified about comparisons between cartridge cases recovered around the Moselle property and those found near Maggie’s body.
Griffin summarized that evidence during Friday’s hearing, telling McCaslin the state’s firearms examiner had concluded extraction marks on .300 Blackout cases at the murder scene were consistent with cases recovered elsewhere at Moselle.
According to Griffin, the state’s original analysis was that the same firearm had ejected the cases found at the murder scene and those previously fired around the property.
In other words, investigators did not necessarily need to recover the missing rifle to have comparison evidence associated with it – because they had the cartridge cases.
That makes the chronology of the NIBIN submissions particularly relevant.
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A FOUR-MONTH GAP
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At this point, FITSNews has not uncovered any forensic evidence establishing a connection between the weapons used in these two crimes – and SLED’s August 13 NIBIN results weigh against one, assuming the appropriate Murdaugh evidence was already in the system and available for comparison.
But the absence of a confirmed ballistic connection does not resolve broader questions surrounding Brown’s murder – including a host of links to the criminal network surrounding Alex Murdaugh. Nor does it explain why cartridge cases from an April homicide apparently weren’t entered into NIBIN until August — immediately after a media outlet began asking SLED detailed questions about them.
More important than the evidence, though, is the true heart of this story — the man murdered in Allendale.
Our investigation into Brown’s background and associations has uncovered multiple connections to individuals and criminal activity already familiar to longtime followers of the Murdaugh saga.
Those connections do not prove his murder had anything to do with Murdaugh, Moselle or the missing weapons – but they are significant enough that we believe they warrant scrutiny.
And that is where this investigation will go next…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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SOUND OFF…
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7 comments
Will, you can continue to flail this nothing burger of a story but beating the dead horse won’t make him get up and trot.
Murdawk’s guns are in a deep pool or hole somewhere.
Here is an update:
Malicious Mandy Matney (“MMM”) reports that Mr. Harpootlian (and again, his name is as related to the Armenian Genocide as it would have been had been Jewish and his name had been Auschwitzer, for example. So, please respect the name, if not the man) wrote to Judge McCaslin that Richard Alexander Murdaugh’s (“RAM”) defense team now suggests Richland County instead of Charleston County.
Surprised that, if true, MMM would have scooped YOU, FITS, on something RAM-defense related, Mr. Harpootlian is making it hard for those of us who believe in RAM’s actual innocence to defend him if he leaks to MMM.
Or does MMM have a line to Judge McCaslin’s office?
This world of supposed journalism is so (let me spare the adjectives) to me that I give up on it.
What I will not give up on is Science. I had Botany in high school and my pre-med year. But I would abide by what a botanist says about what the vegetation in the photo of Maggie’s phone when and where found the morning after the shootings.
Was that phone thrown from above or placed by hand at the vegetation level?
Botany is increasingly used in forensic investigations. And an authoritative answer to this question, by a court expert called on the court’s own motion, will solve the case, increase public confidence in the judiciary, and save public funds, not to mention stimulate young people to study Botany and other Natural Sciences.
I call on Judge McCaslin to do so.
The purpose of SC’s Judicial Branch cannot, and should not, be to discredit Dr. Marie Faltas even when she is clearly correct.
The letter was sent via email to Judge McCaslin by attorney Dick Harpootlian yesterday, 08/17, and time stamped at 12:31pm by the Colleton County Clerk of Court Gary Hale. It’s not as if RAM’s defense team is leaking anything to MM nor was she reporting on it hours before the letter was even sent.
Krista, Top fan, thanks for the info.
On Colleton County’s Public Index it says “Filing/Other 08/17/2026 13:04” which is military for 1:04 pm and consistent with a reasonable interval between receipt of the email at 12:31 pm and its entry on the Public Index at 1:04 pm.
But how did MMM know what the letter said?
For some reason unknown to me documents in civil, but not criminal, cases are scanned into the public index. Knowing the public interest in this case, perhaps Judge McCaslin could order Colleton County’s new clerk of court to scan the Murdaugh documents into the public index unless the judge orders them sealed or deferred publication.
On the more substantive side, have you seen the photo of Maggie’s phone where and when found the morning after the shootings? If so, what does the vegetation tell you?
I first saw the photo recently on Anne Emmerson’s Criminally Obsessed and the vegetation covering half that phone immediately caught my attention.
Seriously again, what does photo tell you?
And again, thanks for the civilized response and God bless.
Question again…How is Harpootlian and Griffin’s search for the killer coming? Remember when they said they had people investigating looking into the real killer. Well we are waiting…
Just wait for the new DNA results and the ballistics on this new murder in Allendale.
Meanwhile, read the books written about the subject and learn how to extract truth from falsehoods.
Who knows what caused Mr. Harpootlian’s two unforced errors in one week alone?
That makes it necessarily for anyone who wants the truth to read this comment of mine on Nick Reagan’s show:
I hope you’re not one of those journalists already invested in Richard Alexander Murdaugh’s (“RAM”) being wrongfully convicted again; and I hope you have the same access as Anne Emmerson to the photo of Maggie’s phone where and when found the morning after the shootings.
I have no personal connections whatsoever to RAM himself and never knowingly met him or any member of his immediate or extended family. And I have no representation or any other business or personal relationship with any members of RAM’s defense team.
But I am a medical doctor who had Botany pre-med, a year-long course of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology in medical school (from which I graduated WITH HONORS) and later had specialized training in Pathology. I am also an Epidemiologist and Biostatistician, having my MPH from UNC-Chapel Hill. I speak four languages and am highly educated in the literatures of three of them.
Also and more crucially, thank God, WITHOUT A LAWYER, and in the court of none other than Judge Clifton Newman, did for myself what RAM’s entire defense team failed to do for him: prevent a jury from returning a wrongful conviction at the end of a 5-day trial by jury.
Later, again thank God and WITHOUT A LAWYER, I got another jurist to dismiss the false criminal charges against me (which, God forbade, could have gotten me 36 years) WITH PREJUDICE.
So, not only do I know what it is like to be falsely accused, I know most of the prosecutors who are falsely accusing RAM because they, their supervisors, and/or subordinates were the ones falsely accusing me and trying to frame me.
I also know their tactics, their motives, and their lack of remorse.
Having said all that, just take a look at the photo of Maggie’s phone: could a phone have threaded itself between the twigs above it and below it had it been thrown from above from a fast-moving car, or any car?
If you fair-mindedly assess my observation of that photo, you would AT LEAST give serious consideration to my inference: the DNA under Maggie’s left-hand fingernails is that of member of the shooting cabal which descended on Moselle as sun was setting at 8:30 pm on 7 June 2021, lay in waiting until RAM left in his car, then wrestled Maggie’s phone from her left hand to prevent her from using it to call for help, ran with it on foot far enough from Maggie’s reach but hid it by hand in the vegetation close enough for that member of the shooting cabal to return on foot and finish cleaning the scene after the shooting had been done.
Most other so-called journalists are making fools of themselves parroting prosecution theories and excuses.
Bluntly, the field of fools is so crowded there is no more room for one more RAM-hating book or forecast.
Will you be the one journalist who takes a fair and fresh look at everything and allow me to further explain my inferences of RAM’s innocence?