Alex Murdaugh’s personal belongings were auctioned off on Thursday, only weeks after he was charged with the murders of his wife Maggie, and son Paul.
Many of the goods up for auction originate from Murdaugh’s South Carolina hunting camp, where he committed the terrible murders in June 2021, and include crates of spent shotgun shells and a hunting shirt with ‘Alex’ written inside the collar.
Furniture from the home, decoy ducks, ghastly lamps carved from turtle shells, and even a smiling ornamental skull is up for sale.
Liberty Auctions in Georgia is hosting the auction, and bidders must be present at the auction house’s warehouse to participate. The bidding started at 4 p.m.
Murdaugh was sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the murders following a month-long trial that captivated the nation’s attention.
Inside the warehouse where the auction was placed, pictures showed rows of things set out over long tables as potential buyers looked through the antiques that formerly occupied the wealthy southern family’s huge country estate.
The auction comes almost a year after the $3.9 million house where the Murdaughs resided – and were killed – was placed for sale.
According to Fox Carolina, the Moselle estate was sold for $2.6 million on Wednesday after being on the market for a year, with the funds purportedly going towards Alex Murdaugh’s outstanding legal expenses, Palmetto State Bank, Buster Murdaugh, and victims of the tragic 2019 boat tragedy.
After purchasing the property, the new owners, James Ayer, and Jeffrey Godley planned to empty it out and auction off all of its possessions.
Prospective bidders searched through a range of past items from within the auction room, where long tables were packed with deer antlers, mounted turtle shells, beautiful dishes, and Christmas nativity scene miniatures.
Lamps imprinted with turtle shells went for $800, a Yeti tumbler for $400, and mounted long horns with a $10,000 price tag were among the most pricey goods for sale.
The first item auctioned off was an animal trap for $500, which was quickly followed by a pair of rocking chairs for $850 and a sofa from the family estate for $30,000 following a heated bidding battle.
In addition to Murdaugh’s own camouflaged clothing, there were multiple pairs of hunting boots in the inventory, as well as a hat with a South Carolina Highway Patrol baseball cap.
On top of the shotgun shells, there were boxes of unused rifle rounds for sale, as well as a hunting crossbow, rifle sights, and what seemed to be a rifle or shotgun case.
Erin Craig told DailyMail.com that after acquiring Maggie Murdaugh’s bike, he planned to exhibit it in a shop because ‘it would serve its purpose best where people can look at it rather than it going to somebody’s garden.’
Craig also said that he spent more than $3,000 on goods from the Murdaugh auction, including an American flag, some Richard Alexander Murdaugh monogrammed glasses, and one of Paul Murdaugh’s wallets.
The auctioned furniture included leather sofas and armchairs, as well as several wooden tables, bureaus, bedframes, bookcases, and lamps.
There were also cameras, thermoses, tools and toolboxes, a set of Grinch-themed salt and pepper shakers, flashlights, and other household items.
Hundreds of people could be seen rummaging through the artifacts that previously occupied the Murdaugh mansion before the auction began.
Following the recent purchase of the home, Liberty Auction owner Lori Mattingly told CNN that clearing up the mansion was “just like any other job.”
‘Their goods are no better or prettier than anything else we pick up from other people’s houses,’ Mattingly said.
‘We visit a lot of extremely gorgeous and costly residences. And we’ve had far finer things than they have, yet they have beautiful things.’
Murdaugh is presently being held in the high-security Kirkland Correctional Institution, which is one of South Carolina’s most notorious prisons.
While the disgraced former lawyer avoided the death penalty for the murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul, prosecutors recently revealed that they are seeking a third life sentence conviction for financial crimes, which would mean Murdaugh would be imprisoned for the rest of his life under the state’s ‘three strikes law.
He is now fighting his murder convictions, but the state is requesting three further convictions for breach of trust totaling $10,000 or more.
Three further convictions on the breach of trust counts would result in a life sentence without the possibility of release.
Murdaugh’s trial spanned six weeks and included more than 75 witnesses, but the 54-year-old was found guilty of murdering his wife and son by a jury in less than three hours.
Prosecutors claimed Murdaugh murdered the couple to deflect attention away from financial crimes that were soon to be revealed, such as the millions of dollars he stole from his law company and its customers.
The lying grandfather spoke on his behalf, crying as he described his debilitating opioid addiction and how his love for Maggie and Paul meant he could never hurt them.
However, jurors decided in 45 minutes that the discredited lawyer was guilty of murdering his own family, giving him two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of release.
Murdaugh contacted 911 on the evening of June 7, 2021, reporting that he discovered his son and wife dead after he got home following a one-hour visit with his dementia-stricken mother.
According to authorities, Paul was shot twice with a shotgun, each round loaded with a different size shot, while Maggie was hit with four or five rounds from a rifle.
According to the crime scene report, both victims were shot in the head after being injured near dog kennels on the Murdaughs’ extensive rural property.
Prosecutors waited more than a year to charge the discredited lawyer with murder, but they opted against seeking the death sentence. Murdaugh, who is also facing over 100 charges of financial and other offenses, has categorically denied any role in the deaths.
Murdaugh faced up to 30 years in prison, but the court handed him the maximum sentence: two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of release.
Following the trial, several jurors said that the major piece of evidence in convicting the lawyer was a video filmed on his son Paul’s smartphone minutes before the murders at the kennels near where the corpses were discovered.
The film contains the voices of all three Murdaughs, even though Alex Murdaugh had maintained for 20 months that he had not been at the kennels that night.
When he took the stand in his defense, he admitted lying to authorities about being at the kennels, claiming he was afraid of law enforcement because he was addicted to opioids and had pills in his pocket the night of the deaths.
Jurors claimed Murdaugh’s evidence merely confirmed what they already suspected: that he easily lied and could switch on and off his emotions at a whim.
Murdaugh’s appeal was filed with the South Carolina Court of Appeals by attorney Dick Harpootlian.
Prosecutors lacked the weapons used to murder the Murdaughs, as well as other tangible evidence such as confessions or blood splatter.
They did, however, have a mass of circumstantial evidence, including a video that placed Murdaugh near the site of the murders five minutes before his wife and son ceased using their smartphones for good.
Jurors heard about betrayed friends and clients, Murdaugh’s failed attempt to stage his death in an insurance fraud scheme, a fatal boat crash in which his son was involved, the housekeeper who died in a fall in the Murdaugh home, and the grisly scene of the killings from more than 75 witnesses and nearly 800 pieces of evidence.
The now-disbarred attorney confessed to stealing millions of dollars from the family company and clients, claiming the money was required to sustain his drug habit. Murdaugh was in prison awaiting trial on nearly 100 other counts ranging from insurance fraud to tax evasion when he was charged with murder.
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