Alex Murdaugh’s elderly mother Libby dies at home aged 85 – three years after being used his alibi in murders of wife and son
- Libby Murdaugh was in hospice care Tuesday when she died
Alex Murdaugh’s elderly mother, Elizabeth “Libby” Murdaugh, has died at the age of 85 – three years after the disgraced lawyer tried to use her as an alibi in the murders of his wife and son.
Libby was in hospice care Tuesday when she died, according to Peeples-Rhoden Funeral Home in Hampton County. She is survived by her sons Alex, Randy and John Marvin, as well as her daughter Lynn.
The former librarian and teacher had been in declining health for years due to dementia. Her health did not allow her to testify against her son at the trial last year.
Alex had just visited her in June 2021 when he returned to his house about 11 miles away and made a 911 call claiming he found Maggie and Paul shot dead outside.
A jury decided last year that he drove to his mother’s house after killing his wife and son to establish an alibi.
Alex Murdaugh’s elderly mother, Elizabeth ‘Libby’ Murdaugh, has died at the age of 85
The disgraced lawyer tried to use his late mother Libby as an alibi in the murder of his wife and son. He is pictured with his wife Maggie and their two sons Paul (left) and Buster
Shelly Smith, Libby’s carer, told how jurors found Alex did not spend as much time at his mother’s house as he had claimed on the night of the murders
Cell phone records showed that Alex was telling the truth about where he was going, although he seemed to overestimate the time he spent there.
But a video taken by Paul just minutes before he and his mother were shot dead showed Alex was with them.
She was married to former attorney Randolph Murdaugh III for 60 years.
The elected prosecutor, along with his father and grandfather, oversaw criminal cases in Hampton County and surrounding areas for nearly nine decades.
The night of the murders, Randolph Murdaugh III was in the hospital. He died three days later.
Alex is serving two life sentences after being convicted of two murders after prosecutors convinced a jury he had enough time to kill Maggie and Paul, clean up evidence and get to his mother’s house and back.
Shelley Smith, who cared for the elderly Murdaughs in their home for four years, testified during the murder trial that they were wonderful people and just like her own family.
Alex is serving two life sentences after being convicted of two murders
Murdaugh’s fall from his role as lawyer in charge of his small county and sentence of life in prison without parole has been widely discussed
However, she testified that Alex did not spend as much time at his mother’s house as he had claimed on the night of the murders. Moreover, according to the care provider, he was ‘restless’ during the short visit and occasionally checked his phone.
Shelley wept on the stand as she described how he showed up at his parents’ house three days later and pointedly told her he was with his mother for 30 to 40 minutes the night of the murders.
She said this made her “nervous” as she remembered he had only been there for fifteen to twenty minutes. She was so concerned about the contradiction that she later told her police officer brother about the conversation.
In January, Alex was denied a new trial after his defense team accused a clerk of jury tampering.
Judge Jean Toal said she was unsure whether Colleton County Clerk Becky Hill was telling the truth. She never spoke to jurors about the case, saying she was “drawn by the siren call of celebrity.”
But Toal said the 12 jurors who testified all said any comments had no direct impact on their decision to find Murdaugh guilty.
Murdaugh’s fall from his role as lawyer in charge of his small county to a sentence of life without parole has been widely discussed on true crime shows, podcasts and bloggers.