Pathologist at Murdaugh’s trial rejects claim shotgun was touching back of son’s head

A forensic pathologist in the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial today rejected the defense’s claim that a shotgun used to execute his son was touching his head because the explosion would have “blew open his face”.

Dr. Ellen Riemer said that if the 12-gauge shotgun had been pressed against the back of Paul’s head, the damage would have been so catastrophic that his eyes would have bulged out.

She said the entry wound was below the 22-year-old’s left ear and the pellets exited the back of his head.

This contradicts the theory of defense pathologist Timothy Palmbach, who claimed that the barrel of the shotgun was in direct contact with the back of Paul’s head when the blast was fired. Riemer said that if this were true, Paul “would not have had a face for it”.

She told the jury: “I know what you saw was absolutely horrible, but the damage would have been so much worse.” The sides of her head would have gone, her whole face would have been split open, because there’s no way that all that gas expansion happened and didn’t cause fractures of these delicate bones in the face, her forehead was still over there.

Paul, Maggie and Buster Murdaugh on a family vacation. Buster was staying with his girlfriend outside of Charlotte at the time of the murders.

Jurors at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro were shown images of Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, showing the injuries they sustained at the family’s hunting lodge in Moselle, South Carolina, the night of June 7, 2021.

The state says Murdaugh first shot his son twice with a shotgun before turning a Blackout .300 assault rifle on his wife of 27 years, firing five rounds into her torso, wrist, torso and head.

But defense pathologist Palmbach told the jury yesterday that this was impossible because there must have been two shooters.

He said that Paul’s killer would have been incapacitated after shooting Paul in the back of the head at close range because he would have been blinded by blood and possibly even wounded by skull fragments and buckshot.

Palmbach explained that ‘the explosive release of gas trapped in [Paul’s] skull’ would have ejected blood, tissue, brain matter, skull fragments, and pellets through the entry wound, covering the shooter.

“I think the shooter is, at least for a brief period of time, out of his mind. It’s not like they can instantly suffer from that, run over to where the rifle is, pick it up, and within a reasonable amount of time, engage in an effective assault, shoot straight, and hit,” the pathologist said.

“I think the guy who fired first, probably with blood in his eyes and maybe even wounded, would have needed some time to recover.”

But Riemer said Palmbach’s theory, which was based on photos taken while she was performing the actual autopsy, made no sense because if the muzzle had been touching Paul’s head, his face would have been destroyed.

Maggie’s body was found a few meters to the right of a kennel, while Paul’s was by the door at the end of the kennels.

Maggie’s blood-soaked body lies under a sheet at a crime scene on the night of June 7, 2021. She was shot five times with an assault rifle, while Paul was shot twice with a shotgun a few feet away. away in the kennels of the farm.

Paul’s body was found dumped in the doorway of the feeding room at the end of the row of dog crates at the kennels.

MURDER SCENE: Paul’s body lies outside the storage room, while Maggie lies just outside the kennels by the doghouse.

He also said that the defense expert was using skin tags to test the direction of unreliable shots.

Riemer told the jury that despite the horrific injuries they had seen in the photos of Paul’s head (his brain was completely severed from his skull), these would have been much worse if the gun had been pressed against the back of his body. head.

“I understand that this was probably the most severe thing you’ve ever seen and you probably can’t imagine that the head damage could be worse,” the pathologist said.

“But a contact shotgun wound to the head with associated gas expansion to the skull wouldn’t let you know, his face was basically intact, we would have heard of skin tears, and his eyes would have been displaced from the orbital bones.” The orbital bones were intact.

Timothy Palmbach, a crime scene expert hired by the defense, told jurors the 22-year-old suffered a “contact wound” to the back of the head, meaning the barrel of the 12-gauge shotgun I was touching it.

Riemer was called to the stand as a rebuttal witness Tuesday after the defense rested its case on Monday.

Prosecutors are calling up to five witnesses today to rebut specific aspects of the defense argument.

After the witnesses’ answers, the jury will take an excursion to the family’s hunting ground in Moselle after the defense asked the judge to allow them to better understand the crime scene.

The jury will then be dispatched to reach their verdict. Murdaugh faces 30 years to life in prison for the murders.