The missing rifle Alex Murdaugh bought for his son Paul could be a MURDER GUN

A missing rifle Alex Murdaugh bought for his son Paul could be the murder weapon, as an expert told jury the markings on the ammunition used to kill Maggie are identical to those on other projectiles found at the hunting lodge in the family.

Paul Greer, a weapons expert with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), told a jury Friday that the .300 Blackout casings discovered near Maggie’s body came from the same firearm that the projectiles found outside the gun room of the house, in a field and in the shooting range.

Prosecutors say Murdaugh killed Paul, 22, and Maggie, 52, in the kennels on the family’s Lowcountry, South Carolina, estate on the night of June 7, 2021.

Paul was shot twice with a shotgun, while Maggie was shot five times with an assault rifle loaded with .300 Blackout.

Neither of the two murder weapons has ever been identified. However, jurors have heard of two .300 Blackout rifles owned by the Murdaughs that are missing.

Greer said that the projectiles found around Maggie and in other parts of the property had been “loaded, extracted, and ejected from the same firearm at some point in the past.”

The defense attacked Greer’s evidence, arguing that it was impossible to know if the casings had been fired from the same gun without it being recovered.

Defense attorney Jim Griffin claimed that two different .300 Blackout rifles could leave the same marks on a shell.

Griffin quizzed Greer on whether every Blackout rifle in the world leaves its own tool mark on the casing it ejects.

The weapons expert did not respond directly, saying: “It’s hard to say,” but he stood by his conclusions.

When asked for an answer, he said he couldn’t say yes or no because he hadn’t seen all the .300 Blackout in the world.

He also conceded that the firing pin markings on the shells were inconclusive, but the chamber, extractor, and ejector markings did match.

The expert also testified about the two shotgun shells recovered from the feeding room where Paul was killed. He said these were fired from the same shotgun.

Murdaugh was holding a Benelli 12-gauge shotgun when police arrived on the night of the murders; he said to take cover in case the shooters were still around.

Greer said the shells loaded into that weapon were consistent “in construction and head stamp information” with spent shells found near Paul.

But Greer’s findings were inconclusive as to whether this weapon or another similar weapon fired the projectiles.

Jurors heard earlier this week that Murdaugh bought two .300 Blackout rifles as Christmas gifts for his two sons Buster and Paul in 2016. Paul lost his gun and bought himself a replacement rifle, a third .300 Blackout, in April 2018.

Murdaugh’s firearms-dealing cousin, John Bedingfield, said Murdaugh paid $9,188 for the two original .300 Blackout rifles. Each was equipped with a thermal sight and suppressor.

The replacement rifle he bought two years later cost him $875, because it was not equipped with the same accessories.

It was Maggie, Paul’s mother, who collected the weapons when they were ready.

Murdaugh told police that Paul had a tendency to have his belongings “hanging” everywhere, including his weapons.

“He would leave anything anywhere, and it was not uncommon for weapons to be lying around,” he told detectives on June 10, 2021, three days after the murders.

On the night of the murders, Maggie was found face down after being shot five times, according to a report by forensic expert Kenneth Kinsey.

He suggested that three of the shots struck her while she was standing.

Two of the shots would have been instantly fatal, puncturing his brain. One of those shots went through her left breast, the other was fired into the back of her head.

One of those bullets struck her as she ‘supported herself on her knees and…her right hand with her shoulders and head down’.

Paul was also found face down. He was first shot in the chest from ‘several feet away’, leaving him on his feet and heading towards a door, before a second shot to the neck and shoulder blew out his brain.

The brain was severed and exited from the right anatomical side of (his) head. … The brain was completely detached from (his) head from him,” Kinsey said.

Prosecutors are still making their case, which includes a video they say shows Murdaugh at the crime scene moments before the couple were shot to death.

He denies the murders and says that he was visiting his elderly mother at the time of the murders.

Earlier this week, the jury was shown a video taken by Paul at the kennels at 8:44pm in which two witnesses told the jury that they can hear the voice of Alex and Maggie.

All activity on Maggie’s and Paul’s cell phones suddenly stopped at 8:49 p.m., at which point the prosecution says they were killed.

Murdaugh claims that the last time he saw his wife and son was when they had dinner together around 8:15 p.m.

He said he fell asleep in front of the TV while Maggie and Paul went down to the kennels.

The alleged killer said he tried to call Maggie before going to visit his mother, who is in the last stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Call logs show Murdaugh tried to call Maggie three times between 9:04 pm and 9:06 pm She didn’t answer.

He started his Chevrolet Suburban at 9:06 p.m. and texted Maggie that he would be right back and check on his mother, who lives about 15 minutes away.

Murdaugh called his wife two more times, apparently on his way home, at 9:45 pm and 10:03 pm She did not answer.

Waters told jurors last week that “it’s up to you to decide if he’s trying to create an alibi.”

Murdaugh claims that when he returned to the house, he found Maggie and Paul dead in the kennels. She called 911 at 10:07 p.m.