The woman who helped maintain disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh‘s sprawling South Carolina estate has shared how she knew her boss killed his wife and son – as he faces the possibility of a retrial.
Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson, the Murdaugh’s housekeeper who served as a key witness at Alex’s double homicide trial, details in her new book ‘Within the House of Murdaugh: Amid a Unique Friendship – Blanca and Maggie’ how she had served the family since 2007 and became very close with Alex’s wife, Maggie, over the years.
It was due to that close relationship that Simpson said she knew something was wrong as soon as she pulled up to the family’s 1,770-acre hunting estate on June 8, 2021 – just hours after Maggie, 52, and her son, Paul, 22, were shot to death outside of the kennels.
She told PEOPLE how Alex called her in a furor that morning, telling her that ‘they’re gone’ and asking her to clean the house at the Moselle estate because Maggie’s parents and others were on their way.
But when she arrived, Simpson said she noticed Maggie’s Mercedes SUV was parked on the right side of the house – something she had never done in all the time Simpson knew her.
When Simpson – a US Navy vet and former corrections officer – then found Maggie’s pajamas and underwear perfectly laid out on the laundry room floor, she knew something was wrong.
The housekeeper explained that her longtime friend never wore underwear to bed, and noted that Maggie’s purse, makeup bag and luggage were still inside her SUV.
‘I knew automatically that wasn’t her,’ Simpson wrote in the book co-authored by Mary Frances Weaver.
Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson, the Murdaugh’s housekeeper who served as a key witness at Alex’s double homicide trial, has shared how she knew her boss killed his wife and son
Alex Murdaugh was convicted of double homicide in March 2023
Prosecutors laid out how Alex (right) killed his wife, Maggie, 52 (second from left) and son Paul, 22 (second from right) as he struggled with financial issues
It was just the beginning of her realization that Alex may be responsible for his wife and son’s death.
The ‘aha’ moment, she said, finally came when she was watching the disgraced lawyer’s six-week televised trial from her home and saw police body camera footage of a beach towel lying in Alex’s Suburban.
Simpson had washed that same towel the day of Maggie and Paul’s untimely deaths, and placed it high on a shelf in the laundry room.
‘I looked at the towel and I said, “Oh my God, he did it,”‘ Simpson recounted in her book.
Alex, though, had claimed he was sleeping in the main house in Moselle when Maggie and Paul were shot dead.
He told officers that he went to his parents’ house to check on his father, Randolph Murdaugh, 81, who died three days later, and when he returned to the house shortly after 10pm, he found the bodies – at which point he called 911.
But after seeing the towel in Alex’s vehicle, Simpson said she believes he used the towel to clean up the crime scene.
She posited that it may have had DNA evidence on it, but it vanished after the night of the murders.
Simpson details in her new book ‘Within the House of Murdaugh: Amid a Unique Friendship – Blanca and Maggie’ how she had served the family since 2007 and became very close with Maggie over the years
It remains unclear exactly what happened to Maggie and Paul, but Simpson argues in her book that the wealthy family’s happy and carefree existence was threatened when Paul drunkenly crashed his boat in 2021, killing 19-year-old Mallory Beach.
Alex had already been stealing millions from his law firm and clients at the time – something he had admitted to in court – and was facing multimillion dollar wrongful death suits.
At that point, Simpson said her boss turned to drugs.
‘The secrets he carried got to be too much,’ she wrote, in line with prosecutors’ arguments that Alex killed Maggie and Paul to distract from the financial crimes and drug addiction.
Simpson also speculates in her book – which includes an open letter to the convicted killer in the epilogue – that he worked with an accomplice, who helped him clean up, move Maggie’s SUV back to the house and stage the crime scene by leaving Maggie’s pajamas and underwear on the floor.
‘In the end, the Murdaugh name meant more,’ Simpson argued. ‘Maggie and Paul were just collateral.’
Alex, though, has consistently argued that he loved his family as he is innocent of their murders.
He is now appealing his March 2023 conviction, as he continues to serve two consecutive life sentences.
Alex Murdaugh is now appealing his conviction, as he continues to serve two life sentences
He has consistently argued that he loved his family as he is innocent of their murders
Both his defense attorneys and state prosecutors have now filed their final briefs in the appeal, Greenville News reports.
In its 178-page filing, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office argues that the disgraced lawyer was convicted because he was ‘obviously guilty,’ citing ‘overwhelming evidence of guilt,’ including cellphone footage that puts Murdaugh at the crime scene minutes before police believe his wife and son were shot.
Alex’s defense team, though, presented several arguments in their own legal filing as to why their client deserves a new trial, ranging from accusations of jury tampering and shoddy police work to prosecutorial failures such as improperly admitted evidence.
Much of their appeal revolves around the alleged actions of former Colleton County Court Clerk Becky Hill, who is accused of making improper statements to the jury so that she could write a book about the case.
Her statements influenced at least one member of the jury to vote guilty and thereby compromised the integrity of the trial, Murdaugh’s attorneys argue, despite a January 2024 hearing in which former South Carolina Chief Justice Jean Toal ruled that Murdaugh was not entitled to a new trial.
Murdaugh’s attorneys cite former Colleton County court clerk Becky Hill’s (pictured) alleged statements to his jury as a reason he deserves a retrial
‘Alex Murdaugh’s conviction represents a fundamental breakdown of the American criminal justice system’s most basic protections,’ his attorneys wrote in the filing.
‘This case was not built on the “overwhelming evidence of guilt” the State claims, but on a foundation of investigative malpractice, prosecutorial misconduct and corruption by an elected official that denied Murdaugh his constitutional right to a fair trial.’
The South Carolina State Supreme Court must now determine whether to schedule and hear oral arguments in the case.
