Murdaugh’s housekeeper says Alex pressured her to tell her he was wearing a different shirt

Alex Murdaugh has pressured his housekeeper to tell police he was wearing a different shirt on the night his wife and son were murdered, the court heard today.

Blanca Simpson told jurors Murdaugh told her about two months after Maggie and Paul were shot that he was wearing his Vineyard Vines shirt that night. The housekeeper was shocked because she remembered a different shirt.

“I don’t know what he was trying to tell me — if I should be asked — that was the shirt he was wearing,” Simpson told the court.

In a bombshell statement, she revealed that Murdaugh specifically requested that Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, be at the Hunting Lodge in Islandton, South Carolina on June 7, 2021. The housekeeper said that Maggie didn’t want to be part of the estate and that she left her wedding ring in her car.

She then went on to describe Maggie’s money scares — the defense yelled an objection and the jury was quickly dispatched as Simpson described how she cried when she confided the family was being sued for $30 million.

At the time of Maggie and Paul’s deaths, Alex and his son were defendants in a civil lawsuit alleging a fatal boating accident. Paul was drunk driving when 19-year-old Mallory Beach died in the wreck in February 2019.

Blanca Simpson testified that Alex told her to go to the house and clean up the day after Maggie and Paul were killed in the kennels on the Moselle, South Carolina estate on June 7, 2021.

According to a Snapchat sent by Paul at 7:46 p.m., Murdaugh wore a blue shirt, khaki pants and brown shoes on the night of the murders

Murdaugh was wearing a white T-shirt and shorts when police arrived and appeared clean

Simpson also testified about clothes worn by Murdaugh on the night of the murders, which disappeared and were never found.

According to a Snapchat sent by Paul at 7:46 p.m., Murdaugh wore a blue shirt, khaki pants and brown shoes on the night of the murders. He was wearing a white T-shirt, shorts and sneakers when police arrived just after 10 p.m.

Prosecutors played the video recorded by Paul. Simpson told jurors she never saw that meerschaum-colored shirt or loafers again. She found the khakis the day after the murders in the main bathroom, next to a puddle near the shower.

Simpson said Murdaugh visited her home in Hampton in August 2021 and appeared distraught, saying something was wrong and mentioning a video of him.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” she said, he told her.

He asked her if she remembered the “Vinny Vines” (Vineyard Vines) shirt he was wearing on the day of the murders.

“I didn’t say anything, but I was kind of thrown back because I couldn’t remember it,” she told the court.

This is the second case of a prosecution witness alleging that Murdaugh gave them instructions on what to say. His mother’s caregiver, Shelly Smith, testified Monday that he told her he visited his parents’ home for 40 minutes on the night of the killings. But she remembered he was only there 20 minutes.

Simpson told the court that Murdaugh asked his wife and son to be at the Mosel hunting estate that evening.

Maggie texted Simpson to say that Murdaugh had asked her to come to the Mosel estate that day after a doctor’s appointment.

Simpson testified that Maggie didn’t particularly like being on the Moselle, preferring to stay on the family’s beachfront property in Edisto. Maggie was getting ready for a Fourth of July party she was going to throw at the beach house.

“She kind of sounded like she didn’t want to come home because she really liked being in Edisto because they had a lot of work,” Simpson told jurors.

The housekeeper said she could see Maggie was disappointed to come to Moselle.

Alex Murdaugh with his wife Maggie, eldest son Buster (right) and younger son Paul (left).

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Simpson said Maggie told her Murdaugh wanted Paul in the home too because he needed to “clean up the mess” that groundsman CB Rowe had made ahead of an upcoming hunt.

She told the court that she was cleaning Maggie’s car a week after the murders and found her wedding ring while vacuuming the driver’s seat.

Simpson was then asked by District Attorney John Meadors if Maggie had discussed money issues with her.

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian angrily protested, saying this was hearsay, and requested a trial. The jury was sent out by the judge.

“I don’t think even if you give these jurors an order, you can’t pick up the bell. You can’t fix that,’ he said.

The judge allowed Simpson to continue this portion of her evidence in the absence of the jury.

The housekeeper shared how Maggie was concerned about the boat accident lawsuit, which sought $30 million. Maggie cried as she said, “We don’t have that much money, Blanca.”

She said she would do anything to get the lawsuit settled.

Harpootlian told the judge it was about Maggie’s state of mind – not Murdaugh’s – and it was hearsay.

The judge dismissed the appeal and the jury was called back to hear the evidence.

Simpson told the court: “[Maggie] felt that Alex was not being honest with her about this lawsuit.

Under cross-examination, Harpootlian asked about the Murdaughs’ relationship. Simpson said the couple rarely argued and that Alex “admired” Maggie.

Simpson told jurors that Murdaugh described Maggie as “his everything.”

“He adored her. He loved her,’ she said.

Simpson said: “I never saw them fight. Just a few minor disagreements.’

Giving an example of renovating her home in Edisto Beach, she said there are conflicting views on paint colors.

Maggie had complained that she “wanted Alex to sit still for ten minutes so she could talk about it.”

Simpson agreed with Harpootlian that it was a “not uncommon complaint between husbands and wives,” and said she and her own husband had said similar things about each other.

The housekeeper said she found out about the murders when Alex called her early the next day.

“He sounded shaky on the phone and said, ‘Blanca, they’re gone.’ The thought of them dead didn’t cross my mind,” she testified, but then Alex told her, “Blanca, they’re dead.”

The housekeeper said she dropped the phone on the floor and then went straight to Almeda, where he and Buster were staying at his parents’ house.

She went to Alex and Buster to check on them. Then Alex sent her to Moselle and told her to fix things the way Maggie liked because you knew her best.

He told her to go to the front because there were a lot of cops in the kennels.

Despite police at the scene, the housekeeper was able to walk around the house undisturbed, where she found the khakis next to a puddle of water on the floor by the shower in his bathroom.

Simpson told jurors about several irregularities when she arrived at the house, including a pot that had been put away strangely and clothes that were dropped in the middle of the floor.

Buster Murdaugh, his girlfriend Brooklynn (right) and Alex’s sister Lynn arrive in court on Friday

Murdaugh listens to Simpson’s testimony on Friday

When she arrived, she first went into the kitchen, where she saw that the pot with the dinner she had cooked for the family the night before was not on the stove.

The housekeeper said Maggie would usually leave the pot to clean up and “very rarely” put away the food.

However, the entire pot with the lid was in the fridge. Simpson said that was “unusual,” and she recalled thinking, “I was like, who did that?”

Outside the kitchen, she found Maggie’s pajamas “neatly laid out on the floor” in the center of a doorway with a pair of her underwear.

“That was very unusual,” Simpson told the court, “it just didn’t look right to me.”

“She wasn’t wearing any underwear with her pajamas. The underwear seemed clean, it still had wrinkles,” she said.

Under cross-examination, Harpootlian told her dozens of people had been in the house before her, including friends and legal partners who could explain how the food in the fridge was cleared away.

Prosecutors said today they expect to complete their case next Wednesday.

They say Murdaugh shot Maggie and Paul to distract from financial crimes, which had been coming to a head like “a brewing storm.” If convicted of the murders, he faces 30 years to life in prison.

Murdaugh faces nearly 100 other criminal charges unrelated to the killings, ranging from theft to running a money laundering and drug ring to tax evasion and fraud for attempting to cause his own death in a roadside shooting in September Arranging 2021 so his surviving son could get $10 million on life insurance.