More than three weeks have passed since the start of the Murdaugh trial, with no end in sight. Alex Murdaugh is currently on trial for the double murder of his wife Maggie and son Paul, along with other backlogged charges including tax evasion, misappropriation of settlement funds from seriously injured clients and money laundering. Early in the trial, the judge ruled to allow prosecutors to present evidence of Murdo’s other criminal activities. It includes details of a tragic boating accident involving his late son Paul.
In 2019, Paul Murdaugh crashed his family’s boat in a horrific accident that killed his 19-year-old friend Mallory Beach. Two years later, Mallory’s friend Anthony Cook, who was also on the boat that night, filed a lawsuit against Alex Murdo over his son’s actions that night. Here’s everything we know about Anthony. Anthony, who appeared in Netflix’s Murdo Murdo: A Scandal in the South, began dating Mallory on New Year’s Eve 2019. While their romantic relationship unfortunately ended, the two have been best friends since childhood.
On the night of February 23, 2019, they attended an oyster roast with Anthony’s cousin Connor Cook and girlfriend Miley Altman. They were joined by Paul Murdaugh and his then-girlfriend Morgan Doughty. For the event, Paul Murdaugh took them all aboard his family’s boat. Even though the group was underage, there was a lot of drinking that night.
In the early morning of February 24, they assembled on board and returned home. Unfortunately, not all of them succeed. “He was totally drunk,” Anthony recalled to Paul Murdo in the documentary series. But sadly, the latter teenager is keen to drive despite his friends begging him not to. “I heard a scream and I went out,” Anthony said of the crash. He explained that when he finally came to, he realized Mallory wasn’t with him and continued to dive in and out of the water looking for her, but it was too late.
Following the crash, Paul Murdaugh was charged with three felony counts of DUI in connection with the crash. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and was awaiting trial at the time of his death, Greenville News. But after his death, all charges were dropped. In 2021, Anthony filed a separate civil lawsuit against Alex Murdaugh, Paul Murdaugh, a supermarket clerk who purchased alcohol and a clerk who sold alcohol WSAV. In that lawsuit, Anthony alleges that Alex Murdaugh knew his underage son was buying alcohol illegally and that he knew his son was intoxicated when he went out on a boat on Feb. 23, 2019.
