Paul Murdaugh allegedly got drunk with strangers in the Bahamas and then asked them to take down video of the boozy interaction years later — after he allegedly crashed a boat under the influence that killed a teen.
Adam Pink and Max Burton, who run the TikTok page @thenakedbuilders, posted video this week of their 2017 encounter with Murdaugh and his then-girlfriend, Morgan Doughty, telling viewers that they did not know what became of their American acquaintances until just recently.
Alex Murdaugh, Paul’s father, was convicted last week of gunning down his wife Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, on June 7, 2021, at the family hunting estate in Colleton County, South Carolina. The disgraced former attorney was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, as CrimeOnline reported.
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Pink and Burton told Fox News they stayed in touch with Paul Murdaugh following their introduction in the Bahamas and would text each other. In August 2019, video of the Bahamas trip appeared as a memory in Burton’s phone, so he decided post it to social media, but Murdaugh soon reached out to ask that he remove it.
“That was when I tagged him and Morgan, and then I received that message from him,” Burton told Fox News. “Obviously, we didn’t know anything had happened or anything like that.”
What Burton didn’t know was that months earlier, in February 2019, Paul Murdaugh had been drinking and crashed his family’s boat into a bridge in Beaufort, killing friend Mallory Beach and injuring multiple others.
Murdaugh was facing felony charges related to the wreck when he asked that the video to be taken down, but in his message to Burton, he implied that the request was because he had stopped dating Doughty, writing, “Me and that girl are no longer dating and are not supposed to have any contact,” according to Fox News.
Pink and Burton assumed Murdaugh did not want the video online because of the break-up.
Then in February 2023, Pink was making dinner with his girlfriend when he was shocked to see a photo of Murdaugh on Netflix for the streaming platform’s documentary about the murders. The friends subsequently watched the documentary and came away feeling conflicted.
“You have such a mixed bag of feelings because you feel so sorry for Mallory’s parents and obviously her and Morgan, everything that happened, and then you’ve got a real sad feeling of Paul dying, being shot, supposedly, by his father, and his mum dying. It’s just crazy,” Burton told Fox News.
Doughty alleged in the documentary that Paul Murdaugh was abusive toward her and had a problem with alcohol.
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[Featured image: Paul Murdaugh in screenshot from thenakedbuilders video]
