Alex Murdaugh was watching true crime shows before wife and son were killed, housekeeper claims

The Murdaugh family's longtime housekeeper has claimed that Alex Murdaugh was watching true crime television programmes in the hours before the killings of his wife and son — events that would ultimately transform him into one of the most prominent true crime subjects in the United States.

"Sitting in his bed watching crime shows"

Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson, who worked for the Murdaugh family for many years, made the claim whilst speaking onstage at CrimeCon 2026 in Las Vegas alongside Anne Emerson of the Criminally Obsessed podcast.

She described her former employer as having been in bed watching crime programmes before the deaths of his wife Maggie and son Paul at the family's Moselle estate in South Carolina on 7 June 2021.

Conviction overturned, retrial pending

Murdaugh, once a prominent legal figure in South Carolina, was found guilty of murder in 2023, but his conviction was subsequently overturned after the South Carolina Supreme Court determined that the local court clerk had tampered with the jury. State prosecutors have since said they intend to "aggressively" retry him.

A theory about the crime scene

Turrubiate-Simpson also used her CrimeCon appearance to share a theory suggesting that Murdaugh may not have acted alone — not necessarily in carrying out the killings, but in what happened afterwards.

"I believe he was alone but I believe somebody came in and helped clean up the scene," she said.

She pointed to the behaviour of the family's dogs as a key detail. "The dogs tell on the fact that somebody else was there when he was on the phone with 911," she said, noting that the animals were still barking when Murdaugh placed the emergency call to report the deaths.

A housekeeper who knew the family well

Turrubiate-Simpson spent years in close proximity to the Murdaughs, a wealthy legal dynasty based in South Carolina's Low Country.

She had stepped away from her role for several years following a stroke in 2015 but returned after another housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, died after tripping and falling on the front steps of Moselle.

She has since written a memoir about her time with the family and maintains that the Murdaughs were widely misunderstood.

She also came to the defence of Paul Murdaugh, who was facing trial at the time of his death in connection with the boating accident that killed his friend Mallory Beach.

"He was villainized so much in the media...he had a lapse in judgment," she said. "He would give you the shirt off his back. Based on one incident they forgot all the good he had done in the past."

Concerns for surviving son Buster

Turrubiate-Simpson said she no longer maintains a relationship with the Murdaughs' surviving son, Buster, noting that he had "kind of secluded himself away" since the events surrounding his family.

She expressed concern about the renewed scrutiny he will inevitably face as his father heads back to trial.

"None of us asked to be born into the families we were born in," she said. "He's made a good life for himself, and now here we go again."