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Alex Murdaugh calmly told 911 dispatchers that he’d been shot in the head — while a witness immediately warned authorities that it “kinda looks like a set-up,” according to recordings of the calls released on Friday.
The disgraced South Carolina legal scion called 911 twice, speaking calmly for more than 10 minutes during the alleged death-wish plot to get $10 million in life insurance for his surviving son, Buster.
“I’m bleeding a lot,” Murdaugh, 53, told one of the dispatchers, while conceding he was “not sure” exactly where he’d been hit.
An unidentified couple witnessed him blithely standing outside soon after the incident — immediately raising suspicion over the bizarre scene.
“We are on Salkehatchie Road and there is a male on the side of the road with blood all over him and he’s waving his hands,” the female witness told a 911 dispatcher.
“He looks fine — but it kinda looks like a set-up, so we didn’t stop,” she said, according to recordings released Friday by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED).
“Oh, I don’t blame you,” the Hampton County dispatcher told her.
Murdaugh, meanwhile, also nonchalantly gave his location, telling the dispatcher he was “on Salkehatchie Road, by the church” — providing further location details before detailing his supposed brush with death.
“I got a flat tire and I stopped and somebody stopped to help me. And when I turned my back, they tried to shoot me,” Murdaugh continued.
Asked if he was shot, he replied, “Yes, but I mean I’m okay … I can’t drive. And I’m bleeding a lot.”
Asked where he was wounded, Murdaugh replied, “I’m not sure — somewhere on my head.”
“It was uh … uh … it was a white fella … I’d say a fair amount younger than me. Really, really short hair,” Murdaugh said.
The description did not match the man Murdaugh’s lawyers have admitted he hired to kill him, his not-short-haired drug dealer, Curtis “Fast Eddie” Smith, who at 61 is older than Murdaugh.
Murdaugh then said a couple who stopped offered to take him to a hospital, and calmly waited while the dispatcher went offline while trying to race an ambulance to the scene.
Thinking he’d been cut off, the then-powerful lawyer called back and calmly spoke to a second dispatcher, repeatedly calling her “ma’am” and expressing no sense of urgency.
He was airlifted to a hospital, despite the apparent lack of life-threatening injuries.
An initial police report said he had no “visible injury.” That was later changed after his legal team insisted he suffered fractures and serious bleeding from a bullet that left clear entry and exit wounds.
The lawyers later admitted that Murdaugh had wanted to die amid an opioid addiction and the double slaying of his wife and 22-year-old son, for which he has always been a person of interest. It emerged days later that he’d also been fired from his family’s firm after admitting siphoning away millions of dollars for his personal use.
Rather than commit suicide, he wanted to look like he’d been murdered in the hopes of getting his surviving son the $10 million in life insurance, according to SLED as well as his own lawyers.
Murdaugh was arrested for the alleged scheme last month. Smith has also been charged, but first told The Post that he never actually shot the scion, whose family has for generations been one of the most prominent in South Carolina.
Murdaugh went to drug rehab after being released on bail, just to be arrested again after leaving, this time for millions of dollars that he collected for the mysterious death of his housekeeper that was not given to her sons. He was denied bail earlier this week.
He also faces multiple lawsuits and has been suspended from practicing law in the Palmetto State.
One of his attorneys, Dick Harpootlian, recently told “Good Morning America” that Murdaugh is “reconciled to the fact he’s going to prison,” blaming his 20-year drug addiction for all “these stupid, illegal things.”
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