Mallory Beach

Case background and investigation

Mallory Beach, 19, was one of six young people aboard a boat that struck the bridge at Archers Creek, near Parris Island in Beaufort County, at about 2:20 a.m. on February 24, 2019. According to CBS News, the others on board were Paul Murdaugh, Morgan Doughty, Anthony Cook, Connor Cook and Miley Altman. NPR reporting carried by GBH said the group had been returning from an oyster roast and that the boat hit a channel marker and the bridge pilings. Beach was thrown into the water.

A search lasted eight days. Her body was found on March 3, 2019, about five miles from the bridge. Wikipedia's article on the case, citing local reporting, says two volunteers found her and that the cause of death was drowning.

On April 18, 2019, Paul Murdaugh, then 19, was charged with three felony counts of boating under the influence, one for causing Beach's death and two for causing great bodily injury to other passengers. He pleaded not guilty and was released on bond. CBS News reported that a hospital test taken some hours after the crash put his blood alcohol level at about three times the legal limit. The case never went to trial: Paul Murdaugh and his mother, Maggie, were shot dead at the family's property on June 7, 2021, and the charges against him were then dropped. The allegations were therefore never tested in court.

Beach's family has questioned how the crash was investigated. In a 2024 interview with WTOC, her father, Phillip Beach, said he believed the investigation had been interfered with; he pointed to the absence of alcohol from the official accident report and to the removal of an investigator whose wife had a connection to the Murdaugh family's law firm. The South Carolina Attorney General's office would neither confirm nor deny to WTOC that any investigation of those concerns existed. No one has been convicted of obstructing the inquiry.

The family pursued a wrongful-death suit alleging that Paul Murdaugh, who was under age, bought alcohol at a Parker's convenience store using his older brother's identification. According to CBS News, a judge approved a settlement with Maggie Murdaugh's estate in January 2023. In July 2023 Parker's agreed to pay $15 million to settle the Beach family's claim, with further payments to the surviving passengers, and CBS reported that Alex Murdaugh settled with the family in October 2024. Alex Murdaugh was convicted in March 2023 of murdering his wife and son; according to Wikipedia, the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned those convictions in May 2026 and prosecutors have said they intend to retry him.