Murdaugh Housekeeper Reveals the Thing She Saw That Convinced Her Alex Was the Killer

Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson had no idea who shot and killed Maggie and Paul Murdaugh at their Islandton, S.C., hunting lodge when the shocking murders came to light on June 7, 2021.

Simpson, who began working for Alex in 2002 assisting with Spanish-speaking clients and later, in 2007, became the family’s housekeeper, had seen him earlier that day before he left for work.

Believing in the boss who had always treated her well, Simpson initially accepted Alex’s claim that a vigilante seeking revenge for the 2019 death of Mallory Beach — who died when Paul crashed his boat while intoxicated — was responsible.

“There was no universe in which Alex could have committed these crimes,” Simpson writes in her new memoir, Within the House of Murdaugh: Amid a Unique Friendship — Blanca and Maggie, co-authored by Mary Frances Weaver and out this month.

But over time, she began to notice troubling details that didn’t align with his account. A U.S. Navy veteran and former corrections officer, Simpson picked up on signs that pointed to her usually jovial and easygoing employer as the likely killer.

The day after the murders, she noticed several odd things at Moselle, the family’s hunting lodge. Maggie’s Mercedes SUV was parked in a spot she never used. Her pajamas were laid out on the laundry room floor in a way that struck Simpson as unusual. “I knew automatically that wasn’t her,” Simpson recalls.

She suspected someone else moved the SUV and staged the pajamas to make it seem like Maggie intended to sleep at Moselle — something Maggie had not planned. But at that time, she didn’t know who would have done it.

Her doubts intensified in August 2021 when Alex deliberately brought up what he claimed he was wearing on the night of the murders.

“You remember what I was wearing that day,” he told her. “You know, the Vinny Vines [Vineyard Vines] shirt.”

Simpson was stunned. She remembered clearly that he had been wearing a different shirt — one whose collar she had straightened before he left for work. “One thing was for sure,” she writes. “He was lying.”

Even after Alex was arrested in the fall of 2021 on financial crimes and later, in July 2022, on charges for the murders, Simpson continued hoping he might somehow be innocent.

Her “aha” moment arrived during Alex’s high-profile trial in early 2023. When she saw body-camera footage from the first responding officer, a detail inside Alex’s Suburban brought everything into focus. A beach towel sitting on the front seat stunned her. “I looked at the towel and I said, ‘Oh my God. He did it.’”

She had washed, dried, and folded that towel earlier on June 7, placing it high on a laundry-room shelf. Seeing it in the vehicle contradicted Alex’s claim that he had been inside the main house before leaving to check on his father.

In her memoir, she speculates that Alex cleaned himself off near the kennels and then returned to the laundry room to grab the towel and possibly a freshly washed T-shirt. That shirt is the one he wore when calling 911 and speaking to officers on camera. The towel disappeared after that night. “What happened to that towel?” she wonders.

The final confirmation for Simpson was the cellphone video shown at trial — the clip Paul recorded at 8:44 p.m. of his friend’s dog at the kennels. In the background, Alex can be heard saying, “Come here, Bubba,” placing him at the murder scene moments before the killings.

On the stand, Alex admitted he had been at the kennels but claimed he initially lied due to paranoia caused by opioid addiction. The jury was not persuaded. After just three hours of deliberation in March 2023, he was found guilty of murdering Maggie and Paul and later sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole. He was also convicted of numerous financial crimes and is appealing the murder verdict.

“I have a lot of good memories of Maggie,” Simpson says of the woman who became a close friend.
“And Paul was my heart.”

Within the House of Murdaugh: Amid a Unique Friendship — Blanca and Maggie is available for preorder now.