What Happened to Alex Murdaugh’s Shirt Inside SLED’s Lab

Alex Murdaugh’s lawyers just filed a motion that doesn’t name one hidden document or one lying witness. Instead it demands something bigger: that prosecutors search ten categories of material — witness deals, disciplinary files, lab records, everything — and then swear in writing that nothing helpful to Murdaugh exists beyond what they’ve already turned over. Put your name on it. Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer spent a career inside federal investigations. On this episode of Hidden Killers, she tells Tony Brueski what a demand like that actually does inside an agency, and whether Dick Harpootlian is fishing or hunting.

The motion didn’t land in a vacuum. It landed one day after a federal judge dismissed Murdaugh’s $600,000 lawsuit against Becky Hill, the former clerk whose jury interference got his murder convictions overturned. Hill pleaded guilty to obstruction, perjury, and misconduct: charges built on a book-promotion photo, self-paid bonuses, and lying about sealed exhibits. She received no prison time. The tampering itself was never charged. Coffindaffer confronts the piece of that story that won’t sit still: SLED investigated Hill while SLED’s own biggest conviction depended on her verdict surviving.

And SLED’s record is exactly why the written-certification demand has teeth. Lead investigator David Owen is connected to a separate murder case a judge dismissed after finding evidence that could have helped the defendant was never properly disclosed. Agent Ryan Kelly, whose testimony cleared Eddie Smith of any connection to the killings, was fired this June from a sheriff’s office internal affairs job. The firing is unrelated to his SLED work, but his file now sits inside the defense’s demand. Then there’s the shirt: negative for human blood, then chemically rendered untestable forever.

April’s retrial will decide Murdaugh’s fate. This conversation is about who audits the people who decided it the first time.

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This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

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