Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson, who served as a longtime housekeeper for the Murdaugh family, suspects that Alex Murdaugh’s efforts to secure a second trial for murder are driven by something other than a quest for justice.
To Turrubiate-Simpson, who was also a close friend of Maggie Murdaugh, the disgraced attorney’s move to revisit the courtroom with his family and the victims’ loved ones seems fueled by what she describes as “pure ego.” This, she believes, is the root of his tenacity to challenge his conviction.
“I think it’s all about ego. He doesn’t want to be remembered as a murderer,” she shared with the Daily Mail. “He continues to deny killing Maggie and Paul, and I doubt he will ever confess to it.”
She added, “He wants to prove to the world that he is still Alex Murdaugh. As a former attorney, he knows how to navigate the legal system, and despite being disbarred, he remains knowledgeable about the law.”
The 2023 trial, centered on the June 2021 murders of Maggie, 52, and their son Paul, 22, marked a dramatic downfall for Murdaugh. Once a prominent figure in a powerful legal dynasty that wielded influence in South Carolina’s 14th Judicial Circuit for nearly a hundred years, his conviction signaled the end of an era.
The 2023 trial over the June 2021 murders of Murdaugh’s wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, was the capstone to a spectacular fall from grace for the heir to a powerful legal dynasty that had dominated South Carolina’s 14th Judicial Circuit for nearly a century.
The case went on to expose an unraveling web of crimes and scandals circling the now-57-year-old disgraced attorney, including multi-million-dollar fraud schemes, a botched hitman plot and links to several other mysterious deaths.
After Murdaugh’s trial transfixed the nation for six long weeks, a jury found him guilty of gunning down his wife and son at the dog kennels of the family’s 17,000-acre Moselle estate in Islandton on June 7, 2021.
Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson was part of the Murdaugh family for more than a decade before the murders. She is pictured with Bubba, Maggie’s beloved dog who now lives with her
Paul, Alex, Maggie and Buster Murdaugh pictured together before Paul and Maggie’s murders
Three years later, in an extraordinary ruling from the South Carolina Supreme Court handed down on Wednesday, Murdaugh’s murder convictions were overturned and a second trial ordered.
The five justices ruled that Murdaugh’s right to a fair trial was violated because Colleton County Court Clerk, Becky Hill, tampered with the jury.
The decision had been anticipated following an intense courtroom showdown between Murdaugh’s defense team and the state Attorney General’s Office in which the justices appeared to be leaning in the convicted killer’s favor.
But for those close to the victims who have spent the last three years trying to move forward from the murders, it still came as a blow and reopened painful wounds.
‘I thought that I was prepared for this outcome and would be okay but I really didn’t receive it too well,’ Turrubiate-Simpson said.
When the ruling came down, Turrubiate-Simpson was on the way to her local grocery store.
Instead, she found herself making a detour to visit the gravesites of Maggie and Paul.
‘I just got an overwhelming feeling that I had to go to their gravesites,’ she said.
‘I could almost hear Maggie’s voice calling to me “Girl, you need to come by and see me.”
‘I went to kind of get a little bit of clarity, to try to figure out how I really felt about it and I guess just to let them know that I was there.
The Murdaugh family’s 17,000-acre Moselle property in Islandton, South Carolina, where the murders took place
The slain mother and son were shot multiple times at the dog kennels on the family’s Moselle estate on June 7, 2021
‘I felt like I needed to go there because they are the two people who cannot speak for themselves.’
It bothers Turrubiate-Simpson that Maggie and Paul aren’t able to have a voice in the decision.
‘There’s two victims out there that will never get a chance to speak out, because they’re not here anymore. They have no say whatsoever in anything because they can’t speak, they don’t exist anymore, other than in people’s memories,’ she said.
‘Alex is now back in the headlines. And it appears to me that Maggie and Paul are going to be left behind once more. I don’t want to see that happen.’
As the Murdaugh housekeeper, Turrubiate-Simpson was a constant presence in the family for more than a decade.
She had seen the couple’s sons Buster and Paul grow up and she had become one of Maggie’s best friends and confidantes. When much of the community turned its back on the family after Paul was involved in a boat crash in 2019 that killed his friend Mallory Beach, she continued to support them all unwaveringly.
She remained a crux to the family in the aftermath of the murders, even moving in to Moselle at Murdaugh’s request to maintain the house the way that Maggie would have wanted.
For a long time, she didn’t dare believe that Murdaugh, a man she also considered a friend, could be responsible for the killings.
Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson took the stand to testify at Alex Murdaugh’s trial in February 2023
Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson stands at the entrance to Moselle. She believes Alex Murdaugh will never come clean about the murders
But eventually, after seeing all the evidence presented at his trial and considering all the bizarre signs she had noticed in the immediate aftermath of the murders, she finally accepted that reality.
Now, even since his conviction was overturned, Turrubiate-Simpson said she has no doubt that Murdaugh murdered his Maggie and Paul.
And she believes a jury at a second trial will reach that same conclusion.
‘The case wasn’t overturned because of the evidence that was presented. It had nothing to do with the evidence or the witnesses who testified,’ she said.
‘I believe that the evidence was very clear.
‘So I’m confident that if he was found guilty before, he will be found guilty again.’
Turrubiate-Simpson is likely to play a part in the retrial, having testified in the first trial about Murdaugh’s bizarre behavior.
During tearful testimony, she told the court how Murdaugh asked her to clean the house on the morning after the murders and how she noticed several things out of place.
She also told the court that Murdaugh tried to get their stories straight about what clothes he was wearing on the day of the murders. In reality, she cleaned the family’s clothes and said she never saw the items he was wearing again.
Turrubiate-Simpson previously told the Daily Mail that there were several other concerns she shared with investigators that were not revealed at trial, including insights about the scene – from the position of Maggie’s car to the behavior of the family’s dogs – that have led her to believe Murdaugh did not act alone.
Based on all that, she believes that unnamed accomplices helped him in cleaning up and staging the scene after the shooting.
Alex Murdaugh (in a court hearing on January 2024) is now preparing for a second murder trial
Turrubiate-Simpson said she is already bracing for the likelihood that she will have to take the stand a second time round.
‘I have to prepare myself, because I know this time around if I do end up having to testify, the defense is not going to go easy on me,’ she said.
‘I believe the first time they underestimated me. This time, they know not to do that. I think they will probably come at me a little bit harder than last time.’
While she is disheartened by the convictions being tossed, Turrubiate-Simpson said she accepts the court’s ruling.
‘Regardless of how it makes me feel, I do respect the court’s decision. Everybody does deserve a fair trial,’ she said.
‘But I would be lying if I said it doesn’t affect me. It does. Whatever happens next, we’ll just have to wait and see.’
