Items from Alex Murdaugh's estate are auctioned off
Items from Moselle, Alex Murdaugh’s family estate, are auctioned off at Liberty Auctions on Thursday, March 23, 2023 in Pembroke, Georgia. (Mom & Paparazzi for Fox News Digital)
Just before 9 a.m. Thursday, a crowd began to line up outside Liberty Auction in Pembroke, Georgia, in anticipation of an afternoon auction featuring items from the Murdaugh family's South Carolina Lowcountry hunting estate, where Alex Murdaugh killed his wife and son in 2021.
"We came out of curiosity just to look at the Murdaugh items," one attendee told Fox News Digital, as was the consensus for most people at the event.
Doors opened at noon, and by the time the auction began at 4 p.m., buyers found it difficult to move about inside the stuffy building. By the time bidding started, those who purchased items had to duck in and around other people to pick up their new belongings.
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The Murdaughs' longhorn animal head mounts told for $10,000. (Mom & Paparazzi for Fox News Digital)
"We're here to buy Christmas presents for the rest of the family. Trying to get them something from the Murdaugh trial. Everybody found it very interesting, so we'd like to get them a little…something to remember the Lowcountry events," another attendee said.
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The Murdaughs' belongings were identified by the number 3-335 and sold for higher-than-normal prices. The family's couch, for example, sold for $14,000. The buyer, Phillip Jennings, is the owner of Broomsedge Rod and Gun, a hunting and lodging company based in Georgia.
The Murdaughs' popcorn machine sold for $1,300. (Mom & Paparazzi for Fox News Digital)
"We think these are very novel pieces. They came from a very nice plantation lodge in South Carolina, and we want them to live on. … We try to specialize at our lodge…very unique things that are conversation pieces for people and they can sit around and talk," Jennings said.
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A pair of lamps with stems made out of turtle shells sold for $2,000.
The Murdaughs' nativity set sold for $1,500. (Mom & Paparazzi for Fox News Digital) (Mom & Paparazzi for Fox News Digital)
A pair of tumblers with Alex Murdaugh's monogrammed initials told for $250. (Mom & Paparazzi for Fox News Digital)
A dart board with Buster Murdaugh's name written on a scoreboard sold for $475. (Mom & Paparazzi for Fox News Digital)
The auctioneer did not identify the belongings by the family's name but referred to the property where they came as a "prominent South Carolina estate."
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Some attendees commented on the odd nature of the event after a Colleton County, South Carolina, jury on March 2 found Alex Murdaugh guilty in the 2021 murders of his wife and son at Moselle.
After the leather couch sold, several people sat and even laid down on it. One attendee suggested burning sage around the furniture.
A buyer who purchased Maggie Murdaugh's bicycle and tumblers with Alex Murdaugh's initials said he had plans to start a local museum and would add the items to his collection.
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The same day, the Murdaugh's sprawling, 1,700-acre Islandton property sold for $3.9 million to buyers James Ayer and Jeffrey Godley, according to Colleton County documents obtained by FOX Carolina.
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Funds from the sale will be divided among multiple people involved in a lawsuit stemming from the 2018 death of Paul Mudaugh's friend, Mallory Beach, who died aboard the Murdaugh family's boat after Paul apparently got drunk and took his friends out for a ride along the South Carolina coast before he crashed into a bridge.
A bike is seen out front of the house at the Murdaugh Moselle property on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 in Islandton. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post and Courier/Pool)
Buster Murdaugh, Alex's eldest and only surviving son, will get $530,000 from the sale.
Mark Tinsley, who is representing three boat crash victims, including Beach, will get the balance of his attorney's fees. Joseph McCulloch, who is representing boat crash victim Connor Cook, will receive $100,000. Alex's brother, John Marvin Murdaugh, will get $290,000 to pay the estate's outstanding legal fees.
A photo of the Murdaugh family taken days before Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were shot to death. From left to right, Buster, Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh. (Defense exhibit)
Additionally, co-receivers will get $275,000, Palmetto State Bank will receive $25,000 for its claim against the estate and more than $6,500 will go toward another creditor with a claim against the estate, according to court documents.
Alex Murdaugh has been sentenced to serve life in prison.
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The disgraced personal injury lawyer is also facing another trial for his 99 alleged financial crimes stemming from 19 separate indictments in South Carolina's Lowcountry. He is accused of embezzling nearly $9 million from his family's personal injury law firm and its clients.
Fox News' Julia Bonavita contributed to this report.
