WALTERBORO Alex Murdaugh seemed to be in a hurry in the hour after his wife and son werebrutally shot to death.

The soon-to-be-disgraced Hampton trial attorney sped down a pothole-riddled country road at more than 74 mph on the way to visit his mother that evening, according to new data gleaned from his 2021 Chevrolet Suburban. His speedometer touched 80 mph on the way back home, well over the 55 mph speed limit.

Murdaugh's pace on foot also quickened in the minutes after phone data show his wife,Maggie, and son Paul abruptly stopped respondingto phone calls and texts on June 7, 2021, according to data presented in court Feb. 17. His phone recorded about 70 steps per minute, indicating the ginger-haired 54-year-old was hustling twice as fast as he had moved all evening.

"He was a busy guy right then, wasn't he?" lead prosecutor Creighton Waters asked as an investigator read the numbers aloud from the witness stand.

Alex Murdaughon trial in Colleton County for the June 2021 slayings of his wife, Maggie, and youngest son, Paul.

The S.C. Attorney General's Office presented that data to a Colleton County jury just before resting its case inMurdaugh's double-murder trial.

The new evidence is meant to bolster prosecutors' theory that Murdaugh fatally shot his wife and son before speeding off to visit his mother in an effort to stash key evidence and establish an alibi.

At the close of the trial's fourth week, prosecutors offered up one last reveal: Evidence showing 22-year-old Paul and Maggie, 52, had confronted Murdaugh about his illicit drug use just a month before they were killed.

"I am still in EB because when you get here we have to talk," Paul texted to his father on May 6, apparently referring to Edisto Beach, where the family had a home. "Mom found several bags of pills in your computer bag."

That same day, Maggie's browser history showed she searched the internet to identify the white pills, which turned out to be heavy doses of oxycodone, a prescription opioid painkiller.

One of Murdaugh's defense attorneys, Phillip Barber, countered with a message that showed Murdaugh apologizing, indicating an amicable resolution.

Prosecutors spent about 90 minutes on Feb. 17 walking the jury through a timeline that state investigators compiled of the hours surrounding the slayings.

The timeline was packed with down-to-the-second timestamps of text messages, calls, step counts, cell tower pings and GPS coordinates all of which closely tracked the movements and activity of Maggie, Paul and Alex Murdaugh that evening.

For the first time, the document places much of the state's key evidence in one place for the perusal of jurors and a national viewing audience.

The timeline can cut both ways.

Over the first four weeks of Murdaugh's trial, prosecutors have repeatedly reminded jurors of a video that places Murdaugh at the crime scene a set of dog kennels on the Murdaughs' spacious hunting property with the two victims just four minutes before Maggie and Paul's phones stop answering calls or texts.

Murdaugh cranked up his Suburban and left the property about 16 minutes later to visit his mother. Barber suggested Murdaugh's speed wasn't abnormal, since he was traveling country roads he knew well and likely punched the gas on long straightaways.

Murdaugh's lawyers have argued the state's timeline is far too tight for their client to have pulled off what prosecutors allege.

In just a quarter of an hour, Murdaugh would have had to kill his wife and son, clean himself off, go from the kennels to the house, change clothes and find a way to dispose of critical evidence, defense attorneys say.

Investigators never recovered the murder weapons, nor did they find a seafoam-colored fishing shirt Murdaugh wore earlier that evening, which his housekeeper said she never saw again. (Investigators have conceded they didn't ask Murdaugh where the shirt was.)

Investigators also didn't collect a pair of khaki pants Murdaugh might have been wearing that day from his bathroom floor during their cursory search of his home. A family housekeeper tossed the pants into the washing machine a day after the slayings.

In his opening statement nearly a month ago, prosecutor Waters admitted the state had no direct evidence tying Murdaugh to the killings. No confession. No video of the crime. No fingerprints on a smoking gun.

But Waters pledged to present the jury a mountain of circumstantial evidence that would fit together like a puzzle to prove his guilt.

He told jurors it would be up to them to judge Murdaugh's behavior that evening, including whether Murdaugh was trying to concoct an alibi as he called and texted friends after 9 p.m. on his way to visit his mother.

Investigators say Maggie and Paul's cellphone activity shows they died around 8:50 p.m., before Murdaugh ever left thehunting estate they called "Moselle."

The state called 61 witnesses and introduced hundreds of exhibits before resting its case.

When the trial enters its fifth week on Feb. 21, it will be Murdaugh's legal team calling the shots. They plan to present a battery of relatives and pricey expert witnesses in a procession that could last a week or more.

Murdaugh's family members can speak to his relationships with his wife and son. Maggie was happy, though their marriage wasn't perfect, previous witnesses have testified. And everyone seems to agree Paul was the apple of Murdaugh's eye.

Expert witnesses could rebut or contextualize testimony from crime scene experts previously called by the prosecution. And they can seek to poke holes in the state's timeline of events, raising questions about facts as basic as just when the shots were fired.

Murdaugh's defense team began that process Feb. 17. The first witness they called was Colleton County Coroner Richard Harvey. He testified that he didn't use a thermometer to gauge body temperature, which could have helped him estimate a precise time of death for Maggie and Paul.

Instead, he said, he stuck his hand in their armpits to feel if they were still warm.

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