The family of Mallory Beach, the young woman who died on a late-night boat ride in 2019, reached a $15 million court settlement with ‘all remaining defendants’ just weeks before the civil case went to trial.
In February of that year, the 19-year-old was thrown from a beach boat when it crashed into the Archers Creek Bridge in Beaufort, South Carolina. His body was found five days later.
It is believed Paul Murdoff, 19, was drunk at the time, accusing Buster of lending his younger brother his ID so he could buy alcohol before the crash.
A ‘global settlement’ has been reached with ‘several defendants’, including convicted murderer Alex Murdoff, who remains behind bars after months of negotiations.
This means that the trial, which was planned for August 14 in Hampton County, South Carolina, will now be canceled.
In addition to Murduff, the owner of the crashed boat, other defendants include Savannah convenience store owner Greg Parker and his company, the Parker’s Kitchen chain of gas stations that sold liquor to Murduff’s son, the alleged driver of the boat at the time of the crash.
The family of Mallory Beach, a 19-year-old woman killed during a fatal late-night boat ride in 2019, has reached an out-of-court settlement with the rest of the defendants.
Family patriarch Alex Murdoff was sentenced to life in prison for the deaths of his wife and son in March this year.
Beach, 19, was thrown from a boat in 2019 when it crashed into the Archers Creek Bridge in Beaufort, South Carolina. His body was found five days later
Six youths on board that night, all under the age of 21, were ejected from the ship and all but Mallory Beach made it ashore. His body was not found for a week
The Beach family alleges how an employee at Parker’s convenience store neglected to sell alcohol to Paul, a minor, just hours before the accident, contributing to Mallory’s death.
Although the female clerk selling the alcohol saw the ID and ran it through her system to verify that it was valid, she did not confirm that the person handing over the driver’s license matched the height, weight or face of the person buying it.
Attorney Mark Tinsley confirmed limited details of the settlement agreement to News 4 Sunday night.
Other passengers on the boat also settled claims against Parker, including Morgan Dowdy, Miley Altman, Connor Cook, and Anthony Cook to share $3 million.
Connor Cook, and cousin Anthony settled the case for a million dollars each while Dowdy and Altman will split the remaining million.
“The case will not go to trial,” Palmetto State Attorney Bakary Sellers tweeted before Sunday’s settlement. ‘It’s (Parker’s) last straw. will settle.’
The majority of the settlement money will go to the Saikat family
In April 2019, Paul was charged with three counts of operating a boat under the influence But while awaiting trial, the 22-year-old was shot dead in 2021
The majority of the settlement money will go to the Saikat family.
‘We are pleased that we were able to get some resolution to this case and save the Beach family from having to go through the pain and suffering of a trial and hearing testimony and reliving their daughters death.
‘We are pleased that the settlement agreement is not confidential so that the public can see that you will be held accountable no matter who you are or how much money you have,’ Beach family attorney Mark Tinsley wrote in a statement.
Six young men, all under the age of 21, who were in the boat on the night of the accident, were thrown from the ship – and all but Beach made it to shore. His body was not found for a week.
Paul was charged in April 2019 with three counts of boating under the influence.
But while awaiting trial, his mother Maggie, 22, was shot dead at their hunting lodge in June 2021.
Paul’s father Alex Murdoff, who has been convicted of murdering his wife and son, tried to convince the jury that someone else had killed Maggie and Paul in revenge for the boat wreck.
Boating victims and their families recently appeared in a Netflix docuseries called Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal.
Alex Murdoff was convicted in March of murdering his wife and son. In response to the boat accident, he had long claimed that someone else was responsible for the murder
Paul Murdoff and his mother Maggie (left) – both of whom were named in a lawsuit against Mallory Beach – have since been murdered. Husband and father Alex (second-right) is behind bars for killing his son and wife. Alex’s older son Buster (right) has already settled for $50 million, paying an undisclosed sum to Mallory’s family and other boating survivors.
Before the murders, one of the six teenagers on the boat testified that they were afraid to talk about the Murdoff family because they knew how to ‘cover things up.’
All the survivors reported the matter to the authorities [Paul] Murdaugh was drunk and argued over his determination to drive his boat.
Beach boyfriend Anthony Cook offered to give them all an Uber home but Murdoch insisted they travel by boat despite the fog and lack of onboard lighting.
Cook told attorneys Murdoff had a ‘crazy’ alter-ego named ‘Timmy’ who passed out drunk.
Cook said on the night in question: ‘Everyone was fighting and arguing the whole way. We have gone around in circles many times. We were lazy….Miley was constantly whining that she had to work the next morning. He was ready to go.
‘All Paul was doing was making a fool of himself… then for some reason Paul acted like he was on drugs or something.
‘During an argument he starts taking off his clothes and it’s 40 degrees outside.’
According to Cook, Murdoch ‘stripped all the way to his boxers’ and refused to let anyone else steer his boat with the fight.
Both Cook and Altman told how Murduff ‘slapped, pushed and spat’ on his girlfriend Doughty as the bitter argument continued.
Asked if Marduff spat on him when he was sober, Doughty replied, ‘No.’ He admitted to seeing her smoke weed and take cocaine on other occasions.
Describing the terrifying scenes when the youths begged Murduff to let someone else drive, or simply take them home, Altman recalled, ‘I yelled at him once and he told me…no one down there is driving my boat.’
Mallory Beach’s family (pictured) also reached a permanent settlement earlier this year with Murdoff’s surviving son, Buster Murdoff, in a $50 million lawsuit after she was killed.
Paul Murdoff was believed to be drunk when the boat carrying six people crashed in Archers Creek near Parris Island, and Buster was accused of lending his ID to his younger brother to buy alcohol.
A passenger on the boat told attorneys that Paul Murdoff had a ‘crazy’ alter-ego called ‘Timmy’ who passed out drunk.
Archers Creek Bridge in Beaufort, South Carolina where the boat crashed in 2019
Doughty told how he and Beech ‘crammed’ into the boat with their weapons, as Murduff continued the journey that ended in such tragedy.
Finally, Cook remembered, the boat suddenly left. In a chilling reminiscence he said: ‘We went from two-miles-an-hour idle to the bow of the boat clinging to the wind and I went aft.’
Cook pulled Beach to his side and held on to him but the next thing he knew, he testified, he was ‘awake’ in the water, clutching at weeds and debris and fighting the swift current and frigid temperatures.
Alex Murdoff, 54, is pictured during his February 2023 double-murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina.
Maggie and Paul Murdoff were both found shot to death on a South Carolina estate in June 2021.
The survivors then quickly established that no one could locate the beach. His body was found a week later.
In January 2023, after months of negotiations ‘several defendants’ including the Beach family, including Buster, settled with three other passengers who survived the fatal crash.
Four years after the boating tragedy and nearly two years after Maggie and Paul were murdered in their South Carolina home, family patriarch Alex Murdoff was sentenced to life in prison for the deaths of his wife and son.
Murdoch is now serving two consecutive life sentences for the June 2021 murders of family victims Lodge Maggie and Paul.
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