BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS

A journalist’s memoir of covering the infamous Murdaugh family murders in South Carolina.

Writing with Murnick, Matney chronicles how she was a young, hardworking journalist when she moved to the Hilton Head area to work at a small publication called the Island Packet. “I wanted to be a real investigative reporter who had the time and resources to dig into a story and produce work that made a difference,” she writes. Instead, her employer prioritized reporting that would “generate a lot of clicks,” which, in the coastal Southeast, meant stories about sharks, alligators, and hurricanes. Nearly three years into Matney’s tenure at the Packet, she received a tip about a boat crash involving a driver “from a family of powerful lawyers.” The driver turned out to be Paul Murdaugh, whose “daddy had everyone in law enforcement in his pocket.” The boat crash killed one of the teenagers on board; two years later, Paul would also be dead, murdered alongside his mother at the wealthy family’s hunting lodge. In a personable narrative filled with appealing local color, Matney explains how, as she dug deeper into the Murdaugh family history, she became increasingly invested in the outcome of the boat crash case, particularly when her reporting led her to understand just how above the law the family was in the region. She was particularly moved by the story of another murder allegedly associated with the Murdaughs—that of Stephen Smith, a gay nursing student who was found dead on a roadside in 2015. The author takes us from her departure from the Packet to FITSnews, through the launch of her hit podcast, the Murdaugh Murders. She is clear about the toll the work takes on her mental health, noting how “the Murdaughs’ depravity and unhinged online trolls had permeated my every moment.”

In a sea of Murdaugh-related media, this personal narrative stands out.