Was Mallory Beach's Body Found After Paul Murdaugh Caused Her Death?

The country became fascinated by the story of the Murdaugh family after the patriarch, Alex Murdaugh, was convicted of murdering his wife, Maggie, and their son, Paul, on June 7, 2021. The murders happened at the family's home in Islandton, S.C., at their hunting lodge known as Moselle. Murdaugh reportedly killed his family to collect on an insurance policy to cover his drug habit and theft from his clients and law firm.

Paul had been involved in a 2019 boat accident that resulted in the death of 19-year-old Mallory Beach, and after his murder, his father claimed the boat accident must have been the reason that Paul and Maggie were killed. He claimed the family had received death threats over Paul's involvement. Mallory died after being thrown from the boat as it crashed, and people are wondering whether her body was recovered.

Paul and his friends had been bar-hopping on the night of the accident, and according to CBS News, Paul drove the boat while intoxicated.

At approximately 2:20 a.m., Paul crashed the boat into the Archer's Creek Bridge. Mallory was thrown off the boat and into the dark waters, and her terrified friends couldn't find her. Paul's lawyer father, Alex, tried to get one of his friends, Connor — who suffered a broken jaw in the accident — to say he was driving the boat.

Investigators and volunteers used divers, a helicopter, and several boats to search for Mallory. After an eight-day search, her body was found by two volunteers five miles away from the crash site, and her family later filed a wrongful death suit against the Murdaugh family. Paul was eventually indicted and charged with three felony counts of boating under the influence and causing Mallory's death. His blood alcohol level was three times over the limit, but he pleaded not guilty and was out on bond awaiting trial before he was murdered.

After he was murdered, the criminal charges against Paul were dropped, but Mallory's Aunt, Lynn Reavis, struggles with the fact that Mallory won't ever get justice.

"With Paul not being here now, I don't think my niece, Mallory, will get justice," she said. "Because with both of them being deceased, it just ended. The case ended. All I ever wanted was for him to get on the stand and say, 'I'm sorry.' That's all I ever wanted to hear."

Mallory's family settled a $15 million lawsuit against the convenience store chain that sold the alcohol to an underage Paul on the night of the crash, and a wrongful death lawsuit Mallory's family filed against the Murdaugh family was also settled.

A Hulu documentary about the accident and double murders, Murdaugh: Death in the Family, details the accident and the murders of Maggie and Paul, as well as Murdaugh's other crimes. The documentary stars Patricia Arquette as Maggie Murdaugh, Jason Clarke as Alex Murdaugh, and Madeline Popovich as Mallory Beach, per HuffPost.