Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh‘s former housekeeper has opened up about the sinister signs she saw around the former lawyer’s infamous South Carolina hunting estate that convinced her of his guilt in the murders of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.
Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson had been working for the Murdaugh family for 19 years, 14 of which were spent as the housekeeper for their Islandton, SC, property, when Maggie and Paul were shot dead at the historic estate, which is known as Moselle.
Suspicion and fear quickly spread throughout the local community as investigators desperately tried to track down the killer—a hunt that took two years, before Murdaugh was revealed as the man behind the heinous murders.
Simpson has now revealed a chilling glimpse inside the Murdaugh residence in the wake of Maggie and Paul’s deaths in a new book, “Within the House of Murdaugh: Amid a Unique Friendship — Blanca and Maggie,” in which she details the red flags that led her to suspect her former boss was the murderer.
Initially, she admits, it was unthinkable to her that Murdaugh could have been involved in their deaths, writing: “There was no universe in which Alex could have committed these crimes.”
Soon, however, she says she spotted telling signs that something more sinister was at play within the home where she had worked for more than a decade.
Her suspicions began the grow on the day after the murders took place, when she noticed that Maggie’s BMW had been parked in the wrong place on the estate, something she says the mother of two would never have done.
She then found Maggie’s pajamas and a pair of underwear laid out on the floor of the laundry room, revealing to People that “I knew automatically that wasn’t her,” while pointing out that Murdaugh’s wife never wore panties to bed.
Simpson determined that someone had not only moved Maggie’s car, but had also arranged her pajamas to make it look as though she’d been planning to stay at her home on the night of the murders—which her housekeeper says was not the case.
However it wasn’t until August 2021, two months after the murders took place, that Murdaugh solidified his guilt in Simpson’s eyes, when he tried to convince her that he’d been wearing a different shirt than the one she had seen him sporting on the night of the killings.
In her book, she recalls him insisting that he was wearing a shirt from Vineyard Vines, telling her: “You remember what I was wearing that day. You know, the Vinny Vines shirt.”
Simpson says she knew immediately that he was lying—because she had straightened the collar of a totally different shirt before he left his home to go to work on that fateful day.
“One thing was for sure: he was lying,” she recalls, although she concedes that it wasn’t until Murdaugh’s trial that she truly connected all the dots, admitting that she still held out hope that he was innocent even after his July 2022 arrest for the murders.
But when the jury was shown bodycam footage from the officers who first arrived on the scene on the night of the murders, having been called by Murdaugh, Simpson reveals she quickly spotted what she says was a clear indication of his guilt: a towel that she spotted in his SUV.
While many might have overlooked the beach towel on the front seat, Simpson told People that she saw it and immediately thought: “Oh my God. He did it.”
Explaining her theory in more detail, Simpson revealed she had washed the towel seen in Murdaugh’s car earlier in the day, then folded it and put it on a high shelf in the laundry room at Moselle.
She points to Murdaugh’s own timeline of events from that night, noting that the lawyer told police he had been to visit his father, Randolph, before returning to Moselle at around 10 p.m., which is when he said he found Maggie and Paul dead at the property’s kennels.
Simpson suggests in her book, however, that Murdaugh may have hosed himself down at the kennels after committing the murders, then used the towel from the laundry room to dry himself off. She further speculates that he grabbed a clean T-shirt out of the house—which is what he was wearing when police arrived at the home.
Prosecutors later revealed evidence that proved Murdaugh had been near the kennels at 8:44 p.m. on the night of the murders—a video that was found on Paul’s phone in which his father could be heard calling out to a dog.
Murdaugh has maintained his innocence since his arrest, shrugging off accusations that he lied about his whereabouts on the night as a symptom of his opioid addiction, insisting during the trial that he only denied being near the kennels because he was paranoid.
However, his repeated denials about his involvement in the crimes did little to sway the jury, which declared him guilty of both murders after just three hours of deliberation. He was later given two life sentences.
Murdaugh is currently appealing his murder convictions. However, even if they are overturned, he will likely spend the rest of his life in prison, having already been sentenced to 40 years behind bars after he was convicted of 22 federal financial crimes, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud; bank fraud; wire fraud; and money laundering.
During his murder trial, prosecutors claimed that his motive for killing his wife and child was to draw attention away from his fraud scheme and buy some time before it was exposed.
He was also accused of hiring a hit man to kill him so his surviving son, Buster, would receive his $10 million life insurance policy.
The release of Simpson’s book comes just weeks after Hulu debuted a new drama series centered on the Murdaugh case, which featured actor Jason Clarke playing the part of the murderer, while Patricia Arquette took on the role of Maggie.
Intriguingly, that series premiered just one month after Murdaugh’s Islandton estate was put back on the market for $2.2 million, having undergone significant renovations that left the property looking almost entirely unrecognizable.
It marked the second time in a year that Moselle had been listed; owner Alex Blair, who bought the estate for $1 million at auction in 2024, initially put the sprawling dwelling on the market for $2.75 million in December 2024.
However, after struggling to find a buyer, the property was delisted for five months, before being put back on the market, this time as a “farm,” rather than a single family home in an apparent bid to lure in more prospective buyers.
Blair and his listing agent may need more than a simple listing description change and discounted asking price to secure a concrete offer, however, according to luxury real estate agent Cara Ameer of Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty.
“Putting the property on the market as a farm is a smart move, and a way to expand the reach to a potentially different buyer audience,” she tells Realtor.com®. “Given the circumstances surrounding the property and the current real estate climate which has been challenging due to higher interest rates and prices, you have to get creative and leave no stone unturned.”
Ameer notes that classifying the property as a farm may help to draw buyers who are more interested in Moselle’s 48 acres, rather than the existing residence—and its sinister history.
“Because the property sits on a little over 48 acres, it is possible that someone looking for a substantial amount of land may look at listings classified as a farm versus a home with a certain amount of acreage,” she adds.
“This is an out-of-the-box approach to help offset the stigma associated with someone looking at it as a traditional residence on some land and going the farm route, a buyer may care less about what happened.
“[But] South Carolina is like one big small town, and it’s the kind of thing where everyone knows who owned this property and what happened. No matter what has been done to it or how nice it is, it still carries the weight of an incredible family tragedy.
“That’s more than enough to spook people, and it’s hard to separate what has transpired from being able to create a happy new life in this environment.”
For those willing to overlook—or ignore—the home’s chilling history, however, Ameer says the property presents a very intriguing investment opportunity, whether as a business or a potential development.
“There may be a buyer who is eyeing this property for something other than a traditional home—perhaps it may become an equestrian training facility, event venue, a working farm that’s open to the public, or they may redevelop it entirely into multiple structures and a compound of sorts, like a wellness center, rehabilitation center for drug and alcohol recovery, or create a neighborhood,” she says.
“The possibilities are endless, and with a positive mindset and the right capital, a buyer may turn the negative situation associated with this property into a positive and potentially profitable business venture.”