Rogan Gibson is a South Carolina agricultural professional and a lifelong friend of Paul Murdaugh whose testimony helped dismantle Alex Murdaugh’s alibi in the 2023 double-murder trial. Gibson’s phone call with Paul on the evening of June 7, 2021, prompted the recording of a short video at the family’s dog kennels, and Gibson later identified Alex Murdaugh’s voice on that recording, placing him at the crime scene minutes before Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were shot.
Who Rogan Gibson Is
Gibson grew up in the South Carolina Lowcountry and had known the Murdaughs since he was about eleven or twelve.1The State. Rogan Gibson Testimony at Alex Murdaugh Murder Trial He considered Paul one of his best friends and called the family his “second family.” He addressed Paul’s mother as “Ms. Maggie” and Alex Murdaugh as “Big Red.” He hunted with Paul at Moselle, the Murdaughs’ rural Colleton County property, and was in and around the household often enough to know the family’s voices well.
Gibson graduated from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in the spring of 2021 with a degree in agribusiness management.2Clemson University. Rogan Gibson Profile He had worked as a grower producing corn, cotton, watermelons, blueberries, and blackberries, and in June 2022 he joined Clemson University’s Cooperative Extension Service as an agronomy agent for Allendale and Hampton Counties.3Clemson University Blogs. Welcome Rogan Gibson, Agronomy Agent, Allendale and Hampton Counties
The Phone Call and the Kennel Video
On the night of the murders, Gibson was at his girlfriend’s house. His chocolate Labrador, Cash, was being boarded at the Murdaugh kennels at Moselle, and the dog had developed a problem with its tail.4NBC News. Alex Murdaugh Paul Phone Video Recording Code At 8:40 p.m., Paul called Gibson to discuss the dog. The call ran four minutes and fourteen seconds.5WJCL. Murdaugh Murders Timeline Evidence Gibson asked to see Cash, but cell service at the kennels was too weak for FaceTime, so Paul said he would record a video and send it.
At 8:44 p.m., Paul recorded a roughly fifty-second clip on his phone. The footage showed Cash’s wagging tail, and three voices could be heard on it: Paul, Maggie, and a third male voice. Maggie asked about what appeared to be a guinea fowl. The third voice replied in a high-pitched tone that it was a chicken and told the family’s yellow Labrador, Bubba, to drop the bird.6The State. Kennel Video Details in Alex Murdaugh Trial The video was never sent. Prosecutors would later place the shootings roughly three minutes after the recording, with activity on both victims’ phones ceasing around 8:49 p.m.1The State. Rogan Gibson Testimony at Alex Murdaugh Murder Trial
The Silence After
When Paul did not send the video or answer, Gibson kept trying. At 8:49 p.m. he texted Paul detailed instructions about photographing the dog’s tail to send to a veterinarian friend.7The Daily Beast. Paul Murdaugh’s Final Tragic Texts Sent Minutes Before His Murder Revealed in Court He called at 9:10, 9:29, 9:42, 9:57, and 10:08. He texted Maggie at 9:34: “Tell Paul to call me.” At 9:58 he texted Paul: “Yo.”8ABC News 4. Murdaugh Murder Trial Day 8 Nothing came back. Gibson testified that Paul was normally a fast responder, so the silence was strange. Alex Murdaugh called 911 at 10:07 p.m. to report finding the bodies.
Telling Investigators What He Heard
Within twenty-four hours of the killings, Gibson contacted the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. He told agents he had spoken to Paul that evening and believed he had heard Alex Murdaugh’s voice in the background.4NBC News. Alex Murdaugh Paul Phone Video Recording Code That mattered because Alex had told lead detective David Owen he was not at the kennels; he said he had been napping at the main house after dinner.
Confronted with Gibson’s account during an August 2021 interview, Murdaugh denied being at the kennels. Asked whether anyone else on the property had a voice Gibson might have confused with his, Murdaugh said no. He also acknowledged that Gibson had been around the family “pretty much all his life” and would recognize his voice.9ABC 7 Chicago. Alex Murdaugh Trial Murders Police Interview
Gibson’s tip pointed investigators at Paul’s phone, but they could not unlock it. SLED seized the iPhone on August 13, 2021, and did not have the passcode; they feared additional failed attempts would wipe the device. Alex had given passcodes for his own phone and Maggie’s, claiming he did not know Paul’s. In late March 2022, while preparing to send the device to the U.S. Secret Service, SLED computer crimes supervisor Lt. Britt Dove tried Paul’s birthday, “041499,” and it worked. The fifty-second kennel video was among the recovered data. Dove later called the video the evidence that “destroyed” Murdaugh’s alibi.4NBC News. Alex Murdaugh Paul Phone Video Recording Code
Gibson’s Testimony at Trial
Gibson took the stand on February 1, 2023, Day 8 of the trial in Colleton County. He was the seventeenth prosecution witness and the third to testify that day.10CNN. Alex Murdaugh Trial Wednesday
Under questioning by lead prosecutor Creighton Waters, Gibson walked the jury through the phone call, the failed FaceTime, and his request for a video of Cash. He said that during that live call with Paul he had already believed he heard Alex Murdaugh’s voice in the background. When agents first played him the recovered kennel video, he told them he was “99% sure” the third voice belonged to “Mr. Alex.”1The State. Rogan Gibson Testimony at Alex Murdaugh Murder Trial In the courtroom, after the clip was played, Waters asked him to confirm his certainty. Gibson said he was “100%” sure the voice was Alex Murdaugh’s, telling Bubba to drop a chicken.11ABC 11. Alex Murdaugh Trial Family Murders He also described the Murdaughs as a loving family and said he could not think of a reason Alex would want to hurt Maggie or Paul.
Defense attorney Jim Griffin used that answer. He asked Gibson whether he could envision any circumstances under which Alex would brutally murder his wife and son. Gibson replied, “Not that I can think of.” Griffin also drew from Gibson that sheds, workshops, and vehicles at Moselle were often left unlocked and that firearms were often unsecured, opening the door to an outsider theory. The defense did not directly challenge Gibson’s identification of the voice on the video.12Courthouse News Service. Alex Murdaugh’s Voice Heard in Cellphone Video Recorded Moments Before Wife and Son’s Slayings, Friends Testify On redirect, Waters asked whether he really knew Alex Murdaugh. Gibson answered, “Yes, I knew Mr. Alex.”6The State. Kennel Video Details in Alex Murdaugh Trial Will Loving, another close friend of Paul’s, testified the same day and independently said he was “100%” sure the third voice was Alex Murdaugh’s.10CNN. Alex Murdaugh Trial Wednesday
Why His Role Mattered
The video existed because Gibson asked for it, and it was recovered because Gibson had told investigators to look for something like it. Prosecutor Waters described the kennel recording as a “knife in the heart” of Murdaugh’s alibi.12Courthouse News Service. Alex Murdaugh’s Voice Heard in Cellphone Video Recorded Moments Before Wife and Son’s Slayings, Friends Testify It put Alex at the kennels at 8:44 p.m., minutes before phone activity for Paul and Maggie stopped, on a night he repeatedly told investigators he had never been there. Prosecutors argued the murders followed within minutes and that his later communications were an attempt to build a false alibi. Gibson’s affection for the family also served the state’s motive theory by contrast: prosecutors argued Alex Murdaugh, facing exposure for stealing roughly $792,000 in legal fees, killed his wife and son as those pressures came to a head.6The State. Kennel Video Details in Alex Murdaugh Trial
Where the Case Stands Now
On March 2, 2023, the jury found Alex Murdaugh guilty of two counts of murder and two weapons counts. He received two consecutive life sentences.13NPR. Alex Murdaugh Murder Timeline Trial On May 13, 2026, the South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously overturned those convictions, finding that former Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill had engaged in “egregious” and “unprecedented” jury interference during the trial.14CNN. Alex Murdaugh Murder Appeal Hill had pleaded guilty in December 2025 to perjury, obstruction of justice, and misconduct.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has said his office intends to retry Murdaugh, aiming for trial by the end of 2026. Murdaugh remains incarcerated on state and federal financial-crime sentences of 27 and 40 years.15KCRA. Alex Murdaugh Murder Convictions Overturned New Trial The defense has said it will seek a change of venue and that the retrial will look different, particularly on the admission of financial-crime evidence, which the Supreme Court noted went “far too long and far too deep” in the original proceeding.16Count On 2. S.C. Supreme Court Grants Alex Murdaugh’s Appeal for New Trial If a retrial goes forward, Gibson’s account of the phone call and his identification of Alex Murdaugh’s voice on the kennel video would again be at the center of the state’s case.