Was Mallory Beach Ever Found? Crash, Charges, and Settlements

Yes, Mallory Beach was found. Two brothers searching by boat recovered her body on the afternoon of Sunday, March 3, 2019, near the marshline at low tide close to the Broad River Boat Landing in Beaufort County, South Carolina — roughly five miles downriver from the Archers Creek Bridge where the boat she was riding in crashed eight days earlier.¹ She was 19 years old.

The Crash That Put Her in the Water

Beach was one of six teenagers on a boat driven by Paul Murdaugh in the early hours of February 24, 2019. Earlier that evening, Paul, then 19, had bought alcohol at a Parker’s Kitchen convenience store in Ridgeland using his older brother Buster’s driver’s license.² The group left the Murdaugh river house around 7 p.m. for a party on Paukie Island, then headed by boat to Luther’s Rare & Well Done in downtown Beaufort, where Paul and Connor Cook ordered rounds of shots.³

At about 2:20 a.m., the boat struck the Archers Creek Bridge at high speed, tearing a six-foot gash in the hull. Mallory Beach was ejected into the water. A blood test taken at the hospital roughly 90 minutes later showed Paul Murdaugh’s blood alcohol content at .286, more than three times South Carolina’s legal limit.²

The Eight-Day Search

The search began that night but ran into trouble immediately. Dense fog hung over the water, and emergency crews were initially sent to the wrong bridge, the Bell Bridge, about a mile and a half from the crash site.⁴

The U.S. Coast Guard, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and Beaufort Water Search and Rescue all joined the effort with boats, dive teams, and a helicopter. Pluff mud along the banks made searching on foot nearly impossible. By February 25, officials shifted from rescue to recovery, and the Coast Guard cancelled its urgent marine broadcast that evening. The search paused each night and resumed at daylight.⁴

Hundreds of volunteers organized by community members Lottie Campenella and Eric Swanson joined in. On February 27, the Beach family asked local fishermen and crabbers to expand the search into the Broad River and surrounding inlets, staying clear of the law enforcement zone in Archers Creek.

On March 3, two brothers who had left church services to look for Beach launched their boat near the Broad River Boat Landing. About 20 minutes later, they found her.¹ Her mother, Renee Beach, later said the discovery brought painful closure: “I know there’s so many times that people go missing and they never find the body, but it was like a closure for that.”⁵

Cause of Death

An autopsy performed by the Medical University of South Carolina determined that Beach died from drowning and secondary blunt force trauma to the head, injuries sustained when the boat struck the bridge pilings. The Beaufort County Coroner’s Office handled identification.⁶

Criminal Charges Against Paul Murdaugh

A Beaufort County grand jury directly indicted Paul Murdaugh on April 18, 2019 on one count of boating under the influence causing death and two counts of boating under the influence causing great bodily injury.⁷ He pleaded not guilty and was released on a $50,000 personal recognizance bond. The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office took the case after 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone recused his office, citing family ties between passengers and his staff.⁸

Paul Murdaugh never stood trial. On June 7, 2021, he and his mother, Maggie Murdaugh, were shot and killed at the family’s Colleton County hunting property. His father, Alex Murdaugh, was later convicted of their murders. The boat crash charges were formally dropped in August 2021.⁹

Allegations the Murdaughs Interfered

The investigation drew scrutiny almost from the first hour. Paul Murdaugh was never given a field sobriety test at the scene. Officers did not interview him there. His cellphone, which officers reported seeing, was never collected into evidence, and his clothing and wallet were unaccounted for in the file.¹⁰

According to a Department of Natural Resources report, when an investigator tried to interview Paul at the hospital, Alex Murdaugh and Randolph Murdaugh III arrived and the interview was “promptly stopped.” Randolph told the officer, “Paul’s not saying anything else… you’re talking to us now.”¹¹ Court records allege Alex Murdaugh then went from room to room telling the injured teenagers not to speak to investigators.¹²

Connor Cook, who suffered a fractured jaw, later said Alex Murdaugh told him he “didn’t need to tell anyone who was driving” and to “keep my mouth shut… and that he’s got me.”¹³ Alex Murdaugh also steered Cook toward attorney Cory Fleming without disclosing that Fleming was Murdaugh’s college roommate, best friend, and Paul’s godfather. A later lawsuit alleged Fleming advised Cook to decline interviews with law enforcement.¹⁴ Alex Murdaugh denied in legal filings that he told Cook not to cooperate.

The South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division opened a criminal investigation into whether Alex Murdaugh obstructed justice, and the Attorney General’s Office examined how local law enforcement handled the initial response.⁸

Civil Settlements the Beach Family Obtained

The Beach family’s wrongful death lawsuit named Alex Murdaugh, Paul Murdaugh’s estate, Buster Murdaugh, Parker’s Kitchen, and the family that hosted the oyster roast the group attended. Luther’s Rare & Well Done was initially named but was dropped in an amended complaint.¹⁵ The case resolved in three stages:

In January 2023, a judge approved a settlement with the estate of Maggie Murdaugh and with Buster Murdaugh that included about $517,892 in cash and a Mercedes SUV valued at $85,000. Attorney Mark Tinsley estimated victims would ultimately receive about $700,000, depending on the sale of Murdaugh family property.¹⁶
In July 2023, Parker’s Kitchen and owner Greg Parker reached an $18.5 million global settlement. The Beach family received $15 million. The remaining $3.5 million was divided among the four surviving passengers: $1.1 million for Morgan Doughty, $1 million each for Connor Cook and Anthony Cook, and $400,000 for Miley Altman. Parker’s did not admit legal liability.¹⁷¹⁸
In October 2024, Alex Murdaugh’s boat insurer, Progressive, agreed to pay its $500,000 policy limit to the Beach family, and Murdaugh was dropped as a defendant. Judge Daniel Hall signed the order on October 10, 2024.¹⁹

Parker’s argued throughout that the alcohol sale was valid because the clerk checked a driver’s license, and that SLED declined to cite the store or the employee for alcohol violations. Attorneys for the Beach family countered that the clerk, Tajeeha Cohen, violated multiple company policies and failed to verify that the person in front of her matched the ID.²⁰

The Separate Case Still Pending Against Parker’s

After the wrongful death settlement, the Beach family filed a separate lawsuit alleging that Parker’s Corporation and its legal team ran an intimidation campaign to pressure the family into dropping the original case. The suit accuses Parker’s of involvement in the release of confidential photos and video of Mallory Beach’s body and of creating fake social media posts targeting the family.²¹

In April 2025, a judge denied Parker’s motions to dismiss the case and to remove the Beach family’s attorneys. Parker’s has denied the allegations as speculative, and in June 2026 filed motions for summary judgment and to move the trial out of Hampton County, citing media saturation. No hearing dates had been set on those motions as of mid-June 2026.²²

What Her Family Built in Her Memory

Mallory Beach’s parents launched Mal’s Palz, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to build a new animal shelter, adoption center, and veterinary clinic in Hampton County to replace a facility described as “beyond repair.” A portion of the wrongful death settlement is funding the project, and attorney Mark Tinsley and his firm donated $130,000 toward construction.²³ In November 2023, Hampton County voted to explore a partnership under which the county would provide the land and Mal’s Palz would build the facility.²⁴

Her father, Philip Beach, said the family’s long public fight was about one thing: “Her life meant something. For us, she was our baby. We had to defend her honor. I want the world to know that she mattered.”⁵

1
Island Packet. Mallory Beach Body Found
2
WTOC. Chilling New Details in 2019 Boat Crash That Killed SC Teen
3
CBS News. Mallory Beach Boat Crash
4
Island Packet. Mallory Beach Search Details
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ABC News. Murdaugh Murders: Mallory Beach Boat Accident
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Island Packet. Mallory Beach Cause of Death
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Island Packet. Paul Murdaugh Indicted
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Island Packet. Murdaugh Family Influence and Recusal
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Island Packet. Paul Murdaugh Charges Dropped
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ABC News. Murdaugh Murders: Mallory Beach Boat Accident
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Island Packet. Conflicting Accounts of Who Was Driving
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NPR. Murdaugh Boat: Mallory Beach Family
13
People. Where Is Connor Cook Now
14
Oxygen. Lawsuit Accuses Alex Murdaugh of Manipulating 2019 Boat Crash Probe
15
Island Packet. Luther’s Bar Dropped From Lawsuit
16
WTOC. Judge Approves Mallory Beach Wrongful Death Lawsuit Settlement
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ABC News 4. Judge Approves Parker’s $15M Settlement
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WHSV. Judge OKs $15M Payout
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ABC News 4. Alex Murdaugh Settles Lawsuit Over 2019 Boat Crash
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WIS TV. Parker’s Corporation Denies Liability
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WTOC. Judge Makes Ruling in Mallory Beach Case
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WTOC. Attorneys Ask for Summary Judgment, Change of Venue in Mallory Beach Case
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Greenville Online. Mallory Beach’s Legacy Lives On in Planned Animal Shelter
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People. Mallory Beach Family Honors Legacy After Murdaugh Boat Crash