Bio 

Michael Joe Murdaugh was born on January 9, 1954. By 1995, he was living in Arizona with his girlfriend, Rebecca Rohrs, and Douglas Eggert. Court summaries describe Murdaugh as a man with chronic methamphetamine use, paranoid thoughts, and a personality disorder, all of which were later presented as non-statutory mitigation during sentencing.

Before the murders, Murdaugh had no prior criminal convictions listed as a mitigating circumstance at sentencing. However, prosecutors argued that his conduct during the 1995 killings showed planning, violence, and efforts to conceal evidence. He later pleaded guilty to charges connected to the murder of David Reynolds, including kidnapping, robbery, and first-degree murder.

Murder Story

In May 1995, Murdaugh suspected Douglas Eggert of stealing from him and believed Eggert intended to harm people close to him. Acting on that suspicion, Murdaugh decided to kill Eggert. He first tried to sedate Eggert by forcing him to drink beer mixed with Valium, but that attempt failed. Murdaugh then forced Eggert into the cross-bed toolbox of his truck.

Murdaugh and Rebecca Rohrs drove Eggert to the Central Arizona Project Canal. At the canal, Murdaugh ordered Eggert out of the toolbox and told him to get on his knees. He gave Rohrs a gun and instructed her to shoot Eggert, but she refused. Murdaugh then retrieved a nylon bat from his truck and beat Eggert to death. After the killing, he pushed Eggert’s body into the canal, where it was recovered several days later.

A few weeks later, on June 26, 1995, Rohrs met David Reynolds at a gas station. She later told Murdaugh that Reynolds had propositioned her. Murdaugh decided to confront him and had Rohrs page Reynolds and invite him to the home. When Reynolds arrived, Murdaugh returned with a friend, Jesse Dezarn. The men armed themselves and entered the house, where Murdaugh confronted Reynolds and ordered him to empty his pockets.

Reynolds was held in the living room for several hours before Murdaugh moved him to a detached garage and placed him in the trunk of a car. Reynolds remained there until the following morning. Later, after Murdaugh and others returned to the garage, Reynolds said he needed to use the restroom. Murdaugh let him out of the trunk and, while Reynolds’ back was turned, beat him to death with a nylon bat and a jackhammer spike.

Murdaugh left Reynolds’ body in the garage for the rest of the day. Later that night, he and Dezarn loaded the body into a horse trailer. Murdaugh then went camping with his horses and dogs. At the campsite, he dismembered Reynolds’ body, removed his teeth, cut the finger pads from his hands, and buried the torso in one grave and the head and hands in another. He was later arrested after seeking hospital treatment for a leg injury.

Murdaugh pleaded guilty on January 10, 2000, to both murders. The State agreed not to seek the death penalty for Eggert’s murder but reserved the right to use that conviction as an aggravating factor in the Reynolds case. He received a life sentence for Eggert’s murder and a death sentence for Reynolds’ murder. The Arizona Supreme Court upheld the death sentence in 2004.

A later federal appeal led to further litigation over his sentence because Murdaugh had been sentenced to death by a judge rather than a jury. Reporting in 2016 stated that he remained on Arizona’s death row.