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Alex Murdaugh— Case Archive
personpersonBritt DoveBritt DoveSLED digital-forensics investigator who analyzed data from the Murdaugh family phones and authenticated the kennel video.← All People
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Britt Dove

Courtroom still of Britt Dove.

SLED digital-forensics investigator who analyzed data from the Murdaugh family phones and authenticated the kennel video.

Appeared2023 Murder Trial
1,230 lines·13 proceedings·7 mentions

About

Britt Dove testified as a court-qualified expert in cell-phone forensics about the extraction and review of phones attributed to Maggie, Alex, and Paul Murdaugh. He explained the tools, cross-checks, and hash verification used to assess the recovered data, while emphasizing that device records ordinarily could not identify who held or operated a phone.

His testimony traced call logs, messages, step records, orientation changes, location information, and other device events. He discussed later unanswered calls and unread messages on Maggie's phone, calls absent from Alex's retained log, and the limits of using step counts to determine precise distance or location. For Paul's phone, he described messages marked read at 8:48:59 p.m., the phone locking seconds later, and the lack of recorded steps or apparent active human use afterward, while allowing that short movements might not register.

Dove also authenticated the kennel video through metadata, the camera-use interval, and location data near a red-roofed building on Moselle Road. He heard three distinct voices on the recording but did not identify the speakers from personal knowledge. Before that phone's contents were presented, the court found the chain of custody sufficient and denied the defense motion to exclude Dove's planned testimony.

Cross-examination challenged whether notifications, application records, orientation changes, and step data established deliberate human activity. Dove agreed that Alex's and Maggie's phones did not appear to move together and that cached GPS data might have been overwritten before Maggie's full extraction, but he declined to infer the precise time her phone was thrown. On redirect and recross, he corrected one misstated step-record time and reiterated that the records did not establish exact distance, a particular user, or deliberate camera activation; he also acknowledged that he had not reviewed certain SpringBoard metadata.

Trial Record (13)

20232023 Murder TrialJan 23, 2023 – Mar 3, 2023Called by prosecution

Britt Dove presented forensic extraction and timeline data from phones attributed to Maggie, Alex, and Paul Murdaugh, including the metadata used to authenticate the kennel video. He repeatedly distinguished recorded device events from conclusions about a particular user, precise movement or distance, and deliberate activity.

Day 7

ProceduralCell-Phone Chain-of-Custody Motion1highlightMentioned

Summary

The court denied the defense request to exclude testimony about Paul Murdaugh's phone extraction, finding the phone non-fungible and the State's chain of custody sufficient.

Mentioned in this proceeding.

Highlights (1)

objectionThe defense asked the court to exclude Britt Dove's planned testimony about the phone extraction until additional custodians testified, arguing that the State had not completed the chain of custody.Open in transcript →
Voir DireBritt Dove - Voir DireBritt DoveJohn B. Conrad1highlight18lines spoken

Summary

SLED Lieutenant Britt Dove described his digital-forensics experience and training before the court, without defense objection, qualified him as a cell-phone forensics expert.

Highlights (1)

Quote“We're going to attempt to remove the hard drive from it, connect the hard drive to a physical write blocker, which is a piece of hardware that we connect it to; we also use a software write blocker.”— Britt DoveDove explained a core safeguard used to create a forensic copy without working directly from original computer evidence.Open in transcript →Watch this moment ▶

Day 8

DirectBritt Dove - DirectBritt DoveJohn B. Conrad3highlights437lines spoken

Summary

Britt Dove detailed apparent missing calls and activity gaps on Alex Murdaugh's phone, traced Paul Murdaugh's final recorded phone use, and authenticated the kennel video's time and location metadata.

Highlights (3)

Quote“A gap like that would indicate that it was actually removed from there.”— Britt DoveDove stated his forensic interpretation of the discontinuity in Alex Murdaugh's retained call log.Open in transcript →Watch this moment ▶
Quote“It tells that the phone recorded the steps. It's not 100 percent accurate as to that's how many steps were taken. It also will not tell where the start was, the stop was as far as distances, anything like that, but it's not 100 percent accurate. It just says the phone recorded steps; it was in movement recording steps.”— Britt DoveDove explained the principal limitations of using phone-recorded steps to infer movement or distance.Open in transcript →Watch this moment ▶
Quote“You hear three different voices in the video. You can tell -- because they're so different, you can tell that they're different voices.”— Britt DoveDove described an important feature of the kennel video's audio while later making clear that the voices were not personally known to him.Open in transcript →Watch this moment ▶
CrossBritt Dove - CrossBritt DovePhillip D. Barber3highlights260lines spoken

Summary

The defense used Britt Dove's phone records to argue that Alex and Maggie Murdaugh's phones were moving separately, while Dove resisted identifying an orientation change as proof the phone was thrown and acknowledged that cached GPS data may have been overwritten.

Highlights (3)

Quote“I don't know that the camera came on. I know that it was shown an application usage log. Whether somebody activated the camera to use it or not, I don't know that.”— Britt DoveDove distinguished an application log from proof that a person intentionally used the camera.Open in transcript →Watch this moment ▶
Quote“I don't know that that's the time of the throw, the phone was thrown. I know that's the time the orientation change occurred. Now, that does not mean that the phone was thrown at that moment. It's hard for me to say.”— Britt DoveDove rejected the defense effort to equate the phone's final orientation change with the moment it was discarded.Open in transcript →Watch this moment ▶
Quote“It appears the phones were not together being moved by the same person because they are not recording steps.”— Britt DoveThis was the clearest testimony supporting the defense's device-separation argument.Open in transcript →Watch this moment ▶
RedirectBritt Dove - RedirectBritt DoveJohn B. Conrad1highlight75lines spoken

Summary

Britt Dove clarified the timing and limits of phone movement, message, and camera-application records, resisting conclusions about when Maggie's phone was thrown or deliberately used.

Highlights (1)

Quote“Correct. It's just showing as an application usage. It could have been that the camera -- the phone thought it saw something and the camera was activated. It could have been running in the background. For 1 second, it doesn't look like somebody might have touched it to cut it on.”— Britt DoveDove emphasized that the one-second camera log did not establish deliberate human activation.Open in transcript →Watch this moment ▶
RecrossBritt Dove - RecrossBritt DovePhillip D. Barber2highlights9lines spoken

Summary

Britt Dove acknowledged that he had not reviewed SpringBoard metadata for Maggie Murdaugh's one-second camera event and declined to validate the defense's proposed explanation for it.

Highlights (2)

Quote“For 1 second it would be -- to start and stop in 1 second I would imagine that would be difficult. But could somebody accidentally activate their camera and shut it off? Yes, sir, that is possible.”— Britt DoveDove allowed accidental activation as a possibility while questioning whether deliberate camera use could start and stop within one second.Open in transcript →Watch this moment ▶

Day 9

Day 13

Day 15

DirectMatthew Wild - DirectMatthew WildJohn B. ConradMentioned

Summary

Matthew Wild mapped Paul, Maggie, and Alex Murdaugh's phones using call records, device data, and drive tests, while stressing that the records did not identify who held a device. He found the 911 call compatible with a Moselle location despite its use of a Varnville-area tower and traced Alex's phone through Almeda-, Summerville-, and Hampton-area sectors from June 8-15.

Mentioned in this proceeding.

Day 18

Day 20