Melinda Worley

Melinda Worley testified for the State as a SLED crime-scene investigator. She described documenting and mapping the Moselle kennel and feed-room area, collecting physical and biological evidence, and establishing the foundation for photographs and exhibits.

On direct examination, Worley identified fired shells, wadding, pellets, cartridge cases, projectiles, biological material, window defects, and footwear impressions. She said impressions in the feed room were consistent with the outsole design of Paul's shoes, while limiting that comparison to general design characteristics rather than identifying a particular shoe. Her later vehicle work included collecting a shell, taking presumptive blood swabs, removing the driver's seatbelt for testing, and testing Alex Murdaugh's clothing with a reagent that could also react to substances other than blood.

Defense questioning examined scene control and documentation. Worley agreed that a responder had left a bloody footprint and that the footwear impressions were not photographed using preferred procedures. She also could not explain why her notes recorded an 84-degree dog-house angle while a diagram showed 96 degrees. On recross, she acknowledged that apparent blood-like material on an ATV had not been tested, that she had not been asked to sample water around Paul, and that the method used to establish photographic scale was not the best.

Worley consistently distinguished her observations from conclusions the evidence could not support. She described her diagrams as approximate evidence-location tools rather than scale reconstruction models, declined to fix a shooter's position or determine the number of shooters from projectile paths, and treated movement or one person possessing two guns only as possibilities. She explained that her assignment was to process and document the scene, not reconstruct it.