Convicted Killer Alex Murdaugh Claims He Failed Polygraph Test After FBI Agent Asked Bizarre Questions About Natalee Holloway's Murderer

Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of murdering his wife and youngest son in March 2023 and was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

It was widely speculated that Murdaugh killed his family members in order to cover up his many financial crimes. Although the convicted murderer was offered a plea deal in the latter case, prosecutors are fighting to have the offer revoked after it was revealed that Murdaugh lied on a polygraph test conducted by an FBI agent in connection with the case.

Murdaugh's legal team argued their client only flunked the test because the person administering it asked him a string of bizarre questions, including one regarding the identity of Natalee Holloway's murderer.

The examiner reportedly asked Murdaugh if he could "keep a secret" and told him that he'd just tested Dutch killer Joran van der Sloot, who confessed to killing Holloway in 2005. The FBI agent also told Murdaugh that he didn't believe he'd actually murdered his wife and son before peppering him with confusing questions about his finances and assets.

"There are legitimate questions as to whether the Government intentionally manipulated the results to void the plea agreement and achieve the prosecutors’ stated desire to ‘ensure that he’s never a free man again,'" Murdaugh's defense lawyers Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian said in a statement.

They also requested the judge disregard the results of the polygraph when determining Murdaugh's sentence at his hearing scheduled for Monday, April 1.

This comes weeks after Judge Jean Toal determined that Murdaugh was not entitled to a retrial for the murders of his family members after he claimed the jury had been swayed by comments made by a court clerk.

"I simply do not believe that the authority of our South Carolina Supreme Court requires a new trial in a very lengthy trial such as this on the strength of some fleeting and foolish comments by a publicity influenced clerk of courts," the judge said. "Now that I’ve read the record, I say as the successive trial judge that the evidence was overwhelming and the jury verdict not surprising."

The disgraced former lawyer's attorneys vowed to take the case to the Court of Appeals, as well as South Carolina's Supreme Court to continue to fight the ruling.

"It’s either going to be decided, in my opinion, in our favor in the appellate court or five years down the road in federal court — unless they change the federal law," Griffin said at the time.

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The Associated Press reported Murdaugh was asked odd polygraph questions.