As Anthony Cook and his friends were preparing to leave a party one fateful night in 2019, he noticed that the boat’s driver, Paul Murdaugh, was extremely drunk. Cook considered taking an Uber with his girlfriend, Mallory Beach, but decided not to leave his friends.
Minutes into the turbulent boat ride, Paul crashed the boat into a bridge, throwing Paul, Anthony, and Mallory into the water. Paul and Anthony surfaced; Mallory was found dead a week later, drowned after suffering blunt force trauma.
Anthony narrated that heartbreaking story on Netflix Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandalreleased weeks before Alex’s Murdaugh was found guilty of killing his son, Paul, and his wife, Maggie.
Anthony Cook works as an electrical lineman and struggles with PTSD-like symptoms
Anthony Cook has kept a low profile as the century-old Murdaugh dynasty collapses. He reportedly works as an electrical lineman in the southern United States.
Anthony struggles with PTSD-like symptoms stemming from Mallory Beach’s death. Mallory and Anthony hadn’t dated long before her death, but they’d known each other for years.
As shown in the Netflix documentary, Anthony was desperate to find Mallory: he criticized Paul for smiling and ignoring the severity of the incident; he risked her life to find her, swimming upstream as he called out her name; he remained at the scene of the accident while the others went to the hospital to be checked.
“He didn’t want to leave; he wanted to be there,” Beverly, Anthony’s mother, said in the documentary. “Every day, Anthony would go out on the water. I heard him tell one of her friends, “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but if she got out of this water right now, I would marry her today.”
After the discovery of Mallory’s body, Anthony wrote on Facebook that he would always regret leaving the water without Mallory. By The Daily Mailhe wrote:
“I have to live the rest of my life with the memory of being thrown into the freezing black water with the love of my life in my arms. I had to swim to shore without it to save my own life and I regret it forever.”
For a while, Anthony tried to hide the pain. He quickly realized that excessive partying would do more harm than good, so he quit and adopted healthier ways of coping with the pain.
Reports indicate that Anthony still struggles with PTSD-like symptoms.
Anthony filed a lawsuit against Alex Murdaugh and the store that sold alcohol to Paul Murdaugh
Anthony sued Alex Murdaugh for entrusting Paul with the ship “in circumstances that he knew or should have known were unsafe and unsuitable.” He claims that Alex knew about Paul’s “propensity for underage drinking, [and] reckless and dangerous browsing habits.”
He adds that Alex condoned Paul’s use of his older brother’s license to buy alcohol. Anthony alleges that Paul’s use of his brother’s identification and his mother’s credit card should have alerted the store manager to the illegal purchase of alcohol.
Anthony claims that the store neglected its duty of care due to its emphasis on profit and quick sales. The complaint says:
“This emphasis on speed of sale transaction with Parker’s many convenience stores minimizes or eliminates the opportunity for a proper examination of a customer’s eligibility to purchase alcohol, putting the public at great risk of harm.” .
“Improper sales of alcohol and turning a blind eye to the dangers associated with underage drinking are societal problems that cause many unnecessary injuries and deaths each year in the United States.”
Paul was awaiting trial on felony boating under the influence when he was murdered in June 2021.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn