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20/20 Preview: Mallory Beach's Parents Open Up About the Death of Their Daughter

Back in 2019, Mallory Beach died in a tragic boating accident and in a 20/20 special on Jan. 14, her parents are opening up about their loss.

By Jillian Fabiano Jan 14, 2022 11:30 AMTags

Mallory Beach's parents are ready to discuss the night of her death.

As the story develops on the Murdaugh family murders and the alleged financial crimes of Alex Murdaugh, 20/20 spoke to the parents of Mallory, who was involved in a boating accident with Alex's son Paul Murdaugh in 2019, that left the 19-year-old girl dead. In an E! News exclusive clip, Renee and Phillip Beach open up about their experiences that night and the loss of their daughter. 

"I got a call from my mom to ask if Mallory was home with me and I told her no," Renee recalls in the clip. "And she just said there had been a boat accident."

As the clip continues, Phillip shares, "I got a phone call from Mallory's mom saying there had been an accident and she was frantic. I hung up the phone and said, 'No God, not my child.'"

Renee continued stating that, as a baby, Mallory was "very head strong," "was always a people person" and "was the child that had to be near you all the time."

"She followed me everywhere I went," Phillip added. "She wanted to do what I did. She could be a lady when she needed to be a lady and she could be a tom boy, so to speak. She loved hunting and fishing."

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2022 TV Premiere Dates

The two-hour 20/20 special covers the boating accident, as well as the murders of Paul and his mother, Maggie Murdaugh, which were discovered by Alex. 

According to the episode's description, it will cover "Alex allegedly stealing insurance settlement money intended for the family of Murdaugh housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, after she fell and died while working on their property in 2018, questions about the suspicious roadside death of Stephen Smith in 2015, and how authorities re-opened the case based on information gathered during the investigation into Paul and Maggie's murders." 

While there are no allegations that Alex was involved in the murders of his wife and son, as the description continued, it also highlighted how Alex has been accused of hiring a hitman to kill him, so his other son Buster could collect the insurance money.

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Alex's lawyer, Richard Harpootlian, explained on Today that Alex was taking opioids to cope with his wife and son's death when he became depressed. Harpootlian said that Alex paid a hitman—his former legal client Curtis Edward Smith—to kill him because he believed that his $10 million life insurance policy had a suicide clause that would prevent his eldest son, Buster, from receiving the payout.

Alex's lawyer explained that his client admitted to staging his own murder because he "didn't want law enforcement to spend time on this fake crime instead of on Maggie and Paul."

Learn more about Alex and the Murdaugh family when 20/20 airs on Jan. 14 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.

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