How Mallory Beach’s Family Is Honoring the Animal Lover’s Legacy After Murdaugh Boat Crash (Exclusive)

She was killed in a boat crash amid the Murdaugh family scandals. Now, her family is building an animal shelter in her name

Mallory Beach was driving home from work at a fashion boutique in Beaufort, S.C., when she saw a litter of puppies on the side of the road. “The strays always found her,” says her mother, Renee Beach, who was at home when Mallory asked her to head out into the cold on that February 2018 evening. Together, mother and daughter searched the woods for the abandoned puppies. “They had curled up in some straw underneath a pine tree to keep warm,” recalls Renee, 51. “Mallory was looking at me with tears in her eyes, saying, ‘We have to take them home.’ And so we did.”

A year after rescuing and finding new homes for all the puppies except for one that Mallory kept, the 19-year-old died in a boating accident caused by an allegedly drunk driver, Paul Murdaugh—who, two years later at age 22, was shot and killed alongside his mother, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, by the family’s notorious patriarch, convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh, now 55. “It was my worst nightmare come true,” Renee says of losing her daughter amid the headline-making Murdaugh family scandal. “I guess over time I got used to it, but it isn’t easier. I miss Mallory, and I want her back.”

To those who knew her, Mallory will always be remembered for, among other interests, the care and attention she lavished on dogs, cats and even snakes. “She was like a mother to strays,” says Renee. “She was forever finding animals that were just abandoned.”

To keep her legacy alive, her family, who founded the animal rescue organization Mal’s Palz shortly after her death, are now raising funds to build a new animal shelter, adoption center and veterinary clinic for the people — and lost and abandoned pets — of Hampton County, S.C.

The existing shelter, says Renee, “is just beyond repair. It's not that big and it's just sad when you go in there.”

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In November, Hampton County voted on a resolution that would look into having a partnership with Mal's Palz in which the county would provide the land and Mal’s Palz would build the shelter.

“We desperately need a new facility,” says Christopher Inglese, Deputy Administrator of Community Services for Hampton County. “Mallory was an animal lover. And what better way to honor her love for animals and to honor her life by doing something in service to the people and to the animals."

Inglese adds, "She was a special young woman, and we all just have a strong motivation to see Renee’s dream of turning tragedy into something that will be helpful and honor her daughter. We’re all just strongly motivated to make that a reality.”

Related: Family of Murdaugh Boat Crash Victim Mallory Beach Gets $15M in Wrongful Death Settlement

“The support in the community and just everywhere has been tremendous,” says Beach family attorney Mark Tinsley, who along with his law firm donated $130,000 to help build the shelter.

At the time of her death, Mallory was living with her mother and working full-time as a salesclerk at It’s Retail Therapy, a clothing store in Beaufort.

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Mallory “loved to joke around,” says Renee. “She was always fun and happy. She always had us laughing.”

It was five years ago, on Feb. 24, 2019, when Mallory and five friends boarded a boat piloted by Paul Murdaugh, then 19. Authorities would later say Paul had a blood-alcohol level at least three times the legal limit when he crashed the boat into a bridge, throwing Mallory overboard. It would be an excruciating seven days of waiting before Mallory’s body was found in a marsh five miles from the crash site. Although Paul was charged with boating under the influence causing death, he and his mom were killed by Paul's father, Alex Murdaugh, before Paul’s trial was to begin.

A civil lawsuit filed by the Beach family against the Murdaughs and the convenience store that sold Paul the alcohol was settled — and Mallory’s family plan to devote a portion of the proceeds to the animal shelter now being designed in Hampton County.

“This is something Mallory would love,” says Renee, who started a GoFundMe page to help raise funds for the shelter. “It would make her so proud.”

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