A former law partner of accused killer Alex Murdaugh testified Wednesday that police investigating the killing of Murdaugh’s wife and son did a shoddy job clearing the scene, even leaving behind a piece of a skull “the size of a baseball.”

Mark Ball told jurors he returned to the Murdaugh family’s sprawling South Carolina property the day after the June 7, 2021 double murder of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh to find uncollected shotgun pellets, small clumps of tissue and the piece of skull.