WALTERBORO, S.C. — In the small town of Walterboro, nicknamed the front porch of the Lowcounty, locals and businesses are seeing a lot more activity than normal this week.
That's because of Alex Murdaugh. The nationally-spotlighted crime saga continued at the Colleton County courthouse on Wednesday, where the disbarred lawyer's bond hearing on new murder charges took place.
Evelyn Crosby, a woman born and raised in Walterboro, tells News 19 she's never seen anything like this.
She works across the street at the Walterboro Wildlife Center.
"There's a lot of people, lot of vehicles, lot of reporters, all the TV stations are around, around the courthouse and across the street," Crosby said.
Crosby explains she almost forgot the hearing was happening today.
"I thought, 'Well, I'm not even sure I'll be able to find a parking spot because of all the activity,' but luckily I did find a spot. But as soon as I came up, just a few minutes after, three or four more vehicles came and parked in the same area," Crosby said.
Down Washington Street, the town's main street, restaurants and businesses tell News 19 they've seen more travelers from out-of-state and surrounding areas these past few days, contributing to some extra dollars.
"It was crazy. We had to stop the production for a little bit because our drivers could not keep up with delivering that food, and I didn't want the food to be sitting on top getting cold," Jose Castillo, co-owner of Castillo's Pizzeria said.
Castillo explains this busy spike increased their business by about 20-30% Tuesday night from around 4:30 in the afternoon to 9:00 at night.
He tells News 19 that type of crowd influx is a rarity.
One hotel manager tells News 19 that typically on a Monday it's quiet with maybe 20 rooms available.
But today, with the Murdaugh bond hearing on the agenda at the courthouse, only three rooms were left, leaving them almost completely booked.
So, you could call it a full-fledged change up in pace here in small town Walterboro.
Now that the bond hearing is over, locals say they expect the town will likely go back to its small town slow foot traffic pulse, but they expect it to ramp up again when the next court hearing happens, when that date is set.