Alex Murdaugh says he ‘invented’ housekeeper’s fatal accident with dogs
Rachel Schilke
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Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh, a former South Carolina lawyer, admitted he “invented” a story that his dogs caused the family’s housekeeper to fall down the stairs fatally.
Murdaugh was convicted on March 2 on two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of his wife and son. He will serve consecutive life sentences for the murders of his wife, Maggie, 52, and his son, Paul, 22, in June 2021.
Prosecutors said during the murder trial that Murdaugh secured $4.3 million in insurance settlements for the sons of Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh’s housekeeper at the hunting estate, Moselle, where Paul and Maggie were killed.
However, prosecutors said Murdaugh kept most of the settlement money for himself.
Murdaugh claimed in 2018 that Satterfield died in a “trip and fall” accident after one of Murdaugh’s dogs got under Satterfield and caused her to fall down the stairs, fatally hitting her head. However, the story turned out to be a lie fabricated so Murdaugh could force his insurers to make a payment.
“No dogs were involved in the fall of Gloria Satterfield on February 2, 2018,” according to court documents filed on Monday. “After Ms. Satterfield’s death, Defendant invented Ms. Satterfield’s purported statement that dogs caused her fall to force his insurers to make a settlement payment, and he stated that she was not on the property to perform work.”
Monday’s filing served as a response to a lawsuit filed by Nautilus Insurance Company accusing Murdaugh of committing insurance fraud concerning Satterfield’s death. The company sued Murdaugh, ex-attorney Cory Fleming, and others in May 2022, stating that the information they received from Murdaugh about the case was incorrect and that the defendants pocketed $3.8 million from Nautilus and $500,000 from Lloyd’s of London that was intended for the Satterfield family.
Murdaugh’s lawyers argued in their response to the lawsuit that, if he lied about the circumstances of the fall, the Satterfields were not entitled to the money in the first place — which Eric Bland, lawyer for the late housekeeper’s family, said is just another lie to help Murdaugh avoid judgment on his financial misconduct.
The disbarred South Carolina lawyer is charged with 99 financial crimes after he allegedly embezzled close to $9 million from clients and his family’s decades-old law firm, as well as $490,000 from the state. Judge Clinton Newman, who presided over the murder trial, will also preside over the financial trial.
The prosecution focused mostly on Murdaugh’s financial crimes as a motive for the murders of his wife and son, as news of his misconduct was set to be exposed in court just days after the murders took place. Murdaugh admitted to the financial crimes on the witness stand.
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“I took money that was not mine, and I shouldn’t have done it,” he testified. “I hate the fact that I did it. I’m embarrassed by it. I’m embarrassed for my son. I’m embarrassed for my family.”
The trials could take place in multiple counties, including Colleton County, where the murder trial was held. Prosecutor Creighton Waters said during Murdaugh’s sentencing that the financial crimes range in location from Hampton, Beaufort, Orangeburg, and Allendale. A date for the beginning of the financial trial has not been established.