After disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh was convicted of murdering his wife and son, new details have emerged surrounding his former housekeeper’s suspicious death.
In Feb. 2018, Gloria Satterfield — the longtime housekeeper for the Murdaugh family — died after an alleged trip-and-fall accident at the Murdaugh family estate. Murdaugh said Satterfield tripped over his family’s dogs, which caused her to fall, Eric Bland, an attorney for Satterfield’s sons, told PEOPLE previously.
But now, two months after Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of his wife Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and their son, Paul Murdaugh, 22, Murdaugh has admitted that he “invented” the story about the dogs causing Satterfield’s fall in order to receive an insurance payout, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE.
“No dogs were involved in the fall of Gloria Satterfield on February 2, 2018,” the documents, from Monday’s filing from Murdaugh’s own attorneys in federal court, read. “After Ms. Satterfield’s death, Defendant [Alex Murdaugh] 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.”
The Monday filing was a response from Murdaugh’s lawyers to a 2022 complaint filed against Murdaugh by the Nautilus Insurance Company. That complaint alleges Murdaugh lied about the circumstances surrounding Satterfield’s death in order to get a fraudulent insurance settlement.
On Sept. 15, 2021, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division announced that it was opening an investigation into Satterfield’s mysterious death.
Satterfield’s sons also filed a civil lawsuit against Murdaugh and others at around this time, claiming they never received an insurance payout concerning their mother’s death, court documents previously obtained by PEOPLE show.
According to the Order Approving Settlement previously reviewed by PEOPLE and filed in 2019 in the Hampton Court of Common Pleas, the sons were supposed to receive $2.765 million of a $4.3 million settlement.
Three months prior to the civil lawsuit, on June 7, 2021, Murdaugh’s wife Maggie and son Paul were found shot to death on the 1,770-acre South Carolina property, where the family’s former hunting lodge was located.
On Oct. 14, 2021, Murdaugh was charged with misappropriating insurance settlement funds in the wrongful death suit that followed Satterfield’s death, authorities announced. And in July 2022, he was indicted for murders of his wife and son.
After a lengthy trial in early 2023, Murdaugh was found guilty of murdering Maggie and Paul and received two life sentences in prison.
Murdaugh still faces dozens of charges connected to alleged financial crimes, including misappropriating money from his former law firm and defrauding clients of funds. A trial for those charges will be held at a later date.
