Photo: Tribune News Service
Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh said he "invented" the story in which he claimed a dog caused his housekeeper to suffer a fatal fall at his hunting property, Moselle, in February 2018, according to court documents obtained by ABC News.
Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh family's housekeeper at the time, was described as having died in a "trip and fall" accident, which Murdaugh claimed took place after one of his dogs got under her.
“No dogs were involved in the fall of Gloria Satterfield on February 2, 2018,” Murdaugh said in statements made in court documents filed on Monday (May 1). “After Ms. Satterfield’s death, Defendant invented Ms. Satterfield’s purported 2 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 documents were filed in federal court in relation to a lawsuit against the disgraced attorney by an insurance company who is accusing him of committing insurance fraud in relation to Satterfield's death, which includes stealing settlement money from her children and keeping it to himself.
Murdaugh, 54, was convicted by a jury of seven men and five women in relation to the June 2021 fatal shootings of his wife, Margaret, 54, and son, Paul, 22, and sentenced to life in prison without parole in March. The former attorney was also convicted on two counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
Murdaugh was indicted on July 14 in relation to the charges, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson and South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel announced at the time via CNN. Margaret and Paul Murdaugh were both found dead three days after Alex Murdaugh's father, Randolph, had also died. In December 2021, a copy of her last will and testament obtained by the Island Packet revealed that Margaret Murdaugh left her entire property to her husband before she and their son were mysteriously killed.
The S.C. Law Enforcement Division announced the new details about Margaret Murdaugh's will, which was signed in 2005, and her estate records in connection to the murders of herself and her son, though no arrests had been made at the time. The Island Packet reported Alex Murdaugh, who has been jailed since October 2021 in connection to a separate case, was entitled to the family's 1,770-acre property, which sits between Hampton and Colleton Counties in South Carolina, according to his late wife's will signed on August 15, 2005.
Alex Murdaugh had previously owned the Moselle property since 2013, but property records show he transferred ownership to his wife in 2016. Alex Murdaugh was arrested at a drug rehab facility in Orlando, Florida on October 14, 2021, where his attorneys confirmed he had been staying for six weeks after being shot in the head, which was later proved to be part of a conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.
The 53-year-old attorney was accused of hiring a hitman to kill him so his other son, Buster, could collect on a $10 million life insurance policy and later formally charged with two counts of obtaining property by false pretenses in relation to stealing insurance funds from a settlement in the 2018 death of Satterfield.
Additionally, the 2015 death of Stephen Smith, a former classmate of Buster Murdaugh, is now being investigated as a homicide, a spokesperson for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division confirmed to CNN on March 22. The spokesperson also confirmed that there were no indications that Smith's death was a hit-and-run, opposing the initial ruling in an incident report, following the agency's investigation.
The decision came days after CNN reported that Smith's body would be exhumed nearly two years after state authorities reopened a probe into his death following scrutiny of Murdaugh. Smith's family raised more than $65,000 through a GoFundMe page to finance an exhumation and private autopsy in what they called a "fight for justice" as many believe the 19-year-old's death was linked to the Murdaugh family.