Convicted double murderer Alex Murdaugh admitted during his sentencing Friday that he was haunted day and night by his dead wife and son — but there are other ghosts in his orbit as well.
South Carolina Law Enforcement (SLED) investigators are still looking into the mysterious 2018 “slip and fall” death of the Murdaugh family’s housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield.
She allegedly tripped over the family’s 4 dogs on the steps resulting in their home, but there has long been suspicion that it wasn’t an accident.
The only real eyewitnesses, Paul Murdaugh , 22, and his mother, Maggie, 52, were murdered by Alex, a jury decided Thursday, on June 7, 2021. But SLED investigators say they need to exhume Satterfield’s body.
Satterfield, 57, died in February 2018 after a fall at home of the Murdaughs, where she had worked for greater than 20 years and was treated like “a part of the Murdaugh family,” a lawsuit filed in Sept. 2021 by the housekeeper’s children said.
At Satterfield’s funeral, Alex Murdaugh allegedly told Satterfield’s two sons that the alleged accident was his fault and that they two should sue him through attorney Corey Fleming for an insurance payout.
But, the 2 later said, years went by without them hearing anything concerning the money.
Columbia, SC, attorney Eric Bland — who represents Satterfield’s sons, Brian “Little B” Harriott and Michael Anthony “Tony” Satterfield, in addition to other Murdaugh financial victims — has recovered in excess of $7.5 million for the Satterfield family from the varied banks and law firms involved in Alex Murdaugh’s insurance scams.
That total doesn’t include one other $4.3 million Bland eeked out from Murdaugh in a confession of judgement that was approved by the court in April 2022. That cash can be divided amongst a lot of Murdaugh’s victims.
“Gloria died for a purpose,” Bland told The Post Friday. “She was the primary and it really brought all of the victims together in a way.”
A foundation called Gloria’s Gift, that Bland’s law firm has donated to together with private donors, hands out gifts to underprivileged children at Christmas, amongst other things.
SLED opened a criminal investigation into Satterfield’s death shortly after that lawsuit was filed — and after being told by the local medical expert that her “death was not reported to the Coroner on the time, nor was an autopsy performed,” documents showed on the time.
“On the death certificate the style of death was ruled ‘Natural,’ which is inconsistent with injuries sustained in a visit and fall accident,” Hampton County Coroner Angela Topper wrote in a letter to law enforcement officials.
Bland said that the Satterfield family has given permission to SLED for her body to be exhumed but he doesn’t know when it would occur.
“But when it does it would probably be in the course of the night, when the general public doesn’t know, to make sure her dignity and privacy,” Bland said.
Paul’s former girlfriend Morgan Doughty told the producers of the recent Netflix documentary “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal” how close Paul had been to Satterfield
“For Paul, the love and acceptance got here from Miss Gloria,” she said. “[Gloria] worked for [Paul’s grandfather] Randolph … for years and that’s why Alex and Maggie had her start working for them. She mainly raised Paul. She was with him from the time that he was two.”
