Alex Murdaugh, convicted killer, admitted in court documents this Monday that he “invented the critical facts” about the circumstances behind his housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield’s fatal fall in February of 2018.
This court document was submitted in response to a lawsuit over insurance fraud claims from Satterfield’s death. In 2018, Murdaugh claimed that Satterfield had been tripped by dogs at the top of the steps outside of the family’s home in South Carolina, where she ultimately fell to her death. The new court documents with Murdaugh’s admittance says that “no dogs were involved in the fall of Gloria Satterfield on February 2, 2018.” After her fall, Murdaugh invented the circumstances around Satterfield’s death to force insurers to pay a settlement.
Once the settlement was paid by insurance, Murdaugh kept quiet and secretly kept $3.8 million that was meant for the sons of Satterfield. He lied to Satterfield’s family by telling them that a settlement was never reached.
More recently, in May of 2022, Nautilus Insurance filed a lawsuit against Murdaugh and his ex- attorney, Cory Fleming, who they believed to be his co-conspirator. The lawsuit addressed the insurance fraud claiming that Murdaugh lied about the events leading up to Satterfield’s death to prove liability and get a settlement. Murdaugh’s attorneys claim that he acted alone, with no help from any co-conspirators including Fleming.
Murdaugh’s attorneys said that Nautilus Insurance should be looking at the Satterfield children and estate to recover the lost money from the false insurance claims. In the court filings it says, “If Nautilus never should have made any payment to the Satterfield estate and only attempted to do so because it was the victim of fraud, then the parties in possession of a recovery of the money allegedly stolen from Nautilus are necessary parties to an action by Nautilus.”
The Satterfield children and estate were awarded $7.5 million, but the family lawyer noted that the money did not come from Nautilus. The attorney, Eric Bland, stated they “recovered money for our clients from parties other than Nautilus for breaches of their duties to our clients and other claims . . . technically the money that Nautilus paid never came to our clients.”
Bland has raised many concerns as to when Alex Murdaugh, convicted killer, suddenly has any credibility when it comes to honesty. In 2021, Alex Murdaugh was convicted of shooting and killing his wife, Maggie, and his son, Paul. With the evolution of the Satterfield case, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division has reopened the case and are investigating again.