Alex Murdaugh’s attorneys claim in a new legal filing that the convicted murderer lied about how his family’s dogs fatally tripped his housekeeper in 2018 as part of a bogus insurance claim, while suggesting that any insurance money stolen be repaid by her family and not him.
The disgraced former attorney, who’s currently serving a life sentence for his wife and son’s murders, “invented the critical facts” behind Gloria Satterfield’s fall at his South Carolina home in order to pocket insurance money that was intended for her family, Monday’s filing states.
“Defendant admits his actions were reprehensible in that he misused vulnerable persons who trusted him,” the filing reads.
“No dogs were involved in the fall of Gloria Satterfield on February 2, 2018. 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,” the filing continues while stopping short of explaining what actually happened to her at his family’s property. It adds that no one else was involved in this lie.
The filing goes on to suggest that if his former insurance company, Nautilus, never should have made payments because of this new admission, then anyone who received the money should be legally required to return it.
An attorney for the Satterfield estate balked at this claim in a statement shared on Twitter Tuesday.
“Since when did Alex become the modicum of honesty and credibility,” wrote attorney Eric Bland, who argued that the Satterfield estate never received a dime from the insurance filing.
“Technically the money that Nautilus paid never came to our clients. It was stolen by Alex so there is an argument that they still owe it to our clients by releases signed by the parties,” he continued. “This is nothing but noise. Just gutless people trying to continue to victimize Gloria’s siblings and children.”
Nautilus, in a lawsuit filed against Murdaugh last year over the insurance claim, said it paid more than $75,000 in claims related to Satterfield’s death. The 57-year-old woman’s death occurred just two months into the start of a $5 million “umbrella coverage” insurance policy that it said Murdaugh had taken out.
It was through settlements from other parties sued in connection with Satterfield’s death that her estate received about $7.5 million, Myrtle Beach station WPDE reported last year.
Attorneys for Nautilus did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment Wednesday.
Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, and son Paul were the ones to call 911 to report that Satterfield had fallen and hit her head on steps at the family’s home. She was described by them in the 911 call as barely conscious and bleeding badly from her head.
Murdaugh’s wife and son, who were later fatally shot by Murdaugh at the same property in 2021, never blamed dogs for causing her fall in their call.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), in the months after Maggie and Paul’s deaths, announced that it had opened a criminal investigation into Satterfield’s death and the handling of her estate. This review followed a local county coroner raising concerns about the case to state police, Bluffton Today reported.
Hampton County Coroner Angie Topper said Satterfield suffered traumatic head injuries before undergoing cardiac arrest and a stroke while hospitalized in the days after. Her injuries were not “natural,” as her death certificate listed, Topper argued.
A SLED spokesperson did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment on its investigation and Murdaugh’s latest alleged admissions about Satterfield’s death.