Alex Murdaugh admits he made up story about housekeeper’s fatal fall

Double-murderer Alex Murdaugh admitted he made up a story about a dog causing his housekeeper’s fatal fall in 2018 at the family’s hunting property, Moselle, where he also shot and killed his wife and youngest son a few years later in June 2021.

The ex-lawyer said “he invented the critical facts” in a story about the death of his housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, which he initially described as a “trip and fall” accident, according to a legal filing obtained by ABC News. Murdaugh at first claimed Satterfield tripped over the family dogs, causing her to take a deadly tumble down the steps at the sweeping South Carolina estate. He has since changed his tune.

“No dogs were involved in the fall of Gloria Satterfield,” Murdaugh’s lawyers wrote. “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 court documents were filed in response to Nautilus Insurance Company’s fraud lawsuit against the 63-year-old legal scion. It accuses him of committing insurance fraud in connection with Satterfield’s fall.

Murdaugh allegedly pocketed $3.8 million in insurance payments intended for Satterfield’s sons. He vowed to take care of his housekeeper’s family and suggested they hire one of his friends — who was also a college roommate and godfather to one of his sons — to be the executor of their mother’s estate.

In 2021, Murdaugh told Satterfield’s sons they were close to reaching a settlement, but court records show Murdaugh’s insurers had already paid more than $4 million for the fall.

His former friend and ex-attorney Cory Fleming is also named in the lawsuit.

Murdaugh is currently serving back-to-back life sentences for the murders of his son, Paul, 22, and his wife, Maggie, 52 on June 7, 2021. They were found fatally shot near a kennel area on the family’s sweeping “Moselle” hunting estate. He has maintained his innocence in the killings and his legal team in March appealed his conviction.

With News Wire Services