SLED releases 911 call from housekeeper’s fall at Murdaugh home in 2018. What we know
State police investigating the death of Gloria Satterfield, a housekeeper who died from injuries sustained from a fall at the Murdaugh family home, released a 911 call which confirms the fall in Colleton County but doesn’t say how it happened.
At least three people were at the home on Moselle Road after Satterfield fell. Maggie Murdaugh, Alex Murdaugh’s wife, called 911 on Feb. 2, 2018.
Satterfield’s death three weeks after her fall is being investigated by the S.C. Law Enforcement Division after the Hampton County coroner requested an investigation because of questions raised in a September wrongful death lawsuit. Satterfield’s two sons sued Alex Murdaugh and two other men who were alleged to be part of a scheme to steal millions of dollars in insurance money meant for Satterfield’s estate.
“My housekeeper has fallen, and her head is bleeding. I cannot get her up,” Maggie Murdaugh told the dispatcher.
The call, released Tuesday by the SLED, is just over 6 minutes long.
Maggie Murdaugh told the dispatcher that the family’s housekeeper, later identified in the call as Satterfield, fell as she was walking up the brick steps to their home in Colleton County. She said Satterfield was conscious and breathing but not able to form words.
“She just fell back down,” Maggie Murdaugh said a few minutes into the call. “Can I get off this phone?”
She eventually handed the phone to a male. He was not identified on the call, but told the dispatcher that Satterfield “works for us.”
A statement from the attorneys representing Satterfield’s sons identified the second person on the phone as Paul Murdaugh.
Paul Murdaugh said he was holding Satterfield up when “she told me to turn her loose ... and she fell back over.” He told the dispatcher Satterfield “cracked her skull” and was bleeding from the top of her head and out of her left ear.
Nearly 6 minutes after Maggie Murdaugh called 911, the ambulance had not arrived. Paul Murdaugh told the dispatcher that someone was waiting by the road for the ambulance.
The dispatcher asked the man to call 911 again “if anything changes,” including if Satterfield lost consciousness. Then the call ended.
Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter, who represent Satterfield’s sons, issued a statement on the newly released recording:
“Obviously, it was very sad for my clients to have to listen to the tape and the statements about Gloria’s injuries from the fall. We do not read anything into the tape other than the accident happened the way that Alex described it to the family. Although Maggie didn’t mention the dogs in the 911 call as having caused the fall, Maggie seemed genuine in her concerns for Gloria. At times, both Maggie and Paul were short with and talking down to the 911 operator who was just doing her job but maybe the stress of the situation caused them to be a little too caustic with the woman who was just helping them. It is just tough for my clients to hear these things about their mother and sister.”
Death investigation
There were several discrepancies in how Gloria Satterfield’s death was reported, which is why Hampton County Coroner Angie Topper asked SLED to investigate.
An investigation was opened on Sept. 15, a day after SLED revealed that Alex Murdaugh may have been involved in a faked suicide scheme.
Topper cited a court document that originally said Satterfield died as a “result of injuries sustained in a trip and fall accident in Hampton County.” The document was part of a settlement diverted from the Satterfield estate. Alex Murdaugh is accused of arranging it to be diverted after Satterfield died.
The 911 call indicates Satterfield’s fall occurred at the Murdaugh family’s Moselle home in Colleton County, not Hampton County. Court documents filed later by Bland say that Satterfield tripped and fell down the front steps of the Moselle home.
Satterfield went to Trident Medical Center in Charleston County, where she died weeks later.
On her death certificate, Satterfield’s manner of death is listed as “natural,” which Topper said was “inconsistent” with the injuries she sustained.
On Feb. 26, 2018, Satterfield died at the hospital after an “acute subdural hemorrhage” due to a stroke, her death certificate states. A Trident Medical Center doctor signed the certificate.
Doctors are allowed to sign off on deaths only if they are natural, Executive Director Gary Watts of the S.C. Coroner’s Association previously said. All other types of death — homicide, suicide, accidental, and undetermined — must be investigated by a coroner.
Topper said she was not notified. The Colleton County coroner said the death was never reported to his office, either.
A natural death would not usually be reported to a coroner, and a stroke is considered a “natural” manner of death, Watts said.
The listing of Satterfield’s death as “natural” could be because “[the doctor was] not aware of the fall, ... not aware of the circumstances,” according to Watts.
Watts said the precipitating event that leads to a person’s death is the manner of death. In this case, that would be an “accidental” trip and fall down steps.
The case against Alex Murdaugh
In October, the S.C. Law Enforcement Division charged Alex Murdaugh with taking $3.5 million meant for the Satterfield heirs for himself, from a total of $4.3 million approved as settlement.
Earlier this month, Murdaugh was indicted by the S.C. Attorney General’s Office on the Satterfield allegations and more than a dozen other counts of financial crimes in separate cases.
Murdaugh is the only defendant left in the civil case, as the other named parties have all settled or agreed to pay, more than $6 million in total, the heirs’ lawyers said. Murdaugh has argued that because of these settlements, he does not owe any money to the Satterfield heirs because they have already been more than compensated for the $4.3 million they say they lost.
This story was originally published November 30, 2021 at 2:02 PM with the headline "SLED releases 911 call from housekeeper’s fall at Murdaugh home in 2018. What we know."
