Alex Murdaugh lied about dogs causing housekeeper’s fatal fall: lawyers

Convicted killer Alex Murdaugh made up a tale about his family dogs causing his housekeeper Gloria Satterfield’s February 2018 fatal fall, his lawyers wrote in response to a lawsuit centering on insurance fraud claims over her death.

Murdaugh, in a court document filed Monday, admitted “he invented the critical facts” about the dogs tripping Satterfield and causing her to take a fatal tumble down the stairs of the family’s South Carolina estate — where he shot his wife and son to death three years later.

“No dogs were involved in the fall of Gloria Satterfield on February 2, 2018,” the legal filing obtained by The Post states. “After Ms. Satterfield’s death, [Murdaugh] invented Ms. Satterfield’s purported statement that dogs caused her to fall to force his insurers to make a settlement payment.”

The convicted murderer secretly pocketed $3.8 million in insurance payments meant for Satterfield’s sons after he told them to sue himself over their mother’s death on his property claiming he had liability.

He told the grieving children that a settlement was never reached, when in reality he stole the payments without their knowledge.

Nautilus Insurance sued Murdaugh and alleged co-conspirator ad ex-attorney Cory Fleming, in May 2022 for the scheme and claimed they had lied about the circumstances surrounding Satterfield’s death in order to prove liability and get a payout.

In the same filing, Murdaugh’s legal team claimed that he acted alone without any co-conspirators including Fleming and said that the Satterfield children had no knowledge of the alleged insurance fraud.

His lawyers also noted that Nautilus should be going after the Satterfield children and estate for recovery of lost money if the insurance claims were fraudulent in the first place.

“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 filing states.

The family was awarded more than $7.5 million over the payments that were stolen by Murdaugh.

The attorney for Satterfield’s estate questioned when the convicted killer became worthy of trusting in response to the filing.

“Seems there is buzz because liar liar Alex now says he allegedly made up the story that Gloria Satterfield didnt fall down Moselle stairs by his dogs,” Attorney Eric Bland tweeted. “Since when did Alex become the modicum of honesty and credibility.”

Bland also noted that the $7.5 million his clients were awarded didn’t come from Nautilus’ coffers.

“Additionally, we recovered money for our clients from parties other than Nautilus for breaches of their duties to our clients and other claims,” he said. “Technically the money that Nautilus paid never came to our clients.”

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is investigating Satterfield’s death.