Family members of Alex Murdaugh’s former housekeeper speak out publicly for the first time

By Melissa Alonso, CNN

The family of Alex Murdaugh’s former housekeeper said on NBC’s “Today” on Friday they considered the Murdaughs to be extended family and hadn’t learned about the settlement awarded to them until after Murdaugh’s shooting incident made headlines.

Gloria Satterfield, who spent more than two decades as the Murdaugh family housekeeper, died in 2018 in what was described as a “trip and fall accident” at the Murdaugh home, CNN has reported.

The family was initially told the woman tripped over dogs and “they thought she had a head injury because they saw blood,” said Ginger Harriott Hadwin, her sister. The housekeeper spent 21 days in intensive care before she died, Hadwin said.

After Gloria’s funeral, Murdaugh told the women’s family he wanted “to make sure the boys are taken care of, because he loved Gloria that much,” said Ginger.

But three years after her death, the Satterfield family had not seen any money from Murdaugh. “I said, I just don’t think these boys are gonna get what they deserve,” Satterfield’s brother, Eric Harriott, Jr., told NBC News’ Craig Melvin.

According to attorney Eric Bland, who represents the Satterfields, the family has received none of the $4.3 million insurance settlement awarded and they are still investigating where that money went.

“It’s impossible to burn that kind of money in Hampton, South Carolina,” said Bland.

According to affidavits released by South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), Murdaugh “coordinated with Satterfield’s family to sue himself in order to seek an insurance settlement with the stated intent to give the proceeds to the Satterfield family to pay for funeral expenses and monetary compensation for Satterfield’s children.”

Murdaugh has been charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and filing a false police report for the shooting incident that left him injured. Murdaugh told authorities he conspired with a former client to kill him as part of a suicidal fraud scheme, CNN has reported.

After Murdaugh’s arrest, his attorneys, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, released a statement saying he intends “to fully cooperate with this investigation, as he has with the investigation into the murder of his wife and son.

“He deeply regrets that his actions have distracted from the efforts to solve their murders,” the statement said.

CNN has reached out to Murdaugh’s attorneys for comment on the interview but has not heard back.

“Dateline NBC” airs more of the exclusive interview with the family tonight at 9 ET.

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