What happened to Gloria Satterfield? Key questions in Murdaugh housekeeper’s death
READ MORE
Murdaugh murders in Colleton County
Two members of a powerhouse legal family were shot and killed June 7 in Colleton County, SC. Read more of our coverage.
Expand All
News of an investigation looking into the 2018 death of Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh family housekeeper and nanny, raised questions about the Murdaugh family’s involvement and why this is coming to light now.
On Sept. 15, the S.C. Law Enforcement Division said it was investigating Satterfield’s death after receiving a request from Hampton County Coroner Angie Topper.
Topper said the coroner’s office was never notified of the Feb. 26, 2018, death of Satterfield. Her death certificate said her manner of death was “natural.” No autopsy was done.
Satterfield died “as a result of injuries sustained in a trip and fall accident” at the Murdaugh family’s home, according to lawsuit court documents.
Here are key questions in the criminal case:
What happened to Gloria Satterfield?
Satterfield died of an “acute subdural hemorrhage” due to a stroke, according to her death certificate obtained by the Island Packet, Beaufort Gazette, and State newspapers.
“If it’s a stroke, it’s considered a natural cause of death,” Gary Watts, executive director of the S.C. Coroner’s Association, said.
The hemorrhage is a brain bleed due to the stroke.
It’s not clear from the document if that meant she had the stroke at the Murdaugh property and fell or had the stroke at the hospital where she died. The distinction is important, experts say.
According to Watts, injuries sustained in an accident causing somebody to go to the hospital, where they later died, still meant the death would be “accidental” and not “natural.”
However, a doctor at the hospital where Satterfield died, Trident Medical Center in Charleston County, may have been unaware of her fall. She died three weeks after the fall, according to documents and news reports.
Satterfield’s death certificate shows a Trident Medical Center doctor certified her death as natural.
The coroner’s office was not notified, it said.
One reason for a doctor determining her death as natural would be “if they’re not aware of the fall, ... not aware of the circumstances,” Watts said.
Rod Whiting, a spokesperson for Trident Medical Center, said “the case is still being investigated by law enforcement and they’ll be your source for your information.”
He declined to comment further.
What’s the difference between cause of death, manner of death?
When somebody dies, medical professionals have to discern between the cause and manner of a person’s death.
The cause of death is what stopped their heart from beating. The manner is what brought them to that point.
“The cause of death is the reason, the manner is the how,” said Watts, who served as coroner of Richland County for 20 years.
On Satterfield’s death certificate, her manner of death is listed as “natural.”
There are only five types of manners of death: natural, accidental, homicide, suicide and undetermined. Everything other than a natural death requires notification of a coroner, Watts said.
As an example, Watts said if an elderly person was in a car wreck, went to the hospital for their injuries but contracted pneumonia there and died — their manner of death would still be accidental.
“It still goes back to the precipitating event,” he said.
Doctors are not allowed to sign death certificates, certifying the manner of death, on anything other than a natural death in South Carolina, according to Watts. The only exception is if the doctor was a medical examiner.
How, and where, did Satterfield get hurt?
On Feb. 2, 2018, Satterfield, 57 — a housekeeper and nanny for the Murdaugh family for over two decades — tripped and fell down the stairs of a Murdaugh family home, according to court documents.
In documents released by Eric Bland, an attorney representing Satterfield’s two sons, Satterfield died after “falling down the front stairs of a Colleton County, South Carolina residence owned by Richard Alexander Murdaugh and Margaret Murdaugh.”
These court documents were never filed and are part of a dispute that $2.76 million in settlement money was approved by a judge but never received by Satterfield’s sons as part of their mother’s death, according to Bland.
However, they also contrast with public court documents which stated Satterfield tripped and fell in Hampton County.
Topper said she couldn’t comment when asked if she could clarify what county Satterfield died in.
Colleton County Coroner Rich Harvey said he thought that Satterfield died in Hampton County, not Colleton. He said her death was not reported to his office.
The Murdaugh’s have a home in Colleton County, where the murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh took place on June 7. At the time of Satterfield’s death, they also had a home in Hampton County on Holly Street, which has since been sold.
Connor Cook, who was a passenger in the fatal boat crash where Paul was indicted, referenced a rumor that Paul had pushed his “housemate” — an apparent reference to Satterfield — down the stairs, in recent court documents. That rumor has spread throughout social media.
There has been no official confirmation of that rumor, and Paul was never implicated in her death.
“I take Alex at his word that he said his dogs tripped Gloria down the stairs. Until I find contrary of that we have to take him at his word,” Bland said told NewsNation TV.
He also cautioned that “(Alex Murdaugh’s) credibility at this point is extremely bad.”
Bland seemed to be referencing how the narrative after Murdaugh was shot Sept. 4 focused on a mystery suspect, when SLED later revealed Murdaugh organized his own shooting for an insurance payout.
Will Satterfield’s body be exhumed for an autopsy?
Satterfield was buried and her grave is in Johnson-St. Paul Cemetery in Hampton, according to her death certificate.
A videographer with the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette newspapers visited Satterfield’s grave in Hampton Thursday, and the area did not appear disturbed.
Topper declined to comment on whether Satterfield would be exhumed for an autopsy.
Watts said while it depends on how well preserved a body is, there is still more investigators could learn even if a body has been buried for years.
“You’d be able to tell any type of fracture, broken bones anything like that. That’d be the most obvious,” he said. “You have to treat it as a brand new case and look at everything.”
Reporter John Monk contributed to the reporting of this story.
This story was originally published September 23, 2021 at 5:02 PM.
