Murdaugh Murders Podcast - FEED DROP: CBC's Crime Story: Mandy Matney On What It Took To Cover The Infamous Murdaugh Dynasty

Episode Date: February 22, 2024

Just like in our Cup of Justice Episode 69 that published Tuesday on the separate feed, we’re going to do something a little different with today’s show. Today we'll 'Feed Drop' the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Podcast called Crime Story whose host, Kathleen Goldhar, interviewed Mandy back in November promoting the best selling book, Blood On Their Hands.  Fraud. Abduction. Murder. Every week, Crime Story host and investigative journalist Kathleen Goldhar goes deep into a true crime case with the storyteller who knows it best." You can listen to more incredible tales of true crime every week on Crime Story with the storyteller who knows it best. Find more Crime Story episodes in your podcast app, or here: https://link.chtbl.com/HtkP-5kV We know y’all are eager to learn everything you can regarding Stephen Smith and Grant Solomon’s cases. We are not anywhere near brick walls in either case as we continue to get more materials. That said, these types of investigations take time. Our whole team has been sprinting for years now, and as someone who can sense burnout due to their own experience, we made the call to take a little break this week a step back to see the big picture and carve a plan ahead.  If you’ve been with us for the longest time then you know much of this story… if you’re new we want this episode to be a check-in on all that we’ve covered and where we are going. Also, this is a great episode to share with people who don’t know the story and want to get caught up. We’ll have small intermissions with Mandy's impressions at the breaks, but for now we hope you’ll enjoy Mandy's conversation with Kathleen Golhar on this presentation of CBC’s Crime Story. All that said... we hope you enjoy this Crime Story episode with another amazing and inspiring woman, Kathleen Goldhar. In February we’re offering your first month of Soak Up The Sun membership for 50% off. Join Luna Shark Premium today at Lunashark.Supercast.com. Premium Members also get access to searchable case files, written articles with documents, case photos, episode videos and exclusive live experiences with our hosts on lunasharkmedia.com all in one place. CLICK HERE to learn more: https://bit.ly/3BdUtOE. And for those just wanting ad-free listening without all the other great content, we now offer ad-free listening on Apple Podcast through a subscription to Luna Shark Plus on the Apple Podcasts App. Or become a member on YouTube for exclusive videos and ad-free episodes. SUNscribe to our free email list to get that special offer for first time members, receive alerts on bonus episodes, calls to action, new shows and updates. CLICK HERE to learn more: https://bit.ly/3KBMJcP Visit our new events page Lunasharkmedia.com/events where you can learn about the upcoming in-person and virtual appearances from hosts! And a special thank you to our sponsors: Microdose.com, PELOTON, and VUORI. Use promo code "MANDY" for a special offer! For current & accurate updates: TrueSunlight.com facebook.com/TrueSunlightPodcast/ Instagram.com/TrueSunlightPod Twitter.com/mandymatney Twitter.com/elizfarrell youtube.com/@LunaSharkMedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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True Sunlight is a Luna Shark production, but today we've got something a little different. Just like in our Cup of Justice episode 69 that published Tuesday, we're going to do something a little different with today's episode. Today, we'll publish a Canadian broadcasting corporation podcast called Crime Story,

whose host interviewed me back in November, promoting my book, Blood on their Hands. Fraud, Abduction, Murder. Every week, Crime Story host and investigative journalist Kathleen Goldhar goes deep into a true crime case with a storyteller who knows it best. We've been covering the tragic deaths of Mallory Beach, Steven Smith, Hakeem Pinkney, Gloria Satterfield, Maggie Murdock, and Paul Murdock for over four years now. And we've been publishing episodes on this feed

for almost three years now. While we've experienced significant success as we peel back the layers on the Murdock cases, covered trials and buffoonery from lawyers, and expanded to other cases, we are left wanting. Because beyond all of that, we have a primary goal in mind that continues to guide our reporting to help Sandy Smith get answers in her son's case and inspire others to seek justice in their own.

That said, these types of investigations take time. Our whole team has been sprinting for years now, and as someone who can sense burnout due to her own experience, I made the call this week to take a little break and a step back to see the big picture and carve out a plan ahead. But we are still working.

We are still reporting. We are still making phone calls and following up on leads and filing FOIA requests. Keep in mind, there are not a lot of weekly news shows based off original reporting that go on for years, especially when it comes to such delicate and unsolved cases. I know, I know, I know.

Y'all are eager to learn everything you can, specifically in the Stephen Smith and Grant Solomon cases. And I wanna say that we aren't anywhere near hitting brick walls in either cases, and we keep getting more materials. But our style of reporting, which has been accurate and effective so far, takes a lot of time. We had two years of investigative material when we started

the Murdoch Murders podcast, which is why I believe it soared so quickly to number one on the charts. We had a grasp on the entire case and established our sources to help guide our reporting. We're trying to get that deeper sense of understanding and sourcing in the Grant Solomon case to ensure we're going down the right path. Most mistakes in reporting are made when journalists are rushed, so we are doing everything we can to ensure that we are not rushing to conclusions. Y'all are here for the accurate reporting that has proven itself over and over again in the past few years. We are honored to have your trust and your continued loyalty, especially from the premium members, week after week.

And we are doing everything we can to protect that trusted relationship we have built with y'all. Moving forward, we will touch on other topics in Cup of Justice and will start to bring on additional guests with our missions in mind to expose the truth wherever it leads, give voice to the voiceless, and get the story straight. By the way, really exciting news. We have an episode of COJ Coming Up where Liz and I interviewed THE Tamron Hall about her new book which we love, Watch Where They Hide. A story Liz and I can relate to a lot.

As a main character is a pesky female reporter who just doesn't quit when it comes to reporting the truth and solving crimes. We talked to Tamron about investigative reporting, the problem with a lot of mainstream media, and the idea of unbiased journalism plaguing the truth. I am so pumped for this episode. Look for it on March 5th. Next month, we are starting our national tour,

and we want to hear from y'all on who we should invite on the programs to amplify voices. Is there a journalist who has been pursuing justice a lot like we have? Do you have a story you want to share? Or do you have a connection to another media outlet or nonprofit whose mission is similar to ours? Let us know by emailing info at lunasharcmed.com or visit lunasharkmedia.com slash new voices. If you've been with us for a long time, you know much of this story, but this episode serves as a great check-in on all of the ground we have covered and where we are going. Also, this is a great episode to share on social media with people who

don't know the story and want to get caught up. We'll have more information at the breaks, but for now, we hope that you enjoyed this conversation with Kathleen Goldhar on this presentation of CBC's Crime Story. The following episode contains difficult subject matter. Please take care while listening. I'm Kathleen Goldhar. This is Crime Story. Every week a new crime with the storyteller who knows it best. 9-1-1, where's your emergency? Hello?

Please fire in there. A frantic 9-1-1 call broke the quiet of an early morning in February 2019. We're in a boat crash on Archer's Creek. Where? Where about in Archer's Creek? Archer's Creek is in a small town in South Carolina. Six local teens were on a boat that had just crashed into a bridge, only five were accounted for. The body of 19-year-old Mallory Beach

was discovered eight days later. Initially, reporters covered the boat accident for what it was, a tragedy with one key question, who was driving the boat. But a local reporter named Mandy Matney began to ask more questions, and all of them focused on one family with deep ties to the community, the Murdochs. I had talked to several of the family members and the victims,

and I knew the fear that people felt when they talked about the Murdochs. And it just kind of clicked in my mind that something is really wrong here, and this boat crash is way different than any other crime I've ever looked at in my entire life. What began as a suspicious accident quickly spiraled into a national sensation, involving multiple murders, cover-ups, and ultimately the fall of a local dynasty. New developments in the murder mystery surrounding a prominent South Carolina family. This morning, the husband in a South Carolina double murder mystery breaking his silence

for the first time. Alec Murdoch, whose wife and son were brutally murdered in June, putting out a statement after he says someone shot him this weekend. Today we unpack the Murdoch case, which Mandy details in her new book, Blood on their Hands. Mandy, welcome to Crime Story. Thank you for having me. And congratulations on your new book, Blood on their Hands. Mandy, welcome to Crime Story.

Thank you for having me. And congratulations on your new book. Thank you. So tell us about the Murdochs. What kind of influence did they have? Who were they in that community? So the Murdochs were the solicitors in the 14th Circuit, which is where I live in this area of South Carolina

called the Low Country. And a solicitor is like a district attorney. Do y'all have those in Canada? It's a prosecutor, but it's over a five-county district. So the Murdoch family held that position of head prosecutor of this five-county district for almost a hundred years. And up until 2006 is when Randolph Murdock, Alex Murdock's father stepped down, but they still had this giant law firm. And I say giant, it wasn't necessarily giant, it was just they were so powerful and everyone in the area really

feared them. They had a lot of political power. They donated to a lot of campaigns behind the scenes. Everybody in law enforcement knew them because of their deep ties to the solicitor's office. It was that kind of power. So they really weren't like the family-making headlines across South Carolina, like the Kennedys before all of this happened. They were more behind the scenes power.

And Hampton is a very small town. So it was kind of in a news desert and the boat crash happened in Buford where I was covering the area. And basically, nobody had ever really from the outside covered this family before the boat crash happened. And so, yeah, let's talk about that boat crash because you quickly learned that the son of

Alex Murdoch, Paul Murdoch, was actually involved in that crash, right? So tell me what happened. So it was just a bunch of kids their college age That's very normal to do around here to go out of a night of drinking on your parents' boat. And they took Paul Murdoch's father's boat, Paul drove, and they went to an oyster roast, which is another like low country tradition that we do a lot of times in the winter. You drink beer and eat oysters, and it's a lot of times in the winter, you drink beer and eat oysters and it's a lot of fun. They went to an oyster roast, stopped at a bar, and then the night really took a turn. Paul,

drinking started getting out of control. He started to get really mean. The other kids on the boat started to say, hey, I don't think you should be driving. And he ended up slapping his girlfriend. And everybody on the boat was terrified at this point and just wanted to get home. So they just kind of let him drive to put their heads down and hoped that they would make it home. And his anger just kept increasing. And he ended up accelerating the boat and driving it into a bridge on Archer's Creek, which is a very narrow, twisting creek that I am shocked that they made it that far because of how dark it was at night. And it was a very, like, scary boat ride to begin with, but then Paul accelerated. They hit the bridge and they all

looked around and all of a sudden they realized that Mallory was missing. And so what are you finding out? You mentioned Paul was quite drunk, that his anger was sort of getting out of control. What do you know and what are you starting to hear about who Paul is? Yeah, and Paul is a person that I will say that in my initial reporting, I didn't understand him. And because I didn't understand him as somebody, as the son of a narcissist and a manipulator, and I viewed him as the spoiled, as everybody said, he was spoiled, entitled, nobody ever told him no, teachers wouldn't even tell him no because his parents were so powerful, he

never got in trouble at school, but he got away with everything. These are things I was hearing over and over and over again. But now I look back on Paul and I know who his dad is and I see how he was raised and I see that he was raised in a family that would never tell him no and how horrible that is to do to a kid because it was very clear pretty early on that he had some serious problems with drinking and that his parents never corrected. And we started hearing rumors that he was in previous car crashes that his father had covered up. And we started hearing rumors that this wasn't the first time

he had been in trouble with law enforcement for drinking. And we started digging into all of those things. digging into all those things. You also learned that when the kids from the crash end up at the hospital, because some of them are hurt, that right away Alex Murdoch is trying to manipulate the situation and make sure that his son doesn't get in trouble for this. Yeah, and his father, the former solicitor, and you can see on camera that he was actually flat. He actually had a solicitor badge, Alex did, because he was a volunteer assistant solicitor, which means he had the power of a prosecutor. And so he was using his position as an officer of the court

to intimidate kids into not talking to law enforcement. And it just kind of clicked in my mind that something is really wrong here. And this boat crash is way different than any other crime I've ever looked at in my entire life. And despite his efforts and maybe because of your reporting, Paul was actually arrested. What happened there?

What was he arrested for? Paul was arrested for three felonies. We call them BUI's, Boating Under the Influence. Two of those for injuring two of the people on the boat and then one of those for BUI resulting in death. He was facing over 25 years in prison. They were very serious charges. However, it took a very long time

or it felt like it took forever for those charges to come. And as we were investigating and finding out more and more and hearing the driver's call, the driver's call, and he's never gonna get caught, this is just gonna be another cover up. A few of us at the Island packet realized that we have to keep this going in the news. We have to keep digging into this

and keep the story alive and keep the pressure up. And on Mallory Beach's birthday in April of that year, he was charged with three felonies. And you paint quite the scene at the courtroom when he comes in with his dad. Tell us about what happened. And especially the way Alex behaved. I mean, it really was shocking to think about the way he walked into that courtroom. Yeah.

Well, there was so much anticipation. And I thought that this was like the biggest story in the universe at the time, but it just shows how small my world was back then but I Thought that the courtroom was gonna be super packed with media everywhere because we were getting huge numbers for our Newspaper on every book crush story that we were covering But we showed up and no one else was there. I think there was one or two other media outlets. We were just so highly anticipating like, what are these people going to be like?

We have heard so much. What are they going to look like in live action? And I remember just being appalled at Alex Murdoch's behavior because he was larger than life, came in like the mayor of the courtroom, shaking hands, like, weaking at people, no shame whatsoever. And this is a serious, serious case. Mallory Beach is dead because of his son. And he's just kind of walking around greeting people, patting people on the back. And I was just taken aback by that. And then Paul walked in and I was just blown

away of how physically small he was. And it made me realize that like, this is a 19-year-old kid that we're talking about here. And just looked like a child and that started to make me feel bad about how hard I was going in my reporting, but ultimately this all was his father's fault. And then the courtroom got, it was even more weird when the bailiff, like every other bailiff and every other bond hearing went to handcuff Paul and the prosecutor actually stepped in and said, no, no, that won't be necessary. The prosecutor, not his defense team. Yes, he was supposed to be working for the people and not the Murdochs.

And that was something, again, the two other reporters I was with, Liz, my current reporting partner and Teresa, we were just in shock of the behavior and how normalized all of this was. And then there was other things, like he didn't have to wear a jumpsuit for his mugshot, which pretty much everybody else does. He got the gentleman's treatment. It's like they put kid gloves on and it was like play court instead of how they treat a lot of people who have committed a lot less serious crimes. Which then I guess, I mean, you had lots of reasons to keep investigating, but I think it's interesting to me

that you start to look into other things. And I guess like this also kind of void your idea that there probably was more stuff that had been dismissed or not looked at. And you start to look into the death of another young man named Steven Smith and how that was connected to the Murdoch. So tell me about that.

How did Steven Smith officially die or what it were police saying about what happened to him? Well, I'll start with how I started to hear about Steven Smith's death, which right after Mallory died, I was looking for sources and trying to figure out who the Murdochs were, was just poking around. And I kept seeing a lot of memes that had photos of Mallory and Stephen next to each other that's a justice for Stephen and Mallory.

So started asking around. And again and again, people just started saying, if you're investigating the Murdochs, you should investigate Stephen's death. And I ended up meeting with Sandy like a few weeks after the boat crash and Sandy is Stephen Smith's mother. And who was he? Stephen Smith was a 19 yearold who in 2015 was found dead in the middle of a Hampton County road

and most of his wounds were on his head. There was no evidence that he was hit by a car whatsoever but they ruled his death as a vehicle versus pedestrian incident and that it was a hit and run. And Sandy, his sweet mother, never believed that it was a hit and run. She said, Steven would not be walking in the middle of the road like that. It doesn't make any sense that they told her

that a truck mirror had hit him in the face and that's what killed him. And she just rejected that in her gut and said, I cannot, my son was smart. He was sober when this happened. and that's what killed him. And she just rejected that in her gut and said, I cannot, my son was smart. He was sober when this happened. I just can't understand how that could possibly, something happened.

And when I started looking into it, I got the case file of Stephen Smith's investigation, which was investigated by the highway patrol and the highway patrol here does not investigate murders. They investigate vehicle crimes. So the guys investigating this were not equipped at all to investigate the kind of crime that they were dealing with, which, you know, looking back on it could have been by design,

because it immediately sent the investigation backwards. And I started looking into the case file and all the interviews that they did, and I keep seeing the name Murdoch come up over and over again. But it was all hearsay. And what was weird about the investigation is they kept hearing that it was the Murdoch Boys or Buster

Murdoch and they seem to be kind of getting closer to the source of where all this was coming from and then the investigation just ended in 2016. Buster is Paul's older brother. Yes, Buster is Paul's older brother. Just to add another person to the list of people in this story, you need a family tree. Exactly. And so why would Buster have done this?

What was happening there that you were hearing about? So Stephen was gay, and there were rumors in the investigation file that, and Buster has denied these at this point, but back then there was several rumors that he was in some sort of a relationship with Stephen and they ended up killing Stephen because he was gay. That was the story I heard over and over again.

And the real tragedy is that we still don't know what happened to Stephen. But fast forward to 2021, South Carolina law enforcement division reopened Stephen Smith's case and said that it was due to something that they found during the Murdoch investigation. And I really hope that Sled makes an arrest in his case ultimately. And I just want his mother, his sweet mother, to know what happened to him.

[♪ music playing in the background. [♪ music playing in the background. Looking back on this segment, it's hard not to take a step back in awe of all that has changed over the past five years, and yet, how much has remained the same? This Saturday marks the five-year anniversary of the boat crash that killed Mallory Beach and the boat crash that took down the Murdoch dynasty.

Mark Tinsley and other attorneys representing surviving boat crash victims have settled with Maggie and Ellick Murdoch's estates. However, Ellick's law partners will also get restitution from Elick, meaning justice there is debatable. Even during his most recent court appearance to have his motion for a new murder trial denied, Elick still shuffled his chains through the courtroom like he owned the place. He was shaking hands and sporting a smug smile just like he was the first time I saw him in court for Paul Murdoch's hearing five years ago.

While settlements have been reached in the Boe Crash case, and justice has been served to an extent, we are wildly disappointed that the obstruction of justice investigation case, the one that could have really held powerful people to account, has gone nowhere. Most disturbing is that Steven's case remains entirely unsolved and seems like it's not a priority for Sled. To date, 16 episodes

are assembled in a playlist devoted to Steven Smith's case at TrueSunlight.com. We highly recommend you re-listen to those episodes to get a fuller understanding of where we started and what's developed since then. This story grew beyond a tragic death from an intoxicated boat crash and became a mission for us, a mission that is far from over. We'll get into that right after this. Hey, I just got us a new Coca-Cola spice. Nice. What's it taste like?

It's like barefoot water skiing while dolphins click with glee. Well, let me try. Nah, it's like gliding on a gondola through waving waters is a mermaid thing. Nah, it's like Coca-Cola with a refreshing burst of raspberry and spiced flavors. Yeah. Try new Coca-Cola spiced today. Hi, I'm Una Chaplin and I'm the host of a new podcast called Hollywood Exiles.

It tells the story of how my grandfather Charlie Chaplin and many others were caught up in a campaign to root out communism in Hollywood. It's a story of glamour and scandal and political intrigue and a battle for the soul of the nation. and the BBC World Service, available now on Spotify. I mean, this story really, like, one of the things I took away was you did such a nice job in the book showing how the story got bigger for you and understanding how complicated it was and how many places you could go. It really is something like just, and I think that's what draws people to the story too, is that there's all these places where this family had influence. And then of course, the thing that kind of blows it out of the stratosphere, which makes it to the point where nobody could ignore the story outside and becomes international news, is that Paul and his mother Maggie are found dead.

And we know that Alex calls 911. He's the one that tells the police that he's found them. Oh! Hand-counting now and we won't wage an emergency. Hey, this is Alex Murdock. I have 4140,47 Mozel Road. I need the police to pass us a new police. What does he say happened?

What's his story? What does he say on the 911 call when the police show up? On a 911 call, and it's always, I'm sure you know this, it's always really hard to tell, to assume guilt from a 911 call just because it is such a horrifying situation and you never know how anybody would react to it. But he is almost hyperventilating and saying,

I just found my son, Paul and my wife, Maggie. I think he said that they were shot and sent help immediately. and he's panting, but I've listened to this phone call a million times and one of the first things that I noticed is that when you call 911, they record like the first few seconds before you actually answer They record like the first few seconds before you actually answer. And there are a few seconds where he is not panting at all. He's not doing the hyperventilating thing, and he's just on the line.

And then it's like a flip switches, and he starts to go, my wife and child have been shot. And so that was one of the first things that I started to be like, huh. He started saying through his lawyers early on he had a rock solid alibi but never would actually say what the alibi was when Maggie and Paul were shot. He claimed that he just came home, found them shot and called 911. And the other big thing that ultimately was his undoing was that they were found on Moselle, their 1700 acre property in very rural South Carolina. And they were

found by the dog kennels, which is pretty far away from the house and a lot of land with a lot of trees. But the key here is that he claimed to police immediately that he was never at the kennels that night. And then later he was caught in a video moments before they were murdered with his wife and son. And that was his undoing. I mean, it's interesting that you say that too about, you know, for those of us outside of the story and we finally did hear about it

and hear the 911 call. And this was before he had been arrested. It didn't occur to me that he would have killed his family. Like that's how, but it's interesting that you, who've been through and living in the story, heard something so different. And I saw that in your book is like right away you were like, I don't know if I believe Alex. And I was like,

oh, only somebody living in the story would have not believed him because on the surface the rest of us are like, he sounded distraught. Who would imagine that he would kill his wife in a skin? And it just felt like, oh my God, one more crazy thing happening to this family. Who did Alex say might have wanted them dead? Like, it's one thing for him to say he didn't do it, but why did he think or tell the police that they had been killed? He immediately started in saying

that my son has been in a boat crash, and I think that this has something to do with it. He's been being threatened that my son has been in a boat crash and I think that this has something to do with it. He's been being threatened by my son. He had a boat crash. It's been being threatened for months. So insinuating that it had to do with revenge for Mallory Beach's death in some way, whether it be one of the other kids on the boat or one of their family members.

And he started hammering in on that theory immediately. And we were hearing that theory being floated around Hampton a lot. And from my investigation up until that point, I just knew that that was completely bogus. I had talked to several of the family members and the victims, and I knew the fear that people felt when they talked about the Murdochs. And I could not imagine any scenario of anyone actually sneaking onto their property.

And we knew pretty early on too that at least one of their own guns was used in the crime. So that was another thing that I was like, who in their right, how could anybody sneak onto their property and kill these very powerful people with their weapons? That doesn't make any sense. And the narrative was starting to really spin, because it doesn't make sense to people that don't understand the story. And a lot of media were framing the story as like prosecutor's son murdered,

like it was a revenge for something he did with prosecution. And that's really why I started my podcast was because I felt horrible for the victims that were being kind of blamed in some ways, shape or form for this horrible crime. And I just knew that nobody was really understanding this, and I had to tell the story in a way that people understood it.

MUSIC I think the first time that I started to think maybe something was off was the story of all of a sudden Alex is out changing a flat tire on the side of the road and the news is he got shot. And then the news got very complicated around it because, well, tell us what happened there. Yeah, it was a big national story at the time, but as soon as he got shot on the side of the road, it was making so many international headlines around the world and it just sent the story

into another universe of craziness. But September 3rd, I started hearing that Alex Murdock was shot, and immediately tech started coming in. Something's fishy. Something's off with this. And again, I went back to thinking, who in their right mind would shoot Alex Murdock on the side of the road while he was changing their tire?

That does not make any sense whatsoever. And my sources sources who are very close in the investigation were saying, like, you're right with your questioning, just hang tight. And fast forward, his story, again, started to fall apart very quickly. We realized early on he was driving a car that had run flat tires and so he wouldn't have been changing his tire. He said he was on the way to Charleston but he was on a road that is not on the route to Charleston. He said he was at one hospital but he was actually at another. And then all of a sudden it comes out in the New York Times

that he was embezzling money from his law firm and he had stolen over a million dollars from them. And then he puts out a press release that he was going into rehab. And I heard that Alex Murdoch did some recreational drugs, cocaine, et cetera, et cetera, but I never heard that he had an opioid addiction per se. But he puts out this press release a couple person after you get shot, why are you putting out a press release about quitting your law firm and going into rehab? That doesn't make

any sense. And it just kept getting crazier and crazier. Very soon his financial crimes started to unravel and we realized just what he, the disaster that he had created that led up to the murders. That was all his financial crimes. You spent a lot of time explaining the financial crimes and I appreciated the plain language but I still found it confusing. But can you try to explain what he was doing with these financial crimes? Because it was, the thing that I took away was the premeditation and the amount of work and the conspiracy that he had to have in place to make these things work

was really stunning and quite diabolical, really. Horrible. So I'm all rewind in 2019, when I was investigating this family, something that I heard over and over again was that after they told me to look into Steven, people started saying, look into Gloria Satterfield, look into the death that they're made. And Gloria was their maid.

And Gloria was their maid. And I was searching around the public index, which is like our online court document website. And I see a wrongful death settlement from Alex Murdoch about Gloria Satterfield. And I was just taking it back, like, oh my God, this is really crazy because I had heard that the Murdochs had something to do with her death and how did they settle this? But I look at the settlement and I see all of these things that are very weird with it. I see that Gloria's family was being represented by Corey Fleming, who was Alex Murdoch's well-known best friend. And I started to write about that in 2019 and 2020, and it was always just a part of

the story that just itched at me like what was going on with that settlement after Alex was shot and when things really started to fall apart from him and everything just exploded immediately. I started to hear that Glorious Family was looking for a lawyer because they hadn't received any of the settlement money. And this was a $500,000 settlement that I knew of. The Satterfield family ends up hiring a lawyer named Eric Bland. In my book, I talk about my struggle to get Eric Bland to talk to me.

Now he's a co-host on my show, Cup of Justice. But Eric busted the thing wide open and figured out not only that he stole the $500,000 settlement from the family and did not tell them, but he stole over $4 million from the settlement. And he stole all of it. There was a multimillion dollar settlement, and he stole every penny, did not tell the family. And through that, Eric figured out

that he had actually set up a fake account called Forge, where he was telling people to direct the money to and stole millions of dollars from this family after Gloria's death, which Gloria's death was still ruled as suspicious. She died on the Murdoch's property in 2018. The lawsuit claimed that she fell due to the Murdoch's dogs tripping her,

but she was a 56-year-old woman, seemed pretty healthy. Her death still does not make sense to me to this day. She again had a wound on her head and I believe rid fractures too from falling on these steps and it just doesn't make any sense to me at all. So just like all too coincidental is what you're saying. With everything that we found out

through the Satterfield Settlement and how he set up this fake account forge, Eric and I looked at each other and we're like, no way that this guy did this. This is not his first rodeo. He probably was doing this to other clients. And time went on and we figured out he was doing this to a lot of clients.

But he did it in the worst way with the Satterfields because with everybody else, he had least given them some of the money and pretended like that was all the money, and then he took it. With the Satterfields, he took every single penny, which is absolutely disgusting. In Gloria Satterfield, sons were struggling during that time. One of her sons couldn't make rent for his trailer, so he was kicked out of living in his trailer. And Alex Murdoch knew this and didn't give them a penny

and still pretended to these boys that they had no money in the bank when really, they were millionaires. It was horrific. And you say that there were other victims, who were they and what did Alex do? We figured out that basically he profited off of people's tragedies.

He was a personal injury attorney and would go to people who had loved ones who were lost in car accidents and things that involved lawsuits. And he would sue usually an insurance company and take a majority of the money. And these were grieving families who, and who not only needed that money, but it was theirs and they deserved it.

And I don't know how he slept at night knowing that he was so greedy. And these people were in so much pain at the time, but now they have to look back and realize that the guy who they thought was helping them through this process and through this time was really stealing from them. So it was really an evil crime.

Wow, I still get furious when I am reminded of how dastardly this man is. We are still piecing together where all the money went, and Gloria Satterfield's death is still a bit of a mystery. But we've seen some positive outcomes from this part of the story. Attorney Eric Bland, now our co-host on Cup of Justice, was able to secure over $7 million for Tony and Brian by suing PMPD, Palmetto State Bank, Bank of America and others who contributed to Elix's egregious crimes. He was even able to get a confession of judgment from Elix that he in fact stole from the boys which would later be used to leverage

Elick's plea to a variety of financial crimes. Of all of our work on this case, something that really makes me proud when I think of big changes is the changes in Tony and Brian's personalities to see them supported by their family and their community and grow into stronger young men. Tony Satterfield had a confidence during his victim impact statement as he looked at Elik Murdoch in the eyes and said, I really don't have words. You lied, you cheated, you stole.

You betrayed me and my family and everybody else. And you did it at a cost of my mom's death, first of all. A couple of October's ago, you wrote a half-hearted, I'm sorry, letter, which was half-hearted because you're actually just not positive that you're really sorry. So I'm going to read you. I have an apology. I'm sorry that you feel like you had to betray us still from us, cheat us, and lie to us. I'm sorry that your family has to now go through what they're going to have to go through the rest of their

life because of your actions of what you did. I want you to know that I'll forgive you. I will pray for you every day. Now, some have been held accountable civilly because of the work of Eric Bland, his partner Ronnie Richter and

others. And because of the work from state and federal prosecutors, others like Cory Fleming and Russell LeField have been held accountable criminally in state and federal court. But it wasn't just Tony, who spoke that day. So many have been affected by Ellick Murdoch's confessed actions, and the actions of those that enabled him. We will get into that right after this. Do prosecutors look at the financial crimes, the crumbling of his personal life, everything that was going on, the boat crash? How do they wrap all that up into some kind of explanation as to why Alex killed his family? Well, this is why the trial took six weeks, and it was a very long process.

But prosecutors wrapped it all up into it, basically saying that Alex had never been held accountable for anything his entire life. And for the first time in his life, he was starting to get confronted about this money that he was stealing from his clients. And we found out sometime after the murders that he was actually confronted by the CFO of his law firm on the day of the murders that wears all this money. So pressure from all different angles. Also his father was dying and at that time,

which is a huge thing that a lot of people, including myself, overlooked sometime, but his father was the real fixer of that dynasty. And his father was really the one who could call all of the cops and say, do this, don't do that, hold off on this, you owe me one. And Alex knew his father was not going to be able to get him out of this mess for the first time in his life.

And we see this a lot of times with murder. The incentive is just men trying to clean up their messes and trying to get out of their messes and it doesn't make any sense. Murder never makes any sense as to why a person would result to that as the solution to their problems. But the way prosecutors framed it and the way that I believed happened

is he believed that he would get sympathy and he believed that everyone would get off of his back and stop asking him questions if his wife and son were murdered and he believed that the lawsuit was gonna go away. And also you see later on, that was the whole point of the suicide for hire thing. He wanted sympathy.

He wanted people to get off of his back. So that really was what it came down to you, think is a distraction from his other problems. Right, which is crazy. I mean, it's a crazy horrendous. I mean, wow. Right, but like we are people that are used to being held accountable for actions

and we would not expect to ever get away with something based off of that. But this is a man who is used to being feared and is used to having a dad that makes everything go away. And it's absolutely horrendous. And I think the other thing about this crime that I understand everybody kind of wants to reject the theory that Alex did it because it's just a human. You don't want to see this guy who's in glowing pictures with his family wrapped around him at football

games and the life of the party and this man who was a powerful lawyer. You don't want to see that person as a monster who is capable of killing their own family and it is hard to wrap your head around, but when you see the ginormous mess that Alex Murdoch was facing at the time and you look at his life and see how he has always gotten out of everything, then it makes a lot more sense. Yeah, and I really felt like his arrogance came through and his sense of entitlement came through by the fact that he actually took the stand in his own defense. Absolutely, it did.

And it was funny because a lot of the people watching were just absolutely shocked that he would take the stand. Traditionally, that's a bad move for the defense, but I always knew he was going to take the stand. He's a classic narcissist and it ended up just absolutely crushing him because the jury rejected it. The jury could see through his faked tears. The jury could see that he was being very manipulative with his answers and just that he didn't come across as a genuine human being.

The way that he talked about Maggie, his wife, was so robotic and so detached, it was bizarre. He's looked at a lot of juries throughout his entire career and been able to convince them to give him the verdict that he wanted, but it did not happen this time. And the other thing it did for you gave you some insight into who Paul was and why Paul was like he was.

Yeah, absolutely. A big thing that I found during the crimes that gave me the most insight, my co-worker Liz Farrell thought of the idea to file a Freedom of Information Act request for Alex Murdoch's jailhouse phone calls when he was in jail for the financial crimes. And that was my first real insight of how Alex worked and how he convinced his family to do things for him, to still support him, to... It was just appalling to sit there and listen to hundreds of phone calls of him, and he

had a routine. He would kind of suck up at the beginning and then make small talk, and then at the very end of almost every single phone call he had with different family members, he would ask for something. And listening to that and listening to Alex on the stand, I really felt sympathy for Paul. I don't think Paul got a chance to live a normal life ever because he was raised by people who would not correct his behavior.

And as I watched Alex be so manipulative and so conniving to his family members, it just all kind of hit me that it would have been impossible for Paul to be normal. And he, even if Paul wanted to be held accountable for the boat crash, I don't think his parents would have let him. You know, I always find this so interesting.

Like I've talked to so many people who have covered crimes indefinitely, and I've done a few myself. And what it always does is it just shows you that nobody lives in a vacuum. Nobody ends up to be who they are, bad or good, all on their own. I mean, of course, there's the 1% of people

that are just bad and whatever. But, you know, it does, it's so important to do these kind of investigations because like you said, you started out seeing Paul as the spoiled dick, which he was. But it's important to know that he got that way and it's generations of stuff and how dangerous it can be to just ignore the nuance and the grays and really try to get behind why things are the way they are. Yeah, absolutely. And I, my book is called Blood on their Hands

because it's not just about Alex having blood on their hands. It's about everybody that didn't correct the Murdochs and their behavior. And it's about everybody that didn't step up and say that something's wrong here. And it's about people that enabled Alex Murdochs and their behavior and it's about everybody that didn't step up and say that something's wrong here and it's about people that enabled Alex Murdoch and let him get away with thing after thing after thing and just helps create this monster and

That's a big important lesson for all of us if you Know that somebody has headed down a destructive path, you have got to do something. And if you don't, then you're enabling them. And sadly, the accountability only came after his wife and son were dead and Mallory was dead. So what happens to Alex? What does the jury decide? The jury within three hours came back with a verdict, which is very, very quick, traditionally. And the jury unanimously and very quickly decided

that he was guilty. And the next day, he was sentenced to two life sentences by Judge Clifton Newman. That was just a very huge moment for those of us in the Low Country. There was a lot of people who believed there was no way a Murdoch would ever be held accountable for a crime in the 14th Circuit. And for him to be convicted in the same courtroom where his grandfather's portrait hung before the trials was going on and they had to take it down. But his grandfather was this legend and his whole family were these legends in this area. And for him to be convicted of murder in that courtroom was a huge, huge

deal and a big sign that the system is turning and people can't get away with these things just because they have a powerful family. So Alex is in jail. We figured out what happened to Paul and Baggy, but the story is not over for you. So where is your focus now? Whew, the story is nowhere near over. Our justice system in South Carolina, we have realized so many things that are wrong with it and that could be fixed, but people aren't fixing them because they are profiting off of this very bad system. My focus is really just to keep the spotlight on that and to advocate for change. There have been judges who have been accused of horrible things throughout this saga that

they have not been held accountable and I'm still asking the questions of why. And I do not want to or plan on stopping until so many others are actually held to account for this because I believe there are a lot more people with blood on their hands, so to speak. And what are your hopes for Steven and Gloria's case? I hope that their families get answers. I hope that Sandy gets the day that she has always imagined. Since I first started talking to her in 2019, she says she closes her eyes and pictures cops knocking on our door and saying and telling them like, we've made the arrest.

And I want that more than anything. And I hope with glorious case that they find answers for the family and with all the financial crimes and all of the victims associated with that. I hope that authorities keep digging further into how many people allowed this to happen for so long and how many people allowed this disaster to build up to what it was. I hope all of those people are held to account and I hope that the system realizes that we can make big changes from this horrific crime,

and we can actually come out a lot stronger from this. But we have to keep pushing, and we have to keep focus on the story where it matters and not keep getting distracted. [♪ music playing in background, then music fades out. Well, keep up the good fight, because you've done some great work. So thank you.

Thank you so much. You've been listening to Crime Story from CBC Podcasts. We drop a new episode every Monday. You can get our next episode a week early on CBC Podcast's YouTube channel or by subscribing to the CBC Podcast's true crime channel on Apple Podcasts. In addition to early access, subscribers to our true Crime channel also listen ad-free. Crime Story is written and hosted by me. Our producers are Alexis Green and Sarah Clayton.

Sound Design by Graham McDonald. Our Senior Producer is Jeff Turner. Our Video Producer is Evan Agard. Our YouTube Producer is John Lee. Executive Producers are Cecil Fernandez and Chris Oak. Tanya Springer is CVC podcast senior manager and Arif Narani is the director of CVC podcasts. There is still so much work to be done in Steven's case.

And we encourage you to go back through the episodes in the Who Killed Steven Smith playlist to learn more about what we know already and what we have learned since the investigations have stalled. Next week, we will resume our investigation with our Cup of Justice episode Tuesday, featuring Kenny Kinsey, the Orangeburg detective that helped prosecutors explain the murder scene to jurors in the most eloquent of ways, co-host Eric Bland and Liz Farrell will ask

Kenny the tough questions about his thoughts on the Stephen Smith case and go deeper into what we already know and what we need to know in order to solve Stephen's case. Then, on next week's True Sunlight, we will be looking into some new material in Stephen's case. Then, on next week's True Sunlight, we will be looking into some new material in Steven's case. We are going to dig deeper and keep a fire lit under the feet of Sled who has promised Sandy updates without following through. Until then, stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the sunlight. True sunlight is a Luna Shark production created by me, Mandy Matney, and co-hosted by journalist Liz Farrell.

Learn more about our mission and membership at lunasharkmedia.com. Interruptions provided by Luna and Joe Pesky.