Murdaugh Murders Podcast - What Happened To Gloria Satterfield? Part Five (S01E20)

Episode Date: December 2, 2021

On Tuesday, November 30, 2021, SLED released the 911 recording from February 2, 2018 - the day that Gloria Satterfield allegedly fell at the Moselle property and later died in the hospital. On this tragic call, you can hear Maggie Murdaugh & Paul Murdaugh describe Gloria's condition as the 911 operator battles to glean information from each. Mandy Matney & Liz Farrell take you through everything they know about Gloria's injuries and the mysterious documents surrounding her death. You'll also hear from Eric Bland, who now represents the Satterfield family, with his take on this disturbing call. Thank you for listening and thank you for considering this next big deal: In 2022 we want to commission up to 5 different stories for deep-dive investigations. We're seeking investigators, journalists, arm-chair detectives and others to tell a story they've always wanted to share in order to expose the truth wherever it leads. Cold cases, active investigations, crimes and corruption is our aim and we want to help you blow the lid off of the next big story. We fund your project, you tell the story - we just help you along. Visit MurdaughMurdersPodcast.com/truth for more details. To learn more about how you can help preserve Stephen's legacy and help his family, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/standingforstephensmith And a special thank you to our sponsors: the Bannon Law Group, Lauren Taylor Law, Ross & Pines, Nature's Highway CBD, Midwood Smokehouse and others. For current and accurate updates: Twitter.com/mandymatney Support Our Podcast at: https://murdaughmurderspodcast.com/support-the-show Please consider sharing your support by leaving a review on Apple at the following link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murdaugh-murders-podcast/id1573560247 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I don't know if anyone killed Gloria Satterfield, but this week investigators released the 911 call from the incident that led to her death. And unfortunately, the mystery keeps deepening. My name is Manny Matney. I'm the news director at fitsnews.com and I've been investigating the Murdoch family for more than two and a half years now.

This is the Murdoch Murders podcast. So we are back from Thanksgiving break and this week has already been chock full of Murdoch Murder News. We had another episode almost ready to go today, but then as Murdoch Murders news goes, something else broke and changed our plans, but we're not complaining.

We both had a lot of time to reflect over this break and we have so many people to thank for getting us here. Today, the Murdoch Murders podcast was named the number five best news show on Apple of 2021. And that is a big deal. I'm going to talk more about what this means to me and the long list of people that we have to thank for helping us get to this moment

and we'll get into all of that at the end of this episode. So on Tuesday, November 30th, nearly four years after Gloria Satterfield died from injuries and an alleged trip and fall incident on Ellic Murdoch's property, the South Carolina law enforcement division, also known as SLED, released the 911 call in the incident. The 911 call was released in response

to a freedom of information act request made by Fitz News, which is why we were able to break the story. So despite some documents stating that the incident took place in Hampton County, South Carolina, this incident actually took place at the Moselle property in Colleton County. The same property where Maggie and Paul Murdoch

were found murdered on June 7th, 2021. SLED opened an investigation into Gloria Satterfield's death on September 15th. The same day her son's attorneys, Eric Bland and Ronald Richter filed a lawsuit against Ellic Murdoch and his co-conspirators who are accused of scheming to steal millions of dollars from Satterfield's wrongful death settlement.

Murdoch is still behind bars on charges related to the Gloria Satterfield case. But while so much is known about what went wrong in that settlement, we still know very little about how Gloria died. So today, we are going to go through the 911 call and everything we know about what happened to Gloria. Maggie Murdoch called 911 around 9.24 a.m.

on Friday, February 2nd, 2018. I'm going to start by saying it's hard to listen to this phone call. Hearing the voices of Maggie and Paul Murdoch on the property where they were murdered just three years later is haunting. 9.24 a.m. 38 seconds, February 2, 2018. Come here.

911, where's your emergency? 4147 Rosel Road. Okay, can you give me the address? I'm going to make sure I got it right. Yes, 4147 Rosel Road. Okay, what's going on out there? I'm sorry? What's going on out there?

My housekeeper has fallen and her head is bleeding. I cannot get her up. Okay, you think she's fallen and she's bleeding from the head? Yes. How old is she? I'm not sure, like 58 maybe. So Gloria Satterfield was more than Maggie Murdoch's housekeeper. She helped raise Maggie Murdoch's children.

She was working in their home for more than two decades at this point. Gloria was 57 at the time of this incident. And while we've talked about this many times, it's impossible to judge anybody by their tone of voice on a 911 call. Sources who knew the Murdoch family have described Maggie as emotionally detached, which could explain her matter-of-fact voice here. Do you think she's fallen standing or not? No.

Where'd she fall from? She fell going up the steps, up the bridge steps. Okay, so is she outside or inside? Outside. Okay. How many steps is there? Eight. Okay, is she on the ground or is she up near the top?

She's on the ground, she's on the ground, she's on the ground. Is she conscious? No, not really. Is she awake at all? Yes. Okay. Is she just not, like, responding appropriately, but she is awake? Man, she's not responding.

Okay, I've already got them on the way and you're asking questions. It does not fill them down, man. Knowing if she's conscious is one of the things that the medic needs to know. She's responding at all to you. No. Okay, so she's not responsive at all? Well, I mean, she's mumbling. Okay, so she is somewhat conscious.

Is she breathing, okay? Yes. Is she bleeding from anywhere? Yes, her head. Hey, are you guys able to control the bleeding? No. Can you put a cream rag or anything on it? Here, Maggie appears to be irritated with a dispatcher, whose job is to get the most amount of information

for first responders to appropriately take care of the victim before arriving to the scene. When the dispatcher asked if they were able to control the bleeding, it sounds like Maggie says, I didn't even try. At no point does Maggie ever ask what she can do to help Gloria. Yeah, I got it. Okay, she's bleeding from, like, her face, the back of the head, doesn't it? I've got an ambulance coming. Sir, my name what?

Where exactly is she bleeding from on her head? I'm not sure, at the top of her head. Okay. What happened? What happened? She just fell back down. Can I have your name and phone number? Are you able to bring the phone down by her?

What? Are you on a cell phone where you can walk down there and call her? I'm on a cell phone. Can you bring it with you so we can ask her some questions about what kind of pain she's having? Here, Maggie is saying that Gloria fell back down, which is an odd phrase when speaking about someone who is lucid and in and out of consciousness. Maggie Murdock then handed the phone to her son, Paul Murdock, who was 18 at the time. Multiple sources familiar with the status of the investigation confirm that the voice on the recording was Paul Murdock.

Hello? Yeah, can you ask the patient what kind of pain she's having? Ma'am, she can't talk. Okay, do you know... She's cracked her head and has glot on the concrete and she's bleeding out of her left ear. Okay, she's bleeding out of her ear. And out of her head, she's sent to school. Okay.

All right, did other ladies say that she had tried to stand up and fell down again? No, I was holding her up. Okay. She told me to turn her loose since she was trying to use her arm, but then she fell back over. Here, Paul is saying that Gloria was bleeding out of her ear and out of her head and she cracked her skull. He says very clearly that Gloria is not talking at this point. Then it sounds like he said that he was trying to pick up Gloria up off the ground and she told him to put him back down and that's how she fell again. But this is just moments after Paul told the dispatcher that she wasn't talking.

Okay, do you guys know who she is? Yes, she works for us. So Paul appears to be distancing himself from Gloria here. Gloria, a person who raised him, is suffering from a traumatic head wound right in front of him and he's basically referring to her as the help. This is odd because multiple sources have told me that Paul was very close with Gloria. In fact, he had an endearing nickname for Gloria. He called her Gogo. Paul saw Gogo as a mother figure and he loved her like one according to a source who was close to the Murdoch family. So why is he talking about her like he doesn't care?

Okay, do you know she's ever had a stroke or anything before? Ma'am, can you stop asking her the same thing? I already have them on the way. I already have them on the way. Me asking questions does not slow them down in any way. These are relevant questions that I have to ask for the ambulance. Right here, Paul is obviously annoyed with the dispatcher for asking relevant questions about Gloria's injuries. If you've been listening to this podcast from the beginning, you'll notice a stark difference between the way Connor Cook treated the dispatcher who asked very irrelevant questions in the 2019 boat crash and the way that Paul treated the dispatcher here. Why are my questions? Has she ever had a stroke?

I don't believe she's ever had a stroke, not that I know of. Okay, is she able to talk to you guys at all or is she unconscious now? She's not unconscious, she just mumbling. Okay. I believe she's maybe hit her head and had it, maybe it was a team crush or something maybe. Okay, do you know what her name is? Gloria Satterfield. You said Sanderfield?

Ben. You said Sanderfield? Satterfield. Okay, what's the house look like out there? It's off set off the road. Okay. It's a big house, got a long driveway. A little long driveway?

Yeah. Is there a date or anything down there that they're going to need to come through? There are two big brick columns down there to come through. Okay, but there's no date code or anything that they need? No ma'am, and tell them that they can look for a fellow on a 656 Ranger. Okay. Waiting on them in the road is green. You know what they probably know what the Ranger looks like.

Yeah, you said like green. Fellas down on a black sweater, a hat and pants. It's a little hard to hear, but Paul Murdock is telling the dispatcher that first responders should look for another man in a six-wheeled utility vehicle at the edge of the Moselle property. Sources have told us that this person was another worker on the property. Okay. All right. If something changes with her, if she loses consciousness or anything like that,

I need one of you guys to call me back right away, okay? Okay, well, how long is it okay? That I don't know. I thought I'm on the way since Maggie first called me, they were told right away. So notice right here, the dispatcher says Maggie's name. A few minutes earlier, she referred to Maggie as the lady, and maybe the dispatcher heard Maggie's name when she asked her for her name previously, but she did mumble it and it was very hard to hear.

We were told by police that this is an unredacted version of the 911 recording and that investigators didn't edit any parts of this. Now, it is possible that she got a hold of property records while on the phone. Dispatchers can do that. But those property records would say Margaret Murdock, not Maggie. And maybe she knew Maggie Murdock lived at the property because they were a well-known family in Colletin County. So whatever it is, it's worth noting.

Okay. All right, but I think they're coming... Hang on one minute, let me check. They're coming from somewhere on Delta Highway in Ruffin, okay? After their station is. Thank you. All right, but like I said, if something changes, call me back. Yes, ma'am.

Okay. So the 911 call ends abruptly. A Colletin County first responders report refers to Gloria as an elderly female who fell while walking up eight brick steps. The report said that Gloria was semi-conscious and breathing. The earliest first responder arrived at 9.41 a.m. according to the report. They were en route to the hospital by 9.52 a.m. A couple things to note about the 911 call.

Gloria's sons were told that Murdock's dogs caused her to trip and fall and that she suffered from a traumatic brain injury because of that. However, there was no mention of dogs during that 911 call. And I didn't hear any dogs in the background of the 911 call either. Another thing is Alec Murdock, who allegedly orchestrated the entire wrongful death scheme to scam Gloria Satterfield's family and the aftermath of her death is not mentioned anywhere in the 911 call. We don't know if he wasn't home or what the deal is there,

but he's not mentioned at all. One more thing, nowhere in this 911 call do Maggie or Paul mention a word about what they can do to help Gloria. They both seem more concerned about getting off the phone with the dispatcher than they did about saving Gloria, who was apparently in a dire condition at that time. Here is my co-host Liz Farrell. Since we published the 911 story, Fitz Newsreaders have pointed out to Mandy and me that they were particularly surprised by Maggie's instant recollection of how many steps she had.

That Gloria was said to have fallen up the stairs. That Gloria appears to have been moved after her fall. And that Maggie's tone, when asked about Gloria's age, seemed dismissive and imperious. Though the 911 call does not reveal a lot about what happened that morning. It is the first time a lot of people are hearing Maggie's and Paul's voices since their murders. We spoke to Eric Bland on Wednesday afternoon and asked him whether Gloria's family had listened to the 911 tape. And how they felt about it. Here's what he had to say.

Obviously the family is distressed in hearing the circumstances of how their mother and sister were described and delirious and mumbling and somebody had held her up and then let go and dropped her. They were a little taken back by the lack of emotion. So to speak with Maggie and Paul, they were really mad that Maggie appeared just to give the phone to Paul. You know, if she was so frustrated she just gave the phone to Paul and he took over talking. You know, she described eight steps, brick steps, and it happened the same way that Alex has described it except they didn't mention the dogs, but it said she did follow the exterior steps. You know, there isn't anything that I could glean from it that I would consider to be suspicious other than that, you know, the lady was trying to do her job

and it appeared that Maggie and Paul were a little short fused with her. In the ongoing coverage of the Satterfield case, Gloria has been referred to as the Murdoch's longtime housekeeper. Which she was, in part. If there's one thing Gloria's family would want us all to know, it's that one word is never enough to fully capture who a person was and that this word in particular, housekeeper, only describes one aspect of her professional life and personal relationship with the Murdoch family and certainly isn't a big enough word to describe who she was to those she loved most. She was so much more, you know, everybody says, oh, you know, she was the housekeeper for the Murdochs. I mean, housekeepers are people too. She loved her job. She was more than a housekeeper. She helped raise these children.

She was very close with Paul. She worked with Mr. Buster and Ms. Libby. She worked for Randy and John Marvin raising kids, babysitting. She drove them around. She wasn't just a housekeeper and that's what's getting lost in this. She was a real person, you know, great sense of humor, wonderful sense of family, very religious. They took her on vacations at times. So that's what's got the family that they were willing to talk, you know, on Dateline and at Netflix Special. She's so much more than a housekeeper and it's just demeaning and it's not, you're not to blame. It's just, she's known as just the Murdoch's housekeeper. It's almost like calling her the Murdoch's dog.

It's just, these are people. These are people that have families and raise, you know, and make a living and make an important contribution to people's family. She was so much more than a housekeeper. So while there are very few documents about this 2019 incident at Moselle, a series of Facebook posts from Tony Satterfield, one of Gloria Satterfield's sons, sheds light on the extent of Gloria's injuries. On February 2nd, 2018, Tony Satterfield posted the following on Facebook. So for those of you who don't know, my mom fell, hit her head pretty hard. She had to be flown out to Trident Medical and has a hematoma, a couple of broken ribs. She is responding, knew who I was, and even knew her social to give to the registration lady. On February 3rd, Tony Satterfield said that Gloria was complaining of headaches and her hematoma had gotten better.

Tony posted that his mother was going to have surgery on her ribs, which were cracked during the incident, and that surgery was scheduled for February 5th. While Tony posted that that surgery went well, things appeared to take a turn after that operation. On February 7th, Tony wrote, update on my mom. Knocked out cold will not wake up. And in another post on February 7th, 2018, Tony Satterfield wrote that his mother has stage 3 kidney disease, which did not help the situation. Over the next week, it sounded like her status improved slightly, but on February 20th, it seems like things went south really quick. Tony Satterfield posted it appeared that Gloria's heart had stopped and they had to do CPR. In addition to giving us insight into how difficult those last few days were for Gloria and her family, Tony's posts tell us just how loved Gloria was.

After a difficult day on February 20th, 2018, Tony reflected on how grateful he was that he and his mother had been able to say I love you to each other in the previous days. He was also thankful that his mother was able to see that he had a personal relationship with Jesus and that he got his dream job at Buford Memorial Hospital. In just five days later, Tony Satterfield posted a tragic update. The family made the heart-wrenching decision to take Gloria off of the ventilator because the life that she was living was torture and it was no quality of life that she would want to live. Gloria Satterfield, 57, died at Trident Medical Center in North Charleston on February 26th, 2018. One of the questions that remains in the minds of those familiar with the medical care in the low country is this. Why was Gloria a trauma patient with a head injury taken to Trident Medical Center in Somerville? This isn't to cast aspersions on the staff at Trident, it's simply to acknowledge this.

Is Trident the hospital where the Murdochs would have been taken if it were one of them who had received the head injury that day? It's stunning to me. She was airlifted immediately. They took her to Cullin Hospital and then she was airlifted and she was airlifted to Trident in Somerville. And when you have a brain injury, you know, that's usually an MUSC or in this area would be directly to Prisma in Columbia. It's MUSC and I don't know how she ended up in Trident in Somerville. I have no idea. Fast forward, more than three years later, in September 2021, a new Hampton County Coroner named Angela Topper requested that the South Carolina law enforcement division, the same agency investigating the Murdoch murders, open an investigation into Gloria Satterfield's death due to inconsistencies surrounding her death. Her death was not reported to the coroner at the time, nor did officials perform an autopsy according to her death certificate. A couple things to note about Satterfield's death certificate.

Her cause of death was listed as acute subdural hemorrhage, which is essentially a brain bleed. The manner of death was listed as natural. And so, for an explainer, there are five manners of death. Natural, accident, homicide, suicide, and undetermined. From what we know about Gloria's death, her brain bleed appeared to be caused by her injuries at Moselle, which seem to be far from natural. The really weird part about her death certificate is where it says other significant conditions. It reads, Gloria was injured at work in her last day living outside of a hospital. That is a fact. Why was her death certificate full of inconsistencies? And how on earth were Corey Fleming and Alec Murdoch able to pull off a $3.6 million wrongful death settlement claiming that she was injured in Hampton County when she was injured at Moselle?

And claiming that she died from a trivenfall accident when her death certificate said she died from natural causes. Is that an example of how afraid of Hampton County insurance companies are? Or is something else going on there? Again, we have to ask ourselves, are the inconsistencies due to corruption or incompetence? Officials at the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division told us at Fitznews this week that the investigation into Gloria's death is active and ongoing. Our growing team at Fitznews.com will continue to chip away at this case, and we will get answers to the many questions we all have in Gloria Satterfield's death. Stay tuned. So I said it before on the last episode, and I will say this again, because gratitude is something that I take so seriously. We are incredibly thankful to everyone supporting this podcast with your words of encouragement, subscriptions to Fitznews.com, and contributions to our mission.

This Thanksgiving, David, Luna, and I traveled across the country to visit my family in Kansas City, and we were reminded of how the show and my reporting is only possible because of the people who believe in us. And then Tuesday came, and it was a whirlwind. First, the Gloria Satterfield tape was released, something that I've been waiting years to hear. After that, I lost the diamond of my engagement ring on the beach for a solid, panicked field 15 minutes before David, my hero, found it. It was incredibly emotional. And then I checked my phone and found out that the Murdoch Murders podcast was named a top new show of 2021 by Apple Podcast. I will be honest, I'm not used to awards. I've always been an unconventional journalist at heart.

In most of my career, I felt like I didn't belong. The old school tends to pass over people like me and think of them as silly or unprofessional because my type of reporting does not play by the rules. And if you're paying attention to mainstream media on this case, you can see that they're doing everything they can to discredit Fitznews.com and my reporting from the Wall Street Journal to the Associated Press. But it really meant something this week when Apple recognized us as a top show. If Apple supports this work and takes this seriously, maybe we're on to something here. And we have so many people to thank for getting us here to that moment. So first of all, to David for doing all the things that I can't stand and doing them so well. I love you and cannot wait to introduce you as my producer slash husband next year on the Murdoch Murders podcast.

To my parents for believing in me from the beginning. To Pam and Fred and Alexandra for being such a supportive part of my new family. To Will, Albert and the growing Fitznews media empire for exposing the truth wherever it leads. To Liz for being the best partner in true crime a journalist could ask for. To Neil, Shelby, Oren and Meredith for delivering us opportunities beyond our wildest dreams. And a big thank you to Frank, Kathy and Elvira at Adlarge. Our new family at Adlarge represents over 100 top podcasts in true crime, lifestyle, entertainment and beyond. As we publish more episodes, you'll be hearing from some of the brands that I believe in as we thank them for believing in our mission to expose the truth wherever it leads.

To all of my family and friends across the country. There are so many people to name and I'm very scared that I will offend somebody by listing all of them. So you know who you are. Thank you. I love you. And to all the folks like Lisa at hungrygirl.com, Robin, Dietra, Justin, Pam, Ra, Laura from Texas, Katie, V and countless others. And both of us want to say thank you to the real journalists, the true tellers and the freedom fighters out there. Filing FOIA requests, exposing powerful people and holding up the Fourth Estate. You are making a difference in your community and in 2022 we want to support investigative journalists however we can. And I want to thank Mandy for putting her heart and soul into this project. She works tirelessly to expose the truth wherever it leads.

We want to hear from reporters, armchair detectives and savvy super sleuths because we are going to give you a voice in 2022. Ideally, we're looking for true crime and corruption collide. Please visit murdochmurderspodcast.com slash truth to submit your story and learn more about this project. If you have truths you want to expose, visit murdochmurderspodcast.com slash truth to submit your story. We talk about some pretty terrible people and pretty terrible deeds on this show. And this week we encourage you to appreciate the friends and family and all the blessings around you. One more thing before we go, tis the season for giving back and spreading love. I want to take a moment and encourage you to donate to the standing for Stephen GoFundMe. They are so close to raising $15,000 which will go to Sandy's legal expenses and a scholarship fund in Stephen's name.

To donate, go to the link in the episode description. We have so much exciting news on the horizon. For now, we hope you had an amazing Thanksgiving and we'll be back before you know it. So stay tuned. If you believe like I do that Mandy is the best in the business and I'm a little biased, visit murdochmurderspodcast.com and click the support the show link to learn how you can help. Leave a five-star review to offset the haters, buy us a coffee or a mimosa, refer an advertiser and get a finder's fee or advertise your company, product or service. We can geotarget across the globe and find the right audience to suit your needs.

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