What Happened to the Murdaugh Family's Housekeeper? Inside Gloria Satterfield's Mysterious Death and the Lawsuit That Followed Jordana ComiterOctober 30, 2025 at 7:00 AM 0 Brice W. Herndon and Sons Funeral Home ; Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP Gloria Satterfield ; Alex Murdaugh.
- - What Happened to the Murdaugh Family's Housekeeper? Inside Gloria Satterfield's Mysterious Death and the Lawsuit That Followed
Jordana ComiterOctober 30, 2025 at 7:00 AM
0
Brice W. Herndon and Sons Funeral Home ; Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP
Gloria Satterfield ; Alex Murdaugh. -
Hulu's Murdaugh: Death in the Family sees Kathleen Wilhoite play the family's longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield
She died in February 2018 after what was reported as a fall at the Murdaugh family home
Years later, Alex Murdaugh was arrested for stealing the settlement funds from her life insurance lawsuit
Many people were affected by Alex Murdaugh's string of crimes, including the family's longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield.
Murdaugh: Death in the Family, which premiered on Hulu on Oct. 15, explores the dramatic rise and fall of the Murdaughs, a once-powerful family that made up a legal dynasty in South Carolina.
The show centers on Alex (Jason Clarke) and his wife, Maggie Murdaugh (Patricia Arquette), as their privileged world spirals following a fatal 2019 boating accident involving their son, Paul (Johnny Berchtold), that leads to more secrets emerging. The series mainly chronicles Alex murdering Maggie and Paul in June 2021, and how he attempted to evade the law after the gruesome killings.
Although their longtime housekeeper died in February 2018, the Hulu show creators wanted Satterfield to have a more active role in the series, as portrayed by Kathleen Wilhoite.
"We chose to keep Gloria," co-creator Michael D. Fuller explained during an episode of the official Murdaugh: Death in the Family podcast. "We decided that in order to show her relationship with the family, with Paul in particular, it made story truth sense to have her be alive and see how that plays out in the current timeline of our show."
So, what happened to the Murdaugh family's housekeeper? Here's everything to know about Gloria Satterfield's mysterious death, including the lawsuit that followed involving Alex Murdaugh.
Who was Gloria Satterfield?
Disney/Daniel Delgado Jr.
Kathleen Wilhoite and Jason Clarke as Gloria Satterfield and Alex Murdaugh in 'Murdaugh: Death in the Family'
Satterfield was welcomed by her parents, the late Eric Harriott, Sr. and Elizabeth Sheppard Harriott, in February 1961, according to Brice Herndon Funeral Homes. She was the oldest of eight children.
According to her obituary, she was the widow of David Michael Satterfield and was a mother to two sons: Brian "Little B" Harriott and Michael Anthony "Tony" Satterfield.
She was described as someone who liked tennis, loved kids and whose favorite color was purple. Her obituary mentioned that she would "be remembered for her laughter and her outgoing personality."
Satterfield died on Feb. 26, 2018.
How long did Gloria Satterfield work for the Murdaugh family?
Maggie Murdaugh/Facebook The Murdaugh family.
Satterfield worked for the Murdaugh family for more than two decades.
During a December 2023 conversation with PEOPLE, her son Tony said that Satterfield "loved Maggie and Alex and Paul and Buster just awfully."
"She loved what she did, her job. She took pride in it," he continued. "She talked highly of them."
Satterfield's sister, Ginger Hadwin, detailed the housekeeper's commitment to her job.
"She got up at the crack of dawn and she would go to work and work all day," she said. "And some days she didn't return until nightfall and worked very hard for what little bit of money she did make to try to make ends meet."
"Gloria would've given Alex anything she had," Ginger added. "If Alex would've asked her for whatever she would've given the shirt off her back to help him."
How did Gloria Satterfield die?
Daniel Delgado Jr./Disney
Johnny Berchtold and Kathleen Wilhoite as Paul Murdaugh and Gloria Satterfield in 'Murdaugh: Death in the Family'
In February 2018, Satterfield mysteriously died after falling at the Murdaugh home in South Carolina. Details of her fall were not disclosed at the time, though a 911 call from that day was released nine months later.
In the call, which was made at 9:24 a.m., a person, identified by Satterfield family attorney Eric Bland in a statement to PEOPLE as Maggie, told the operator that the housekeeper "has fallen, and her head is bleeding. I cannot get her up."
Although the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) did not identify the name of the female caller, the 911 operator mentioned that a "Maggie" had called the emergency number. During the more than six-minute call, the woman told the operator that Satterfield fell while going up eight brick steps outside.
On Sept. 15, 2021, SLED announced that it was opening an investigation into Satterfield's death. The news came amid officials stating that a coroner found inconsistencies in her death, though discrepancies were not reported in 2018, and no autopsy was performed.
In June 2022, it was announced that investigators would exhume Satterfield's body. According to WLTX-TV, SLED spokesperson Renee Wunderlich said that Satterfield's family agreed to the exhumation, which she called a "complex process."
The investigation got more complicated in the months to follow when a lawsuit emerged that accused Alex of life insurance fraud after Satterfield's death. Amid the new legal process, the long-believed idea that Alex's family's dogs caused the trip-and-fall was debunked, as he admitted in legal filings that the animals did not play a role in her death and said he fabricated that story.
The initial inquiry into Satterfield's death is what eventually led investigators to also prosecute Alex for the murders of Paul and Maggie. His first arrest was in the insurance fraud case in October 2021, and he was later charged with the killings in July 2022.
What happened in the aftermath of Gloria Satterfield's death?
James Pollard/AP Photo
Relatives of the Gloria Satterfield sit in court on Sept. 14, 2023, in Beaufort, S.C.
In the wake of Satterfield's death, her family found themselves in a legal saga with Alex who had hatched a moneymaking scheme. Following the housekeeper's funeral, Alex approached Satterfield's family, suggesting that they sue his homeowner's insurance provider.
"He said he would make sure the boys were taken care of," Hadwin told PEOPLE in December 2023. "He was just looking out for the boys because he thought a lot of Gloria and he was just going to make sure [her sons] Brian and Tony were taken care of, and to show his appreciation for all the years that Gloria had shown her love, looking out for his family and his boys."
To help them file the wrongful death and survival claim, Alex recommended his former roommate for the job, which made Hadwin think that "everything was going according to plan."
"Every now and then, he would reach out and see how we were doing," Satterfield's son Tony added. "And kind of update us and say, 'It's a hard case, we're still working on it. Time's on your side.' "
They were surprised when they later learned that their case had been settled for more than $4 million, which Alex never told them. "It made me sick to my stomach," Tony said.
In October 2021, Alex was arrested for stealing the settlement funds, among more than 100 other financial crimes. He was eventually sentenced to 40 years for 22 financial crimes, adding to his life terms without parole for the murders of Maggie and Paul.
Following the sentencing, Creighton Waters, the lead prosecutor on Alex's financial crimes and murder cases, told PEOPLE that what he did to Satterfield's family was "particularly egregious."
"Gloria had served that family for so long, and Alex went to the family, went to those sons, and promised that he was going to help them, and then just stole every single bit of the money that he didn't let his friend keep," Waters said.
Hadwin added, "You can't have a soul to do what he did. He's a shell of a man."
Tony and Hadwin have made efforts to look toward the future, and Satterfield's sister has since started a foundation called Gloria's Gifts with a goal of making sure needy children get at least one gift for Christmas.
"It's her legacy," Bland told PEOPLE. "It shows that she didn't die in vain, that her death had a purpose. Now we can smile when we hear the name Gloria."
on People
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: CR MAG
Full Article on Source: CR MAG
#ShowBiz #Sports #Celebrities #Lifestyle