01x02 - Something Wicked This Way Comes

[bunniefuu]

PHONE DIALLING

LINE RINGING

Maggie Murdaugh and Paul Murdaugh

are found dead next to the kennel

where they had kept
their hunting dogs

on their Moselle hunting plantation.

He discovers Maggie
and Paul's bodies.

They'd been shot.

ALEX CRYING

What we know about that night

is what we heard him describe
to the 911 dispatch.

There was obviously, what he was
looking at was beyond comprehension.

He's telling them what's happened.

You can hear him out of breath.

You can hear him trying to process

what he's actually looking at
as he's looking at.

As they're, as he's describing this
to the dispatch operator.

The scene that night was grisly
and incredibly disturbing.

He described to dispatch
that he saw two bodies

that had been shot multiple times,

and this was his wife
and his youngest son, Paul.

And he described how there was
a lot of blood.

He's still just trying to understand
exactly what's happened.

The very first thing
that struck me as unusual

is that Alex says
that his wife Maggie had been shot

and his child, not his son.

He didn't refer to Paul as his son.

Now that may be nothing,

but typically you're going
to either call them by name

or you're going to refer to them
in a much more personal manner.

And it was not.

He certainly sounded distressed

and I think that he probably
was distressed.

But to me that was very unusual.

Alex, on the 911 call,

said that he did touch both of them
to see if they were alive.

So he would have some blood spatter
on him or smears.

Colleton County Sheriff's
Office dispatches

deputies out there.

This is in Colleton County,
South Carolina.

Paul's body was found halfway in,

halfway out of
the actual dog kennels.

And that he had been shot
with a shotgun.

And his mum, Maggie, had been found
about 15 feet away.

And she had also been shot
multiple times.

The thing that
is surprising to me is that Maggie

and Paul were both shot
with different weapons.

GREGG: Paul with a shotgun blast
through his head,

Maggie being shot
with a semi-automatic r*fle.

Why were two different g*ns used
in these murders?

Why was a shotgun used to k*ll Paul
and a r*fle used to k*ll Maggie?

Did the k*ller do that on purpose

to make it look like
there were two shooters?

The injuries that Paul suffered
from the shotgun,

those would be devastating injuries.

A shotgun is going to do
a tremendous amount of damage.

There's going to be very little left
to see of that.

When a person's shot
with a high-powered r*fle,

the injuries again
are very different.

Typically the entrance wound
is small but the exit wound is huge.

Colleton County Sheriff's
Office very quickly call in

for assistance from SLED,
State Law Enforcement Division.

ANNE: The hunting estate in Moselle
is a massive property.

It's about 1,800 acres and it goes
all the way from Hampton County down

to the Colleton County line
in the low country.

According to Alex, he was visiting
his father just before these murders

and then had come back to Moselle

and had come up
on this horrible scene.

D'MICHELLE: The coroner puts
the time of death around 9:30 or so.

And the call came in
at just a little after 10:00.

From the time
that the 911 call came in

to the time of death is very short.

I mean, it's 30 minutes or so.

Alex and the k*ller certainly
could've crossed paths.

REPORTER: The bodies
of Paul Murdaugh and his mother

were found in the family's
sprawling hunting lodge property.

REPORTER 2: A South Carolina
community is in shock

after a mother and a son
of this prominent family

in the Charleston area
were shot dead.

Police confirm the deaths
of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh

are being investigated
as a double homicide.

It's starts dawning on pretty much
everyone at the same time, Murdaugh.

This is Paul Murdaugh.

This is the same Paul Murdaugh
who we've already been covering

for this fatal boat crash involving
Mallory Beach.

LINDA: I was in disbelief.
I was in shock.

And I guess the rest of Hampton
was also.

DREW: The boat crash happened
in February 2019.

After the death of Mallory Beach,
more than two years go by,

flash forward to now,
it's the spring of 2021.

Paul is just now about to have
his first hearing in court

related to the felony charges
against him from that boat crash.

ANNE: There's supposed to be
a hearing in three days.

And this is a young kid.

And he was looking at two decades
behind bars.

DREW: This is a big deal,
finally some progress in this case

that is so close to home
for so many people

in this small tight-knit community.

GREGG: And then, three days before
the criminal hearing,

Paul Murdaugh was m*rder*d
along with his mother.

DREW: Immediately, everyone
is asking the obvious question.

Who k*lled them? Why?

We may be making
a very gross assumption

that the younger Murdaugh,
Paul the... the son, was the target.

What if she was the target
and he was the collateral damage?

There has been rampant speculation
about why they were k*lled,

who could've k*lled them and it has
led to any number of theories,

some with more grounding
in reality than others.

Everyone is indulging
in the conspiracy theories

of why this happened.

D'MICHELLE: In law enforcement,
suspects are our bread and butter.

And the person who finds the body
is always the number one suspect,

as is the spouse of the deceased.

GREGG:
Alex Murdaugh was, at that time,

a person of interest in the deaths
of his wife and his son.

D'MICHELLE: Almost immediately,
law enforcement came out

and told the community,
"Don't worry, you're not in danger."

REPORTER:
New clues are coming to light

in the very high-profile
double m*rder

of a mother and son
in South Carolina.

ANNE: What everyone took away
from the police

was that this was
a targeted k*lling.

So why were Paul
and Maggie Murdaugh targeted?

One of the theories out there

has been that this was an incredibly
powerful family of prosecutors.

Is it possible that one
of the hundreds of people

that they put behind bars
came back for vengeance?

Powerful people make
powerful enemies.

The rumours are just running
rampant.

I mean, the speculation absolutely
is all over the place.

The State Law Enforcement Division,
which we call SLED,

SLED is not sharing
all of the details

that we wanna have answers to.

D'MICHELLE: We have no information

about whether the g*ns were found
or not.

There's just a lot of unanswered
questions.

Kudos to law enforcement because
they have really kept a lid on that.

But that is unusual.
There's always leaks.

And there are not many leaks
in this case.

Did Maggie and Paul Murdaugh
have life insurance policies?

They didn't have any insurance.

They didn't have any...
they had no insurance?

They had no insurance.

A constant question has been

"Did he have a hand in the deaths
of his wife and son?"

And that begs the question "Why?"

Why would he k*ll his wife and son?

Or why would he hire someone
to k*ll his wife and son?

What reason would he have to do it?

And that has led to all sorts
of conjecture.

KIMBERLY: You hear stories.

You don't know how much is true

and how much
is just someone's speculation.

DREW: It's widely rumoured
that Maggie wasn't living

at the Murdaughs' home in Moselle.

She was staying at the family's
beach house on Edisto Beach.

Adding fuel to that fire
was a report

that came out several weeks
after the murders

alleging Maggie Murdaugh
had recently visited

with a divorce attorney.

Alex Murdaugh's attorneys
have denied this,

and have even challenged
anyone with proof of this

to come forward and show them.

Because they insist that Maggie
and Alex

had a loving happy relationship.

REPORTER: Were there any problems
in Maggie and Alex's marriage?

Absolutely none. None.

And I'm... trust me, I was with them
for almost two years.

I had never, for whatever reason,
and I can't even explain it myself,

I've never thought that Alex hired
someone to k*ll them.

I think she and Alex were happy.

I don't believe they'll ever find
a person to charge for the murders

of Maggie and Paul.

Because I believe it was a hit.

And I believe that person
is probably not in the community

and he probably was in the wind


Two weeks after the double murders,

the State Law Enforcement Division
say they're going to reopen

an investigation into a death
of a young man from six years ago.

And they say that they're opening it
because it's based on information

that they've learned during
the investigation

of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh's
murders.

SLED, South Carolina Law Enforcement
Division, has reopened a 2015 case

where a young teen,


was found dead
on the side of the road.

Stephen Smith's body was found
in the middle of this road.

A pathologist said it appeared
to be a hit and run.

I was not surprised when I heard
that SLED had opened

an investigation into Stephen
Smith's death

right after Paul was m*rder*d,
because the rumors were everywhere.

I wasn't shocked, not a bit.

It just seemed like, "OK, well,
we knew this was gonna happen.

"We all knew this was gonna
happen." It is dirty business.

The death of a 19-year-old man
which for years had been unresolved

but has now been reopened
based on evidence

discovered by South Carolina
Law Enforcement

in the Murdaugh
double homicide case.

DREW: Stephen Smith was from
Hampton.

He lived with his twin sister,
Stephanie.

ANNE: Stephanie and Stephen's mum,
Sandy, wanted him to thrive.

They truly believed that Stephen was
made to do really wonderful things.

He was just my heart.
He was my heart.

Yeah, he was a mama's boy.

ANNE: Stephen Smith was 19 years
old.

He was gregarious,
he was good-looking, he was witty,

he was quick,
he had a big sense of humour.

He's sort of like this
all-American boy.

Stephen was a nursing student.

And his family says he wanted
to be a doctor.

Stephen was a good man with a good
heart, and he had big dreams.

And he really deserved to live
those dreams.

ANNE: Stephen was his own person.

And that was really important to
the family dynamic and to himself.

He was openly g*y.

STEPHANIE:
But he was out of this world.

He was always the last to get ready.

You know, last-minute in the car.

Two minutes, you know,
before anything.

"Oh, I still gotta put
my make-up on.

I got to look good," you know.
All the time.

CROWD JEERING

Being openly g*y in the south

would be incredibly difficult
for a teenager,

for someone Stephen's age.

It would've opened someone
like Stephen up to untold torment

and harassment and bullying
and mistreatment.

LINE RINGING

A man who was making his way
to work was driving down the road

at 4:00 in the morning...

DREW:
He sees something in the road.

That something is a body.

ANNE:
But law enforcement gets there

and what they find is a young man

who has this enormous laceration
to his head.

MICHAEL: Severe trauma to the
head-face area,

shoes, clothes, everything intact.

The coroner ruled, basically,
this appears to be a homicide.

It's ruled a homicide at that point.

WOMAN OVER RADIO:
White male, possibly early 20s.

SANDRA: We heard on the radio that
a body had been thrown out of a car,

um, onto Sandy Run Road, and Stephen
didn't come home that night.

So then we waited patiently
because we couldn't find him.

Her dad got the call to go
to the Sheriff's Department

in Hampton County,

and then that's where they
confirmed that it was Stephen

and they say he was shot in the
head.

MICHAEL: Later that afternoon,
I get another phone call

from my sergeant stating, "Hey, um,
now this has become a hit and run."

Hampton County Sheriff's Department
was the one who says,

"Hey, a body's in the roadway.
It's got a b*llet wound.

"So it's gotta be a hit and run."

DREW: Even though Stephen's death
was ultimately ruled a hit and run,

highway patrol officer Michael
Duncan never saw it that way.

MICHAEL: I was flabbergasted
because we went from a homicide,

now a hit and run.

"How do we go from one extreme
to the next?" is the way I felt.

The medical examiner was saying
he was hit by maybe a truck mirror.

There was nothing to support that.

The force that caused this injury
to his face

would have broken any mirror.

D'MICHELLE:
From the reports that I read,

the injury went from right side,

near the top of the head,
across to the bridge of the nose.

Something perhaps like a baseball
bat or some other linear object

would cause that type of injury.

MICHAEL: When you get hit by a
vehicle, uh, thrown to the ground,

rolled, whatever it is,

your clothing is going to be
tattered, torn, ripped.

Shoes will usually be knocked out.

And in this case, the shoes, they
were still on his feet at the time.

His phone was still in his pocket.

When Stephen's body was found,

it was right in the middle
of the road on the yellow lines.

So you're looking for some type
of debris that's gonna correlate.

There was nothing there.

I mean, we walked for a mile
in each direction

looking for this type of evidence.

SANDRA: When they told me hit and
run, I said, "That's impossible."

Because Stephen wouldn't have been
in walking in the road

to start with.
He would have cut through the woods.

He would not have been
in the highway.

STEPHANIE: Every time me and him
walked in the middle of the road,

if we heard a car or, you know,
seen a car,

we would jump in the woods and
wait until it passed us, you know.

'Cos he always said, "Nobody's gonna
get my sexy behind."

So, when they said that, I was just
like, "No. That's not Stephen."

MICHAEL: Stephen's car was
approximately three miles away

from where he was found.

And his vehicle was there apparently
because he had ran out of gas.

A gas cap was off.

He leaves the car locked,
but he leaves his wallet in the car.

MICHAEL: There was so many
questions with that.

Why not stay there with your car
and call somebody?

DREW: Michael Duncan knew
something was not right

in this case from the start.

He suspected foul play from the very
beginning and he pursued that.

MICHAEL: It wasn't about me,
honestly.

It was about Stephen and his family.

Our whole team wanted answers
for Stephen's family.

ANNE: Soon after Stephen had been
found dead,

Stephen's father got a call
from Randy Murdaugh,

Alex Murdaugh's brother,

asking whether or not he needed
representation.

They were surprised.

To have Randy Murdaugh,

who is an extremely powerful
personal injury lawyer

in this region,

reach out to the father
of Stephen Smith was extraordinary.

KIMBERLY: In such a small town,

possibly that would be the kind
of case that they would take on.

Why would Randy Murdaugh call
Stephen Smith's house

after he's found dead in the road
and offer to represent the family?

He was a personal injury lawyer.
He work at PMPED.

That is what they did.

So was it totally out
of the ordinary

that he would've reached out? No.

MICHAEL: I covered the lower part
of the state.

And I would travel into Hampton
and get these phone calls.

They said, "Hey, you're here
in Hampton County.

Hey, what are you over here for?"
Or "What do you need?

Are you needing any assistance?"

To me, the subtext was
"We know you're here.

And we wanna know why you're here.

And what do you know about
what's going on in this county?"

It was like,
"You don't need to be here."

That's the way it was perceived.

I would suspect
that I was being followed.

Certain people in that area,

whether it be law enforcement,
some other agency,

or some group, I felt like somebody
knew some of my movements.

So it would be very unnerving.

When I was in Hampton County
and get these phone calls,

I would like be extra careful
and mindful.

And even when I exited that area,

I was always mindful of somebody
following me.

"There's this car behind me.

Has it been back there too long?"

When I spoke
with Stephen Smith's boyfriend,

he was supposedly the last one
who spoke with Stephen that night.

So I wanted to find out one,

was he someone that was
of some interest in this case?

He didn't know exactly
where Stephen was.

The more I talked with him,

he was more concerned
about finding Stephen's k*ller,

instead of it being him.

It was getting clearer

that this person was not
of somebody of interest

and that this was a homicide.

He was m*rder*d.

That's what I think happened
to Stephen.

He was m*rder*d by someone
or a group

through some type of blunt force
trauma.

And somebody in Hampton County knows
exactly who did it.

It was friends that went
to high school with Stephen,

all of 'em were basically saying,

"I've heard one thing or another
about Stephen's death."

MICHAEL:
You would hear all these rumours,

but they were all the same type
of stories.

It's constantly there. It's not like
he was brought up one time.

When the Murdaugh family's name
come about, it was like,

"OK, we gotta treat this one
a little bit different at this point

because it is a well-known
powerful family in this area."

It was at that point in time,

we had to say,
"Hey, do we have stuff

"that we're gonna have to connect
the dots with?"

CAR WHIRRING

There was another Murdaugh
mentioned,

and that was Buster's
little brother, Paul.

KIMBERLY: Rumours were everywhere.

The scenario that was presented
to me was, they were out joyriding.

They see the boy walking down
the side of the road.

Paul leans out the window...
pegs him with a baseball bat.

That did not surprise me one bit.

I could see it happening.
I could see Paul doing that.

There may have been
a closer relationship

between Buster and Stephen than
their parents had known about.

Him and Buster were in high school
together.

MICHAEL:
You would hear all these rumors

that Buster and Stephen may have
had a relationship together.

MICHAEL: Is it a true story?

You have to take any of that
information with a grain of salt.

The investigation's not
really leading anywhere.

You would never get an individual

that you could talk to
that was there at the time.

We are in Hampton County.

My opinion is,
as far as the Murdaughs

and them knowing everybody
in that county,

I believe that they do run
that county, to an extent.

That is my belief.

The investigation went cold.

After, probably,
fall toward the winter,

there was very limited information
coming in.

You know, and at some point in time,
you're... where do you go?

We have followed every lead
that we could.

SANDRA: I don't see any reason
why they would...

any reason they would have to,
you know, harm Stephen.

But then later on,
it just kept coming up.

Murdaughs, Murdaughs, Murdaughs.

And then everything was just like
swept under the rug.

So then, that just got me
to thinking,

"Well, maybe they did have
something to do with it."

KIMBERLY: There was nothing.
It was a cold case. It dried up.

It just dried up until Paul
and Maggie were k*lled.

ANNE: After the double murders,

the focus was narrowing
on the Murdaugh dynasty.

And there were so many questions,

and everything in their life
was getting examined.

SLED is investigating the death
of a housekeeper

who worked for the Murdaugh family.

Gloria Satterfield died
after she allegedly tripped

and fell at the Murdaughs' home
back in 2018.

February 2nd 2018,
Maggie Murdaugh calls 911.

LINE RINGING

Gloria Satterfield
was a long-time housekeeper, nanny,

personal assistant
to the Murdaugh family.

She worked in the Murdaughs' home,

took care of domestic issues
for them.

She allegedly fell
at the Murdaugh family home.

ANNE: This is a hunting lodge.
This is an active hunting lodge.

Gloria Satterfield was in
some type of trip-and-fall accident

on the brick stairs.

And these are brick stairs
that lead into the hunting lodge.

We don't know who was there
with Gloria Satterfield

when she actually fell
on those stairs.

We don't know exactly
how long she's been there,

but we do know that Maggie
has discovered her

and that Paul is there.

Gloria and I, we became friends
when we were like four years old.

We grew up together.
Our parents were best friends.

And I will tell you, it's very rare
to have a best friend, OK?

Paul was a year old
when she started with them.

She treated those boys, Buster
and Paul, like hers.

At any time they'd call, she'd drop
what she was doing and go to 'em.

I know that she took care
of their home in Hampton.

She would have to clean it
and she would cook for 'em.

And she did it with a smile
on her face

and a song in her heart every day.

To meet her, you never would know
that her walk was what it was.

And I always told everyone,

"I was a sinner
and she was a saint."

She was a good mum. She was.
She loved her boys.

ANNE: Gloria Satterfield had
two sons, Brian and Tony.

And as a single working mum, she
pretty much raised them on her own.

Linda: Gloria had to work,
point-blank.

As far as I know,
she never got paid vacation

when she was working
for the Murdaughs.

If Gloria was sick,
Gloria still went to work,

because she couldn't afford not to.

KIMBERLY: Gloria also worked for my
half-sister two days a week.

I would be in my sister's kitchen
and I would say to Gloria,

"Well, Gloria,
what's going on today?"

And she said, "Paul came in and got
a knife out of the kitchen drawer."

She said, "Paul,
what are you doing?"

And he said, "I'm gonna k*ll
that mother [BLEEP) squirrel."

Paul was five years old... gonna
k*ll a "mother [BLEEP) squirrel."

Gloria did say that he would cut up
animals, just to be doing it.

KIMBERLY: Maggie let them do
as they pleased, basically.

I don't know
if she couldn't control them

or if she just didn't control them.

Paul would talk to you the same way
he would talk to one of his friends.

I had met Gloria over at Maggie
and Alex's house.

And she had both of the boys
in the van.

And Buster, maybe I told him to
fasten his seat belt, or something,

and that's when he told me,
"You don't tell me what to do.

"I'll tell you my name,
and I'll tell you who my daddy is,

"my granddaddy
and my great-granddaddy."

I said, "I don't care who you are,
but you're not gonna disrespect me."

Gloria was then taken
to the hospital

where she sat for a few weeks
in intensive care,

her son visiting her day after day.

ANNE: And she has a traumatic brain
injury, haemorrhaging in the brain

and she's got cracked ribs.

D'MICHELLE: She had what's called
a subdural haematoma,

which is basically a blood clot
under the skull.

So because of that injury, Gloria
would suffer some semi consciousness,

eventually unconsciousness.

ANNA: She's never able to tell her
family what happened to her.

How did she get on those stairs?
How long had she been lying there?

LINDA: When I saw Gloria in the
hospital, my daughter went with me,

and I realised this was really bad.

She's just laying there.

She started moving her leg,

but then she tried to pull her
mask off her face

and I think she was trying
to talk to me.

I asked my daughter,

"Do you believe Miss Gloria
was trying to tell me something?"

And she says, "Mama,
I believe she was."

ANNE: When Gloria Satterfield
is in the hospital,

Alex Murdaugh never comes
to the hospital to go and visit.

And Maggie Murdaugh only makes
an appearance once.

She's been cooking and cleaning
for this family

for more than two decades.

MICHAEL: Gloria Satterfield spent
about three weeks in the hospital

and ultimately died there.

And apparently was not able
to give any kind of statement

during her time there.

D'MICHELLE:
I saw the death certificate

and the death certificate says that
it was a natural cause of death.

The subdural haematoma

is almost always from some type
of inflicted trauma,

which can be from a fall.

Now, whether she actually tripped
and fell or whether she was pushed,

there's no way to really tell.

ANNE: Now you've got two different
accounts of how she died.

Was it natural
or was it an accident?

The rumours around the town
were that Gloria found Paul's drugs

and she was going to tell,
and he pushed her down the stairs.

When I knew Paul, he was someone
that had no regard for anyone.

LINDA: It could be a possibility.
Paul could have pushed Gloria.

But we don't know.
We may never know.

But anything's a possibility.

At the cemetery for the funeral,
I spoke to her brothers,

her sisters, her boys, naturally,
Tony and Brian.

But the one person there that did
not speak to me was Maggie.

I thought it was kind of odd,

because she knew that Gloria
and I were best friends.

ANNE: Alex Murdaugh comes up to the
boys after their mother's funeral

and says,
"I need to take care of this.

"Let me take care of this.
I need to make this right.

"She fell on my property.
She fell at my house.

"It was my dogs' fault.
My dogs did this."

KIMBERLY: There were no dogs
barking in that 911 call.

Maggie didn't say anything
about tripping over the dogs.

She was just "on the ground."

Now, they've got dogs.

They've got kennels.
This is a hunting lodge.

And these dogs,
from what we understand,

were pretty rambunctious.

Was there dogs around Gloria?

Or was there not?

That's the million-dollar question.

VIRZI: Alex said, "I'm responsible
for your mother's death.

I'm gonna sue myself.

We're gonna get you some money
from my insurance company."

The idea of a lawyer suing himself

is every bit as ridiculous
as it sounds.

You can't sue yourself. You can't be
on both sides of a case,

either as a lawyer on both sides
or as a party on both sides.

And he was a lawyer on one side
and a party on the other side.

Absolutely impermissible as a lawyer
to do that.

GREGG: Alex Murdaugh reached out
to Tony Satterfield,

Gloria Satterfield's son,
and said to him,

"I have a great attorney
who can represent you

in a wrongful death lawsuit
against my estate."

VIRZI: They went and met
with his friend, Cory Fleming,

and agreed to be represented
by Cory and Alex.

And even continued to communicate
with Alex

as their lawyer during the case.

ANNE: The boys take a backseat

because they're told to wait
for this settlement.

They wait for a year
and they haven't heard anything

about the settlement.

VIRZI: A local reporter who was
looking into the boat crash

came across this petition
for a court approval

of $505,000 settlement
in the court records

in the name of Gloria Satterfield.

This reporter wrote an article
about it

and, apparently, that's where the
Satterfields first learned about it.

ANNE: What death settlement?
What $505,000?

They had been told that they were
still waiting for that money

to come through.

VIRZI: Well, I've been a lawyer
for 22 years.

I've never seen a case
where there was this much theft

over this long a period of time
and this much suspicious death

surrounding one lawyer,
this much cover-up.

And I've never seen it done
with someone with this much power.

Five deaths are all associated
with the Murdaugh family.

Paul and Maggie.
You have Mallory Beach.

You have Gloria Satterfield.

And you have Stephen Smith.

And they're all somehow related
to the Murdaugh family.

This is a Pandora's box.

It's already open.
And the demons are loose.