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[Music] [Music] % [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you doing thanks for
00:01:45
listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who comes equipped with a Kinder gentler machine gun hand
00:01:52
here is the captain yeah keep Rocking In The Free World it's good to be seen and
00:01:57
it's good to see you thanks for listening listening thanks for t a [Music] friend this week we are drinking hop art
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India Pale Ale by the good folks over Coast Brewing Company this is a complex year round I to the P to the a with
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sweet malt and assertive hop character ABV 7.7% garage grade four and a half bottle
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caps out of five and let's give some cheers and thanks to people that helped us fill up the fridge this week first up
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a big cheers to Summer sending Buffalo from Buffalo New York shout out to the bills Mafia I was Jess in Buffalo New
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York on Sunday and a big shout out to Tammy in Hamilton Ohio next up we have Susan in Bellingham Washington and a big
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we like your DP to Suzie in Cedar Rapids Iowa and here's a cheers to Raquel in Amarello Texas and last but certainly
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everyone who went to True Crime garage.com and donated to the Beer fund for this week's Beer Run yeah the big
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Dingle BW r n Beer Run we got some great new shirts for the ladies so check out true Crim garage.com and click on the
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store Page and Colonel that is enough of the business all right everybody gather
00:03:25
around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Applause] [Music] he
00:04:02
hey County one where's your emergency um I just going down crille Road I see somebody laying
00:04:12
out what road are you what's the name of the highway that you're on I know it's crocodille Road you just
00:04:19
know it's crocodille road yeah um hold on just a second and which way you had it okay uh know back way to go going
00:04:34
uhhuh yeah okay you on that road just before you get into cville turn cville make that right okay
00:04:42
cville take right take a take a left you call 601 uhhuh if I'm if I'm going toward
00:04:50
bber I'm G take a left on in that R yeah like you going I get a r called 14 you can go to Sandy run but but you're not
00:04:58
on Sandy run roll I think okay and is it in the road or on the side of the road he in the roadway
00:05:10
in the road yeah uhuh all right so what's your name and call that number uh my name is Ronnie C okay all
00:05:20
right Mr C can I get a phone number for you uh see I don't know off the phone but you can call this number back I
00:05:29
going to work okay but this is a good number to reach you back at yeah okay all right we'll get an officer headed
00:05:35
out that way to see what's going on okay in the road uh I ain't moving or nothing
00:05:41
like that but um somebody going hit him it's dark uhhuh somebody Going H it all right we'll get an also headed out that
00:05:49
way okay all right [Applause] [Music] sir [Music] there it is it's a 911 call we have a
00:06:21
driver out on a country road and he finds a lifeless body lying in the middle of the road the body is
00:06:28
identified to be a one Steven Smith Steven Smith was just 19 years old when his body was found in the middle of a
00:06:36
country road in Hampton County South Carolina who is Stephen Smith and what does his death which was over six years
00:06:45
ago on July 8th 2015 what does this death have to do with anything with the Murdoch murders
00:06:53
case that we're covering well that's because on June 23rd just 3 weeks after the Murdoch's
00:07:01
double homicide killings sled released the following statement it says sled has opened an investigation into the death
00:07:11
of Steven Smith based upon information gathered during the course of their double murder investigation of Paul and
00:07:19
Maggie Murdoch that really makes me curious on what evidence they found well and not to really kind of put a a marker
00:07:26
on the severity of either situation there both horrific tragedies but we've seen this movie before right Captain
00:07:34
where we have a high-profile case a double homicide there was one out in Deli Indiana where later they tell us
00:07:41
hey during the course of our double homicide investigation we've been LED on to other investigations of criminal
00:07:49
activity that may or may not have anything to do with this double homicide right so we've seen this before and it's
00:07:56
always interesting when they're uncovering these little tid bits and breadcrumbs to lead them to potential
00:08:02
other perpetrators or maybe it is in some weird way connected we've seen this tangled web of the Murdoch so far and it
00:08:12
only continues to grow and get bigger and more stranger as we go now in regard to the Steven Smith case there's some
00:08:22
thought that during the course of the Paul and Maggie Murdoch murder investigation that they may have
00:08:30
uncovered some information in regard to the Steven Smith case from Paul Murdoch's phone now I cannot confirm
00:08:39
that that's accurate I cannot confirm that that's true that is the rumor that was swirling around about the same time
00:08:46
that sled announces hey we're going to be doing a full investigation into this stepen Smith case what's interesting is
00:08:55
they weren't actively investigating the Steven Smith case at at the time as far as I could find and we'll get into that
00:09:02
and the reasons why but in regard to the Steven Smith case this to me is one of the biggest mysteries in the whole
00:09:10
Murdoch Saga what is this young man doing out in the middle of a country road in the
00:09:17
middle of the night all by himself when the driver finds him he's already expired by this point he's he's already
00:09:24
dead and thank God that that guy stopped and called into 911 because this is the middle of the
00:09:32
night it's pitch black out there anybody could have just could have run the body
00:09:36
over right which could tamper with the evidence at at at the scene and you know what I don't know how many Clues we have
00:09:44
at the scene but as you said it could have taken a bad crime scene and made it even worse from an investigation
00:09:51
evidentiary standpoint well let me just point this out again the the Smith case we're looking at it going look this is
00:09:59
maybe an accident maybe a hit and run but let's go back to that phone Paul's phone you have to remember in the
00:10:07
boating accident the cops knew that Paul's phone was there they should have collected Paul's phone as evidence and
00:10:15
they never did and clearly this is rumor and speculation but obviously something
00:10:20
during the course of that Paul and Maggie Murdock investigation LED them back to 19-year-old Step Smith who was
00:10:28
killed over 6 years prior in regard to this situation here Captain what we have here is the police are called to the
00:10:36
scene and they arrive on the scene of this what's got to look like a hit and run on the
00:10:44
surface they arrive at 4:00 a.m. where they found Steven lying in the road now he had a 7 and 1/2 in laceration on his
00:10:52
head his skull was crushed there was a gaping hole in his forehead and his shoulder was dislocated Steven's death
00:11:01
certificate says he died due to severe blunt force trauma to the Head the damage to Steven's face and head was so
00:11:10
horrific so bad at first it was thought to have been a gunshot wound right then investigators decided that it was a hit
00:11:18
and run but by all accounts there was zero that's a big fat zero evidence at the scene of a hit and run there's no
00:11:27
skid marks no no car parts no paint chips I mean there's there's no evidence of a vehicle having been involved in
00:11:36
whatever happened to step Smith again what we do know of this family is once there was a tragedy and there was a
00:11:44
there was a dead girl that they knew and instantly instead of caring about that loss and caring about that family's
00:11:52
suffering they instantly go into cover up mode and protect ourselves protect our family mode yeah and in here
00:12:02
in this situation with Steven Smith it it looks to me like they may not know the investigators may not know exactly
00:12:08
what they are dealing with here right some more things from the scene when Stevens found he's still has his shoes
00:12:15
on his phone and keys were still in his pocket and from what I've been told those are that's not typical of a hit
00:12:23
and run the other thing too is keep in mind the location and the time of day it's dark out there this is a country
00:12:31
road this is pretty open out there he would have been able to see a vehicle coming from a good distance away and
00:12:38
when investigating the this whole Saga really the first time that you hear about this evidence to me it seems more
00:12:47
like a drop point than it does an area that somebody would be hit by a car well and it also seems here captain that the
00:12:56
local authorities you know we have the the South Carolina Highway Patrol they're investigating they're responding
00:13:03
to the scene but it sounds like there was some squabbles over was this a a more traditional homicide or was it an
00:13:12
accident right the thing here is important that if it was if Steven was a victim or determined to be is what I
00:13:21
think we should say determined to be a victim of a homicide then the South Carolina Highway
00:13:28
Patrol would not be the investigating agency okay so they would hand that over to sled so that's why it's so
00:13:35
interesting that just three weeks after the double homicide of Paul and Maggie that we have sled coming out and saying
00:13:42
we are opening up an investigation into the death of Steven Smith it seems like something along the way has changed from
00:13:50
Hit and Run to homicide or at least that's the thought of law enforcement at the local level now the autopsy at the
00:13:59
time did not help to clarify things remember they're still arguing is this a homicide or some kind of hit and- run
00:14:05
accident the pathologist this is Dr Aaron prell ruled it to be a hit and run but was not able to really clarify why
00:14:15
she came to the conclusion other than to say that well he was found on the road so no real evidence pointing to it other
00:14:25
than where this poor young man was found out regardless though Captain the South
00:14:32
Carolina Highway Patrol will continue to investigate this case as it were back in
00:14:38
2015 Colonel could you give us some background on Stephen Smith yes it would be my pleasure there Captain as we said
00:14:47
Steph Smith was 19 years old at the time of his death uh just a young man with a
00:14:52
whole big bright future ahead of him he was a nursing student and Steph was working toward his life goal of Bec
00:14:58
becoming a doctor now interestingly enough we can tie him to this case in more ways than one and one way being
00:15:07
that he's a former classmate of Buster Murdoch you know we spent so much time in episodes one and two talking about
00:15:13
the youngest son Paul Murdoch but we didn't spend a whole lot of time about talking about Buster Murdoch the the
00:15:20
older of the two sons yeah the Murdoch family had the name Buster and they were going to use it for a dog but they never
00:15:28
got a dog so when they had a son they decided to use the name Buster now Steven's body was found about 10 miles
00:15:35
from the Murdoch's home which sounds really interesting on the surface but it was also you know his body is also found
00:15:43
less than 10 miles from his own home so I don't think that that really indicates
00:15:48
anything now per media reports quote his death has never been fully explained police files have suggested that Mr
00:15:55
Smith ran out of gas on the side of the road about three miles from where his body was found the gas cap was
00:16:03
reportedly dangling and open an older man who claimed to be in a relationship with Steven told investigators that he
00:16:12
had been on the phone with step and Steven told him that he was going to run out of gas and that some guys in a
00:16:19
pickup truck were harassing him and it has been mentioned before captain that he steveen his own words says that he
00:16:27
has been picked on from time to time from some of the guys in town well it's a small town and a lot of times you have
00:16:34
small minds and I would assume him growing up that he probably had some harassment coming from the guys about
00:16:42
his sexuality in January of 2016 the highway patrol Sergeant his name is Todd Proctor obtained a search
00:16:51
warrant for Steven Smith's phone and phone records the search warrant affidavit states that the death was
00:16:57
under mysterious circumstances saying quote the investigation has led to this individual not not being struck by a
00:17:06
vehical and possible Foul Play end quote we don't know what if anything was found
00:17:14
in those phone records but here we have the highway patrol doing their due diligence to check the victim's phone
00:17:21
records the highway patrol continued to investigate this case even though again they do not investigate homicides and
00:17:29
even though this case was believed to be a Murder by several Troopers looking into it but they didn't talk to many of
00:17:36
the people who were the subject of tips and this might be where they kind of dropped the ball a little bit here
00:17:43
captain from the tips that they're getting one of those people would have been Buster
00:17:48
Murdoch that they're hearing tips about Buster Murdoch and some of his friends but they're not actually speaking with
00:17:56
Buster and the these friends some attempts were made to speak with these individuals however when phone calls
00:18:03
went unanswered or emails went unreplied to it seemed to be that that was enough
00:18:09
to stop them from inquiring about Buster and his cronies a lot of this Captain is
00:18:15
coming from multiple sources and what's being said is that in the course of conducting interviews in the hit and run
00:18:22
mysterious death of Steven Smith in that case investigators heard the Murdoch name up more than 40 times is what I was
00:18:32
able to find more than half of the people interviewed had heard the same rumor that buster Murdoch was secretly
00:18:39
gay and involved with Steven Smith or had been involved with Steven Smith at some point again remember they were
00:18:46
classmates I believe the name of their high school that they both attended was Wade High School abc15 news reported
00:18:54
that case files indicated 10 of 18 people interviewed by highway patrol had mentioned Murdoch possibly being
00:19:02
involved in the death of Steven with some indicating Steven and Buster may have been in a
00:19:09
relationship however law enforcement was never able to formally tie Buster Murdoch to the case nor track down the
00:19:17
original source of some of these rumors additionally attempts to reach Buster for questioning when unanswered records
00:19:26
showed what happened was the highway patrol Sergeant Proctor called Buster to talk to him about stevenh Smith but
00:19:35
Buster conveniently never answered his phone so Proctor emailed him and never got a response and it appears that that
00:19:44
once that went down Captain Sergeant Proctor ran out of ideas and just kind of gave up on talking with Buster
00:19:50
Murdoch well again you have to remember this family has a lot of power in this community and so at least they trying to
00:19:59
investigate this at least they're trying to ask questions it's a sticky situation
00:20:04
I wish that it would have been pursued much more hardcore than that you have a situation where you're hearing You're
00:20:11
simply hearing rumors as the investigator that's all that this stuff is you cannot formally tie Buster to the
00:20:20
victim here you also can't get any hardcore evidence to tie the two of them together but you're hearing the same
00:20:27
rumor over and over again so it is something that does need to be tracked down and something that needs to be to
00:20:33
be sourced and and figure out why you are hearing this person's name his friend's names and why he's tied to the
00:20:41
story time and time again when you're talking with people that know the victim or that went to school with the victim
00:20:47
well you're hearing from his partner about the harassment you're hearing from others about his harassment and being
00:20:55
bullied that instantly takes this investigation not from just a murder but a hate crime more stiff penalties for
00:21:04
for that situation so like always the the murdochs seem to be not answering questions and trying to protect
00:21:12
themselves it looks like that in some point in 2016 the investigation into the mysterious death of Step Smith well that
00:21:21
case stalled and I don't know if we would call it a cold case but it's simply stalled out and this would be
00:21:29
until Paul Murdoch was shot dead when we have sled announcing that it was taking
00:21:36
a new look at the case again this is six years later well obviously since they found something from this double
00:21:45
homicide that led them to reopen this case the whole world is wondering how is this connected to the murdocks yeah
00:21:53
everybody's going to want to know answers to that question and many more but of course sled is not going to
00:22:01
address what the information was that that they gathered in the Murdoch investigation what may have led them to
00:22:09
Stephen Smith or why they're reopening this investigation and how it's linked to the
00:22:15
Murdoch case it's it's all very it's all very confusing but there's a lot of stuff that's obviously going on behind
00:22:21
the scenes here that we are just not privy to the Steven Smith case when sled and announced that they were going to be
00:22:29
examining the case this is when we have Steven's mother Sandy Smith she told Fitz news quote I've been waiting on
00:22:38
this day for 2,174 days wow she said that on the night that Steven died apparently Steven
00:22:46
ran out of gas but his mother has said publicly and repeatedly that she does not and will not believe that Steven was
00:22:55
accidentally hit by a vehicle she told the Hampton County Guardian that she believed her son's death was
00:23:02
the result of Foul Play and a Poss hate crime because her son was openly gay and
00:23:10
then we also have some other information coming from the family that it apparently at some point Stephen Smith
00:23:16
told his twin sister that he had a fling with a boy and that the boy he was involved with was privileged now we
00:23:25
don't have the sister naming any names just the fact that her brother told her that he was involved or had a fling with
00:23:33
a boy and it was a privileged boy or a boy from a privileged family law enforcement is not opening up their case
00:23:40
files for us to take a peak right M so when you hear these rumors time and time again you're going to go talk to the
00:23:49
community you're going to talk to people that went to school with them I guarantee you that they have
00:23:54
eyewitnesses or at least ear Witnesses that also heard these rumors just taking a look at what little information has
00:24:02
been put out there about the Steven Smith case and the Steven Smith crime scene he's found about three miles from
00:24:11
where they find his abandoned vehicle one point that I cannot shake is a fact that his mother has brought up time and
00:24:21
time again that her son would not have been out there walking the street trying to get somewhere trying to find gas and
00:24:29
then accidentally got hit by this vehicle I believe the general thought is that he was walking and he was walking
00:24:37
in the road and maybe a semitruck that didn't see him and apparently he didn't see the semi truck or was too close to
00:24:45
it that one of the mirors smacked him as it drove by hit him right in the head and that's why we don't have other
00:24:52
injuries to other parts of his body and just the head well that would make some sense that's the thought however
00:25:00
everybody knows to get the hell out of the way of the semi TR and again we pointed out he would have seen this
00:25:05
truck at a good distance away and then we have to factor in that whoever hit him never bothers to report it or didn't
00:25:12
know that they hit him but the thing that she says that I cannot shake and I have to keep circling back to is that
00:25:19
Steven had a cell phone with him that night she says I know my son he wouldn't have been out there walking he would
00:25:25
have called someone somebody would have went picked him up or somebody would have taken gas to him or he would have
00:25:30
called and got a ride from somebody I mean and we know he had some communication with his partner or
00:25:35
boyfriend according to that man yes right according to that man the thing is it troubles me and it really boggles my
00:25:43
mind to to discredit his mother and say you know what Not only would he not call
00:25:48
for help but he would walk 3 miles before an accident would occur I mean how long was he going to walk without
00:25:57
calling anybody it it just it doesn't ring true it doesn't ring true so what could have happened here is somebody
00:26:05
could have been harassing him he could have run out of gas just like the the man says that hey I was on the phone
00:26:11
with him says some guys in a a truck are harassing him and he's going to run out
00:26:14
of gas well that all could have went down that way and his car may have ended up on the
00:26:22
side of the road I don't argue that I don't think that he walked to where his body was later found and until somebody
00:26:31
can prove to me that that is the case I just have a hard time believing that the
00:26:36
Smith family had an open casket funeral for stepen and this was so everyone could see what was done to him his
00:26:45
mother Sandy said his head had to be reconstructed with Putty for the viewing and there was something else the day
00:26:53
that Steven passed away Randy Murdoch was the second person to call the family after the corer this is according to
00:27:05
Stevens's twin sister Stephanie she has said on the record repeatedly that on the day that her
00:27:14
brother was killed they receive a phone call from the corner so let them know that a loved one has
00:27:21
expired the second call that her father got received after being notified to the
00:27:27
of his son is from Randy Murdoch Alec Murdoch's brother he's saying Randy Murdoch is telling the father that he
00:27:38
wanted to take on the case and he would take on the case free of charge the family told police that they
00:27:45
thought that this offer was weird why would the murdocks offer to help free of charge seemingly out of the blue well
00:27:55
this is the same thing that they tried to do with the bo accident let's get somebody on the inside so we can control
00:28:01
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app [Music] today all right we are back and a quick reminder if you need more True Crime
00:30:32
garage for your earballs check out our bonus show called off the Record and if you want to see us live at Brew dog in
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February well go to our website click on the events page there are still a handful of tickets left to that
00:30:47
event well Captain all of this leadup is leading us to yet another mysterious death tied to the Murdoch family this is
00:30:56
the death of 57 7-year-old Gloria saterfield the housekeeper and nanny for the murdocks who had been employed by
00:31:04
them for 20 years she died after a strange slip and fall or trip and fall accident at the Murdock's home on
00:31:13
February 2nd 2018 now supposedly she tripped over the family dogs fell down the stairs hit her
00:31:21
head and suffered severe head trauma while hospitalized from the fall Gloria had a Str went into cardiac arrest and
00:31:28
then died on February 26th 2018 let's take a quick minute to listen to this news clip where they're going to
00:31:38
play a portion of that 911 call and we begin with that breaking news here at five sled released a 911 call as part of
00:31:46
the investigation into the death of former prominent South Carolina attorney Alex Murdoch's housekeeper Gloria
00:31:52
saterfield died in 2018 after falling at the Murdoch's family home according to a
00:31:58
report from the Colton County Sheriff's Office the 911 call was initially made from a person identified as Maggie take
00:32:05
a listen what's going on out there uh my housekeeper has fallen and her head is bleeding I cannot get her up okay you
00:32:13
said she's falling she's leading from the head yes okay is she on the ground or is she up near to she on the ground
00:32:20
she's on the ground she's on the ground she contous uh no not really is she awake at
00:32:26
all yes here's another clip where you'll hear Maggie and it's believed to be Paul
00:32:33
responding to the 911 operator she just not like responding appropriately but she is
00:32:40
awake man she's not no she's not responding okay I just I've already got them on the way and me asking questions
00:32:47
does not slow them down man knowing that she's conscious is one of the things that the medic needs to know she's
00:32:52
responding at all to you no do you know she's ever had a stroke or anything before ma'am can you stop asking I
00:33:00
already have them on the way I already have them on the way me asking questions does not slow them down in anyway these
00:33:05
are relevant questions that I have to ask for the ambulance not unconscious she's just mumbling okay I believe she's
00:33:12
maybe hit ahead and maybe has a concussion or something now obviously we don't have
00:33:18
the whole clip to analyze but it's pretty telling that both times when a member of the Murdoch family get get
00:33:27
irritated with the 911 operator that once they push back once the operator pushes back and says look me asking
00:33:35
these questions does not affect what time the ambulance is going to get there and these this is information we need to
00:33:44
know it goes from you know man why do you need to ask that I'm so annoyed to answering the
00:33:52
question not only by the mother but also by the son yeah and the trick thing here
00:33:57
is when you're looking at these 911 calls and and giving a little analysis on them look the you're right when when
00:34:06
you first get the push back from ma'am can you quit asking us all these questions basically is what again it's
00:34:13
reported to be Paul Murdoch who who says that on the 911 call you you go with the situation of of
00:34:20
thinking well they don't want the 911 operator asking too many questions because they don't know how to answer
00:34:27
them because whatever situation they are phoning in they might be telling lies or
00:34:34
making it up but as someone who's been in a situation where I've had to rely on 911 and calling for the help of others I
00:34:44
can I can kind of side with the murdocks here with Maggie and Paul in the regard
00:34:50
that in the situation I was in it was it was me by myself and the other person was
00:34:57
unresponsive and so I was caught in this catch22 situation of trying to answer the operator's questions but also
00:35:07
feeling like I need to be tending to the person that I'm calling about I found myself in a situation where I caught
00:35:15
myself getting a little frustrated with the operator because I felt like my time
00:35:20
was better served for the person that I was calling about so the but different circumstances because there's a whole
00:35:27
family there so it's not like he's going hey ma'am stop asking her these questions cuz she's tending to her they
00:35:34
have multiple people making this phone call so right every situation certainly is is different and unique and so I'm
00:35:41
just trying to offer a little a little aside here on why this might be because they don't come off well Paul and his
00:35:51
mother do not come off well sounding well in this this clip here and I'm not running
00:35:57
I'm not running to their defense but I'm just offering up information as to why they may come off as sounding arrogant
00:36:05
or frustrated with the operator I don't know that we should say that the whole family was at the home when this
00:36:11
accident took place that's not my understanding right of the situation so it very well may have just been Maggie
00:36:18
and Paul there along with Gloria saterfield regardless at the end of the day sadly Gloria succumb to her injuries
00:36:26
as said while in the hospital 24 days later she has a stroke and goes into cardiac arrest and then passes away the
00:36:35
aftermath is where things get really complicated for the murdocks and for this True Crime Story that we're trying
00:36:42
to tell here today and that's because in December of 2018 a lawsuit was filed on
00:36:48
behalf of the sder fields adult sons this lawsuit is filed against Alec Murdoch this was because as the story
00:36:59
goes according to the saterfield boys that at Gloria's funeral Alec tells the boys that look this is this is my
00:37:09
not necessarily his fault but something that he's somewhat responsible for because this happened at his home and
00:37:16
that he would take care of them by getting them money they deserve some money for the death of their mother and
00:37:23
that he would get them money from his personal liability insurance provider so most of us out there have insurance that
00:37:32
will cover us if some horrific accident like this were to take place or or whatever the situation is takes place at
00:37:40
your home right that somebody can be compensated and it doesn't have to be going after the the homeowner personally
00:37:49
well a lot of people do die from Falls and especially stair Falls and then you would ALS so the
00:37:58
initial story seems plausible anyways right the she gets caught up with the dogs she trips and falls mhm so Alec
00:38:08
Murdoch has a policy in place to protect him in the event of anything happening at his home so he says hey I'm going to
00:38:16
hook you up with an attorney and what you're going to have to do is you're going to have to sue me and then my
00:38:22
insurance company will take care of paying everybody so what he does is he quotee unquote hooks them up with Corey
00:38:31
Fleming remember Corey Fleming he's the lawyer that Alec got to represent Connor
00:38:36
Cook in the boating accident case right and Corey Fleming arranged for Chad westendorf a banker at paletto State
00:38:44
Bank to serve as the personal representative of Gloria's estate so Chad's job will be to represent her sons
00:38:55
and her son's interest is as far as lawsuits negotiations and settlements are concerned now per this plan we have
00:39:05
westendorf and Fleming they then file wrongful death suit on behalf of Gloria's estate against Alec Murdoch the
00:39:12
lawsuit raised a wrongful death claim but did not allege any criminality on the Murdoch's part and in court Alec
00:39:21
admitted that the accidental death had occurred in his home so his insurance company needed to pay up this is all
00:39:29
fairly common stuff but when you throw in a tragic boat accident a double homicide and then this weird foul play/
00:39:40
hit and run case all surrounding the same people well this then becomes a very sticky situation and and really
00:39:48
just another mystery along the way but here we have another situation Captain where Alec is getting involved and
00:39:57
look the the boat situation is one whole different mess entirely but this would be rather unconventional for a person to
00:40:07
come forward and arrange for the other party to sue themselves right like I'm I'm going to have you Captain sue me and
00:40:19
I'm going to help you do that by hooking you up with an attorney and telling you
00:40:24
what you should do and leading you to suing me yeah it all just comes off as very shady correct now anybody on the
00:40:32
outside looking in would say the same thing and go well this this seems very fishy where the things get dicey for all
00:40:40
parties involved and where things I think just get a little confusing for the sder fields is again the mother
00:40:47
Gloria she worked for the Murdo for 20 years this guy is a successful attorney he's a big time lawyer they trusted him
00:40:59
that's that's where a lot of problems seem to be in this case people trusting people that they find out much later
00:41:07
they probably really didn't know that person very well and had they known them the way that they know them now there
00:41:13
would be no trust this happens a lot I mean even with business anytime that there's a
00:41:19
serious business decision you should have Outsiders that are not connected to you help you so when this guy comes
00:41:30
forward and says hey look you should sue me and here's the lawyer to do so mhm you could easily say okay well this
00:41:38
lawyer is not Alex's brother it's not a family member but he is still connected to Alex so you go hey thanks for the
00:41:49
advice but no thank you because this is now a business transaction and I need to get somebody
00:41:58
that is not connected to the situation in any way shape or form mhm 10 months after the lawsuit Alex insurance company
00:42:07
settled for $555,000 to compensate Gloria Sons for their pain and suffering of this after
00:42:17
fees taken by the law firm the saterfield boys were supposed to see a payout of $475,000 then their attorney Corey
00:42:28
Fleming submitted a second wrongful death claim and pursuant to this in a second settlement a second insurance
00:42:36
company agreed to pay $4.3 million of this amount the boys were supposed to get $22.76 million after all the fees and
00:42:47
payments to their lawyers per an order signed by A1 judge Carmen Mullen on May 13
00:42:55
2019 well seems like this all worked out in the end per what Alec told the boys that
00:43:05
they should get for the loss of their mother however glorious Sons never got any money at all they didn't see any
00:43:13
money not only did they did they not get any money it sounds like they didn't know about the settlements at all this
00:43:19
until they read about it in the newspaper during the wake of the whole Murdoch Saga in
00:43:24
2021 and the report says quote they were never told of the settlements they were
00:43:29
never told of the Court hearings they were never told of the dispersements so even though they sign up to sue Alec
00:43:37
Murdoch their their attorney Corey Fleming kept them at a good distance to the point where they didn't know about
00:43:46
the settlements they didn't know about court hearings they didn't know that money was being paid out in those
00:43:52
lawsuits so what the heck's going on here well as our listeners can easily put it together this whole thing has
00:43:57
been engineered by Alec Murdoch his buddy Cory Fleming and then now they bring in another bad guy Chad
00:44:04
westendorf Corey Fleming as we pointed out was Alex Alec Murdoch's college roommate and The Godfather to his son
00:44:12
Paul a connection not disclosed to the saterfield sons according to their lawsuit and Chad westendorf took on the
00:44:21
role as a court appointed personal representative a fiduciary for the boys who was supposed to represent their
00:44:28
interest in the administration of the lawsuit instead it appears that the three men entered into a scheme to keep
00:44:35
the money legal fees of $1.4 million were collected by Fleming's firm in which he was named partner all right you
00:44:45
went out and you drummed up some good business for us guess what we're going to make you a partner and what
00:44:51
westendorf got we don't know but it was almost certainly a good chunk of change or at least fees racked up by his bank
00:45:00
and Alec Murdoch pocketed the rest yes you're hearing that right Alec Murdoch teamed up with some of his buddies and
00:45:07
shafted the Poor saterfield Boys at the same time as ripping off these insurance
00:45:14
companies and keeping the money for himself and for themselves I just want everybody to ponder this for a second
00:45:23
you have to understand that their mother died serving this family it is not until after the double
00:45:32
homicide years later what 3 years later they' learn oh by the way we did win those lawsuits and we were granted a lot
00:45:41
of money and that doesn't bring back their mother but it it helps out their family
00:45:48
quite a bit and they didn't find out that they were awarded that money like I said about three years later well they
00:45:56
instantly know that they're cheated right when they read that and see that in the newspaper that we actually won
00:46:02
these lawsuits and settled out of court unbeknownst to us so where the heck is all that money well this is going to
00:46:08
lead them to sue basically Alec Murdoch again but also now they're going to sue everybody that was involved Corey
00:46:17
Fleming Chad westendorf and the companies that they work for basically suing any person or entity that made
00:46:23
money the wrong way the first time around and they filed that suit in September of
00:46:31
2021 again this is because Alec Murdoch allegedly diverted more than 3.5 million in death
00:46:43
settlement money meant for the sder fields to an account controlled by him personally okay so the way that this
00:46:53
works out Captain is Alec directed Cory Fleming his good old buddy and pal to pay the death settlement monies intended
00:47:00
for the sder fields to an account called Forge at a po. box in Hampton South Carolina it's called Forge Forge now the
00:47:11
reason why he did this is there is another company a legitimate company named Forge Consulting LLC that often
00:47:19
did business with Alec Murdoch's private firmm PMP in structuring these payout settlements
00:47:29
so Alec used this name or created this fake company in a similar name to a legitimate company so this gets real
00:47:39
confusing when somebody tries to go back and forensically go through the paperwork and try to find out where
00:47:47
monies got misappropriated does that make sense yeah so the sder fields have no idea about about the settlements
00:47:57
furthermore the second settlement for $4.3 million was never placed in any public court docket so shady that's
00:48:05
right it was never placed in any public court docket the fact that the whole thing was done off the Record if you
00:48:11
nasty makes it clear that it was intended to be a secret this second claim was never filed in state court so
00:48:19
there is no public record of the settlement nothing is on the court record that's a direct quote from the
00:48:27
saterfield boys new attorney and look Captain to put it plain and simple this is not Kosher because under South
00:48:36
Carolina law settlement documents are supposed to be a matter of public record filed in State Court what this means is
00:48:44
that this was all done off the books under the table on the DL and was clearly fraudulent in short Alec Murdoch
00:48:53
Corey Fleming and west dorf used the saterfield boys as their pawns to line their own Pockets well and even if their
00:49:03
plan was well let's get this money not tell them about it I'm going to take this money turn it into more money so
00:49:09
then I get a little bit more of the pie but they still get their money it's still a sham well good news Captain
00:49:17
because in October of last year Cory Fleming and his Law Firm that he worked for agreed to a settlement with the
00:49:25
Saturday Fields Cory Fleming and his firm have agreed to pay back all legal fees and expenses and will pay full
00:49:33
policy limits to the saterfield estate now Cory Fleming he's forever cunning isn't he he's not admitting that he did
00:49:42
anything wrong on the contrary he claims that he too is a victim of Alec Murdoch
00:49:50
but his firm Cory Fleming's firm that he worked for in which he was once named partner
00:49:56
they're not buying it and neither am I after the settlement was announced they cut ties with Cory Fleming and the South
00:50:04
Carolina Supreme Court promptly suspended Corey Fleming's license to practice law this shows you the
00:50:11
character of Alec Murdoch you have somebody that served your family for all those years somebody
00:50:19
that should be as close as a family member to you and you straight lie to her sons and say do this and I'll help
00:50:28
get you the money that you should be awarded you get that money awarded to them from these
00:50:37
insurance companies that you probably have been scamming for years and you don't even tell him about
00:50:44
it I'm assuming the plan was for him to keep the money oh yeah and it just shows you how
00:50:53
big of a scumbag this guy is and then when you see Paul's actions when you s see Buster's actions
00:51:03
this this man with zero character just a low life scumbag no wonder they had not
00:51:12
a shred of good character in their body and what's amazing here to me Captain is
00:51:18
it looks to me that there's a strong possibility that the sder fields may have never sued Alec Murdock to begin
00:51:26
with and that Alec Murdoch pretty much spearheaded this whole lawsuit to begin with he sees their tragic loss these
00:51:35
boys and I keep calling them boys they're they're young men they were very close to their mother very close to
00:51:42
their mother and yet he sees their tragic loss as an opportunity for him to make a few bucks and it's just I mean
00:51:50
it's absolutely sickening now this other part there's more to the sder fields lawsuit and this part to me is extra
00:52:00
concerning Captain the sons made it clear the saterfield boys made it clear that they were never
00:52:08
informed what actually happened to their mother it seems as though people still have questions unanswered questions all
00:52:17
these years after Gloria's death as to exactly how she died in the Murdoch home per the New York Times quote Angela
00:52:26
topper the coroner in Hampton County South Carolina said the death was never reported to her office and no autopsy
00:52:34
was conducted now that Alec Murdoch's entire life is under a cloud of Suspicion the coroner requested a
00:52:41
reopening of the Gloria sder Fields death inquiry the problem with all this is you can't believe a word that comes
00:52:51
from anybody in the Murdoch family because for all we know it was an accident but you have to change the way
00:53:01
the event happens in order for it to be a slam dunk case against the insurance policy if that makes any sense MH yeah
00:53:11
what really happened to Gloria saterfield remains unclear on September 15th spurred by the
00:53:18
lawsuit by the sder fields alleging the fraudulent insurance settlement plot and
00:53:24
the from the coroner and all the rumors and suspicions surrounding Alec Murdoch sled announced that it was opening a
00:53:33
criminal investigation into the death of Gloria saterfield and also going to investigate the alleged misuse of the
00:53:41
insurance proceeds so for those keeping score we have one accidental death one family conned out of insurance money one
00:53:50
tragic boating accident one attempted cover up and a double homicide Colonel do we have
00:53:58
anything left in this Saga surprisingly enough there is [Music] more for everything true crime I check
00:54:21
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00:54:30
number at true Crim garage.com and until tomorrow be good be kind and don't burn
00:54:59
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