that's when they met gloria satterfield. >> we grew up close. >> ginger is gloria's younger sister.very much. she baby-sat for them before she started doing housekeeping. paul was about 13 months old. he was just starting to walk. she would wear skirts all the time and he would walk around and hold her skirt while she was doing the housework and stuff. she pretty much raised him, him and buster. she thought the world of maggie. >> double murder mystery. >> he reported them outside the dog kennels. >> the number one thing that stood outlet to me was the first time hearing the 911 call. the moment you call 911 and hit send on your phone even though no one has answered and it's just ringing, it's recording on the dispatch end. and the phone is dead silent and you can hear the dogs barking in the background. and as soon as dispatch answers, it's this panicked alex. >> hampton county 911, what is your emergency? >> i never knew panicking could get cut on and off. >> let the blood ringing begin. that was so weird to me. >> you're saying he would have been panicked even before that, before

eric bland is the attorney that represented the children of gloria satterfield.he was the housekeeper, long-time housekeeper for alec murdaugh who died. at the time it was reported that she died from injuries in a trip and fall accident on his front steps and then he took the family under his wing said i will show you how to file a claim and then the family never collected money because he was allegedly pocketing all of the money. eric bland is clearly happy about this verdict. he describes the jury as courageous. and is saying that alec murdaugh, his power, prestige and money afforded him no special treatment. so, clearly the people who have been wronged by not just the people who were directly affected, you know, obviously his wife and son killed and advocates for them saying that they are getting their justice from the grave. but people in this world who suffered as a result of his financial crimes are beginning to come out and express appreciation for the jury's verdict. and, again, a very speedy verdict, the jury reached this verdict in less than three hours

according to gloria satterfield's family, they learned about this settlement in the press. >> it wasno money. >> it wasn't just $505,000, it was millions. >> there was actually an additional settlement for the satterfield sons that they didn't even know about, and this one was for more than $4 million. >> there was no way that this was the first time that alex had stolen client money. your kid doesn't come in and just take the whole cookie jar. they come in and they take one cookie. ooh, she doesn't notice. now they're taking two or three cookies. and the next thing you know, the jar is almost empty. >> it's been a couple of months since the murders of maggie and paul, and not a lot of information is coming out. people are asking questions. what's happening with the investigation? >> it was labor day weekend, and as i was just in the middle of my saturday shopping, i remember looking down at my phone, and i had received a text. alex murdaugh has been shot. >> a murder mystery in south carolina taking a bizarre turn. alex murdaugh was shot in the head and wounded. >> it's like, what?

jurors heard from 70 plus witnesses over the course of the trial, including the son of gloria satterfielde worked as a housekeeper and nanny for the murdaugh's for years. he filed insurance claims and kept the payments her son. an attorney for the sons of gloria satterfield, the case you were involved in, alec murdaugh, as i understand it, confessed to lying at one point about this, and the money eventually came to your family. but the confession to a lie that happened in this trial we have all been watching is something you have seen before. is that correct? >> yeah, good afternoon, thanks for having me. actually, he didn't confess until last week and he didn't give us the money. we had to sue a lot of other culpable parties and we recovered over $7.5 million. in fact, when he was charged with gloria's crime last year he pled not guilty. so it wasn't until he gave a confession of judgment to us in april of 2022 where he agreed to the judgment. but he still was pleading not guilty to the actual crime that was charged. it wasn't until last week from the witness stand for the first time tha

kennedy: and, doug, hope any they will also exhume the body of gloria satterfield, housekeeper that robbyy, there was a $4.3 million insurance settlement because of her death that alex murdaugh stole. and he committed that in the double murder trial. so they want answers as well. does everything lead back to the family, or is it just some really unfortunate -- >> everything i see leads back to the family, kennedy. the insurance policy, death of the housekeeper, the death of stephen the smith. we clearly have probable cause to investigate the murder again, and i think it was a murder x to investigate through the exhuming the body of gloria satterfield. clearly important, and this family looks like really incredibly evil people who deserve a very, very bad outcome for the crimes that at the very least we've already seen the father, alex murdaugh, convicted of. kennedy: yeah. and, ines, you know, we've seen families with privilege, you know, particularly in our political landscape. but there's something about family. people are so interested in justice. do you think it's unfair to speculate

and one of gloria satterfield's children testified during this trial, the attorney representing the familyey released a statement saying in part, quote, alex murdaugh will drink from the same cup of justice as every other citizen and other convicted murderers, the people have spoken, and went on to say, alex's life of lies and deceit ended yesterday. kate, aaron? >> ellison barber for us in south carolina, thank you. >>> we're also hearing from murdaugh's defense team today, less than 24 hours after that verdict was read. they spoke exclusively to nbc's craig melvin saying they were surprised with how fast, how quickly the jury came to a decision. >> what was clear to us, with the speed is that the jury really didn't consider the evidence. we think that the judge's ruling that let two and a half weeks of testimony about the financial crimes totally obliterated any chance of them actually considering the lack of evidence, how sled screwed up the crime scene, all of those sorts of things and i mean really, that indicates that the speed of that, indicates he really didn't get a fair trial. >>

. >> reporter: including the family of murdaugh's former house keeper, gloria satterfield. she died in 2018 after an apparent trip and fall at the family home murdaugh confessed to stealing a $4 million settlement from her sons >> as much as she's done for them -- >> reporter: the double murder case has prompted investigators to revisit satterfield's death and the 2015 death o stephen smith, a classmate of murdaugh's older son, buster, who was found dead near the murdaugh home the prominent south carolina attorney now on the other side of the law. >> this is only the beginning of alex murdaugh's legal woes. >> priscilla joins us now from the prison where murdaugh is currently housed priscilla, where will he go from there >> reporter: the department of corrections says murdaugh will spend about 45 days here undergoing medical and mental health evaluations before being assigned a maximum security prison where he will live out the rest of his days jose. >> priscilla thompson in columbia, south carolina, thank you. >>> tonight former president donald trump delivered a fiery add

we heard on the stand from the son of gloria satterfield, the family's long time housekeeper who died in a trip and fall. in 2015, steven smith, one of buster's classmates died, it was called a hit and run. and authorities are looking into both of those cases. and of course mallory beach was killed in a boat crash involving his dead son paul. that case involving a key role in this trial. murdaugh is still facing a lwsuit for the boat crash even with this verdict. >> i have to ask you about the two jurors who were not guilty initially. how did they convince them so quickly in deliberations? >> he said they looked at the time line and then played the video. >> the video with the kennel with murdaugh's own voice. >> mm-hmm. >> eva pilgrim, excellent reporting for weeks and weeks. thank you. we should note eva and the entire "20/20" team has been working on a two-hour "20/20" special that dives into all these unanswered questions. the history of the murdaugh family, what led to this and the other cases generating headlines along the way. the all new "20/20," what led up to that awful day.

of some of the victims his financial victims, including eric bland who respected family of gloria satterfielde housekeeper who died of injuries after that was reported as a tumble and fall accident. eric said that alex murdaugh will drink from the same cup of justice as every other citizen and other convicted murderer, his power, prestige and money afforded him no special treatment. a lot of anger at alex murdaugh, he took gloria satter feel's family you were his week he would help them. -- satterfield, would take the family under his wings help them collect the insurance money, they never saw it, he pocketed that money himself. kennedy: and that was the road map. how to pay mallory beech's family in the settlement for her death in the drunken boating accident. maybe that is how alex thought he would pay for everything, was with his dead wife's riches. now he is paying with his life. because he will sit in a jail cell for the rest of his natural life. that you know these unnatural murders now we have some closure in the case. it will be interesting to see if some of the victims of his financi

and one of gloria satterfield's children actually testified in this murder trial.sterday. in a statement, they said of this verdict, quote, through the verdict returned by the courageous jury, alex murdaugh will drink from the same cup of justice as every other citizen and other convicted murders. the people have spoken. alex's life of lies and deceit ended today. sheinelle? >> ellison, thank you. >>> joining us now, nbc news legal analyst danny cevallos. danny, i mean, you know, during the course of the trial, alex murdaugh admitted in open court to a number hese financial crimes. what do the guilty convictions yesterday on the murders, what did those mean for those crimes? >> the prosecutors who are handling his financial crimes breathed a sigh of relief when he took the stand and admitted to a lot of them. that will all be admissible against him in any subsequent crime prosecution for those frauds, anything else that he admitted to on the stand, so that makes the case against him a lot easier he may have thought it was a gambit, a chance to tell the jury, look,

. >> the adult children of gloria satterfield, the housekeeper who allegedly tripped over a dog and fell, and hopefully they will get some answers. we thank you for the conversation. stay with us, because we do expect to hear from alec murdaugh's defense team very soon. we will be getting their reaction, and of course, we will bring it to you as soon as it happens. >>> turning now to other big news that we are following this morning. severe weather. more than 110 million americans are under some sort of threat from everything from blizzards to violent tornadoes to severe storms. people in the mountains of california are still buried under several feet of snow. they are run out of baby formula, food, gas, and the national guard has been called in to help. ca camila, up there in the cold weather, how are you going to have to wait a week to ten days to dig out the people up in the mountains. and yes, it does snow in the winter, but the past few weeks, it is unprecedented with the first ever snow blizzard warning. so, of course, people were not prepared for the amount of snow that we got. i

that looked like it was done other than a car progress attorney eric represent the family of gloria satterfieldthe housekeeper who died in 2018 after what was described as a trip and that. this meant taking place on the murdaugh family property just outside the main home. i like the admittedly pocketed insurance settlement money, intended for the family. south carolina authorities have reopened an investigation into satterfield's death as well. >> many hope for justice jonathan thank you. but assessing the potential indictment of former president trump dress claim he will be quote arrested this tuesday. this is a former president makes his first public appearance since that declaration. nay foye slate within your seat newsroom with, needs frequent are there untrue the social tonight he believes baggett is being pressured to indict him by the by an administration bert trump also said the foundation of the case which is believed to be a misdemeanor charge of falsifying business records is based on a lie. take a look most of the centro social today. reads in part quote there is no crime. all other

he is representing gloria satterfield's family, the house keeper who died on the murdaugh family.nd the family think of the verdict. of that's coming up. >>> as we wait for that sentencing hearing that is happening this morning, there is outrage, fear, just plain desperation that is coming to a head in east palestine during a town hall last night. >> i'm begging you, by the grace of god, please get our people out of here! >> those are residence of east palestine speaking to officials for the area. they're demanding to be relocated from their own homes. they're afraid their kids are going to get cancer. they don't feel safe living in their own town anymore after a train that was loaded with those toxic chemicals crashed and burned a month ago. last night the train's company representati representative tried to reassure residents but they got an earful. >> we're very sorry for what happened. we feel horrible about it. >> then get us out! [ shouting ] we have plain. we're ready to start tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. [ shouting ] >> we're going to do that. we're going to do that. [ sh

and when in 2021 when they opened the investigation into the death of my client, gloria satterfield,phen smith. and that is ongoing, and now buster's father, alex, has been convicted there's a big cry in south carolina to find out what actually happened to stephen smith. buster himself is going to have to come to grips with is my father capable of murdering my brother is and mother, a jury said so, and he's going to have to look at his future in this family. pete: eric, is there any connection between a member of the murdaugh family and stephen smith? where's that connection? >> that connection was made by sandy smith, the mother of stephen the, who said that randolph murdaugh, who is the brother with john marvin and alex, he's an attorney with the old pmpd law firm, he supposedly show up on the accident scene and according to sandy smith he -- she received a telephone call from him where he offered to represent her, and she was very confused as to why she would need representation. and that is really where we are with what the public knows about that supposed accident. s.l.e.d. has

eric bland is joining us, the host of a justice podcast and attorney for the family of gloria satterfield. she was the long time house keeper of alex murdaugh who died in 2018 on that property. he stole more than $4 million in insurance money that was supposeded to go to her family. thank you for joining us this morning, sir. we appreciate it. >> good morning, don. >> give me your reaction to this jury verdict. what is your reaction? >> well this case had all the earmarkings of privilege and power. the jury returned a guilty verdict. they returned an incredibly guilty verdict. alex put himself square one in front of the jury when he decided to testify which is a very rare thing for somebody who do in his position. especially in a circumstantial evidence case. once he did, it became a referendum on him. he basically said, look, i'm a drug addict, thief and liar. and everybody else in this trial is lying. his sister-in-law, mark, sled, the house keeper for his mother, shelley smith. and what he said is you got to believe me today. when the devil is at the door, i'm going to tell you the tru

you represented gloria satterfield the housekeeper's family first and retrieved millions of dollars back family, which was supposed to be theirs. and now i understand you are representing stephen smith's mom? >> yes. it's-i'm honored to do so. she has fought for 8 years to change the cause of death the coroner's report, the certificate of death all said that steven died as a result of being hit by a car on a highway. and there was a lot of disagreement in the beginning of the investigation that it was not a highway fatality. his shoes weren't blown off. there wasn't debris from a car. you would expect if you hit somebody, there wasn't any skid marks. and had all the earmarkings of a homicide taking place somewhere else. and she has been screaming from the rooftops and this has he taken a back burner as the murdaugh murders unfolded. this week i received an extraordinary phone call from mark keel, who is the chief of reade seligmann our chief fbi in. he said he it is now the position of the state of south carolina that stephen smith, his death resulted from a homicide. >> ainsley: what ma

there is one particular case as it relates to their former housekeeper, gloria satterfield. one of her sons testified in this trial because alex murdaugh admitted to stealing some $4 million that was supposed to go to her surviing family members after she fell is what the initial report was, fell and died on their property. there have been questions about the circumstances surrounding her death. law enforcement has said they are reinvestigating and going back and looking at some of that now. there also was a case, a death years ago of a man named stephen smith. initially local police said that they believed he was killed in a hit and run accident. his family has adamantly said they do not believe that that's what happened here. buster murdaugh, the sole surviving son of this family, his name had been mentioned in some different circles, in different inquiries as it related to the death of stephen smith. police have not named anything official, tieing that death to this family. but the law enforcement division, south carolina law enforcement division, they said that they were

that he was responsible and he stole the money from gloria satterfield wells from the pick anyneys and moores and bangers. those are guilty and he pled not guilty to the charges. i think the state is going to put the foot on his throat and start scheduling these trials immediately. he is going to have no defense because, under oath, in a court of law, it's a judicial admission that's going to be used against him. he waived his fifth amendment privilege. he's going to be convicted now of all these other financial crimes. and i think they will do that because you can't just hedge your bet that the conviction on the murder will stand. he is gonna appeal it. he is going to raise ineffective assistance of counsel. and other direct appeal issues. so, i think the state's going to give him that full cup of justice that every other convicted murderer gets. >> brian: eric, just strategically back to this case because you are going to do well and you should. what about the move putting him on the stand. obviously it didn't help, he was convicted in hours. but would you have backed that if he was

. >> and what about gloria satterfield, bill? their family, as we said, their family housekeeper for a long time who died in a fall at the murdaugh house. could that case potentially be reopened? it's got a lot of attention because of what was on netflix. >> any hope of a criminal case on that would be a little tough. it's a cold case, and you know, in terms of like criminal, like who actually pushed her down the steps or if someone actually killed her. i mean, it's possible but i think that's a long shot. and you know, i believe that the civil suit against murdaugh and the law firm for the children not getting their money has already been resolved. >> and then steven smith, the young man who was a classmate of alex murdaugh's oldest son buster, he was found dead on a road ten miles from their home. s.l.e.d. had reopened that investigation into his death based on the double murder investigation of paul and maggie. now i wonder if that is something that comes to the are forefront once again? >> i've got enormous respect for chief

knowledge at least of the death of steven smith vagrants attorney eric represent the family of gloria satterfield sustained in what was described as a trip and fall accident at that murdoch family home. alex murdaugh admittedly pocketed insurance settlement money from that accident, intended for her family. south carolina authorities have also reopened an investigation into her death as well, arthel. >> jonathan, thank you very much for it will have more "fox news live" with arthel and eric. cuz... cuz you paid too much for those glasses. next time, go to america's best where two pairs and a free, quality eye exam start at just $79.95. the exam is alone is worth at least 59 bucks. wow. i gotta go tell my squad! hurry! ♪ i don't see how that's hurrying. two pairs and a free exam starting at $79.95. book an exam today at americasbest.com. ♪ i'm a screen addicted tween. and, if i'm not posting on social media, i don't feel seen. oh my god mom, you gotta look... nope. keeping my eyes on the road is paying off with drivewise. bo-ring. get drivewise from allstate and save for avoiding mayhem like me. w

gloria satterfield, who was their housekeeper had died in a fall of according to authorities. alex. no. uh no. according to alex murdoch. she was at their home at the time in 2018 told police she fell over the dogs fell over the dogs and tripped down the stairs. that's what he said, um and then, of course, the young woman, mallory beach, who was in the boat that the other son was driving recklessly. paul was driving recklessly. and then, of course, maggie and paul were murdered to death as we now know biology. so what's particularly interesting is that they're not investigated thoroughly because they were in this county. you know, a big family. um you know, in all these cases where, um you see that mother you know, but i think this about about the police case we just reported on a while back in memphis, and we saw the mom on tv there. it's just your heart breaks. when you see these parents and family members and especially mama's on television. when they just they just haven't been given the ability to close these matters to understand these matters. and they'll never really put it

the son of gloria satterfield, the family's longtime housekeeper, who died in a trip and fall accidenther died. state investigators say in june, 2022, they would exhume her body. to date, that hasn't happened yet. and mallory beach was killed in a boat crash involving murdaugh's dead son, paul, in 2019. that case played a key role in this trial. murdaugh is still facing a civil lawsuit for the boat crash. the trial for that expected in august. and murdaugh's legal troubles are not over yet. he's facing 99 charges for alleged financial crimes. during the trial we heard him repeatedly admit to many of those crimes. guys? >> just fascinating. all right, thank you so much, eva, for being on top of this from the beginning. thank you. >>> and coming up, all the fallout from the chris rock comedy special. we'll be right back. >> that's what they say. got to watch what you say because words -- t's next. even with higher stroke risk due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin... that's a trail i want to take. eliquis. eliquis reduces stroke ri

number two is a woman name gloria satterfield, a long—time housekeeper of alex and maggie and the boys of their home. that's also being re—investigated. the authorities got permission for the dash from her sons to exhume her body. both cases, no new charges have been announced. holly, thank you very much indeed. so, we know he was a liar and a self—confessed swindler, but was he a murderer? murdaugh has claimed he still believes his wife and son were murdered, by unknown assailants seeking revenge, for the 2019 fatal boat cash, in which paul had been implicated. —— boat crash. 0njune 7th 2021, did you take this gun or any gun like it and shoot your son paul in the chest in the feed room at your property off moselle road? no, i did not. mr murdaugh, did you take this gun or any gun like it and blow your son's brains out onjune 7th, or any day, any time? no, i did not. but alex murdaugh had lied about his whereabouts on the night when maggie and paul were murdered. 0n the stand, the prosecution presented him with cellphone video that paul had filmed which placed him at the scene of the m

also confessed to stealing a $4 million settlement from the sons of his family's housekeeper, gloria satterfieldrdaugh home. >> how much money did the family get after gloria died? >> zero. >> reporter: police also reopened the investigation into her death, which is still ongoing. >> it's just unbelievable. >> i mean, so many questions and so many people who died. there are questions hanging over their memory. >> yeah. >> we'll go live to the courtroom later this hour for the sentencing hearing. >>> the house ethics committee has officially opened an investigation into new york congressman george santos to investigate a slew of allegations against santos, including potential campaign violations, conflicts of interest and one allegation of sexual misconduct. it is the latest in a series of local, state and federal investigations surrounding the republican. he is facing bipartisan calls to step down after he admitted to lying about his background and experience. he briefly responded to the probe on twitter, writing in the third person, quote, congressman george santos is fully cooperating, there w