Dispatches from Hampton County: Holidays a season of giving, forgiving for Murdaugh victims

December's biting breezes sweep through the Hampton Cemetery with a chill that holds a cheerful Christmas spirit and a somber air of mourning. Riding the breeze leaves rustle and roam between the headstones of Hampton County's long-departed.

As far as cemeteries go, this burial ground is a who's-who of the Lowcountry elite. Countless members of Hampton's prominent founding families rest here, as well as two former Hampton County Guardian editors, one who went on to become governor, but Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson is here to visit with members of the Murdaugh clan who no longer walk among us.

Blanca, the Murdaughs' former housekeeper, kneels not far from a potted Poinsettia that has been placed at a large headstone bearing the name "Randolph Murdaugh III," but there is no ornate stone erected for the person she came to commune with — only small, humble plaques bearing the names "Paul" and "Margaret," better known as Maggie.

She places miniature Christmas trees and other holiday offerings at the gravesite of two of the people she once worked loyally for — a mother and son tragically murdered more than two Christmases ago. Around the trees are plastic snowflakes, a white toy truck with greenery and holly berries and "Merry Christmas" on the driver's side door.

"Maggie loved Christmas," Blanca told the author. "She always went all out, decorating the house, a big tree. Some years I helped her decorate the trees at the entrance of Moselle."

She stops there, voice thick with emotion, as if the word "Moselle" was a cursed trigger word, then adds, "I miss her so much. She was my friend."

Maggie and her 22-year-old son, Paul, were brutally shot to death at the kennels not far from their Moselle home in June of 2021.

State prosecutors and investigators say they died in a twisted sacrifice of sorts because the family patriarch, husband and father Richard "Alex" Murdaugh, had a decade of criminal misdeeds to hide and distract attention from to stay ahead of discovery and disgrace.

Paul's grandfather, a former attorney and solicitor Randolph Murdaugh III, died just three days after the killings, leaving the Murdaugh family to mourn three of their own in one summer week they will never fully recover from.

Alex Murdaugh crime saga brings a season of giving

The troubled crime saga of Alex Murdaugh has captured the attention of the English-speaking world. After being convicted of murdering his family during a made-for-TV trial in early 2023, and sentenced to one life sentence for every life he took, he pleaded guilty to a score of the more than 100 financial crimes he was facing.

In the swath of his decade-long crime spree, as much as $10 million was stolen from vulnerable, trusting victims in multiple counties.

But some of those victims have carved triumph from this tragedy, and are setting a resilient, noble example by using settlement monies from successful civil suits to give back to their S.C. Lowcountry communities.

In the wake of a February 2019 Murdaugh family boat crash that took the life of 19-year-old Mallory Beach, a fatal accident that eventually resulted in a $15 million settlement, the Beach family of Hampton County has plans to use some of that money to help build a new animal shelter.

Through a nonprofit named in Mallory's honor, Mal's Palz, the Beachs have some joy in their holiday season after a successful meeting with their county council to establish a public-private partnership that will hopefully honor Mallory's love of helping and homing animals in distress.

Meanwhile, another group of Murdaugh victims has been busy this holiday season: the family of the late Gloria Satterfield, a Murdaugh family employee whose death sparked an insurance scheme as well as criminal and civil cases.

Through a nonprofit in Satterfield's honor, the Gloria's Gift Foundation, this family has been busy this December bringing extra Christmas joy to multiple lower-income families in Hampton County.

For some Alex Murdaugh victims, it's a season for forgiving

While some of Murdaugh's victims find healing through helping, others have shown us examples of grace and forgiveness.

Murdaugh pleaded guilty to many of his state financial crimes, and during his Nov. 28 sentencing, several of his victims looked him in the eye and expressed a variety of emotions.

Tony Satterfield, whose mother, the late Gloria Satterfield, worked for Murdaugh and helped care for his children, said, "You lied, you stole, you betrayed me, my mom and my family," but added, "I forgive you, and I'll pray for you."

Gloria's sister, Ginger Harriott Hadwin, told Murdaugh that her sister now has a more positive legacy by creating the Gloria's Gift Foundation, which helps local families at Christmas, "so that Gloria would be remembered forever."

Pamela Pinckney, one of the many former law clients robbed by Murdaugh and the mother of another victim, the late Hakeem Pinckney, cited the 23rd Psalm and said she forgave Murdaugh while thanking God for giving her the strength to get through this ordeal.

Another victim, Jordan Jinks, said he forgave Murdaugh and that there was no need to steal the money — he would have gladly given it to Murdaugh if he knew the troubled attorney needed it.

What lessons can we learn from Murdaugh and his victims?

What lies in the wake of the Murdaugh crime saga during a holiday season that is meant for celebration and family gatherings?

Even as Mal's Palz gets closer to its goals, this will be the fifth Christmas without Mallory for the Beach family.

While the joy of giving brightens the founders of Gloria's Gift and rewrites Gloria's legacy, Christmas will never be the same without Gloria Satterfield, who left behind two sons and seven siblings.

While many of Murdaugh's financial victims have since been "made whole" by payouts or settlements from his former law firm and the Hampton bank he used to orchestrate many of his scams, for some, the money comes too little, too late — and not when they needed it the most when they were injured, suffering, unable to work.

And you can not put a price on betrayal, on abuse of trust and privilege.

Once a prominent attorney from an esteemed Hampton County family, Murdaugh tumbled from grace as he stole from the weak and vulnerable, the trusting, the needful, the injured living and the mourned dead.

A Colleton County jury says he used two of his family's weapons to gun down mother and son at a place where they should have been safest. The families of Maggie and Paul now grieve deaths that have become public fodder for true crime fans around the country.

Murdaugh's surviving son, Richard Alexander "Buster" Murdaugh Jr., has truly suffered: his mother and brother were slain, his father disgraced and convicted, and he bears a disgraced family name now known worldwide.

There are glaringly obvious life lessons aplenty to be found in this tale of greed, deceit, betrayal, manipulation and murder in the Palmetto State. They can even be found etched in the stones of the 10 Commandments: Thou shalt not steal, kill, idolize, and I think we know the rest.

There are even broader lessons our criminal and civil justice systems can learn from what social media followers have called "The Murdaugh Mess."

More importantly, there are examples of giving, grace and forgiveness demonstrated in recent months by the victims turned victors of Alex Murdaugh, and we should certainly pay heed to those examples. If we take nothing else from this tragic tale, remember the example set by these blue-collar, hardworking Hampton County families.

But perhaps the most important lessons were shared under press spotlights outside the Colleton County Courthouse on the night of March 2, minutes after Murdaugh was convicted of murder, wise words uttered by State Grand Jury prosecutor Creighton Waters and S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson that certainly hold as we gather with our families this holiday season.

"It doesn't matter how much money you have, if you do wrong, break the law, murder, justice will be done in South Carolina," swore Waters.

"When you go home tonight, hug your loved ones, hug your spouse, hug your children. You can't take them for granted," Wilson reminds us.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Holidays a season of giving, forgiving for Alex Murdaugh's victims