Alex Murdaugh’s housekeeper has shared a significant unanswered question lingering after her former employer was found guilty of murdering two members of his own family.
In 2023, the once-prominent South Carolina attorney Murdaugh was found guilty of two counts of murder for the fatal shootings of his wife, Maggie, 52, and their son, Paul, 22, at their estate.
Their bodies were discovered on June 7, 2021, by Murdaugh, who called 911 at 10:07 pm. He claimed to have returned home after visiting his mother when he discovered the tragic scene.
Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson, the former housekeeper for the Murdaugh family, has now penned a book detailing her experiences with the family.
Employed by the family since 2007, she developed a close relationship with socialite Maggie.
Her book, Within the House of Murdaugh: Amid a Unique Friendship – Blanca and Maggie, describes the moment she realized Murdaugh was guilty of the heinous act.
She was asked by Murdaugh to help clean the house the morning after the murders and noticed Maggie’s pajamas laid out, a task Maggie never performed herself.
Turrubiate-Simpson also observed that Maggie’s SUV was parked incorrectly.
She shared with PEOPLE her suspicion that Murdaugh may have had help staging the murders. Her concerns were confirmed while watching the January 2023 trial when police body cam footage revealed a beach towel in Murdaugh’s vehicle.
This towel was one she distinctly remembered having washed and placed on a high shelf on the day of the killings.
Seeing the towel in the car convinced her that Murdaugh’s explanation did not align with the evidence.
Recalling her realization, she thought: “Oh my God. He did it,” as she recounted to PEOPLE.
Turrubiate-Simpson believes Murdaugh used the towel to clean up after the murders, possibly to dispose of DNA evidence.
Both the towel and the shirt Alex wore that night vanished.
She remains fixated on one unresolved query: “What happened to that towel?”
Prior to the murders, the Murdaugh family’s esteemed reputation was already deteriorating.
In 2018, their housekeeper Gloria Satterfield died in what was described as a ‘trip and fall’ accident at the residence, but Murdaugh later confessed to deceiving her family about the incident’s cause to commit financial fraud.
The following year, Murdaugh and Maggie’s son Paul faced charges related to a boating accident that resulted in the death of 19-year-old Mallory Beach, attracting numerous lawsuits and significant media attention. Simultaneously, Murdaugh’s financial troubles were escalating as his law firm began to uncover missing client funds and alleged embezzlement.
The family’s aura of ‘Lowcountry royalty’ was fading, and Murdaugh’s personal and legal crises were rapidly intensifying.
“The secrets he carried got to be too much,” Turrubiate-Simpson remarked.
In 2024, Murdaugh received an additional 40-year sentence for 22 federal financial crimes, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, alongside charges of bank fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.
This sentence is to run concurrently with his two life sentences for the murders of Maggie and Paul, as well as prior financial crimes he admitted to.
The court also required Murdaugh to pay $8,762,731.88 in restitution to his victims, along with a $10,034,377.95 forfeiture order.