Now, her death has become part of a rolling drama that has gripped South Carolina's Lowcountry: murder, drug addiction and alleged financial crimes surrounding the influential Alex Murdaugh, whose family is part of a local legal dynasty stretching back to the early 1900s.

Since Murdaugh's wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, were found fatally shot in June on the family's Colleton County hunting estate, the surname has earned national notoriety.

Along with Beach, I wanted to know more about Satterfield, the longtime Murdaugh housekeeper whose family filed a $500,000 wrongful death claim against Alex Murdaugh after she died following what her estate's attorney termed a "trip and fall accident" at their home.

His death investigation was reopened this summer, following the killings of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.

Parents, children, siblings, lawyers, friends and pastors didn't answer phones or doors.

Local reporters who know the story best were in no mood to bring outsiders up to speed.

In their silence weighed the longtime sway of a towering, ruddy man whose family controlled prosecutions across five counties for almost nine decades: Alex Murdaugh.

"I think people are just kind of tired," said a Beaufort native and acquaintance of Alex Murdaugh's who asked to remain anonymous.

Alex Murdaugh now faces insurance fraud and other charges and remains in rehab on $20,000 bail.

Smith also faces charges and is out on bail.

Adding another layer of OMG, Smith told the New York Post, "I've never hurt anyone" and that Alex Murdaugh had called him for help -- for what, he didn't know -- and when he arrived he found Murdaugh waving a gun as if he might shoot himself.

He wrestled the gun away from Murdaugh and took off, Smith told the paper.

A gentleman who declined to share his name agreed to call and text "Eddie," promising to tell him I was an "all right fellow." Eddie apparently was not convinced.

The next day at a pizza joint in Beaufort, phones dinged and buzzed with the latest Murdaugh updates.

A bartender and waitress perused the waitress' phone, playfully arguing over whether to trust "conspiracy sites" or the hard reporting from journalists at FITS News and The State newspaper.

A similar scene unfolded that night at a Beaufort restaurant when word spread that Connor Cook -- another passenger injured in the 2019 boat crash -- had announced he was suing Alex Murdaugh, alleging the former lawyer tried to pin the crash on Cook when it was actually his son, Paul, driving the craft.

In June, Alex Murdaugh found his wife, Maggie, and 22-year-old son fatally shot near the kennels on the family estate in Islandton.

Love bugs, as they're known, flew so thick it was difficult at times to avoid breathing them.

Alex Murdaugh's acquaintance in Beaufort said the killings left the community stunned.

The onetime law lion's wife, 52, was sweet as can be, he said, and Alex always reminded him of Andy Griffith, the way he was so polite and made people feel at ease.

"That's something you would've never guessed now."

The killings led a local prosecutor to drop charges against Paul Murdaugh, who stood accused of drinking to the point of slurring before driving his dad's boat into the bridge's buttresses.

State police also said information gathered while investigating the slayings of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh led them to reopen the death investigation on Stephen Smith.

Official information on Smith and his death is thin.

But from Crocketville to Beaufort, everyone seems to have heard the same handful of rumors linking the Murdaughs to the alleged crime, even though authorities haven't announced any connection.

A teenager's headstone whispered hints of her legacy

Smith's grave sits a couple miles down the road from the Sandy Run Baptist Church, which held the funeral services for Smith, Satterfield and Beach.