Alex Murdaugh hints that a street gang and a botched drug deal were behind the murders of his wife and son

Alex Murdaugh, 58, appeared in a South Carolina courtroom on Friday as his defence team levelled explosive allegations about a possible accomplice ahead of his murder retrial, scheduled for April. His lawyers claim a police officer with a prior friendship with Murdaugh reached the Colleton County estate before other law enforcement arrived and may have helped dispose of bloody clothing and the murder weapons, neither of which has ever been recovered. His 2023 convictions were overturned after the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that a court clerk's conduct had been improper — specifically, steering jurors by telling them to scrutinise Murdaugh's body language.

Defence lawyers are pressing prosecutors to disclose whether a grand jury has been empanelled to examine the conduct of the police officer at the centre of the alleged cover-up.