Alex Murdaugh's lawyers claim a police officer may have helped him hide bloody clothing and murder weapons

Murdaugh's defence team is demanding prosecutors reveal whether a grand jury has been convened to investigate a police officer — friends with Murdaugh — who allegedly arrived at the Colleton County estate before other law enforcement and may have helped conceal bloody clothing and the murder weapons used to kill wife Maggie and son Paul in June 2021. A judge today warned both sides she will not let the retrial 'become a circus', ordering attorneys to resolve their evidence disputes themselves. Murdaugh, 58, is due to face retrial in April after his 2023 convictions were overturned when the South Carolina Supreme Court found a court clerk had improperly directed jurors to scrutinise his body language.

Neither the murder weapons nor the bloody clothing has ever been recovered, three years after the killings.

One expert dismissed the police-officer line of attack as a 'wild goose chase', but defence lawyers say any evidence of a third party could collapse the prosecution's case.