COLUMBIA, S.C. — Attorneys for Alex Murdaugh want a judge to require prosecutors in his double murder case to disclose information about a purported state investigation into whether Low Country law officers disposed of weapons and bloody clothing on the night Murdaugh’s wife and son were shot to death.

Defense attorneys made their claim of others possibly being involved in the June 7, 2021, killings of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh in a 30-page filing earlier this week in the Colleton County clerk of court’s office, where records in his case are kept. The killings took place in rural Colleton County on the Murdaugh family’s 1,700-acre estate.

If others were involved in the disposal of the weapons, that would conflict with the theory prosecutors advanced in the 2023 six-week trial — that Murdaugh alone killed his wife and son, and Murdaugh alone disposed of the two murder weapons — a shotgun and a .300 Blackout assault rifle, defense attorneys argued in their filing.

Prosecutors at the State Attorney General’s office had no immediate response to the defense filing.

The allegations of others being involved in the killings are the latest expected turn of events in a sprawling crime saga that has gone on for five years and spawned a host of books, documentaries, podcasts, movies and press articles. Murdaugh’s 2023 trial was also broadcast nationally and internationally.

Murdaugh’s convictions for murder in Paul’s and Maggie’s deaths were overturned in May. A unanimous Supreme Court ruled that jury tampering by Colleton County clerk of court Becky Hill had deprived Murdaugh of his right to a fair trial.

A new trial has been set to start next April 5 at the Sumter County courthouse.

At Murdaugh’s trial, prosecutors put up more than 60 witnesses to advance their theory of the murders — that despite there being two murder weapons used to kill Paul and Maggie, Murdaugh acted alone in killing them and then disposed of the weapons. The guns were a shotgun, used to kill Paul, and a .300 Blackout assault rifle, used to kill Maggie. Those guns have never been found.

In this week’s filing, defense attorneys asserted that a witness told a State Law Enforcement Division agent in 2023 that a Low Country police chief arrived early at the scene where Paul and Maggie were killed and provided Alex Murdaugh with a change of clothes.

Defense attorneys said they seek all prosecution reports and interviews concerning what the witness told SLED, the filing said.

The filing also referred to recent stories in the press that said prosecutors learned of the allegations about weapons and clothing disposal in 2023 and therefore, that information should have already been disclosed to Murdaugh’s defense team as part of pretrial discovery — the turning over of evidence that might help Murdaugh’s case for his upcoming second murder trial.

Under a landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision known as Brady vs. Maryland, prosecutors have a duty to turn over all material gathered by investigators that could be favorable to the defense, the filing said.

The filing also cited press reports that lead state prosecutor Creighton Waters is currently conducting a state grand jury investigation into “an alleged cover-up at the scene of the (Murdaugh) murders.”

In a related development, defense attorneys on Thursday afternoon filed a letter in the Colleton County clerk of court’s office to presiding Judge McCaslin telling her that they have made numerous requests to prosecutors for evidence and prosecutors have been largely non-responsive.

These evidence matters sought by the defense concern .300 Blackout cartridge cases, laser-scan data of the crime scene, cellular telephone deep dive digital data, recorded jail calls of Curtis Smith, a Murdaugh cousin who prosecutors have charged with supplying Murdaugh with illegally obtained prescription drugs, and other material, the letter said.

“The defense is at a standstill” because it has not received information from the prosecution to which it is entitled, the letter said.

The letter also asked McCaslin to require prosecutors to respond to defense requests and set specific dates by which to respond.

If the prosecution does not respond, the defense will be “positioned to seek a continuance” in the April 5 trial starting date, the letter said.

“The State’s silence toward the defense... leaves the defense to conclude it does not intend to produce anything voluntarily,” the defense attorney’s letter said.

Murdaugh, 58, is in McCormick Correctional Institution, a maximum security facility in western South Carolina. He is serving a 27-year sentence in state prison for numerous frauds at the end of which he will be transferred to federal prison where he will finish out a 40-year sentence for frauds.

In all, Murdaugh is believed to have stolen more than $10 million from clients, his law firm and from a multi-million dollar estate. He pleaded guilty in both state and federal courts to numerous incidents of theft.

The fourth generation scion of a prominent legal and political family, Murdaugh was a well-to-do lawyer in the early 2000s when he began to run up debt and taking large amounts of prescription painkillers, according to evidence in his case.

He was fired by his law firm after his thefts from dozens of his clients began to be discovered in September 2021. He was later disbarred by the South Carolina Supreme Court.

Murdaugh’s defense team includes attorneys Dick Harpootlian, Jim Griffin, Maggie Fox, Phil Barber and Andrew Hand.

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