Till Murder Do Us Part: Soering vs. Haysom (2023) s01e02 Episode Script
Liz
1
[foreboding music playing]
[in German]
She was the first woman,
the first girlfriend, I ever loved.
It's unbelievable.
What happened between this woman and I?
[Updike, in English]
Why did your parents die?
My parents died
because Jens and I
were obsessed with each other,
and he was jealous
of anything else other in my life.
[music concludes]
[theme music playing]
[theme music concludes]
[news reporter] Elizabeth Haysom
ended almost two and a half years
of speculation, agony and doubt
in this community
when she admitted her role
in the double murder of her parents.
Soering is still in England,
fighting extradition.
There was a sense
of this is going to come to an end.
Now, we we're gonna find out
what the truth really is.
[dramatic music playing]
[clerk]
Silence in the courtroom, everyone rise.
The circuit court of Bedford County
is now pursuing for adjournment.
This is the sentencing hearing
in the Elizabeth Roxanne Haysom case.
[Amy] They were putting on five days
of a case that had been decided.
She pleaded guilty.
But this was a horrible, horrible crime.
The community needed
to know what happened.
[Updike] Elizabeth,
how did it come about that you decided
to go to Washington that weekend?
[music concludes]
Um
I think it just it came up
in the course of conversation
that nothing was going on that weekend.
There was no, um,
academic pressure to,
you know, to be at school
and Jens made some sort of comment.
I can't quote him exactly.
But he said something along the lines
that I owed him a weekend.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Updike] Yeah, what did you have
in mind doing?
Apart from going to Washington?
Um, Jens had
this impotency problem and
on Friday evening was
this sort of first played out
of him trying to get it together.
[Updike] The next morning,
what did you do?
[Elizabeth] The next morning,
we had breakfast.
[Updike] Then what happened?
Then we had the, um, argument,
discussion, confrontation.
-Um
-About what?
[Elizabeth] He was upset
that I had to sell my jewelry.
He, um
-blamed my parents.
-[Updike] Why?
[Elizabeth] They weren't providing me
with sufficient funds,
and that conversation went into
the other resentments and angers
about my relationship with my parents.
[Phyllis] I'm the only one
of her family here in Lynchburg.
And as we became friends,
occasionally,
there would be conversations that
in which his name would come up.
Elizabeth has told me about the anger
that Jens felt toward her parents
because they wanted him to break off
his relationship with their daughter.
[Louis] My sister was very strongheaded,
liked to be controlling.
And then when Elizabeth started dating
or hanging out with Jens,
my sister became
extremely upset with that.
[Phyllis] He didn't have
the proper last name,
and he didn't have the proper heritage.
And he didn't have the proper
profession in mind.
They wanted her to marry
an attorney or a physician.
[Updike] What happened then?
[Elizabeth]
He said that he wanted to go down
to Loose Chippings.
-[Updike] And talk to them?
-And talk to them.
One of the things she said
about her parents
was that they were always ready
to stick the knife in.
[car engine starting]
[Amy] Meaning they could identify
people's triggers
and really make them
feel bad really quickly.
And she was saying it in relation to
what may have happened
when Jens went down to Bedford.
[Updike] Are you familiar
with this letter from Jens Soering?
[unsettling music playing]
Yes, sir.
[Updike] And would you read us
the reference to your parents?
[voice actor as Jens] "Dear Liz
I have much, much to say to you,
but that is what it boils down to.
I love you."
"I don't know whether I can resist this."
[voice actor as Jens]
"I don't know whether I can resist this."
"I can see myself depriving people
of their property quite easily."
"Your dad, for instance."
"Your dad, for instance."
[voice actor as Jens] "The fact that
there have been many burglaries
in the area,
opens the possibility for another one
opens the possibility for another one
with the same general circumstances."
"Only this time, the unfortunate owners"
They had written to each other
quite a lot before the murders took place.
"Were I to meet your parent,
I'll have the ultimate weapon."
[voice actor as Jens]
"Strange things are happening within me."
[Updike] You're saying that Jens is upset
and all of a sudden, he says,
"Well, I think
I'll just drive on down to Lynchburg
and talk to your mom and dad about that."
-Is that what you're saying?
-Yes, sir, he was like that.
-[Updike] That made a 650-mile round trip.
-[Elizabeth] It certainly did.
[music concludes]
-[Updike] He was that upset?
-[Elizabeth] Yes, sir.
[Updike] Why did you think he was driving
so far under those circumstances?
Jens, when he gets into a temper,
does what he wants to do,
and he wanted to talk to them now.
If he has to drive ten hours, he does it.
[tense music playing]
[Gardner, on tape]
The following statement is being taken
from Jens Soering.
So you got out of the rented car
-and went to the front door?
-[Jens] Mm-hmm.
-[Gardner] And did you knock on the door?
-[Jens] Yes.
[Gardner] And who came to the door?
[Jens] Derek Haysom.
[Gardner] He told the Haysoms
that he was on the way back
to Charlottesville
from visiting a friend in North Carolina
and that he just had stopped
to refresh himself.
So they invited him in.
[tense music continues]
[Gardner] Had they eaten dinner,
when you arrived?
[Jens] I think so.
-[Gardner] Did they offer you anything?
-[Jens] We had a drink.
[Gardner] Where was, uh, Ms. Haysom?
[Jens] Um, she was upstairs.
[Gardner] Did she come down
while you were having a drink?
[Jens] Oh, yes.
[Phyllis] They had an altercation
at the dinner table,
and Jens became very angry
because he had gone to ask permission
to see their daughter.
And Derek was adamant, "You will not."
[Jens] I didn't understand
why there was resistance to me from them.
He wanted Elizabeth,
and he wanted that more than anything.
He wanted that
more than a Jefferson Scholarship.
He wanted that more than anything.
[ominous music playing]
[Gardner] Jens stood up
and he walked behind Mr. Haysom.
He caught Mr. Haysom totally by surprise.
He got him from behind,
and he cut his throat.
That was hatred. Hatred. Just anger.
That tells me that I've heard
all I want to hear from you
and if I cut your throat,
you'll never, never tell me
that I can't have anything
to do with your daughter.
Then he ran into the kitchen.
And that's where
he attacked and killed Mrs. Haysom.
She was apparently trying
to get out the door.
[suspenseful music playing]
-[car door closing]
-[engine revving]
[foreboding music playing]
[news reporter] Soering left the house
in the Boonsboro area
after allegedly mutilating
the Canadian couple with a knife,
leaving behind a bloody scene.
[music concludes]
[Jens, in German]
I confessed to the murders in London.
My father, I vividly remember him
coming there and asking me,
"Is this true?"
And I said, "Yes."
He started crying.
It was the first time in my life
that I saw my father crying.
It was terrible.
[tense music playing]
That's when his father approached us
in Bonn and stood up for his son.
The idea was to try to get Mr. Soering
extradited to Germany.
This was our strategy
to avoid the death penalty.
[in English] And Soering's attorneys
are searching for ways
to keep him from being brought back
to Bedford County.
[news reporter] Soering said, "In Germany,
a life sentence is ten years."
"If I'm tried in Virginia," he said,
"they'll fry me."
[electricity fizzing, crackling]
-[cell door closing]
-[indistinct chatter]
[Rachel] For Jens, to be in jail
and to have the only person
that you really truly care about
abandon you, is the worst thing
that could happen to him.
[foreboding music playing]
She cut things off with Jens.
He's distraught.
The woman that he loved
and that he sacrificed his life for
has betrayed him.
[news reporter]
Elizabeth Haysom reaffirmed
that Jens Soering acted alone
when he murdered her parents.
She stayed in Washington.
[Rachel] She says she stayed
in Washington D.C.
that afternoon and evening
and Jens returned later that evening
and picked her up.
I was at The
Rocky Horror Picture Show.
And he drove up, and he was
on the opposite side of the road.
And I opened the car door.
[Phyllis] She looked into the car,
and he was wrapped in a sheet.
-[Elizabeth] A sheet.
-Covered with blood.
And he was covered in blood
from head to toe.
And he said that he'd killed my parents.
[tense music playing]
She said she was just in total shock.
It was horrifying to her.
[Elizabeth] So I got into the car
and I shut the door.
And we were driving back to the hotel
and parked somewhere
quite close to the elevators.
[elevator bell ringing]
[Elizabeth] We go back up
up to the room.
-Jens took a shower.
-[shower running]
[Elizabeth] And he told me
to go down to the parking
to clean the blood in the car.
[Jeff] It must've been horrifying
thinking about,
"I am cleaning up my mother
and father's blood out of this vehicle."
"The blood left here as a result
of what my boyfriend has done today."
[Rachel] And she did that.
And when she came back up, he was asleep.
How could you clean up
your own parents' blood
and then go lie down in a bed with a man
who said he just murdered your parents?
[ominous music playing]
[Jeff] She was gonna do what Jens said
because at that point,
I think the fear of what had happened
was a big deal to Elizabeth.
I was stunned by the situation.
And it was so huge,
so overwhelming, so definite, so final.
Well, why didn't you go
to the authorities?
[Elizabeth] To be
to be truthful, um
my first feelings were to
save Jens, save myself.
Elizabeth described her feelings for Jens
as almost an addiction,
a physical addiction, that she needed him.
[Elizabeth] It sounds very peculiar,
but after he killed my parents,
I needed him more.
It overruled everything.
I would have done anything for him,
and I did do everything for him.
I've betrayed everything.
I betrayed my family,
I betrayed my friends,
I betrayed my parents.
And after they were gone
I only had Jens.
[Rachel]
One of the most interesting letters
between Jens and Elizabeth
was a note that Elizabeth wrote to Jens
a couple weeks after the murders.
[dramatic music playing]
[Rachel] Jens had accompanied her down
to Lynchburg for her parents' funerals.
They were having this argument
about her spending time with her siblings.
[voice actor as Elizabeth]
"My dearest Jens
there are a couple of things
I wish to say."
"I love you very much."
"You probably are laughing at the idea
that I'm supporting you,
when you've been at my arm
throughout those past two weeks."
"But you were the one
that was in a hostile
or potentially hostile environment."
"You were the one hating it,
upset about my brothers."
[Rachel] He had this need
to be the center of Elizabeth's life
and wanted all of her attention
and wanted all of her time
and resented anyone else
who got in his way.
[voice actor as Elizabeth] "You were
the one claiming possession of the prize."
"You threatened to turn yourself in,
to commit suicide."
[Rachel] To threaten suicide
to your partner
if they don't do what you want
or if they aren't around you enough,
or don't love you enough,
it suggests a very manipulative,
calculating, cold person.
[voice actor as Elizabeth]
"I was truly appalled when you said,
'I didn't do this for your brothers
to take you away.'"
"I thought we did it
so that I could be free."
He was holding this over her head.
"I murdered your parents
so that I could have you."
"Now you're mine."
[music concludes]
[Elizabeth] The nature of our relationship
changed a great deal.
And, um, a number of things happened.
Well, the obvious thing that happened
is that he was no longer impotent.
Um, he also became
obsessive and very jealous.
[in German]
I got these press reports from the US
about what she was currently
saying about me in public in court.
How could she do that?
[ominous music playing]
I was obsessed with the idea
of being her hero.
I could not believe it. What she
The things she has said.
[news reporter, in English]
While Elizabeth Haysom's court proceedings
move along in Bedford County,
Jens Soering's are scheduled
for later this summer in England.
A judge there will decide
if he's to be extradited.
[foreboding music playing]
[in German]
At that time in England,
while in extradition custody,
under threat of the death penalty,
I wrote quite extensively,
almost manically.
I was trying to understand my life
through writing.
Because that was the moment
when my lawyers told me,
"We tried, but it didn't work,
to extradite you to Germany."
"We can't help you anymore."
"We can prolong your life a bit.
That's what we can do."
"Nothing more."
I said, "No."
[dramatic music playing]
"We'll go
to the European Court of Justice."
"Let's try."
[news reporter, in English]
Soering's lawyers had appealed
to the European Court of Human Rights
in Strasbourg, France.
His parents
had hired an American attorney.
Rick Neaton had spent five years
as a prosecutor in Detroit,
the last two years
specializing in homicide cases.
Certain articles
of the European Convention on Human Rights
would be violated
if Jens Soering were tried in Virginia
and faced the death penalty.
The case bounces
around between English courts
and the European Commission
on Human Rights.
The Commission rules
that Soering should not be returned
because if he has to sit on death row
awaiting the electric chair,
his rights will be violated.
[music concludes]
At that point, it wasn't clear
that Jens would ever be extradited.
So here they had Elizabeth and she
put the murder itself fully on Jens.
You just admit Jens Soering's involvement
in its entirety, don't you? But
you state that you didn't know
that Jens Soering
intended to kill your parents.
I never thought
that Jens would murder my parents.
I thought he might do a lot of things,
but kill somebody
stick a knife in my mother and father,
butcher them
No, I never believed
he would do that to my parents.
I still can hardly believe it.
Isn't the only logical explanation,
this lover had done as you requested?
Jim Updike was a good prosecutor,
and he was aggressive in his questioning
of Elizabeth on the stand
and kind of put her in a corner.
[Updike] I was curious
in one of your statements,
that you refer to yourself
as Lady Macbeth, didn't you?
Do you see yourself as Lady Macbeth?
[tense music playing]
Yes, sir. Yes, I did.
[Jeff]
Suddenly things got really interesting,
and he had obviously been
reading up on Shakespeare
and had planned to use this.
And that hit a note with everybody.
[Updike] Your Shakespeare's
certainly much better than mine,
but it seems to me, if I recall,
Lady Macbeth
encouraged old Macbeth to commit murder,
-didn't she?
-Yes, she did.
-[Updike] Persuaded?
-Yes, she did.
-[Updike] Encouraged him?
-Yes, she did.
[Updike] And that's how you saw yourself.
-At that particular time.
-[Updike] With reference to Jens Soering.
Yes, I did.
[tense music continues]
Jim Updike brought this up to show
that Elizabeth identified as Lady Macbeth,
as the person
who wanted the killing to be done
and who couldn't do it herself,
so she had her lover do it for her.
Saying that she was the puppet master
and Jens was her puppet.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Updike] Okay, here we are at Christmas
Ms. Haysom, December 21, 1984.
A happy season, a joyous season.
And you're writing to this person
with whom you are officially in love.
Yes, sir.
[voice actor as Elizabeth]
"My dearest Jens,
I wake up and I'm still alone."
"My mother said today
that if some accident befell them,
she knew I would become
a worthless adventurer."
"I start to cry."
[Elizabeth] "Would it be possible
to hypnotize my parents,
do voodoo on them, will them to death?"
"It seems my concentration on their death
is causing them problems."
[voice actor as Elizabeth] "My father
nearly drove over a cliff at lunch
and my mother fell into a fire."
"I think,
I shall seriously take up black magic."
[Jeff] I think Elizabeth
was trying to feed Jens's imagination.
She was pushing his buttons
in those letters.
[voice actor as Jens]
"Dear Liz, it's me again, the Jens,
lying in his bed
at 22 minutes past midnight,
ghosts dancing all around."
"I'm turning more
and more into a Christ-figure,
voodoo etc. is possible."
[Amy] She was intense. He was intense.
It wasn't exactly a dialogue,
these letters,
but it was a kind of dialogue.
[voice actor as Jens] "I know you have
at least as much pain as I do."
"I will try to help
if you wish me to do so."
[voice actor as Elizabeth]
"Why don't my parents
just lie down and die?"
"I despise them so much."
[voice actor as Jens] "I have not explored
the side of me that wishes
to crush to any real extent."
"I have yet to kill,
possibly the ultimate act of crushing."
[typewriter keys clacking]
[voice actor as Elizabeth]
"We can either wait until we graduate
and then leave them behind,
or we can get rid of them soon."
[voice actor as Jens] "My god,
I've got the dinner scene planned out."
[Rachel] It very much
sounds like they're plotting
and planning together over Christmas break
about how they're going
to get rid of her parents.
[ominous music playing]
[Updike] What kind
of letter is this to send?
-Why did you write it?
-It's a disgusting, atrocious letter.
[Updike] Then we are in agreement.
But why did you write it?
I wrote it because,
at the time, I felt resentful,
I felt anger at my parents.
[music concludes]
[Updike] Please tell us,
why were you so bitter
and frustrated and angered
at these people who'd spent
all this money on your education
and done everything
that they could for you?
In the Christmas of '84,
why were you so resentful, please?
At the time, I believe I saw it,
that
when I needed them, when I was younger,
they weren't there for me.
I had been alone for all those years.
Elizabeth often felt rejected.
She was always being sent off to school.
She was sent to England,
she was sent to Switzerland.
[pensive music playing]
[Elizabeth] They never came to my
successes or failures
while I was at school.
They never saw me play a lacrosse match.
They never saw me perform.
That was a very, very deep sense
of rejection on her part.
[Elizabeth] In later years,
I started having
some problems at school and
the school themselves
tried to contact my parents
on a number of occasions
about academics, about social issues,
uh, about drug use.
And my parents either couldn't be located
or my father thought it was quite funny.
And so he didn't believe
what the school had to say.
[music concludes]
I think her drug abuse was a cry for help.
She had run off in Europe
away from her high school,
her boarding school, with a friend.
[pensive music playing]
[Elizabeth] I threw everything out.
I was using drugs extensively.
A lot of LSD
and I was doing a lot of heroin.
-Doing what?
-Heroin.
That was the wake-up call for the Haysoms.
They were worried
about their youngest daughter.
And then her parents are bringing her home
to Lynchburg, and it's like a 180.
Now, they're giving her
all of their attention.
And they have a lot of say
about what classes she's gonna take,
and where she's gonna go to school,
and what she's gonna do with her life,
and there's a lot of expectation
and a lot of pressure.
[Jeff] Derek was the firm one
and put his foot down.
He put his foot down.
He said, "This is what
Elizabeth's gonna do, and that's it."
[Phyllis]
They tried to control her friends,
her goings about, her schooling.
They wanted her
to be obedient to their desires.
I began to feel
overwhelmed, um,
smothered, perhaps, by
by their affection for me.
When I was at UVA, my mother would turn up
at odd hours of the day and night
in my dorm room
to check on me.
Now, you talked about your mother
smothering you with affection,
not allowing you any privacy,
coming to the University of Virginia
at times you didn't want her to.
Let's take you back then.
In the pre-sentence report,
you make some statement
that you had a full-blown
sexual relationship
with your mother at one point,
weren't you?
[music concludes]
[Updike] Could you answer that, please?
Elizabeth had no clue what to say
when Jim Updike brought this up.
I think she had to stop and think
about what she was gonna say next.
And I think whatever she said next
was gonna have a profound effect
on what came out of this hearing.
[Elizabeth] Mr. Updike,
this isn't an issue
that I wanted to bring up.
[Updike] I don't want it
to bring it up either, ma'am.
Well, you Sir, it's not something
I want to discuss.
I don't think it's relevant.
-Um, my mother isn't here.
-[Updike] Exactly.
[Elizabeth] And it's not something
I want to discuss in public with people.
-[Updike] But, Ms. Hay
-This is a very private thing.
[ominous music playing]
[Jens, in German]
Elizabeth had told me
of all these traumatic things
that had happened to her.
In early 1985,
when her parents were away,
she invited me
and we drove to their house.
There she showed me photographs
that her mother had taken of her.
They were nude pictures.
She told me that her father knew
but did nothing to protect her.
He let her be a toy for her mother.
I believed her because
there actually seemed to be evidence.
It was the first time in my life
I'd heard something like this.
It was extremely shocking.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Amy, in English]
I could imagine him becoming so
just really worked up,
and she claimed he said,
"I could kill them."
I could imagine her going,
"Yeah, you should."
And doesn't that seem dramatic
to an 18-year-old
who has, I think, his first girlfriend?
[Updike] Your mother's been butchered.
Yes, she has, sir.
[Updike]
During previous testimony yesterday,
you called her a liar and an alcoholic.
-I did not call her an alcoholic.
-[Updike] Was she a sexual abuser?
Did she sexually abuse you?
If she didn't, for God's sake,
clear her name now.
-She did not sexually abuse me.
-[Updike] Thank you.
Elizabeth admitted
she told Jens about the abuse,
about this evil thing
her mother had done to her,
as a way to get him
on board with murdering her parents.
[Updike] You're manipulating him,
playing with him,
presenting this dilemma to him
that had only one resolution.
I am manipulating him,
yes, I admit to that.
[Updike] And the purpose
is to encourage him to free you,
so the two of you will have the freedom
and will have the wealth
to do whatever you want.
Elizabeth made things up.
It seems to me pathologically so.
She said she was
a member of the Martini ski team.
Not true.
She was supposed
to inherit a townhouse in London.
Not true.
Her parents were going to disown her
if she stayed with Jens.
I have no idea.
The people in the dorm believed Elizabeth.
She was pretty, worldly,
a great storyteller, and
at least a little bit intriguing
and kind of the star of the show.
[Elizabeth]
I'm sure you can tell from my letters
that I lived
in a world of fantasy to a large extent.
I deceived people, I lied to people,
I exaggerated,
I played roles, I acted out roles.
[Updike] So you are capable of deceiving,
-aren't you?
-Yes, sir. I am.
-[Updike] Capable of lying?
-Precisely. Yes, sir.
[Updike] Let's take you back then
to Washington D.C.
[foreboding music playing]
[Updike]
There was no plan of providing an alibi,
you're saying here today.
There was a plan afterwards, yes, sir.
-[Updike] A plan afterwards?
-Yes, sir.
Elizabeth says they decided to use
the movie tickets as the alibi
after Jens has committed the murders.
Now, if she was in Washington D.C.
and she knew Jens was in Bedford,
but didn't have any reason
to cover for him,
why would she buy him a movie ticket?
[Updike] And you stated
to the officers in London
that you and Jens Soering
had an agreement,
before he left Washington D.C.,
that you would attend movies
and purchase two tickets
in order to establish an alibi.
I don't remember. I believe I said, um
Where does it start
where I change my story?
[music concludes]
[Gardner] She confessed in London
that they conspired to murder her parents,
and that her part of the crime
was to stay in D.C.
and establish an alibi.
[officer, on tape]
Tell me the truth, Elizabeth.
You knew he was going
for a confrontation with your parents,
and your parents
were probably going to die.
And you were creating the alibi
while he was committing the crime.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Elizabeth] All right, I led him into it.
[Jeff] She went and bought
two tickets to the movie theater,
went to the movie.
Jens went to Lynchburg
to do the murders.
She came back to the hotel,
ordered dinner for two
to establish the alibi.
Then she went back to the movie theater,
met Jens, they went back to the hotel.
He went to bed,
and she cleaned up the car.
[Updike] On page 25,
you made the statement,
"Well, I arranged the alibi."
Yes, sir.
[Updike] Do you say today that
that is not true?
Yes, sir.
[Rachel] Elizabeth was caught
in that moment.
She must have bought extra movie tickets
as an alibi for Jens ahead of time.
[Updike] Why didn't you
tell Sergeant Beever
exactly what you're telling
His Honor today?
[tense music playing]
This shows how involved she was.
And it also shows
that she's not being honest.
[Updike] So when you get back
to the Washington Marriott Hotel,
you give him your coat
-so he won't be discovered, don't you?
-Yes, sir.
[Updike] And then when you get
back up to the room,
he goes to sleep
and you go back down
and mop up your parents' blood
-out of that automobile, don't you?
-Yes, I did, sir.
[Updike] But, oh,
you didn't want them murdered.
[Elizabeth] No, sir, I didn't.
My irresponsibility,
my manipulation of Jens,
yes, I'm totally guilty.
I'm totally responsible
for my parents' death.
I accept that.
But what I want you to realize
is that Jens
acted of his own free will.
He had a choice. He had a choice.
He had a four-hour drive.
No matter what I said to him,
no matter what I had written to him,
he had a choice
whether he killed my parents or not.
[dramatic music playing]
Sometimes you couldn't tell
where the lie began and the truth ended.
The reality was that one person had said,
"I want my parents dead."
The other person had said,
"Love is the ultimate weapon,"
and that two people had lost their lives
over this, quote, unquote,
"love" that had been going on.
[foreboding music playing]
[Rachel] You could feel the anger
coming from the brothers.
Nancy Haysom had two sons
before Elizabeth,
and they were the most vocal
and have been in the years since.
My parents
were brutally butchered in Virginia.
This was a premeditated murder.
The evidence has shown
that already in court.
[Rachel] Howard Haysom
was a doctor in Texas
and had really been
Elizabeth's big brother throughout this.
He was the one looking out for her
in the days and weeks after the deaths.
She has lied to me in the past and
and frankly continues to lie.
I personally am not satisfied
with the explanation,
uh, that her guilty plea provided.
I think Elizabeth was in the house
at the time of the crime.
[tense music playing]
While all of the testimony is shocking,
the biggest shock of the day
came when Haysom's brothers
took the stand.
Here, you have this family who has gone
through so much loss already,
and then their youngest sibling
is responsible.
We have an obligation to society
to show the people
what the consequences of such a crime are.
I, therefore, would want to see
the most severest penalty possible.
Of course, the most severe penalty
would be life in prison.
Judge William Sweeney recessed court
just in the last 20 minutes for today.
He'll be back in the morning
to hear closing arguments,
and then he'll impose sentence.
[tense music continues]
-[Sweeney] Mr. Updike.
-[Updike] Thank you, Your Honor.
I cannot imagine a crime more vile
than participating in the killing
of the very people that gave birth to you,
that raised you, that cared for you
when you couldn't care for yourself.
She did.
She deserves what she said she deserved.
[news reporter] Defense attorney
Drew Davis argued Haysom had changed.
She was sorry for her participation,
and she shouldn't
spend the rest of her life in jail.
I firmly believe that you
you get what you deserve.
Whether it's right or wrong,
you get what you deserve, uh, in the end.
I think that her parents
would be alive today,
except for what she did and did not do.
Ms. Haysom, I find you guilty
of two counts of being an accessory
before the fact
to first-degree murder as charged.
I sentence you to 45 years
in prison on each charge.
The sentences to run consecutively,
a total of 90 years.
[clerk] Silence in the courtroom,
everyone rise.
[foreboding music playing]
[news reporter]
The judge said it was tough sentencing
someone with an IQ
possibly higher than his own.
He called her predicament "tragic."
Regardless,
he said he couldn't buy the explanation
that Jens Soering acted alone
when he went to Bedford
to murder the couple.
[Updike] This is not the end of it.
I felt all along
that this is such a heinous offense
and of course, we have yet
to get Jens Soering back from England.
[news reporter]
In response to her attorney's question,
Haysom said she would be willing
to testify against Jens Soering
when and if he's ever
brought back to Bedford.
At this point, that's anybody's guess.
In Bedford, Danny Deal, News at 13.
[tense music playing]
[Rachel] Elizabeth was in prison,
and Jim Updike had a big problem
to bring Jens back to the US
to face charges.
We were unsuccessful,
and England has refused extradition
on the charge of capital murder.
Refused it, period.
The European Court of Justice said,
"You know, he's not going back
as long as the death penalty
is a possibility."
"So make up your mind, America.
What you want?"
That's when Jim Updike
took it off the table,
and that's when Jens Soering
was headed back to the United States
in very short order.
[tense music continues]
[news reporter] The plane touched down
at Roanoke Regional Airport,
just before 5:30 tonight.
And as the media waited from a distance,
they would get
their first view of Jens Soering.
[Courteney] His plane touching
down was on the nightly news
as he arrived back
because he had been on the run
and then had been arrested in 1986.
So by the time he's flying back
to the United States to stand trial,
it's several years since this crime.
And so people were riveted.
[news reporter] Tonight,
Soering was brought to an awaiting cell
in Bedford County.
Now that he's here,
the stage is set for a new battle,
one that will be fought
in a Bedford courtroom.
[music concludes]
[Courteney] I had done
some reporting on this case.
Jens' trial was televised internationally.
It was unheard of in Bedford County
and just a total media circus.
[dramatic music playing]
Bedford was so electric
with excitement about this trial.
Nothing had happened like this before.
This was like Hollywood.
[Courteney]
People absolutely wanted to get a look
at this former UVA student
who was accused in this gruesome crime.
[Amy] I found it really startling
to see him in person.
After all the time I'd spent
thinking about him,
asking people about him,
telling what I thought was his story.
[tense music playing]
[Sweeney]
The defense will call its witness.
Calling Jens Soering.
[Jens, in German] I was terrified.
Yeah, I was nervous.
[clerk, in English]
Do you solemnly swear
and affirm that the testimony
which you shall give will be the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth,
-so help you God?
-I do.
[Jens, in German]
It shouldn't be underestimated.
There are cameras,
the courtroom is packed.
The judge is on my left,
the jury on my right,
and in front of me, is the prosecutor,
who embodies all the power of Virginia
and who has spent the last three years
trying to get me executed.
[Updike, in English]
Your name is Jens Soering?
Yes.
Mr. Soering, speak
Get closer to the mic so we can hear you.
Yes.
-[Updike] When and where were you born?
-[Jens] In Bangkok, Thailand.
[Updike] And what year were you born?
[Updike] I'd like to call your attention
to March 30th, 1985.
On that day, did you go
to the home of Derek and Nancy Haysom
-and kill Mr. and Mrs. Haysom?
-No, I didn't.
-[music concludes]
-[indistinct chatter]
[dramatic music playing]
Out of the blue
of the Western sky, this came.
[Courteney] Here is this person
who has been on the run,
who had confessed to the crime
and who is now claiming
that he's innocent.
How did he expect this to play out?
He came into this trial looking so guilty.
But at the same time,
to make the leap from this nerdy kid
with his first girlfriend
to monstrous murderer,
it really is hard to imagine.
There's these doubts that come up.
It makes you question everything
you thought you knew about this case.
Maybe he is innocent
in the murders of the Haysoms.
[theme music playing]
[theme music concludes]
[foreboding music playing]
[in German]
She was the first woman,
the first girlfriend, I ever loved.
It's unbelievable.
What happened between this woman and I?
[Updike, in English]
Why did your parents die?
My parents died
because Jens and I
were obsessed with each other,
and he was jealous
of anything else other in my life.
[music concludes]
[theme music playing]
[theme music concludes]
[news reporter] Elizabeth Haysom
ended almost two and a half years
of speculation, agony and doubt
in this community
when she admitted her role
in the double murder of her parents.
Soering is still in England,
fighting extradition.
There was a sense
of this is going to come to an end.
Now, we we're gonna find out
what the truth really is.
[dramatic music playing]
[clerk]
Silence in the courtroom, everyone rise.
The circuit court of Bedford County
is now pursuing for adjournment.
This is the sentencing hearing
in the Elizabeth Roxanne Haysom case.
[Amy] They were putting on five days
of a case that had been decided.
She pleaded guilty.
But this was a horrible, horrible crime.
The community needed
to know what happened.
[Updike] Elizabeth,
how did it come about that you decided
to go to Washington that weekend?
[music concludes]
Um
I think it just it came up
in the course of conversation
that nothing was going on that weekend.
There was no, um,
academic pressure to,
you know, to be at school
and Jens made some sort of comment.
I can't quote him exactly.
But he said something along the lines
that I owed him a weekend.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Updike] Yeah, what did you have
in mind doing?
Apart from going to Washington?
Um, Jens had
this impotency problem and
on Friday evening was
this sort of first played out
of him trying to get it together.
[Updike] The next morning,
what did you do?
[Elizabeth] The next morning,
we had breakfast.
[Updike] Then what happened?
Then we had the, um, argument,
discussion, confrontation.
-Um
-About what?
[Elizabeth] He was upset
that I had to sell my jewelry.
He, um
-blamed my parents.
-[Updike] Why?
[Elizabeth] They weren't providing me
with sufficient funds,
and that conversation went into
the other resentments and angers
about my relationship with my parents.
[Phyllis] I'm the only one
of her family here in Lynchburg.
And as we became friends,
occasionally,
there would be conversations that
in which his name would come up.
Elizabeth has told me about the anger
that Jens felt toward her parents
because they wanted him to break off
his relationship with their daughter.
[Louis] My sister was very strongheaded,
liked to be controlling.
And then when Elizabeth started dating
or hanging out with Jens,
my sister became
extremely upset with that.
[Phyllis] He didn't have
the proper last name,
and he didn't have the proper heritage.
And he didn't have the proper
profession in mind.
They wanted her to marry
an attorney or a physician.
[Updike] What happened then?
[Elizabeth]
He said that he wanted to go down
to Loose Chippings.
-[Updike] And talk to them?
-And talk to them.
One of the things she said
about her parents
was that they were always ready
to stick the knife in.
[car engine starting]
[Amy] Meaning they could identify
people's triggers
and really make them
feel bad really quickly.
And she was saying it in relation to
what may have happened
when Jens went down to Bedford.
[Updike] Are you familiar
with this letter from Jens Soering?
[unsettling music playing]
Yes, sir.
[Updike] And would you read us
the reference to your parents?
[voice actor as Jens] "Dear Liz
I have much, much to say to you,
but that is what it boils down to.
I love you."
"I don't know whether I can resist this."
[voice actor as Jens]
"I don't know whether I can resist this."
"I can see myself depriving people
of their property quite easily."
"Your dad, for instance."
"Your dad, for instance."
[voice actor as Jens] "The fact that
there have been many burglaries
in the area,
opens the possibility for another one
opens the possibility for another one
with the same general circumstances."
"Only this time, the unfortunate owners"
They had written to each other
quite a lot before the murders took place.
"Were I to meet your parent,
I'll have the ultimate weapon."
[voice actor as Jens]
"Strange things are happening within me."
[Updike] You're saying that Jens is upset
and all of a sudden, he says,
"Well, I think
I'll just drive on down to Lynchburg
and talk to your mom and dad about that."
-Is that what you're saying?
-Yes, sir, he was like that.
-[Updike] That made a 650-mile round trip.
-[Elizabeth] It certainly did.
[music concludes]
-[Updike] He was that upset?
-[Elizabeth] Yes, sir.
[Updike] Why did you think he was driving
so far under those circumstances?
Jens, when he gets into a temper,
does what he wants to do,
and he wanted to talk to them now.
If he has to drive ten hours, he does it.
[tense music playing]
[Gardner, on tape]
The following statement is being taken
from Jens Soering.
So you got out of the rented car
-and went to the front door?
-[Jens] Mm-hmm.
-[Gardner] And did you knock on the door?
-[Jens] Yes.
[Gardner] And who came to the door?
[Jens] Derek Haysom.
[Gardner] He told the Haysoms
that he was on the way back
to Charlottesville
from visiting a friend in North Carolina
and that he just had stopped
to refresh himself.
So they invited him in.
[tense music continues]
[Gardner] Had they eaten dinner,
when you arrived?
[Jens] I think so.
-[Gardner] Did they offer you anything?
-[Jens] We had a drink.
[Gardner] Where was, uh, Ms. Haysom?
[Jens] Um, she was upstairs.
[Gardner] Did she come down
while you were having a drink?
[Jens] Oh, yes.
[Phyllis] They had an altercation
at the dinner table,
and Jens became very angry
because he had gone to ask permission
to see their daughter.
And Derek was adamant, "You will not."
[Jens] I didn't understand
why there was resistance to me from them.
He wanted Elizabeth,
and he wanted that more than anything.
He wanted that
more than a Jefferson Scholarship.
He wanted that more than anything.
[ominous music playing]
[Gardner] Jens stood up
and he walked behind Mr. Haysom.
He caught Mr. Haysom totally by surprise.
He got him from behind,
and he cut his throat.
That was hatred. Hatred. Just anger.
That tells me that I've heard
all I want to hear from you
and if I cut your throat,
you'll never, never tell me
that I can't have anything
to do with your daughter.
Then he ran into the kitchen.
And that's where
he attacked and killed Mrs. Haysom.
She was apparently trying
to get out the door.
[suspenseful music playing]
-[car door closing]
-[engine revving]
[foreboding music playing]
[news reporter] Soering left the house
in the Boonsboro area
after allegedly mutilating
the Canadian couple with a knife,
leaving behind a bloody scene.
[music concludes]
[Jens, in German]
I confessed to the murders in London.
My father, I vividly remember him
coming there and asking me,
"Is this true?"
And I said, "Yes."
He started crying.
It was the first time in my life
that I saw my father crying.
It was terrible.
[tense music playing]
That's when his father approached us
in Bonn and stood up for his son.
The idea was to try to get Mr. Soering
extradited to Germany.
This was our strategy
to avoid the death penalty.
[in English] And Soering's attorneys
are searching for ways
to keep him from being brought back
to Bedford County.
[news reporter] Soering said, "In Germany,
a life sentence is ten years."
"If I'm tried in Virginia," he said,
"they'll fry me."
[electricity fizzing, crackling]
-[cell door closing]
-[indistinct chatter]
[Rachel] For Jens, to be in jail
and to have the only person
that you really truly care about
abandon you, is the worst thing
that could happen to him.
[foreboding music playing]
She cut things off with Jens.
He's distraught.
The woman that he loved
and that he sacrificed his life for
has betrayed him.
[news reporter]
Elizabeth Haysom reaffirmed
that Jens Soering acted alone
when he murdered her parents.
She stayed in Washington.
[Rachel] She says she stayed
in Washington D.C.
that afternoon and evening
and Jens returned later that evening
and picked her up.
I was at The
Rocky Horror Picture Show.
And he drove up, and he was
on the opposite side of the road.
And I opened the car door.
[Phyllis] She looked into the car,
and he was wrapped in a sheet.
-[Elizabeth] A sheet.
-Covered with blood.
And he was covered in blood
from head to toe.
And he said that he'd killed my parents.
[tense music playing]
She said she was just in total shock.
It was horrifying to her.
[Elizabeth] So I got into the car
and I shut the door.
And we were driving back to the hotel
and parked somewhere
quite close to the elevators.
[elevator bell ringing]
[Elizabeth] We go back up
up to the room.
-Jens took a shower.
-[shower running]
[Elizabeth] And he told me
to go down to the parking
to clean the blood in the car.
[Jeff] It must've been horrifying
thinking about,
"I am cleaning up my mother
and father's blood out of this vehicle."
"The blood left here as a result
of what my boyfriend has done today."
[Rachel] And she did that.
And when she came back up, he was asleep.
How could you clean up
your own parents' blood
and then go lie down in a bed with a man
who said he just murdered your parents?
[ominous music playing]
[Jeff] She was gonna do what Jens said
because at that point,
I think the fear of what had happened
was a big deal to Elizabeth.
I was stunned by the situation.
And it was so huge,
so overwhelming, so definite, so final.
Well, why didn't you go
to the authorities?
[Elizabeth] To be
to be truthful, um
my first feelings were to
save Jens, save myself.
Elizabeth described her feelings for Jens
as almost an addiction,
a physical addiction, that she needed him.
[Elizabeth] It sounds very peculiar,
but after he killed my parents,
I needed him more.
It overruled everything.
I would have done anything for him,
and I did do everything for him.
I've betrayed everything.
I betrayed my family,
I betrayed my friends,
I betrayed my parents.
And after they were gone
I only had Jens.
[Rachel]
One of the most interesting letters
between Jens and Elizabeth
was a note that Elizabeth wrote to Jens
a couple weeks after the murders.
[dramatic music playing]
[Rachel] Jens had accompanied her down
to Lynchburg for her parents' funerals.
They were having this argument
about her spending time with her siblings.
[voice actor as Elizabeth]
"My dearest Jens
there are a couple of things
I wish to say."
"I love you very much."
"You probably are laughing at the idea
that I'm supporting you,
when you've been at my arm
throughout those past two weeks."
"But you were the one
that was in a hostile
or potentially hostile environment."
"You were the one hating it,
upset about my brothers."
[Rachel] He had this need
to be the center of Elizabeth's life
and wanted all of her attention
and wanted all of her time
and resented anyone else
who got in his way.
[voice actor as Elizabeth] "You were
the one claiming possession of the prize."
"You threatened to turn yourself in,
to commit suicide."
[Rachel] To threaten suicide
to your partner
if they don't do what you want
or if they aren't around you enough,
or don't love you enough,
it suggests a very manipulative,
calculating, cold person.
[voice actor as Elizabeth]
"I was truly appalled when you said,
'I didn't do this for your brothers
to take you away.'"
"I thought we did it
so that I could be free."
He was holding this over her head.
"I murdered your parents
so that I could have you."
"Now you're mine."
[music concludes]
[Elizabeth] The nature of our relationship
changed a great deal.
And, um, a number of things happened.
Well, the obvious thing that happened
is that he was no longer impotent.
Um, he also became
obsessive and very jealous.
[in German]
I got these press reports from the US
about what she was currently
saying about me in public in court.
How could she do that?
[ominous music playing]
I was obsessed with the idea
of being her hero.
I could not believe it. What she
The things she has said.
[news reporter, in English]
While Elizabeth Haysom's court proceedings
move along in Bedford County,
Jens Soering's are scheduled
for later this summer in England.
A judge there will decide
if he's to be extradited.
[foreboding music playing]
[in German]
At that time in England,
while in extradition custody,
under threat of the death penalty,
I wrote quite extensively,
almost manically.
I was trying to understand my life
through writing.
Because that was the moment
when my lawyers told me,
"We tried, but it didn't work,
to extradite you to Germany."
"We can't help you anymore."
"We can prolong your life a bit.
That's what we can do."
"Nothing more."
I said, "No."
[dramatic music playing]
"We'll go
to the European Court of Justice."
"Let's try."
[news reporter, in English]
Soering's lawyers had appealed
to the European Court of Human Rights
in Strasbourg, France.
His parents
had hired an American attorney.
Rick Neaton had spent five years
as a prosecutor in Detroit,
the last two years
specializing in homicide cases.
Certain articles
of the European Convention on Human Rights
would be violated
if Jens Soering were tried in Virginia
and faced the death penalty.
The case bounces
around between English courts
and the European Commission
on Human Rights.
The Commission rules
that Soering should not be returned
because if he has to sit on death row
awaiting the electric chair,
his rights will be violated.
[music concludes]
At that point, it wasn't clear
that Jens would ever be extradited.
So here they had Elizabeth and she
put the murder itself fully on Jens.
You just admit Jens Soering's involvement
in its entirety, don't you? But
you state that you didn't know
that Jens Soering
intended to kill your parents.
I never thought
that Jens would murder my parents.
I thought he might do a lot of things,
but kill somebody
stick a knife in my mother and father,
butcher them
No, I never believed
he would do that to my parents.
I still can hardly believe it.
Isn't the only logical explanation,
this lover had done as you requested?
Jim Updike was a good prosecutor,
and he was aggressive in his questioning
of Elizabeth on the stand
and kind of put her in a corner.
[Updike] I was curious
in one of your statements,
that you refer to yourself
as Lady Macbeth, didn't you?
Do you see yourself as Lady Macbeth?
[tense music playing]
Yes, sir. Yes, I did.
[Jeff]
Suddenly things got really interesting,
and he had obviously been
reading up on Shakespeare
and had planned to use this.
And that hit a note with everybody.
[Updike] Your Shakespeare's
certainly much better than mine,
but it seems to me, if I recall,
Lady Macbeth
encouraged old Macbeth to commit murder,
-didn't she?
-Yes, she did.
-[Updike] Persuaded?
-Yes, she did.
-[Updike] Encouraged him?
-Yes, she did.
[Updike] And that's how you saw yourself.
-At that particular time.
-[Updike] With reference to Jens Soering.
Yes, I did.
[tense music continues]
Jim Updike brought this up to show
that Elizabeth identified as Lady Macbeth,
as the person
who wanted the killing to be done
and who couldn't do it herself,
so she had her lover do it for her.
Saying that she was the puppet master
and Jens was her puppet.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Updike] Okay, here we are at Christmas
Ms. Haysom, December 21, 1984.
A happy season, a joyous season.
And you're writing to this person
with whom you are officially in love.
Yes, sir.
[voice actor as Elizabeth]
"My dearest Jens,
I wake up and I'm still alone."
"My mother said today
that if some accident befell them,
she knew I would become
a worthless adventurer."
"I start to cry."
[Elizabeth] "Would it be possible
to hypnotize my parents,
do voodoo on them, will them to death?"
"It seems my concentration on their death
is causing them problems."
[voice actor as Elizabeth] "My father
nearly drove over a cliff at lunch
and my mother fell into a fire."
"I think,
I shall seriously take up black magic."
[Jeff] I think Elizabeth
was trying to feed Jens's imagination.
She was pushing his buttons
in those letters.
[voice actor as Jens]
"Dear Liz, it's me again, the Jens,
lying in his bed
at 22 minutes past midnight,
ghosts dancing all around."
"I'm turning more
and more into a Christ-figure,
voodoo etc. is possible."
[Amy] She was intense. He was intense.
It wasn't exactly a dialogue,
these letters,
but it was a kind of dialogue.
[voice actor as Jens] "I know you have
at least as much pain as I do."
"I will try to help
if you wish me to do so."
[voice actor as Elizabeth]
"Why don't my parents
just lie down and die?"
"I despise them so much."
[voice actor as Jens] "I have not explored
the side of me that wishes
to crush to any real extent."
"I have yet to kill,
possibly the ultimate act of crushing."
[typewriter keys clacking]
[voice actor as Elizabeth]
"We can either wait until we graduate
and then leave them behind,
or we can get rid of them soon."
[voice actor as Jens] "My god,
I've got the dinner scene planned out."
[Rachel] It very much
sounds like they're plotting
and planning together over Christmas break
about how they're going
to get rid of her parents.
[ominous music playing]
[Updike] What kind
of letter is this to send?
-Why did you write it?
-It's a disgusting, atrocious letter.
[Updike] Then we are in agreement.
But why did you write it?
I wrote it because,
at the time, I felt resentful,
I felt anger at my parents.
[music concludes]
[Updike] Please tell us,
why were you so bitter
and frustrated and angered
at these people who'd spent
all this money on your education
and done everything
that they could for you?
In the Christmas of '84,
why were you so resentful, please?
At the time, I believe I saw it,
that
when I needed them, when I was younger,
they weren't there for me.
I had been alone for all those years.
Elizabeth often felt rejected.
She was always being sent off to school.
She was sent to England,
she was sent to Switzerland.
[pensive music playing]
[Elizabeth] They never came to my
successes or failures
while I was at school.
They never saw me play a lacrosse match.
They never saw me perform.
That was a very, very deep sense
of rejection on her part.
[Elizabeth] In later years,
I started having
some problems at school and
the school themselves
tried to contact my parents
on a number of occasions
about academics, about social issues,
uh, about drug use.
And my parents either couldn't be located
or my father thought it was quite funny.
And so he didn't believe
what the school had to say.
[music concludes]
I think her drug abuse was a cry for help.
She had run off in Europe
away from her high school,
her boarding school, with a friend.
[pensive music playing]
[Elizabeth] I threw everything out.
I was using drugs extensively.
A lot of LSD
and I was doing a lot of heroin.
-Doing what?
-Heroin.
That was the wake-up call for the Haysoms.
They were worried
about their youngest daughter.
And then her parents are bringing her home
to Lynchburg, and it's like a 180.
Now, they're giving her
all of their attention.
And they have a lot of say
about what classes she's gonna take,
and where she's gonna go to school,
and what she's gonna do with her life,
and there's a lot of expectation
and a lot of pressure.
[Jeff] Derek was the firm one
and put his foot down.
He put his foot down.
He said, "This is what
Elizabeth's gonna do, and that's it."
[Phyllis]
They tried to control her friends,
her goings about, her schooling.
They wanted her
to be obedient to their desires.
I began to feel
overwhelmed, um,
smothered, perhaps, by
by their affection for me.
When I was at UVA, my mother would turn up
at odd hours of the day and night
in my dorm room
to check on me.
Now, you talked about your mother
smothering you with affection,
not allowing you any privacy,
coming to the University of Virginia
at times you didn't want her to.
Let's take you back then.
In the pre-sentence report,
you make some statement
that you had a full-blown
sexual relationship
with your mother at one point,
weren't you?
[music concludes]
[Updike] Could you answer that, please?
Elizabeth had no clue what to say
when Jim Updike brought this up.
I think she had to stop and think
about what she was gonna say next.
And I think whatever she said next
was gonna have a profound effect
on what came out of this hearing.
[Elizabeth] Mr. Updike,
this isn't an issue
that I wanted to bring up.
[Updike] I don't want it
to bring it up either, ma'am.
Well, you Sir, it's not something
I want to discuss.
I don't think it's relevant.
-Um, my mother isn't here.
-[Updike] Exactly.
[Elizabeth] And it's not something
I want to discuss in public with people.
-[Updike] But, Ms. Hay
-This is a very private thing.
[ominous music playing]
[Jens, in German]
Elizabeth had told me
of all these traumatic things
that had happened to her.
In early 1985,
when her parents were away,
she invited me
and we drove to their house.
There she showed me photographs
that her mother had taken of her.
They were nude pictures.
She told me that her father knew
but did nothing to protect her.
He let her be a toy for her mother.
I believed her because
there actually seemed to be evidence.
It was the first time in my life
I'd heard something like this.
It was extremely shocking.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Amy, in English]
I could imagine him becoming so
just really worked up,
and she claimed he said,
"I could kill them."
I could imagine her going,
"Yeah, you should."
And doesn't that seem dramatic
to an 18-year-old
who has, I think, his first girlfriend?
[Updike] Your mother's been butchered.
Yes, she has, sir.
[Updike]
During previous testimony yesterday,
you called her a liar and an alcoholic.
-I did not call her an alcoholic.
-[Updike] Was she a sexual abuser?
Did she sexually abuse you?
If she didn't, for God's sake,
clear her name now.
-She did not sexually abuse me.
-[Updike] Thank you.
Elizabeth admitted
she told Jens about the abuse,
about this evil thing
her mother had done to her,
as a way to get him
on board with murdering her parents.
[Updike] You're manipulating him,
playing with him,
presenting this dilemma to him
that had only one resolution.
I am manipulating him,
yes, I admit to that.
[Updike] And the purpose
is to encourage him to free you,
so the two of you will have the freedom
and will have the wealth
to do whatever you want.
Elizabeth made things up.
It seems to me pathologically so.
She said she was
a member of the Martini ski team.
Not true.
She was supposed
to inherit a townhouse in London.
Not true.
Her parents were going to disown her
if she stayed with Jens.
I have no idea.
The people in the dorm believed Elizabeth.
She was pretty, worldly,
a great storyteller, and
at least a little bit intriguing
and kind of the star of the show.
[Elizabeth]
I'm sure you can tell from my letters
that I lived
in a world of fantasy to a large extent.
I deceived people, I lied to people,
I exaggerated,
I played roles, I acted out roles.
[Updike] So you are capable of deceiving,
-aren't you?
-Yes, sir. I am.
-[Updike] Capable of lying?
-Precisely. Yes, sir.
[Updike] Let's take you back then
to Washington D.C.
[foreboding music playing]
[Updike]
There was no plan of providing an alibi,
you're saying here today.
There was a plan afterwards, yes, sir.
-[Updike] A plan afterwards?
-Yes, sir.
Elizabeth says they decided to use
the movie tickets as the alibi
after Jens has committed the murders.
Now, if she was in Washington D.C.
and she knew Jens was in Bedford,
but didn't have any reason
to cover for him,
why would she buy him a movie ticket?
[Updike] And you stated
to the officers in London
that you and Jens Soering
had an agreement,
before he left Washington D.C.,
that you would attend movies
and purchase two tickets
in order to establish an alibi.
I don't remember. I believe I said, um
Where does it start
where I change my story?
[music concludes]
[Gardner] She confessed in London
that they conspired to murder her parents,
and that her part of the crime
was to stay in D.C.
and establish an alibi.
[officer, on tape]
Tell me the truth, Elizabeth.
You knew he was going
for a confrontation with your parents,
and your parents
were probably going to die.
And you were creating the alibi
while he was committing the crime.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Elizabeth] All right, I led him into it.
[Jeff] She went and bought
two tickets to the movie theater,
went to the movie.
Jens went to Lynchburg
to do the murders.
She came back to the hotel,
ordered dinner for two
to establish the alibi.
Then she went back to the movie theater,
met Jens, they went back to the hotel.
He went to bed,
and she cleaned up the car.
[Updike] On page 25,
you made the statement,
"Well, I arranged the alibi."
Yes, sir.
[Updike] Do you say today that
that is not true?
Yes, sir.
[Rachel] Elizabeth was caught
in that moment.
She must have bought extra movie tickets
as an alibi for Jens ahead of time.
[Updike] Why didn't you
tell Sergeant Beever
exactly what you're telling
His Honor today?
[tense music playing]
This shows how involved she was.
And it also shows
that she's not being honest.
[Updike] So when you get back
to the Washington Marriott Hotel,
you give him your coat
-so he won't be discovered, don't you?
-Yes, sir.
[Updike] And then when you get
back up to the room,
he goes to sleep
and you go back down
and mop up your parents' blood
-out of that automobile, don't you?
-Yes, I did, sir.
[Updike] But, oh,
you didn't want them murdered.
[Elizabeth] No, sir, I didn't.
My irresponsibility,
my manipulation of Jens,
yes, I'm totally guilty.
I'm totally responsible
for my parents' death.
I accept that.
But what I want you to realize
is that Jens
acted of his own free will.
He had a choice. He had a choice.
He had a four-hour drive.
No matter what I said to him,
no matter what I had written to him,
he had a choice
whether he killed my parents or not.
[dramatic music playing]
Sometimes you couldn't tell
where the lie began and the truth ended.
The reality was that one person had said,
"I want my parents dead."
The other person had said,
"Love is the ultimate weapon,"
and that two people had lost their lives
over this, quote, unquote,
"love" that had been going on.
[foreboding music playing]
[Rachel] You could feel the anger
coming from the brothers.
Nancy Haysom had two sons
before Elizabeth,
and they were the most vocal
and have been in the years since.
My parents
were brutally butchered in Virginia.
This was a premeditated murder.
The evidence has shown
that already in court.
[Rachel] Howard Haysom
was a doctor in Texas
and had really been
Elizabeth's big brother throughout this.
He was the one looking out for her
in the days and weeks after the deaths.
She has lied to me in the past and
and frankly continues to lie.
I personally am not satisfied
with the explanation,
uh, that her guilty plea provided.
I think Elizabeth was in the house
at the time of the crime.
[tense music playing]
While all of the testimony is shocking,
the biggest shock of the day
came when Haysom's brothers
took the stand.
Here, you have this family who has gone
through so much loss already,
and then their youngest sibling
is responsible.
We have an obligation to society
to show the people
what the consequences of such a crime are.
I, therefore, would want to see
the most severest penalty possible.
Of course, the most severe penalty
would be life in prison.
Judge William Sweeney recessed court
just in the last 20 minutes for today.
He'll be back in the morning
to hear closing arguments,
and then he'll impose sentence.
[tense music continues]
-[Sweeney] Mr. Updike.
-[Updike] Thank you, Your Honor.
I cannot imagine a crime more vile
than participating in the killing
of the very people that gave birth to you,
that raised you, that cared for you
when you couldn't care for yourself.
She did.
She deserves what she said she deserved.
[news reporter] Defense attorney
Drew Davis argued Haysom had changed.
She was sorry for her participation,
and she shouldn't
spend the rest of her life in jail.
I firmly believe that you
you get what you deserve.
Whether it's right or wrong,
you get what you deserve, uh, in the end.
I think that her parents
would be alive today,
except for what she did and did not do.
Ms. Haysom, I find you guilty
of two counts of being an accessory
before the fact
to first-degree murder as charged.
I sentence you to 45 years
in prison on each charge.
The sentences to run consecutively,
a total of 90 years.
[clerk] Silence in the courtroom,
everyone rise.
[foreboding music playing]
[news reporter]
The judge said it was tough sentencing
someone with an IQ
possibly higher than his own.
He called her predicament "tragic."
Regardless,
he said he couldn't buy the explanation
that Jens Soering acted alone
when he went to Bedford
to murder the couple.
[Updike] This is not the end of it.
I felt all along
that this is such a heinous offense
and of course, we have yet
to get Jens Soering back from England.
[news reporter]
In response to her attorney's question,
Haysom said she would be willing
to testify against Jens Soering
when and if he's ever
brought back to Bedford.
At this point, that's anybody's guess.
In Bedford, Danny Deal, News at 13.
[tense music playing]
[Rachel] Elizabeth was in prison,
and Jim Updike had a big problem
to bring Jens back to the US
to face charges.
We were unsuccessful,
and England has refused extradition
on the charge of capital murder.
Refused it, period.
The European Court of Justice said,
"You know, he's not going back
as long as the death penalty
is a possibility."
"So make up your mind, America.
What you want?"
That's when Jim Updike
took it off the table,
and that's when Jens Soering
was headed back to the United States
in very short order.
[tense music continues]
[news reporter] The plane touched down
at Roanoke Regional Airport,
just before 5:30 tonight.
And as the media waited from a distance,
they would get
their first view of Jens Soering.
[Courteney] His plane touching
down was on the nightly news
as he arrived back
because he had been on the run
and then had been arrested in 1986.
So by the time he's flying back
to the United States to stand trial,
it's several years since this crime.
And so people were riveted.
[news reporter] Tonight,
Soering was brought to an awaiting cell
in Bedford County.
Now that he's here,
the stage is set for a new battle,
one that will be fought
in a Bedford courtroom.
[music concludes]
[Courteney] I had done
some reporting on this case.
Jens' trial was televised internationally.
It was unheard of in Bedford County
and just a total media circus.
[dramatic music playing]
Bedford was so electric
with excitement about this trial.
Nothing had happened like this before.
This was like Hollywood.
[Courteney]
People absolutely wanted to get a look
at this former UVA student
who was accused in this gruesome crime.
[Amy] I found it really startling
to see him in person.
After all the time I'd spent
thinking about him,
asking people about him,
telling what I thought was his story.
[tense music playing]
[Sweeney]
The defense will call its witness.
Calling Jens Soering.
[Jens, in German] I was terrified.
Yeah, I was nervous.
[clerk, in English]
Do you solemnly swear
and affirm that the testimony
which you shall give will be the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth,
-so help you God?
-I do.
[Jens, in German]
It shouldn't be underestimated.
There are cameras,
the courtroom is packed.
The judge is on my left,
the jury on my right,
and in front of me, is the prosecutor,
who embodies all the power of Virginia
and who has spent the last three years
trying to get me executed.
[Updike, in English]
Your name is Jens Soering?
Yes.
Mr. Soering, speak
Get closer to the mic so we can hear you.
Yes.
-[Updike] When and where were you born?
-[Jens] In Bangkok, Thailand.
[Updike] And what year were you born?
[Updike] I'd like to call your attention
to March 30th, 1985.
On that day, did you go
to the home of Derek and Nancy Haysom
-and kill Mr. and Mrs. Haysom?
-No, I didn't.
-[music concludes]
-[indistinct chatter]
[dramatic music playing]
Out of the blue
of the Western sky, this came.
[Courteney] Here is this person
who has been on the run,
who had confessed to the crime
and who is now claiming
that he's innocent.
How did he expect this to play out?
He came into this trial looking so guilty.
But at the same time,
to make the leap from this nerdy kid
with his first girlfriend
to monstrous murderer,
it really is hard to imagine.
There's these doubts that come up.
It makes you question everything
you thought you knew about this case.
Maybe he is innocent
in the murders of the Haysoms.
[theme music playing]
[theme music concludes]