GUILTY UK - William, 85, & Patricia Wycherley, 63, murdered, Mansfield, May 1998

[zwiebel]

This article says the murders took place between the 1st and 5th May '98, and the burials between 2nd and 10th May '98.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...-garden-murders-edwards-admit-burying-parents

 

[Marg from Oz]

Hi ZWIEBEL,

I Knew you would be right onto this if anything developed.

Was thinking about this case last week. Interesting the guy who witnessed the signatures has not been charged. Wondering if he was the informer. JMOO

 

[Ellmau]

They have admitted two counts of 'obstructing the coroner in his duties' and 'theft of a credit balance' but deny murder. I wonder if they are going to suggest Mr and Mrs Wycherley died as a result of a murder/suicide,? Although that still doesn't explain why they would just bury them instead of reporting the deaths.

The money, perhaps. Even if daughter was the sole heir (and they could gave made wills leaving it elsewhere), they would probably have had to pay inheritance tax, and possibly also been disqualified from any benefits they may have claimed. And the pension and income support and winter fuel payments would have been coming in while the parents were believed to be alive.

 

[graceholl]

I'd like to know why the Edwards' are listed as having no fixed address. Could be innocuous, could be telling, who knows.

Thanks all for your updates, especially zwiebel :loveyou:

 

[graceholl]

Forest Town murder trial set to start in June

The trial of a woman and her husband who are charged with the murders of an elderly couple found buried in a Forest Town garden is due to start next month.

Susan Edwards (55) and her 57-year-old husband Christopher are both set to appear before Nottingham Crown Court from Wednesday 4th June, in a trial that is expected to last for four weeks.[modsnip]

http://www.chad.co.uk/news/crime/forest-town-murder-trial-set-to-start-in-june-1-6625634

 

[graceholl]

This starts tomorrow. I'll try and get Twitter updates as the trial goes along.

Mods, if you catch this, please could you move this into the trials forum?

 

[graceholl]

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 21h
I will be tweeting from the Wycherley murder trial, which begins tomorrow at Nottingham Crown Court. @ChadNews

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 4h
Wycherley trial looks set to begin after midday. #Mansfield #Murder @ChadNews

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 3h
Wycherley trial now set for 2pm start at Nottingham Crown Court. #Mansfield #Murdertrial @ChadNews

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 52m
Wycherley trial - court cleared for 'in chambers' discussion after first minute of proceedings. @ChadNews

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 32m
Wycherley trial - judge says trial will be shorter than they had anticipated @ChadNews

Source: https://twitter.com/AndyDoneJohnson/with_replies

 

[graceholl]

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 2m
Wycherley trial - jury should be sworn i today. Opening speeches from 10am tomorrow.

 

[graceholl]

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 1h
Wycherley trial - jury of eight women and four men sworn in. They will be discharged overnight.

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 52m
Wycherlay trial - court rejects manslaughter plea from Susan Edwards.

 

[graceholl]

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 22m
Wycherleys shot and killed over bank holiday weekend, court told.

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 20m
Bank accounts raided after Wycherleys were killed, court told. Edwards 'lied and lied'

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 4m
Christopher Edwards seen by neighbours digging large hole in back garden the weekend wycherleys vanished, court told.

 

[graceholl]

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 17s
Christopher Edwards told his stepmother he had helped his wife to bury her parents after they had fled to France.

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 1m
Edwards couple owed £160k at time of their arrest.

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 57s
£245k diverted from Wycherleys by Edwards couple, court told.

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 55s
Susan and Christopher Edwards fled to France after family members wanted to celebrate William Wycherley's 100th birthday, court told. so why was nothing done when this celebration obviously didn't happen?! That would have been 2 years before the discovery of the bodies IIRC.

 

[graceholl]

I can see why the court rejected the plea of manslaughter. To kill your parents for money... wow. Beyond evil, IMO.

I know that £160k (approx $270k) is a fair amount of debt, but it's not insurmountable. I know people who have had similar amounts of debt and are steadily working their way through paying it off. And they certainly are not the type to murder their own flesh and blood and bury them in their back yard to get a quick buck.

 

[graceholl]

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 25s
In 2005 car crashed through garden fence at 2 Blenheim Close where the bodies were buried. Edwards rushed straight up from London.

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 32s
Susan Edwards told her husband her parents were dead in the bedroom as they ate fish and chips downstairs, court told.

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 7m
Edwards watched Eurovision Song Contest before burying bodies, court told.

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 3m
Susan Edwards shot her mother after her mother killed her father, defence claims.

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 24s
Susan Edwards claims she was sexually abused by William Wycherley, and her mother slept with Christopher Edwards.

 

[graceholl]

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 14m
Christopher Edwards shot the wycherleys, prosecution claims. Gun dumped in a bin in Mansfield.

 

[graceholl]

We have a DM article folks:

Elderly couple 'shot dead by their daughter and son-in-law and buried in the garden tricked relatives for 15 years into believing they were still alive'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2649608/Elderly-couple-shot-dead-daughter-son-law-buried-garden-tricked-relatives-15-years-believing-alive.html

From the above link:

• A woman and her husband shot and buried her parents in their own back garden at the start of an extraordinary £245,000, 15-year deception of the victims neighbours and relatives

• William and Patricia Wycherley were each shot twice at their home before being wrapped in bedding, 'stacked' one on top of the other and buried under the lawn during the May Day bank holiday weekend in 1998.

• Debt-laden Susan Edwards, 55, and her husband Christopher, 57, then spent the next decade-and-a-half tricking 'family members, neighbours, doctors and financial institutions' into believing the Wycherleys were still alive, in order to cover up the killings and continue stealing their pension and benefit payments

• Nottingham Crown Court heard the defendants regularly travelled to the house from their London home following the murders to maintain the garden. Mr Edwards posed as their nephew, telling neighbours the Wycherleys had moved to the seaside.
  

• In a 2007 letter, Susan Edwards told a relative Christmas cards to the Wycherleys had been returned because the couple had moved to Ireland to enjoy the 'good air'. In another, she said both of her parents sent their love. They had been dead for nine years.
  

• The court heard that the defendants married in 1983 and for much of the time since had been in 'severe financial difficulties'. By 2007 they were bound by the terms of an individual voluntary arrangement, and owed £160,000 to creditors when they were eventually arrested last October.
  The court heard the couple's downfall began when they fled to France after receiving a letter from the 'authorities' requesting to interview Mr Wycherley as his 100th birthday approached.
  

• When their money ran out, Mr Edwards contacted his own elderly stepmother to ask her for money and relayed a 'carefully hatched and rehearsed story' about what happened in May 1998.
  Edwards claimed his wife had been staying with her parents when she woke up to discover her mother had shot her father.
  He said Mrs Wycherley had then boasted that she had slept with Mr Edwards, and the daughter shot her.

• Mrs Edwards told police she shot her mother after severe provocation. She said she wrote to the Department of Work and Pensions pretending to be her mother after the murders, requesting that pension money be paid in to the joint account opened following the murder. She claimed her father had abused her between the ages of seven and 11.
  

There are pictures of the accused and the deceased at the link, also.

 

[zwiebel]

Thanks for all the updates graceholl! I completely missed the start of this trial.

 

[zwiebel]

The accused. They really don't look as though their life choices have done them any favours at all.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-27701910

 

[graceholl]

Thanks for all the updates graceholl! I completely missed the start of this trial.

You're welcome!

To be honest, that Daily Mail article was as good, if not better, than the Twitter account I follow. There's not a whole lot of coverage on Twitter/news channels. Odd, I think, because it's a fairly 'interesting' case.

The accused. They really don't look as though their life choices have done them any favours at all.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-27701910

And how elderly they themselves actually look - CE especially. Hard to imagine they had not gained even a semblance of wisdom or decency in their years. I realise this crime was some time ago, but they were certainly not of the age to play the 'young and stupid' card.

 

[zwiebel]

Thought I'd link this article too, as it has a lot of quotes from the Prosecution. Peter Joyce says the couple lied and lied and lied to cover up the Wycherley's deaths in 1998, and drain all their assets:

'The Edwards...stole more than £173,000 from the Wycherleys' bank accounts, benefits and pensions after the killings.....In 2005.....made a further £66,000 from selling the Wycherleys' home..'

Police became involved through a combination of two things; The Centenarian society wanting to interview Mr Wycherley, which panicked the Edwards into fleeing to France then, once they were there, Christopher Edwards' stepmother having the good sense to contact the police when he (she says) confided in her he'd helped bury his wife's parents!

It seems this was part of his request for her to loan him some money?!.....Did he really think that would encourage her to say yes?

Prosecution said: 'Bullets recovered from both bodies were consistent with being fired from the same .38-calibre revolver' and argued that it was the same person who shot both the elderly Wycherleys, in the same way. Importantly (seems to me) they also argued the gun must have been taken to the home deliberately.....so proof of premeditation?

Christopher Edwards denied going to the house until after the couple's deaths, but did admit:

'he had been a member of a gun club based in Earls Court in London and had possessed a firearms certificate between 1979 and 1995.'

There was also an amazing statement from someone who was a neighbour at the time and saw Christopher Edwards digging a hole in the garden early in the morning (bolding is mine):

' "I can recall hearing a scraping sound......I recall saying to Karina in a joking way 'He's burying them in the garden' and we both laughed at that." '

http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2014/06/05/couple-accused-of-murdering-parents/

 

[zwiebel]

Today's proceedings should be underway now. I haven't found anything yet though.

Here's an article from yesterday. I have some problems with Susan's account in that - she managed to wrap and move two adult bodies under the bed, all alone? And as for asking her husband if he could smell anything, over fish and chips (fries).....ugh.

http://www.nottinghampost.com/Wycherley-murder-trial/story-21193378-detail/story.html