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

[zwiebel]

Here's the journalist graceholl found, tweeting live. But has only said the trial's due to start, so far.

https://mobile.twitter.com/AndyDoneJohnson

 

[graceholl]

Morning zwiebel, updates are coming through now.

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 54m
Wycherley trial - looks like the national press are bailing out. Just the Chad and the blokes off the telly here today. I wonder why?

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 28m
Wycherley trial - Edwards set up network of bank accounts following murders, jury told.

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 18m
Wycherley trial - rubble piled on top of bodies to mask smell and prevent discovery, court told.

 

[zwiebel]

Chad (thank you Chad!) is reporting the murder weapon was most likely a WW2 Colt Commando.

And that Christopher Edwards 'borrowed' £10,000 from his employers before he and Susan fled to France.

They only sold the house in 2005, where the Wycherleys were buried, because the bodies were 'nearly discovered' when a car crashed into the fence. Doesn't say how though - looking at pics of the house, the car had to have crashed into the front garden, and the Wycherleys we definitely at the back.

http://www.chad.co.uk/news/crime/wy...-likely-murder-weapon-court-is-told-1-6658878

 

[zwiebel]

This is what a .38 Colt Commando looks like. Seems like they're collectors items now.

http://www.coltautos.com/DA/Commando/commandoci_2896.htm

 

[zwiebel]

Morning zwiebel, updates are coming through now.

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 54m
Wycherley trial - looks like the national press are bailing out. Just the Chad and the blokes off the telly here today. I wonder why?

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 28m
Wycherley trial - Edwards set up network of bank accounts following murders, jury told.

Andy Done-Johnson @AndyDoneJohnson · 18m
Wycherley trial - rubble piled on top of bodies to mask smell and prevent discovery, court told.

As a guess to why national journalists might have bailed - I suppose a lot could be in France, covering the D-Day landings, but I also think people are perhaps just repelled by this case. It's so sordid and just seems like a litany of misery and ineptness.

Apart from the deaths of this poor couple of course, it's hard to even summon any anger towards the suspects, to me. They are alleged to have committed this crime for financial reasons, but if you look at the position they were in at the time of the arrest, it seems it didn't help them one iota in the end.

 

[zwiebel]

ADJ now reporting that William Wycherley, Susan's dad, was 'irrationally jealous' whpen she got married.

I'm thinking that must be the defence argument now? Can't imagine it's something prosecution would suggest.

https://mobile.twitter.com/AndyDoneJohnson/tweets

 

[zwiebel]

Susan's cousin Vivian is on the stand right now, so I guess it must be her that said about the jealousy.

So does that support Susan's allegation that her mother slept with Susan's husband, I wonder? Maybe William suspected?

Afraid I really doubt that allegation, myself.....

http://www.itv.com/news/central/update/2014-06-06/william-wycherleys-niece-takes-to-witness-stand/

 

[zwiebel]

I don't mean to be ungrateful, but I wish ADJ would tweet who is on the stand when.

 

[zwiebel]

Actually, looking at this picture from the Daily Mail, and where the garden fence was, a car crashing through it would have come REALLY close to where the bodies were buried.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rs-manslaughter-denies-murdering-parents.html

 

[zwiebel]

Duh. Now court's over for the day, I've found a Sky journalist who has been tweeting who has been giving evidence, and when.

It was the cousin who said that William Wycherley seemed irrationally jealous when his daughter got married, and mentioned the 'stack' of mail she received from, supposedly, the victims. She was only on the stand for a very short time, apparently.

Another family member, who wasn't named, told how she also received a lot of mail from the victims - both before and after they died - and how her mother was so worried that William never answered the phone, she wanted daughter's husband to go to Mansfield and check on him. Husband was working away though.

https://mobile.twitter.com/LisaSkyNews/tweets

 

[zwiebel]

At face value, it does seem dreadful that an elderly couple were allowed to just vanish, and no family member raised the alarm. But I'm getting the impression that with Susan being the only child, other family members were reluctant to go over her head, or question her too hard.

I guess they just assumed, wherever Patricia and William Wycherley were, they were being taken care of.

 

[zwiebel]

Good heavens. The Wycherleys were buried TOGETHER, in a grave 90cm X 110cm!

That is tiny!!

Hang on and I'll convert for anyone who only works in inches.

http://www.nottinghampost.com/Bodie...iam-Patricia/story-21200164-detail/story.html

 

[zwiebel]

Gruesome. Absolutely disgraceful. That's about 35in X 43in.

They must have been just crammed in, anyway possible. By their own family members!

 

[zwiebel]

I wonder if they were getting SS benefits and if so, where were they being sent.

Just had to bump Popsicle's post from last year when the bodies were discovered. Talk about being on the right track. Now we know a network of bank accounts had been set up to collect those benefits, prosecution says.

 

[zwiebel]

Prosecution called two forensic experts today who appear to have demolished the Edwards' version of events.

Pathologist Dr Stuart Hamilton explained exactly why the smell of two human bodies, left for a week, would have been 'overwhelming'. There is no way Christopher Edwards could have been unaware of it, he says.

Entomologist Dr Martin Hall (from the Natural History Museum) reinforced that by testifying he found no trace of blow flies, indicating the couple were buried immediately soon after they were killed.

Please be warned, the pathologist's evidence at the link is quite graphic and detailed, although there are no photos.
http://www.chad.co.uk/news/crime/wycherley-trial-experts-refute-edwards-version-of-events-1-6667585

 

[newone]

Prosecution called two forensic experts today who appear to have demolished the Edwards' version of events.

Pathologist Dr Stuart Hamilton explained exactly why the smell of two human bodies, left for a week, would have been 'overwhelming'. There is no way Christopher Edwards could have been unaware of it, he says.

Entomologist Dr Martin Hall (from the Natural History Museum) reinforced that by testifying he found no trace of blow flies, indicating the couple were buried immediately soon after they were killed.

Please be warned, the pathologist's evidence at the link is quite graphic and detailed, although there are no photos.
http://www.chad.co.uk/news/crime/wycherley-trial-experts-refute-edwards-version-of-events-1-6667585

Zwiebel I am a johnny come lately to this case but there are a couple of points re motive that do stick out big time.

IF the old man was 'jealous' (pretty typical of dementia and an abuser) and a control freak could be his wife would just say 'enough'..
He could have been one of those tortured souls who was so sure everyone was sleeping with everyone else (KWIM) and made everyone over whom he wanted control miserable.

...daughter outraged that mom did not protect her as a child and just lost it...(MOO)

I want to be clear I am not in any way supportive of these two ...... but I felt it needed saying

There needs to be consequences for the daughter's actions and those of the SIL and I hope the courts do the right thing and send them away for 3 hots and a cot for some time.

 

[zwiebel]

Well, from this report of proceedings, I'd say Susan definitely didn't demonstrate much affection for her mother.....



In her statement to police, Susan Edwards took full blame for preventing her husband from going to the police the court heard:

“He would have gone to the police. But I emotionally blackmailed him.”

She explained how 'they felt sick' as they dragged her mother's 'gurgling' body down the stairs, to the hole they had dug in the garden.

In his police statement, the court heard, Christopher Edwards denied he was present at the time of the killings, but did confirm 'that shooting was a hobby of his for 16 years from 1979, and he visited ranges at Kensington and Bisley in Surrey.'

He also said 'he sold them to a shop in London in September 1995 and handed in his firearms certificate to Scotland Yard.'

Neither of the couple are actually testifying in court at the moment, this is just the prosecution reading out from their statements made to the police.

http://www.chad.co.uk/news/crime/wy...s-of-william-and-patricia-wycherley-1-6665879

 

[newone]

ok.....where did she get the gun?? Did her father have a gun in the house? If in fact the mom did shoot the father where did she get the gun?

 

[zwiebel]

Good heavens. In one part of his statement, Christopher Edwards said: “Susan had cut their clothes off them and put them in duvet covers - I looked under the bed and there were these two forms underneath and that was enough for me.

And then read the bit underneath! He goes straight into disturbing detail about gurgles and blood.

Also says Mr Wycherley was 'cantankerous'.

http://www.chad.co.uk/news/crime/wycherley-trial-we-quite-literally-had-blood-on-our-hands-1-6663177

 

[zwiebel]

ok.....where did she get the gun?? Did her father have a gun in the house

No mention of that, that I could see yet. No mention if police verified the exact shop where Christopher says he sold his guns either.....