01x02 - Liz

[bunniefuu]

[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 m*rder 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 k*lled 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 m*rder*d 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 k*lled 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 m*rder*d 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 k*lled 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 m*rder*d 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 m*rder 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 k*ll your parents.

I never thought

that Jens would m*rder my parents.

I thought he might do a lot of things,

but k*ll 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 m*rder,

-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 k*lling 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 k*ll,

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 k*ll 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 ab*ser?

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 m*rder 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 m*rder*d.

[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 k*lled 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 m*rder.

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 k*lling

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 m*rder 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 m*rder 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 m*rder.

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 ex*cuted.

[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 k*ll 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 m*rder*r,

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]