Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Documentaries, Netflix, TV And Film, True Crime, Real Life, Crime, US News
Jess Hardiman
Topics: Documentaries, Netflix, TV And Film, True Crime, Real Life, Crime, US News
A new Netflix crime documentary based on a 'bizarre’ true story is set to become our new obsession as it finally drops tomorrow.
Watch the trailer below:
The new documentary explores the wild case of the murders of Derek Haysom and his wife Nancy, who were brutally killed at their home in Bedford County, Virginia, in 1985.
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Their necks had reportedly been slashed so heavily that they were almost decapitated.
Jens Soering – the boyfriend of the couple’s daughter Elizabeth – confessed to the murders after he was arrested in London in 1986, but later pleaded not guilty during the 1990 trial, claiming he had been trying to protect his partner.
He was eventually convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
Elizabeth, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to being an accessory to the murders, and testified during Jens' trial.
However, the double murder case is still shrouded in mystery, not just due to Jens maintaining his innocence to this day, but also thanks to conflicting DNA evidence that was not available at the time of his conviction.
The story is now the subject of a brand new Netflix documentary, Till Death Do Us Part: Soeing vs. Haysom, which is released on the streamer tomorrow (Wedneday 1 November).
A synopsis says: “Did Jens Soering murder his girlfriend's parents in 1985 — or was she the killer? This docuseries digs into questions that still swirl around the case.”
The documentary even features Jens himself, now 57, who says in the trailer: “I thought I was doing the right thing, and did something very wrong.”
The trailer also features court footage of Elizabeth and Jens – aged 20 and 18, respectively, at the time of the murders.
“My parents died because Jens and I were obsessed with each other... He said that he killed my parents,” Elizabeth says in the archive clip.
While Soering tells the court that he ‘felt he didn’t have any choice’, Elizabeth adds: “Jens acted of his own free will. He had a choice.”
Over the years, the case has been covered by various journalists, podcasters and authors – all hoping to get to the bottom of what happened.
Lawyer and author Andrew Hammel, who has a book called Martyr or Murderer? Jens Soering, the Media and the Truth out on the same day as the Netflix documentary drops said the mystery was truly ‘bizarre’.
He tweeted: “My definitive account of the bizarre, fascinating case of Jens Soering will come out on November 1 (along with the #Netflix documentary about the case, Till Murder do Us Part: Soering v. Haysom) and you can pre-order it now.”
Watch Till Murder do Us Part: Soering v. Haysom on Netflix from 1 November.