Sounak Sengupta
In a case that got global attention and law enforcement of various nations involved, the sensational story of Elizabeth Haysom and Jens Soering is unlike any other. That’s because, as explored in Netflix’s ‘Till Murder Do Us Part: Soering vs Haysom’ and ABC’s ’20/20: Would You Kill For Love?,’ they carefully conspired to murder her parents, Derek and Nancy Haysom, in Virginia on March 30, 1985. The killer couple was finally nabbed over a year later, by which point they’d escaped and traveled to various countries. It is a case that will intrigue every viewer, and rightly so. Who is Elizabeth Haysom? Let’s find out then, shall we?
Who Is Elizabeth Haysom?
Elizabeth Roxanne Haysom was born in April 1964 in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) to retired South Africa-native Canadian steel executive Derek William Reginald Haysom and his loving artist wife, Nancy Astor Langhorne “Cita” Benedict Haysom. She was the only child of this incredibly successful socialite couple, who had five other kids in between them from previous marriages – they’d married in 1960. Elizabeth was thus enrolled in a renowned boarding school in Switzerland before being admitted to Wycombe Abbey in England.
Though beautiful and intelligent, Elizabeth had a tough time fitting in. As per reports, she felt pressured by her parents’ expectations, hated the fact they actually never really showed up to support her successes or failures, and believed they liked to control every aspect of her life. Therefore, she messed up her grades and interview for Trinity College, Cambridge, in her final year at Wycombe Abbey. And around the same time, she began dabbling in drugs before suddenly packing up her bags and leaving to travel through Europe alongside a friend. It thus comes as no surprise that her return was followed by her parents moving her into their Virginia home, which they’d settled down in after Derek’s retirement.
Elizabeth subsequently got admission to the University of Virginia as an Echols Scholar. It was there, on orientation day, August 25, 1984, that she met Jens Soering, a baby-faced Thailand-born German who was the son of a West German diplomat. They hit it off, but her parents approved of their relationship. Nevertheless, when they were home during term breaks, they didn’t hesitate to write long, passionate letters to each other, underlying their shared hatred for their parents.
On March 29, 1985, Elizabeth and Jens rented a gray Chevette and drove to Washington, DC, where they stayed at the Georgetown Marriott. They then claimed to have gone to the movies, roamed around the city, and visited several restaurants over the weekend, before returning to Charlottesville together. On April 3, 1985, Elizabeth was notified by the police that her parents had been brutally murdered at their home in Virginia. The couple even attended the funeral together.
Initially, the investigators didn’t even think of this couple as suspects. But owing to some discrepancies as well as Jens’ hesitation to speak with them, they soon started to suspect them. Feeling the heat, the couple fled the country in October, going from Paris to Luxembourg under disguise and pretenses. They then landed in Yugoslavia, from where they traveled to Italy and Austria. They also planned to go to Thailand to obtain Jens’ birth certificate, get married, and jointly apply for full citizenship. They rented a car, intending to drive to Thailand, but were stopped at the Bulgarian border.
The pair also met with an accident and had to appear in the local traffic court. After that, Elizabeth and Jens flew to Thailand, made false documents, and traveled to Singapore and Moscow before finally coming to England. The couple stayed under aliases there and conned financial institutions and stores in London until they got caught in April 1986.
Elizabeth Haysom Prefers to Lead a Quiet Life Now
After London police arrested Elizabeth and Jens, American authorities visited them in May 1986 regarding the murder of the Haysoms. Jens confessed to the crime and was indicted by a grand jury on murder charges in June 1986. On the other hand, Elizabeth wrote to Jens in October 1986 to break up with him and reveal she intended to plead guilty. In May 1987, she voluntarily returned to Virginia, following which she blamed the murder of her parents mainly on Jens.
In August 1987, Elizabeth pleaded guilty to being an accessory to the murders before the fact and even testified at Jens’ trial. She made clear that although she was involved in manipulating her partner by indicating she wanted her parents dead, he acted alone on the night of March 30, 1985. There were even claims she had sexual relations with her own mother Nancy, which Derek never once tried to stop, but whether it was outright abuse has never been substantiated.
Elizabeth was thus sentenced to 90 years in prison – two consecutive terms of 45 years for each murder. She was hence incarcerated at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in Troy, Virginia. According to official court as well as state department of corrections records, she first became eligible for parole in 1995 but was denied. However, her sentence did come with mandatory release, meaning she would’ve been discharged in 2032 after serving 45 years of her term.
While serving her sentence, Elizabeth wrote many articles for several publications while remaining a model inmate in every sense of the term. She even indicated both she and Jens deserved to be right where they were due to their actions. Nevertheless, on November 25, 2019, it was announced that the former couple were to be discharged on parole and extradited to their respective home countries, a decision based not on merit but on a necessity to cut state costs.
Therefore, after serving over 30 years behind bars, Elizabeth was transferred to the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, from where She was deported to Canada in January 2020. It appears as if she has since settled there for good, resolved never to make a public appearance or give interviews ever again so as to respect her paternal half-siblings’ wishes. She got their forgiveness in return for this, as indicated in ‘Till Murder Do Us Part,’ which has also clarified a psychologist has long since cleared her for societal integration – she is no longer a danger to the world owing to her once-extreme tendencies. In other words, 59-year-old West Canada resident Elizabeth prefers to keep well away from the limelight these days.
Read More: Where is Derek and Nancy Haysom’s Killer Jens Soering Now?
