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Elderly couple shot and buried by daughter and son-in-law, jury told Elderly couple shot and buried by daughter and son-in-law, jury told
(about 5 hours later)
An elderly couple were shot dead by their daughter and son-in-law, who then buried their bodies, stole from their bank account and tricked family members into believing they were still alive, a jury has heard. An elderly couple were shot dead and buried in their garden by their daughter and son-in-law, who gained £245,000 by pretending they were still alive for 15 years, a jury has heard.
Nottingham crown court was told Susan and Christopher Edwards "lied to everybody" for 15 years to cover up the killings of Patricia and William Wycherley. Debt-ridden Susan and Christopher Edwards sold the home of Patricia and William Wycherley and collected benefits and pension payments as the pair's bodies lay undiscovered from 1998 to 2013, Nottingham crown court was told.
Opening the case against the Edwards, who both deny murder, prosecutor Peter Joyce QC said William Wycherley, 85, and his 63-year-old wife were both shot twice with a revolver in the upper body over a bank holiday weekend in May 1998. A jury heard that neighbours and relatives of Mr and Mrs Wycherley, aged 85 and 63 respectively, were told after their deaths that they had gone travelling or had moved for health reasons.
Susan Edwards, 56, and her husband Christopher, 57, are than alleged to have buried the Wycherleys' bodies in a makeshift grave in the back garden of their home in Blenheim Close, Mansfield. Opening his case against the Edwards, prosecutor Peter Joyce QC said the couple, who married in 1983, had been in severe financial difficulties for much of their relationship and remained £160,000 in debt when they were arrested last October.
Addressing a jury of eight women and four men, Joyce said two joint accounts held by the Wycherleys were "cleaned out" in early May 1998, shortly after their deaths. He alleged the "reserved and reclusive" victims were murdered over a bank holiday weekend in May 1998 at their home in Mansfield.
Joyce told the jury: "A total of £40,000 or more was taken and has never been recovered. The prosecution's case is that Susan Edwards' parents, William and Patricia, were shot and killed by them over that bank holiday weekend, immediately before the bank accounts were closed and a new one opened. Joyce told the jury of eight women and four men: "Over the next 15 years, in order to continue stealing money and to cover up what they had done, these two defendants lied to family members, they lied to neighbours, they lied to doctors, they lied to financial institutions, and they created and used many false documents.
"They were shot with a .38 revolver and over that weekend, they weren't just shot, they were buried in their own back garden. Over the next 15 years, in order to continue stealing money and to cover up what they had done, these two defendants lied to family members, they lied to neighbours, they lied to doctors, they lied to financial institutions, and they created and used many false documents." "They lied to everybody. They deceived and tricked everyone into believing that Susan Edwards' parents, William and Patricia, were still alive.
Alleging that the Edwards "diverted" a total of about £245,000 into a joint account in the years after the Wycherleys were killed, Joyce added: "They lied to everybody. They deceived and tricked everyone into believing that Susan Edwards' parents, William and Patricia, were still alive.
"They could then cover up the killings and continue to fund their own lifestyle and help to solve their financial difficulties out of monies that were continuing to be paid to the Wycherleys.""They could then cover up the killings and continue to fund their own lifestyle and help to solve their financial difficulties out of monies that were continuing to be paid to the Wycherleys."
Joyce told the court the Edwards stole more than £173,000 from the Wycherleys' bank accounts, benefits and pensions. In 2005, the Edwards, who were then living in Dagenham, Essex, made a further £66,000 from selling the Wycherleys' home.
Meanwhile, they told neighbours the Wycherleys had moved to Morecambe or Blackpool and Susan Edwards wrote Christmas cards and letters to relatives telling them her parents were travelling in Ireland "because of the good air".
But the Edwards' fled to France after receiving a letter from the Centenarian Society asking to speak to William Wycherley as what would have been his 100th birthday drew near.
The parents' bodies lay buried near a fence at their property until the Edwards ran out of money, Joyce said.
Christopher Edwards' stepmother contacted the police after her son asked for money and told her he had helped his wife bury her parents 15 years earlier.
The court was told officers discovered the Wycherleys' bodies wrapped in bedding in a grave 36-40 inches deep on 10 October. Postmortem examinations showed the pair had each been shot twice in the upper body. The recovered bullets were consistent with being fired from the same .38-calibre revolver.
Police traced the Edwards in France and the couple agreed to return to the UK last October, when they were arrested.
Joyce told the jury Susan Edwards had admitted the manslaughter of her mother on the basis of provocation. After her arrest, the court heard, she told police she believed her mother had shot her father, and she had argued with her before shooting her more than once. She told police her mother had claimed during the argument to have had a sexual relationship with Christopher Edwards in the early 1990s.
But Joyce asserted that Edwards' account of killing her mother – when her husband was elsewhere – and then picking up empty bullet casings had been invented before her arrest.
In his police interviews, Christopher Edwards backed up his wife's claims, and denied travelling from London to Mansfield to help her kill her parents. He told officers he had been a member of a gun club in London, and had possessed a firearms certificate between 1979 and 1995. He also claimed to have travelled to Mansfield a week after the Wycherleys died to bury their bodies, which had been placed under a bed.
Concluding his opening remarks, Joyce told the jury: "The prosecution's case is that the story [given to police by the Edwards] had been concocted and agreed by the defendants to explain the evidence that I have told you about.
"Susan Edwards' parents, visited by their daughter and son-in-law some time during that weekend, were each shot twice whilst they were facing the person holding the gun. They were shot in the same way by the same person.
"The weapon had clearly been taken to Forest Town, Mansfield, in order to carry out the murder. It was a joint plan and they got away with it by lying and deceit for 15 years, until they ran out of money because the Centenarian Society wanted to know about the father and they had to run away."
Susan Edwards, 56, and her husband, 57, sat apart in the dock as they listened to the first day of evidence.
Susan Edwards has admitted the manslaughter of her mother but denies two counts of murder. Her husband denies two counts of murder.
In witness statements read to the jury, it was claimed that Christopher Edwards was seen digging a "large hole" beside a fence near the back door of the Mansfield property.
In a statement read out by junior crown counsel Steven Coupland, the Wycherleys' former neighbour James Hobson described how he saw the son-in-law standing in the hole after looking out a bedroom window with his wife, Karina. "It was 7am in the morning and I can recall hearing a scraping sound … he appeared to be either digging a hole or filling a hole with earth using a spade. "I recall saying to Karina in a joking way, 'He's burying them in the garden', and we both laughed at that."
In one of five other statements read to the jury, another resident said he found it odd that the Wycherleys' son-in-law would "religiously" cut the grass at their property but never carried out other repairs or improvements.
The trial continues.The trial continues.