BURIED TRUTH
Who are Susan and Christopher Edwards and how long were they jailed for killing William and Patricia Wycherley?
Find out where and when you catch the true crime documentary about the chilling murders
SUSAN and Christopher Edwards managed to avoid justice for 15 years after the husband and wife murdered her parents and buried them under a patio.
The horrific case is explored in C5 true crime documentary The Bodies Under the Patio: Murder in Suburbia.
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Who are Susan and Christopher Edwards?
Susan Edwards, with the help of her husband Christopher, murdered her parents to rinse their bank accounts of £300K, splurging thousands on celebrity autographs and other Hollywood memorabilia.
The couple managed to get away with the crime, which was committed in Forest Town, Nottingham, for 15 years, forging letters and documents to make it seem as though the Wycherleys were still alive.
But eventually their elaborate web of lies unravelled and they handed themselves in to cops in Lille after fleeing to France.
May bank holiday murders
Christopher Edwards shot Patricia and William Wycherley twice with a Second World War revolver inside the back bedroom of the victims' semi-detached home during the May bank holiday weekend of 1998.
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Each victim was shot twice in the chest between May 1 and May 5, 1998.
Under the cover of darkness, he and Susan Edwards wrapped the pensioners' bodies in a duvet and carried them downstairs and into the garden where they buried the couple.
With Patricia and William gone, the Edwards set about covering up their cold-blooded crime in a deceit which would last 15 years.
Joint bank account
On May 5, 1998, Susan Edwards opened a joint bank account under her and her deceased mother's names, transferring over £40,000 of her parents’ savings.
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They redirected all incoming funds from pensions, industrial injury payouts and loans to themselves, lavishing almost all of it on memorabilia, including numerous signed photographs of Gary Cooper.
In 2005, the couple sold the Wycherleys' house using forged signatures for less than £67,000 to alleviate their debts, despite still spending extravagantly.
Mansfield couple found guilty of murdering parents
Their shared obsession with Hollywood memorabilia led them into financial problems, marked by extravagant purchases including a £20,000 signed photograph of Frank Sinatra.
Susan Edwards even forged letters from French actor Gérard Depardieu to further their fraudulent activities.
Their crime remained hidden until 2012, when Christopher Edwards confessed to his stepmother while asking for financial help.
At that point, the Edwards were living in Lille, France, after fleeing the UK.
The Department for Work and Pensions had approached the pair as William was about to turn 100.
Later on today we are going to surrender ourselves to the UK Border Force Authorities at the Eurostar terminal at Lille Europe station
Christopher Edwards
They returned to the UK in October 2013, surrendering to the police at St. Pancras railway station, with only a euro between them.
Following their arrest, it was revealed that Christopher Edwards had buried the bodies in the back garden shortly after the murders.
He planted shrubs above ground to mask his grim deed.
Although a neighbour noticed the unusual activity, it wasn’t reported as suspicious at the time.
They later testified they'd seen him "up to his waist" digging in the garden.
Police found the Wycherley's remains in October 2013.
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Who were William and Patricia Wycherley?
William, once a British Merchant Navy serviceman, married Patricia in 1958.
At the time of their death, William was 85, and Patricia was 63.
Nobody knew that the couple was dead as they kept themselves to themselves.
William was the son of a Mansfield coal miner.
He joined the merchant navy and married Patricia in 1958 when he was 46 and she was 23.
She was pregnant with their only child.
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Where are Susan and Christopher Edwards now?
Shortly after the murder investigation was launched in 2013, and after the Edwards' fled to France, Det Ch Insp received a surprising email marked high importance — it was from Christopher Edwards.
"Later on today we are going to surrender ourselves to the UK Border Force Authorities at the Eurostar terminal at Lille Europe station," it read.
"We would prefer to do this … since my wife is already sufficiently frightened. Please could you notify the UK Border Force at Lille Europe so that they may expect us."
They were arrested and, at trial back in Britain, they admitted obstructing a coroner in the execution of his duty and pleaded guilty to theft of a credit balance from a bank account.
But they stuck to their story about the killings, denying that they'd murdered the Wycherleys.
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They were found guilty in 2014 of killing Susan Edwards' parents, with the judge calling her "an accomplished liar and a fantasist".
During the trial, the Edwards claimed that a heated argument led to the murders.
Allegedly, Patricia had provoked Susan Edwards by claiming she was unwanted as a child.
The Edwards were sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 25 years each.
How to watch The Bodies Under The Patio: Murder In Suburbia?
Channel 5’s The Body Under the Patio: Murder in Suburbia attempts to find the truth behind the deaths of William and Patricia.
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You can watch it on Channel 5 on Thursday, February 6, 2025 at 10pm.
Viewers can also catch it on Channel 5 on demand.
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