Christopher & Susan Edwards

May 1998, The exact series of event of the May Bank holiday weekend are not clear.

What is clear is that Patricia and William Wycherley were alive, and then had vanished.

However, the elderly couple were shot at point blank range with a .38 revolver and buried in  the back garden. Christopher & Susan Edwards would admit to burying the bodies some 15-years later at their trial at Nottingham Crown Court.

The couple travelled from their home in Dagenham, East London, at least every three weeks to check on the house in Blenheim Close, Forest Town. Neighbours would later report to seeing them cutting the grass, but thought they were simply helping out the elderly couple.

over the next 15-years the couple lied to neighbours about their parents being on holiday, and told others they had retired and sold their house.
They cancelled hospital appointments and sent letters to the Department for Work and Pensions to ensure they continued to receive the Wycherleys' pensions.

2005, a driver lost control of his car, veered off the road, and crashed the car through the garden fence of the Wycherleys' home in Blenheim Close, Forest Town, Mansfield.

Fearing that the bodies, and their crimes may be discovered, the Edwards quickly sold the house, forging the Wycherleys' signatures.

September 2012, the DWP wrote to Mr Wycherley requesting a face-to-face interview as he was approaching his 100th birthday. The Edwards', who had been receiving all their post, panicked, and fled to France.

The couple had cleared all accounts belonging to the Wycherleys' to the tune of over £250,000. But had spent most of it on Hollywood memorabilia. They were in France with no money.

Christopher contacted his step-mother in the UK to ask for money, he alsao then confessed to the murders.

Christopher’s step-mother contacted the police with the information that he had given her and the police asked Susan and her husband to come in for questioning, they ninitially simply ignored the requests.

After multiple letters and emails, Christopher replied with the subject line: ‘Surrender’, and the pair returned to England to face the consequences of their actions.

11th October 2013, Police dig up the back garden in Blenheim Close, Forest Town, they discover two bodies.

30th October 2013, The couple were arrested at St Pancras station in London. In their possession, they were found to have only loose change, a change of clothes and a suitcase of Hollywood memorabilia.

June 2014, The couple both denied murder, but Susan Edwards admitted the manslaughter of her mother.

Susan Edawards claimed she had driven to her parents house, and found her mother standing in the bedroom, over the dead body of her husband, a WW2 revolver lay on the bed. Susan further claimed she removed the gun, but, her mother taunted and teased her, she says she 'lost It', and shot her mother. She drove home to Essex, and returned with her husband. He allegedly wanted to call the police, but she persuaded him not to. The plan was hatched, they then buried the couple in the back garden, and would pretend they were still alive.

June 2014, the jury at Nottingham Crown Court found the pair guilty of murder, just over 16-years after they committed the crime. 

The judge said, “I have no doubt that you were acting together, you Susan Edwards encouraging Christopher Edwards at the scene and assisting him later in concealing the bodies… You are each as responsible as the other for these crimes and I see no reason to distinguish between you on sentence.”

The Edwards were each sentenced to a minimum of 25-years behind bars.

Police believe Christopher shot both his in-laws with a World War Two .38 commando revolver.

2015, Susan Edwards lost an appeal against her sentence. Her lawyers had asserted that the minimum term was “too long”, and the fact that she was allegedly abused by her father had not been taken fully into account during the trial.

This case has been made into a film Starring Olivia Coleman - called Landscapers.