Morbid - Episode 285: The Murders of Nancy and Derek Haysom Part 1
Episode Date: December 21, 2021Ash has got a two parter for you guys this holiday week! Let us first say though, how incredibly thankful we are that this group of lovely weirdos banded around us in SUCH a time of grief and... uncertainty. All of the kind words and messages we’ve been getting from all of you mean so much to us. Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is part one of two that we’ll be doing on the murders of Derek and Nancy Haysom. This case has tons of twists and turns and we’ll even find ourselves in another country in part two. Buckle up and hold onto your butts weirdos! https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Reason-Brilliant-Beautiful-Socialite/dp/B08XLX55YR ^ The True Story of a shocking double murder, a brilliant beautiful Virginia Socialite, and a Deadly psychotic obsession. Written by Ken Englade As always, thank you to our sponsors: Daily Harvest: Go to DAILYHARVEST.com/morbid to get up to forty dollars off your first box! SoloStove: Get an extra $10 off Holiday deals at solostove.com promo code MORBID MVMT: Be the big winner this holiday season with a gift from MVMT,  go to MVMT.COM/MORBID FirstLeaf: Join today and you’ll get 6 bottles of wine for $29.95 with free shipping. Go to TRYFirstleaf.com/morbid See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Hey weirdos, I'm Elena. Hey guys, I'm Ash. This is more Vids. Everything has been so morbid.
Yeah, sorry, we took a week-long break and it's the first week we've taken off in like
three years.
It's really funny that you called it a break.
Well, this is what's funny.
So, so we're gonna get into it real quick.
I'm gonna let y'all know what's been going on
because I think people have been like, where'd you go?
Yeah, it's good.
It's weird.
Because we started morbid as like a podcast
and like a kind of a hobby in the beginning.
And then morbid said, how about your whole life?
Yeah, how about how about I become your life this week
and we were like, I rather not.
But we were going to take the week of Christmas off.
We planned for it.
We said it, we were ready to do it.
We were like, we were still.
We were thinking maybe we'll get ahead.
We're gonna really pile up on some research
and pile up on some recordings
and just make our lives easier in the new year.
Yeah, maybe even like stuff.
Bake a couple things together.
Yeah, just take a minute.
And we were planning that.
And then this week, the week before Christmas turned out to be our week off,
and I'm doing air bunnies right now, air quote, air quote, air quote.
Because what happened was this week, it started off with COVID entering my households.
And I think we talk about it all the time.
No one in this house goes anywhere.
Like at all.
And we're all luckily all vaccinated,
except for my two-year-olds who can't be vaccinated yet.
Getting to that later, don't worry about it.
But we're all vaccinated.
And that, which I'd like to say,
thank everything that we are
vaccinated because somehow it entered the house.
A couple of us have got it.
And that includes my unvaccinated two year old.
And let me tell you, not awesome.
So when we first found out that it entered the house, scary.
We immediately were scared about the little one because she's the only one not covered.
And while we waited for that, you know, everything she was acting fine, everything was going
alright.
While we waited for that, Bailey, my dog started going, she's been going downhill for a while.
And we've been kind of trying with different, I'm going to try not to cry here cuz it's been a week so hopefully I'm gonna not let you don't know
But don't look at me
I think it really hit us on Thanksgiving when she didn't get up on Thanksgiving cuz that bitch was always hungry
She was always about Thanksgiving was her super bowl like it is most of ours girl was a hungry hungry
She was on it.
And usually during Thanksgiving dinner,
Bailey would be driving us nuts around the dinner table.
She would be under the table.
She'd have her head between your legs.
She'd want to get on the chair.
She tried to get on the table.
It was just a whole thing.
I think there was a year where she tried to bite the tablecloth.
For sure.
She literally pulled it down.
She was a smart guy.
And we were just like, yeah, then we would reward that bad behavior with tons of
turkey. Because she's beautiful. Because she's beautiful. Obviously, she deserves it. And
this year, she didn't really get up from her bed during dinner. And so we were like,
that's concerning. And you know, we had another couple of bouts of tough situations with
her. She got pancrean Titus and you
know she was just acting sick a lot. We could tell she was in pain and this week
it got worse on I think it was Saturday night. Yeah. When we got home she was
crying and she just wouldn't stop crying. She was clearly in pain. We tried
everything and then Sunday was a really rough day and we ended up calling
the vet. We brought her in and they kind of advised us. She's kind of here just for
you guys at this point. And you know, we found she's in more pain than she is happy and
when she was happy, she was just lying in bed all day. So we had to make that really, really terrible decision
because we had Bailey for 12 years.
We, John and I got Bailey
before we even got engaged.
That was our engagement.
I technically, like pretty much,
that was our commitment before.
I remember Bailey was your promissory.
She was.
I remember the day that you brought
but the home.
Yeah.
And I was like, no go.
She needs a middle name
because I was,
oh yeah. I think I was 12. Yeah, totally. Yeah, and I was like, no go. She needs a middle name, because I was, oh yeah, I think I was 12.
Yeah, totally.
Yeah, I was 12 or 13 years ago.
Yeah, I can't do math right now.
My brain is working though.
But yeah, and I remember being like,
her middle name should be Rose, Bailey Rose.
You were like, yeah, sure.
And I was like, yeah, but that's what we call
their Bailey Rose, and yeah, and first of all,
it was, I know like if people don't have pets, it might be like, I'm sure it can be like, okay, you're really good. But like anybody with pets, and maybe people who don't have pets understand it,
I don't know.
It really is a different kind of grief.
And I had pets growing up, I had dogs growing up.
And I remember being sad,
but they were my family dogs.
But then this was just me and John's dog,
and Bailey has gone through everything with us.
And she's like,
you're first to be like,
you're first to be like,
you're first to be like, you're first to be like, you're first to be like, you're first to be like, you're first to be like, sad. But they were my family dogs. But then this was just me and John's dog and they've
got and Bailey has gone through everything with us and she's like your first kid.
She sleeps in our bed. She slept in our bed from the second week we brought her home because
we were terrible at willpower. And she was she's with us 24-7 during this lockdown. It's
a lockdown quotation. It's a lockdown. Well, since we've been at home with the panorama,
it's, she's been with us even more.
She's been farting all over us.
She's been digging on everybody.
She's been just, in any time we're sad or anything going on,
she's just like the first thing to make you happy.
She's such a stuggle bug.
Yeah, and it's like, I didn't realize it was going to be
so shattering.
I mean, literally I have not felt grief like this
since I can, I think the last time I can remember
feeling grief like this was when our miscarriage
that we had.
I think that is like the only time I can remember
like actively sobbing.
And so like I was not prepared for this at all
and neither was John, like we both just completely
beside ourselves. And I keep like every night being like, oh Bailey's John, like we're both just completely beside ourselves.
And I keep like every night being like,
oh Bailey's right, oh she's not there.
And it's just like, in the morning,
like, oh we gotta bring Bailey,
oh we don't bring Bailey out.
And that's hard.
And then one of my twins really took it hard,
and that was a whole added thing,
because I'm crying, she's crying,
and I'm trying to tell her it's okay to cry
when you feel sad, like it's okay, but trying to tell her, it's okay to cry when you feel sad.
Like it's okay, but it's gonna be,
it's just not easy.
But I also just wanna mention,
because I don't know, hopefully this person is listening,
but at our vet, I guess some of the people
who work there listened to the podcast,
and after Bailey was gone,
we were kind of sitting in the room,
like just sobbing, John and I.
And this person who I didn't get their name,
because I was so out of my brain at that point,
that I didn't get to ask, but she came in,
she was a tech, I believe.
And she was so sweet, and she told me that she listened to the podcast.
And she was like, the reason I'm saying this,
because she was like, I don't want you to say that,
I'm just being like, hey, I love your podcast. But she was like, I I'm saying this because she was like I don't want you to be like hey, I love your podcast
But she was like I just want to tell you like a lot of us listen and like we feel like we know Bailey
Even more than we know her just and she was like and we've worked on her
We've been here with her. Yeah, we know how much you love her and like I just want to tell you how sorry
I am she then she gave me a hug and it was like the nicest hug
And it was just so nice and she was so sweet.
And she was like, I'm gonna take care of her
because we got Bailey cremated.
And she was like, we're gonna take good care of her.
And it like really helped.
And I just wanna tell her,
like, you're a lovely human being and I love you.
And I've told everybody about you and helped me.
She has been trying to test.
Yeah, like you helped my soul in that moment.
So thank you so much. And I hope you hear this and I'm so sorry, I didn't ask you to do life. Tana test. Yeah, like you helped my soul in that moment. So thank you so much.
And I hope you hear this and I'm so sorry I didn't ask you to.
But how dare you.
I was such a wreck.
So thoughtless.
But Selena, you were wonderful.
And they were at the, you know, our vet.
And I just appreciate all of them so much.
But that was the, that was the big thing that happened at first.
That was just like earth shattering this week.
But it was going to obviously,
we were going to maintain like working
and doing everything we had to do.
And then it comes in three.
Then my mother, who was, you know, in her seventies,
took a pretty tough fall.
She's okay, but at the time it was really scary.
So that was a big thing that happened.
That was like, Elena and I left our houses.
Yeah, like in the middle, you know, at night,
and it was really tough.
But that was the day after we had put Bailey down.
So first night was no Bailey and crying ourselves.
The sleep second night was my mom fell,
and that was really, because I love my mom so much.
And Ash loves our mom so, and that was really, because I love my mom so much, and Ash loves our mom so much.
Yeah.
It was really scary.
But she's OK.
Just so much.
Yeah, she's doing all right.
But that was big.
Yeah.
Then the next night, everything seemed OK in the day.
We were still OK.
We were still grieving, you know, Baba,
still making sure my mom's all right.
But that night, my littlest one woke up
and threw up all over John several times.
We knew it was an stomach bug
because we haven't gone anywhere.
The kids have been out of school because of the exposure.
And we took her immediately in the middle of the night
to our local urgent care.
That's just for kids.
And she tested positive for COVID.
So that was horrible. Yeah. And the next day was horrible, the next night was how she was very sick,
the first few days. Yeah. She's doing really well now. So fingers crossed it stays that way.
We're waiting to hear about our other kids who are vaccinated,
but everybody, nobody else is showing symptoms.
So whether we are positive or not being vaccinated,
I think it was so immensely, immensely helpful for this.
Oh, yeah, because I've been like smooching the baby.
Oh, yeah, we've just been like snuggling with her
and I'm like, I don't even care, just give me COVID.
Yeah, honestly, because John and I have been,
for a couple of nights, we were just sleeping next to her
on either side of her, because we're just so worried
that she wasn't going to be able to breathe.
There's something like, she got really stuck
at low point.
When she was throwing up, we didn't want it,
you know, something to happen.
So we were sleeping on either side of her,
and she's just breathing into our faces on like,
and who gives it, like I was like, I'm vaccinated or whatever, you're my child.
We've all tested negative, all of us have tested negative.
We're just waiting on the kids, but nobody's showing symptoms knock on all the wood.
So, you know, vaccinations were the key here and I'm very, very glad we got it.
Nash and I had got our booster.
So the only one who showed symptoms that got it is my littlest one.
And it's because she's not old enough to get vaccinated.
So it really shows the difference between, but it's been horrific.
It just feels like it's been like one thing after the other.
But we are counting our lucky stars that everyone is okay right now.
So we're just, we're just going with that.
It's literally been one day at a time because her symptoms have changed quite a bit.
So we're not gonna sit here and say everything's fine because I don't know.
And I feel like as she's doing that,
the life is gonna be like, you thought this?
That's the thing and like my mom's doing well, so we're just all holding on to all of this.
But this is all pod for Christmas.
Yeah, this is all to say that it has been a very bad week,
very bad end of the year.
It's been, I mean, there was one day
where I thank goodness for Aston John
because they both made me go upstairs
because I'm not real good at processing emotions
of any kind, especially
this many emotions.
And I had cried so hard over Bailey and I'm just not used to doing that.
And so I had kind of not allowed my brain to process any of this because it just in my
head, I've always been like just bust through.
And I'm sure some of you are out there too, like like that.
I'm wearing my type A.
Yeah.
Where are you Capricorn?
And you're just like, you know what, if I work? Yeah. Where are you Capricorn's?
And you're just like, you know what, if I work?
And because I was like, we're going to get morbid out this week.
We're going to do what we need to do.
Everything's going to stay the same.
And then I was like, it could most unhealthy thing that you could possibly do.
Because then my brain just started processing everything like against my will.
And I got the worst migraine I've ever gotten in my life.
I was so sick.
I had to be sent up to bed. I thought at one point, I've ever gotten my life. I was so sick. I had to be
sent up to bed. I thought at one point I was like, I probably have COVID now. Like this is the
way it is. I thought you had COVID for sure. I think it was just like emotionally. I just wasn't
ready for all of this at once. So that's another thing. You don't have to be the superhero. Like,
you should know this people listening to do the same thing I do. And I also was like, I don't want my girls
to think that they have to just shut it all down
and like plow through, because it's not healthy.
Like, you can plow through some stuff,
but some stuff you gotta just, if you're able to,
and I am very fortunate enough to be able to
was ash being there, with John being there,
to like take a minute and like self-care for a second,
it was necessary, because I swear I woke up the next morning and I self-care for a second, it was necessary.
Because I swear I woke up the next morning
and I was like, all right, let's do this.
Let's do the rest of the week, I can do this.
Sometimes you literally just need a day
of two fucking cozy up in your covers,
cry your little heart out and take care of yourself.
Eat some shitty food and just like, just have one day.
It's necessary, it's just so, if you're like that, I feel you,
I totally feel you, but you're allowed to crumble.
Oh yeah, I don't feel bad if you have to crumble.
If shit sucks right now, you can crumble for a minute.
Crumble, man.
Crumble into a ball.
And then you'll come out of it.
Put it back together.
You can do it.
So if anybody else is going through the shit,
the storm like that, that we have been going through
anything that I'm so sorry, I feel like everybody is going through the shit, the storm like that, that we have been going through anything that I'm so sorry.
I feel like everybody is going through some shit right now.
Yeah.
And it's like really rough and like all the tornadoes
that literally took away everybody's everything
right at the end of the year,
near the holidays, like, what the hell?
I just am like, what is going seriously?
But it's been really cool to see everybody pull together and fundraise and send things
for people to have a Christmas or a holiday.
But man, it's been tough on everybody.
So it certainly has.
We're right there with you.
But I'm sorry that was so long.
I think I needed to get it out too.
Well, I think people were also wondering what the fuck happened.
I wanted to let you guys know exactly what's been going on.
And also, I think it's just like we've been in this house dealing with it.
So I just needed to like vomit it out to you.
Oh, yeah.
So I bet you didn't feel good.
It really did.
And I also just thank everybody for bearing with us.
And being so sweet about Bailey and like caring and like,
I can't tell you how much it meant to me
to like read everything, because I read everything.
I normally am like very careful what I read online,
but with this one, I was like,
I know there's so many people who are gonna get this
and there's so many people who are gonna like feel this way
and so many people who like, feel like they know Bailey.
So are gonna care.
So thank you guys so much. I just love you guys
Yeah, so that is my that's our update on the end of the year, but hopefully
You know nobody claim it nobody
We are just going onward and upward. We're just you know, that's all we're taking it one day at a time
Yeah, nobody claim 2022 for the love of do not do not do not do it do not do it do not Just going onward and upward, where you're just, you know, that's all. We're taking it one day at a time. Yeah.
Nobody claimed 2022 for the love of do not do it.
Everything.
Do not do it.
Do not do it.
Do not be.
Do not.
Hey there, fellow podcast listener.
It's Elena.
And Ash.
And we're taking you back to the days
before streaming services.
Whoa.
You know, when you would come home from high school,
and it was only a few hours until that TV show,
everyone was watching was about to come on.
Well, in 1999, that show was Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
In our podcast with Wondery, the re-watcher Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
we take it back to 1999.
So get out your knee-high boots and paste that poster of Angel on the Wall.
It's time to enter the Buffyverse.
Some of you avid morbid listeners
already know what we've gotten store.
Hey, your nose.
Join us as we sway our way through Buffy's drama,
action and romance.
Episode by episodes.
Slazy, follow the rewatcher, Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
wherever you get your podcasts.
You can listen early and add free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. Darn, un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un I have decades of experience as a psychiatric nurse, FBI agent, and a criminal profiler. On Killer Psychie Daily, I'll give you my expert perspective on cases like the mysterious
New York City drugings.
Breaking down Lori Valow, a.k.a. Mommy Doom stays motives, and I'll tell you what,
I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what,
I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what,
I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, I'll tell you my expert perspective on cases like the mysterious New York City
drugings, Breaking Down Lori Valow, a.k.a. Mommy Doom stays motives, and what drove
Caitlin Armstrong to murder. I'll also bring on expert guests who add even more
insight into these criminal minds. I promise you won't regret adding these 10
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Oh, and that, and just one more question.
Wait, what?
The virtual live show?
Yeah, that.
That's why we couldn't do it.
We could not go to the location we were going to do it at and with everything going on
We were just it just couldn't happen but like we literally couldn't go to the location or be around other people
Yeah, help us like they were gonna like help us film it and everything to make it a real
Interactive experience for you guys, which it still will be still gonna happen and we'll give you guys all the details of
Everything that's gonna happen. And we'll give you guys all the details of everything
that's gonna happen with that soon,
but it's definitely still gonna happen in January.
We just had to push it out for, you know,
literally everything that I just talked about for 15 minutes.
And everybody's been awesome.
So thank you so much for understanding.
I bummed us out big time.
Yeah, we're actually really freaking stoked for that.
I mean, we're cool costumes and stuff,
but don't worry, it's common, still there.
Common, so yeah, that's, I know that was a long beginning.
We haven't been doing those lately,
but I feel like this one was necessary, I think.
So I just wanted to let you guys all know,
but love you guys and back to regularly scheduled programming.
Programming.
And we got some big stuff coming up in the next few weeks.
Like, oh, we have all our cases lined out
and we have big ones coming.
And we're back.
Back baby.
Back baby.
And through all of that, I have been reading
this really good book that I'm gonna tell you all about.
What book?
The true story of a shocking double murder,
a brilliant, beautiful Virginia socialite
in a deadly psychotic obsession by Ken Englade.
So that literally has everything that you look for
in a case to cover.
Certainly does.
Literally, like it's just like,
oh, this is a book for Ash to come.
Literally a double murder,
a brilliant, beautiful socialite in a psychotic obsession.
Yeah.
I actually found this book while I was looking
for a book on another case that I
was reading. That happens to me so much. And I still plan to finish that other case. But then I
found this book and it got delivered like super fast. So I was like, oh, okay. We're actually just
going to totally gear shift here. And we're going to go into the deaths of Nancy and Derek Haysum.
Oh, okay. All right. So let's get into that. Let's get into this.
The deaths and murder, I should say,
of both of these people.
Oh.
So Nancy Haysam was born in 1932 in Jerome Arizona.
Her father was a geologist.
His name was Platt Caracol Benedict.
Wow, that's a great name.
It truly is.
And her mother has a great name too.
Her mother was Nancy Langhorn Gibbs.
That is a great, both of those are just like,
all right, Chef's Kiss.
All right.
Well, they were like, they were well off people, you know.
Oh, they have to, like those names require that.
That's exactly how I have to help.
Yeah, that just makes sense.
Because Nancy's mother, Nancy, came from a very distinguished
Virginian family.
And actually Nancy hates them, that's little Nancy.
Her maternal grandmother was first cousins with Lady Aster.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, so when that little Nancy was born,
she became Lady Aster's goddaughter.
What?
And was actually given the middle name Aster.
Oh, cool.
Yeah, right.
Now, for those of you who don't know,
Lady Aster was actually the first woman
to become a member of Parliament in 1919.
She actually ran for her husband's
seat when he died. And she sat on Parliament until she passed away in 1945. Wow. Crazy, right?
Look at that. Yeah, just like feminism and shit. Look at that. Parliament and shit. Parliament.
Huge. No. So Nancy grew up with two brothers, one older and one younger. The family didn't
stay in Jerome very long because once Nancy's father caught wind of golden Yukon, he wanted to head that
way and Nancy's mother was not so inclined. She didn't like Jerome very much and
her hope all along was to bring their family back to her Virginian roots. So Nancy
and her brothers moved to Virginia with their mother while their father
traveled around different areas being a geologist and whatnot. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. So growing up Nancy did really really
well in school. She could play the double bass, she could play violin, piano, she
loved acting in her school's productions like she was always the lead and she
also took ballet for a while. Wow. She's a very busy girl. Yeah. She also was like
really well, excuse me, really into art as well in her later years
and she would become a really good painter.
She's very multifaceted.
The most multifaceted.
Like an actual art piece, like a full blown art piece
and not only in painting, but just artiste in every...
Well, that's, it's like triple threat.
Literally.
Like maybe more, who knows?
So when she turned 17, her dad wanted the whole family
to come join him in South Africa.
And it was there that Nancy met her first husband, Ian Hall.
Her family, for some reason, did not approve of this marriage.
And they told Nancy that if she did go through with it,
that they were not going to come to the wedding,
and they would not support it in any way.
Ooh, that's a deep line in the sand.
It is.
I guess they just didn't feel like he was good enough for her.
I couldn't find a ton of information about this dude.
They had their reasons.
But basically, he was just like immature and stuff like that.
Okay.
So the problem though is that Nancy was old enough,
she was 19 years old, she could make her own decisions.
So she went through with it and she started
her life with Ian.
Now they had two sons together, Howard and Richard, but shortly after Richard was born,
Nancy was done with Ian.
Her parents were right about him, he was immature, I guess he had like a mean streak and he
was just like irresponsible.
Okay.
So she was like, you know what, I'm done with this, I'm leaving you.
So she left him and was actually able to raise her two kids
on the money that she made investing in gold stocks
for about six years.
Wow.
So a single mom back then for like six years supporting herself.
An investing, supporting, wow.
I mean, obviously she knew like the ins and outs
of that business with her father being so invested in gold,
but still, still impressive, very impressive.
So about six years after she and Ian divorced Nancy met a man named Derek Hayesum
I don't know if you picked up on the last name there, but spoiler alert. They do get married
You know, I knew I heard that name before. Yeah, yeah, they do get married
Derek himself is born in 1913 in South Africa
He grew up on his grandfather's plantation very, very well off.
I also, as soon as you said 1930, I was like, oh my God.
And then I'm like, people were born then.
People were born then.
Like, it was born then?
Like 1913, that's insane.
No, he wasn't.
Double check that.
What?
No one was around then.
He really was.
And when he was old enough, he went to school for engineering.
Once he finished with school, he moved to England.
But when he moved, it was right around the start of World War II.
So he kind of really had no other option, but to join the Army.
Yeah, rough time to move.
Yeah, definitely rough time to move.
He served in the Middle East, and he was along for a lot of crazy missions.
He definitely saw combat while he was out there.
Oh, boy.
And also worked on the intelligence side of things.
So real dummy.
Yeah, just like, fucking idiot.
And generic, just like, yeah.
Totally.
Incredibly, incredibly smart.
Yeah.
Now, after returning home, he met this woman from New Zealand
and together they had three children.
Not a lot is really known about their marriage,
other than the fact that when they divorced,
she went back home and he got to keep the kids.
Okay. Some people wonder if like meeting Nancy is what happened and then they got divorced
or if he got divorced first it's kind of like there's no actual. Okay. Yeah. So Derek was 46 at the time
and Nancy was 27 when they met. Okay. But despite the age difference they just really hit it off.
Nancy was mature for her age and she had had just been married to an incredibly immature man. So she was like, cool.
She's like, older guy is going to swoop in. This will do. He has kids. I have kids. He knows the deal.
And he's like a stable man. He's kind. He clearly has a lot going for him. Yeah.
And that's what she wanted. Yeah, everything seems fine to me. Everything seems fine. So they got married.
And on April 15th, 1964, they had one daughter together.
Our name was Elizabeth Roxanne.
Amazing.
I love that.
Her middle name is Roxanne.
I love Roxanne.
I do too.
I feel like I don't know any Roxanne's, I don't think.
The only Roxanne I know is Brianna's mom from Teen Mom.
And I don't know her.
I was just gonna say, do you know her?
I feel like I feel like Roxanne.
But do you know her either?
No.
But I feel like every Roxanne should be awesome.
You do what?
I feel like to a degree you kind of have Roxanne vibes.
That's an amazing compliment.
I don't know if it's because your screen name was like Roxie Gale. I'll take it. But I think you could be a Roxanne vibes. That's an amazing compliment. I don't know if it's because your screen name
was like Roxie Gale.
I'll take it.
But I think you could be a Roxanne.
I love that.
I'll take it.
Yeah, I could see it.
That's my new name Roxanne.
So her middle name was Roxanne.
And she was a little Aries.
Just like, oh, just for fun facts.
Like John.
Now she was the only child that they had together
because remember, so Nancy had her two sons
and then Derek had three kids and then there's a one-star together.
So they're kind of just molding their families.
Now at the time they were living in Rhodesia, which later became Zimbabwe.
Now at the time that they were living there, the black people in the country were trying
to gain their independence, but because their prime minister at the time was a really shitty
fucking person, there was a lot of racially charged tension.
And Derek Hayson at the time was a CEO
of a government-owned mill,
and he did not agree with the oppressing
of the black people who worked for him.
He was like, fuck that, I'm not gonna do that at all.
So he treated everybody equally,
and he would give black people sometimes promotions
ahead of white people, but it was just based on who deserved it.
Yeah, of course.
Now that went directly against the orders
and wishes of Prime Minister Ian Smith,
who wanted white people to be dominant in these industries.
That's so fucked up.
And like literally wanted black people to be oppressed,
like do not give them anything,
any kind of like privileges above the white employees,
or even equal to, Or even equal, exactly.
Literally nothing.
So Derek actually got a few warnings
to just stop giving black workers equal
in fair opportunity.
And he,
which he fucking ignored,
because he was like,
no, I'm not doing that.
That's horrific.
So because he ignored these like warnings,
he got placed under house arrest.
What?
Forgiving black people fair opportunities.
Man, like planet earth.
Planet earth is the worst.
So while all this was going on, Derek realized
this was only the beginning of what was going to become
a huge problem and he didn't want his family
like around for all of this
because it was gonna get violent, it was gonna get intense.
So one day he just left for Switzerland
and his family followed him.
There you go, because he was like, I can't.
Head on out to Switzerland.
And I mean, they had like a lot of kids at the time too.
Yeah.
So they had to protect them.
So over the years, they moved around a ton.
Derek would take different jobs at manufacturing firms
and mills, and finally around the early 80s,
I believe it was 1982, he was ready to retire.
So Nancy had always hoped that they would end up
back in Virginia, kind of like her mom,
like she just loved her Virginia roots.
Yeah.
And she especially hoped that once Elizabeth
was finished with her studies at Wykel and Abby,
she would go to college at the University of Virginia.
So the now retired couple found a home in Boonsboro,
Bedford County, Virginia.
Of course.
Boonsboro, so fun to say.
And Nancy decided to name their home loose chippings.
Apparently, she always named the houses
that they lived in and the cars that they drove.
You know what, that is the thing that makes me feel like
I know this case, but I don't.
You probably do. That's the thing that, like, I was like, wait a second, I've heard that. me feel like I know this case, but I don't. You probably do.
That's the thing that, like, I was like,
wait a second, I've heard that.
So I wanted to present this in a way where, like,
because I listened to a few other things,
and I was like, I want to present this in a way
where it hasn't been presented before.
So I'm kind of like burying Malia a little bit.
I love that, burying that little thing.
Don't Google anything.
I buried that lead.
I'm burying it.
Also naming your house is awesome.
Also, I've not done it, but I want to.
I would like to name a future house of mine.
It would be really fun.
Now, she named the house Loose Chippings
because it was a novel by Thomas Gerald Wheeler,
a British novel.
Yeah.
I don't know what it was about at all.
Yeah, I'm gonna be honest.
I've never read that.
Yes, sorry, I've never heard that.
I've read a lot of books.
I've never read that.
Maybe we shouldn't, because like,
yeah, really, it doesn't really go great. All right. Yes, I've never heard of that. I've read a lot of books. I've read that. Maybe we shouldn't, because like, the spoiler alert doesn't really go great.
All right.
Now the house was beautiful.
And it was on a road called Holcombe Rock Road.
It had a tennis court, a pool, a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains,
a beautiful garden that Nancy and Derek planted and set up together.
That was like their thing.
Every house that they lived in,
they would plant and build a garden together. Shut up. And thing, every house that they lived in. They would plant and build a
garden together. Shut up. And Nancy especially like to find different rocks to build like walls
around the gardens. It was like her way of adding some art into the architecture. I love that whenever
people garden together, I feel like it's such a wholesome level of their couples. Like shut the
fuck up you guys are so cute. Like I want to garden later in life with my husband.
Like, I want us just to be like, old people gardening.
Yeah, I feel like I could get drew to garden,
I think. Oh, yeah, I feel like you could.
I want to start a garden. I want to start a Bailey garden.
Yeah. Because that was the other thing,
like, I'm not side tracking, I promise.
No, it's like, you're also allowed to. I'm grieving.
They gave us, at the vet, when they gave Bailey back to us,
they gave us a little seed packet that we can plant in her memory.
And it's like little annuals and perennials that all come up in different times.
And like, you plant them in a little plot and then you just constantly have this garden for Bailey.
It's like her garden.
And then Ash gave me a really sweet little Bailey statue to put in it.
I did.
Sorry, I just had to tell you guys.
Solar power.
It is, it's really nice. Yeah.
It looks like it's lovely. Yeah. That is lovely. I'm gonna cry.
Yeah. Right. Sorry. I lost my point. I know. Sorry.
I got it. I'm like, I'm creepy. Okay. No, I don't blame you.
So at this point in their life, Derek and Nancy's life, Elizabeth was the only child that
they had to focus on in the way of like getting her through school because all of her siblings
were wailed or then her and just like scattered across the map.
Because growing up they grew up everywhere.
So these people are like travelers, well yeah.
So there's no problem just being like see I'm going to live in another country, not at
all.
And they all had like great jobs and everything. Yeah.
Good for them.
Yeah.
Amazing family.
See the world.
So Elizabeth, like I said earlier, was supposed to be finishing her studies at Wycombe Abbey.
It's like a very prestigious private school.
Sounds it.
It's super prestigious.
Any Abbey, I feel like it's like, right?
That's how I feel.
Downtown.
Downtown.
This is not down to this Wycombe.
Okay.
So up until her last year at Wycombe, Elizabeth had been doing really, really well in school.
She had gotten almost exclusively A's. I think she had a couple of B's.
Just like her mom, she loved to act. She almost always had the leading part in the school place.
Like I said, so did Nancy. Amazing.
She could speak Latin, Greek, and French.
Oh, okay. She's skied, she played lacrosse.
I believe she was actually the captain of the lacrosse team.
She also played tennis and played multiple instruments.
She also wrote incredible essays for all her classes.
And in the book that I read, they were saying like, some of them were literally the lengths
of actual books.
Oh, okay.
And this is like high school for Americans.
Yeah. Like, it's not at is like high school for Americans. Yeah.
Like it's not at all high school.
I was gonna say.
I was gonna say.
I was gonna say.
I'm not very different, but like the equivalency.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Before you go off to like university.
Why?
So she would write like book long essays.
Damn.
She was kicking ass.
She was taking names.
It's like 50,000 words at least.
I sure.
But then all of the sudden,
it was just like everything came crashing down around her.
Because her original plan had been to major in history
and her parents had other plans.
They wanted her to follow in her father's footsteps
and go for engineering.
Which I understand because like, holy shit,
you're gonna make really great money for the rest of your life.
Of course, and it's like a really important job.
It's a really...
It's a job that's never gonna go out of...
Of course, you're always gonna need engineers,
and you can do amazing things for the world.
You can, you know, I get it.
But like, you could do the same thing as a history major.
Well, that, and it's like also like,
just let them do what they're gonna do.
Yeah, because sometimes maybe that's not...
Maybe that's not...
Maybe that's not a major in history.
Because maybe it's not important to her,
like engineering.
You know, if you don't have dry for it too,
it's always gonna be a job and you're gonna hate it.
Of course.
But I understand the instinct as a parent
to wanna be like,
but this is what I think is best for you
because I totally caught myself before in their five.
Oh, yeah.
And I've caught myself being like,
don't you wanna do this?
And then I'm like, no,
I'm not pushing her to do that.
Right, exactly. And it's hard. We have to think this? And then I'm like, no, I'm not pushing or doing that. Right, exactly.
And it's hard.
We have to think this is a very different generation as well.
I mean, there is born in 1913.
Exactly.
So like his parents set him up to do whatever the fuck
they wanted him to do, probably.
And again, it's really hard not to.
Exactly.
So they informed the school that this was their decision.
This is what was going to be happening.
And they had Elizabeth enrolled in these like, really intense math and science courses
that would look best for her applications
into engineering.
Very different from history.
Very, very different.
And that was one of the catalysts to her last year in school.
She was angry with her parents
and she let it affect her schoolwork.
She also started using drugs,
she caught off all her hair,
which like doesn't seem that intense,
but back then this is like around the late 70s,
or early 80s, excuse me.
This is around the early 80s.
And back then, like you, you did not cut your hair
into like anything other than like long,
prim and proper, especially at this school.
Like everybody looked a certain way.
Oh, okay.
And it was like punk rock and crazy to cut your hair,
like she had cut hers. Oh. So this wasn't like the the crazy 80s where you had like the big
teased out hair. No, I don't think this is like a different kind of place. Because it's like
England. I was gonna say because this is a proper. Well, but England, this is probably like the
school is probably that's what I was gonna say. England was like first on the punk scene. Oh yeah,
we'll get into that actually.
Oh nice, a little bit.
Love that.
Because yeah, you're right.
But so not at this school, not at the wildest school.
I was gonna say, but it sounds like this school
was a very different situation.
You needed to look like everybody else loved.
Yeah.
So the school called Nancy and Derek
multiple times to express concern over Elizabeth.
She's like, I said she'd always been an A student
and the sudden change in her attitude towards school had teachers and administrators just like honestly worried. Yeah, like she cut her fucking hair.
She is going awry. Yeah. It was like more the drug use. Of course. It was like more the drug use.
It was like a little bit more of a lie. Yeah, I would say so. But Elizabeth herself called her parents
to. She was like complaining about her new feelings towards school and specifically the classes
that they wanted her to take. So at one point or another, they backed off about the engineering.
They listened to her and they told her, you know what, do it makes you happy.
That's all you can do.
But unfortunately by that point, it was too late.
Elizabeth had fucked up her last year so badly that she was going to have to stay another
year to redo all her senior classes if she even wanted to get into college.
She had like flunked interviews that she was going to do for other universities.
And she's seeing all her friends who she's been with for years and years.
I'm just cool.
Yes, they've all been on the same track, I'm sure.
All of them have been on the same track.
And now she's seeing them graduate and go off into the real world.
And she knows that she's going to be stuck behind.
And that's hard, which is making her feel angrier, feel isolated, isolated, feel like she didn't do enough. Like she's starting to stuck behind. And that's hard, which is making her feel angry or feel isolated,
isolated, feel like she didn't do enough,
like she's starting to feel like shit.
And then she meets this girl called Melinda Duncan.
Now, Melinda got Elizabeth a little bit more into drugs
because her senior year wasn't the first time
that Elizabeth had ever done drugs.
She remembered that even before she started boarding school,
she would like break into parents' liquor cabinet.
Okay.
Nancy herself was a big gin drinker,
like only drink gin,
to the point where her husband would tease her
and say that the juniper extract used to flavor her gin
was also used for a drug that caused similar aggression
to speed.
Wow.
Yeah, he was like, you should probably not drink it.
That escalated quickly.
Yeah.
And he himself liked to drink scotch instead, but Elizabeth found out that summer that she
actually liked vodka.
So that was kind of like when she started experimenting.
And then when she started going to different boarding schools, she was introduced into different
drugs.
But she'd always been able to keep it under control.
Like she'd keep her drugs in the study separate.
But that last year just took every last ambition out of her to the point where one day she arrived
at choir practice, like, fucked up, and the teacher's noticed and pulled her aside, and
they were like, we know that you're high on something.
And you're expelled.
Eek.
So, yikes.
The rest of the story is like a little bit unclear on exactly what happened there,
but Elizabeth claimed that once the school found out
that she was on drugs,
they basically told her she was done there
and that she couldn't call her parents,
which was like, that's what she said.
She said she wasn't allowed to contact her parents at all.
But I also ran as other sources that her parents were on a trip to Africa.
Well, all of this was happening. So they weren't reachable. And the still was like, you can stay here
until like your parents are done with their trip. But then you're going to be expelled as soon as we can
reach them because it's like your, your parents aren't able to be contacted. Exactly. Which, Elizabeth,
that seems a little more like normal. Yeah, Elizabeth
will find out is a little bit of a pathological liar. Yeah, I could sense that. Yeah.
Sense that coming. Yeah, it's a little bit. Now, around this whole, the same time that Elizabeth
is basically getting expelled, her friend Melinda, who got her into like some harder stuff, she found
out that she was rejected from her dream school. So one day, July 1st, 1983, the two of them just said
decided that they were leaving school
and they were gonna set out on an adventure by themselves.
Okay.
So some people over the years have also alleged
that Melinda and Elizabeth may have been more than friends.
Okay.
Like had like a romantic relationship.
Melinda was a lesbian, but Elizabeth is not.
Like she, okay, that's not what she identifies as
and she's never confirmed it.
Okay.
So they made their way to Paris and they started working
odd jobs.
They picked grapes for Mouet.
Oh wow.
Is that how you say that?
Right, is it Mouet?
Yeah, I think it is.
Mouet, Mouet, should I Google it?
Let's Google it.
Let's Google it.
Let's make sure.
Apparently it's not Mouet. It's Google it. Let's make sure. Apparently, it's not Moe.
It says, surprisingly,
Moe-let is pronounced with a hard T
and not a silent T as is typical
for most of the French language.
You should pronounce Moe-let as Moe-let
or even Moe-let.
But it's definitely not Moe.
It's a had-t.
It's a had-t Moe.
That's all we need to know is it's a had-t.
I felt like I was gonna sound like really not bougie,
saying Moet.
Oh, I thought that would be the most American thing
we could do is say Moet, but it, but there you go.
I guess it's not.
And you know what we checked.
We checked.
We checked.
They were picking grapes for Moet Champagne,
which I just thought was really cool.
Yeah, corrections in real time.
Yeah, exactly.
But everywhere they went, they were running into roadblocks
because these are two 18 year old girls
just traveling around Europe by themselves.
Who have been going through it?
Yeah, and like continue to go through it.
So things were getting hairy from time to time.
There were times where they were mugged,
times where they got bad drugs,
and ended up like really ill.
Ooh.
There were times where their only option was to stay
in a house where the men drugged them and sexually assaulted them. Oh this is so epic. This was not a good trip.
No. So that was the case when they made their way to Germany. They ended up in a house with
men just like that. It's been alleged actually that the men in the last house that they stayed in
were members of the IRA. Oh wow. Yeah. Alright. So not good. Now by this time it was October, they're in Germany
and they have nothing left from the beginning
of their trip.
Almost all of their clothes had been taken,
their bags have been taken, they were out of money,
they were emaciated.
Elizabeth herself was covered in lice from head to toe.
Wow.
This is like a nightmare.
She also had a large abrasion to her head,
which you could see because at this point,
she had a mohawk that was dyed pink.
Bucks, pretty punk rock.
That's the hero punk.
There it is.
They had decided at this point in their trip,
they needed like this had to come to an end,
or at the very least they needed to get back to Britain,
where they knew the lay of the land a little bit more.
Yeah.
So on October 25th,
they headed to the British consulate and hopes to get two train tickets back to Britain. Little did they know, though,
and this is nuts. Both of their parents had been looking for them for months. That's not the nuts part.
This is what's nuts. Elizabeth's parents were friends with a woman named Annie Massey,
who was connected to this man involved in army intelligence. So Annie suggested that if they had explained the circumstances,
he might be able to help them track down Elizabeth.
So Nancy wrote a letter to this man telling him the last she knew about Elizabeth's whereabouts.
She gave a description of her daughter and some pictures,
but she did say Elizabeth would try to hide her looks and her intelligence
and that she might look a bit different.
Oh, okay.
The word that she used to describe Elizabeth was unkempt.
So that man referred the case to this other guy that he was connected to, an army colonel who also worked for
indeligence, just like Derek Hayesam had.
This man's name was Stuart Harrington.
Wow.
Like, it just sounds so official.
Just wow. Now, he had been to the consulate long before Elizabeth
and Melinda showed up.
And he left pictures of the two of them
and just told the workers, please notify me
if any point people show up looking like this.
Okay.
So the woman working the day that Melinda and Elizabeth
came in looking for their train tickets,
recognized them immediately.
And she didn't want to alert them
because she was nervous that the second they knew
that they've been found, they'd make a break for it.
Yeah, of course.
So she made up this story and she was like,
oh, you know what, can you come back tomorrow afternoon
and we'll get your train tickets,
like everything will be A, okay.
Smah.
So they were like, okay, for sure.
And the second they got out of there,
the woman contacted Stuart Harrington,
telling him what terrible shape that they were in. And she second they got out of there, the woman contacted Stuart Harrington, telling him
what terrible shape that they were in. And she said, just be aware, you're not going to find them,
you're going to see what's left of them. Oh, yeah, that's ominous as hell.
So Melinda and Elizabeth came back that next day for their train tickets, and one way or another,
they're introduced to Stuart Harrington.
He talked to them about everything that they'd gone through
and offered up his home for them to stay in
while they were treated for multiple different things
going on with their bodies.
Because at this point, they weren't even ready
to hop back on a plane to get home.
Oh wow.
Elizabeth was covered in lice.
She was also hemorrhaging really badly.
Ooh. And they weren't really sure what was up with that until they brought her to a doctor. Elizabeth was covered in lice. She was also hemorrhaging really badly. Oh.
And they weren't really sure what was up with that
until they brought her to a doctor.
I guess it was just from a heavy period.
Oh man.
But I do wonder if it was from some kind of sexual assaults.
Because she had been sexing her assaulting.
Yeah, that's horrific.
Either way, that's horrific.
Terrific.
And she also thought at that point in time
that she may have been pregnant.
So they were like, Oh man. Not out. Luckily, she was not just because of everything that you
have. Of course. So after Harrington got broke, both girls set up, he wrote a letter to Nancy.
I just like morphed that. He wrote a, a Lanser. He wrote a letter to Nancy explaining
this whole situation. And he warned that Melinda and Elizabeth were not ready to be separated,
because their trauma throughout the trip
had bonded them to the point where they were terrified
to even be separated at all.
And he felt like if he did try to,
that they would just run away again,
and that they wouldn't be found.
Damn.
Yeah.
They had to sleep in the same room when they were at his house
and at Melinda didn't even want to go home to her family.
That's like truly fascinating, like trauma and trauma responses
and like the psychological stuff that happens
during different kinds of trauma and different levels of trauma.
Yeah.
Is really fascinating and so sad.
Because the way that like two people who are experiencing the same trauma
can bond together like that.
And unfortunately a lot of times it's not a healthy bond
because you're literally on each other for survival.
Yeah, it's a total codependence
because it's just you experience this with me.
So I need you or I don't know what to do.
Yeah, but then it's like we have to grow
and we have to get out of this.
And basically to do that, they need it to be separated.
Yeah, but it needs to be separated. Yeah.
But it needs to be in it.
So yeah.
Wow, that's so fascinating.
It's crazy.
So when the time did come to put them on a plane,
they were put on a plane together to London.
And Elizabeth's brother Julian met the two girls.
And then Derek Hayes had arrived
to bring Elizabeth back home.
Before he did that, he was able to contact Melinda's father.
And it took a couple days of convincing,
but Melinda did end up going home with her dad.
Okay.
And Elizabeth wrote to her once,
but other than that, they didn't really see each other
or hear from each other again.
Wow.
So they just went through all of this together?
Yep.
And then it was just like, okay, yep, that's it.
Wow, I wonder if that's, I wonder how that works,
if that is like healthy or if that's unhealthy
or if it's neutral, I don't really know.
I think the way that this situation in my personal opinion, and I'm not a professional by
any means, I think it was very unhealthy the way that this was handles, right?
I just, not only in the way of like them being split up and never talking to each other
again, but a lot of the sources that I looked into while like reading this case
just glossed over everything that I just went through, like Elizabeth's trip.
Yeah.
And it was just referred to as like Elizabeth's trip through Europe.
And it's like, yeah, that wasn't a trip through Europe.
It was like a march into the ends of hell.
Yeah, you're up.
You're up.
Like, it was just trauma, trauma, trauma, trauma.
Yeah. And it's interesting because it wasn't until I started reading this book Yeah, literally. Like, it was just trauma, trauma, trauma, trauma, trauma.
And it's interesting because it wasn't until I started reading this book that I got the
information of actually what happened on this trip.
Yeah, that really is the thing, like, books are where it's at.
Oh, yeah.
When it comes to these kind of stories, like the people, like the investigative journalists
and authors and historians who write these kind of books, they do the work.
Because most of the things that I read, it was like she ran away from school
and then just like traveled through England, high on drugs.
Yeah, because a lot of,
it's like a lot of articles and stuff are written
and it's like partially not the author's fault,
you know, of the article.
They're written to get somebody to read it.
Cause it's also really quick.
Word counts and stuff like that.
Digestible kind of stuff and it's like,
but they really do it at the expense of the entire story,
like the victims and the people, the criminals,
in most cases.
Absolutely.
And the thing is because of that,
I'm not really entirely sure
how Derek and Nancy felt about this whole situation.
And mostly because we only have a list of us
to tell us how they felt.
And like I said, she's kind of a pathological liar.
Not a reliable narrator.
Yeah, correct, correct.
But I would imagine it must have been pretty terrifying
for them and that they'd be worried
to leave Elizabeth out of their sight again.
I would assume.
But by the way that she described it,
they just told her that they were happy
that she got it out of her system.
Okay, but we don't know.
But again, that's one side.
Yeah.
So one way or another, Elizabeth got it
together and she applied to the University of Virginia, like Mother Nancy hoped she would.
By that time, it was summer of 1984. Elizabeth was 20 years old, so she was starting as a
freshman and she was two years older than most of the freshmen. Okay. Which like kind of sucked
for her. Yeah. Which she felt like it sucked. Yeah, that's pretty tough. Because some people might have found it
a disadvantage to start so late,
but Elizabeth was really far ahead
of a lot of these students
because of all her studies in England.
And she was actually considered an elite Eccles scholar.
And according to the University of Virginia's website,
that specific program is for students
in the College of Arts and Science and quote,
draws together a diverse community of students united by their potential for
significant intellectual engagement at University of Virginia and beyond.
Because of their deep curiosity and intrinsic motivation,
Eccles scholars enjoy flexibility in their academic requirements in order to
pursue their individual scholarly interests. Echo Scholars participate in unique communal programming
to cultivate academic, social, and cultural development.
And participation in the Echo Scholars program
forms the cornerstone of a lifetime of learning,
citizenship, leadership, and personal growth
in a rapidly changing world.
Sounds awesome.
So like, these were really like elite scholars. Elite scholars. She was going into UVA not only older than everybody, but elite scholars. She was going to be in like way different classes stuff like that. That sounds awesome. It really does. It actually reminded me of you.
Anyways, Elizabeth was now living with her parents and going to school.
Into her, it was really fucking boring
because she had just traveled three year up
and like obviously it wasn't a great trip
but she's seen a lot of shit.
She's seen a lot of shit.
Is it one of the worlds?
Might say it was exciting question mark.
Exciting like a scary way
but then sure there were bits and pieces that were.
Well, and like she had in the book they said
like she had like some actually really fond memories.
I was going to say it couldn't have been 100%
but I'm sure that much overshadowed the good,
but there had to have been some little pieces of,
wow, that's a beautiful sunset.
Yeah, and she came back with contacts,
like a book full of people that she had met along the way.
So it wasn't all terrible.
But this is very boring compared to what she has been dealing with. But things got a little spicy because she met this guy named Yens
Owing at orientation. Yens had been born in Thailand, but he was raised and grew up going to
school in America, Atlanta, to be exact. His father was actually a bureaucrat with the German
consular service. Yeah, of course. Yeah, just that.
So, like, very high up in the world of, like, politics and all these very elite people,
meeting other elite people.
It's the most wild case that I've ever read in my life.
Just breed, like, so elite, but, like, so terrible.
Yeah.
So, when high school Yens was a pretty typical kid, he worked for the school paper.
He liked to act in the school plays,
just like Nancy and Elizabeth.
A lot of plays.
A lot of thespian.
I mean, elite.
Yeah, actors.
Actors.
He was also in a band for a period of time.
I guess he had a little bit of a punk rock face.
Yeah, Yens.
And he was also highly intelligent.
He took basically only AP classes.
And when the time came for college,
he had big plans. His ultimate goal was to end up at a German university because he was German,
even though he was born in Thailand. But he was accepted to UVA as a Jefferson scholar.
Now students in that program have their entire tuition paid for and they also get spending
money for, quote, supplemental enrichment experiences.
I'm obsessed with that.
So both of them were going to this school,
like having a totally unique experience, experience.
Like, experience.
I'm like, they're so smart that it's stressing them out.
They're so smart that I have short-circuited
from over here.
Actually.
They've taken my smarts because they're just that smart.
They might have.
Yeah, it's gone.
Yeah, so they're fucking smart.
Yeah, they are.
Even though Jens was a little bit younger than Elizabeth
when they met, he was two years younger.
So when she met him, she was 20 and he was 18.
But they really hit it off.
And they started their relationship
about three months into the school year.
And over the course of the next three months,
they got even closer.
By December, Elizabeth wrote Jens a note saying,
this is like so, theater.
Oh, I hated my love for you for a long time. I hated myself for discovering vulnerability,
but as the weeks passed, I began to understand. I had always believed that I made men fall in love
with me so that I could take out all of the hatred I felt for them by humiliating them. I despised
their cheap lust and easy passions, and in the end I made them hate themselves
for loving me in the torture that I inflicted.
I would make a man humiliate himself to obtain me, and then I would give him the best fuck
he's ever likely to get, and then I would walk out.
I love you, and it may alter intensity and direction from time to time, but I will
always love you with a part of me which no one else will be able to snatch.
I literally won't comment on that.
Yeah.
I'm going to let it go.
Let it, let it, let it ride.
That's sure something.
Let it, let it, let it, let it, let it, let it, let it, let it, it's in, so.
I will love you with a part of me, which no one else will be able to snatch.
I actually wrote that down for my future vows.
I was just gonna say, is that a promise or a threat?
Is it real questions?
The entire wording of everything else.
Yes, makes me feel as though it's a threat.
It's both a promise and a threat.
It is both, but Yens was all in, baby.
Yeah, I mean, after you get that,
what are you supposed to do with that?
He himself was like, I was a hormonal 18 year old boy
who had never had sex with a girl before.
You get that letter.
And like obsessed with me.
So yeah.
Yeah.
So when Elizabeth came home for winter break,
she's telling her parents all about Yens.
And they were like, oh, okay, you really like this guy.
So once winter break was over,
I think they probably were bringing Elizabeth back to school.
And they were like, oh, like we'd love to meet Yens too.
Like let's go out to lunch.
Bring them out here. So they went out in Charlottesville where UVA is located and they tried their best
to get to know this kid. The lunch apparently did not go like everybody had hoped. Derek and Nancy were
not at all impressed by Yens. They thought that he was jumpy and shaky and nervous during lunch
and that he didn't have enough standing for their daughter. All right.
I also think they were worried
that he was probably on drugs
because he was nervous and jumpy and Shaky.
Yeah.
And after everything that they had just gone through
with Elizabeth, they were probably like,
please don't get wrapped up with this kid.
Yeah, I could see that.
Because my mom was worried that one of my boyfriend's
was on drugs once when he came to pick me up
and he had just worked two overnight shifts.
He wasn't even on drugs.
He literally wasn't on drugs.
She probably should have been way more worried about that
with my friends, but she was really worried about it.
Like, she still talks about it to this day
how worried she was, so I could like,
the fun-happen story of her.
Parents, man.
Yeah, but I mean, think of all what these people have
had.
Of course, and that's the thing.
Like, that was with no prior anything for them
to worry about me or my boyfriend's. So this situation, that was with no prior anything for them to worry about, right?
Or buy boyfriends.
So this situation, I can see why they would be a little like,
you know, just like, whoop.
Like, oh, no, get rid of that.
Like, foot on the brake.
And I think they're probably worried too.
They're like, please just like, don't mess this up.
Which is cool.
Yeah, like, stay on the straightening.
You can major in history.
You can do whatever you want.
Just think, get it together.
Yeah, just like, get it together. Just like keep it here.
But nobody was going to snatch Elizabeth's love for Yens.
No, she said.
No, I mean, I'm proud of you.
So she was pissed and she was like,
no, it's not gonna put a stop to our relationship.
I'm just gonna keep dating this guy.
But she told Yens that her parents didn't approve,
which like, that kind of sucked for Yens.
Yeah. And it made him really angry. Yeah,, that kind of sucked free ends. Yeah.
And it made them really angry.
Yeah, and maybe don't like, don't even tell them.
Yeah, I also think, oh my God, they loved you.
In my opinion, I think it was a way for Elizabeth
to be like, I'm better than you.
Like, my parents don't even approve.
Like it was a little like, but I'm giving you lucky you
that I'll stick around.
Yeah, I'm throwing you a bone here.
Yeah, I think so.
No, yeah.
So Elizabeth was still communicating with her parents
though at this point, communicating with them enough
in fact that when she couldn't get in touch with them
in late March, she called their friend Annie Massey,
who I mentioned earlier, to see if she would go check on them
because it was really unlike her parents
to not answer her calls.
OK.
And I think they had actually set up a specific time
that they were going to talk
about a housing problem that she was having at school. Okay. So when Annie got to the house on
April 3rd 1985, a few of Derek's friends were actually already there waiting. They actually had
called her too knowing that she had an extra key to the house. These women were Jane Riggs,
Marilyn Baker, and Constance Johansson, and they all
played bridge with Derek during the week. Wow. And that was their usual day to play.
And when they got there, even though both cars were in the driveway, the door was locked
and nobody was answering it. This is really bad. So when they called Annie, she was like,
hey, I'm actually already on the way because Elizabeth called me and she's worried too.
So she got there and she unlocked the door.
She peeked inside and immediately slammed the door shut after she peeked inside.
She told all three of the women not to open that door again and that she was going to call
the police.
What she saw when she opened that door was derrickase and lying in a pole of his own
blood. He was 72 years old.
72.
She didn't see Nancy, but she assumed that she was all so inside and probably in a similar condition.
And she did not want anybody to go inside and mess with anything, because she knew this home was about to become a crime.
So, like smart lady.
Annie, let's go.
Yeah, Annie for the win. So when police got there, they immediately
found Derek where Annie told them that he would be. They soon came across Nancy's
body too, laying in a pool of her own blood in the kitchen in her
nightgown. Oh, yes. She was 53 years old.
Damn. So they were sure that the couple had been dead at least a couple of days when they took
in the scene around them.
Derek's face had been slashed multiple times.
His throat had been slit.
There were cuts all over his hands, making it clear that he had put up quite a fight.
And upon closer look at some of the cuts in his face, investigators noticed a small cut
in the shape of a V on his chin, which they noted.
Huh.
An autopsy later showed that he had been stabbed over 30 times.
Jeez.
Nancy's throat had also been slit, and hers was cut so deep that she was almost
decapitated.
She had been stabbed through the heart and into the abdomen.
They were later able to determine that she had not been raped, which was good because
they could rule that out as a possible motive.
Yeah, that helps.
Also, it looked like there was no sign of forced entry.
It looks like whoever had done this actually
might have been a dinner guest earlier in the night.
Wow.
Because in the dining room, there were three chairs
pushed back from the table, some dirty dishes
and a wine glass left on the table.
And there was also a large bloody hand print on one of the chairs.
So Sheriff H.C. Wells started out as the lead investigator on the case.
And to him, it looked like this is where the night had turned sour at the dinner table.
Yeah.
He felt like somebody must have come over and had dinner with Derek and Nancy.
Something must have come up that turned into a fight.
And somehow someone overtook both of these people.
Which is a lot to say because Derek was like a very large man.
Oh really?
And like I said, he put up quite a fight.
Well, and it's odd too that they immediately thought
it was at the dinner table that I went wrong
because she was in her nightcown.
Mm-hmm. That would give me pause.
I know. At least me.
I think it was just the fact that it would give me pause.
I don't believe me.
At the crime scene that I always go to. I think it was just the fact that like all the me pause. I don't blame you. At the crime scene that I always go to.
I think it was just the fact that like all the dinner plates
were on the table.
The bloody handprints.
And they were all pushed back from the table.
Yeah.
But whoever this was just left this couple dead on the floor
of their home and disappeared into the night.
And the brutality.
The brutality.
To the face and shit.
Like that is some real anger.
Real killer. Real killer. Real killer. Real the face and shit. Like that is some real anger. Reached kill.
Reached kill.
Reached killing, personal.
And that's where we're going to rock them for part one.
I knew it.
I knew it.
I knew you were going to leave me hanging this.
But when we get to part two, we are going to look at a satanic angle of things.
Yes, we are.
We're going to be led to another country.
We're going across the globe.
We've got a couple trials to get through.
All right.
It's gonna get Craig, Craig.
This is, wow, so sad for Derek and Nancy.
I know.
And I'm obviously will post pictures of them on the Instagram.
They just look like they could be your grandparents.
Of course they do.
Like, you could just hug them.
Like, younger, they look young.
But like, my grandparents are young, so.
Yeah, so you're just like, and they're just like beautiful. Like, young, they look young, but like, my grandparents are young, so. Yeah, so you're just like,
and they're just like beautiful,
like they're beautiful couple.
Oh man, that's just really sad.
And you feel bad for all their kids.
Oh yeah, like clearly senseless.
Whatever happened here.
Clear senseless thing.
Man, I am eager to know what the hell is going on here.
Oh girl.
Cause I got thoughts.
I know I've heard of this before.
I have no idea how it pans out.
Yeah, I had heard of this one before,
but once I got into it and I'm telling you this book,
let me scroll to the top so I can read the name to you again.
The true story of a shocking double murder,
a brilliant, brilliant, beautiful Virginia socialite
and a deadly psychotic obsession written by Ken Englade
by the book.
Oh yeah, we'll post the link again like we always do
in the show notes, which is in the description of this episode,
wherever you're listening to it,
hit show more and you will find all those links.
Exactly, and I'll even post a picture of it
on the Instagram when I post the pictures.
There you go.
Make it easier.
Guys, the book has so much information.
It's incredible.
And I did find some really good articles too.
Yeah, of course.
There's plenty of good articles.
It's just books are just like,
but once this book is so meaty,
that's the thing.
I was like, yeah.
Just can't stop turning it.
There's also an on-the-case with Paulazon.
Of course, there's 10 out of 10 recs.
Always.
In fact, I upgraded my Hulu membership
so that I could watch the entire episode.
Yeah, you did.
Yeah, now I can watch any on-the-case with Paulazon.
So really Merry Christmas to myself.
I was just gonna say happy holidays.
Yeah, there you go.
So yeah, we'll pick up a part two,
and I think you guys all might shit a brick.
I'm ready for it.
I'm terrified for it.
And again, guys, thank you so much for being awesome.
Yeah, I think you.
Being patient with us this week.
So much.
We really appreciate it.
I particularly appreciate all the love about Bailey.
And yeah, so thanks for listening.
And we hope you keep listening.
And we hope you keep it weird.
But not so weird that like any of this
is applicable to your life.
Literally none of it.
And do keep it so weird
that you're spreading holiday cheer
and doing nice things for other people.
Yeah, by singing out loud for all to hear.
Yes, a buddy the elf.
What's your favorite color?
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