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How a Family Joke About a Teen Under the Patio Led to Serial Killer Couple's Capture · Murder Files Unsealed

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  Speaker 1: It was a morbid family jest that ultimately revealed a
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  far more disturbing truth. For many years, the West children
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  were warned, if you misbehave, you'll end up like Heather,
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  buried under the patio in the backyard, as detailed in
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  Peacock's new true crime docuseries World's Most Notorious Killers, currently
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  available for streaming. However, when law enforcement became aware of
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  this unsettling family jest and initiated an investigation, they uncovered
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  a horrifying duo of serial killers, Fred and Rosemary Rose West,
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  who preyed on unsuspecting young women and even two of
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  their own children for their own perverse gratification. Residing on
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  Cromwell Street in Gloucester, England, the couple transformed a basement
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  play room into a gruesome torture chamber where victims were
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  subjected to rape, assault, murder, and subsequently interred beneath the
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  cellar floor. When they exhausted the available space there, they
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  extended their activities to the garden, where additional innocent victims
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  were laid to rest. The West Children speak up. The
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  grim reality began to surface when several of the West
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  Children approached a police officer while playing outside on their street.
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  In nineteen ninety four, Jeffrey Wansell, the biographer of Fred West,
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  recounted on the program World's Most Notorious Killers, the girls
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  asked the policeman, what would you do if your father
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  was abusing one of his daughters. The officer documented this exchange,
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  leading to Fred's arrest for the alleged rape of one
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  of his daughters, although the charges ultimately fell through when
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  his daughter declined to assist the authorities. The couple's five
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  youngest children were placed into fister care. During their time
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  in care, social workers encountered what they referred to as
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  a family joke. Wance All noted the younger children remarked, well,
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  Fred used to threaten us, saying, if you're naughty, you'll
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  end up like Heather, buried under the patio in the
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  back garden. This disturbing comment prompted the Gloucester police to
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  secure a search warrant to excavate the garden in February
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  nineteen ninety four. After several days of digging, they discovered
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  not only the remains of the West's daughter, Heather, who
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  had mysteriously disappeared in nineteen eighty seven, but also the
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  bones of additional victims, Fred and Rosemary West's twelve victims.
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  Authorities ultimately discovered fragments of twelve bodies, with nine sets
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  retrieved from the West's residents on Cromwell Street and three
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  others located elsewhere. Among the remains were two of Fred's
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  children from his first marriage and one with Rose, alongside
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  his first wife Katharine Raina Costello, Ann mc fall, who
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  had cared for Fred's children from his first marriage, unfortunate
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  hitchhikers who encountered the Wests, and young women who had
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  rented rooms in their home. When the bodies were located
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  in the basement, they had all been dismembered. Jay stated
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  there were nooses present and one skull was encased in
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  thick duct tape. It was evident that these girls had
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  endured torture. Fred confessed to the murders of McFall and Costello,
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  with whom he had daughters, Anne, Marie and Charmaine, and
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  he buried their remains in a field in Much Markell, Herefordshire,
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  not far from his childhood home. Charmain's body was found
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  at a previous residence shared by Rose and Fred, as
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  reported by The Independent. While Fred initially acknowledged the murder
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  of Charmain, who vanished in nineteen seventy one at the
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  age of eight. Prosecutors contended in court that Rose, who
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  had a contentious relationship with the child, was the one
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  who actually killed her, while Fred was incarcerated for dishonesty offenses.
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  According to the publication regarding the remains found at twenty
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  five Cromwell Street, Fred West admitted that several victims, including
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  Lucy Partington, Carol Anne Cooper, Therese Siegenthaler, and the youngest,
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  fifteen year old Shirley Hubbard, were abducted either at a
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  bus stop or while they were hitchhiking. Other victims, such
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  as Juanita Mott, Linda Garff, and Shirley Robinson, who was
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  pregnant with Fred's child at the time of her demise,
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  had resided in the West's household. Additionally, Allison Chambers, a
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  friend of Robinson, vanished after she came searching for her
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  misas companion. One victim, Caroline Owens, managed to escape from
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  the residents, infamously referred to as the House of Horrors
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  by the media, providing crucial information about the operations of
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  Fred and Rose. Having previously been a lodger at their home.
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  She accepted a ride from them while hitchhiking, not anticipating
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  the danger. However, upon entering the vehicle, Rose began to
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  assault her. When Owens protested, she was struck in the
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  face and rendered unconscious. As detailed in World's Most Notorious Killers.
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  She was restrained, held captive, subjected to beatings with a
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  leather belt in her genital area, and raped by both
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  Frederick and Rosemary West. Then a pivotal event occurred that
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  altered the course of future events. She escaped Britain, recounted,
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  Owens reported the assault to law enforcement, but her allegations
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  were not given the attention needed