This is an interview by Noreen Turyn of WSET-TV in Lynchburg, Virginia with Jens Söring on March 26, 2011. Söring came to the U.S. from Germany as a child. When a student at the University of Virginia, he fell in love with a fellow student, a beautiful but troubled girl named Elizabeth Heysom. On the morning of March 30, 1985, the bodies of Elizabeth’s parents Derek and Nancy Haysom, were found brutally slashed, stabbed, and almost decapitated in their home in Bedford County, Virginia. When police supected Elizabeth and Jens of involvement, they fled the country, spending almost a year traveling around the world until they ran out of money. Eventually, they were arrested in London on charges of check fraud. At first, Söring confessed to committing the murders, but when he learned he would not be extradited to Germany, as he had assumed, but would remain in the U.S., he recanted his story.
According to Söring, Elizabeth admitted to him that she had killed her parents and was terrified of being executed for the crime. Jens says he promised her that, if they were ever arrested, he would take responsibility for the crime, since he believed he would be extradited to Germany, where there is no death penalty. Since his recantation, Söring has insisted on his innocence; he has many supporters, and has written books about his case.
This interview took place at Buckingham Correctional Center, in Virginia. Elizabeth Haysom is currently also serving a 90-year prison sentence for two counts of accessory to murder.
