Murders of William and Patricia Wycherley
At some point over the Early May bank holiday weekend in 1998, William and Patricia Wycherley were shot and killed in their home in a suburb of Mansfield, England, by their daughter Susan and her husband, Christopher Edwards.
The Edwards then buried the bodies in the garden behind the house and went on to use the Wycherleys' identities to commit various acts of fraud intended to fund their hobby of collecting expensive Hollywood memorabilia.
At this point the Edwards were living in Lille, France, having moved there when the UK's Department for Work and Pensions requested an interview with William Wycherley to assess his needs, as he would have been approaching his 100th birthday.
[3] William and Patricia Wycherley were each shot twice in the chest using a .38 calibre revolver dating from the Second World War at some point between 1 May and 5 May 1998; they were 85 and 63 years old respectively.
[6] To keep up the pretence, the couple sent Christmas cards to relatives containing invented stories of extended holidays, forged replies to correspondence and regularly visited the house to mow the lawn, clear gutters and pay bills.
[2] On Tuesday, 5 May 1998, Susan Edwards opened a joint bank account in her name and that of her mother using forged documents, and moved her parents' savings of just over £40,000 into it.
In 2005, believing that sufficient time had passed since the killings, they sold the house in Mansfield, again using forged signatures, for just under £67,000 in an attempt to pay off their debts.
After initial inquiries lent credence to the story, police excavated the garden of the Wycherleys' former home, discovering their bodies in October 2013.
After brief email correspondence, the Edwards agreed to surrender to UK police at St Pancras railway station after returning from France on the Eurostar three weeks after the discovery of the bodies.
[2] Following a hearing in February 2014 during which they denied murder, a trial date starting 4 June was announced,[8] and the Edwards appeared at Nottingham Crown Court.
[13][14] The true crime novel A Garden of Bones: Blood Runs Thicker was published by Midlands-based journalist Andy Done-Johnson in 2020, detailing the case.
