When Jens Soering became a suspect in the murder of Derek and Nancy Haysom, he and his girlfriend— Elizabeth Haysom— left the country. They were eventually arrested in England, and after hours of questioning, Soering told police he was responsible for the crime. The son of a German diplomat, he later said he was just trying to protect Elizabeth.
“He thought that he had diplomatic immunity. He would not be tried in the United States but would be sent to Germany,” says lawyer Gail Starling Marshall, who represented Soering on appeal.
She says German courts are usually lenient with young offenders – putting more emphasis on rehabilitation than punishment. He might have spent as little as a decade behind bars.
“He was overwhelmed that this glamorous woman was attracted to him," she recalls. "He also knew she would be tried in Virginia. Virginia had the death penalty, and so he thought ‘knight in shining armor! I can confess. I can be tried and give up ten years of my life, but it’s worth it for this woman I love.’”
Instead, he was tried in Virginia and sentenced to life in prison. The judge, William Sweeney, was a friend of the Haysom family. He sentenced Elizabeth to 90 years as an accessory to the crime and scolded her for lying.
“I have been on the bench for 22 years – most of the time cases do not bother me too much, but I have lost some sleep over this one," Sweeney said in court. "Many of Elizabeth’s accusations against her parents – particularly her mother – were the product of fantasy.”
In her testimony, Elizabeth said she was abused by her mom, and in searching the home, police found nude pictures of Elizabeth. Former Bedford County Detective Ricky Gardner told Radio IQ that those photos – which were sealed by the court – were not relevant to the case.
“She had acknowledged that her mother had touched her and fondled her and had tried to have a romantic relationship with her," Gardner admitted.
Asked if he did not think that significant, Gardner said, "It's bizarre, but it doesn’t link back to the murder or anything.”
Now, however, Ellzabeth's niece – Sheena Haysom – says those photos were likely taken by a relative who joined another man in the family to help Elizabeth kill her parents.
“The truth is that Elizabeth herself actually participated in the murders, and it was another family member – not Elizabeth’s mother – who sexually abused her,"
In a video posted to YouTube, Sheena Haysom claimed "the same family member also sexually abused me. This is the horrible, dark truth that everyone in my family has been fighting to keep secret since 1985.”
An FBI profiler theorized that Elizabeth was involved – a view shared by her uncle who spoke from the witness stand. He offered to explain his reasons but was never asked to elaborate.
Former Albemarle County Sheriff Chip Harding devoted many hours to reviewing the case. A veteran detective, he says prosecutors often skip over details that don’t help them to win at trial.
“You have a young man who confesses, and then you get tunnel vision and you try to corroborate the confession in a legal way of doing that to get a conviction,” he reasons.
The prosecution claimed type O blood found at the scene could not have come from the victims and must have come from Jens Soering, who does have type O blood. But as DNA science evolved, Soering says, laboratory tests pointed to another man.
“We know from the DNA test results that this person with type-O blood was a male, because it had the XY chromosome, but we know with equal certainty that this male type-O person was not me. I’m completely and 100% eliminated," he told Radio IQ.
When Sheena Haysom came forward to accuse family members of abuse, a forensic scientist from Lynchburg, James Thomas McClintock, compared her blood with that of two unidentified samples from the crime scene. He could not rule out the possibility that they came from her relatives.
“Three times more probable that an individual from her family distributing that sample versus just some random person off the street," McClintock explained.
A bloody sock print was also used to convict Soering, but that form of evidence has since been labelled junk science. That’s why Soering is asking that his original conviction be overturned. Sheena Haysom’s relatives have denied her claims, but she is asking the state to declare Soering innocent and open a new investigation into the case.
Both Elizabeth Haysom and Jens Soering were paroled in 2019. She now lives in Canada and has not spoken about the case. Soering was deported to Germany where he lives with his wife and child. He wants very much to be able to return to the United States where he grew up and hopes his young son will, someday, become an American citizen.
