Beyond Reason

March 31, 1990
In March 1985 retired engineer Derek Haysom and his wife Nancy were murdered in their home in rural Boonsboro, Va. Police could fathom neither motive nor suspects, hazarding that the killings were ``cult-related.'' Ultimately, suspicion fell on the couple's daughter Elizabeth, a student at the University of Virginia, and her German lover and fellow student Jens Soering. When interrogated, Elizabeth was reckoned a brilliantly devious liar; as the probe intensified, the two fled to Europe. A year later, in 1986, they were arrested in England. Elizabeth, a drug-user whose relationship with her parents had been bitter, pleaded guilty and was sentenced; Soering is still fighting extradition to the U.S. Englade ( Cellar of Horrors ) ably narrates a complex case, showing how difficult it was to defeat the wiles of a stubborn, precocious criminal partnership. Photos not seen by PW.