All language subtitles for Till.Murder.Do.Us.Part.Soering.vs.Haysom.S01E04.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH

In the first years of my sentence,

there was one person
I hated with all my being.

And that was myself.

It was pretty much
my full-time job.

I got up in the morning,

got a cup of coffee, sat down,

and devoted all my energy
to hating myself.

Because I destroyed my own life.
No one else did it.

No girlfriend, no court, no jurors,
no appeals court.

The only person
who's really to blame for all this mess...

for wrecking my life...

that's me.

And I made that mistake
so I could turn things around.

Jens Soering speaks out

and still insists he's innocent.

The Brunswick Correctional Center

is now home to Jens Soering,

a German citizen
serving two life sentences

for killing Elizabeth Haysom's parents.

They had my confession, of course.

They had a very smudged sock print

and there was type O blood.

And that was basically it.
That's not much at all.

Jens Soering insists,

as he did throughout his trial,

that it was girlfriend Elizabeth Haysom
who actually murdered her parents.

I was able to get Jens on the phone,
and once you talk to Jens

you're intrigued
because he's an intriguing character.

I think that once he got over the shock
of being in prison,

he realized that there were things
he had to do.

And he pursued every avenue, you know,
he found lawyers who would help him,

he found influential people
who would help him.

I was an investigator
almost my entire 30-year career.

The last ten years,
I oversaw forensics investigations.

When I reviewed
Jens's case and went,

"Whoa! This is nothing like
what was represented in the media."

And the more I read it,
the more angry I got.

So he's been labeled a murderer
because a jury

heard a set of
what they thought were facts,

but actually weren't accurate.

Chip is the main reason I got involved

because we spent 500 hours
investigating the case,

and on his own time...
his own time, his own money

because he became obsessed with it.
And he said, "This guy is innocent."

You know,
why do innocent men go to prison?

Why was Jens ever convicted?

Uh, because he confessed, okay?
And that's the fatal mistake.

They questioned Jens Soering today

at the Richmond police station
in Southwest London.

They accepted my confession

and filed charges straight away,
as soon as they could.

And that's when the investigation stopped.

And no one even checked

whether my confession was true.

Jens Soering would tell anyone

who would listen that he was innocent
and that he gave a false confession.

People started to take another look.
Maybe Jens Soering

really was wrongfully convicted.
Maybe he is innocent.

A well-planned interviewer
would have been in that interview

with all the crime scene exhibits.

They would have to hand,
um, other witness statements,

pieces of forensic information.

They would take breaks and they would go
and check that information.

None of that happened.

Jens, can you remember

what Mr. and Mrs. Haysom,
what they themselves were wearing?

I think Mrs. Haysom

was wearing jeans.

The crime scene photographs

very clearly described
that she was wearing

a neck-to-ankle housecoat.

The other one
that was in the same category

was the position of Mr. Haysom's body.

Jens provided a sketch,
which showed Mr. Haysom's body

lying through a doorway.

Whereas in actual fact,
he was across the doorway.

The injuries to Mr. Haysom,
his throat was cut, including his larynx,

and yet, Jens attributes
him saying certain things

after the point
at which he described doing that.

So, all of these,

you know, are information discrepancies
that need to be resolved and never were.

Soering's confession

is that he's behind Derek,

he slits Derek's throat.

Derek says something along the lines of,

"What are you doing?"
Or "What are you doing, boy?"

The detail
of how he describes what happened

doesn't seem to fit the pathology.

This is multiple slices

that have gone deep enough

to actually sever the windpipe.

So, Derek is not shouting anything at him.

So, I think they've been stabbed,
and then I think, afterwards,

their throats have been cut
as a final injury,

a final making sure they are dead.

Soering's confession, for me,

just doesn't stand up.

The next piece of evidence
that I had real problems with

was when you look
at the sock and foot impressions.

It's junk science to say,

"This fits Jens like a glove."
Well, that's saying it's his.

There's nothing that you could say
from a sock print,

except for maybe if somebody has
a size three

and somebody else has a size eight.

You can say the person with the size three
didn't make this particular print,

but that's about all you can say.

You just have some cotton making,
you know, smudges on the ground,

so you're really getting deep
into speculation.

In America, he is guilty.
He's a murderer by law.

But if he was retried,

I would bet my house
he would be found innocent

and he would no longer
be a "murderer by law."

I deeply believe this.

Jens pursued every possible legal avenue

for his release, and he never stopped.

He never stopped pushing
and trying to claim his innocence

and trying to prove his case.

Soering plans to appeal.

Soering says his lawyer

has discovered new evidence
he hopes will get him a new trial.

Jens filed three separate appeals
with the state of Virginia

and he was denied all three times.

He then took his arguments
to the federal court,

where he was also denied.

The Supreme Court failed Jens many times.

The court should have reversed
his conviction.

The whole system failed Jens.

These appeal courts are a joke, right?

Appeals and constitutional claims
can be filed, but...

the chances of success

are almost zero.

Yeah.

Then there's only one thing
you can do, fight.

Jens and Elizabeth have taken
extremely opposite approaches

to their time in prison.

She went on
to thrive as a model inmate

and has really chosen

to be almost silent about her case.

She did publish a biweekly column
in the little local newspaper

The Fluvanna Review,
called "Glimpses from Inside."

"Since my incarceration,

everything from
the fall of the Berlin Wall to 9/11,

from the development of the World Wide Web
to Mission to Mars,

wars and major political scandals,
have occurred."

"But the talk in the dining room
has remained relentlessly unchanged."

"Gossip, complaints,
and misinformation about the law."

Elizabeth, during her time in prison,

would be the first one to tell you
that she belonged there.

"Humphrey,
the seven-legged spider in my window,

affords me a glimpse of the many questions
I have never thought to ask."

"I wonder if anyone has the answers."

She had admitted

that she helped kill her parents

and that she was remorseful
and she deserved to be punished.

That means a lot, I think.
It means a whole lot.

It can set you back on a true path,
an honest path in life.

Cleanse your soul,
if that's what you believe in.

Whereas with Jens,

he did not become one of the inmates.

He distanced himself
in a way from all that.

It's interesting to see how this started

because, first of all,
he's got his innocence story

that he put forward at trial,
didn't work there.

Uh, then he built it up

and turned it into a book,
Mortal Thoughts.

And there are actually
some newspaper articles about this book.

Via computer, he describes
his version of the crime.

It's a worldwide cry for help.

His book is a tale of a great love

that was tragically exploited.

He was persistent.
He pushed himself, he sold himself.

I wrote this book because I'm innocent.

He was always on the phone

and he wrote people letters constantly.

He had one mission in that prison,
and that was to get out of it.

He sort of used his own personality,
his own charm, his upper-middle-class

and, uh... and civilized appearance.

How are you?

He has a clean prison record,

he's pleasant to hang around
and talk with,

and you can have
an intelligent conversation with him.

People like to see inmates
be rehabilitated in prison.

And there are many opportunities
to get involved with religion,

and Jens chose Christianity

and became pretty involved
in the Catholic Church.

I found God
through a type of Christian meditation

called centering prayer.

Well, I suppose the fact
that he became very religious

at one point didn't hurt.

I suppose word got out

that he had started
a meditation group in prison,

which certainly doesn't fit
the image of a cold-blooded killer.

He learned about theology,

he built a strong friendship with a deacon

in the Catholic Church in Richmond.

And once he had befriended Jens,
he came to believe that he was innocent.

You know, there's a natural tendency,

a great tendency among humans
to want to rectify injustices.

Someone very high up
in the Catholic Church in Richmond

met with Governor Tim Kaine
who is also a Catholic.

And that surely
was persuasive to some extent.

One of Governor Tim Kaine's last decisions

is one of his most controversial.

Today is Governor Tim Kaine's
last day in office

and he used the opportunity to approve
Jens Soering's transfer to Germany.

For one whole week, I really believed

I was a free man.

At last!

Freedom, if not justice.

This was his moment
to get back home, he could see it.

That's when Elizabeth breaks her silence.

She chose to give an interview
to a journalist.

She said,
"If Jens is innocent,

I would shout it from the rooftops,
but he's as guilty as I am."

And she said,
"We both deserve to be where we are."

Not him, not he deserves it.

We both deserve it.

And, uh, that was a... that was actually
a pretty stunning statement from her.

So, Jens thought he was going home.

He had packed his bags,

he was in the warden's office
at the prison and then...

I applied
for the job of Governor of Virginia.

Tonight, you have hired me.

Thank you.

Governor Bob McDonnell
takes office in 2010,

and the very first thing he does
as Governor of Virginia

is squash that transfer.

It's unbelievable.
Looking back, it's unbelievable.

She had to stop me

from getting out because then...

all of the anger of the State of Virginia

would have been focused on her,
and they would have never let her out.

There seemed to be no way out.

What could I do? There was nothing.

While Elizabeth has been relatively quiet,

she has her own strategy.

The path for her to freedom
was the parole board.

I can't tell you how many times
I went before the parole board.

Myself and another friend of Elizabeth's
engaged a forensic psychologist

and the report came back

that she would not be a threat to anyone.

That was his conclusion.

But every time she came up for parole,

her parole was denied.

After so many years,

it became very frustrating to her.

What turned the whole case
for Jens Soering was

the announcement
that there was blood samples

and crime scene evidence
that had been stored

that could be tested for DNA.

So, the Governor of Virginia ordered

that DNA testing be conducted
on all of these old cases

that had this stored DNA
in the form of swabs,

and Jens's case was one of them.

DNA was not around back
in the '90s during Jens's trial.

So, DNA testing was done
for the very first time

on some pieces of evidence

from the Haysom crime scene.

The evidence from Soering's case.

The old bloodstains on the clothing
are Soering's new source of hope.

We learn that, for the first time,

they have been tested for DNA.

What was found
in those DNA test results was incredible,

and it was really good news
for Jens Soering.

Jens Soering
is currently serving two life sentences.

Soering's lawyer said
new DNA analysis proves

crime scene blood does not match his,

which he says proves
he was not at the crime scene.

From all the tests
on crime scene evidence,

um, all were negative.

My DNA was not at the scene.

Yes.

Now, I had a new weapon.
I could start fighting again.

Investigators
in Central Virginia are putting pressure

on Governor Terry McAuliffe

to pardon
a former University of Virginia student.

Sheriff Chip Harding
teamed up with a retired investigator

from the Charlottesville Police Department
and a DNA expert.

Now, for years,
it had been assumed that the type O blood

found at the crime scene
belonged to Jens Soering.

DNA testing's now showed

that it's absolutely
not Jens Soering's blood.

They also found AB Blood,

but with a Y chromosome,
which suggested that there was

a second male bleeding at the crime scene.

That's irrefutable. The DNA is not wrong.
So, there are two strangers bleeding

in that crime scene.

I was a reporter
at the press conference

when this was announced,

and it was shocking.

I thought this makes no sense.

Why doesn't Bedford County want

to find out
who the two unidentified men are?

This was troubling to us,
the fact that there might be two murderers

on the loose in Bedford.

And Bedford County was not interested

in reopening the case
or investigating these claims.

Geez.

We wanted to cover a crime
where there were unanswered questions,

or where there was something
that was unresolved in the case.

This is from the Supreme Court,
the appeal.

There were two men named
in legal filings by Jens Soering's team

back in the '90s,

the two men, the drifters.

The drifters were actually two men
who lived in Central Virginia,

William Shifflett and Robert Albright.

And in 1985,

they were arrested for a crime
eerily similar to the Haysom murders.

Doctor Oxley.

He said the homeless man was murdered
in a similar manner to the Haysoms

and that the stab wounds are similar.

If you can believe that Elizabeth
could convince her boyfriend Jens Soering

to commit the murders of her parents

then it wouldn't be that hard
to also believe

she could convince William Shifflett
and Robert Albright

to commit the murders.

Elizabeth used hard drugs

and these guys used hard drugs,
both in the same small geographic area.

They could have known each other,

and she could have enticed them
to go with her to do it.

Both the drifters,
Robert Albright and William Shifflett,

had been sentenced to life in prison.

We were able to obtain their DNA profiles

and have them compared
to the unidentified DNA.

We were on pins and needles.

I mean,
we really thought that we might be able

to break this case open
and change everything.

I could not include Shifflett and Albright

as being one of the contributors
to any of the samples

that were collected at the crime scene.

Neither one was a match.

It wasn't the drifters.
They're not the two men.

But then how do you explain away
all this other DNA?

If you look at the evidence closely

and you look at the DNA results,

what you will see is that
all of these partial profiles,

there was never a complete profile,

are actually consistent
with slightly contaminated

partial profiles of Derek Haysom's blood.

It may be that

all of the DNA
came from the victim, Derek Haysom.

The DNA proves nothing.

It does not prove
he was at the crime scene,

it does not prove that anyone else was
at the crime scene, except the victims.

"I thought he was my soulmate."

"My life partner."

"My creative partner."

Elizabeth granted
one of her rare interviews

to The New Yorker,
and it almost seemed like

she wanted
to take the narrative away from Jens

and not let him have
all the power and all the say.

"This whole thing with Jens

feels like a public divorce."

The intense love
between Jens and Elizabeth

turned into intense animosity
as they served their sentences in prison.

"I have just one thing to say

about Lady Macbeth

because apparently there's no one
who's read the play."

"It was Lady Macbeth

who died over remorse and grief
and killed herself."

"It was Macbeth
who discovered his true nature."

It was really hard to get a sense
with Jens Soering

about what was real, and what was...

curated when it came to his life.

Whenever he had contact
with members of the press,

he would send them a very selective

and carefully curated package
of information.

He would reach out and say,
"I have evidence."

"Let me provide you with this information.
Let me send you these documents."

"Let me put you in touch
with somebody else

who can tell you
the things that I'm telling you."

And during all this time,
what people forget to do

is carefully analyze what he's saying

to see if he's not telling the truth.

Take, let's say, the bloody sock print.

He and his supporters have said
that the bloody sock print

is junk science, it's worthless

and completely unreliable.

Footprint examination
involves empirical studies and research

that has been subject to peer review

and has been published.

I myself have a PhD
in footprint examination.

So, in my opinion,
it's not junk science.

There are statistically
no significant differences

between a bare footprint
and a socked footprint.

This sock print fits almost everyone.

This sock print fits Elizabeth
just as well as my foot.

It's interchangeable.

Lengthwise,
it fits Elizabeth better than mine.

This is the reference footprint

from Elizabeth Haysom,

and we can see
that the first toe position is correct,

but the size isn't quite right.

And the heel print doesn't concur.

So, according to this,
we can rule this out.

And this is the overlay

from one
of Soering's reference footprints.

The big toe print seems to line up nicely,
as does the anterior ball of foot line,

and the other toe prints seem
to line up also.

Particularly,
we have similarities in the width

and of the...

across the ball measurement here.

It seems to all line up quite well.

The footprint shapes of the toes
were the same,

and there was a gap

between the first
and the second toe prints

in both the crime scene footprint

and Soering's reference footprints.

So, here we have some
high-level characteristics

in combination

which would suggest
that the crime scene print

and the reference prints

labeled as Soering's
belong to the same person.

This report from the forensic podiatrist

really validates
what was presented at Jens's trial.

And you pull that out and it matches
and it fits like a glove.

She has concluded

that of all the people
that had a connection to this crime scene,

Jens is the one
whose footprint matches closely.

Jens kept protesting
that he was innocent,

you know, he just never gave up.

And you start listening
to somebody like that

after decades of saying, "I'm innocent,
I'm innocent, I'm innocent."

Virginia is not a state
that often releases people.

But...

it started to become
a big political issue nationally.

I remember going up to some affair
at the German Embassy in Washington

and talking to the ambassador.

He was well aware of the case. So...

And then, we were told anyway

that when Merkel came to visit
with Obama that she raised it.

And, eventually,

the former president of Germany
agrees to fly to Virginia

and argue on his behalf
before the Virginia parole board.

Politicians have great responsibility

because they have great power.

I firmly believe
that you also have to use it

in individual cases to help.

EX-PRESIDENT WULFF
FIGHTS FOR GERMAN PRISONER

I got a letter
from Jens Soering's supporters,

informing me of his case.

I had a look at it
and had my staff prepare a dossier.

I had the impression we have to act.

We got down to a point
where it appeared that Jens

had served long enough,

it was time to get him out.

I'm very involved in politics.

If the Democrats are in power,

I've got some contacts.

And I was able to...

uh, you know, lean on some people.

I know for a fact
that John Grisham

was a generous campaign contributor
to Democrats in Virginia.

The public mood in Virginia

is gradually changing.

An incumbent Democratic governor

could contribute
to the release of Jens Soering.

We're gonna make a decision,
uh, pretty soon.

So, I would just say, stay tuned.

A jaw-dropping decision in the case
of Jens Soering and Elizabeth Haysom.

The state parole board has granted
both of them parole.

It was probably the political pressure
and all of the public attention

that helped Jens Soering win his release,

but they're not going to release him
and not Elizabeth,

so she also gets released.

She was convicted of a much lesser crime.

He was convicted of the actual murders,

and so I think they had to do that
because it would have been absurd.

I was on the phone with her.

She told me. She said.
"I wanted you to be the first to know."

It was joy.

We had prayed for that for so often.

You know,
I think Jens was kind of shocked himself.

It seemed unreal.

Now, all of a sudden,

I was paroled.

They could have done that
11 months earlier,

or ten years earlier.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

will pick the two of them up very quickly.

Nothing can overturn
the parole board's decision now.

This is final.

He was released not because
they said he was not guilty,

because he had served so much time.

We were both taken...

to the same ICE terminal...

on the same day.

We were only a few steps apart.

We couldn't see each other.

But that was...

pretty weird.

Haysom and Soering will be deported
to their respective countries

of Canada and Germany.

After an investigation,
the parole board ruled

there is no merit
to Soering's claims of innocence.

Neither of them will be allowed
in the US again.

The German Jens Soering
was imprisoned in the USA for 33 years,

convicted of murdering
his then-girlfriend's parents.

Any minute, he will be coming
from the terminal building.

I'm from the Federal Police.
Welcome to Germany!

I was welcomed
by a police commissioner.

He gave me my passport.

"Mr. Soering, you are a free man."

That was great. Yes.

I am so happy.

After 33 years, six months and 25 days,

I am finally back in Germany.

I would never have made it
without these people,

who supported me for years.

It's unbelievable.

Elizabeth's release
was met more quietly.

I think because she has been
a quieter person.

I flew up to Canada,

and we had a reunion.

Elizabeth has a good relationship

with her half-siblings
on her father's side.

They requested that she not give
any more interviews,

and she respects that request.

They had granted
the forgiveness that she had sought.

Howard has been the one that,
um, has been really not sure

about her part in the crime, and...

he's been very, um, disengaged from her.

But there was quite a group in Lynchburg

who were convinced
that Elizabeth was there,

was at the scene of the crime,

and they stuck to their guns.

I have decided
to deal with my past in a proactive way.

I'm not running away.

Jens starts out on a publicity tour.

He is giving interviews to newspapers
and television stations.

He's now almost a media star in Germany.

- Good evening, Jens Soering.
- Thanks for having me.

Good evening and welcome to our show.

A big hand for Jens Soering...

In his interviews, he is saying

Elizabeth is the real killer.

Well, a German attorney hears the things
that Jens is saying

and he reaches out
to Elizabeth and says,

you know, "Do you want me
to do something about this?"

Elizabeth said, "Yes, I would like you
to do something about this."

The night of the murder, where were you?

I didn't know anything about it.

I was in Washington D.C.,
and I was at the movies.

And I only found out later.

From her?

WAS FOUND GUILTY OF DOUBLE MURDER
IN VIRGINIA IN 1990

AND RECEIVED A LIFELONG PRISON SENTENCE

You cannot comment on this
for legal reasons?

In fact, the legal situation has changed.

It's amazing
because Elizabeth still holds

a little bit of control
over what Jens says to this day

as a free man in Germany.

You never talked to her again?

Never. I would not want to.

- Did she try to make contact?
- No.

I have nothing to say to her,
and she has nothing to say to me.

The case
has basically split into two camps,

those who believe Jens
and those who believe Elizabeth.

And, of course, each one of them is saying
the other person did it by themself,

and there's very little middle ground.

Uh, and it really comes down to

who do you believe,
who do you like better,

whose version of the story
makes more sense to you,

and not so much on actual evidence.

I think if you take a step back
and just look at the big picture,

then you can also look
at what Elizabeth and Jens

have kind of been telling us
from the beginning.

"We can either wait until we graduate

and then leave them behind,

or we can get rid of them soon."

"My God,
I've got the dinner scene planned out."

They talked about doing this together
beforehand and after hand in letters.

"I thought we did it

so that I could be free."

"I certainly don't want a letter from you,

taking it all on yourself."

"I do regret having done this very much."

These letters prove

that Elizabeth and I had something
to do with the murders.

We can agree on that.

But they reveal nothing
about who did what.

Was this in the plans?

That you and Elizabeth were going
to rent a car in Charlottesville,

go to Washington D.C.,

and then you were going to return back
to Loose Chippings?

During one of the interrogations
with investigators in London,

Jens refers to "our trip" to Bedford.

Our trip to...

Oh, my trip. Sorry, that was...

Speaking of our because, um...

And then he immediately tries to backtrack

and has some kind of crazy explanation
for why he called it "our trip."

Another crucial piece
of information is the fact

that Nancy Haysom told her son,
Howard, before her murder,

that she was expecting Jens and Elizabeth
to visit them that weekend.

I, personally, am not satisfied
with the explanation,

uh, that her guilty plea provided.

I think Elizabeth was in the house
at the time of the crime.

I think the theory that makes
the most sense when you understand

the dynamic and the relationship
between Jens and Elizabeth

is that they committed
this murder together.

You have a lot of evidence
that Jens's team likes to talk about

that suggests Elizabeth Haysom was there.
That's all true.

And then you have evidence that points
the finger at Jens Soering

that Elizabeth's team likes to talk about.
That's all true too.

So, if you look at the big picture,

maybe they're both telling the truth
that the other one was there

and they're just leaving themselves
out of it.

I think people have gotten
so caught up in believing

either Jens or Elizabeth

that they haven't considered the fact
that neither one of them is trustworthy.

- You lied, didn't you?
- That's correct, yeah.

That's correct.

That was a lie, right?

That's correct.

And they also get caught up in the fact
that somebody had to stay in D.C.

to create the alibi.

So, one of them had to be there
and one of them went to Bedford.

But we can't forget
that both Jens and Elizabeth

are really quite brilliant.

So, if they are setting out
to create the perfect alibi,

they're probably going to do
at least a reasonably good job.

You could see it going down like this.

They buy movie tickets ahead of time
for the three movies,

and they order room service
right at four o'clock.

And then they have plenty of time
to drive down to Bedford

to visit the Haysoms,
and the Haysoms are expecting them.

They were both so angry about the world,

just like a lot of teenagers are.

You know, "It's unfair."

"The world sucks."

And "My parents are the worst."

And "Let's do something."

There must have been some kind
of synergetic effect

between Jens and Elizabeth

that brought out
the worst in both of them.

They're bound forever
by this crime, and no one knows exactly

how they're bound because nobody knows,

except for the two of them,
what happened that night.

For either one of them

to change course
and to say something different,

would be to undo years

of the claims that they've made.

They're locked in this battle,

uh, probably for the rest of their lives.

"Love."

"Oh, where have you led me?"

"You are my definition

of perfection and joy."

"I love you."

"I love you.
And no matter what your judgment,

I will always love you."

"Elizabeth."

"Forever yours, Jens."