Fred and Rosemary West are an English serial killer duo who are known to have committed at least 12 murders in two decades between 1967 and 1987. All of the victims were young women, of which Fred was found to have murdered at least two on his own and the rest with his wife, Rose West. Rose married Fred when she was 18 after having an affair with him since she was 15. They lived in Gloucestershire in South West England.
In 1967, Anne McFall, the Wests’ first victim, was found dead in a field nearby. McFall was a nanny to Fred’s stepdaughter and a daughter from his previous marriage. Nearby to those remains, the body of Catherine Costello, a 26-year-old woman was also found. Rose West is known to have killed Costello’s 8-year-old daughter by herself while Fred was away in prison for tyre theft and vehicle tax disc in 1972. The child’s body was found at their previous home in 1994.
19-year-old Lynda Gough, Carol Ann Cooper, 15, Lucy Partington, 21, Therese Sigenthaler, 21, Shirley Hubbard, 15, Juanita Mott, 18, Shirley Robinson, 18, and Alison Chambers, 17, are among their other identified victims. The remains of each of these victims were found in the perpetrators’ home in the city. Fred and Rose West’s daughter, Heather, 16, was also found dead. While there weren’t any records of a missing report, the couple claimed that they filed a complaint when Heather went missing.
Fred and Rosemary West allegedly tortured, assaulted, and killed victims for sexual gratification. The victims were found to be exploited, and sexual violence was perpetrated on them. What investigators found at the Wests’ home was so horrifying that their home came to be called House of Horrors soon after.
Where are Fred and Rosemary West now?
It was their daughter Heather’s disappearance that triggered suspicions among the neighbors and school children in the area. There was a joke going around about Heather’s disappearance and how Fred and Rosemary West barely reacted to it. When authorities were made aware of this rumor that was going around, a formal investigation was initiated.
Fred West admitted to murdering his daughter, which triggered a search of the house of horrors. He was charged with 12 murders, and Rose West was charged with 10 murders. Fred West died by suicide in the remand cell even before his trial concluded. He was 53 when he died.
Rose’s trial also established that she had displayed behavior of sexual and physical misconduct based on circumstantial evidence. However, Rose denied all the charges and claimed that she was innocent. Rose West was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. She is currently serving time in the HM Prison New Hall. She continues to claim her innocence and is now 70 years old.
Fred and Rose West: Love and Murder is a true crime documentary that explores the details of the murders committed by the Wests and sheds light on the impact that their story had on the world. The documentary is streaming on Prime Video and Apple TV+.
