Did Elizabeth and I commit the crime together?
Toward the end of the Netflix series “Till murder do us part: Soering vs. Haysom,” the narrators make the argument that Elizabeth and I might have committed the crime together. Supposedly, we could have bought the movie tickets earlier in the afternoon, and we could have ordered the room service at 4 p.m.
This is not true!
Many police officers have investigated this case closely. All of them — without a single exception — came to the conclusion that either Elizabeth or I remained in Washington, D.C. while the other one drove to Bedford. Even police officers who think I’m guilty believe that one of us remained in Washington! No law enforcement officer endorses the Netflix theory.
I can only speculate that Netflix was so desperate to have something new to say that they were willing to finish their series with this ridiculous theory.
On October 31, 2023, the original Senior Investigator on the Haysom murder case, Chuck Reid, released his report on the case.
Reid and his publisher, Gallip Verlag & Media, have kindly granted me permission to publish the following excerpt here.
Senior Investigator Chuck Reid:
Let me say it clearly, as the original Bedford County Sheriff’s Department Senior Investigator on the Haysom case: Jens Soering and Elizabeth Haysom did not kill Derek and Nancy Haysom together. The evidence shows clearly that one of them stayed in Washington while the other one drove to Bedford.
How can I be so sure? Because of Yale Feldman.
Mr. Feldman was the manager of the Marriott Hotel, where Soering and Haysom stayed on the weekend of the murders. On the night of the crime — March 30, 1985 — one of them ordered two meals on room service for $33 in order to provide an alibi for the other one. According to Mr. Feldman, that room service order was the last posting of the day on March 30.
From the trial transcript of June 6, 1990, page 141:
That last posting would have been made not long before 11 p.m.
From the trial transcript of June 6, 1990, page 142:
The prosecutor accepted the testimony of Mr. Feldman to be true, as one of his follow-up questions shows.
From the trial transcript of June 6, 1990, page 143:
Soering‘s defense lawyer also accepted the testimony of Mr. Feldman as true. Why would Mr. Feldman commit perjury about the time of the room service? In any case, the room service order could not have been placed before 5:30 p.m., because the dinner menu did not go into effect until then.
From the trial transcript of June 6, 1990, p. 149:
If the room service had been ordered at precisely 5:30 p.m., as soon as the dinner menu went into effect, the meals would have to be cooked, delivered to the room and signed for before Soering and Haysom could leave. Their actual departure time could not have been before 6:00 p.m.
In 1985 the speed limit of 55 m.p.h. was still in effect, so the drive from the Georgetown Marriott to the Haysom residence would have taken at least four hours, especially considering that most of it would have been at night, in part over small, winding country roads.
That means that Soering and Haysom — if they had traveled together — would have arrived no earlier than 10 p.m., more likely 10:30 p.m. The evidence at the crime scene shows that the killer(s) drank alcohol with the victims and probably shared a snack (ice cream) with them before the attack began.
And all of that is supposed to have happened between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m.? I don‘t believe it, and neither does any other investigator who‘s looked at this case.
In addition to Mr. Feldman‘s testimony about the room service, there are also movie tickets and a cashed check dated March 30 that one of them collected as an alibi for the other one.
From the trial exhibits:
After Soering’ trial, his lawyer contacted the manager of the theater that showed the movie “Stranger than paradise” at 10:15 p.m. on the night of the murders. Those are the tickets at the top of the photograph above. The manager said that the tickets were sequentially numbered in order of the sale, regardless of the show time. This means that the manager could determine from the numbers of the tickets (27140 and 27141) at what approximate time of day they were bought. According to the movie theater manager, those two tickets were purchased either as one of the last tickets for the 8 p.m. showing, or one of the first tickets for the 10:15 p.m. showing.
From Richard Neaton‘s letter of September 25, 1991:
In combination, the testimony of Yale Feldman and the statement from the movie theater manager prove beyond any reasonable doubt that either Soering or Haysom was in Washington, D.C. while the other one was in Bedford. No investigator that I’m aware of has ever doubted that.
So I really have to wonder about the motives of the people who spread nonsense like the theory that Soering and Haysom committed the crime together. Are the people spreading this nonsense trying to make a name for themselves by pretending they “solved” the case?
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