Warning: The following article mentions violence and murder. Please read with caution.
In 1985, Elizabeth Haysom’s parents were brutally murdered. Her boyfriend, Jens Soering, confessed to the murder and was later convicted of the crime. But did he really do it? And where exactly is Soering now?
Interest in the Soering vs. Haysom case was renewed by the 2023 Netflix documentary series Till Murder Do Us Part: Soering vs. Haysom. As the show explains, in 1985 Soering, from Germany, and Haysom, from Canada, were students at the University of Virginia when Haysom’s parents were killed. As per The Washington Post, Derek and Nancy Haysom were stabbed and reportedly almost decapitated in their Virginia home. In the aftermath of the crime, the two young lovers fled to England, where they were eventually tracked down and arrested.
At first, Soering confessed to killing Elizabeths parents, while Haysom was elsewhere. Soering later backtracked on that confession, saying it was Elizabeth instead who committed the act, and that he only confessed to protect her, and out of the mistaken belief that, because his father was a diplomat, he would be granted diplomatic immunity. Despite all that, in 1990, Soering was convicted of Derek and Nancy’s murder and he was given two life sentences in Virginia.
The murder case, explained
In Soering’s defense, he alleged that it was Haysom who killed her parents rather than himself. It was later suggested Haysom had been sexually abused by her mother in the past. Haysom later insisted she helped plan the murder, but didn’t take part in the act. Around the same time Soering was convicted and sentenced to life behind bars, Haysom, too, was found guilty of accessory to murder before the fact and given a 90-year-sentence, also in Virginia.
In 2019, however, both Haysom and Soering were paroled. According to The New Yorker, government officials said the parole came not because they believed Haysom and Soering were innocent, but because the laws surrounding their age at the time the crime took place had changed, deporting them back to their home countries would simply save Virginia tax-payer money.
Referring to Haysom and Soering, Virginia parole board chair Adrianne Bennett noted: “Releasing Jens Soering and Elizabeth Haysom to their ICE deportation detainers is appropriate because of their youth at the time of the offenses, their institutional adjustment and the length of their incarceration.”
So, where is Soering?
As explored in the Netflix true crime series, questions remain to this day as to who killed Haysom’s parents and which version of the story is the truth. After her parole, Haysom returned to Canada and has reportedly kept a low profile ever since. Meanwhile, Soering returned to Germany as a condition of his parole and continues to speak openly about the case. While still in prison, Soering wrote several books about the aforementioned murder and the initial buzz surrounding it. In the books, he strongly maintained his innocence.
When he was paroled in 2019, Soering said: “I came through this pretty well, I think. They didn’t break me. I was a free man who was imprisoned against his will, and I fought my way out.” Barred from returning to the U.S. as a condition of his parole, Soering is now a motivational speaker on the topic of resilience.