In the opening seconds of Netflix’s latest true-crime documentary, Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story, a decades-old recording of a police interview crackles into life. “Things are happening in your house at the moment,” DC Hazel Savage tells Fred, her voice almost gentle, like she’s speaking to a child. “The police have been there this afternoon, and they are, in fact, digging up your back patio. We’re concerned about the whereabouts of your daughter. Is she under the patio at your house?”
This was February 1994 and, unbeknownst to Gloucester Police, they were on the cusp of uncovering one of the worst serial killer cases in British history. They were about to realise that not only had this builder they’d taken into custody murdered his daughter Heather, cut up her body and buried her under the garden where his other children played, but he had also killed many more women and girls. While 12 bodies have subsequently been found, the total number of victims – many of whom were raped and tortured before their deaths – is still not known. In many of these attacks, Fred had an accomplice: his wife Rose.
