In 1995 a mother, wife and teacher from Leeds was found brutally murdered in her family home in Yorkshire.
At first, it appeared that Eve Howells' killing was the result of a burglary gone wrong, but a whole other sinister story came to light as police began to investigate her teenage sons.
In a shocking investigation, police discovered that Eve's own husband had hatched a plan with his sons and convinced them to kill their mother.
It became clear who Eve's real killers were, but the case was far from straightforward as claims were made that the three had come up with the plan to get rid of Eve as she had been the source of persistent horrific abuse.
But prosecutors alleged that Eve's husband had another motive for the murder, claiming he'd recently discovered she was having an affair and was looking to inherit his wife's fortune.
Twenty-seven years on from the murder, a new documentary on Channel 5, Murdering Mum: The Killing of Eve Howells, is taking a deeper look into the chilling case.
Here's what happened to Eve Howells and how her husband and sons were caught.
What happened to Eve Howells?
Eve Howells was murdered by her sons in August 1995 in a plot they hatched with their father.
Howells was found dead at the family home in Dalton, Huddersfield after she had been hit by a hammer at least 10 times while she sat in the living room.
Her 15-year-old son Glenn had carried out the gruesome attack while his 14-year old brother John helped to cover up the crime.
Glenn later admitted to hitting his mother with a hammer but claimed he had been the victim of sustained emotional and physical abuse at her hands.
During the murder trial that followed, a clinical psychologist told the court that Eve abused Glenn "on a global scale" and according to one psychologist, he had become his mother's "body slave" as he was forced to massage her back while she was naked and clean the dirt from her toenails.
It was reported that she would smack both boys on the back and legs, spat abuse at them, and tied them to the kitchen table.
The Irish Times reported at the time that one neighbour said they would always regret not calling social services as they recalled: "We used to dread them going in for bath time because of the screams that used to come from the bathroom."
Howells also taught at a Huddersfield secondary school and had a reputation for being terrifying. According to one colleague she was "very, very disturbed".
But it was also claimed that husband David established the plot to kill Eve, after he found out that she'd been having an affair with his friend Russell Hirst two months prior to the murder, and that he was set to inherit £155,000 from her death.
However, David has always maintained that he knew nothing about the affair until he was told by the police.
How were Eve Howells' killers caught?
After the brutal murder, Glenn and John staged the scene to look like a burglary by tipping over a desk and claiming money had been stolen.
John also helped Glenn to cover his tracks by disposing of the murder weapon and clothing.
Meanwhile, the boys' father was busy securing himself an alibi as he played darts in a pub match, and he later attended a police press conference to make an appeal to the public for information to help catch his wife's killer.
But the police quickly became suspicious of the trio and through forensic evidence and a secret bugging they unravelled the plot behind the murder.
Initially, it was the forensic evidence and the boys' behaviour that had made police sceptical about their original story. It was reported that when the boys went with their father to identify their mother's body, Glenn was seen to smirk and wink at his brother.
At the same time, forensic evidence linked them to the crime scene, placing them close to their mother at the time that blood flew from her body.
But police were still under the impression that David, who had a strong alibi, wasn't involved.
That was until they secretly recorded 12 conversations between David, Glenn and John, which pointed guilt towards their father too as numerous references were made to the murder.
In 1997, all three men were found guilty of Eve Howells' murder. David Howells was sentenced to life imprisonment and Glenn and John were originally given indefinite detentions.
After the verdict, the judge described David Howells as a "thoroughly evil man who groomed or indoctrinated his sons to kill their mother while he was safely beyond suspicion as an actual participant’’.
In 2002 Glenn and John both had their sentences reduced by Lord Woolf.
John's sentence was reduced from seven years to six and a half years as the Lord Chief Justice said he played a "lesser part" in the murder.
Glenn's sentence was also reduced from 10 years to nine years.
*Murdering Mum: The Killing of Eve Howells airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 5 at 9pm
