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Haysom murders

Also known as: Jens Soering, Jens Söring, Elizabeth Haysom

Active

1985–1985

Region

Bedford County, Virginia, USA

State

VA

Kind

Single

Status

Convicted

Victims

2

Derek and Nancy Haysom were stabbed to death in their home near Lynchburg, Virginia, on March 30, 1985. Their daughter Elizabeth Haysom and her boyfriend Jens Soering, both University of Virginia students, fled abroad and were arrested in London in 1986. Elizabeth Haysom pleaded guilty as an accessory before the fact and was sentenced to 90 years; Soering, who had confessed and then recanted, was convicted of both murders in 1990 and sentenced to two life terms. Both were paroled and deported in 2019. Soering maintains his innocence, and in 2026 he asked the Court of Appeals of Virginia for a writ of actual innocence; his convictions stand while it is pending.

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Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

• Derek Haysom · March 30, 1985

  A retired Canadian steel executive, born in South Africa, who had led two Nova Scotia crown corporations.

• Nancy Haysom, 53 · March 30, 1985

  An artist.

Timeline of locations

1. March 30, 1985
   Haysom home, Boonsboro area (Crime scene, approximate area)

   The couple were killed in their home, which they called Loose Chippings, in the Boonsboro section of Bedford County west of Lynchburg. Friends found them days later when they arrived for a bridge game.

2. June 21, 1990
   Bedford County Courthouse (Court / trial)

   Soering was tried in Bedford County Circuit Court in June 1990, before jurors brought in from Nelson County, and convicted of two counts of first-degree murder. The trial was televised.

3. November 2019
   Buckingham Correctional Center (Prison)

   Soering was held here before he was paroled and deported to Germany in 2019.

4. November 2019
   Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women (Prison)

   Elizabeth Haysom was held here when she was paroled in 2019; she was deported to Canada in January 2020. (Earlier prisons are not given in the sources read.)

Watch, listen, read

Sources

• Jens Söring (Wikipedia)
• Elizabeth Haysom (Wikipedia)
• A couple was killed in Bedford County in 1985 (Cardinal News, Jun 11, 2026)
• Convicted killer Soering takes step toward possible exoneration (Cardinal News, Aug 10, 2026)
• Freedom, but no pardon: Soering and Haysom to be paroled, deported (C-VILLE Weekly)
• A look back at one of Virginia's most controversial crimes (WVTF, Nov 2019)

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.