All language subtitles for Britains.Most.Evil.Killers.S04E03.WEBRip.en

- MALE NARRATOR:
6th of July, 2012.

Sale, near Manchester, England.

Pensioners Robert
and Patricia Seddon

were found shot dead.

At first glance,
the police thought Robert

had killed his wife,
then committed suicide.

But forensic evidence
revealed a more sinister plot.

- ANDRE: Bob could
not have shot himself.

It was not self-inflicted.

Somebody else had been
there who was responsible.

- NARRATOR: The real
killer was their son,

45-year-old Stephen Seddon.

He mercilessly murdered
his parents for money.

- PATRICK: Stephen
was basically a parasite

on his parents.

Whatever they gave him,
it was never enough.

He had an insatiable thirst
for their money.

- NARRATOR: He'd also tried
to kill his parents and nephew

in a car crash three and
a half months earlier.

But when they survived,
Seddon even boasted

about saving them on local news.

- STEPHEN: I said,
"I'm going down here, Dad."

He went, "No!"
and he grabbed me

and held on to me, and
I held on to the car,

and I got me second
breath back.

- DR. YARDLEY: They loved
Seddon unconditionally.

What makes him despicable
is this determination

that he wasn't going to stop
until he'd killed his parents.

- NARRATOR: He was a convicted
fraudster who conned people

out of thousands of pounds.

He thought nothing of
murdering his family

for pure greed.

That makes Stephen Seddon

one of the world's
most evil killers.

- ♪

♪

- NARRATOR: When 68-year-old
Robert Seddon

and his 65-year-old wife,
Patricia,

were found dead
in their home,

it sent shockwaves
throughout the community.

The quiet tree-lined suburbs
of Sale in Greater Manchester

had never seen anything like it.

Patrick Hurst was one
of the first reporters

on the scene.

- PATRICK: The neighbors
were just in shock, really.

There was a lot of elderly
neighbors on that road.

They all knew each other.

Bob and Pat had lived there
for more than 20 years.

And the neighbors

just couldn't believe
that this had happened

and that they're both dead.

- NARRATOR: Even more
shocking was the news

that came six days later:

their son, Stephen, had been
arrested for their killing.

Only three and a half months
before their murders,

he'd been hailed a local hero
for saving his parents' lives.

But it was an accident
that he'd staged.

- Then at that point then,
I decided the only way out

of here is--is, uh,
me smashing our way out.

- GEOFFREY: Painting himself
as this kind of heroic figure

who put all his own cares
to the side so that he could

act as, uh, the guardian angel
to his parents and his nephew.

- DR. YARDLEY: People felt that
they were taken in by Seddon

because he was
hailed as this hero.

Everybody believed this story
about him having saved

his family from a car that
was submerged in a canal.

And then to find out that
was all an elaborate plan,

people feel really, really
deceived by this evil killer.

- NARRATOR: Seddon had murdered
the loving mother and father

who'd raised him.

- DR. YARDLEY: What's so unique
about this case is the fact

that it's a parricide--and
this refers to the killing

of your parents, and
this is one of the rarest

forms of homicide.

- PATRICK: Stephen Seddon's
a wicked and evil man

who'd like to
portray himself as a--

as a beloved son
and a caring individual.

But in fact, he'd actually

murdered his parents in
a really violent, brutal way

just to get his
hands on their money.

- NARRATOR: This killer's
story begins

on the 31st of August, 1966,

in the village
of Timperley, near Manchester.

Seven months after
Robert and Patricia Seddon

got married, they brought a son,
Stephen, into the world.

- LOUIS: They were reasonably
middle class type people.

They wanted the best for
their son, and it was

really nothing extraordinary
about Seddon's background

or childhood.

- DR. YARDLEY: His dad worked
as an engineer for one of

the great British institutions--
British Airways.

His mum was a stay-at-home mum.

This was, for all intents
and purposes, a normal family--

a traditional nuclear family.

There's nothing untoward here
going on whatsoever.

- PATRICK: His mother and father
were a loving, unassuming,

quiet couple who'd given
him as much as they can

throughout his life.

- NARRATOR: On the 19th of
November, 1967, young Stephen

was joined by a baby sister,
Leslie.

- I think they were a perfect,
upright little family.

In 1975, Leslie got ill.

She started to have convulsions,

and she was diagnosed
as an epileptic.

That skewed the balance of
the family quite radically.

Suddenly, all the attention,
both from Bob, the father,

and Pat, the mother,
was focused on Leslie.

- DR. YARDLEY: She required
a lot of care and support

from her mum and dad.

I think that Seddon really
didn't like that because

he felt that
that detracted from him.

- NARRATOR: At the age of 13,
young Seddon became difficult

at home, and out on the streets,
he was a petty thief.

- When Seddon
enters his teenage years,

he starts engaging in
some low-level crime.

He gets involved with,
uh, a rough gang of kids.

And I think what he's
doing there is saying,

"Hey, look at me," you
know, "I can do whatever

the hell I like."

And I think part
of it was attention-seeking.

- Stephen felt that
he wanted to get his father,

Bob's, attention, and one
way of getting it was to have

the police turn up at
the door or to get called

to the police station.

So, we have the first

of a string of brushes
with the law as a juvenile.

Every kind of bad boy behavior,

he was up to anything.

- NARRATOR: The petty crimes
escalated until, in 1989,

at Bolton Crown Court, Seddon
was jailed for obtaining

guns by deception and theft.

When he was released,
he made the decision

to turn his life around,
starting a career in sales.

- GEOFFREY: Seddon
had, without question,

the gift of the gab.

He could put on a suit,
he could smile the smile,

certainly walk the walk,
and definitely talk the talk.

He went in with a partner,
and started a company

which was essentially offering
small businesses a guarantee

that they would get funding

from international
European bodies

in exchange for a one-off fee
of 300 pounds.

What happened
was that Stephen Seddon

and his partner
pocketed the 300 pounds,

didn't approach anybody.

- NARRATOR: Seddon's sales
skills were so impressive

that more and more
businesses fell for his scam.

And unbelievably,
within two years,

the company was worth
five million pounds.

- And this enabled
Seddon to enjoy

this high-flying lifestyle.

He drove a Bentley, he stayed
at very expensive hotels,

so that gave him a
taste for the high life.

And this is an individual
who's always had

a sense of entitlement,
always felt like he deserves

particular things in life.

- GEOFFREY: Seddon at this point
is flashing the cash.

He's got what he'd always
wanted: "Draw attention to me.

Look at me,
haven't I done well?"

- LOUIS: What comes
to mind is narcissism.

He seemed to have
an incredible need

to be admired by other people.

He wanted to be a big shot,
he wanted the other people

to look at him, and say,
"Whoa, he drives a Bentley.

He has a boat."

He couldn't go through
life as an ordinary person

or even a mildly
successful person,

he had to be extraordinary,
and he'd do anything

to achieve that goal.

- NARRATOR: Robert and Patricia
were proud that their son

had made it as
a multimillionaire.

In 1996, he married and
settled down to have a family.

- DR. YARDLEY: Seddon is
the master of performance.

He's very good at painting
a particular picture.

You have to crack
beneath that veneer

and see what's going on
underneath it,

because people like Seddon
are incredibly manipulative.

They are incredibly charming.

They give the appearance

of--of being
a likeable individual.

But underneath it, there's
something incredibly toxic.

- NARRATOR: Seddon's house
of cards was about to collapse.

A Trading Standards
investigation exposed

his company as a sham,
and in March 2000,

the 33-year-old was sentenced
to 1 year in prison for fraud.

- GEOFFREY:
The wheels have come off

Stephen Seddon's con trick.

The great edifice
that has been created

is crumbling
in front of his eyes.

He goes to jail,
but now his desire to recapture

the high life
really does kick in,

in every conceivable way.

- NARRATOR: 2002, Seaham
in the Northeast of England.

Stephen Seddon had served
a 12-month sentence for fraud

and had lost his millions.

His wife had just given birth
to their third child, a son,

so he had another mouth to feed.

- DR. YARDLEY: Seddon really
did have a massive slide

very, very quickly downhill.

He's gone from having
millions in the bank

and driving sports cars
to having literally nothing.

So, he comes out of prison,
and he's unable to really ever

hold down a job properly
after that point because

this is an individual who
isn't just going to settle.

He isn't just going to take
a job in a supermarket.

He's someone who thinks
he deserves that life

that he once had.

- NARRATOR:
On the 7th of September, 2008,

Robert and Patricia were hit
with the most devastating news:

their epileptic daughter,
Leslie, had suffered

an extremely severe seizure.

- Unfortunately,
at the age of 40,

she died at the family home.

And she had a son who
had learning difficulties,

who Bob and Pat basically
became the parents of.

- Bob and Pat were two very
loving, giving individuals.

They cared for Leslie's son--
their grandson--

and did the best by him.

They would make sacrifices
for their family.

- NARRATOR: Their son, Stephen,
had tried a string of jobs,

even using his experience
in the hard sell

as a car salesman.

But by 2011, the cash-strapped
Seddon was unemployed.

So he turned
to his parents for help.

- GEOFFREY: Seddon is not
capable of holding down

a job now.

In his mind,
he's been hard done by.

Bob and Pat are really
generous to their son, Stephen.

They help him buy a home
in northeast of England,

they help him with the
mortgage, they give him cash.

They could not have
been more generous.

- NARRATOR: Robert and Patricia
even dug into the equity

of their own home
to give their son

nearly 46,000 pounds
worth of loans.

- DR. YARDLEY:
But you know what?

It's never enough for him.

It's not what he deserves,
it's not what he's entitled to.

He always wants more.

- NARRATOR: A year
after Leslie's death,

Robert and Patricia
change their will.

Seddon was made
the sole beneficiary

of his parents'
230,000-pound property.

- He eventually
would have gotten the money

through inheritance,
but he wasn't gonna wait

10, 15, 20 years
'til his parents die.

He wasn't gonna do that.

He wanted the money now,
he wanted to be a big shot now.

- He's gonna get that
inheritance any way he can,

by hook or by crook.

Perhaps typically for a conman,

he decides on
the most ludicrous plan.

He's going to kill Bob and Pat.

And he comes up with the most
extraordinary scheme.

- NARRATOR: After carefully
studying a TV survival show

on how to escape from a car
submerged in water,

Seddon hatched a cunning plan.

On the 20th of March, 2012,
he'd stage a tragic accident

that would kill both parents
and his 17-year-old nephew,

then he would
claim his inheritance.

- DR. YARDLEY: Under the guise
of saying thank you

to his parents for giving him
money and having a belated

Mother's Day celebration,
he invites everybody out

for a meal, and he picks them
up in a car that he's hired.

- NARRATOR: In the car,
Seddon had tools on standby

to make good his own escape.

- GEOFFREY: Not only has he
brought with him a sharp knife

to cut his seatbelt
so that he can get out

of the car's window, but
he's also brought a crook lock.

This car's new, BMW,
doesn't need a crook lock.

It has all sorts of
automatic safety devices.

He's brought the crook lock
to break the window so that

he can get out of the car
while the others drown.

- NARRATOR: Seddon drove
alongside Temperley's

Bridgewater Canal with
his mum, dad, and nephew.

When he reached a stretch of
water with no crash barrier,

he suddenly put his plan
into action.

- DR. YARDLEY: During
this drive, he's driving

a bit erratically,
he's saying that

he's got chest pains,
and this ends up in him

driving the car into a canal.

He used that crook lock to
smash his way out of the vehicle

when it was sinking
in the canal.

- PATRICK: Stephen
was able to get out.

But he got on top of the car,

and he was actually
trying to sink the car.

But then a crowd appeared
on the canal side.

- NARRATOR: Despite Seddon's
best attempts,

things were not going
according to plan.

People had started to notice
that he wasn't doing anything

to help his family
inside the car.

- Many of the witnesses
to this said,

"Get off the roof, it's
making the car sink quicker."

It really does start to
look very, very concerning.

- NARRATOR: With witnesses on
the riverbank now watching

his every move, he had to
abort his murderous plan.

- He accepts what
is now inevitable,

that they've called the
ambulance and the fire brigade

because there's a car
in the canal.

So now he's got to
live out this fantasy.

- GEOFFREY: He breaks
the window, rescues his nephew

from the front seat,

who plunges into the canal,
not able to swim.

Stephen Seddon is able to
swim, finally gets his nephew

out of the canal onto the bank.

He also manages to
get his father, Bob,

out of the backseat of the car.

By now, this car
is progressively

sinking into the canal.

- NARRATOR: With the car
now under water,

65-year-old Patricia was
still stuck in the backseat

and had run out of air.

Her heart had stopped beating.

The fire brigade
arrived just in time.

- GEOFFREY: Miraculously--
and it is truly miraculous--

they managed to extract Pat
from the back of the BMW,

get her onto the bank,
and they give her CPR.

They bring her back
to life, literally.

She had stopped breathing.

It was an extraordinary rescue,
of which, of course,

Stephen then decides to,
uh, paint himself as hero.

- NARRATOR: To avoid any blame
for the crash, Seddon indulged

in some more amateur dramatics.

- PATRICK:
When the police turned up,

he feigned some sort
of cardiac event again.

He started clutching
at his chest and collapsed.

- DR. YARDLEY: So, he
was sent to hospital

and tests were carried out.

And those tests
came back negative.

There was no issues
detected whatsoever.

So he's playing
this role of a victim himself,

essentially, and it
works, unfortunately.

- PATRICK: I went to the scene
of the canal crash.

And it was apparent that it was
the only part of the road--

the only stretch of the road
where there wasn't

a crash barrier
on the side of the canal.

But at the time, no one
thought it was suspicious.

- DR. YARDLEY: Seddon
hadn't achieved the outcome

that he wanted.
His parents were still alive,

he didn't have access
to their money.

But he did have
an awful lot of attention,

and the narcissistic
element of his personality

was really enjoying that.

- NARRATOR: The press
hailed the man who saved

his family's lives a local hero.

Stephen Seddon also
appeared on BBC TV News.

Reporter Stuart Flinders
interviewed him

two days after the crash.

- STUART: On the face of it,

this was
a dramatic rescue story.

A couple drowning in their car,

their son hauls them out,
drags them to safety.

He's the hero.

- NARRATOR: Seddon seemed
keen to put his fake heroics

on the record.

- I said to Dad,
"Wait," and I swam back.

Got back to him then, but
Dad had run out of steam

a little bit, and it was, like,
200 yards' swim in cold water,

doing what we got to
do with the exertion.

And I--I just looked at
his face like that, and I said,

"I'm going down here, Dad,"
and he went, "No!"

And he grabbed me
and held on to me,

and I held on to the car,
and I got me second breath back.

- STUART: He was a good talker
from our point of view.

He was very animated,
he told a very dramatic story

about how the whole car
had tumbled into the water,

and as it was sinking, he
managed to get on the roof,

and he hauled his parents out.
He got them to safety.

- She was going, "Please,
get me out, get me out."

I said, "Mummy, you'll be
alright, you'll be alright."

- STUART: He was very
much a sort of chatty lad,

and very talkative
and communicative,

and perfect for what
we needed as a storyteller.

I took it at face value,
I thought the story was genuine,

and I had no reason
to believe otherwise.

- STEPHEN:
I'm not the hero.

I saved people who I loved,
you know what I mean?

That's what you do--
- STUART: But the--

- The firefighter dove in
and saved a complete stranger.

- NARRATOR: While Seddon
the salesman told a tall story,

his father, Robert,
reflected on his lucky escape.

- Seddon and his father
sat side by side

on a sofa opposite me.

Seddon's father
said very little.

Occasionally,
he would beam across

and pat his son
on the knee, and say,

"If it wasn't for this guy,
I wouldn't be here today."

- STEPHEN: When we tried the
doors, that was not happening.

It was nothing with the doors.
At that point then,

I decided the only
way out of here is, uh,

me smashing our way out.

- GEOFFREY: Once again, that
used car salesman ability

to spin a line, to pull the wool
over people's eyes,

that conman trick,
that gift of the gab

saw him through.

It was never regarded as
anything except an accident.

It was one of those things.

But it was the first sign--
the first positive sign--

that Stephen Seddon
was absolutely determined

to lay his hands
on his parents' money.

- NARRATOR: Everyone had
hailed Seddon a hero

for rescuing his family
from the crash in a canal.

But after initially falling
for his son's heroics,

Seddon's father, Robert,
soon began to realize

the horrifying truth.

- DR. YARDLEY: He'd
found at Seddon's house

a saved video of how to
escape a submerged vehicle,

which was rather suspicious.

So I think there was that
realization that, "Actually,

my son might be
trying to kill me."

- GEOFFREY: He went
to see his local GP.

And he told his doctor
that he'd become convinced

that his son, Stephen,
had attempted to kill him,

had attempted to
murder them all.

- NARRATOR: Robert's worst
fears would be realized.

Seddon had succeeded in
telling a convincing lie,

but he'd failed at getting
his hands on his inheritance.

Now, Seddon had to go
back to the drawing board

and work out a plan B.

- DR. YARDLEY: When we look
at Seddon's motivation,

it comes down to
one thing: greed.

He wants their money.

He doesn't feel that the money

that they've given
him is enough.

He's probably burnt
through it by now,

and he wants more.

He feels that
he's entitled to it.

So that's all he sees
his parents as.

They are a barrier in between
him and the money that he wants,

and that really is quite cold.

- GEOFFREY: Stephen Seddon
puts into practice

a premediated plan to murder--
some might say execute--

his mother and father.

- NARRATOR: Seddon had
already failed once

in killing his parents,

so this time he was
determined to carry it through

by shooting them dead.

He turned to his connections

in the Northeast's
criminal underworld.

- GEOFFREY: He'd been around,

and he'd been on the edge of
the law for a long time now.

He knew enough people.

A hot sawn-off shotgun
was supplied to him.

- NARRATOR:
After securing the weapon,

Seddon made plans
for the perfect murder.

He took his wife and
children on holiday

to the family caravan
in Fleetwood, Lancashire.

- To all intents and purposes,
a family week away,

except he's remembered that
he's gotta go back to sign on

at the job center
at 10 o'clock the next morning.

- NARRATOR: The next day,
Seddon was up early.

At 5:24 a.m,

he left his sleeping
family at the caravan park,

and drove two and a half hours
back home to Seaham.

On arriving home, the exhausted
Seddon fell fast asleep,

purposely leaving his car
behind his electric garage door.

- This day,
he knows that the power

is going to be out in his house
because he's had a letter

from the electric company
telling him of this.

And so what he does is he
deliberately leaves his car

in the garage, so there's no way
on earth that he could possibly

be using his car to
drive from his home

to his parents' home.

He leaves his phone
so, obviously,

the mobile phone tracking
technology that's used

can't say that
he was not at home.

So he's creating this
alibi for himself.

- NARRATOR: At 9:57 a.m.,
Seddon appears to only just

make his appointment
at the job center.

He arrives seemingly
out of breath,

having supposedly run
all the way from home

because he didn't have
access to his car.

- PATRICK: He went
to the job center.

He was seen in
and around the town.

Seddon made a point
of being visible on local CCTV

in Seaham, so that gave him
an alibi to say that he's

in the northeast, obviously
hundreds of miles away

from Sale.

- NARRATOR: In reality,
Seddon had borrowed

his brother-in-law's BMW
to make his appointment

at the job center.

Then he picked up
the sawn-off shotgun

from his criminal acquaintance.

Next, he hightailed it
145 miles south from Seaham

to his parents' home in Sale.

- LOUIS: I think he thought
that this was a fool-proof plan.

He had an expectation
of impunity.

Keep in mind, he got away
with an attempt once,

he didn't get caught.
And so he became emboldened

and he thought,
"What could go wrong?

"Who would think that
I'm killing my parents

"to get their money?

What child would
kill their parents?"

- DR. YARDLEY: At any point
during that drive from his home

to his parents' home--
which would have taken him

quite some time--he could
have decided not to go

through with this, but
he didn't, and he was

absolutely determined.

- It's now about 20
to 2 in the afternoon

of the 4th of July, 2012.

Bob has just been
quite recently to the local

fish and chip shop, and
brought lunch for he and Pat.

Lunch is over.
Bob's sitting in the front room,

and Pat is Hoovering up stairs.

- NARRATOR: With the shotgun
at the ready,

Seddon snuck in
through the back door.

His father, Robert,

was sitting on the sofa
watching TV.

- GEOFFREY: He walks
into the sitting room.

His father must have been
rather surprised to see him.

Well, the surprise
would've turned to horror

within a matter of seconds,
because Stephen was holding

a sawn-off shotgun,
which he was pointing down

at his father.

- [gun firing]

- GEOFFREY: Pat obviously
hears the explosion.

I mean, it's a sawn-off shotgun,
it's gonna be noisy.

Rushes downstairs to find
her son brandishing a shotgun.

- DR. YARDLEY: You just
can't imagine the terror

that his mother must have
been feeling at that time

to discover that her son has
shot his father--her husband--

and that he--
he wants to kill her, too.

So this was the most horrendous
set of circumstances.

- GEOFFREY: She tries to
force the gun out of his hand.

In the end, it doesn't
work, and he shoots her,

killing her instantly.

- PATRICK: For both
Robert and Pat,

the final moments
would have been one

of just unimaginable horror
that their beloved son

had turned into such
a cold-blooded killer

and a monster.

- NARRATOR: Seddon then
reloaded his weapon

with a third cartridge.

- GEOFFREY: I think he
kept the third cartridge

on the assumption that
there might well have been

his nephew to kill as well.

I don't believe
that he knew his nephew

wasn't there when he
arrived at the house.

I think he thought he was.

- NARRATOR: Luckily, he
was away in respite care

on that fateful day.
Bob and Pat had been alone.

Seddon, however,
still had work to do.

- GEOFFREY: He put the shotgun,
when he'd killed Pat,

into his father's hands; laid
it across his lap, effectively,

seeking to persuade
the police

that this was a murder-suicide--
that Bob had killed Pat

and then turned
the shotgun on himself.

- NARRATOR:
After carefully staging

this murder-suicide scene,

Seddon then drove
the two and a half-hour journey

back home to Seaham,
picked his own car up

from his house, now
the electricity was back on,

then went to buy some
beers to celebrate.

- LOUIS: There you go, he
had an alibi of everything,

he had it all planned out.

He had exactly where
he would be at what time,

doing what, it was all an act.

- NARRATOR: As his
parents lay dead at home,

Seddon drove back to join
his wife and children

on holiday in Fleetwood.

- DR. YARDLEY: This is really,
really appalling, you know,

the people who give you life,
the people who support you

and give you their last
penny, that you are prepared

to so ruthlessly execute
them for your own greed

really is despicable.

- NARRATOR: Robert
and Patricia's bodies

lay undiscovered for two days,

until their grandson's respite
carer turned up at the door.

- GEOFFREY: They would always
have the front door open

or Bob would be standing
in the driveway.

They were very particular
because they cared a lot

about the boy.

And that's why the carer
was amazed that they weren't

there to sweep him up
and back into the house.

- NARRATOR: Concerned
that the grandparents

had failed to answer the door,
the carer made his way around

the back of the house
to see if he could see

any sign of them.

- He looks through
the window to see a body.

- NARRATOR: Following
the shocking discovery,

their grandson's carer called
the police straight away.

- MAN: His grandparents
are not answering the door.

I've just been around the back,
and I've seen his grandfather,

and he appears to have
a gun in his hand.

- NARRATOR: The police rush
to the scene, and broke in

through the back door.

- PATRICK: When the bodies
were found, it was clear

that both had died
from gunshot wounds.

It looked like Robert
had murdered his wife,

and then killed himself.

So the initial information
from the police was

that it may have been
a murder-suicide.

- When the police
first told Stephen Seddon

that his parents were dead,
and they suspected it might be

a murder-suicide,

he must've let
out an inner cry of delight.

It looked as though he might
just have got away with it.

There must have been a moment
when he thought, "It's worked,

and I'm gonna have the money."

- NARRATOR: As news broke
of the shootings

in a leafy Manchester suburb,
the community was in shock.

It even took reporters
who'd followed

the canal crash
story by surprise.

Stuart Flinders had met
Robert a few months earlier.

- I was about to head
to the airport to go on holiday,

and I saw a copy of
"The Manchester Evening News."

And on the front cover was
a photograph of that house

I'd been in, and the headline
saying that's the couple

had been shot.

And I was really shocked,

because they'd struck me
as a very decent family.

I particularly liked the father.
He seemed a very nice man.

And as the details came out,
it was really quite shocking

to imagine that this
could have happened.

- NARRATOR: In the
hours that followed,

the press as well as the police
fell for Seddon's staging

of the crime scene, reporting
the killings of Robert

and Patricia Seddon
as a murder-suicide.

But when forensics experts
swept through their home,

there would be many
questions raised over

this accepted theory.

Ballistics expert
Andre Horne was called

to the scene of crime as soon
as the bodies were discovered.

- ANDRE: The information
that I was given was

that it appears
to be a murder-suicide.

Prior to entering the scene,
I had a briefing

from the crime scene manager
who told me that the family

had gone through
a difficult time.

Bob and Patricia
were grandparents,

they were looking after
a grandson with disabilities

because his--his mom had died.

They were struggling to cope
with their circumstances.

And so I was told there
probably was motivation

for them to have
taken this action.

- NARRATOR: Even the press
had reported the police's

initial belief that Robert
and Patricia's deaths

were a murder-suicide.

But as Andre Horne
entered the scene,

he started having
doubts over this theory.

- Patricia was
lying in the hallway

next to the stairs, and there
was a devastating gunshot wound

to her left temple.

She was lying on her back.
And I found the position

or the location where
she was quite strange

for a murder-suicide.

So I think that's when
I started having some doubts

about whether it was
in fact a murder-suicide.

Why would she be
lying in the hallway?

- NARRATOR: But when
Andre Horne saw Robert

sitting on his couch
with the gun in his lap,

he had even more concerns.

- ANDRE: The way that he
was sitting there holding

the gun didn't make sense.

Shotguns produce a lot of recoil
when they are discharged,

and if you invert a shotgun and
point the muzzle to yourself,

you haven't got any support
for the recoil of the shotgun.

- [gun firing]

- ANDRE: It would
fly across the room.

So I was not expecting
to see a shorn-off shotgun

in the hands of a person
who had shot himself.

So that was a massive
red flag for me.

- NARRATOR: When the forensics
team opened up the weapon,

they found something
even more puzzling--

only one fired cartridge case.

- ANDRE: We know that two shots
had been discharged at the scene

but there was only one
fired cartridge case.

Where was the other
cartridge case?

The whole house was searched--
upstairs, downstairs,

even the workshop--

and the other fired cartridge
case was never found.

- NARRATOR: Later that
evening at the postmortem,

Andre Horne examined the
gunshot wound to Robert's neck.

There was only one
possible conclusion.

- After all the blood was
cleared away, and I could

see the size of the pattern
and the size of the wound,

whoever had shot Bob
was at least about

1 and 1/2 meters from him
when the shot was discharged.

I could tell the senior
investigating officer

that this had definitely not
been a self-inflicted wound.

- NARRATOR: Now the
murder-suicide theory

had been blown apart,
the case turned rapidly

into a more sinister
investigation: a double murder.

The police now knew a killer
was on the loose,

but who would want to shoot
two caring grandparents?

They started looking for
someone with a motive.

- They wanted to see
who stood to benefit

from the deaths of
Robert and Patricia,

so they start looking
at the family.

Obviously, the daughter
died back in 2008,

which leaves Seddon as
the sole beneficiary

of anything that they
might leave, so they begin

to investigate his whereabouts
on this particular day.

- NARRATOR: But when he was
questioned about his movements

on the day of the shooting,
Seddon appeared to have proof

that he was at home in Seaham.

- DR. YARDLEY: Initially, it
looks like he's got a fairly

water-tight alibi, so
they have quite a lot

of difficulty placing
this together.

- GEOFFREY: The 4th of July
was particularly important

to Seddon because he knew
that the power was going off

in his local area.
And so he couldn't have used

his own car, it was trapped
behind the garage door.

He wouldn't have been
able to get it out.

Seddon maintains
the fantasy throughout.

"I was at Fleetwood, I went
back to the job center.

"The car was locked
in the garage.

I could not be more innocent."

- NARRATOR: So detectives
poured over Seddon's seemingly

water-tight alibi to see if
they could find any holes in it.

After wading through
hours of CCTV,

the police hit the jackpot.

Seddon had claimed that he
didn't have access to a car

on the day of the shooting,
but a few frames of video

they found told
a different story.

- DR. YARDLEY: This is good
old-fashioned police work.

They accessed the CCTV
from the job center.

And they see him
entering the job center,

and they see in the edge of
the frame that there's a car

in the background that he
appears to have come out of.

They can't make out what
make the car is, let alone

the registration plate,
but they notice a bus

go past on the CCTV.

- NARRATOR: Next, the police
went to painstaking efforts

to track the bus that passed
Seddon as he left the car.

- DR. YARDLEY: They're able to
catch the footage that the bus

had taken, and that's when
they identify the car.

It's a 3 series blue BMW.

And they make some further
investigations and find out

that a relative of Seddon's
actually owns a 3 series BMW.

So now they have
the number plate,

they can start
looking at the AMPR--

the Automatic Number
Plate Recognition data.

And they're able to locate
him in his parents' area

on the day that
they were killed.

- NARRATOR: Seddon's
alibi continued to unravel

when detectives looked
at his mobile phone data.

It did show his cell phone
was in Seaham that whole day

as he claimed, but the police
could prove Seddon himself

never answered it.

- PATRICK: They found
a number of missed calls

on his mobile phone from
loan companies that Seddon

had been trying to get cash
from, and one phone call

from a local was answered
by one of his relations.

- NARRATOR: Now the police
had proved that, despite

his phone having
remained in Seaham,

Seddon wasn't with it.

- NARRATOR: On the 12th of
July, 2012, he was charged

with the murders of
both his parents,

Robert and Patricia...

to the shock
of neighbors and the press,

not least BBC journalist
Stuart Flinders,

who'd spent time with
Seddon and his father.

- I'm surprised,
because I must say,

I had had no suspicions at all.

I took the story at face value.

They seemed to be
quite a close family.

The son and father seemed
to get on very well.

As it was, I was just surprised
at how good he'd been

at conning us,
as well as his parents.

It is very cold
and calculating to even think

of killing your parents,
and then to devise

such an elaborate scheme.

- NARRATOR: But to convict
him, detectives now needed

enough evidence to
convince a jury.

Next they turn their
attention to the murder weapon

found in Robert's hands
to see if they could somehow

link it to the killer.

Again, his mobile phone records
yielded more evidence.

- PATRICK: On the day of
the murders, Stephen Seddon

had made two telephone calls
to a criminal associate

in the northeast--a man who
had previous convictions

for firearms offenses.

And the gun that was used

had actually been stolen
in a burglary not far

from Seddon's house
in the northeast.

- NARRATOR: The police also
discovered new evidence

when they reexamined
the suspect crash

three and a half months earlier.

They learned
that Seddon had taken out

additional accident insurance
on the car he'd hired

to take his family out for
their celebratory meal--

the car that ended up at
the bottom of the canal.

- GEOFFREY: Two days before,
he's hired yet another car,

which he doesn't take
out accident insurance.

Significant, you might think?

Turns out
it's extremely significant.

- [tires screeching]

- NARRATOR:
Detectives found out

about the steering wheel
lock and knife

that Seddon had taken with him
on the night of the accident

to smash his
way out of the sinking car.

- PATRICK: Before, just suppose
it was just seen as fortunate

that these items
were in the car,

and no one asked
any questions why--

why he chose to take them
with them and have them

in a hired car on that night.

Obviously, it's suspicious
anyway that you would

have those items.

- NARRATOR: Most damning of
all, the police uncovered

Robert's conversation
with his GP.

He confided in him that
he believed his son

was trying to kill him.

They also found Seddon
had met a local landlady

about buying her pub.

- GEOFFREY: Where was he gonna
get more than 230,000 pounds

to buy this pub?

Our answer was:
in that house in Sale.

The irony of this braggart,
Stephen Seddon,

pretending
that he's got enough money

to buy a pub in the northeast
is remarkable, because

when it was finally discovered
how much he actually had

in his bank account, it was
5 pounds and 45 pence.

He was absolutely broke.

- He told people before
he carried out the murders,

and when his mother and
father were still alive

that he was gonna come into
some money, an inheritance.

- NARRATOR:
On the 20th of February, 2013,

the case against Stephen
Seddon was finally brought

to Manchester Crown Court.

Seddon pleaded not guilty to
the murders of his parents,

Robert and Patricia, and
their attempted murders

in the canal crash.

- DR. YARDLEY: This is
an individual who's always

making up these
very tall stories.

And I think there was
a real concern on the part

of the police and
the Crown Prosecution Service,

that if you stuck this
guy in front of a jury,

he could manipulate them,
because this guy was a conman.

I think there was really
a level of fear that he could

walk away from this.

- NARRATOR: Despite the fact
that his nephew was also

involved in the crash,
Seddon was not charged

with his attempted murder.

In court, he claimed
that he had nearly died

saving the boy.

Throughout
the five-week trial,

Seddon continuously
protested his innocence.

Newspaper reporter
Patrick Hurst

was in the courtroom.

- PATRICK: When he was
cross-examined,

his demeanor was one
of self-indignance.

"How dare you ask me

or accuse me of murdering
my own parents?"

And I think he thought his
sales patter would see him

through it, and he would
be able to pull the wool

over the jury's eyes.

- NARRATOR: But after
18 hours of deliberation,

the jury returned their verdict.

- They were confronted with
a perfectly obvious conclusion

that the only person
who could've killed

Bob and Pat Seddon was
their son, Stephen,

who had the opportunity
and the motive.

- PATRICK: He shouted,
"I'm an innocent man,"

and shook his head,
and again looked indignant

and had his hands out,
saying, "I--I'm innocent,"

and protested that they
got the wrong person.

- NARRATOR: Seddon was
sentenced to 40 years in prison.

- DR. YARDLEY: This is akin
to a whole life sentence

for someone of Seddon's age.

He's very unlikely to ever
get released from prison,

and I think this is a sentence
which is wholly deserved.

There's absolutely nothing
that Robert and Patricia

could've have given their--
their son over and above

what they'd already given him.

And he so remorselessly
killed them

just simply
because of his own greed.

- NARRATOR: At his sentencing,
Mr. Justice Hamblen remarked,

"In Greek mythology,
someone who killed a parent

would be pursued until
death by the Furies."

- GEOFFREY: The judge went on
to say, "One can only imagine

"the horror of your parents'
last moments in this life

"when they realized what
a monster their son,

who they loved, had become."

It is a precise description
of Stephen Seddon.

- LOUIS: He wasn't abused,
there wasn't a fight.

They didn't do things
to hurt him in some way.

All they had was money.
He wanted it.

This guy was really evil.

- NARRATOR: He attempted to
kill his parents and nephew

in a car crash he staged,
then cynically sold himself

as the hero who saved them.

He mercilessly executed his
elderly parents, who'd loved

and cherished him
throughout his whole life.

That makes Stephen Seddon

one of the world's
most evil killers.

- ♪

♪