Small Town Big Crime
A beloved couple brutally murdered in their home. Their daughter's boyfriend, Jens Soering, confessed to the crime and was sentenced to life in prison. But decades later, DNA evidence tells a different story. So who really killed Derek and Nancy Haysom and why?
Episodes
20 episodes
The Decision
After investigating the Haysom murders for three years, the reporters have eliminated three alternate suspects and created a path for DNA testing. Their investigation has come full circle back to Jens and Elizabeth, who now each have a decision...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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28:12
The Investigation
As they wait for the Bedford County Circuit Court to respond to their petitions for new DNA testing in the Haysom case, Rachel and Courteney use a new law to gain access to the never-before-seen investigative files. Thousands of pages of notes ...
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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26:35
The Pursuit
Jens Soering’s team has been calling for new DNA testing on crime scene evidence for years but claims Bedford County officials are stonewalling. After Rachel and Courteney meet with the man who could reopen the case and order new testing, Bedfo...
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Season 1
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Episode 16
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29:37
The Battle Lines
We ask Jens Soering and his attorney to respond to discrepancies between his 1986 confession and what he told us last year. We trace the web of Soering's support to see how each influential person was brought in and became convinced of his inno...
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Season 1
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Episode 15
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20:45
The Confession
Just as we think our investigation has reached a dead end, a Facebook message prompts new questions about Jens Soering's claims of innocence. A report by one of the British detectives who interrogated Jens in 1986 cites evidence that Jens' has ...
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Season 1
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Episode 14
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34:27
The Other Suspects
Our investigation into the murders of Derek and Nancy Haysom has already eliminated one alternate suspect through DNA testing. Now we turn our sights on the other possible suspects who may have bled at the crime scene. New DNA evidence provides...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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28:11
The Love Story
Jens Soering and Elizabeth Haysom exchanged flowery love letters in the early months of their relationship but their writings also contained dark and violent fantasies that hinted at murder. Three decades later we re-examine those letters and c...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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20:36
Elizabeth
Elizabeth Haysom's cousin and closest confidante describes how Elizabeth evolved over the years and shares an update on her new life in Canada. A forensic psychologist who examined Elizabeth for her parole hearing offers new details about her t...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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19:07
The Reckoning
After years of speculation that "the drifters," William Shifflett and Robert Albright, were the real killers of Derek and Nancy Haysom, the results of a DNA test shed new light. In Germany, Jens Soering reacts to the results of that DNA test, a...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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21:04
The DNA
The son of one of "the drifters", William Shifflett, shares his father had type O blood. The DNA evidence revealed in 2009 suggested two unidentified men may have bled at the crime scene. One of those men had type O blood, according to experts....
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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19:46
The Son
With new DNA evidence showing two unidentified men bled at the Haysom crime scene, our focus turns to the two so-called "drifters" who were convicted of a separate fatal stabbing that happened a week after the Haysom murders. Who were these men...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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23:15
The Witness
The night after brutally stabbing a homeless man in Roanoke, Virginia in 1985, William Shifflett and Robert Albright checked into a nearby emergency shelter called the RAFT. In 2018, a volunteer from the RAFT wrote a letter to the Virginia gove...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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21:28
The Two Men
Jens Soering and Elizabeth Haysom were granted parole in November of 2019 after serving more than three decades in prison. But the parole board also ruled that Soering’s claims of innocence are without merit, and he was denied a pardon by Virgi...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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23:50
The Motive
Officials in Bedford County are convinced that Jens Soering is guilty of brutally murdering Derek and Nancy Haysom in their home in 1985, even though new DNA testing suggests two unidentified men were at the crime scene. The refusal of the Bedf...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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21:52
The Blood
Type O Blood was found at the crime scene and was an important piece of evidence in convicting Jens Soering in the 1985 murders of Derek and Nancy Haysom. But newly tested DNA evidence suggests Soering wasn't at the crime scene, and the T...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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21:23
Jens' Story
The weekend Derek and Nancy Haysom were brutally murdered in their home in Bedford County, their youngest daughter Elizabeth and her boyfriend, Jens Soering, had rented a car and driven to Washington, DC. After the killings, Elizabeth maintaine...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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26:01
The Trial
In 1985 Jens Soering and Elizabeth Haysom were bright, promising students at the University of Virginia when Haysom's parents were found brutally murdered in their Bedford County home. The young couple became the prime suspects in the crime and...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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22:47
The Crime Scene
It was the bloodiest crime scene investigators in Bedford County had ever seen. Derek and Nancy Haysom were stabbed more than thirty times in their own home. There was plenty of forensic evidence to collect, but detectives had few leads. After ...
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Season 1
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Episode 1
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20:30
