Jens Soering
from Untold – A WTVR Podcast Hosted by Catie Beck
When he was a teenager, Jens Soering confessed to committing one of Virginia's most shocking crimes. He later recanted, but says he understands why some people still question why he would ever admit to killing two people if he did not really do it. In spring 1985, Soering, the son of a German diplomat, was a first-year student at the University of Virginia when he and his then-girlfriend Elizabeth Haysom were accused of killing her parents at the Haysom family home in Bedford County, Virginia. It became one of the most talked-about cases in the United States, and five years later, it became one of the first trials to ever be broadcast on television. Soering was ultimately convicted of the murders and sentenced to life in prison. Haysom pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder before the fact and was given a 90-year sentence. Both Soering and Haysom were granted parole in 2019. Soering, who now lives in Germany, joined Catie Beck on the most recent episode of "Untold – A WTVR Podcast," and spoke about the latest effort to clear his name: a petition for a writ of actual innocence before the Virginia Court of Appeals.
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