When a 911 call came in at 12:34 a.m. on October 4th, 2012, from seventeen-year-old Jake Evans in Aledo, the dispatcher wasn’t met with panic. She was met with calm.

On the other end of the line, Jake, speaking clearly, admitted to the unthinkable. He told her he had just shot his mother. And his sister.

How could someone so young sound so composed after committing such violence? What could possibly lead a seventeen-year-old to turn a gun on his own family?

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When 85-year-old William and 63-year-old Patricia Wycherley vanished from their home in the quiet village of Mansfield, no one seemed to notice or question their disappearance. Their bills were being paid on time, the house appeared to be looked after, and their family continued to receive postcards signed by the couple, which assured everyone they were alive and well.

Fifteen years passed without any suspicion, and eventually, the Wycherleys’ house at 2 Blenheim Close was sold to a new family, who moved in unaware of the secrets hidden beneath their feet.

It wasn’t until William Wycherley’s 100th birthday that questions began to surface. When an attempt was made to organize a congratulatory telegram from the Queen—a tradition for centenarians in the UK—there was no response from William. This prompted further investigation into the couple’s whereabouts, leading to the shocking revelation that the Wycherleys had never left their home.

Their bodies had been buried in their own back garden, where they remained hidden for over a decade and a half.

Who had murdered this elderly couple? And who was pretending to be them, sending letters out to loved ones, saying they were alive and well?

​​This is a difficult case to tell. To protect the victims, no names are used, and some identifying details are withheld. Even so, it is important to tell this story carefully and truthfully, because what happened did not occur in isolation. This case exposed profound failures across child protection, healthcare, and safeguarding systems—and led to significant changes in how such cases are now handled. In its aftermath, multiple independent inquiries were launched to examine how authorities missed years of warning signs.

The case became known as the Sheffield case, and was widely labelled by the media as the “British Fritzl.” The comparison was drawn to the Austrian case of Josef Fritzl, which had come to light only months earlier and shocked the world. In that case, it was revealed that Fritzl had held his own daughter, Elisabeth, captive for 24 years, resulting in the birth of seven children. The Fritzl case revealed unimaginable abuse hidden behind the façade of an ordinary family home, forcing the public to confront the reality that extreme harm can exist undetected for decades.

The similarities prompted outrage, disbelief, and urgent questions: how could something like this happen again—here, in the UK?

At the centre of this case was the conviction of a 54-year-old Englishman. For more than 25 years, he evaded detection by authorities. He fathered seven surviving children.

What makes this case particularly harrowing is not only the scale of the abuse but the number of times it could have been stopped.

This is the story of how it wasn’t.

00:00 Case 1 - Mary Bell

17:40 Case 2 - Tyler Hadley

38:47 Case 3 - Alex & Derek King

01:03:22 Case 4 - Eric Smith

01:35:38 Case 5 - Brenda Spencer

02:03:49 Case 6 - Zander Lyda

02:38:01 Case 7 - Noah Crooks

03:03:38 Case 8 - Corey Breininger

​​On a quiet September afternoon in 2003, in a small New Zealand town, Jeanna stood waiting at the bus stop for her children. The doors opened, but only one child stepped off. Storm was there. Six-year-old Coral was not. Coral-Ellen Burrows had not come home from school. As it would soon emerge, she had not even made it there that morning.

What followed were ten days of unanswered questions and growing dread. A town stopped everything to search. Farmland, creeks, roadsides, and bush were scoured. Helicopters circled overhead. Volunteers walked until their boots were soaked through. Then came the first chilling discovery. Coral’s backpack, found floating in a creek, had her lunch still inside.

Then, ten days after Coral vanished, she was found, but not in the way anyone had prayed for.

What happened to Coral-Ellen Burrows? Where had she been that day? And who took her?

In Christchurch, on the South Island of New Zealand, 22 August 2011, 15-year-old schoolboy, Hayden Miles, disappeared after drinking with older people in the city. That night, he never came home.

For 111 days, police searched while his family waited for answers. Then the tragic discovery was made.

Hayden had been killed, dismembered, and sealed inside bin bags. His body parts were found buried in Christchurch cemeteries and at the very location where he had last been spending time.

So how did a vulnerable teenager vanish without a trace? Who were the people he was with that night—and what really happened behind closed doors?

It was the final days of the year, that quiet stretch between Christmas and New Year’s when the city usually slowed down. Instead, Edmonton was about to face one of the worst crimes in its history.

On the evening of Monday, December 29, 2014, police were called to a home in southwest Edmonton for a weapons complaint. Inside, they found a woman dead. At first, it appeared to be a single homicide.

But hours later, officers were sent to a second house in north Edmonton to check on the occupants. When they entered, they found seven more bodies inside the home, including two young children.

The person believed to be responsible was missing.

As police worked through the night, they were left with urgent questions—where was the suspect, what had happened in the hours leading up to the killings, and why had so many lives been taken?

When David Cass arrived to collect his daughters, Ellie, three, and Isobelle, just 14 months old, it seemed like a normal custody visit. Kerrie Hughes kissed them goodbye, never imagining it would be the last time she saw them alive.

The following day, he called Kerrie, out of breath, and said: “They’re sleeping.” When she asked what he meant, he replied: “They’re sleeping forever.” Moments later, he hung up.

Locked in a bitter split and custody fight, David had made a devastating choice — to ensure his daughters would never return to their mother.

This family photograph, taken just days before Christmas, appears ordinary at first. A father stands among his children.

A mother holds her baby. Everyone dressed up, wearing new dresses, and all arranged perfectly for the camera. Nothing seems out of place.

On the day the picture was taken, no one except Charlie Lawson knew why he had suddenly spent money he could barely afford.

Just days later, on Christmas Day, 1929, Charlie Lawson murdered his wife and six of his seven children before taking his own life—nearly erasing his entire family to protect a scandalous secret.

For decades, people studied that photograph, searching for answers. For some sign of what drove him to kill. It would take sixty years before the truth emerged—when a dark family secret finally came to light.

This is the story of the Lawson family murders, on Christmas Day.

Christmas in rural Oklahoma had always been a magical time for Jack and Elaine. Their little home on Iron Post Road glowed with decorations, and a small wooden manger stood proudly in the yard.

Inside, on December 23rd, 2007, Elaine spent the day doing what she loved most: cooking. Fresh loaves of her holiday bread cooled on the counter, and batches of her famous peanut brittle waited to be gifted to neighbors.

The couple were excited. Their daughter Sarah, her husband, and their three children were coming in just a few days to celebrate Christmas.

But when that day finally came… everything was wrong.

When Sarah and her family stepped through the door, they didn’t find the laughter or hugs they were expecting. Instead, they found Jack and Elaine—shot to death in their dining room. No signs of forced entry. No DNA. No fingerprints. No motive. Nothing.

The case baffled investigators. And for ten long years, it would go cold.

Until one witness came forward… and changed everything.