47: Dark Sexual Fantasies, Terrifying Family Secrets & a Case That SHOOK The UK | Becky Watts

For eight days, an entire country searched for 16-year-old Becky Watts, hoping she had simply run away. Then police opened a garden shed, and every hopeful theory vanished in an instant. The truth was far more disturbing than anyone could have imagined, leading investigators to accuse someone Becky had loved and trusted for nearly her entire life. As chilling evidence emerged, so did an explanation so unbelievable that many still question whether it was ever the real motive…. If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow the show for weekly deep dives into the darkest true crime cases! To watch the video version of this episode, head over to youtube.com/@annieelise. .🔎Join Our True Crime Club & Get Exclusive Content & Perks..🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to both of my weekly true crime series 10 to Life & Serialously with Annie Elise wherever you get your podcasts on the Annie Elise Channel!🍎 Apple Podcasts | Where you can also unlock access to 100+ and growing extra exclusive deep dives.💚 Spotify🔴 YouTube🎙️ All Other Platforms.📸 Follow Annie on Socials Instagram: @_annieeliseTikTok: @_annieeliseSubstack: @annieeliseFacebook: @10toLife.⭐SponsorsCasper: Save up 20% on mattresses and up to 25% on everything else when you go to http://Casper.com. Shopify: Start your free trial at http://shopify.com/10tolife..👗 Shop Annie’s Must-Haves! ShopMY: bit.ly/AnnieElise_ShopMy Amazon: bit.ly/AnnieElise_Amazon.🫵🏻 Get Involved or Recommend a CaseAbout Annie: www.annieelise.comFor Business Inquiries: [email protected].📚 Episode Sources BBC News | BBC Politics | Bristol 24/7 | Bristol Post | Daily Mail | Gazette Series | Hits Radio News | ITV News | KLEE Photography | Mirror | Sky News | The Guardian | The Independent | The Times | True Crime Dump | Wikipedia | Yahoo News••••••••••••••••••🚨Disclaimers1️⃣ Some links may be affiliate links, they do not cost you anything, but I make a small percentage from the sale. Thank you so much for watching and supporting me. 2️⃣ Sources used to collect this information include various public news sites, interviews, court documents, FB groups dedicated to the case, and various news channel segments. When quoting statements made by others, they are strictly alleged until confirmed otherwise. Please remember my videos are my independent opinion and to always do your own research. 3️⃣ The views and opinions expressed in this video are personal and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Assumptions made in the analysis are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the creator(s). These views are subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time and are not to be held in perpetuity. We make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information on this video and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis. It is the reader’s responsibility to verify their own facts.

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• 1:27Speaker 03

  I'm sorry, can you help? Um, it appears my daughter's gone missing.

• 1:33Speaker 04

  When you know somebody, you know that they, and you know they wouldn't do this, you know that there's something wrong.

• 1:40Speaker 05

  I don't know where she is, and we need to find her, and we need to find her fast.

• 1:47Speaker 03

  The reason I've come here is to make him arrest yourself, okay?

• 1:54Annie Elise?

  What can you tonight tell us about Becky's disappearance? Eight days after 16-year-old Becky Watts vanished, police arrived at a small garden shed behind a home in Bristol, England. Now by then, her disappearance had gripped the entire country. Her face was everywhere. Thousands of people had also joined in on the search. The hashtag #FindBecky, it completely spread like wildfire across social media, reaching millions around the world. And despite growing fears for her safety, many still believed that Becky was alive. I mean, after all, she was a teenager, 16 years old.

• 2:38Annie Elise?

  She had struggled with anxiety, she had run away before, and investigators were even making public appeals directly to Becky, as though she might be watching from somewhere, just choosing by her own volition not to come home. Maybe she was staying with a friend, maybe she just needed space, maybe she was upset and just wanted to be left the heck alone. But then detectives opened the shed, and in an instant, every theory about Becky running away just vanished. And what investigators uncovered next was even more disturbing. Not because a stranger had targeted her, not because some unknown predator had been lurking

• 3:19Annie Elise?

  in the shadows, but because the person that they would ultimately accuse of doing this to Becky. It was someone that Becky had known her entire life, someone who had been a part of her family for years. And then came the explanation. A kidnapping that was never supposed to be real, a prank, a scare tactic, a plan that apparently spiraled into something horrific. All an accident, it all just spiraled out of control. But was that the truth? Or was that just the cover story? Hey guys, I'm Annie Elise. Welcome back to an all-new episode of 10 to Life.

• 4:02Annie Elise?

  Do your thing, hit that like button, subscribe, follow on the podcast, all of the things, and let's jump right into it. In 2015, Becky Watts was a 16-year-old girl living in Bristol, England. She was a beautiful young girl with long, dark, reddish-brown hair. Becky was petite, barely even reaching five feet tall, and like a lot of teenage girls, her favorite color was pink, which this became pretty obvious the second that you walked

• 4:41Annie Elise?

  into her bedroom, because the entire room, it was painted pink from top to bottom. And Becky really did seem like your average teenage girl. However, there were also things happening in her life that had not been easy on her. Becky was born in 1998 to Tanya Watts and to Darren Galsworthy. Her parents were together before she was born, but by the time that Becky arrived, they had already split up. So as a baby, Becky and her older brother Dan mostly lived with their mother. However, that arrangement, it didn't last long. When Becky was around three years old, she and Dan were removed from their mother's custody and then placed with their father Darren.

• 5:23Annie Elise?

  Apparently, there had been pretty clear signs of neglect, though those details were never released publicly. And while it was, yeah, a major change for these two young children who were still, you know, just incredibly young, it did ultimately seem like it was a decision that was for the best. Now, what we do know is that by the time Becky and Dan moved in with their father, Darren had fallen in love with a woman named Angie. And Angie had a son of her own named Nathan. And with Becky and Dan joining the household, they quickly became one big blended family. For Becky and her brother, it was now a home, a home where they felt comfortable and safe, something that they hadn't always experienced before.

• 6:06Speaker 06

  Regardless of how me and Becky's mother were getting on, I always stayed in their life. I'd have them at least three, three nights a week, every week. And, but when things started to go a bit pear-shaped in that department, I mean, Angie stepped in, we'd already met, and she stepped in and just took over and just made everything nice.

• 6:35Annie Elise?

  Becky was still a toddler when she met Nathan, who by the way, was nine years older than she was. Yet despite that age gap, the two of them formed a very close bond. In fact, Becky's first word, it wasn't mommy or daddy, it was actually Nathan. And in Angie, Becky really found the mother figure who had been missing from her entire life. She still saw her biological mother, Tanya, every Sunday for lunch, but her day-to-day mother-daughter relationship, that really started and ended with Angie. So for a while, everything in Becky's home life seemed really great. But as the years went on, Becky became incredibly attached to Angie, all the way to the point

• 7:19Annie Elise?

  where it wasn't entirely healthy. And there's actually a name for it. Child psychologists refer to it as anxious attachment. And there are a lot of different things that can contribute to anxious attachment. Trauma, neglect, separation, instability, and we know that Becky had been removed from her mother's care at a very young age. So whatever the reason, Becky became attached to Angie at the hip. She didn't want to do anything without her, and she hardly trusted anyone else. Which, because of that, starting elementary school, it was not easy. And I don't mean that Becky was sad on the drive to school, then maybe even cried a little bit when she was dropped off, but then became better after a few minutes or even a couple hours.

• 8:04Annie Elise?

  It was a constant battle just to get her to go to school. Things got so difficult that Darren and Angie weren't even sure how to handle it. Now Angie felt awful for Becky, and she wanted to do whatever she could do to help. She really cared for her. She ended up literally even getting a job at Becky's school just so Becky would know that she was nearby throughout the day. But eventually, for whatever reason, Becky and Angie's close relationship started creating tension between Angie and her son Nathan. Now remember, Nathan was nine years older than Becky. So while he was entering young adulthood, his mom was essentially starting over with a young child all over again. Nathan felt like Angie was always focused on Becky too.

• 8:48Annie Elise?

  In his mind, she was constantly taking care of Becky, spending time with Becky, worrying about Becky. And as a result, he felt like there really wasn't much time left for him. And to a certain extent, I think that those feelings were understandable and valid. Kids want and need attention from their parents, even if they are going into young adulthood. And Nathan felt like he wasn't getting enough of that from his mom. Now because of how devoted Angie was to Becky, it's hard to picture her intentionally neglecting her son Nathan. But I also can understand how he may have felt like his time with his mom was always being interrupted, or that everything just revolved around Becky. And you might think that eventually, as he got older, Nathan would mature.

• 9:31Annie Elise?

  He would recognize that Becky was young, she was struggling, and he would move past those feelings. But that's not at all what happened. As the years went on, Nathan didn't just begin resenting his mother. He started taking that resentment out on Becky as well. Now, it sounds to me like in a very different way, Nathan also may have had some sort of attachment-related issues when it came to his relationship with his mom, maybe stemming from the detachment he felt because of her relationship with Becky. But the point is, it created quite a bit of tension within that blended family. And as Becky got older and entered her teenage years, her anxiety didn't improve. If anything, it got worse.

• 10:15Annie Elise?

  She continued struggling to attend school, and not because she was lazy or didn't care, but because going to school created a tremendous amount of fear and anxiety for her. And at the same time, she also began clashing more frequently with Darren and Angie. Arguments became more common, and there were even times when Darren would threaten to kick her out of the house if she couldn't behave, her own father threatening to kick her out. Which, look, as parents, none of us are perfect. I'm sure all of us at one point or another, I know I have, have said things in the heat of the moment that we don't really mean. So I'm not at all condoning Darren telling his daughter to leave, but I'm also not trying to demonize him and call him the worst parent in the world for it.

• 10:58Annie Elise?

  It may have just been a situation where he's like, "Look, if you can't figure out how to go to school, get along with the family, you know, stop acting out, you need to, you might need to find somewhere else to live." I don't know, and I'm paraphrasing there. But anyway, by 2011, when Becky was 13 years old, Darren and Angie got to the point where they felt like they needed to bring in professional help. So they brought her to an organization called the Children and Young People Services. And for a place that specifically listed children's mental health as one of their specialties, I have to say, they really failed her. For starters, they never even spoke to Becky alone. Nobody sat down with her privately to find out what was really going on with her, or how she was feeling, what was happening in her life,

• 11:43Annie Elise?

  which, if a child is dealing with abuse, neglect, bullying, fear, or simply, I don't know, feeling misunderstood, then they need an opportunity to speak freely without worrying about disappointing their parents, or the fear of getting in trouble or being judged. I mean, without that, you're often not getting the full picture. You're only getting what they want the parents to see, right? Because you're having these conversations in front of your parents. Now, I'm not suggesting that Darren or Angie were doing anything wrong in all of this, or that they were doing anything wrong at home. But the point is, Becky was never given the opportunity to speak for herself privately. And that is a significant oversight.

• 12:26Annie Elise?

  So the initial report that this organization created, it described Becky as controlling and lacking aspirations. Which, remember, we are talking about a 13-year-old child here. To me, that feels pretty harsh. A lot of 13-year-olds are misguided or don't have clear-cut aspirations. The organization, though, also completely failed to put any plan in place for therapy, medication, or continued treatment. So they never even got to the root of why Becky was terrified of school, afraid to leave the house, or constantly arguing with her parents. Instead, the conclusion seemed to be that she was just a difficult teenager.

• 13:08Annie Elise?

  She simply needed to be forced to attend school regardless of how she felt, and age would course correct everything itself. Which, that kind of response, it probably did not help Becky at all. If anything, it may have left her feeling like nobody even understood at all what she was going through. Thankfully, though, Darren and Angie didn't give up. They knew that Becky needed help, and they kept pushing her to find it. Eventually, they were able to get her another appointment, this time with a place called Family Intervention Support Services. And Becky's experience there, it was much more positive. During those sessions, Becky was finally able to open up about the fears

• 13:52Annie Elise?

  that she had been carrying around with her. Specifically, her fears about leaving home and going to school. She talked about worrying over things that most kids her age just wouldn't even spend any sort of time thinking about. Things like sex trafficking, kidnapping, and other worst-case scenarios that she truly believed could happen to her. Which, that's a pretty unusual thing for someone so young to be so consumed by and concerned over. I mean, at least it stood out to me. Not many young teens are worried about those kinds of things, or have even been exposed to those dangers as possibilities in life. Now Becky did have an explanation for this.

• 14:35Annie Elise?

  She said that a lot of those fears probably stemmed from watching horror movies and from reading stories about abductions, that there was something maybe deeply planted and rooted inside of her because of that. Becky also opened up about some of the trauma that she had experienced growing up. She told the therapist that she had been teased for years for being "the chubbier child." According to Becky, some of those comments even came from people close to her, including family members and friends. She also admitted that at certain points, she had become so self-conscious that she was carefully monitoring what she ate, just so that she would appear thinner in family photographs. Which is honestly so heartbreaking to hear.

• 15:19Annie Elise?

  Nobody should have to go through that, no less a 13-year-old who is coming into her own, going through adolescence, and everything that is tough that comes along with that. But then, feeling like you need to monitor what you're eating because you're scared you're going to look chubby in the family photo? The family is where you're supposed to feel the safest. Now, as if that wasn't difficult enough, Becky also explained that she had been heavily bullied at school. And when all of those experiences were piling on top of each other, one on top of the next, they eventually contributed to her fear and anxiety. So when all of those experiences piled on top of another, they eventually contributed to her being diagnosed with anorexia.

• 16:03Annie Elise?

  Now here is her dad talking a little bit about what a difficult time that was for Becky.

• 16:08Speaker 07

  So what happened when she became anorexic?

• 16:16Speaker 06

  It was a really difficult period for us.

• 16:20Speaker 06

  She lost so much weight so fast.

• 16:25Speaker 06

  She was fainting. She had zero strength at all. Sometimes she couldn't even get up over the stairs, I carried her up.

• 16:33Annie Elise?

  So Becky was referred to an ED clinic, and she began what would hopefully be the start of her healing journey. Now, just because Becky was finally working with professionals who understood what she was going through, it doesn't mean that everything suddenly got better overnight. She still was refusing to go to school because of her anxiety and the fears about something happening to her, also the bullying that she had endured for years. Then, when Becky was 14 years old, she left home and she enrolled in something called Hospital Education Service. Now, in the UK, it's a program that is designed for children and young people who can't attend regular school because of health-related issues.

• 17:14Annie Elise?

  And at her new school, Becky was finally able to access more consistent mental health support, including cognitive behavioral therapy. And in March of 2013, for the first time in what felt like years, Becky seemed to be making real progress. In fact, she was doing so well that her doctors discharged her from treatment. And things weren't just improving medically. At her new school, Becky was also finally starting to make friends, including a girl named Courtney Bicker. Now, I have to say, one friend might not sound like a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but attending a traditional school had completely disrupted Becky's social life. And she never had many close friendships growing up,

• 17:58Annie Elise?

  so this was actually a really positive development. And on top of making friends, Becky just seemed healthier, both physically and emotionally. The tension and the chaos that had often existed behind the scenes at home, it appeared to settle down, or at least fade into the background. The family even took a vacation together to celebrate Becky's 16th birthday. This was in June of 2014. So at least from the outside looking in, things really did seem to be heading in a positive direction. And then in November of 2014, Becky had even more exciting news to share. She told her parents that she had met a boy named Luke. He was a year older, he was 17 years old.

• 18:42Annie Elise?

  Becky had a huge crush on him. And as it turned out, Luke lived right next door to Becky's brother Nathan and Nathan's girlfriend Shawna. Which remember, Nathan was nine years older than Becky. So do the math, you know, 16 years old, that would go to, he's 25 years old. So he's living with his girlfriend. You have this crush on this guy who's your age. He lives right next door to your brother. That means every time you see your brother and go visit him, you get to see your teenage crush. It feels, you know, like you get the butterflies, you're excited, it's new, it's exciting, it's young, love, all of the things. So by the end of 2014, Darren and Angie were finally able to just exhale a little bit. Their 16-year-old daughter seemed happy, finally genuinely happy.

• 19:27Annie Elise?

  She seemed healthy, she was making friends, she had a boyfriend. After years of worrying about Becky, it probably felt like everything was finally coming together. But what they didn't realize was that there were still some very serious things happening in Becky's life. Things that she had never told anyone about, not even her therapist. And unfortunately, the worst was still ahead.

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• 20:53Annie Elise?

  Even though other parts of Becky's life seemed to be improving, her relationship with her brother Nathan never did. Now Darren and Angie had no idea just how bad things had become between the two of them. When Becky and Nathan were younger, they appeared to have a very close bond. Remember, I told you, they got super close. Nathan was her first word, it was great. But apparently, as Nathan got older, their relationship deteriorated. According to Becky, Nathan often made her feel worse about her ED. She said that he told her that he didn't believe that she was even actually sick, and that she was only doing all of that for attention. She said that he would fat shame her, he would call her names.

• 21:34Annie Elise?

  And this is where things seemed to have moved beyond just typical sibling arguments, and into more, I don't want to say dangerous, but like cruel things, just very mean-spirited. Becky also claimed that Nathan had threatened to physically hurt her. At one point, she even said he bragged about attacking someone with a sledgehammer in the past. Now whether he intended it that way or not, or was joking or not, one was serious, it certainly sounds like that's the kind of thing that could be interpreted as a threat, absolutely. And just really quickly, let's do a quick callback here. Remember when Becky told her therapist that she was worried about all of those bad things happening to her?

• 22:18Annie Elise?

  Blaming it on the movies and the stories that she read? Well, is it possible that maybe that was just a cover-up? And that maybe Nathan was the one she was scared of because of what he was saying to her? I mean, possibly, but if she did really, truly believe she was in danger, would she tell someone? Then, there was another troubling situation. Becky told a staff member at the school that a quote "young male peer" had been threatening her, saying that he was going to post nude photographs of her online. Now when the staff asked why she hadn't gone to the police, Becky explained that she was terrified of what may happen if she did go to the police.

• 22:58Annie Elise?

  And remember, we're talking about someone who had struggled with severe anxiety for years. So whether her fears were realistic or not, Becky was clearly frightened. And unfortunately, for whatever reason, the situation didn't appear to be taken that seriously at all. A referral was reportedly sent to a nonprofit organization that dealt with child sexual exploitation, but nothing ultimately came from it. Then, as if the family hadn't already been through enough, another challenge came in early 2015. Angie was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. And as you can imagine, that diagnosis, it completely shifted the family's focus.

• 23:41Annie Elise?

  Angie now had medical appointments, treatments, and her own health concerns to manage, which naturally meant that she had less time and energy to devote to Becky. Then came February 19th, 2015. At around 11:15 that morning, Angie had left home for a doctor's appointment and said goodbye to Becky before leaving. But later that day, Becky's boyfriend Luke started becoming concerned because Becky had stopped responding to his messages, just very abruptly, very suddenly. And then that night, Becky never came home. Now as it turns out, Luke was actually the first person to raise concerns about Becky's disappearance. Like a lot of teenage couples, Luke and Becky had been texting back and forth all throughout the morning,

• 24:25Annie Elise?

  but then sometime that afternoon, the messages just stopped. At first, Luke figured Becky was probably just busy. One of her final texts had simply said, quote, "jamming me", which apparently meant that she was listening to music. But then, as the afternoon went on, Luke still hadn't heard from her. Now, he happened to have a dentist appointment near Becky's house that afternoon. So he texted her, saying that he planned to stop by afterward. But Becky never responded. So Luke decided to stop by anyway. I mean, the two had only been dating for a few months, but he knew her family, so it wasn't particularly strange for him to show up and check on her. Because in his mind, maybe she was just busy. Maybe she was also upset with him, worst-case scenario,

• 25:10Annie Elise?

  which if so, she would just tell him to go away and he would head back to school. But he was gonna stop by regardless. So when Luke arrived and knocked on the door, Shawna answered, which Shawna is the girlfriend of Nathan's. And by that point, Angie also had already returned home from her doctor's appointment. So Luke spoke with both Shawna and Angie, presumably about Becky and the fact that nobody seemed to know where she was, and just tried to let them know that he hadn't heard from her. And also, I have to say, it wasn't unusual for Angie and Shawna to be home together. As I mentioned, Angie's MS, it was taking a toll on her. So Shawna had actually become her registered caregiver. And according to Luke, neither one of them seemed particularly concerned.

• 25:53Annie Elise?

  They appeared completely normal, despite the fact that Becky was at home and wasn't responding to messages. But by the following day, on February 20th, at approximately 4:00 PM, Becky was officially reported missing. And I have to say, that is a pretty significant gap of time, especially when we're talking about a 16-year-old girl. Why didn't anyone report her missing sooner? So I did a little digging, and from everything that has been reported, it does seem like her parents believed that she was probably just staying with a friend, and had left after an argument, and that she would come back eventually. So they didn't seem overly concerned. Which if you remember, Becky and her parents did have a complicated relationship at times.

• 26:37Annie Elise?

  There had been arguments in the past, and Darren, her father, had occasionally threatened to kick her out during those heated moments. So they may have just believed that this was another situation where Becky simply just needed some time away. So once Becky was reported missing, investigators initially considered whether or not she might have run away. Now, given her age, her mental health struggles, and the arguments that she had had with her parents over the years, the truth was, it was a reasonable possibility to examine. As detectives started interviewing the people who had last seen Becky, they learned that Angie had been the final confirmed person to see her. We also know that Shawna was at the house that day, of course, and Nathan was there at 1:00 too.

• 27:20Annie Elise?

  In fact, when Angie left for her doctor's appointment that day, earlier in the morning, Becky, Nathan, and Shawna were all at the home together. And according to their account, everyone was simply just doing their own thing. Then, at some point, Nathan and Shawna heard a door open and shut, well, slam, I should say, as though somebody had left the house. And here's Shawna describing what happened.

• 27:43Speaker 04

  I think we got there about 11-ish. The door was locked, so obviously we used a key from underneath the recycling bin. Got in, heard music upstairs, wishing Becky had been in then. I went into the kitchen to get a cigarette. Went to go outside, have a cigarette. My daughter started whinging because she wanted to come up with me, so I took her down to the garden to help feed the rabbit while I had a cigarette. Probably was about 15, 20 minutes. Then we came back up, I went into the kitchen to get a drink, I think it was, and washed my hands.

• 28:28Speaker 04

  Then I heard the front door slam. Carried on washing my hands, went into the living room.

• 28:35Speaker 04

  And then I think it went until a lot later on that and she asked me if Becky had gone out and I said, yeah, I heard the door go. She must have gone out earlier. Washing my hands, I think. I heard the door slam, front door. Um, again, I didn't look at the time or think anything of it. So I didn't really kind of feel like, oh, what was that? It was just the door. So Becky moved, gone out.

• 28:59Annie Elise?

  So based on what they told investigators, it seemed like Becky had left voluntarily. The problem with that, though, was she never came back. A quick search of the house revealed that Becky's phone, laptop, and tablet were missing, which also did initially seem to support the idea that she had left on her own. I mean, after all, those are the exact kinds of things that most teenagers would bring with them if they were planning to run away. But there were also certain things that she left behind. There was money sitting out in her room. It didn't appear that she had packed any additional clothes, which if you were planning to stay away overnight, wouldn't those be some of the first things that you would take? Money for food, for gas, for whatever, and clothes so that you

• 29:43Annie Elise?

  can, you know, change clothes? And there were also other things that didn't make sense, too. Becky hadn't told anyone where she was going. And yeah, while running away after an argument is one thing, completely disappearing without contacting your boyfriend? That seemed unusual. So then, two full days passed without Becky returning home and without responding to any messages or contacting anyone. So on February 22, police made a public appeal for information. And during that press conference, investigators said that it is out of character for her to not contact someone if she is not returning home. Which, to me, that statement

• 30:24Annie Elise?

  alone, it suggests that they may have already been treating this as something more serious than a typical runaway case. The following day, on February 23, Becky's family made their own emotional public appeal. Darren told reporters, quote, Becky, we just want you to come home. You are not in trouble at all. We just want to make sure that you're okay. If you can, please give us a call or a text just to let us know you are safe. We all love you and we want you back home with us. And Becky's grandmother had a message, too. Becky, we love you so much. We all love you and want you back home with us. You are so loved. I don't think you realize just how much. You can come and stay at mine

• 31:07Annie Elise?

  for as long as you need. If you are Becky's friend and you are sheltering her, you are not doing right by Becky. Just please get in touch. Now, if you'll notice, by those statements, it does sound like the family thinks Becky left on her own, that it was her own doing, and that they are making these public pleas for her to come back home as if she's listening. Yet the police and their appeal, they made it sound like it was completely unlike her and that she possibly didn't leave on her own. So the following day, on February 24, investigators held another press conference. Now, this one felt a little bit different. In fact, it almost seemed like they were starting

• 31:48Annie Elise?

  to align more closely with what Becky's family was saying. They spoke as though Becky might be watching from somewhere and simply choosing not to come home. One detective was quoted as saying, we are all just worried about you and we want to make sure that you're okay. If you could just call home one of your friends or call us on 101, we can work with you to help work through any issues you are facing. So I mean, naturally, a lot of people in the community, they started to believe that Becky had run away. And to be fair, Becky had left home before. At one of the organized search efforts, Becky's Uncle Joe and Grandfather John also spoke with local media about continuing the search and doing whatever they could do to bring her home.

• 32:31Annie Elise?

  We're very grateful, obviously, because people have taken their time out of their own busy lives. But, um, yeah, it's just a case now, getting out there, finding there, getting around. Where are you guys going for this? We're going down to Crewe's Hall. Tackle that part of the area. People are going down towards town now. We've got people taking Kingswood, anywhere where there's going to be busy. There are going to be loads of people.

• 32:51Speaker 05

  The police force were doing all the practical and forensic work. So we were, as a family, we hoped that we could do some practical stuff, putting out circulars, generally talking to people, stopping them. I'm surprised that even some people hadn't seen it on the media yet, you know? You'd obviously think it's been broadcasted quite, you know, a lot over the last few days. But no, they haven't. So it's nice for you to maybe talk to people on the street, give them a leaflet. It's awareness more than anything, you know? You know, it's the sixth day now, so there's a lot of anxiety with the family at the moment. And in particular, the parents, Darren's here this evening, he's gone on a search. So, you know, we're hoping that, hope with hope, you know, that we're going to be successful, bring this to a successful conclusion.

• 33:36Speaker 04

  Um, you've each got flyers of Rebecca. There's no certain areas, um, just wherever you think, uh, that they should be or that you think you should keep an eye on, please do. Oh, tragic. Absolutely tragic, absolutely devastating. What, what can you say? Do you know what I mean? Until she's over a phone or home, hopefully, then, do you know what I mean?

• 33:59Speaker 05

  Well, it's a family thing, it's a community thing. Obviously, it's very local. When, when somebody goes missing like four or five doors down the road from you, it's obviously kind of affects you. So it's very sad. And obviously, we're just trying to do what we can, where we can.

• 34:13Speaker 04

  Um, personally, I'm, I'm really upset, really worried. Um, it's very close to home. It's someone you know, which always makes it a little bit more, um, immediate, I suppose. So, yeah, doing what you can.

• 34:27Speaker 07

  It's just a right worry. I feel for her dad, the family, what they're going through, what Becky could be feeling. And I just think it should be my duty for me and my friends to help find her and get her home safely.

• 34:42Annie Elise?

  Now, I have to say, I think it's nice that everybody is making these public pleas. But also, if you're the public hearing this, maybe you're not as frantic and concerned and looking every single possible place for her. Maybe you're thinking that she's unharmed, safe, and that it was just a matter of convincing her to come back. And the truth was, if Becky was staying with someone, her family felt that either Luke or her best friend Courtney might know something. Because aside from them, Becky really didn't have a large social circle. But both Luke and Courtney insisted that they were just as confused as everyone else. They had no idea where she might be. So the search continued. And investigators

• 35:24Annie Elise?

  weren't limiting themselves to the immediate area around Becky's home. They wanted to cast as wide a net as possible. So they also turned to social media and launched the hashtag Find Becky, hoping that it would gain traction. And I have to say, it absolutely did. That hashtag quickly reached more than 2 million people, not just in Bristol, but around the world. So if Becky really was moving from place to place or hiding someone voluntarily, the investigators hoped that someone would recognize her and come forward. But by February 27, detectives still weren't any closer to finding her. So at that point, they began

• 36:06Annie Elise?

  changing their search strategy. Instead of focusing primarily on places where Becky might be staying, they started searching nature reserves, ponds, and other outdoor areas. And whenever investigators start shifting resources in that direction, it's usually not a great sign. It usually means that they are looking for a recovery rather than a rescue. Now, here's what one of the detectives had to say about this at the time.

• 36:33Speaker 05

  Yeah, we're extremely concerned for Becky. Um, she's been missing now for six, almost six days away from the home address. She's not been in contact with any of her family and friends. And she's not told anyone where she intended to go. So, yeah, we're extremely concerned. And obviously, as time goes by, that concern is only increasing, as you'd expect. It's a 16-year-old missing girl, young lady that's been taken away from the home, or taken herself away from the home address. Um, she's, so the family are very, very distressed by that. And we're trying to support them as best we can through that. But it's an extremely difficult period for them.

• 37:06Speaker 07

  At this stage, do you believe that there any third party, another person's been involved in Becky's disappearance?

• 37:11Speaker 05

  This is very much a missing person search. We're trying to look for Becky and we'd asked for the public support and helping us if there's any sightings. It doesn't matter how small the information is, I'd really ask those people to come forward and just tell us if they believe they've seen her or if they have information they believe might be relevant to my inquiry.

• 37:28Speaker 07

  Are you checking CCTV footage at all?

• 37:31Speaker 05

  Yes, yes, we are checking CCTV footage again around the home address with the purpose of trying to ascertain the direction to travel away from the address by Becky on the morning that she went missing.

• 37:40Annie Elise?

  Then, on February 28th, eight days after Becky had been reported missing, the entire case changed. Out of nowhere, news broke that the police had made arrests. Not one arrest, but two.

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• 38:55Annie Elise?

  Up until then, many people still believed that Becky was alive somewhere and simply choosing not to come home. The searches were ongoing, the appeals were continuing, there was of course still hope that she would just eventually walk through the door. But now these arrests, that completely changed the conversation. So, who had been arrested? Well, it was none other than her brother Nathan and his girlfriend Shauna. Police took both of them into custody on suspicion of kidnapping, which this news, it shocked Becky's family, her friends, the entire community. Now, as surprising as it was for everyone who had been following the case, the investigators

• 39:36Annie Elise?

  revealed that Nathan and Shauna had actually been on their radar pretty early, almost from the beginning. Because Nathan and Shauna were the last people known to be in the house with Becky before she vanished, detectives had questioned them very early on in the investigation. And given the history between Nathan and Becky, investigators were naturally interested in understanding their relationship and dynamic. Now, what stood out was that Nathan wasn't shy about sharing his feelings. So much so, he reportedly told the police, quote, "I don't particularly like her. What annoys me is how she speaks to my mom." And he was not the only one expressing those opinions.

• 40:16Annie Elise?

  Shauna also largely echoed these same sentiments, describing Becky as self-centered, claiming that she treated Angie poorly. During her initial interview, investigators also felt that Shauna was behaving somewhat strangely and admitted to a few things that raised additional questions.

• 40:36Speaker 03

  And then the other, any other thing was, um, just a minor thing really. I think some of our colleagues were trying to speak to Nathan, just, I think, part of those initial inquiries just a few days ago on Tuesday, I think it was. And Nathan perceived a bit of reluctance, so, do you have any knowledge of that?

• 41:03Speaker 04

  Not my knowledge, I wouldn't know, no.

• 41:05Speaker 03

  No. Has he, has Nathan had any sort of concerns about speaking to us?

• 41:12Speaker 04

  Not that he told me, no.

• 41:15Speaker 03

  No.

• 41:16Speaker 04

  If he does, I wouldn't know then.

• 41:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, how is he finding it?

• 41:23Speaker 04

  I mean, he's found it quite hard, actually. Again, he's kind of more thinking, my God, if it was, or again, knowing how hard it'd be for his mom at the moment. Yeah, because Becky was almost like her daughter to her.

• 41:36Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 41:37Speaker 07

  And then over the weekend, have either you and Nathan been involved in searching for Becky or doing any of that stuff?

• 41:44Speaker 04

  No, I wasn't aware they were doing a search. I didn't realise until, I think it was yesterday. I went on my Facebook and obviously there was news articles and pictures popped up that they did the search, but we weren't told about it at all.

• 41:56Annie Elise?

  Still though, despite openly admitting that they didn't like Becky, both Nathan and Shauna repeatedly insisted that they had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with her disappearance. Which, obviously, speaking negatively about a missing person, it's not a crime in and of itself. But it was enough to make investigators take a closer look at Nathan, and another detail caught their attention. On February 23rd, detectives attempted to visit Nathan and Shauna's home. They wanted to speak with them again and potentially have a look around the property. But when officers arrived, neither Nathan nor Shauna was there. So police eventually located them across town, and at that point, Nathan and Shauna agreed that the investigators could search their home the following day.

• 42:41Annie Elise?

  So it seemed like they were being relatively cooperative, but still kind of odd. So when February 24th arrived, the very next day, and the detectives went to the house, they started searching. And when they got inside, they were stunned by what they found, because the home was in terrible condition. And we're not talking about a few dirty dishes that are left in the sink or trash that wasn't taken out. Investigators described conditions that were much more in line with hoarding. Belongings that were piled up everywhere, clutter filling every room, every single room, room after room, and simply just moving through parts of the house was incredibly difficult for them.

• 43:22Annie Elise?

  It was so condensed and filled with stuff. And it was so bad that Nathan and Shauna even kept a kettle and a toaster in their bedroom because they couldn't use their kitchen to eat. Which, those conditions, it made conducting a thorough search incredibly difficult. But even during those initial observations, investigators noticed something else that stood out. The bathroom in all of this was remarkably clean. In a house that was otherwise packed with clutter and mess, this one room appeared spotless, which that immediately struck investigators as unusual. So while some detectives searched Nathan and Shauna's home, others continued examining

• 44:07Annie Elise?

  Becky's house for evidence. And in Becky's bedroom, they discovered a small amount of blood on the outer door frame. And the blood was confirmed to belong to Becky. But that wasn't the only important detail in all of this. Investigators also found fingerprints within the blood, and these fingerprints, they positively matched to Nathan. So at that point, detectives felt like they were looking at something far more significant than a simple missing person's case. Still though, they needed to move carefully and continue building evidence before jumping to conclusions. Now, I have to say, despite finding Becky's blood, investigators still hadn't given up hope that she might be alive.

• 44:51Annie Elise?

  At the time, investigators believed that Nathan and Shauna may have kidnapped her and that they were holding her somewhere else, but not that they would have killed her. Which that meant, that if that theory was correct, time was running out, they needed to find Becky. Detectives also suspected that the pair may have had help. I mean, after all, Becky clearly wasn't inside the house, so if Nathan and Shauna were involved in all of this, investigators believed that someone else could have also assisted in moving or hiding her. So that line of thinking ultimately led the detectives to another couple who were friends with Nathan and Shauna. Their names were Carl and Jay Dean.

• 45:31Annie Elise?

  And once investigators started looking into them, they uncovered another concerning detail. On February 23rd, Carl and Jay Dean had borrowed a van from one of their jobs. And then, at 2:19 in the morning the following day, CCTV footage captured the same van travelling from Nathan and Shauna's address on Cotton Mill Lane to Carl and Jay Dean's home on Barton Court. The footage showed the van pulling around to the rear of the property near a garden shed. Motion activated lights switched on as it arrived. And this detail really mattered, because investigators had already tried to contact Nathan and Shauna on February 23rd.

• 46:13Annie Elise?

  They knew that the police wanted access to the home, but remember, they didn't allow the detectives inside the home until the following day. So the timing in all of this, it immediately raised questions. I mean, what are the odds that after learning that the police want to search your property, but before that search actually happens, a van appears in the middle of the night at your house and seems to transport something away from the home? In the dead of night, right? Yet Nathan and Shauna continued maintaining their innocence. However, during the search, detectives found a receipt that had been tucked away inside one of their kitchen cabinets. And the receipt was dated the day after Becky disappeared, and it totaled to approximately

• 46:58Annie Elise?

  $136. And let's just say, that the items listed on this receipt, they were difficult to ignore. The purchase included a circular saw, gloves, a full face mask, and protective goggles. So, as you can imagine, when investigators saw that receipt, the possibility of Becky being alive still, it became much more difficult to believe. Because those aren't exactly the kind of items that you would expect someone to buy if they were only planning on kidnapping someone and keeping another person hidden somewhere. So now, detectives were increasingly concerned that Becky had been killed, and they were

• 47:40Annie Elise?

  worried that finding her alive was becoming less and less likely. Nathan and Shauna, though, still weren't cooperating. But investigators did eventually gain access to the garden shed behind Carl and Jay Dean's home, the other couple, the friends. So with that, during the early morning hours of March 3rd, the news that everyone had been fearing finally arrived.

• 48:04Speaker 03

  As a result of new information received late last night, we attended at a house at Barton Court in the Barton Hill area of Bristol. The information suggested that Becky's body had been cut up and a search at the new location resulted in the discovery of body parts.

• 48:25Speaker 03

  Although formal identification procedures have not yet been completed, we have made Becky's family aware of this discovery.

• 48:34Annie Elise?

  Becky had been found. This poor young girl had not only been kidnapped and murdered, but her body had been hidden inside a shed as though her life meant nothing. Becky's father later spoke out about the experience of seeing her body in the morgue, saying, "When we saw her in the morgue, that's when it really hit us. I mean, they did their best to cover up where he cut her up and things like that, but I could still see where he had decapitated her, and no parent should ever have to see that." As for the rest of Becky's family, they were completely devastated, just shattered. And one detail that makes this tragedy even harder to process, if you can believe it,

• 49:16Annie Elise?

  was that Becky was killed on her brother Dan's 20th birthday. So that kind of date becomes impossible to separate from the loss. On March 4th, Nathan was officially charged with Becky's murder. Shawna, his girlfriend, was initially charged with perverting the course of justice, although those charges would later change. Both were also charged with conspiracy to kidnap, preventing the lawful burial of a body, and possession of an illegal weapon. Nathan and Shawna's friends were arrested as well. And even though it seemed like the investigators had a pretty straightforward case against everyone involved, Nathan and Shawna still refused to confess.

• 49:59Annie Elise?

  Which, check out this clip of Shawna breaking down during a police interview.

• 50:06Speaker 04

  Is there anything else in relation to Becky's body being found at your house?

• 50:13Speaker 04

  The secret, um, found at my house, do you know where too, she was found?

• 50:20Speaker 04

  Would you know that? No. It was more of a curiosity.

• 50:25Annie Elise?

  Now, what stood out to me is that she wanted to know where Becky's body had been found. Not because she was devastated over what had happened to someone she had known for years, but because she was curious. Which, I mean, what, that's your question in all of this? Then, when Nathan started learning more about all the evidence that the investigators had uncovered, he apparently instructed his lawyer to ask the detectives whether they had found any blood upstairs inside his home. And to his surprise, they said yes. Which, the moment that he heard that, the innocent act, it pretty much evaporated. It seems like he realized the walls were closing in.

• 51:07Annie Elise?

  And that's when he finally began admitting what actually happened. Nathan told investigators that on the day that Becky disappeared, he strangled her to death. He then stabbed her body 15 times. Which, why you have to stab someone after you've already killed them? That's beyond me. Maybe it's to make sure that she's dead. Maybe it's because of the hatred he felt toward her. But, that's not a common thing to have happen in a case like that when somebody is already deceased. After that, he said that he transported her remains back to the home that he shared with Shawna. There, he dismembered her in the bathroom using that circular saw that he had purchased.

• 51:50Annie Elise?

  Now, one thing that really stood out about his confession was that he never really implicated Shawna. Instead, he attempted to shoulder all the responsibility himself. And many people believe that's because he had recently learned that Shawna was pregnant with his child. But investigators weren't buying it. They believed that Shawna had been involved from the very beginning. They had evidence placing her at Becky's house, evidence showing her with Nathan on CCTV, and evidence tying her to the events after the murder. So in their minds, this wasn't the story of one person acting alone. But Shawna, she was trying to protect Nathan too. She told investigators that she knew nothing about Becky's murder

• 52:35Annie Elise?

  and knew nothing about what Nathan had supposedly confessed to. According to Shawna, she was just simply a clueless girlfriend who had no idea what was happening around her.

• 52:47Speaker 04

  I know that you've said about, um,

• 52:50Speaker 04

  I wouldn't have any evidence on her, no, her skin cells or things like that. But, but that doesn't stop you from not, just because she might not have touched, but not knowing. I'm trying to rephrase this. That doesn't stop you from actually knowing that she was there?

• 53:13Speaker 04

  Again, I can, yeah, um.

• 53:16Speaker 04

  I suppose there's no reason that you should or shouldn't believe me. Um, I can just obviously tell you that I genuinely had no idea. I can't even look at him. I was sat in the courtroom today and I just wanted to, I say kill him, that's a bad choice of words.

• 53:34Speaker 04

  I felt sick looking at him, knowing what he did. And yeah, I didn't always like Becky, but she was a nice enough girl. She was so young.

• 53:46Annie Elise?

  Now, one question that investigators still couldn't fully answer was why. But they were about to answer that very question. And the answer, it wasn't what you might think.

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• 54:28Annie Elise?

  He knew that Nathan disliked Becky. He had made that crystal clear. But disliking someone and then murdering your own stepsister, I mean, those are two very different things. Unless you're Timothy Hudson in the Anna Kempner situation. But why go to these lengths? Why not simply distance yourself from someone that you don't get along with? Why kidnap her? Why kill her? Why carry out such an elaborate cover-up after the fact too? Not to mention, they weren't under the same household anymore. He lived on his own with his girlfriend. He was older. It's not like there was like this teenage battle between them for their mom's attention anymore. So Nathan's explanation, it didn't really clear things up at all. Because his explanation, he claimed he never even meant to kill Becky at all.

• 55:14Annie Elise?

  According to him, this entire thing started as a fake kidnapping that was designed to scare Becky into treating his mom, Angie, better. I know, it sounds insane, but take a listen to his confession.

• 55:28Speaker 05

  And also I came up with the idea to scare her. Because, like, to try and

• 55:36Speaker 05

  basically make her more appreciative of life, so she'd be more appreciative for other people. She'd be, like, grateful that, you know, she wasn't harmed or anything like that, you know?

• 55:52Speaker 05

  Because obviously, um, she'd leave things out on the floor for my mom to trip over. And obviously, we'd talk to her, um,

• 56:05Speaker 05

  like, say nasty comments and talk to her like dirt on the floor.

• 56:11Speaker 05

  And I thought if I was, you know, able to scare her,

• 56:18Speaker 05

  and obviously, her not be harmed, and obviously be released. Obviously, when she got back,

• 56:27Speaker 05

  she obviously would have been scared and more appreciative of things, as people are.

• 56:34Speaker 04

  Okay, so tell me what you thought you were gonna do? What your plan was?

• 56:41Speaker 05

  Obviously, stick her in the suitcase.

• 56:46Speaker 05

  Obviously, um,

• 56:50Speaker 05

  obviously put tape around her mouth so she wouldn't make any noise.

• 56:57Speaker 05

  I was thinking of, like, a wooded area, or whatever. To obviously take her back out, to obviously still have the mask on.

• 57:08Speaker 05

  And obviously, like, scare her and, you know, say some long lines of, you know, you've got to start treating people. Um, start treating people better, you know, not being a bitch or self-centered.

• 57:27Speaker 05

  Um, and then like make a threat of, um, you know, or this could happen again or worse, or something like that. And obviously,

• 57:45Speaker 05

  I hadn't figured out exactly how to obviously walk away, obviously walk away after without obviously if she'd try and follow, I'm assuming she wouldn't have followed because of our fear, he wouldn't want to follow someone who just obviously has done that and obviously would have come back.

• 58:05Speaker 05

  Well, I would have obviously um chucked away, obviously everything first and then come back.

• 58:12Speaker 05

  And obviously would have acted as normal. That come back to me mum's, obviously, acted as normal.

• 58:19Annie Elise?

  Now personally, I have a really hard time buying that explanation. According to Nathan, the plan was simply to put Becky in a suitcase, tape her mouth shut and frighten her. But that somehow that supposedly escalated and turned into strangulation, multiple stab wounds, decapitation and everything else that followed. So was this really a plan that spiraled out of control? Or was the fake kidnapping story just a half-assed attempt to minimize what actually happened? And what makes it even more disturbing is that Nathan knew being kidnapped or murdered was one of Becky's biggest fears. He knew that.

• 59:01Annie Elise?

  He also couldn't really explain when this supposed plan had come together.

• 59:06Speaker 04

  So when did you think all of this up?

• 59:11Speaker 05

  I can't be certain, I'm no good with dates.

• 59:16Speaker 05

  I've said this repeatedly in days, muddling to other days. I don't have a specific memory of coming up with it. But I remember thinking about it a couple of times.

• 59:28Speaker 05

  Just basically trying to think of ways to

• 59:32Speaker 05

  because she don't, she won't listen to me about leaving shit on the floor for my mum to trip up on. She doesn't listen to her dad about it.

• 59:42Speaker 05

  Just trying to find a way of making her actually listen.

• 59:45Annie Elise?

  Now, when I hear someone say that they had a plan, I assume that there was at least some level of preparation beforehand. Even if you don't remember an exact date, you should probably know whether the idea came to you a few days earlier, six months earlier, a year earlier. Unless, of course, this fake kidnapping explanation wasn't the truth and there was no plan. And what makes Nathan's confession even more interesting is that the blood that the detectives found in his house, the evidence that seemingly pushed him into confessing, it didn't even belong to Becky. Now, to be fair, the detectives never told Nathan that and never told him it belonged to her.

• 1:00:28Annie Elise?

  At that point, they were still waiting on test results. All they said was that they had found blood. So in the end, it was Nathan's own guilty conscience that gave him away. Now, when it came to their friends Carl and Jay Dean, the friends whose shed was being used to hide Becky's remains, the van that had been used, they insisted that they had no idea that a body was inside. According to them, they knew that Nathan and Shauna were storing something there, but they didn't know exactly what it was. Allegedly, investigators found text messages proving that Carl and Jay Dean knew that something had been placed inside the shed. However, in those messages, there was never any direct mention of a body.

• 1:01:10Annie Elise?

  Although I gotta say, the messages also showed discussions about receiving fifteen thousand dollars for allowing Nathan and Shauna to use the shed, along with conversations about what they planned to spend the money on. Some of the exchanges included, "All done?" "Not yet, babes." "Ah, okay. You gonna hide it for him? We could do a lot with the money, lol." "Cool, that's a deposit on a house, lol." I mean, obviously, they're not getting paid fifteen grand to store a vacuum and a couple U-Haul boxes in their shed. And saying, quote, "You gonna hide it for him?" Hide what, right? Hello?

• 1:01:49Annie Elise?

  So at this point, Carl and Jay Dean maintain they believed, now they knew what he was hiding, that Nathan was hiding drugs in the shed. Now, that's obviously still illegal, but it is very different from knowingly helping someone conceal the remains of a murdered sixteen-year-old girl. But it seems like now they were finally caught a little bit and admitting to the, knowing something illegal was happening and that this was a big payoff for a reason. Now, was that drug story true? Bleh, open to interpretation. So as investigators dug deeper into Nathan and Shauna's phones and social media accounts, they uncovered even more disturbing information.

• 1:02:30Annie Elise?

  And it ultimately helped prosecutors develop a theory about why Becky had been targeted and why they did this to her. It wasn't simply that Nathan disliked Becky and that he wanted her out of his family, out of his life. I mean, sure, that may have been part of it. But investigators believed that there was something more going on. Messages recovered from Facebook showed conversations between Nathan and Shauna involving fantasies about kidnapping young girls, keeping victims hidden in a home, violent sexual scenarios, and hardcore explicit videos and images. So those messages eventually helped shape the prosecution's theory that Becky's murder was sexually motivated.

• 1:03:14Annie Elise?

  And that the two of them, they had planned this crime as part of living out some sort of dark fantasy together. It was after those messages were discovered that Shauna's charges were then upgraded to murder. Now, of course, both Nathan and Shauna denied that interpretation. But remember how at the beginning of this case, they seemed completely united? They were protecting one another, they were covering for one another and presenting this very united front? Well, that didn't last long. Like we see in so many cases involving couples accused of serious crimes, that loyalty started disappearing once trial became a reality.

• 1:03:55Annie Elise?

  When proceedings began later in two thousand fifteen, they quickly turned against each other. Shauna claimed that she had been terrified of Nathan and that he abused her, threatened her, you know, countless things throughout their relationship. And honestly, some of what she described, it certainly sounds possible, given what we know about him. According to Shauna, Nathan would physically assault her, particularly during arguments. She also claimed that he frequently grabbed her by the hair and would sometimes briefly strangle her in order to intimidate her. She also said that he had isolated her from family and friends

• 1:04:36Annie Elise?

  and even pressured her to leave college after becoming jealous of different male friendships that she had formed there. Shauna further alleged that when she once tried to leave him, he got so upset that he grabbed a fork and he stabbed himself in the face. I mean, I'm glad he didn't stab her, but like what a freak to stab himself in the face. Now, as for the messages about kidnapping girls, the dark fantasies, all of those things, she argued that they were simply sarcastic and unfortunate, her direct quote. Now, whether any or all of that was true, investigators and prosecutors maintained that it didn't excuse any of her actions or her involvement in what happened to Becky

• 1:05:21Annie Elise?

  or the extensive efforts that were made to cover it up after the fact. And as for Nathan, he suddenly had plenty to say about Shauna as well. Nathan and some of his relatives, including his grandmother, compared Shauna to Lady Macbeth. They argued that she had actually been the dominant one in the relationship and that she was responsible for encouraging the dismemberment and the cover-up. When the trial finally concluded on November eleventh, two thousand fifteen, the jury deliberated for just three hours and twenty-seven minutes before reaching a verdict. Nathan was found guilty of murder. Shauna was found guilty of manslaughter.

• 1:06:03Annie Elise?

  Both were also convicted of conspiracy to kidnap, perverting the course of justice, preventing the lawful burial of a body and the possession of two stun guns. Nathan was later sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of thirty-three years. Shauna received a sentence of seventeen years. And when handing down those sentences, the judge stated that he agreed with the prosecution's theory that Nathan had murdered Becky all in order to fulfill a sexual fantasy. He also said that he believed that Shauna had been, quote, "persuaded to participate in the fixation."

• 1:06:39Speaker 03

  Matthews and Hall have never shown any remorse for their grotesque actions. And today's sentences reflect their refusal to take full responsibility for their callous crimes. Our thoughts remain with Becky's family and friends who have suffered unimaginable pain and distress over the past nine months.

• 1:07:00Annie Elise?

  As for their friends, Carl and Jay Dean, they were both convicted of assisting an offender. Carl received a two-year prison sentence while Jay Dean was sentenced to sixteen months. Years later, Nathan was attacked in prison, which I can't say I'm very upset by. Reports indicate that another inmate poured a jug of boiling butter over his face and neck. The inmate responsible had previously been in prison for killing a convicted sex offender back in two thousand eight. So seemed like maybe there was a hatred. I mean, you know how offenders don't bode well in prison, anyone who hurts children, they, they don't bode well in prison, so it seemed like jailhouse justice.

• 1:07:42Annie Elise?

  Nathan required medical treatment, but he was not seriously injured and he remains incarcerated today. Now, more recently, in two thousand twenty-three, Shauna was released after serving eight years in prison. Now, as for Becky's family and the people who loved her, it's hard to imagine a world where this doesn't still affect them every single day. You don't just move on from something like this, especially when the people responsible are members of your own family. Becky's father Darren has publicly said more than once that he wishes the absolute worst for Nathan. He even stated that if Nathan had received the death penalty, he would have personally carried it out himself.

• 1:08:24Annie Elise?

  Several other family members have also expressed similar feelings.

• 1:08:29Speaker 03

  Hate's not a powerful enough word, um, not even despise, um. You'll never, you'll never know the full damage of his actions. You'll never know the full damage of

• 1:08:44Annie Elise?

  The actions which he took afterwards. He's devastated so many lives. Now, as for Angie, this is what she had to say about her relationship with her son Nathan today.

• 1:08:56Speaker 03

  I still love him. I just find it hard looking at the monster he's turned into. He's totally different from the child I brought up.

• 1:09:11Annie Elise?

  It's unbearable for everybody involved, right? You don't want to believe that your own child is capable of such evil and such darkness. But then there, of course, as a parent, is still the part of you that loves them, which doesn't justify what they did, or excuse it, or condone it. But I would imagine you're conflicted. I just find it difficult for any of them involved to wrap their minds around what they once thought was this beautiful, blended, happy family, despite some challenges along the way, became this. And that's why I think that the fantasy part of all this was so real and valid as well. Because, again, Nathan was living outside of the house. It wasn't just this hatred for Becky anymore because she was taking away mommy's attention.

• 1:09:56Annie Elise?

  There was something else, I believe, more deeply rooted there. And you know what it kind of is giving? It's kind of giving Carla Homolka vibes, a little bit, at least to me. Which, if you're not familiar with that case, that's the Canadian couple. They killed her sister. He like would sexually assault young girls and they covered up for each other and they kind of got off on the fantasy of it. She tried to play the victim later, saying that she was scared of him, just like Shauna's saying, which, I don't know, maybe there's some validity in both of those stories. Who the heck really knows, right? But it's kind of giving that, like, to have a couple come together and target a family member in such a devious, brutal, and disgusting way, and then decapitate them.

• 1:10:40Annie Elise?

  A 16-year-old girl, that is a whole new level of darkness. And I'm wondering, too, like, what kind of resentment was there between Becky's dad and Angie? Obviously, it's not her fault, but if you're married to someone and their child did this to your child, surely there's some sort of friction or resentment towards your partner a little bit? Because it's their child who did this to your child, right? I don't know. I don't know how you would reconcile that. So my thoughts are with all the family members, all the friends, everyone who lost Becky and who was deeply affected by this, because it is just unspeakable.

• 1:11:21Annie Elise?

  And this is one of the major cases in the UK that has been requested. So if you live in the UK, because I know we got a lot of UK viewers here and listeners, let me know what you know about this case, too, being so close to it. And I'm curious to know your thoughts on it, and what does the community think about it? Thank you, guys, so much for tuning into another episode. Don't forget, really quickly, like the video, subscribe. If you're listening on the podcast, follow the podcast, all the things, free way to support the show. And I will be back with you next week with an all-new episode. Until then, stay safe. Bye.

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