German double-murderer celebrates homecoming after decades in US jail
- Jens Soering maintains he admitted to the murders of his Canadian girlfriend’s parents in 1986 to spare her from being sentenced to death
- The 53-year-old son of a diplomat was released on parole by officials in the state of Virginia and banned from ever returning to the United States
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In an emotional return to his home country, Soering was welcomed by friends who he said had backed him in his battle to be free.
“I’m so happy to be in Germany after 33 years in prison in the US,” he told journalists in a short statement at Frankfurt Airport.
Asking for some space to “settle back into my life”, Soering added that he would “need some time” away from the media spotlight.
Imprisoned in 1986, Soering was serving a life sentence after having been convicted of killing the parents of his girlfriend, Elizabeth Haysom, who herself was jailed for complicity in the murders.
Haysom’s parents’ bodies were found in 1985, riddled with knife slashes.
Aged 18 at the time of the crime, Soering first admitted to the killings, which he said he had carried out because the couple disapproved of his relationship with their daughter.
He later retracted the confession, saying he had admitted to the murders to spare his girlfriend from being sentenced to death. He had thought that he would benefit from diplomatic immunity as the son of a diplomat.
The brutal murders shocked Germany and the US, and the young couple were the key suspects from the beginning.
