Killing for Love

30 March 1985, Lynchburg, Virginia. Derek and Nancy Haysom are stabbed to death in their house. Suspicion falls on their daughter Elizabeth and her boyfriend Jens Söring. The two flee to Europe, are caught and extradited. Elizabeth is given ninety years for incitement to murder and Söring two life sentences. The documentary is the result of three years of research and argues one thing openly: that Söring is innocent. It shows that none of the blood found at the scene was his, and that later DNA testing turned up traces of other men. The other side of the record stands too: Söring confessed to the killings himself at the start, the conviction has never been overturned, and when he was released in 2019 that was parole, not exoneration. The governor refused his request for a pardon. Karin Steinberger and Marcus Vetter directed it together. Daniel Brühl and Imogen Poots read the letters of Söring and Elizabeth.