Jens Soering and Elizabeth Haysom | False Confession for Love?

[00:00:00] We all have that friend who wakes up early to go get everyone McDonald's breakfast for the rest of us, sleep in.

[00:00:07] This is your sign to thank them and if you're that friend, this is us saying, thank you.

[00:00:14] Just a friendly reminder that right now, get any size iced coffee before 11am for just 99 cents.

[00:00:20] And the satisfying sausage McMuffin with egg is just 279.

[00:00:25] Price and participation may vary cannot be combined with any other offer or combo meal.

[00:00:31] In this is True Crime Psychology and Personality where we discuss the pathology behind some of the most horrific crimes and those who committed them from a scientifically informed perspective.

[00:00:49] I'm Dr. Todd Grande, I have a Ph.D. in Councilor Education and Supervision and I'm a licensed professional counselor of Mental Health.

[00:00:58] I'm Dr. Todd Grande, that's my YouTube channel.

[00:01:01] Today's question is can I analyze the case of Yens Soaring and Elizabeth Hason?

[00:01:08] First I'll look at the background this case, I'll move to the timeline of the crime then offer my analysis.

[00:01:14] Yens Soaring was born in Thailand in 1966. His father was a mid-level German diplomat.

[00:01:22] His parents moved to Cyprus a year after he was born and spent five years there, then they moved to Germany.

[00:01:29] At age 11 his family moved to Detroit, Michigan.

[00:01:33] Yens was academically gifted in 1984. He was admitted to the University of Virginia on a full scholarship.

[00:01:41] This same year he met a 20-year-old Canadian citizen and fellow student named Elizabeth Hason.

[00:01:49] She was the daughter of two wealthy Canadian parents, Derek and Nancy, who lived in a neighborhood called loose chippings in Boonsboro, Virginia near Lynchburg.

[00:02:00] Derek was a retired steel executive, Nancy, who was about 19 years younger than her husband, was a socialite and a relative of Nancy Astor, otherwise known as Lady Astor.

[00:02:14] Elizabeth had some trouble with her behavior growing up. Her parents sent her to boarding school in England, but she ran away and traveled around Europe for five months.

[00:02:23] She engaged in a good deal of sexual activity and used a lot of drugs. Her parents eventually convinced her to come back to the United States and Elizabeth enrolled at the University of Virginia.

[00:02:35] Elizabeth told Yens that her parents were horrible and manipulative. Her father mistreated her and her mother disrespected her father.

[00:02:44] Derek and Nancy were not fans of Yens. They didn't think he was appropriate for their daughter and pressured Elizabeth to get rid of him.

[00:02:53] This only strengthened the resolve of Elizabeth and Yens.

[00:02:58] The couple wrote letters to one another. They were highly philosophical at times. They talked about how they were both very intelligent and they had a shared destiny.

[00:03:08] Their superiority allowed them to disregard morality. The couple started to invest in this idea of murdering Derek and Nancy.

[00:03:18] According to Yens, some of the early ideas included building a radio-controlled car bomb, sabotaging the breaks of their vehicles and setting their house on fire.

[00:03:30] At first it was like a game but then the discussions became serious. Eventually Elizabeth and Yens developed a plan they could agree on.

[00:03:40] Now moving to the timeline of the crime. On March 30, 1985, Yens and Elizabeth rented a car and drove from Charlottesville, Virginia to Washington, D.C.,

[00:03:51] the college campus wasn't Charlottesville. They checked into a Marriott hotel. Elizabeth purchased two movie tickets and room service for two people.

[00:04:01] She signed the name of her boyfriend on the receipt and she made telephone calls during which she pretended to be talking to Yens.

[00:04:08] As this was going on, Yens drove the rental car to the home of Elizabeth's parents in Boonsboro, Virginia.

[00:04:15] This is a distance of about 188 miles, takes about four hours to drive. Derek and Nancy were surprised to see Yens. They had never visited the house before.

[00:04:26] They let him in and prepared a place at the table so he could eat. According to Yens, the hasoms were drinking and he had a few drinks as well.

[00:04:36] He needed the courage. The encounter was initially peaceful, but then turned into a screaming match. Yens stabbed Derek with a knife 36 times and cut his throat.

[00:04:48] Derek was nearly decapitated. Yens then churned his attention to Nancy, stabbing her six times and cutting her throat.

[00:04:56] Yens sustained an injury to his left hand during the murders. Yens removed all this clothing, which was bloody and placed them on a garbage bag.

[00:05:05] He attempted to clean up the crime scene. Some of the blood he just smeared around in order to hide fingerprints.

[00:05:12] After walking out of the front door, he realized the front porch light was still on and walked back in the house.

[00:05:18] But he couldn't find the switch as it was located in the master bedroom.

[00:05:23] At some point he put the garbage bag full of his clothing in a dumpster. Yens drove back to Washington, D.C.

[00:05:31] Three days later on April 3, the bodies of Derek and Nancy were discovered by a family friend. The police were notified.

[00:05:38] They noticed that there was no sign of forced entry. Nothing had been stolen and no assault of a sexual nature had taken place.

[00:05:47] It could not find any fingerprints other than from people who would normally have been at the house.

[00:05:52] But they did find a bloody sock print in the house and bloody footprints on the driveway. None of the prints were high quality enough to facilitate an identification.

[00:06:03] Initially Elizabeth and Yens were not suspects, but then the police learned about how Elizabeth had rebelled against her parents.

[00:06:11] During an interview of Elizabeth, the police found her behavior to be strange.

[00:06:16] A witness at a reception after the Hacem's funeral noticed that Yens had bandages on his fingers and a bruise on his face.

[00:06:24] The police checked into the alibi of Elizabeth and Yens. They found it peculiar that the rental car records indicated the vehicle had been driven 669 miles.

[00:06:37] Charlottesville is only about 116 miles from Washington, D.C., so the round trip should have been about 232 miles.

[00:06:46] The couple explained the additional miles by saying they kept getting lost. I guess they made a wrong churn or a couple of hundred wrong churns.

[00:06:55] They would have people believed they were driving lost for over eight hours at highway speeds.

[00:07:01] The rental car was examined, but no useful physical evidence was found in the vehicle.

[00:07:06] Over time, the police eliminated every other suspect. They kept coming back to the idea that Elizabeth and her boyfriend were involved.

[00:07:15] The couple did not change their story. They said they were in Washington, D.C., in that hotel.

[00:07:22] After one interview, the police asked Yens for samples of his blood, fingerprints and footprints. His response to this request made him look guilty.

[00:07:33] On October 13, he wiped all the fingerprints from his vehicle and apartment, emptied his bank accounts, and fled the country.

[00:07:41] Elizabeth was not far behind him. They traveled around Asia and Europe for several months, committing low-level crimes and taking various jobs.

[00:07:51] On April 30, 1986, the couple was arrested for fraud in London. But the authorities didn't know that they were wanted for murder because they were using aliases.

[00:08:02] The police asked Yens where he lived, and for some reason he told them. After conducting a search of the apartment, the police found a German passport belonging to Yens and a travel diary.

[00:08:15] It contained what appeared to be references to an unspecified violent crime and statements that made it seem like the couple was trying to evade the authorities.

[00:08:25] When confronted with this information, Yens confessed to the murders. He supplied details that only the killer could have known but other parts of his confession were inconsistent with the crime scene.

[00:08:38] Like he said, the Nancy was wearing jeans when she was actually wearing a housecoat. He claimed that he did not plan to kill the haisums, rather he killed them due to his consumption of alcohol and extreme emotions.

[00:08:51] He was disoriented and confused. He didn't know what he was doing.

[00:08:56] He admitted that he cut their throats, but said that another unknown assailant must have stabbed them. Yens and Elizabeth were both indicted for the murders.

[00:09:05] In 1987, Elizabeth pleaded guilty to two counts of accessory to murder before the fact.

[00:09:12] Yens was sentenced to 45 years in prison on each count to be conserved consecutively. Yens decided to fight extradition the United States. In 1989, he was victorious.

[00:09:24] It could not be extradited if Virginia planned on executing him. Soring versus the United Kingdom became a landmark case. Virginia promised they would not seek the debt penalty which led to his extradition.

[00:09:39] We all have that friend who wakes up early to go get everyone McDonald's breakfast for the rest of us sleeping. This is your sign to thank them and if you're that friend, this is us saying thank you.

[00:09:52] Just a friendly reminder that right now, get any size iced coffee before 11 a.m. for just 99 cents and to satisfy in sausage McMuffin with egg is just $279.

[00:10:03] Price and participation may vary cannot be combined with any other offer or combo meal.

[00:10:09] My name is Bill Huffman and I am a former Cleveland news producer and I am now the host of the podcast Who Killed.

[00:10:16] I began the show focusing on the unsolved murder of Amy Mahalovic. And now each week, I explore a different case with a focus on some of the victims who don't get the attention they deserve.

[00:10:28] I have a deep catalog of over 225 episodes so there is a guarantee there will be something for you.

[00:10:36] Who killed as an evergreen podcast killer podcasts and slow burn media production subscribe today wherever you get your favorite shows in 1990.

[00:10:47] Yens was tried in Virginia for two counts of first degree murder. He testified that Elizabeth was actually the killer.

[00:10:54] He had falsely confessed to the crime when in the United Kingdom. He was simply trying to protect her from the death penalty.

[00:11:02] He thought that he would be convicted in Germany and get a light sentence which would not be uncommon there. Then he would move back to the United States and reunite with Elizabeth.

[00:11:12] The jury only needed a few hours to convict Yens. He was given two consecutive life sentences with the possibility of parole.

[00:11:21] In 2019, both Elizabeth and Yens were granted parole. Elizabeth was deported to Canada and Yens was deported to Germany.

[00:11:30] Now moving to my analysis. Yens has been described as argumentative, immature, gullible, sexually inexperienced, arrogant and manipulative.

[00:11:40] He has above average intelligence and no history of mental health symptoms.

[00:11:45] A mental health clinician who interviewed him believed that his behavior might have resulted from shared psychotic disorder otherwise known as Fulbia Du.

[00:11:56] The clinician believed that the time of the murders, Yens was substantially impaired and should probably be convicted of manslaughter rather than murder.

[00:12:05] Obviously the jury in Virginia disagreed. I find these shared psychotic disorder theory interesting because it presumes that both Elizabeth and Yens were psychotic but there's no indication that they were.

[00:12:18] According to Yens, when he first met Elizabeth, she was obsessed with her desire to have orgasms with no regard for his needs.

[00:12:27] He claimed that they would have her longed sessions where he would perform oral sex on her. They did not have traditional intercourse until after her parents had been murdered.

[00:12:38] Before he was extradited, his defense strategy was essentially to prove that he had diminished capacity.

[00:12:44] Elizabeth was in control, she was incredibly persuasive, she recognized that he was not attractive and that he would consider himself fortunate to be with her, she didn't need him but he did need her.

[00:12:57] She told him stories about how terrible her parents were and he believed her.

[00:13:02] Yens lost his sense of identity, it became wrapped up in Elizabeth. He was not willing to lose her, he had no other way to engage in sex with another person.

[00:13:14] He would have done anything to keep her even kill.

[00:13:18] At some point Elizabeth gave him an ultimatum, either he killed her parents or she was leaving.

[00:13:25] After his extradition, Yens changed his story. Virginia didn't allow diminished capacity as defense.

[00:13:33] So Yens claimed that Elizabeth committed the crime and he took the fall because he loved her.

[00:13:38] Yens has been able to convince a large number of people that he is innocent and Elizabeth is guilty.

[00:13:45] Another group of people that believed that Yens simply would not be convicted today based on the evidence.

[00:13:51] So not all of them necessarily believe he is truly innocent.

[00:13:55] His advocates include actor Martin Sheen, writer John Grissom, music producer Jason Flom and a sheriff from Virginia.

[00:14:04] Of course there are many people who believe he is guilty and would be convicted today if he were retried.

[00:14:11] Each group calls the other group, callable. This takes me to the question, was Yens soaring actually guilty or did Elizabeth Hayesom commit the crime alone or with other conspirators?

[00:14:24] It seems clear that either Yens or Elizabeth must be guilty and of course they could both be guilty but there's no scenario where they are both not guilty.

[00:14:34] Let's take a look at the factors both foreign against the idea that Yens is guilty starting with the incomplatory evidence.

[00:14:41] Yens had a motive, the timeline and rental car miles are compatible with either of them being the killer.

[00:14:48] Yens admitted that he was the killer. He described much of the crime scene accurately, a witness noticed injuries to his hand in face.

[00:14:57] He was physically capable of committing murder, they're equated the same as Yens.

[00:15:02] Yens was obsessed with Elizabeth, she clearly had a contentious relationship with her parents.

[00:15:08] In his confession, Yens described how he re-entered the house after the murders in an attempt to find the switch for that front porch light.

[00:15:18] This is consistent with the bloody sock prints showing that somebody walked out of the house and then walked back in.

[00:15:26] If Elizabeth was there, she would have known where the switch was. She had spent quite a bit of time there.

[00:15:33] Now moving to the ex-culpatory factors. Yens incorrectly described the position of the bodies and what Nancy was wearing.

[00:15:41] There was a small amount of typo blood found in the house. This was used against Yens in his trial but later the N.A. test showed the blood did not belong to him.

[00:15:53] There is a dispute as to whether it belonged to Derek Asam or came from unidentified donors.

[00:15:59] The bloody sock print that was used against him looked to be about a size 7 but Yens wore a size 8.5.

[00:16:08] The bloody footprints in the driveway were more consistent with a woman's feet as far as size.

[00:16:15] During his confession, it was an interesting exchange with the detective. The detective said to him,

[00:16:21] would you consider under those circumstances taking into account your answer, leading guilty to something you didn't do?

[00:16:30] Yens responded, would I consider doing that? Yes. I can't say for sure right now but I can see. I can see it happening yes.

[00:16:40] I think it is a possibility. I think it happens in real life. This made it seem like he was hinting that his confession could be false.

[00:16:49] Over 25 years after the murders, a mechanic came forward who claimed Elizabeth and a man who was not Yens, dropped off a car for him to repair.

[00:16:59] It had blood and a knife in it. I don't think this is particularly ex-culpatory because the witness does not appear to be credible.

[00:17:07] It's hard to believe that it would take him over 25 years to come forward and it's tough to believe that if Elizabeth and a conspirator had just killed her parents,

[00:17:16] they would give the car to somebody without cleaning it.

[00:17:20] When considering all the evidence, do I think Yens was guilty? Yes, I think he was guilty in reality and beyond a reasonable doubt.

[00:17:29] I believe Elizabeth wanted her parents dead and conspired with Yens to do it. He actually carried out the murders but they are equally guilty.

[00:17:39] Even though I don't put as much weight on confessions as many juries do, the confession in this case is fairly convincing.

[00:17:46] Many people who advocate for Yens focus on the fact that there is no physical evidence tying him to the crime scene. They do have a good point.

[00:17:54] Do I think that there is a reasonable doubt that Yens was in the house? Yes, but that's academic.

[00:18:00] He was in a conspiracy to commit murder one way or the other.

[00:18:04] Even if the roles of Yens and Elizabeth were switched like he was the one at the hotel maintaining the alibi and she was the one who committed the murders physically,

[00:18:14] nothing really changes as far as guilt.

[00:18:17] Moving to the next question, what were the thoughts, feelings and personality factors that led to these murders?

[00:18:23] I think this was simply a case of manipulation, probably fueled by narcissism.

[00:18:29] Yens had no idea how to survive in a romantic relationship.

[00:18:33] Elizabeth was much more experienced. She knew that he would be desperate and would follow her instructions.

[00:18:40] Elizabeth wanted a life of adventure and crime. Yens wanted Elizabeth.

[00:18:46] The contempt that Elizabeth's parents had for Yens only played into Elizabeth's manipulation.

[00:18:53] I think this was a case where both offenders were self-centered and had lack of empathy.

[00:18:58] Everything was about them and nobody else's feelings mattered.

[00:19:03] Now moving to my final thoughts. One of the most remarkable parts of this case is how so many Hollywood people have taken the side of Yens.

[00:19:12] I think skepticism about the justice system is warranted and it's good that there are people looking out for the wrongly convicted.

[00:19:21] But in this instance, I think they selected a guilty person to defend.

[00:19:26] Again, at a minimum, one of the two convicted people was guilty.

[00:19:31] Why would they choose Elizabeth over Yens as the one who physically committed the murder?

[00:19:37] The simplest explanation is that Yens was guilty.

[00:19:41] These celebrities have been willing to overlook obvious problems with this story.

[00:19:46] I think what may have happened here for some of these celebrities is that they identify with Yens, an intelligent young man with limited social skills who was manipulated by an attractive young woman.

[00:20:00] This story resonated with many people. They had empathy for the position that Yens was in.

[00:20:08] I find it ironic that the reason for their advocacy, at least in part, is emotional reasoning, the same factor that motivated the homicides in the first place.

[00:20:19] This exemplifies how emotional reasoning is dangerous no matter where it is placed.

[00:20:31] This has been True Crime Psychology and Personality from R's Lunga Media.

[00:20:37] This content is for educational and entertainment purposes only. R's Lunga Vita Brebis.

[00:20:50] You know how to book flights in hotels. All you're missing is a tool to plan the travel experiences you'll have once you arrive.

[00:20:57] That's why you need Viator. Book guided tours, activities, excursions and more in one place to make your trip truly unforgettable.

[00:21:06] Viator has over 300,000 travel experiences to choose from. Everything from simple tours to extreme adventures and all the niche, interesting stuff in between.

[00:21:16] So you can plan something that everyone you're traveling with will enjoy.

[00:21:20] People Traveler Reviews give the Insight scoop from people who've already been on the experiences you're considering.

[00:21:26] So you can plan with confidence. Freakancellation helps you plan for the unexpected and 24-7 customer support means you can travel worry free.

[00:21:35] Download the Viator app now and use code Viator10 for 10% off your first booking in the app. Find travel experiences for you. Do more with Viator.