Susan Whiting murder: How an innocent sleepover turned into a brutal murder
Vulnerable Susan Whiting had arrived at the bungalow of her friend Julie Beards for a sleepover but around 48 hours later she was found brutally murdered at the Black Country home.
The 20-year-old student from Station Street, who had a learning impairment, was expecting to make popcorn, loom bands and watch DVDs.
But instead she was drugged, raped by Julie's husband Steven, who then strangled her and delivered three fatal hammer blows to her head.
The victim's mother Maureen Whiting, who adopted her at the age of three, had dropped her off at the Walsall bungalow in Heather Close, Bloxwich, on Sunday, August 16. The last time she saw her daughter was walking away with her One Direction backpack on.
But when she returned to pick her up the next day Julie lied telling her Susan had already left. She called the police and a full scale search was launched. Investigators caught up with Steven, 34, previously of Rowland Avenue, and Julie, 36, who both repeated that the Walsall Adult and Community College student had left on the morning and they had been out looking for her.
Steven originally told officers he had not stayed at the bungalow on Sunday night.
But after reviewing CCTV it became clear to police Susan had never left the bungalow. PC Georgia Shields discovered her body underneath a divan bed. Her half naked corpse had been wrapped in a shower curtain and garden netting, while a black bag covered her head and her hands and feet were bound by cable ties. The Beards' were arrested immediately on suspicion of murder. Forensic investigators put up two tents while access to Heather Close was restricted. It was not long before officers began stockpiling evidence against the married couple including a hammer, believed to be the murder weapon, which had traces of Susan's blood on the end while Steven's DNA was found on the handle and Julie's on the claw. But examination of Susan's body revealed even more chilling details of the killing. Sedating hypnotic drug Zopiclone was found in her system suggesting she had been drugged, and further tests confirmed Steven had had sex with her. A count of rape was swiftly added to the charges against him.
As the couple were being transported to Wolverhampton Magistrates' Court in the back of a police van, Steven was covertly recorded and heard pleading to his wife to 'tell them I wasn't there'. As the investigation advanced, details about the pair's tumultuous marriage emerged. They had met in a hostel before tying the knot shortly after in 2007. But the honeymoon period soon ended as the couple lived in a tent together for three years. Eventually they moved in with Steven's brother Gary who said he kicked his sibling out after he walked in on him crushing drugs into a powder in a bid to drug Julie after they had split up before discovering rope tied to four corners of the bed they had been sleeping in. Julie is considered vulnerable herself suffering with learning difficulties.
In 2012 she filed for divorce claiming her husband had pushed her into a road trying to kill her. She made other allegations that her controlling spouse raped her.
After Julie came to live at Heather Close, where Steven would also stay illegally, she befriended neighbour Matthew Herbert. It was he that was prescribed Zopiclone to help him sleep although he stopped taking it letting boxes stack up.
Mr Herbert's carer Anthony Moore recalled during the period that he would often feel uncontrollably tired after Julie made him coffees. Prosecutors have argued that she was in fact 'experimenting' with the drug on her friend before preparing to use it on Susan. They asserted her friendship with the person she called 'sis' had cooled and Julie had become jealous of her spending time with other people.
Prosecutors said the plot would be to lure Susan to the home on August 16 and kill her while Steven's 'reward' would be that he would get to rape her first.
In the aftermath, Julie told police she simply came out of the shower on the Monday morning to discover her husband over the dead body. She claimed she helped him clean up the scene out of fear of reprisal. Steven argued he left the bungalow on the Sunday night to revise for his driving theory test while he slept rough.
He said another person must have killed Susan framing him by using a pot of his semen he left in the bathroom to become a sperm donor.
A jury sitting at Leicester Crown Court found Steven guilty of the murder and rape of Susan Whiting but the jury was today still considering its verdict on Julie.