Till Murder Do Us Part: Who is Jens Soering and where is he now?
TILL Murder Do Us Part: Soering vs Haysom is a new Netflix series that examines the deaths of Derek and Nancy Haysom.
In 1985, Jens Soering was charged with the murder of his girlfriend’s parents.
Who is Jen Soering?
Jen Soering was born in Bangkok, Thailand on August 1, 1966.
He moved to the United States in 1977 and graduated from The Lovett School in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1984.
He then attended the University of Virginia where he entered into a relationship with fellow student Elizabeth Haysom.
Who is Elizabeth Haysom?
Elizabeth Haysom is the child of Derek William Reginald Haysom, a steel executive, and Nancy Astor Benedict Haysom, an artist.
She was born in April 1964 and attended boarding schools in Switzerland and England.
She then enrolled at the University of Virginia, where she met Jen.
Haysom served 32 years of a 90-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of accessory to the murder of her parents.
She, along with Soering, were paroled in November 2019, but not pardoned.
Haysom was released from prison to the custody of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement before she was deported to her home country of Canada in 2020.
What was Jens Soering convicted of?
Jen, in 1990, was convicted of murdering Derek and Nancy Haysom.
He pleaded not guilty and said he made a false confession to protect Haysom.
However, he was tried for two counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
In 2019, he was granted parole after his previous requests were rejected a total of fourteen times – almost 20 years after his conviction.
In a statement, board chair Adrianne Bennett said (according to USA Today): “The parole board has determined that releasing Jens Soering and Elizabeth Haysom … is appropriate because of their youth at the time of the offences, their institutional adjustment and the length of their incarceration.
“The release and permanent expulsion from the United States is an enormous cost-benefit to the taxpayers of the Commonwealth of Virginia and we have determined that their release does not pose a public safety risk to the community.”
Where is Jens Soering now?
Soering claimed he made a false confession to protect Haysom, though he was given two counts of first degree murder in 1990 and then sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
Following Soeing’s release, he was deported back to Germany and is barred from returning to America.
He is also banned from contacting the victim’s family including Haysom.
As of 2019, Soering is estranged from his father and brother and said he had plans to turn his case into a motivational speech on resilience.
“I came through this pretty well, I think,” he said. “They didn’t break me. … I was a free man who was imprisoned against his will, and I fought my way out.”
As of 2023, Soering still claims his innocence.