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cup. There

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were two more murders 15 miles

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away. Police arrived. I found telephone

2:27

and electricity lines. We have a

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weird home scene described by one

2:31

investigator as reminiscent of a weird.

2:35

Cop of murder. Young

2:37

love can be a powerful thing

2:40

and in some cases a dangerous

2:42

thing too. On

2:45

April 13th, 2016, two

2:47

people paid the cost of young

2:49

love with their lives. So if

2:52

you let your coffee hot, but your bones chilled,

2:54

sit back and start your day with a

2:56

morning cup of murder. Elizabeth

3:00

Edwards was worried about her daughter. At 14

3:03

years old, Kim had a budding romance

3:05

with her very first boyfriend, Lucas

3:07

Merkham. But like most

3:10

parents fear, it wasn't a

3:12

relationship that Elizabeth grew too fond of, especially

3:14

after she noticed her daughter withdrawing from

3:16

both her family and her friends. Only

3:21

on the phone with her older daughter,

3:23

Kim's half sister, Mary Cottingham, who was

3:26

26 and both a wife and mother,

3:28

Elizabeth would often talk about her concerns

3:30

and everyone was getting worried about the

3:33

intensity of their relationship. Both

3:36

Kim and Lucas attended a school for

3:38

quote, difficult children and met when one

3:40

day she walked into

3:42

a classroom and saw him throwing a chair

3:44

in a fit of rage. Becoming

3:47

inseparable from that moment on, the two

3:49

young teens bonded over their troubled home

3:52

lives and comforted one another

3:54

through their issues. With

3:57

sources not really going into too much

3:59

detail on why Elizabeth

4:01

felt as though Lucas was trouble

4:04

and vowed to do what she could to try and

4:06

separate the pair. A move

4:08

that would prove incredibly deadly.

4:11

In what would later be called the

4:13

Twilight Murders, on April 11,

4:17

2016, Kim and Lucas made their first

4:19

attempt on Elizabeth's life, but

4:21

were foiled when Kim fell asleep before

4:23

letting her boyfriend into the home. So

4:27

her second attempt made the following night failed

4:29

as well, but on April 14, 2016,

4:33

Kim let Lucas enter their home in

4:35

spalding Lincolnshire, a bag filled with kitchen

4:37

knives stolen from his aunt's home in

4:39

hand, and set the

4:41

entire thing into motion. So

4:44

she herself could not go through with it, she

4:47

left Lucas to do her bidding. Quietly

4:50

entering her room while she slept, Lucas,

4:52

in a statement to police, claimed

4:54

he took one of those knives and, quote,

4:57

stabbed her in the neck where she was

4:59

sleeping on her side, and I

5:01

smothered her face with a pillow. Elizabeth

5:04

began fighting for her life, clawing

5:06

at her attacker's arms as he smothered her,

5:09

and, according to Kim, Lucas

5:12

sat on top of her mother with

5:14

the pillow over her head while she

5:16

screamed through a stabbed windpipe, Get

5:19

off of me. After

5:21

about 10 minutes of the 14-year-old boy

5:23

putting all his weight on the injured

5:25

woman, she took her last

5:27

breath and slumped into the bed. Also

5:31

in the home during all of this

5:33

was Kim's 13-year-old sister, Katie, Initially

5:35

planning on killing her as well and

5:38

taking their own lives last to

5:40

ensure that no one could ever separate them

5:42

again, Kim began having a

5:44

panic attack after the death of her mother and

5:47

Lucas, acting again on his own,

5:50

took the life of his girlfriend's sister while

5:52

she slept soundly in her bed. Later

5:55

telling the police, It

6:00

was her or the mattress and then

6:02

I smothered her face with a pillow too The

6:05

only survivor of the family massacre

6:07

was Mary Coddingham Saved only

6:09

because she was living away from home at the

6:12

time Kim would

6:14

later say that while she was excited to

6:16

kill her mother Claiming she

6:18

was quote looking forward to it She

6:21

said that she killed her sister because she thought it

6:23

would be better for her to die Even

6:26

saying that she missed her Changing

6:29

her initial plans when the couple finished

6:31

their deadly mission they got into a

6:33

bath together had sex in a

6:36

living room and snuggled up to

6:38

watch Twilight while eating ice cream a

6:41

perfect date in the midst of an absolute

6:44

bloodbath They stayed

6:47

inside the home doing couple things while

6:49

the bodies of Kim's mother and sister

6:51

lay bleeding in their beds It

6:54

wasn't until April 15th that after Mary's

6:56

calls went unanswered She

6:58

contacted Elizabeth's partner who arrived just in

7:00

time to watch the police place Kim

7:03

inside of a police cruiser Kim

7:06

and Lucas were reported missing from school

7:08

and officers forced their way inside and

7:10

found the horrific crime scene and There

7:13

in the middle of it all were

7:16

Kim Edwards and Lucas Markham simply watching

7:18

television Calm as can

7:20

be and completely blasé about the bodies

7:22

they were sharing a home with while

7:25

they were taken into custody police began searching

7:28

the home and Found in

7:30

Katie and Kim shared room a note

7:32

written by Lucas and Kim that was supposed

7:35

to be their suicide note It

7:38

spoke about how they wanted to be cremated

7:40

and have their ashes scattered in Lucas's

7:42

backpack there was bloody clothing and the

7:44

stolen knives and Nearby

7:46

was the bloody knife that was used

7:49

to kill his girlfriend's mother and

7:51

sister Back at

7:53

the station the couple showed no

7:55

remorse and very little emotion. In

7:58

fact when asked about the murders Kim

8:01

allegedly told the officers, quote, I

8:03

was okay with it. And that she

8:05

was happy Lucas killed her family because, quote,

8:09

my mom doesn't have to deal with me

8:11

being suicidal. And she doesn't have

8:13

to wake up worrying every morning and see if

8:15

I'm still alive. And my sister doesn't have to

8:17

go through all the heartbreak and

8:19

emotions and stuff. She

8:21

spoke openly about her feelings of neglect, claiming

8:24

her mother and sister had a close bond and

8:26

she felt as though she was relegated to

8:29

the sidelines. And said that

8:31

the murder was also revenge for how

8:33

she was treated. According

8:35

to the sources, things started getting bad for the

8:37

family back in 2008, when

8:39

Elizabeth hit then six year old Kim

8:42

in a domestic site. She

8:44

referred herself to social services, leaving Kim

8:46

and Katie to be placed in the

8:48

temporary care of others. But

8:51

the file was soon closed and things went back

8:53

to how they used to be. But

8:55

apparently the pair fought

8:57

constantly and Kim never felt

8:59

as though her mother cared about her, allegedly

9:02

telling her daughter that she would end up

9:04

just like her father, the man

9:06

who abandoned them when she was an infant. Things

9:10

only got worse between the pair when Lucas

9:12

Markham entered her life. The

9:14

disapproval got so bad that the pair

9:16

ran away from their respective homes, later

9:19

found sleeping in a forest. And

9:21

Kim, descending deeper into her depression,

9:25

attempted to take her own life by

9:27

overdosing on painkillers in March of 2016.

9:31

It was after that that the couple began

9:33

plotting the deaths of Kim's family members. With

9:37

detectives finding their nonchalance disturbing, the

9:39

pair were interviewed. And according to

9:42

criminologist David Wilson, both

9:44

demonstrated a quote, high level

9:46

of psychopathy and

9:48

that Kim's egocentric personality led

9:51

to her belief that in killing

9:53

her mother and sister, she was

9:55

doing them a favor. In

9:58

September of 2016, Luke Markham

10:00

pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but

10:03

this later changed to murder before his

10:05

actual trial. On October 10,

10:07

2016, now just 15 years old, he pleaded guilty again, this time

10:09

to the murder,

10:14

and Kim Edwards, who maintained her

10:16

innocence, pleaded guilty to manslaughter

10:18

on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

10:22

Her plea was rejected and a trial

10:24

date was set. Still

10:26

showing a deep lack of remorse

10:28

at the trial, not even for

10:30

the death of her little sister,

10:32

Kim Edwards was found guilty and

10:34

both were sentenced to 20 years in

10:37

prison. However, upon appeal,

10:39

both she and Lucas had their sentences

10:41

reduced to 17 and a half years.

10:44

They are among the UK's

10:46

youngest murderers and the

10:49

youngest double murderers. Thank

10:52

you for joining me in my morning cup of murder. Please

10:54

join me again tomorrow to hear what happened

10:56

on April 14th. Don't

10:59

forget to rate and subscribe and let me know how you like

11:01

it. If you want to help support

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the podcast, there is always Patreon or

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friends. And remember, stay

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