Where Is Rose West Now? Inside Her Horrific Crimes with Husband Fred — and Why She’s the Only One Still Serving Time

Rose West has become known as one half of Britain’s most notorious serial killer couple.

Along with her husband, Fred West, the pair sexually assaulted and murdered at least a dozen young women, including two of their children. Over 20 years, they took part in gruesome acts of violence before dismembering bodies and burying them in and near their home.

The subjects of the Netflix docuseries Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story, which premiered May 14, evaded police for decades. Their crime spree did not stop until the early ’90s when one of their younger daughters confided in a friend about the abuse she faced from her parents.

An anonymous police report finally began an investigation into the couple, and although the initial charges were dropped, the whereabouts of their daughter Heather unearthed their life of crime. When authorities began investigating closely, they picked up on bizarre comments from the West children.

According to Gloucester police records, a long-running family joke that their missing sister was “under the patio” turned out to be unfortunately true. Rose and Fred had heinously murdered one of their kids, and a police excavation found her remains under the patio of their home.

So where is Rose West now? Here’s everything to know about the convicted serial killer who maintains her innocence today.

Who is Rose West?

Born Rosemary Letts in 1953, Rose grew up in North Devon, England. She was raised by her parents, Daisy and Bill, alongside her six siblings.

While Daisy was pregnant with Rose, she was treated with electroconvulsive therapy for her deep depression, which some believe led to Rose’s abnormal behavior as a child, often staring into space or banging her head, The Times reported.

According to Rose West: The Making of a Monster author Jane Carter-Woodrow, her father Bill also dealt with psychiatric issues, and it was likely that he had paranoid schizophrenia. Carter Woodrow told The Times that growing up, Rose was groomed and sexually assaulted by her father, and may have also been abused by her grandfather.

Rose was just 15 when she met Fred while standing at a bus stop in Cheltenham. Fred, 12 years her senior and divorced with two young children, immediately began pursuing Rose. It didn’t take long for Rose to become a nanny to the little girls — and for her relationship with Fred to turn romantic.

Who was Fred West?

By the time Rose met Fred, he had already begun his life of crime. Also from a troubled background, Fred alleged that he had been sexually abused by his mother and subjected to bestiality by his father, per The Times — although those claims were later shot down by Fred’s brother.

As a teenager, Fred suffered from multiple instances of head trauma, seemingly changing his personality. In one instance, Fred shattered his skull in a motorbike accident that left him unconscious for seven days, and on another occasion, he suffered brain damage after a fall.

In 1961, his 13-year-old sister Kitty accused him of raping and impregnating her, according to Fred and Rose: The Full Story of Fred and Rose West and the Gloucester House of Horrors. He was arrested and confessed to the crime, but just before the trial, Kitty declined to testify, and the case was closed.

The following year, he married his first wife, Catherine “Rena” Costello, who was pregnant with another man’s baby at the time. When Costello’s daughter Charmaine was born, Fred raised her as his own. The couple went on to welcome their own daughter, Anna Marie.

By the time Costello ended their marriage, the couple were living with a nanny, Isa McNeill, and her teenage friend Anne McFall. Although Costello and McNeill were able to escape Fred’s grip, McFall was infatuated with him and decided to stay. Charmaine and Anna Marie were also left behind.

Fast forward to 1967, McFall was 18 years old and eight months pregnant with Fred’s baby when she disappeared. Decades later, McFall’s body was found buried in a field, and Fred confessed to murdering her after an argument, according to Fred and Rose.

Around that same time, Fred met Rose, and in the years that followed, they became accomplices to different horrors.

When did Rose commit her first murder?

In October 1970, Rose gave birth to her first child with Fred, a daughter named Heather. Shortly after, Fred was arrested and sent to prison for the theft of car tires and a vehicle tax disc, per BBC.

While Fred spent six months in jail, a 17-year-old Rose was left in charge of Charmaine, Anna Marie and Heather. During that time, the girls were subject to physical and verbal abuse, according to Rose West: The Making of a Monster.

Still, Charmaine remained hopeful that her mother would rescue her, and this response upset Rose. Days before Fred was released from prison in June 1971, Rose killed 8-year-old Charmaine.

When Fred returned, he buried Charmaine’s body beneath the kitchen window at their home in Gloucester, according to BBC. The couple explained away Charmaine’s disappearance, saying she had gone to live with her mother.

Similarly, Costello vanished. Decades later, her dismembered body was found in a field a mile outside of the village where the family lived and close to McFall’s body, the outlet reported.

How many people did Rose and Fred kill?

Altogether, Rose and Fred are known to have been involved in the murders of 12 people over the course of several decades — though there may have been many more. Their murder spree began in 1973 shortly after the pair married.

The couple, who had increasingly become interested in sex involving bondage and brutality, lured vulnerable young women into their home to become their children’s nanny but quickly turned the tables on them.

They made their first attempt with hitchhiker Caroline Owens, offering her a part-time job to care for their children, according to BBC. But when Owens noticed Fred’s obsession with sex and his sexual advances toward her, she decided to leave. Several weeks later, Owens ran into the couple, who both sexually assaulted her.

The next day, Owens accompanied Rose to a laundromat and used it as an opportunity to escape. Owens’ mother then contacted the authorities, and the pair were arrested on several charges, including indecent assault. Their case went to court, but Owens was too traumatized by the experience to testify, and most of the charges were dropped. The couple were fined and faced no jail time.

Having gotten away with the attack on Owens, Rose and Fred continued their dark and twisted plans. Between 1973 and 1979, they were involved in the murder of eight women: Lynda Gough, Carole Ann Cooper, Lucy Partington, Therese Siegenthaler, Shirley Hubbard, Juanita Mott, Shirley Anne Robinson and Alison Chambers.

The majority of these women were known to be tortured in the moments leading up to their death and sexually assaulted. They were later dismembered and buried beneath the couple’s home.

Rose and Fred’s nine children were also victims of their parents. Throughout their lives, they were beaten, abused and repeatedly sexually assaulted. Between 1972 and 1992, their kids were admitted to the hospital on 31 occasions, although it was never reported to social services, per The Independent. While there were signs of trouble at home, including bruising and excessive school absences, it never escalated to a point where the family was investigated.

The couple’s final known act of violence was directly against one of their children, killing their daughter Heather in 1987. For years, Heather and her sister Mae had been the primary subjects of their father’s sexual attention and had been horrifically abused, per Rose West: The Making of a Monster. Although they were not allowed to tell anyone about their home life, Heather allegedly confided in school friends about the situation, which infuriated her parents.

Heather later dropped out of school and, desperate to escape her parents, she began applying for jobs away from home. She eventually received word that she had been rejected from a job as a maid at a resort. The following day, while her siblings were at school, she was murdered and buried under the patio. Her parents told their children that Heather had gone to seek out the job she was rejected from, but their story changed throughout the years.

How were Rose and Fred West caught?

In the years that followed Heather’s murder, Fred began sexually abusing his 13-year-old daughter Louise. She eventually confessed to a friend, whose mother made an anonymous report to police. The family’s home was subsequently searched, and Louise made a statement to police detailing the abuse she faced.

According to Fred and Rose, investigators also reached out to interview Anna Marie, who also spoke of the horrors she had faced when living with her father and stepmother. The children were examined by doctors, who confirmed the abuse allegations. In their initial investigations, it was also discovered that Costello, Charmaine and Heather were missing.

Both Rose and Fred were arrested in 1992 on numerous charges, including rape and cruelty to a child. Their five underage children were all placed in protective care. It began a long and extensive investigation process into the couple’s dark past and all the people who had died because of their abuse.

During initial interviews with Rose, she was asked about Heather’s whereabouts and claimed not to know where she went. Throughout questioning, her story changed, adding fake and contradictory details. Rose was eventually released on bail and moved back home, forbidden from seeing Fred. Meanwhile, Fred remained behind bars and was later transferred to a bail hostel while awaiting trial.

Although Anna Marie and Louise initially offered statements against their parents, they declined to testify when the case went to court in 1993. The case fell apart, and all charges against Rose and Fred were once again dropped, per Fred and Rose. But this time, one persistent investigator, Detective Constable Hazel Savage, did not give up, continuing to look into Heather’s disappearance.

With no tax or employment records to prove Heather was still alive and no missing person reports, investigators grew concerned. At the same time, social workers had picked up on comments made by the West children about a family joke that Heather was “under the patio.” During the summer of 1993, social workers contacted authorities about the concerning comments, per Gloucester police records.

After months of unsuccessfully trying to trace Heather, Detective Savage convinced senior officers to obtain a search warrant for 25 Cromwell Street. In early 1994, an excavation of the back garden began. Days later, Fred confessed to Heather’s murder, and soon after, her remains were uncovered.

Was Rose West charged with murder?

Following the discovery, Fred continued to be questioned, eventually admitting to the murder of several other people — but maintaining that his wife had nothing to do with the killings. Authorities did not believe his claims, and Rose was arrested on April 20, 1994.

In follow-up interviews, Rose alleged that she was a victim of her husband and was not involved in his crimes. Each time new remains were found, Rose was charged with another murder, per police records, but she continued to maintain her innocence.

On June 30, 1994, both Rose and Fred were brought before a magistrates’ court in Gloucester. Rose was ultimately charged with 10 counts of murder, while Fred was charged with 12, per CNN. The pair stayed behind bars for the next several months as their hearing was pushed to early 1995. Before he could go to trial, Fred died by suicide on Jan. 1, 1995.

Rose’s trial began in October 1995, and she pleaded not guilty to all charges of murder. On the stand, Rose painted herself as a victim of her husband and gave contradictory accounts of her relationship with Fred and their children.

Numerous people testified against Rose, including her stepdaughter Anna Marie, Rose’s mother Daisy and sister Glenys, as well as Owens, who had survived an early assault by the couple, per Fred and Rose.

Janet Leach, who had become a confidant of Fred’s as his court-appointed appropriate adult, also took to the stand, revealing that Fred had confessed that Rose “played a major part” in the murders. She added that prior to being arrested, the couple had made a pact that Fred would take responsibility for the murders.

The trial lasted seven weeks and Rose was found guilty of all 10 counts of murder. She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Where is Rose West now?

Rose is currently serving her life sentence at HM Prison New Hall, a female and juvenile prison in West Yorkshire, England.

She has maintained her innocence over the past three decades, and after her sentencing, she filed an appeal, which was turned down. She then turned to the Criminal Cases Review Commission in 2000, but later dropped the appeal in the hopes of “reconciliation” with her family, per The Independent.

The home where Rose and Fred committed the majority of their murders at 25 Cromwell Street was demolished in October 1996.

As of 2011, The Times reported that Rose spends her free time listening to music, playing board games and teaching cross-stitching to fellow prisoners. She has been transferred to several different prisons, at one point being forced to move after a plot to kill her was uncovered.