Speaker 1: For a teenager struggling to find their place in the world,
Speaker 1: friendships and acceptance can mean everything. But in a case
Speaker 1: when a small group began accusing one young teenager among
Speaker 1: them of things that she hadn't done, while, it soon
Speaker 1: turned into something far more dangerous. Over the course of
Speaker 1: several days, she would ultimately be held prisoner inside a
Speaker 1: house where the people around her subjected her to escalating
Speaker 1: acts of cruelty and torture beyond anyone's darkest imagination. This
Speaker 1: is the horrifying and true story of sixteen year old
Speaker 1: Suzanne Capper.
Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked
Speaker 2: and Grim, a true crime podcast.
Speaker 1: The following podcast your audience list Ah, there you go,
Speaker 1: There I go.
Speaker 2: I'm struggling, struggling a little bit with the fact that
Speaker 2: our house legitimately smells like chocolate chip freshly baked cookies
Speaker 2: to me, but there's none of that in sight. I
Speaker 2: think I'm having like food cravings from our healthy eating.
Speaker 1: You're going bonkers. I think definitely. We had salmon and
Speaker 1: rice for dinner, which, oh, maybe it's.
Speaker 2: The co I make coconut rice, So maybe it's the
Speaker 2: coconut maybe I don't know, but it's really annoying because
Speaker 2: it smells freaking amazing. But I don't get to eat
Speaker 2: a chocolate chip cookie.
Speaker 1: All I smell is the fish being from like the
Speaker 1: residual fish smell from cooking fish. And then you have
Speaker 1: like an oil, like an essential oil you put on,
Speaker 1: like the peppermint oil. That's all I smells those two things.
Speaker 1: It's just peppermint e fish.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, I'm definitely vibing a bit better over here
Speaker 2: then with the smells.
Speaker 1: For sure, I'm not exactly unless like Girl Guides have
Speaker 1: just come out with a weird new limited edition cookie.
Speaker 1: I think I'm just out to lunch on what I'm
Speaker 1: smelling as far as cookies go.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: I can say one thing, though, I hope you guys
Speaker 1: have a nice drink, handy, a comfort drink, whether it
Speaker 1: is alcohol or hot chocolate or coffee. You need a
Speaker 1: comfort drink for this story, in my opinion, because it
Speaker 1: is heavy. Heads up on that right now.
Speaker 2: It's okay, I mean, aren't they all to some degree?
Speaker 1: Right? They are? But the nice thing is to when
Speaker 1: you unpack a story like this, you can also go
Speaker 1: over to our Patreon, like our patrons did who signed
Speaker 1: up this week, So shout out to Leandre Thomas, Maddie Whitten, Nellie,
Speaker 1: Amy will Cox, Joey and Phyllis, Carrie Strund and Rachel Randall.
Speaker 1: They all signed up for Patreon so when they do
Speaker 1: hear a story like this, they can also go over
Speaker 1: on the Patreon see our exclusive behind the scenes get
Speaker 1: the extra exclusive episodes as well.
Speaker 2: So just I was gonna say they can cool over
Speaker 2: there for moral.
Speaker 1: Support moral support as well. Yes, that's true. There's not
Speaker 1: only getting to chat with us, but also the community
Speaker 1: of patrons over there who tend to decompress after cases
Speaker 1: like this in the chat.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's a good group of people.
Speaker 1: It is. I love it over there. But as I
Speaker 1: mentioned though, I really do hope you have a drink, candy.
Speaker 1: You don't have anything.
Speaker 2: I have nothing, so I'm regretting my life decisions.
Speaker 1: Do you need to do? You need to take a
Speaker 1: second and get something?
Speaker 2: Maybe? Yeah, there's some wine?
Speaker 1: Actually, okay, go pour glass of wine. We're gonna hit
Speaker 1: a quick pause. We'll be back in three two one
Speaker 1: and we're back in. Nicole has wine. I sure, do you?
Speaker 1: What are you drinking.
Speaker 2: What is it? It's eight Generation, my favorite winery. It's
Speaker 2: dang good.
Speaker 1: Okay, but what's the wine? You just tell me what
Speaker 1: the wine?
Speaker 2: Remember what this one's called. It's a red and it
Speaker 2: has a different name. I can't remember. It's right there
Speaker 2: and I can't see.
Speaker 1: You just drink by the winery and don't even know what.
Speaker 2: Well I do know, Hilario, what this one is. I
Speaker 2: just don't at the moment.
Speaker 1: Okay, are you having a stroke? You're smelling cookies? You
Speaker 1: don't know what you're drinking?
Speaker 2: Yeah, check on me tomorrow.
Speaker 1: I might have to. In the morning, I'll be checking
Speaker 1: your pulse. So if you wake up and I'm looming over,
Speaker 1: you know why. Anyways, I think we should get onto
Speaker 1: the case.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, let's do it, all.
Speaker 1: Right, If you guys are ready, we're ready. Let's get
Speaker 1: into this. So. Suzanne Kapper was a teenager growing up
Speaker 1: in Manchester, England. She was born on September one, nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy six, and she spent most of her childhood in
Speaker 1: a place called Mauston, which is a working class district
Speaker 1: in the north of the city. Now, Suzanne's early life
Speaker 1: it wasn't easy here her biological father wasn't exactly involved
Speaker 1: in her upbringing. Now, while she later took a surname
Speaker 1: from her stepfather, John Caper Kapper, sorry, stability in the
Speaker 1: house was never guaranteed. Suzanne's mother, Elizabeth Dunbar, did her
Speaker 1: best to raise her daughters, Suzanne and her older sister Michelle,
Speaker 1: but the family still struggled. By the time Suzanne was
Speaker 1: in her early teens, the relationship between her and her
Speaker 1: mother and stepfather had deteriorate it and around nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: while the couple ended up separating. A side effect of
Speaker 1: that split, like many other parental separations, while it created
Speaker 1: an even more instability for the girls. At times Suzanne
Speaker 1: lived with her mother, at other times she stayed with
Speaker 1: her stepfather. Then there were also periods where she stayed
Speaker 1: with her friends or was placed in local authority care.
Speaker 1: It was a common step in the UK when families
Speaker 1: were struggling to provide stable housing or supervision for a teenager,
Speaker 1: though it meant her life often lacked consistency. She was
Speaker 1: frequently moving between homes and just trying to find a
Speaker 1: place where she felt like she belonged. Despite this, though
Speaker 1: those who knew Suzanne often described her as quiet, polite,
Speaker 1: and eager to please. She wasn't known for causing trouble,
Speaker 1: and if anything, people remembered her as someone who desperately
Speaker 1: wanted to be accepted. As such, she was often easily
Speaker 1: influenced by those around her, particularly older people that she
Speaker 1: looked up to. At school, Suzanne attended mostyn Brook High School,
Speaker 1: and in the beginning, she was just another student navigating
Speaker 1: her teenage years. But as things at home became more unstable,
Speaker 1: her school attendance began to slip. She started skipping classes
Speaker 1: and spending more time away from school and not paying
Speaker 1: so much attention to her education. It's something we hear
Speaker 1: often from many teenagers. They're looking for themselves, learning about
Speaker 1: the world around them, and searching for independence. Suzanne was
Speaker 1: no different in that sense, and soon she began drifting
Speaker 1: towards older friends outside her immediate circle. For her, those
Speaker 1: friendships offered something that she had been missing, attention, acceptance
Speaker 1: in a sense that someone wanted her around. It was
Speaker 1: through some casual connections in her neighborhood that Suzanne first
Speaker 1: became acquainted with the woman named Jeane Powell. Now Jeane
Speaker 1: lived at ninety seven Langworthy Road in Boston, not far
Speaker 1: from where Suzanne spent much for time growing up. In
Speaker 1: the beginning, Suzanne had started babysitting Jeane's kids when she
Speaker 1: was still quite young, sometimes just you know, helping around
Speaker 1: the house or watching the kids while Jane was out. Now,
Speaker 1: Jeane was in her mid twenties at the time, more
Speaker 1: than a decade older than Suzanne, who was around fourteen
Speaker 1: or fifteen years old around then. To a teenager searching
Speaker 1: for stability and approval, Jeane seemed worldly and independent, and
Speaker 1: Suzanne began spending more and more time at the house
Speaker 1: on Langworthy Road, sometimes staying there overnight. But the environment
Speaker 1: inside the house was far from normal. You see, Jane's
Speaker 1: home had developed a reputation in the neighborhood. It was
Speaker 1: a place where people came and went at all hours
Speaker 1: of the night and day, and many of those visitors
Speaker 1: were involved in criminal activity too. Drugs were frequently used
Speaker 1: and sold there, particularly amphetamines aka speed, and stolen goods
Speaker 1: often passed through the property as well. Neighbors later described
Speaker 1: the house as chaotic. There were stolen cars and car
Speaker 1: parts nearby, and loud music and constant traffic of unfamiliar
Speaker 1: people coming and going inside, though Jane was raising three
Speaker 1: young children, and eventually other adults and their children would
Speaker 1: also move in too. For Suzanne, the house represented something
Speaker 1: that she'd been craving, attention and belonging, but Jeane treated
Speaker 1: her like someone useful. Suzanne helped with babysitting, cleaning, and errands,
Speaker 1: and she began spending more time there than she did
Speaker 1: at her own home. What initially started as occasional babysitting
Speaker 1: it had gradually turned into Suzanne practically living at this
Speaker 1: house and doing a lot of chores. Over time, Jane
Speaker 1: became an important figure in Suzanne's life. To the vulnerable teenager,
Speaker 1: Jane was almost like a mother figure, someone older who
Speaker 1: welcomed her into her home. But the world Suzanne had
Speaker 1: stepped into was far more dangerous than she realized now.
Speaker 1: Jane was often described as the dominant personality in the house,
Speaker 1: and she had a reputation for her drug dealings as well.
Speaker 1: Those who later looked back on the situation described her
Speaker 1: as controlling, manipulative, and even volatile, and the house itself
Speaker 1: seemed to revolved solely around her. One of Jane's closest
Speaker 1: associates was someone by the name of Bernadette McNeely in
Speaker 1: her early twenties, who would soon become another central figure
Speaker 1: in Suzanne's life. Now, Bernadette lived nearby at first, but
Speaker 1: she spent much of the time at the Langworthy Rode
Speaker 1: home as well, and she eventually moved in with her
Speaker 1: own kids. Like Jane, Bernadette also had a reputation for
Speaker 1: being aggressive and unpredictable. Another regular presence was Glenn Powell,
Speaker 1: Jeane's estranged husband and father of her children. Even though
Speaker 1: the couple were no longer together Glenn's well, he still
Speaker 1: spent a great deal of time around the house. He
Speaker 1: was nearly thirty years old and had a criminal history.
Speaker 1: It's also not surprising to say that his relationship with
Speaker 1: Jeanne remained quite volatile, but regardless, he still continued to
Speaker 1: move in and out of the house. Among the younger
Speaker 1: members of the group was also someone named Anthony Dudson,
Speaker 1: a teenager who was still only seventeen years old at
Speaker 1: the time. Anthony was also in a relationship with Bernadette now,
Speaker 1: despite the age difference of seven years and her being
Speaker 1: twenty four, while he was still a mo Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to touch on that, but I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: you understand how I feel like others though, He spent
Speaker 1: much of his time inside this home and quickly became
Speaker 1: part of the same destructive social circle. Then there was
Speaker 1: also Clifford Pook, Bernadette's younger brother. Clifford was in his
Speaker 1: late teens and had briefly dated Suzanne at one point two,
Speaker 1: which further connected her to this group. Now, finally there
Speaker 1: was Jeffrey Lay, another associate who frequently visited the home.
Speaker 1: Jeffrey was known locally for stealing cars and dealing in
Speaker 1: stolen goods. He was also one of the people who
Speaker 1: bought drugs from Gene frequently. Together, the group formed a
Speaker 1: very volatile mix of personalities and all contained inside one
Speaker 1: house on Langworthy Road, which was filled with drug use, arguments,
Speaker 1: shifting alliances, and children who were often present amidst all
Speaker 1: the chaos.
Speaker 2: How large was this house because it sure seems like
Speaker 2: it's so housing a lot of people under that roof.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not too sure, And the thing is too
Speaker 1: like not all of them lived there right per se,
Speaker 1: but all of them hung out there and were there
Speaker 1: very often daily.
Speaker 2: Even it almost seems like it has an open door policy.
Speaker 2: But then also you know when you say the address
Speaker 2: of a house that some stuff is about to go
Speaker 2: down in there. That's true, yeah, because I don't like
Speaker 2: you'll just just say a house or anything or something,
Speaker 2: But when you say the legit address, I'm always like, Okay,
Speaker 2: bad things happen here.
Speaker 1: Yep. Now, over time, what had once been a place
Speaker 1: where Suzanne felt welcome, it slowly became something else entirely.
Speaker 1: And if I don't give a number and I say
Speaker 1: a sentence like that, you also know that's going to
Speaker 1: be a bad place. Now. Within this environment, Suzanne Kapper
Speaker 1: began to occupy an uncomfortable position. At first, her presence
Speaker 1: at the house didn't seem unusual, but over time the
Speaker 1: tone of her relationship with the group it began to shift.
Speaker 1: Suzanne was younger than most of the people in the home,
Speaker 1: and in many ways she occupied the lowest position within
Speaker 1: the social circle that formed around Gene, essentially being socially
Speaker 1: lowest in sienniority or lowest in the pecking order. So
Speaker 1: while the others spent their time drinking, taking drugs, and
Speaker 1: moving in and out of petty criminal activity, Suzanne was
Speaker 1: often expected to take care of the practical things around
Speaker 1: the house. She looked after the children when people were out,
Speaker 1: She helped clean the place when it became a mess,
Speaker 1: and if someone needed something picked up from a nearby
Speaker 1: shop or something like that, or they wanted an air
Speaker 1: and run, well, guess what, Suzanne was usually the one
Speaker 1: who was sent to go do it now. At first,
Speaker 1: these responsibilities may have felt like a way to earn
Speaker 1: her place in the group, but gradually the dynamic began
Speaker 1: to shift. Instead of treating her like a friend, some
Speaker 1: members of the household started to treat Suzanne as someone
Speaker 1: they could easily push around. Arguments became more frequent, and
Speaker 1: Suzanne increasingly found herself blamed for small problems that happened
Speaker 1: in the home. If something went missing in this house,
Speaker 1: which was a home full of thieves, for example, while
Speaker 1: suspicion fell on her immediately, it seemed no matter what
Speaker 1: it was, Even if tensions were just simply already high
Speaker 1: from drug use or personal conflicts, Suzanne became the easiest
Speaker 1: target for frustrations to be taken out on. Now, if
Speaker 1: the insults and accusitions that were being thrown around her
Speaker 1: way for these things weren't bad enough, the situations eventually
Speaker 1: began to cross into physical intimidation. On some occasions, she
Speaker 1: was shoved or struck during arguments, small bursts of violence
Speaker 1: that hinted at how little control she had over the
Speaker 1: situation when she was placed there herself. Yet, despite everything,
Speaker 1: Suzanne continued returning to the house time and time again.
Speaker 1: To someone on the outside looking in on the situation,
Speaker 1: it might seem impossible to understand why she would willingly
Speaker 1: spend time in a place where she increasingly mistreated, But
Speaker 1: people who knew her later described Suzanne as someone who
Speaker 1: desperately wanted to feel accepted. She craved belonging, and the
Speaker 1: older people around Jeane and that home they seem to
Speaker 1: offer her a version of that, so she would always return,
Speaker 1: hoping to find that acceptance and sense of belonging. Jean
Speaker 1: herself still held a power of influence over Suzanne, and
Speaker 1: even when the relationship had clearly turned unhealthy, Suzanne continued
Speaker 1: to see her as a kind of authority figure, someone
Speaker 1: who's approval she still wanted.
Speaker 2: This is really sad because just listening to this, they're
Speaker 2: taking advantage of hers and it's basically just an abusive relationship.
Speaker 1: That you nailed it. That's exactly what it is. It's
Speaker 1: an abusive relationship and they take full advantage, and they
Speaker 1: push the boundaries further and further. And she's a teenager
Speaker 1: right like, she's a teenager about fifteen right now?
Speaker 2: Oh man, Okay.
Speaker 1: Now, by late nineteen ninety two, when the story will
Speaker 1: starts to take place, she's sixteen years old. But the
Speaker 1: hostility towards her in that house it was no longer like.
Speaker 1: It wasn't subtle anymore. Like members of the house began
Speaker 1: to look for reasons to actually blame her for things
Speaker 1: when things were going wrong. It was like trying to
Speaker 1: find something to pin on her so they could specifically
Speaker 1: throw it in her face.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Now, eventually two accusations would actually become like the spark
Speaker 1: that pushed the situation into something far more dangerous. Though
Speaker 1: one of those involved a pink Duffel style coat. Bernadette
Speaker 1: claimed that Suzanne had stole a coat from her, which
Speaker 1: was an item she said was worth around sixty pounds.
Speaker 1: Whether the accusation had any truth behind it or not,
Speaker 1: it's a little unclear. But within the environment in this home,
Speaker 1: the claim quickly became simply accepted as fact. Now Suzanne
Speaker 1: denied taking the jacket, but her protests carried very little
Speaker 1: weight amongst the people who had already begun to treat
Speaker 1: her as an outsider in their group. Now, the second
Speaker 1: accusation was even more humiliated. At some point, several members
Speaker 1: of the household discovered they had contracted pubic lice, and
Speaker 1: instead of confronting the possibility that one of them had
Speaker 1: introduced the infestation into the home, well, the blame was
Speaker 1: then placed squarely on Suzanne. Immediately, Oh wow, Okay. Now,
Speaker 1: in both of these situations, it is very commonly believed
Speaker 1: that Suzanne had nothing to do with either one of them,
Speaker 1: but those in the house they had someone to blame.
Speaker 2: Well, honestly, with the lice thing, she would probably be
Speaker 2: the least likely exactly for this. And they're just they
Speaker 2: just they want someone to blame. It's almost like fun
Speaker 2: or a game to them. It's sounding like it.
Speaker 1: Kind of seemed like it was like a power trip
Speaker 1: sort of situation, like a game, like they were enjoying it.
Speaker 1: And like the accusations in this situation with these pubic lice,
Speaker 1: they turned into actually another opportunity specifically to humiliate her
Speaker 1: and for them to well get their rocks off over it.
Speaker 1: So instead of escalating, you know, verbally or anything like that,
Speaker 1: this group of degenerates forced Suzanne to strip and shave
Speaker 1: off her pubic hair in front of all of them. Seriously,
Speaker 1: it was a degrading act carried out while others mocked
Speaker 1: her and reinforced the idea that she was somehow responsible
Speaker 1: for the problem.
Speaker 2: Holy, that is okay. Also, considering she's a minor, this
Speaker 2: is just not okay.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there's a whole plethora of things that are
Speaker 1: wrong with this, and that's the word for the day, plethora.
Speaker 2: Okay. Makes sense.
Speaker 1: Now, this was not not only her punishment, but in
Speaker 1: their eyes, also a solution to eliminating a lice. But
Speaker 1: like the accusation about the coat, there's no real evidence
Speaker 1: behind the claims. But by this point facts no longer mattered.
Speaker 1: What mattered was that the group had found someone they
Speaker 1: could collectively blame no matter what the situation was, and
Speaker 1: the combination of the these accusations created a shared resentment towards
Speaker 1: Suzanne among several members of this group. In their minds,
Speaker 1: she had become both a nuisance and a target. So
Speaker 1: from that moment forward, the hostility towards her only intensified.
Speaker 1: By early December nineteen ninety two, Suzanne had begun spending
Speaker 1: more time away from the house on Langworthy Road. The
Speaker 1: growing tension and hostility actually began to push her to
Speaker 1: return to stay with her stepfather, John Capper for a
Speaker 1: short time. It seemed like she had distanced herself from
Speaker 1: the group enough where you know, things may improve, But
Speaker 1: the people inside that house had not forgotten about her
Speaker 1: or how they had begun to treat her. On December seventh,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, Jeanne and Bernadette went to go find Suzanne. Now,
Speaker 1: when they found her and approached her, they didn't act
Speaker 1: hostile or anything like that. Instead, they presented themselves as
Speaker 1: if nothing was wrong. In fact, they were even friendly
Speaker 1: to her. Then they he told Suzanne that someone that
Speaker 1: she liked, a boy, was waiting for her back at
Speaker 1: the house on Langworthy Road. Now, for Suzanne, the moments
Speaker 1: must have felt like her heart was going to explode.
Speaker 1: Not only was her crush looking to hang out with her,
Speaker 1: but her friends her social family was giving her a
Speaker 1: quasi invitation to come back. Despite the recent tensions, she
Speaker 1: must have still believed there was a place for her
Speaker 1: among them, and, like many teenagers hoping to maintain friendships,
Speaker 1: she agreed to go meet this boy. But as I'm
Speaker 1: sure you've probably already guessed, the story about the boy
Speaker 1: was a lie. He wasn't there, he wasn't waiting for her,
Speaker 1: and instead, when Suzanne arrived back at ninety seven Langworthy Road,
Speaker 1: she walked directly into a trap. The moment she stepped
Speaker 1: into the home, several members of this group were already
Speaker 1: waiting for her, and what happened next unfolded quickly. They
Speaker 1: pounced on Suzanne and grabbed her and overpowered her almost immediately.
Speaker 1: With multiple people surrounding her, people who were older and
Speaker 1: stronger than her, she had little chance to fight back
Speaker 1: or escape. The accusations that had been building over the
Speaker 1: previous weeks. The supposed theft, the blame for the lice,
Speaker 1: they were all suddenly thrown right back in her face,
Speaker 1: all at once. But this wasn't about confronting her anymore.
Speaker 1: In fact, I don't even know if this was even
Speaker 1: about punishment.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: This was much worse. This was about humiliation, cruelty, and
Speaker 1: enjoying someone else's suffering. With everyone grabbing Suzanne, she was
Speaker 1: then forced down to the floor while some members of
Speaker 1: the group began to cut off her hair. In this attack,
Speaker 1: her head was shaved bare along with her eyebrows, leaving
Speaker 1: her feeling disfigured and exposed. Not only that, but with
Speaker 1: all her hair cut and shaved away, they all made
Speaker 1: her clean it up herself, turning the moment into another
Speaker 1: layer of humiliation entirely. But the violence didn't stop there.
Speaker 1: At one point, a plastic bag was pulled over Suzanne's head,
Speaker 1: making it difficult for her to breathe as she struggled
Speaker 1: and panicked while the group continued daunting and attacking her,
Speaker 1: continuing her nightmare, while she was also pushed and dragged
Speaker 1: around the house, escalating the situation. While these are certainly
Speaker 1: physical assaults, they are primarily psychological attacks. Yes, she was harmed,
Speaker 1: but not exactly injured, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But it didn't stay that way. Beatings soon followed and
Speaker 1: changed that fact. As she was pinned, pushed, dragged, and
Speaker 1: held down, members of the group began to strike her
Speaker 1: with whatever objects they could grab, whether it was belts,
Speaker 1: pieces of wood, and large household utensils. All these things
Speaker 1: were used as improvised weapons. Striking her repeatedly. She was
Speaker 1: also punched kicked, all while others looked on, laughing or
Speaker 1: joining in. The assault was severe and intense, so much
Speaker 1: so that one of Suzanne's arms would later hang limp
Speaker 1: and useless at her side.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: She was unable to raise or use it, as it
Speaker 1: was likely broken during the violent attack, like very broken.
Speaker 1: By the time this assault subsided, Suzanne was already seriously injured.
Speaker 1: But instead of things ending there, the group letting her
Speaker 1: go was not a thing in their minds, so they
Speaker 1: decided instead to force her into a small closet inside
Speaker 1: that home, where she was locked away and left for
Speaker 1: the night. Bruised, exhausted, and terrified, she was left trapped
Speaker 1: inside the small space with no way to escape. There,
Speaker 1: Suzanne sat in the dark alone, terrified and crying, But
Speaker 1: little did she know the ordeal had only just begun.
Speaker 2: This is absolutely nuts because she wasn't doing anything they
Speaker 2: should have just like she was on her way out,
Speaker 2: basically like they should have just let her go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but they physically went and brought her back in
Speaker 1: to do this to her. Frigg.
Speaker 2: At first, I was thinking they wanted her back because
Speaker 2: she was helpful. She probably, like you mentioned, watched some
Speaker 2: of the kids when they were out and did a
Speaker 2: bunch of cleaning. But they just invited her back.
Speaker 1: To They lured her back. They lured her back for
Speaker 1: their sick enjoyment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this doesn't even make any sense. These people are
Speaker 2: just nuts.
Speaker 1: I told you you needed a comfort drink for this one.
Speaker 2: No frickin kidding.
Speaker 1: Now in the morning, the people inside that house still
Speaker 1: had no intention of letting Suzanne leave, and the violence
Speaker 1: that had begun the night before was only getting worse. However,
Speaker 1: Suzanne's screams of pain and cries for help throughout her
Speaker 1: nightmarish ordeal had started to draw attention from inside the
Speaker 1: crowd at home, where several young children were also living.
Speaker 1: Now that presented a problem for Suzanne's captors, so to
Speaker 1: keep the situation quieter and more controlled, the group decided
Speaker 1: they were going to move her. So Suzanne was taken
Speaker 1: away from that house on Langworthy Road and brought to
Speaker 1: another property associated with the group. And that house was
Speaker 1: mostly empty, which made an ideal place for what they
Speaker 1: planned next, because there would be fewer people around to
Speaker 1: hear her scream and no children present to witness what
Speaker 1: was happening, and so with this newfound privacy, the situation
Speaker 1: became even more horrifying. Suzanne was dragged upstairs and she
Speaker 1: was forced into a bedroom where an old bed box
Speaker 1: spring had been turned upside down. It was here that
Speaker 1: her captors restrained her on the wooden, exposed old bed,
Speaker 1: will call it, just tied her there using whatever they
Speaker 1: could find, whether it was ropes, belts, electrical cables. They
Speaker 1: pulled her arms and legs and spread them apart in
Speaker 1: a star fashion, going towards each corner of this old bed,
Speaker 1: leaving her completely immobilized when they were done, and to
Speaker 1: keep her from screaming, they also forced dirty socks into
Speaker 1: her mouth, gagging her while they secured the restraints. This
Speaker 1: room would serve as the place where the group returned
Speaker 1: again and again over the next several days. While Suzanne
Speaker 1: remained tied inside this empty home, completely at their mercy,
Speaker 1: bound by her wrists and ankles, unable to move, she
Speaker 1: was left. Now one thing I'm not exactly clear on.
Speaker 1: There's some discrepancies in what I found on this. She
Speaker 1: was left either nude or partially nude, It's unclear, but
Speaker 1: either way she was exposed in the room while members
Speaker 1: of the group came and went, with beatings becoming routine.
Speaker 3: Geez.
Speaker 2: You know, it's always interesting when something goes on for
Speaker 2: days like this, because you would just hope that these
Speaker 2: sepo would have some sort of humanity, you know, one
Speaker 2: night and be like, Okay, what we're doing.
Speaker 1: Here is very wrong.
Speaker 2: But when it escalates and just keeps getting worse and
Speaker 2: worse and goes prolonged, I think it just really shows
Speaker 2: how much of a terrible person you are.
Speaker 1: Well, they are not even in the same building as
Speaker 1: her either, so they specifically have to go back, yeah,
Speaker 1: in orders to torture her.
Speaker 2: Gosh, yeah, they have to go out of their way.
Speaker 1: And then not only that, they get to leave and
Speaker 1: disassociate from their actions too.
Speaker 2: But you would think, say you're getting ready for bed,
Speaker 2: you're like, you know, sleeping, or wake up in the
Speaker 2: middle of the night and realize, holy shit, I'm an.
Speaker 1: Asshole, Yeah, anyone with a soul. But these people clearly
Speaker 1: are not like that.
Speaker 2: Clearly.
Speaker 1: Now, while immobilized, Susanne was constantly struck with fists, belts,
Speaker 1: wooden boards, household objects, you name it, often by more
Speaker 1: than one person at a time, and with no way
Speaker 1: to defend herself because she was tied there, she could
Speaker 1: only endure the blows as they landed again and again.
Speaker 1: But the physical violence wasn't the only part of what
Speaker 1: they inflicted upon her. At various points of the week,
Speaker 1: Suzanne was injected with amphetamines as well, the very same
Speaker 1: drug that was commonly used by several members of that group.
Speaker 1: They injected this they kept her awake, and it kept
Speaker 1: her agitated, preventing her from slipping into unconsciousness and prolonged
Speaker 1: the suffering she was experiencing. Members of the group also
Speaker 1: began burning her with cigarettes, pressing the lit ends into
Speaker 1: her skin while mocking and taunting her. But this wasn't
Speaker 1: just a few times. She almost became their ash tray.
Speaker 1: As they snuffed out burning cigarette after burning cigarette on
Speaker 1: her exposed skin. She couldn't flinch, she couldn't pull away.
Speaker 1: At the same time, they introduced a very strange and
Speaker 1: torturous form of psychological torment on her. Someone had placed
Speaker 1: headphones over Suzanne's ears and blasted music through them at
Speaker 1: the highest volume. They didn't just blast music, though. The
Speaker 1: music they played was the same song on repeat, and
Speaker 1: it included samples from the horror film Child's Play, particularly
Speaker 1: the voice of the killer doll named Chucky, who was
Speaker 1: constantly repeating the line over and over again, saying, Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Chucky, want to play WHOA?
Speaker 2: Okay, this is just.
Speaker 1: So cruel Yeah. For Suzanne, the days and nights all
Speaker 1: began to blur together as the cruelty inflicted on her
Speaker 1: only continued to escalate with no end in sight. By
Speaker 1: this point, she had already endured far more than anyone
Speaker 1: ever should be subjected to, but they also began introducing
Speaker 1: other forms of it that seemed designed to humiliate and
Speaker 1: degrade her as much as possible. She was rarely given
Speaker 1: food and barely allowed any water. She was exhausted, injured,
Speaker 1: and restrained in that same position for long periods. But
Speaker 1: Suzanne also had no ability to care for herself, which
Speaker 1: meant when nature called and she needed to use the bathroom,
Speaker 1: her captors refused to untie her, and eventually she was
Speaker 1: just forced to relieve herself right where she lay, leaving
Speaker 1: her trapped in the filth, with the group mocking her
Speaker 1: for it now. At one point during the ordeal, the
Speaker 1: attackers forced Suzanne into a bath, but instead of clean
Speaker 1: water to clean the wounds, they poured strong disinfectants into
Speaker 1: the water, a chemical solution normally used to sanitize surfaces.
Speaker 1: In fact, so with her already covered in burns, cuts, bruises,
Speaker 1: the liquid caused intense pain as it soaked into the
Speaker 1: injuries across her body. Then they began scrubbing her skin
Speaker 1: with a stiff bristled brush, dragging the bristles across her
Speaker 1: wounds while she screamed in agony. The mixture of disinfectant
Speaker 1: and abrasive scrubbing caused sections of damaged skin to begin
Speaker 1: peeling away, leaving raw, open wounds in its wake. After that,
Speaker 1: Suzanne remained tied to the bed frame once again. By
Speaker 1: this stage, the group seemed to be driven by something darker,
Speaker 1: a shared willingness to push the violence further and further,
Speaker 1: and soon. As the days of captivity dragged on, the
Speaker 1: abuse inflicted on Suzanne Kapper continued to escalate in ways
Speaker 1: that continue to seem almost unimaginable to any normal human being.
Speaker 1: But now it had been days, she was weak, exhausted,
Speaker 1: barely able to resist anything that was under her, even
Speaker 1: if she was untied. It was during this stage of
Speaker 1: the ordeal that Clifford Puk carried out one of the
Speaker 1: most disturbing acts of violence against her. Yet, according to
Speaker 1: later testimony in court, Clifford approached Suzanne with a pair
Speaker 1: of pliers. The group had already discussed the possibility that
Speaker 1: if Suzanne was ever discovered or her body was found,
Speaker 1: that her teeth might be useful to identify her, so
Speaker 1: removing them, they believed would make that more difficult. With
Speaker 1: this in mind, Clifford forced Suzanne's mouth open and he
Speaker 1: told her he was going to pull out her teeth,
Speaker 1: and then he began smashing at her teeth with the
Speaker 1: metal pliers, strike after strike. At first, the metal tool
Speaker 1: simply cracked against them, chipping the enamel. Suzanne cried out
Speaker 1: in pain, trying to recoil away, but was unable to
Speaker 1: do so so as he continued hitting them again and again,
Speaker 1: and eventually he managed to grip one of the chipped
Speaker 1: teeth with the pliers and he began pulling. He began
Speaker 1: to strain while he pulled, increasing how hard he tugged
Speaker 1: with each second, until the tooth finally snapped loose with
Speaker 1: a sharp crack, while her mouth filled up with blood.
Speaker 1: Then he dropped that tooth, turned back towards her, and
Speaker 1: repeated the process with another one. Each attempt involved forcing
Speaker 1: Suzanne's head forward while he worked the pliers inside her mouth,
Speaker 1: wrenching at the teeth, pulling and twisting until they came
Speaker 1: free or broke apart. Witnesses later said that while this
Speaker 1: was happening, Clifford was laughing. He seemed to enjoy it
Speaker 1: and thought it was funny. When the ordeal was over,
Speaker 1: he'd taken out two of her teeth, and he kept
Speaker 1: them instead of throwing them away, as if they were
Speaker 1: trophies from what he had just done to her.
Speaker 2: WHOA, what a savage mofo. Yeah, this is unbelievable. It
Speaker 2: just keeps getting worse and worse and worse.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's heavy for sure.
Speaker 2: Holy frick. I cannot even believe that we live in
Speaker 2: a world where people could be like this.
Speaker 1: I know, it boggles my mind. There were several times
Speaker 1: during researching this case where I had to stop because
Speaker 1: I was like, what the fuck? Yeah, I needed to
Speaker 1: like recollect myself before I could read any further.
Speaker 2: You almost want to explain it away, thinking like, oh man,
Speaker 2: they must have been like on some super drugs or
Speaker 2: something while they were doing this, because how else could
Speaker 2: someone do this to another human? But they're just complete monsters.
Speaker 1: I think. So I don't even on drugs, Like, I
Speaker 1: understand drugs affect people in many certain ways, but I
Speaker 1: just cannot fathom twisting and pulling people's teeth out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just don't even know how, Like this is
Speaker 2: a living human being. I don't understand how you could
Speaker 2: go on and do this and think of new things
Speaker 2: to even do and have it be going on so long.
Speaker 1: I know. Now here's the thing though, too. We can
Speaker 1: go on that drug argument for a moment again, say, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe it was drug induced, but this was a pre
Speaker 1: disgusted situation. But what if she dies and her body's found,
Speaker 1: her teeth can identify her? Well, we how fingerprints teeth
Speaker 1: that you know, that can identify her, and what if
Speaker 1: we remove her teeth? So he literally goes there with
Speaker 1: pliers to remove her teeth. He drove to another home
Speaker 1: or walked to another home specifically to go do this
Speaker 1: to another person.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and at this point, like she I can't
Speaker 2: even imagine the kind of shape she's in, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: Like it's just what you don't want to because it's
Speaker 2: sad as shit.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And one thing about this too, with them pulling
Speaker 1: out her teeth. At this stage, like it was becoming
Speaker 1: clear that the group was not planning on letting her
Speaker 1: go and preparing for what happens if she didn't survive.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, yeah, at this point, how could you
Speaker 2: let her go? I think either way she probably may
Speaker 2: not make it.
Speaker 1: Now the violence had moved beyond the torture and they
Speaker 1: were beginning to actually think about making her disappear. But
Speaker 1: during this time that Suzanne Kapper was being held captive,
Speaker 1: at least one person outside the core group was brought
Speaker 1: into the house and saw her being held there a witness,
Speaker 1: and his name was David Hill. He was an eighteen
Speaker 1: year old who had connections to some of the people involved. Now.
Speaker 1: David would later recount that he was asked to come
Speaker 1: to the house and wait there while the others left
Speaker 1: for a short time. At first, he claimed he did
Speaker 1: not know what was happening inside the property, but that
Speaker 1: changed when he was led upstairs. When David entered the room,
Speaker 1: he saw Suzanne tied to the bed frame. Her arms
Speaker 1: and legs were still bound stretched apart in that same
Speaker 1: position she'd been forced into days earlier. She'd clearly been
Speaker 1: badly beaten, her her head had been shaved, she was weak,
Speaker 1: exhausted from the prolonged abuse, and the room itself even
Speaker 1: showed signs of what was happening there too, and it
Speaker 1: would have been immediately clear that Suzanne was being held
Speaker 1: against her will. But when she saw David, she immediately
Speaker 1: tried to speak with him, begging him to help her.
Speaker 1: She asked him to untie the restraints to let her go,
Speaker 1: pleading with him to release her from this bedframe so
Speaker 1: she could escape the house with her life. For Suzanne,
Speaker 1: this may have seemed like the first real chance she
Speaker 1: had been given to survive. David was not one of
Speaker 1: those people who had been torturing her, one of the captors,
Speaker 1: and if he had chosen to help her in that moment,
Speaker 1: it's possible that Suzanne could have escaped before the situation
Speaker 1: escalated further. But David did nothing. Instead of freeing her,
Speaker 1: he left the room, he went back downstairs, and that
Speaker 1: was it.
Speaker 2: Seriously, just okay, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: Later, when investigators asked him about the incident, David explained
Speaker 1: he'd been too frightened to intervene. He said that he
Speaker 1: believed if he had tried to release Suzanne, the others
Speaker 1: responsible for holding her might have turned their violence on
Speaker 1: him instead. Now, whatever the reason for his decision to
Speaker 1: not intervene, the opportunity had passed, and Suzanne remained tied
Speaker 1: to that bed, and after David left the room, her
Speaker 1: captors eventually returned to the torture and it simply continued.
Speaker 2: To go on because David wasn't in the house alone.
Speaker 1: I don't believe so no others were there, not as
Speaker 1: far as my impression is now. Okay, Now, for many
Speaker 1: people who later followed the case, David's account actually became
Speaker 1: one of the most haunting elements of this story because
Speaker 1: for that brief moment, Suzanne had seen someone that could
Speaker 1: help her. She begged to be saved, you know, finally
Speaker 1: thinking she could be let go. But that help never came.
Speaker 1: She just remained trapped in the house for several more days,
Speaker 1: restrained in fact, for nearly a week, and the longer
Speaker 1: she remained alive, the greater the risk that someone else
Speaker 1: might discover what was happening. Too. Another factor was beginning
Speaker 1: to worry the group of monsters as well. Suzanne's family
Speaker 1: was starting to ask questions. Her older sister Michelle had
Speaker 1: begun looking for her, and the longer Suzanne remained missing,
Speaker 1: the more likely it was that someone would eventually report
Speaker 1: her disappearance to the police. So the possibility that Suzanne
Speaker 1: might survive and tell others what had happened was becoming
Speaker 1: a very serious threat, something you were alluding to earlier,
Speaker 1: in fact, saying that if she gets let go, like,
Speaker 1: what's she going to say and report now? Rather than
Speaker 1: releasing Suzanne or attempting to distance themselves in the situation,
Speaker 1: they came to a darker conclusion, one they had already
Speaker 1: been discussing in passive conversations. They believed that the only
Speaker 1: way to protect themselves was to make sure Suzanne would
Speaker 1: never be able to speak about what had happened inside
Speaker 1: that house. In other words, Suzanne had to die. When
Speaker 1: the group had agreed that Suzanne needed to be killed,
Speaker 1: the final stage of the crime began to take shape,
Speaker 1: and their plan was dark and simple. They would take
Speaker 1: Susan away from the house, drive her somewhere isolated, and
Speaker 1: kill her there far enough away that her body might
Speaker 1: never be connected back to them. On the morning of
Speaker 1: December fourteenth, nineteen ninety two. Suzanne Kapper had been held
Speaker 1: captive for nearly a week. During that time, she had
Speaker 1: endured repeated beatings, burns, and other forms of torture that
Speaker 1: left her physically devastated. It was on that day that
Speaker 1: the group decided to carry out the plan they'd been discussing.
Speaker 1: Suzanne was untied from the bed frame, forced downstairs, and
Speaker 1: by this point she could barely stand on her own,
Speaker 1: but she was still conscious and aware of what was
Speaker 1: happen happening around her. Instead of releasing her, though as
Speaker 1: she may have initially hoped, the group prepared to move
Speaker 1: her away from the house. A stolen white Fiat Panda
Speaker 1: was brought around, and Suzanne was forced into the trunk
Speaker 1: of the vehicle, with the lid closed above her. She
Speaker 1: was trapped in the dark as a car pulled away
Speaker 1: from the house where she had been held for the
Speaker 1: previous week. Inside the car were several of the people
Speaker 1: responsible for the captivity, Bernadette, Jeanne, Glen and Anthony. They
Speaker 1: were all amongst who had taken part in the drive.
Speaker 1: They left Monson behind and began heading out of the city,
Speaker 1: traveling several miles towards an isolated area late at night.
Speaker 1: Eventually the car arrived at Worthern Low, a rural area
Speaker 1: close to Romley in Stockport, where quiet roads and wooded
Speaker 1: land made it unlikely that anyone would witness what they
Speaker 1: were about to do. The vehicle stopped and Suzanne was
Speaker 1: pulled out of the trunk. She was then dragged away
Speaker 1: from the road and down to an embankment into a
Speaker 1: more secluded area. Once they had Suzanne away from the
Speaker 1: road and down into the secluded spot, the group began
Speaker 1: carrying out the final evil portion of their plan. Suzanne
Speaker 1: was stripped naked of whatever a clothing she had left
Speaker 1: on and was forced onto the ground. After nearly a
Speaker 1: week of captivity and torture, her body was covered in
Speaker 1: injuries and she had very little strength left to do
Speaker 1: anything against what was happening around her. Then one of
Speaker 1: the group members produced a container filled with gasoline. The
Speaker 1: liquid was poured over Suzanne's body, soaking her as she
Speaker 1: lay on the ground helpless. For the people standing around her,
Speaker 1: they knew they intended to burn her alive and leave
Speaker 1: her there. Suzanne began to realize this, as well as
Speaker 1: the familiar smell filled her nose and the liquid was
Speaker 1: dripping across her skin. It took the group a few
Speaker 1: attempts to light the gas ablaze, not because they felt
Speaker 1: any guilt or had heavy hearts. No, it was because
Speaker 1: they simply had trouble lighting it. But in that brief moment,
Speaker 1: Suzanne would have felt fear beyond any sort of measure,
Speaker 1: knowing this was going to be her last moments, knowing
Speaker 1: that she was about to die and excruciating death after
Speaker 1: being tortured for nearly a week. Then, without warning, the
Speaker 1: gasoline caught fire, and instantly she was engulfed in flames.
Speaker 1: No one tried to help her. They just stood back.
Speaker 1: They didn't flinch, and they watched as the fire licked
Speaker 1: against her bare skin, burning her alive. Reportedly, at one point,
Speaker 1: one of them even began singing the infamous disco song
Speaker 1: Burn Baby Burn.
Speaker 2: Oh man, Okay, this is just so maddening.
Speaker 1: It's fucked up.
Speaker 2: This is literally how they decide to end her life
Speaker 2: this way. Yes, that is. It's actually quite hard to believe.
Speaker 2: I know, this doesn't seem like this could be real life.
Speaker 1: I know. As she was burning, the group then turned
Speaker 1: and walked back towards the car, as the flames were
Speaker 1: still licking her body behind them. They left her behind
Speaker 1: in the darkness of the wooded area, only lit by
Speaker 1: the flames that were still on her body, leaving the
Speaker 1: fire to finish what the previous week of torture had started.
Speaker 1: For those people who had just driven away, that was
Speaker 1: the end. The crime was over in their heads. If
Speaker 1: Suzanne's remains were found, her body consumed by the flames
Speaker 1: may not even be identified, let alone lead back to them.
Speaker 1: They simply got away with murder, and that was that.
Speaker 1: But what they didn't know was as they walked away,
Speaker 1: they left something behind. They left Suzanne alive there in
Speaker 1: the darkness of the woods, still only by that bit
Speaker 1: of flame left on her body. She struggled to move.
Speaker 1: Every inch of her body was in agony, but she
Speaker 1: forced herself to crawl and roll across the ground until
Speaker 1: the fire that had engulfed her began to die out.
Speaker 2: Are you serious?
Speaker 1: Dead? Serious? Okay?
Speaker 2: I already thought that this girl's will to live was unbelievable, unfathomable.
Speaker 1: Really, I know. She put the fire out by rolling around,
Speaker 1: and despite her weakened state, her severed injuries like from
Speaker 1: all the abuse that she suffered, she had catastrophic burns
Speaker 1: across most her body now too, Yet she somehow managed
Speaker 1: to put these flames out. WHOA. Later reports would state
Speaker 1: that between seventy five and eighty percent of her body
Speaker 1: had been burned, leaving large areas of skin destroyed and exposed.
Speaker 1: Her feet had been badly burned as well, meaning every
Speaker 1: movement caused extreme pain. Yet somehow, Suzanne refuged used to
Speaker 1: stay where she had been left. Somehow she managed to
Speaker 1: put the flames out and climb back up the embankment
Speaker 1: towards the road where the car had driven off.
Speaker 2: WHOA. I cannot freaking believe that.
Speaker 1: Every inch that she moved would have been agonizing, but
Speaker 1: she continued forward, determined to reach somewhere, anywhere someone that
Speaker 1: might see her. Then, once she finally reached the road,
Speaker 1: Suzanne began walking barefoot, severely burned, beaten, broken, She moved
Speaker 1: slowly along the road in the early morning darkness, her
Speaker 1: body covered in injuries, but she still kept moving.
Speaker 2: Holy frick, my jaw is on the goddamn ground.
Speaker 1: If you're unaware, If you haven't guessed yet, Suzanne is
Speaker 1: one hundred and ten percent or badass of the day, because
Speaker 1: that is unfucking believable.
Speaker 2: That is that rich is like, I cannot believe this
Speaker 2: because also she hasn't like drank or eaten for a
Speaker 2: whole week too. She was in the same position pretty
Speaker 2: much that whole week.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: And her injuries are just unfreaking believable. So holy shit,
Speaker 2: I don't think I've ever heard anything like this.
Speaker 1: It's superhuman, honestly.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Wild. Now. Eventually, Suzanne's desperate walk brought her into the
Speaker 1: path of some passing motorists. It was as dawn approached
Speaker 1: when a group of workers driving along the road noticed
Speaker 1: a figure ahead of them. At first, they weren't sure
Speaker 1: what they were seeing, but as their vehicle got closer,
Speaker 1: the reality of the situation became horrifyingly clear. There standing
Speaker 1: in the road was a teenage girl whose body had
Speaker 1: been almost entirely burned. The men who discovered Suzanne that
Speaker 1: morning were coworkers driven by a man named Barry Sutcliffe. Now,
Speaker 1: Suzanne Kapper was standing in the road, severely burned, barely
Speaker 1: able to remain upright. Large portion of her skin were
Speaker 1: destroyed by the fire, and the damage was so extensive
Speaker 1: that one witness later described her legs as looking like
Speaker 1: raw meat. Well, her hands were so badly burned they
Speaker 1: apparently were almost blackened. Yet despite this condition that she
Speaker 1: was in, she was still conscious. She was barely able
Speaker 1: to speak, but when the men reached her, she managed
Speaker 1: to whisper one thing. She said, help me.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, Well, freaking saints as well for stopping. I
Speaker 2: just have to say, because I would like to very
Speaker 2: much think that I would stop. But it says she like,
Speaker 2: because I couldn't imagine that scene. Though you would think
Speaker 2: that it was you were having a nightmare.
Speaker 1: Or something, it is a nightmare or scene.
Speaker 2: So thank goodness that they were like, okay, like, holy heck,
Speaker 2: we're gonna help this girl.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: The men quickly brought Suzanne to a nearby house belonging
Speaker 1: to Michael and Margaret Coop, who lived close to the road,
Speaker 1: and they brought her there for help. Once inside, the
Speaker 1: couple immediately dialed nine while trying to help Suzanne in
Speaker 1: any way as best they could. She was extremely dehydrated
Speaker 1: and asked for water, but because of the burns on
Speaker 1: her hands and her injuries, she couldn't even hold the
Speaker 1: glass herself, so someone had to help her get a
Speaker 1: drink even in that condition, though witnesses said they remembered
Speaker 1: something that stood out in their minds. It was Despite
Speaker 1: her condition, Suzanne remained remarkably polite, thanking people around her
Speaker 1: for trying to help, saying please, thank.
Speaker 2: You, Oh gosh, that makes me want to sob.
Speaker 1: Before the ambulance arrived, Suzanne managed to explain through the
Speaker 1: pain and exhaustion what had happened. She told them that
Speaker 1: she had been held captive and tortured for several days,
Speaker 1: and that she knew the people responsible and they were
Speaker 1: individuals from a specific house on Langworthy Road in Mauston.
Speaker 1: When paramedics arrived, Suzanne was quickly rushed to Withernshaw Hospital
Speaker 1: in Manchester. Doctors there immediately began treating her and her
Speaker 1: catastrophic burns and injuries, placing her in intensive care and
Speaker 1: attempting to stabilize her condition. Soon officers arrived too, and
Speaker 1: they despite the severity of her injuries, she was still
Speaker 1: able to speak with them too. In those first critical
Speaker 1: hours after being rescued, she gave investigators the most important
Speaker 1: piece of information that they would receive. She named each
Speaker 1: and every one of the people that had done this
Speaker 1: to her. Even with this information, though, the most important
Speaker 1: thing at hand was caring for Suzanne. Doctors at the
Speaker 1: hospital immediately knew how critical her condition was, and the
Speaker 1: medical staff rushed to stabilize her. They began the difficult
Speaker 1: process of treating her burns, and the intensive care unit
Speaker 1: now for clarity. In cases of severe burns like this,
Speaker 1: the body often struggles to regulate fluids and fight infection,
Speaker 1: and Suzanne's injuries were among the worst doctors could ever
Speaker 1: her encounter. Nurses worked to clean the damage, tissue and
Speaker 1: remove dead skin while keeping her as stable as possible,
Speaker 1: and as medical staff worked diligently, they were optimistic. However,
Speaker 1: the damage to her body was simply too extensive. No
Speaker 1: Over the following days, Suzanne's organs began to fail under
Speaker 1: the strain of the injuries that she had suffered, and
Speaker 1: despite the efforts of doctors and nurses working to save
Speaker 1: her life, the trauma caused by the burns and the
Speaker 1: prolonged abuse had already pushed her body beyond recovery. On
Speaker 1: December eighteenth, nineteen ninety two, four days after she had
Speaker 1: been found walking along the road, Suzanne Kapper died in hospital.
Speaker 1: She was pronounced dead at just sixteen years old.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, Okay, whoa, what a freakin' roller coaster.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was like, for the love of God, please tell
Speaker 2: me she lives. And she lived.
Speaker 1: She managed to survive four more fucking days, which I
Speaker 1: can't fathom that that is incredible on its own.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, she is a freakin', like you said, badass
Speaker 2: of the day. But holy shit, she also deserved to live.
Speaker 1: She did. She deserved none of what she had done
Speaker 1: to her, not a single bit of it. She did nothing.
Speaker 1: She wanted to fit in, she wanted friends, she wanted
Speaker 1: to belong. She did chores, babysat, did errands, she took abuse.
Speaker 2: And she was probably polite and super nice to all.
Speaker 1: Of them exactly. She was literally a fucking angel and
Speaker 1: they did. Yes.
Speaker 2: Wow, okay, Well the only I only can there's only
Speaker 2: one punishment these people freaking deserve. In my mind right now,
Speaker 2: I agree with you, And I just have to say
Speaker 2: one other thing too. If she did pass away out there,
Speaker 2: they probably would have gotten away with this. They could have.
Speaker 1: They could have.
Speaker 2: Her family may have known some things, but the chances
Speaker 2: are far greater, right obviously.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's higher chance of like she could have been missing.
Speaker 1: They might not have ever found her body. Who knows, right,
Speaker 1: if they found her body, they probably would have been
Speaker 1: able to pend it on them that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: Who knows, but I digress or.
Speaker 2: Someone one of them, knowing how freakin creepy ass bitches
Speaker 2: they are, could have gone back out there and buried
Speaker 2: her or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, Although Suzanne had not survived, the information she
Speaker 1: provided to police in those final hours ensured that the
Speaker 1: people responsible for her suffering would soon be identified. For
Speaker 1: detectives with the Greater Manchester Police, the information Suzanne gave
Speaker 1: them was more than enough to begin to move quickly,
Speaker 1: and in the early hours of December fourteenth, just hours
Speaker 1: after Suzanne had been found on the roadside, officers arrived
Speaker 1: at that address that she had provided. Arned with a
Speaker 1: search warrant, They entered the property and began searching the house.
Speaker 1: It didn't take long for them to find disturbing evidence
Speaker 1: to back up what Suzanne had told them. Investigators discovered
Speaker 1: clumps of Suzanne's shaved hair, along with bloodstains and other
Speaker 1: signs that a violent assault had taken place. As they
Speaker 1: continued searching, more items continued to come up that were
Speaker 1: connected with the attack, and all the evidence that they
Speaker 1: found strongly supported the story Suzanne had told them from
Speaker 1: the hospital bed, But investigation didn't stop there. Police were
Speaker 1: also directed to the nearby property where Suzanne had been
Speaker 1: held captive during the week of torture. She also told
Speaker 1: them about that. When officers entered that house, they found
Speaker 1: the room where Suzanne had been restrained and the scene
Speaker 1: was horrifying.
Speaker 2: They didn't even go about cleaning anything up.
Speaker 1: Well, this is only hours after they had dumped her.
Speaker 2: But the hair though in the other house.
Speaker 1: For example.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fair enough, that's freaking wild.
Speaker 1: I see what you mean.
Speaker 2: Yeah, nasty nasty people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're gross. Now that bed, the turned over box
Speaker 1: spring that she'd been tied to, it was still there
Speaker 1: in the room, along with ropes and other material that
Speaker 1: were used to secure and tie her in place. The
Speaker 1: room itself showed clear signs of what had happened inside.
Speaker 1: Blood and other evidence of prolonged violence were all present
Speaker 1: throughout the space. For the detectives working the case, the
Speaker 1: discovery confirmed the scale of the abuse Suzanne had described,
Speaker 1: and shortly after the search began, police started arresting the
Speaker 1: people that she named. One by one, they were all
Speaker 1: arrested and taken into custody. At first, those involved attempted
Speaker 1: to deny any sort of responsibility, saying that it wasn't them,
Speaker 1: or was the other people or whatever making any sort
Speaker 1: of excuse, But as investigators began questioning them and confronting
Speaker 1: them with the evidence collected and the parts of the
Speaker 1: story everything that they knew while things actually started to emerge. Eventually,
Speaker 1: seventeen year old Anthony Dudson began cooperating with police. Encouraged
Speaker 1: by his father to tell the truth. Anthony provided investigators
Speaker 1: with a detailed account of what had happened during the
Speaker 1: week Suzanne had been held captive. His statement helped confirm
Speaker 1: many of the details Suzanne herself had already given officers
Speaker 1: and for some of the detectives involved, the case was
Speaker 1: unlike anything that ever encountered before the level of cruelty
Speaker 1: he described in statements. All these things and the evidence
Speaker 1: that supported it, it was deeply disturbing. Even officers with
Speaker 1: years of experience later admitted they struggled to comprehend how
Speaker 1: a group of people could carry out such a sustained
Speaker 1: torture against an innocent teenage girl, but whether they could
Speaker 1: believe it or not, it happened, and the investigation had
Speaker 1: now gathered enough evidence to move forward and prove it,
Speaker 1: and within the next year, the people responsible for Suzanne
Speaker 1: Kapper's suffering and murder would face their time in court.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety three, the six individuals that she had
Speaker 1: named were brought to trial at Manchester Crown Court, with
Speaker 1: the full details of what had happened began to emerge.
Speaker 1: Over the course of the trial. Prosecutors laid out the
Speaker 1: events of the previous December and grim detail. Witness testimony,
Speaker 1: forensic evidence and statements taken during the investigation all combined
Speaker 1: to paint a picture of a horrific, prolonged cruelty that
Speaker 1: shocked even those accustomed to hearing serious criminal cases. The
Speaker 1: jury heard of how Suzanne had been lured back to
Speaker 1: the house under false pretense, only to be attacked almost
Speaker 1: immediately after arriving. Evidence showed that she had been held
Speaker 1: captive for nearly a week, during which time she was beaten, burned,
Speaker 1: injected with drugs, humiliated, restrained, and the list goes on.
Speaker 1: Testimony also described how members of the group repeatedly returned
Speaker 1: to the room where she was being held, continuing the
Speaker 1: abuse while she remained unable to defend herself. Medical experts
Speaker 1: were called to the stand to explain the extent of
Speaker 1: the damage to her body, while investigators described the condition
Speaker 1: of the room where she had been tied up. The
Speaker 1: court also heard testimony from the witness David Hill. He
Speaker 1: recounted how she had pleaded with him to untie her
Speaker 1: and help her escape, and how he had left without
Speaker 1: intervening because he was afraid what the others might do
Speaker 1: to him. Another key piece of evidence came from Anthony
Speaker 1: Dudson his statement well It ultimately helped investigators reconstruct many
Speaker 1: of the events that took place inside that house. As
Speaker 1: the trial unfolded, the judge overseeing the case described the
Speaker 1: crime as one carried out with sadistic cruelty, and when
Speaker 1: the proceedings finally came to an end, the jury returned
Speaker 1: with its verdicts Jane Powell, Bernadette mcnilly Glenn Powell. They
Speaker 1: were all convicted of Suzannekapper's murder. Each received a life sentence,
Speaker 1: with a minimum term of twenty five years before they
Speaker 1: could be considered for release. Anthony Dudson, who had been
Speaker 1: only seventeen at the time of the crime and had
Speaker 1: helped police with recounting the full scope of what had happened.
Speaker 1: He was also sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum
Speaker 1: term of eighteen years. The remaining two defendants, Clifford Pook
Speaker 1: and Jeffrey Lay, were convicted of lesser charges related to
Speaker 1: Suzanne's captivity. Clifford received fifteen years, while Jeffrey received twelve.
Speaker 1: In the years that followed the trial, the story of
Speaker 1: Suzannekaeper's murder continued to haunt the public. The sheer, unimaginable
Speaker 1: brutality of the crime that shocked the community when at
Speaker 1: first emerged in court was beyond anyone's imagination, But as
Speaker 1: time passed, questions of parole began to arise, and the
Speaker 1: case returned to public attention once again. Although three of
Speaker 1: the attackers had been sentenced to life imprisonment with minimum
Speaker 1: terms of twenty five years, the other two men convicted
Speaker 1: of lesser charges served shorter sentences. Jeffrey Lay, who had
Speaker 1: been convicted of false imprisonment, was released from prison in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight after serving roughly only six years of
Speaker 1: his sentence.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: Clifford Pook, who had played a direct role in Suzanne's abuse,
Speaker 1: remained incarcerated longer, but was eventually released in two thousand
Speaker 1: and one after serving around only nine frick.
Speaker 2: I think anyone that was even remotely part of this,
Speaker 2: knew about this, should just never see the light of
Speaker 2: day again.
Speaker 1: I know now the possibility that others involved in the
Speaker 1: crime and how they might one day be released two
Speaker 1: was something that Suzanne's family had feared from the very beginning.
Speaker 1: Her mother, Elizabeth Dunbar, remained outspoken about the case for
Speaker 1: many years. For her, the brutality of what had been
Speaker 1: done to her daughter Suzanne meant that the people responsible
Speaker 1: should never be allowed back into society. She felt the
Speaker 1: same way you do, and whenever the issue of parole
Speaker 1: was raised, she spoke publicly about her belief that those
Speaker 1: responsible for her daughter's suffering should spend the rest of
Speaker 1: their lives behind bars. Now, over time, the fear of
Speaker 1: parole ultimately become reality. After serving the minimum portion of
Speaker 1: their sentences, several of the main perpetrators were eventually granted parole.
Speaker 1: Anthony Dudson, who had been seventeen at the time of
Speaker 1: the crime, was released after serving his minimum term. Later,
Speaker 1: the individuals who had received life sentences also began completing
Speaker 1: their minimum sentences too. One of the most controversial decisions
Speaker 1: came in twenty thirteen, when Bernadette McNeely sentence was reduced
Speaker 1: slightly after a judge described her as a model prisoner
Speaker 1: who had shown remorse during her time behind bars.
Speaker 2: I don't care. Yeah, Oh, it makes me honestly sick.
Speaker 2: Like when you were just talking about Suzanne's mom and
Speaker 2: her having to hear what happened to her daughter. Holy shit,
Speaker 2: I know that makes me just nauseous because that is
Speaker 2: just something that a mom should never ever ever have
Speaker 2: to hear about her own child going through.
Speaker 1: And it would be they would make her sick to herself.
Speaker 1: It makes me almost sick to my stuffy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she I don't even Yeah, Like her life going
Speaker 2: forward after that is also, you know, pretty messed up.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, now, the decision of lightning Bernadette's sentence because
Speaker 1: she was a model prisoner, meant that she would be
Speaker 1: eligible for release sooner than originally expected, and two years later,
Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen, Bernadette was released from prison. That decision
Speaker 1: sparked renewed anger amongst many members of the public who
Speaker 1: still remember the details of the case. For many, the
Speaker 1: idea that someone involved with such a horrific crime and
Speaker 1: they could just simply walk free was very difficult to accept,
Speaker 1: and most of all, for Suzanne's family, the passage of
Speaker 1: time had not lessened the pain of what had happened.
Speaker 1: They had lost a daughter or a sister in circumstances
Speaker 1: that were almost impossible to comprehend. Just like you were talking,
Speaker 1: No prison sentenced, no matter how long, could ever undo
Speaker 1: what had been done during that week in December of
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two. Now, ultimately all of the perpetrators of
Speaker 1: the torture and murder of Suzanne Kapper have been released,
Speaker 1: including Jeane and Glenn Jean in twenty seventeen and Glenn
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three. They are all free now, while Suzanne,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, lost her life.
Speaker 2: Oh man, they're just walking amongst uss eh yep.
Speaker 1: For more than three decades we have sat on this story.
Speaker 1: Time has passed since she walked down that road, Since
Speaker 1: Suzanne endured her body being burned, and her strength was
Speaker 1: all nearly gone. Yet she still desperately searched for help.
Speaker 1: For many people who learned about this case, it is
Speaker 1: the brutality of what happened during that week in December
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety two that is the hardest to comprehend.
Speaker 1: The sustained torture, the humiliation, the final act of violence
Speaker 1: that left a teenage girl she was sixteen, and she
Speaker 1: was burned alive in the woods. They have all made
Speaker 1: Suzann's murder one of the most disturbing crimes in modern
Speaker 1: British history. But beyond the horror of the crime itself,
Speaker 1: Suzanne Kapper is remembered for something else. Even after enduring
Speaker 1: nearly a week of unimaginable abuse, she still found somehow
Speaker 1: the strength to survive long enough to reach the road
Speaker 1: and ask for help, And in the hours that followed,
Speaker 1: while doctors fought to keep her alive in hospital, Suzanne
Speaker 1: spoke out. Her throat was likely burnt from the heat
Speaker 1: as she was being burnt alive, and her lungs were
Speaker 1: probably filled with ash and smoke, but still she managed
Speaker 1: to give police the information they needed to begin their investigation.
Speaker 1: She named the people responsible. Those statements ensured that the
Speaker 1: individuals who tortured her would not escape justice, even if
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel like it was enough. Without Suzanne's final testimony,
Speaker 1: investigators might have faced a far more difficult task reconstructing
Speaker 1: what happened inside that house on Langworthy Road. In fact,
Speaker 1: they may never have found her, and they may never
Speaker 1: have found those responsible people who helped her in the
Speaker 1: morning on that day when she searched for help. Also
Speaker 1: remembered something else remarkable about Suzanne. Despite the pain she
Speaker 1: must have been experiencing, she remained kind, polite, soft spoken,
Speaker 1: and thanked the strangers who had stopped to help her.
Speaker 1: And she simply asked for water while they waited for emergency.
Speaker 2: Services, when really, at that point she should have had
Speaker 2: about zero faith in humanity. Yeah, so that's incredible.
Speaker 1: It was a small moment of humanity in the middle
Speaker 1: of her own deeply tragic story. Today, Suzanne Kapper is
Speaker 1: buried at Blackly's Sanemitarian Manchester, where her grave remains a
Speaker 1: place for remembrance for those who still reflect on the case.
Speaker 1: Her story continues to be discussed in documentaries, articles, and
Speaker 1: true crime investigations, not only because of the cruelty involved,
Speaker 1: but because it shows how vulnerable people can be become
Speaker 1: targets in the wrong environment for reasons as simple as
Speaker 1: wanting to belong. Suzanne was only sixteen years old when
Speaker 1: she died. Her life was short, shaped by instability and
Speaker 1: a search for acceptance that ultimately led her into the
Speaker 1: company of people who exploited her vulnerability and kindness. But
Speaker 1: the courage that she showed in her final hours walking
Speaker 1: out of the woods, finding help, identifying those responsible, being polite,
Speaker 1: they all ensured that her voice would be heard. And
Speaker 1: because of that, the truth of what happened to Suzanne
Speaker 1: Capper will never be forgotten. And that's the story of
Speaker 1: Susan and Kapper.
Speaker 2: Gosh, I'm just beyond devastated that she didn't make it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't know ever, Like because like I said earlier,
Speaker 2: it was kind of a roller coaster. I was like,
Speaker 2: holy shit, she's gonna survive. Like I didn't realize this
Speaker 2: was a survivor story. And then it wasn't.
Speaker 1: I could I could just sob But I went through
Speaker 1: the exact same roller coaster ride. When I learned about
Speaker 1: the story, I got to that moment where I'm like, wait,
Speaker 1: she's a lot. Does she survive? Oh my god, yes,
Speaker 1: I'm like, you fucking go, girl, don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: like you fuck, she still rock that, She's still a
Speaker 1: fucking badass. For god, I wish she lived.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like after all that, I mean putting the flame
Speaker 2: out and going to get help, but I mean, yeah,
Speaker 2: her body had just been through far too much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she was she had been through far too much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's honestly a freaking miracle that she lived as
Speaker 2: long as she did. Yeah, from what you've described, what
Speaker 2: you described happened to her.
Speaker 1: And all those people who did that to her, they're
Speaker 1: all free. Each one of them could be listening to
Speaker 1: this podcast right now, in fact, and if you are listening,
Speaker 1: I want to tell you, guys, one thing, Fuck you.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 2: That's like too nice, I know, but yeah, yeah, it's
Speaker 2: pretty unbelievable that someone could that you could do something
Speaker 2: like that to a human and then you still get
Speaker 2: to like live your life, yeah, and in freedom, you know,
Speaker 2: after however long, right, like I get live your life
Speaker 2: in jail or whatever. But to be put out and
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, I don't know.
Speaker 1: And every one of them should have rotted. The guy
Speaker 1: who pulled her teeth out, the requires smashed her teeth
Speaker 1: in and pulled them out. He did less than ten years.
Speaker 2: You can only hope that they're just, I don't know, haunted.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I hope they're haunted every single fucking.
Speaker 2: Night by this, that they cannot live a proper life
Speaker 2: because they feel so terrible for what they did, and
Speaker 2: that maybe they live their life being kind people. But
Speaker 2: still I don't even freaking give a shit.
Speaker 1: Honestly, I hope Suzanne is haunting each and every one
Speaker 1: of them.
Speaker 2: But she's not too nice. She's better than that. Wouldn't
Speaker 2: she wouldn't. She's a freaking kind human walk.
Speaker 1: You're right, well, I hope they're conscious haunts them then
Speaker 1: instead there. Yeah, thank you guys for being here. This
Speaker 1: was a heavy, heavy episode.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you look just wrecked. I think we're probably all
Speaker 2: just wrecked.
Speaker 1: I think. So. It was heavy research and yeah I
Speaker 1: was kind of heavy getting through it, But thank you
Speaker 1: guys for getting through it with us. To Susanne, yeah,
Speaker 1: I a little bit left my drink so for her,
Speaker 1: And I'm not going to do an end of the
Speaker 1: episode spiel. Just thank you for being here.
Speaker 3: And until next time, to Susan, to Suzanne, and until
Speaker 3: next time, stay wicked.
Speaker 1: B