Fred and Rose West: All of the unanswered questions

14 May 2025, 17:09 | Updated: 14 May 2025, 17:19

Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story has been released on Netflix this week to shine a light on one of the most horrific episodes in the country’s recent history.

Thirty years after Fred’s death, the documentary is looking back at the gruesome series of rapes and murders committed by the couple who had been observed from the outside to be in a stable marriage.

From 1967 to 1987, Fred committed at least 11 murders and was assisted for at least nine of these by his second wife Rose - who he married when she was 16 and he was 28.

The Wests had a shared sexual sadomasochist interest that led them to go on to prey on vulnerable young women in the area of their Gloucester home. They would kidnap, torture, rape, kill and dismember their victims.

Those who they killed were Heather West, Shirley Robinson, Alison Chambers, Thérèse Siegenthaler, Shirley Hubbard, Lucy Partington, Juanita Mott, Lynda Gough, and Carole Ann Cooper. Fred murdered Ann McFall and Rose killed Charmaine West.

Watch the trailer for Fred and Rose West - A British Horror Story

Fred also murdered his first wife Catherine “Rena” Costello and killed himself in 1995 aged 53 while awaiting pretrial proceedings after admitting to 10 murders but not that of Ann McFall.

After various probes in the early 1990s, police eventually caught up with them and arrests were made following the excavation of their lawn at 25 Cromwell Street - where bodies were found.

Rose, now 71, is currently serving a life sentence at HM Prison New Hall and has always denied her crimes.

Various documentaries have previously been made about the Wests but Netflix has claimed to have dug deeper in its three part documentary series.

“Through 107 police interview tapes covering over 50 hours of interrogations, much of it previously unseen and -heard, this three-part docuseries sheds new light on the notorious murders of at least 12 women,” reads the Netflix blurb.

It follows on from Fred and Rose West: Reopened, an ITV documentary in 2021 that suggested 15-year-old Mary Bastholm could be buried under a former Gloucester cafe where she worked.

Police investigated but were unable to find remains of the woman who was last seen in 1968, despite Fred reportedly admitting to her murder in private. There was also a 2014 Sky documentary called Fred & Rose: The Unanswered Questions.

But despite all of this, questions still remain around the couple’s crimes with both the i and the Guardian reviews, both two stars, stating there was little new on offer from the Netflix series.

“There’s not much new to learn about the decades-old case from the film, and the most interesting people connected,” wrote the i’s Emily Baker. “I found myself waiting for revelations that never came.”

Lucy Mangan in the Guardian said: “What is the point of a programme that is little more than a bald summarisation of a bleak and terrible tale? This happened, then that happened, then this, then that. So what? What is the point?”

Here are some of the questions around the case that remain unanswered.

The Fred and Rose unanswered questions

What happened to Mary Bastholm?

The 15-year-old cafe worker disappeared in 1968 but her disappearance remains unsolved.

Fred West has long been linked to her presumed death and is said to have admitted to it privately in 1994 - although he was said to have told many lies during this period.

Gloucester Police excavated the building in 2021 but no evidence was found.

Why did Fred West not admit to killing Ann McFall?

The police said Fred West never admitted involvement in the murder of Ann McFall but did show officers where she was buried.

He was convicted of her 1967 murder but, unlike his wife, did sometimes give police confessions of guilt. But he never admitted to what was the first killing in his spree.

Why did it take authorities so long to properly investigate the Wests?

In 1992 both Rose and Fred were charged over the sexual abuse of one of their daughters after an anonymous tip of to the police.

However, the statement was retracted by the daughter, the charge was dropped, and it would be another two years before her parents were arrested.

Authorities failed to intervene at other previous occasions despite seeing the Wests’ children looking in poor health at school. But this is not much followed up in the documentary.

Will Rose West admit guilt?

Rose, now in her seventies, will never be released from prison and according to ABC had sent letters to her children detailing her active life behind bars; full of hobbies and learning.

Mae West lives in hope that her mother might finally admit to being complicit.

"She became quite high and mighty in prison, intervening in our lives … Her death will be the next thing, and I suppose she might make a deathbed confession,” she said.

"I just wish she'd tell the truth to the authorities, then we'd all know, wouldn't we?"

Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story is on Netflix now