By Saul Cooke-Black

THE SHOCKING discovery of human remains under the home of 25 Cromwell Street shook Gloucestershire, and the nation, in 1994.

Twenty years after the conviction of Rosemary and the suicide of Fred West, the SNJ looks back at how the gruesome tale unfolded.

On February 23, 1994, Fred and Rosemary West were known as an ordinary Gloucester couple who had been married for 22 years.

Little did residents know that buried in the cellar and garden of the property were the remains of nine young women and girls, one of which was the couple’s missing daughter.

And these were just some of the victims of the serial killing couple.

Police started searching the house and excavating the garden of the Wests on February 24, 1994.

One of the couple’s daughters, Heather, had been gone missing at the age of 16, in 1987.

Suspicions were raised when police were told of a ‘joke’ the Wests told – that Heather was buried under the patio.

Two days later, Heather’s bones were found in the back garden.

Her head was severed and bones chopped up to save space.

As police continued their search, a second body was found in the back garden, that of 18-year-old Shirley Anne Robinson.

Ms Robinson, a lodger at Cromwell Street, had been missing for nearly sixteen years after having an affair with Mr West.

The teenager died pregnant with Mr West’s child and just like Heather, she was found decapitated.

On March 5 the remains of two more bodies were found, this time in the cellar of the Wests home.

One of these was Shirley Hubbard, a 15-year-old girl missing since 1974, and the other was 21-year-old Swiss student, Therese Siegenthaler.

Mr West immediately confessed to the murders, but said that Rosemary was not involved.

The grim discoveries sparked a frenzy of media speculation, as Gloucester became the centre of the national news.

Soon, a total of nine bodies were found under the home of Mr and Mrs West, all of them young women.

Winchester Crown Court heard evidence in 1995 that many of the victims were sexually abused before being murdered.

Seven of the nine victims found at Cromwell Street had been masked or gagged.

As well as the nine victims found at Cromwell Street, three more bodies were discovered including Charmaine West, daughter to Fred.

It was later proved that Charmaine was murdered by Rosemary while Mr West was in prison for theft. This was crucial in proving Rosemary’s part in the killings.

Fred West was charged with the murder of 12 young women but committed suicide on January 1, 1995, while he was in detention at a cell in Winson Green Prison, Birmingham, before his trial.

Rosemary West continued to deny any involvement in the killings and still maintains that she is innocent.

She was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1995, having been found guilty of ten murders with her husband.

Now aged 61, she remains an inmate at HM Prison Low Newton where she will spend the rest of her life.

Twenty-five Cromwell Street was demolished and replaced with a walkway in 1996.