Britain's youngest double killer's revealed

Lin k

The chilling details from a double murder that took place last year are finally being revealed. Withheld due to their age, we now know these are the youngest double killer's in British modern history. Eerily similar to this case I highlighted not too long ago. Are kids really this #ed up?

A teenage girl enlisted her boyfriend to help murder her mother and younger sister, it can now be revealed.

Sweethearts Kim Edwards and Lucas Markham, who were 14 when they became Britain’s youngest double killers, were named yesterday for the first time. 

The embittered schoolgirl and her lover killed her mother Elizabeth Edwards, 49, and sister Katie, 13, in ‘brutal executions’ as they slept.

Edwards let Markham into her house and watched as he smothered and stabbed the pair. With blood staining the walls, Edwards stripped naked next to her mother’s body and had a bath with Markham to wash the blood from him.

They spent the next 36 hours in the house, with the bodies still upstairs, watching teenage vampire film Twilight, eating ice cream and having sex.

As some of you may know, I work with troubled teens and this is the reason why I choose to highlight these types of cases so I can learn more about what leads people to commit such horrific crimes, especially at such a young age. A lot of people will brush it off as just being wired differently, but in my opinion, that's the easy way out. There are the rare occasions when that is true, but more often than not, that is not the case and when you begin to trace back the steps, you start to understand a little more about how one begins on a certain path, and ultimately end up where they do. Doesn't paint the entire picture, but definitely fills some pieces to the puzzle. Or we can just take the easy way out and say "crazy"?

You have to go back to the murder of James Bulger in 1993 to find a remotely comparable crime. The same question asked in the aftermath of that tragedy will surely be asked now: were Kim Edwards and Lucas Markham born wicked or were they made so?

The jealous sister-
Nothing out of the ordinary..

Outwardly, Kim Edwards was a typical teenager. She loved shopping and pop music. She lived with her mother Elizabeth and younger sister Katie. Mrs Edwards took the girls to pantomimes when they were younger.

They were very much part of the community. Mrs Edwards ran drama and choir classes at church, where Katie was a volunteer. The sisters were part of a Safer Neighbourhoods scheme to tackle problems such as anti-social behaviour. Kim was popular at school and excelled at art.

She told social workers she was ‘jealous’ of Katie, she admitted, because she was ‘like an angel, bright and brilliant… I was a train wreck by comparison. I saw her and mum were inseparable. As the years went by I became more blank, and punched my feelings away.’ She said believing her mother favoured her sister ‘made me feel like s***. It did nothing for my self-esteem whatsoever.’

The troubled boy -
Definitely a troubled life..

Any chance Lucas Markham had of a normal life effectively ended when he was five. That was when his mother, who had been suffering from cancer, died – days before her 30th birthday. His father, a local handyman and driver, was rarely around, so Markham and his brothers were farmed out to various family members.

There was a more disturbing incident two years ago, after of the death of a local man, Warren Free. It was alleged that Mr Free, 42, was subjected to a vicious assault involving a metal pole following a confrontation with six youths in a park over damage to his property.

‘I was out walking the dog one day when I saw him,’ said Jane Blandford, 49, who knew the Edwards family through school. ‘He was with a group of kids and was boasting about how he had been there when Warren was killed. He thought it was hilarious and that he was untouchable.’

A toxic relationship -
The perfect storm..

Kim Edwards and Lucas Markham began their relationship on May 23, 2015, shortly before he was excluded from Sir John Gleed. He had asked her out on Facebook after finding out she had a crush on him. They were inseparable.

Explaining her attraction to Markham, she said they had the same attitude to life, ‘that it was s***... and it was only going to get worse’. He offered an escape from the despair of her home life.

Outside school, the couple retreated into their own increasingly dark world, writing about self-harm, suicide and depression. It was, the court heard, as if the couple were ‘almost playing chicken with each other’.

Cold-blooded -
Just cold blooded..

‘She deserved it,’ Kim Edwards said of her mother following her arrest. ‘I’m glad she’s dead. Ever since I was young I never got on with my mum, and knew that she favoured my sister more than me.

‘I felt left out and depressed and suicidal. I got rid of what made me depressed: My mum.’

Markham told her: ‘I’ve done lesser things and felt more bad about doing them than this.’

This may be one of those cases where the daughter was a sociopath, but was she born this way or was she nurtured into it?

IMO, she was just a regular unstable teen, nothing too out of the ordinary and the boy obviously had a pretty rough life and was destined to be set on a destructive path. Would this have happen if they had never met? Probably not, so were they really just psycho's waiting to kill, or was this the perfect storm of event's? Hard to say, probably a bit of both, maybe more of the latter, but what do I know..



I cut the excerpts shorter so if you want to read more, go to the link.

originally posted by: knowledgehunter0986
The chilling details from a double murder that took place last year are finally being revealed. Withheld due to their age, we now know these are the youngest double murderers in British modern history. Eerily similar to this case I highlighted not too long ago. Are kids really this #ed up?

Yes and no.

I don't think kids are any worse today, we just hear about it more due to the availability of the news. If anything, I would argue that kids are better behaved today. Just using the word "kids" though implies that we already understand they aren't developed fully. A lot of children lack empathy, and it's not all too uncommon for that to stretch into teenage or even adult years. To really be called screwed up, I think the couple would need to realize the ramifications of what they did, and unless I misunderstand the event (haven't read it in extreme detail), these people were just typical 14 year olds and didn't really get it. Most 14 year olds wish death on people, but most of them are usually conditioned enough not to. For whatever reason these two acted out.

a reply to: Aazadan

You make some good points. It's difficult to pin-point where or how it went so wrong, we can only speculate at this point. I do know it's not as simple as "crazy".

Thanks for your input.

Hi knowledge, thanks for putting together a really interesting thread and with the intention of better informing your important work with youth (my sis in law does the same work, btw.. great, difficult job and I commend you).

I read through the article and it was truly heartwrenching. I know how sensational DM is, but the pictures and text told a very tragic story that started well before the murders.

I was particularly struck by a few things (including the pictures- she looked so sad as a tiny girl and the others were very interesting as well):
-girl's estranged father was a violent addict (can this be passed through genes at all)
-mom punched her in the face when she was 8? wtf?
-mom also possibly choked her? told her repeatedly she'd end up like her father (whom undoubtedly mother hated by now)

Now I believe fully in free will so this is no excuse but one can see how it got there- abuse at young ages probably does damage one's brain and psyche if there is no other outlet -- this case wasn't in a vacuum! Sad sad story all around.

Another edit: I agree that the dynamic of two twisted minds is much more dangerous than one-imo- and prob a sexual relationship compounds this.

Hey friend I hope you enjoy your weekend

a reply to: zosimov

Hi zosi, and thank you.

I've yet to speak to a teen that hasn't been abused in some way, emotionally or physically. Most come from broken homes, lived a pretty rocky, unstable life and almost every single one of them suffer from some form of mental illness.

But they are mostly good kids, just no direction in life, largely due to their environment and upbringing, hardly their fault. I would never in a million years think any one of them could commit such a heinous crime.

One thing that I've learned over the year's - positive role models, or lack thereof, is a HUGE factor in determining ones path.

Thanks for reading and for your input.

Have a good weekend!

a reply to: knowledgehunter0986

Man, I was still processing the crimes against the child--I just don't know how you could punch an eight year old girl in the face--but what followed was obviously far far worse.

Anyway I haven't even begun to process the horrific murder. You are right in saying that it is impossible to believe that a kid-or anyone- would be capable of those evil acts.

Anyways. Too much to think on atm (hurting the brain).. but well worth the discussion..

Talk to you later.

This is a terrible crime. Regardless of the motives, these two people should be sterilised and unable to have children when they are released. They will be released in their thirties.

While we can all be sympathetic about kids from broken homes and who have challenging lives, we must never allow ourselves to excuse crimes like this and fall into the trap of saying "... well it's not their fault".

a reply to: paraphi

No I totally agree. I'm not trying to find excuses for them, nothing can justify a crime of this nature. I'm just trying to put the pieces together so we can have a better understanding of the 'why'.

a reply to: paraphi

Hi there paraphi
I saw nothing in OP at all trying to justify the murders. My initial comment did venture far more into this kind of territory. I suppose I read through the story and found myself more and more horrified with the girl's story that by the time I got to the murder I was still focused on what it would have been like (possibly- this is conjecture here) growing up in a home where your mom has physically attacked you (not spankings here but as if to do real harm), compares you with a father she hates, and then throw in an adored sister and abandonment- the girl wanted a new home when she was 12- and the crimes were already horrific.

I was just thinking how violence escalates generationally (sometimes-not all) and how one might stop vicious cycles.

I'd say that line of thinking might lead to some changes more than dismissing people as monsters. Though some might actually be born monsters, I don't know.

originally posted by: zosimov
I saw nothing in OP at all trying to justify the murders.

Indeed. I was not suggesting any trace of justification. However, in trying to understand there is often a tendency to blame others. Many people have a hard life, but there must be an underlying condition that causes a person to slip into cold blooded murder. The two kids probably supported each other in a cycle of fantasy that turned into reality.

a reply to: paraphi

Hi, and thanks for a great reply.
Have you ever talked yourself into a hole and then found yourself trying to talk yourself back out? lol, It's a lot harder on the way out!
I was cringing at my own opinion a bit as it made me sound like an apologist for brutal murder and that's the last thing I want to sound like.. her story got me thinking, though, about the perpetual nature of violence and how we can never predict how quickly and exponentially it can escalate. Is it learned behavior? When the mother choked her as a girl was she teaching her how to act? If the grown woman can't control her rage then how will the girl learn?

One more case comes to mind which is Sandusky's adopted son being accused of molesting kids- and how most likely the father turned his son into a violent offender by violently offending him. All the more important to ensure that neither he nor his disgusting father, nor the two horrific criminals outlined in OP, ever have the opportunity to pass that violence on again. I agree with your take on sterilization or some other quite drastic measures because those two should never see the light of day again. This is a fact.

Sorry now I will really really shut up.. carry on

a reply to: zosimov

At the end of the day, I don't think any of us know the answers, which is life, nothing is easy or simple. The human condition is exceptionally complex and we'll probably never fully understand all the dynamics. For me personally, I'm just really passionate about these things, along with many other social issues because it's a big part of who I am and what I do.

Thanks for all the thought provoking replies.