Authorities are still trying to piece together a potential motive behind the brutal murders of two young children. It’s been over two years since siblings Ethan and Elizabeth John were fatally stabbed, and it’s their mother who has become the prime suspect.
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Leading up to the June 11, 2023 double murders, police were called multiple times in response to domestic issues at a UK family home. Prosecutor Peter Grieves-Smith told the courts that “what happened on the 11th of June didn’t come out of the blue,” according to PEOPLE.
John’s husband, Nathan, called the cops the day before claiming John attacked him with a wooden plank,BBC reported. He even claimed John would “use the children against him,” but no one could’ve imagined what would happen the following day.
John was born in St. Vincent, a country located in the eastern Caribbean islands. According to police, she reportedly went online and searched “Can a foreigner be charged with murder in the UK?” on June 11, 2023. Hours later, police alleged she began a violent stabbing spree targeting her children and estranged husband.
“Officers initially went to the home address and that’s where officers found both of the children,” officer John Harrison said. “Veronique John contacted police, stating she was at her home and had killed the children.”
Her son, Ethan, 11, was stabbed over 20 times. John’s 7-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, suffered stab wounds to the neck and a severe brain injury, BBC reported. When medics arrived to the house, both children were pronounced dead. Around the same time, John’s husband, Nathan, reported he had been stabbed as well.
When authorities arrived to the home, John reportedly begged them to kill her. “If you have a gun, shoot me. I am not a monster – he was going to take them from me.” After her arrest, John allegedly told police, “It’s something I was thinking about for a long time – just kill myself and the kids. Unless you guys are offering me the death penalty I have nothing else to say.”
At the trial-of-facts hearing at Nottingham Crown Court, prosecutors said John allegedly killed her children before driving to a local car wash and stabbing Nathan in the stomach. She then came back home and called the police. “You claim that you are not a monster,” the judge told John in court. “But your acts were either those of a monster or someone who has lost all capacity to reason.”
Now, John is officially set to stand trial. It is expected to last six days.
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