Son Accused of Killing Parents To Gain Inheritance

In the United Kingdom, Stephen Seddon is on trial for the murder and attempted murder of his parents, Robert and Patricia. The prosecution in this case stated that the reason that Stephen wanted his parents dead was because he needed money and was set to inherit a good sum of money from his parents. The prosecution alleged that this is what led Stephen to make two attempts on his parent’s life, one successful and one unsuccessful.

In his first attempt, the prosecution claimed that Stephen attempted to drown his parents by staging a car accident in the local canal. “The jury was told that when firefighters arrived at the scene Stephen Seddon was standing on the roof of the car. He was told to get off because he was making the car sink. His parents were trapped in the back seats.” Stephen’s story about what happened in this incident was inconsistent at best, but his parents did survive this attempt. The prosecution claims that this led to the incident in question where Stephen is accused of shooting his parents and making it look like a murder-suicide. Stephen denies all the allegations against him.

See Becky Johnson, Son ‘Killed His Parents For Inheritance’, SkyNews, Feb. 20, 2013. 

Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.