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The mummy murderer

My sister was the prefect parent, but someone thought otherwise...


Published by: Laura Hinton and Jacki Leroux
Published on: 26 January 2012

Chalk and cheese, that was me and my big sister Lisa, 41 - well, our parents always said she was country and I was rock n roll. But even though we had very different personalities, the one thing we had in common was our maternal nature. I'd just waited longer than her to become a mother.
While Lisa was settled in her life with her hubby Terry, 60, and his daughter Amanda, 15, from a previous relationship, I'd held out for the man of my dreams. Except he'd never come along.
Still desperate for a baby, I'd gone down the IVF route when I hit 39 - and Lisa had been there for me every step of the way. Like now, she was holding my hand at my 20-week scan.
As the sonographer rubbed the cold gel across my tummy, I held my breath with excitement.
This was it - I'd finally get to know what I was having!
Ever so slowly, I inched my eyes up on to the screen. ‘Your twins are boys,' the nurse told me.
‘Oh, how wonderful,' Lisa grinned proudly beside me.
‘I'm going to have my hands full,' I giggled.
‘Well, I'm going to be here for you,' she smiled. I knew she meant it, too. She'd never been pregnant, but had always treated Amanda as her own, and they called each other mother and daughter.
Well, she'd raised her since Amanda was seven.
Her real mum had never stuck around. It was Lisa who went along to footie practice every week, Lisa who took her shopping for her prom dress, Lisa who'd watched her grow from a child into a teenager. She was fiercely proud of her stepdaughter too. Yet I knew things weren't perfect...
Now, as we left the doctors, I sensed something was wrong.
‘Is everything okay?' I asked, as we stood looking at prams in a local store.
‘Amanda's just being a typical teen again,' she sighed.
To be honest, it sounded like she'd gone off the rails a bit recently. Apparently, Amanda had got this new boyfriend Andrew, 21. Both Terry and Lisa thought he was trouble - I'd never met him myself, so couldn't judge.
‘She just lies about everything,' Lisa grumbled. ‘But grounding her makes no difference, she just rebels even more.'
Amanda had already run away from home twice in the last few months.
Poor Lisa had tried her best to nurture this girl, but now felt helpless. I hoped that when I was a mum, I could show as much love, patience and dedication.
‘I'm sure it's just a phase,' I reassured her softly. ‘You're a great mum.'
‘Oh, don't worry about me,' she laughed, brushing the issue aside. ‘You've got much nicer things to think about.'
For the next couple of months, my life was taken over with preparations for the twins. Thankfully, whenever I saw Lisa, it sounded like things were getting better between her and Amanda.
‘I was thinking I could take her away on holiday to Florida,' she told me, all cheery. ‘Things are looking up.'
Before I knew it, the twins had made their arrival!
When my sis came to see me in the hospital, her face was a picture. ‘Oh my God!' she shrieked, literally jumping on the spot with excitement. ‘They're beautiful.'
Amanda shuffled in behind her, the first time I'd seen her in ages. Gazing down at my boys Keegan and Kameron in their incubator, the smile on Lisa's face grew. Seconds later, she was taking snaps of them both.
‘Oh, I almost forgot,' Lisa chuckled, pulling two little football kits out of her bag. They were for the University of Tennessee team. ‘We have to make sure they support the right side!'
‘God Mum, that's so embarrassing,' Amanda snapped. Lisa looked suddenly hurt.
Obviously things weren't that great between them, then. ‘No, they're perfect,' I grinned.
Still, the afternoon flew by, and Amanda even managed to crack a smile when she held her nephews. ‘I get to bring the boys home with me on Friday,' I told Lisa as she left.
‘I'll be straight round,' she promised. ‘Call me if you need anything in the meantime.' With one last look at the boys, she was gone.
That Friday, she didn't visit with all the family, though. ‘Maybe she's snowed under at work?' suggested our mum Doris, 62.
Lisa was an accounts clerk, but Terry was retired, so he was normally at home to answer the phone. Neither of them returned my call, though. I was gutted.
‘She'll call soon,' soothed my aunt Fran, 64, cuddling Keegan.
By the Sunday afternoon, I was up to my eyeballs in formula milk and nappies. I needed my big sister's help! I called... No answer yet again.
Luckily, Fran popped round again and helped me. ‘I haven't heard from Lisa either,' she frowned. ‘I'll call round, make sure everything's okay.'
A couple of hours later, she called me. ‘Kirstie, I need to come round,' she whispered.
What was that in the background? A... a police radio?!
There was no time to ask, she hung up, so I paced the house chewing my nails. Twenty minutes later, Fran arrived - with two police officers.
‘I-I don't know how to tell you this,' she sobbed. ‘Lisa and Terry have been shot... They're dead.'
I heard her, but my brain just wouldn't
take it in. ‘No!' I snapped. ‘She's coming over soon.'
Running inside, I snatched Kameron from his cot. ‘She's coming over soon,' I repeated, holding him close.
But tears streamed down my face, as I knew Fran was telling the truth. ‘They're really gone,' I sobbed, clutching Kameron tighter. Poor Amanda. Oh my God... ‘Where is she? Where's Amanda?' I cried, my heart breaking for her.
Fran looked at the officers, then at me. ‘She's, erm, been arrested with Andrew,' she explained.
‘They k-killed them.'
‘Don't be crazy!' I gasped.
‘They've both confessed. Amanda's pregnant, too.'
I felt so weak suddenly. The shock of being told your sister and brother-in-law have been killed is one thing. To hear it was by your 15-year-old niece, well it was too much to take in.
Passing Kameron to Fran, I collapsed back on the sofa.
‘Why would she do this?' I cried. ‘To kill her own father... and Lisa was the best mother she ever had!'
No one knew the answers, though. All we knew was she had left work at 4.30pm that Friday intending to pick Amanda up from home then come to my place. Yet she'd never made it. Had the daughter she'd raised for eight years really done this?
The next week, I felt I was living some kind of nightmare. Feeding the twins in the middle of the night, I'd sob until I'd no more tears left.
Memories of me and Lisa sliding down the stairs on our bums as kids, her holding my hand at my scans when I was pregnant, span around my head. ‘Why?' I whispered over and over.
A week later, I was finally allowed to say goodbye to Terry and Lisa at the funeral home. My hands shook as I approached their closed coffins. ‘We'll find out what happened,' I promised, throwing a red rose on to Lisa's. ‘You'd have made a wonderful auntie.'
Afterwards, Terry and Lisa were buried side by side.
It was a whole year before the case went to trial - a whole year of ‘what ifs'. Could I have prevented this somehow? Had I been too wrapped up in my pregnancy to notice the signs?
Of course, nobody could have known what Amanda was planning, but the question would always be there.
It was such a struggle because I was grieving for Lisa and Terry, yet I couldn't help but feel for Amanda too. She'd ruined her life, something Lisa had worked so hard to avoid.
I couldn't visit her, though. There was no way I could talk to my sister's killer - not even when she gave birth to a little girl. The poor mite was put up for adoption...
With each of my own babies' milestones, I was gutted Lisa wasn't there. The first time they wore the footie kits that she'd bought them, their first smile, their first word... it broke my heart. Every single happy moment was tinged with sadness.
Finally, me and the family gathered at Knox County Court for the trial. Mum and me sat clutching hands as Amanda shuffled into court.
I stared at her, desperate to see a flash of the young girl my sister had loved as her own for seven years. I wanted to see the youngster who'd waved from the school stage at her mum during the play, who'd loved going shopping with Lisa... I wanted her to look at me so I could see guilt and sorrow in her eyes.
Instead, she stared straight ahead without a hint of regret. ‘How can she be like that?' Mum wept. I simply shook my head, had no words to comfort her.
Then the prosecution played the taped confession Amanda gave police in the hours after her parents' bodies were discovered. Hearing her voice echo around the court chilled me to the bone.
‘We plotted the murders over a number of weeks,' she said, matter-of-fact. ‘First, we thought about something involving battery acid, but then we decided to use my father's gun instead. Andrew killed my dad first thing Friday morning. He shot him while he was sleeping.'
No regret in her voice, no quiver of emotion. It was like she was explaining why she'd stomped off to her room after being told off.
‘Dad lay in the bed for hours making strange mumbling noises. Then I rang Mum to see what time she'd be getting back from work.'
Amanda admitted telling her mum she loved her to lure her home to her death. Then she and Andrew had lain in wait until Lisa arrived, and was confronted by Andrew in the front room.
She'd tried to run away, but he'd shot her twice in the back and once in the side, hitting a major artery. She'd died within minutes. And where was Amanda as her mum's life ebbed away?
‘I went to my bedroom and turned the music up loud so I couldn't hear anything,' she confessed. I shook my head - that was proof of how young she really was. ‘Then we covered Mum's body up with a towel.'
I was beside myself. Amanda's parents had shown her nothing but love and understanding. She never explained why she'd killed them in return for everything they'd done. I could only assume she was annoyed they didn't like Andrew.
For two days, her parents had lain dead in their Solway home, until Fran had discovered them. Amanda and Andrew had been caught at a friend's barbecue soon after, the murder weapon hidden in his blue Volvo.
‘Andrew might have pulled the trigger,' Mum sobbed to me. ‘But Amanda set the whole thing up.'
‘She was the ultimate ringleader,' I agreed. ‘She's just so expressionless, though. Like she doesn't realise the enormity of what she's done.'
It was then time for my victim impact statement. I spoke about what Terry and Lisa would miss, seeing my sons grow up, growing old together, being with their daughter... And finally, Amanda began to sob quietly.
She pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and was jailed for 45 years. Her boyfriend Andrew Bryan Mann, 21, received a 51-year sentence for the same crime. It was closure for the family, but the sadness remained.
Three months later, I received a letter from Amanda. She rambled on about how she still loved me. But not once did she say sorry for what she'd done or give any explanation. I don't believe she even knows what love is.
Four years have passed since I lost my beloved sister. I often take my sons to her grave and talk to her. On Mothers' Day, I visit the garden we created for her at her workplace. That's when it hits home how much I miss her. Lisa and Terry were wonderful people, who did all they could as parents. But sadly they were proof that too much love can also sometimes kill.
Kirstie Teffetteller, 41, Knoxville, Tennessee