Shock read: I threw my sister out… into the arms of her killers
Aimee Hill, 37, will never overcome her guilt for not protecting her younger sister
As my mum, Sue, passed me her newborn baby, my heart swelled. It was 1994 and, at the age of 15, I already had four brothers and a sister, who I adored. Now Mum, aged 42, had another little girl.
‘Say hello to your sister,’ Mum said.
Cradling Bethany and gazing at her perfect little features, I vowed to protect her forever.
Being so much older, I was more like her second mum. If Mum couldn’t settle her, I’d take her in my arms and sing lullabies until her eyes closed.
As years passed, we shared a special bond and became best friends. Even when I moved to a house 10 minutes’ walk away, in Bidford-on-avon, Warwickshire, we saw each other daily.
In 2010, when Bethany was 15, she asked me a question. ‘Can I live with you, Aimee?’ she said. Having entered her teenage years, it was only natural she wanted her own space and I had a spare room going free. But I didn’t want to upset my parents. Luckily, they were fine.
‘She just wants a bit of independence,’ Mum smiled. ‘We’re only around the corner and we know she’ll be safe with you.’
So Bethany moved in. She was bubbly and fun, and I loved having her around. She would often invite her friend Kayleigh Louise Woods, who she’d met at college. We’d all sit chatting and laughing, watching TV, and doing each other’s make-up.
A new romance
Then, in 2013, when she was 18, Bethany confided that she’d started dating a boy at college. ‘He’s called Jack Williams,’ she said, smiling shyly.
When she brought him round, I could see why she liked him. Jack, then 17, was good-looking and polite. But within two months, the relationship had petered out. But they stayed friends and Bethany didn’t even seem bothered when Kayleigh and Jack got together. ‘We still all get on well,’ she said.
Bethany and I rarely argued but, like many teens, she’d leave dirty dishes in the sink or forget to do her bed before leaving the house. In December 2014, as we sat on the sofa one evening, we ended up rowing about her not pulling her weight.
‘You’ve been living here four years now,’ I said, in the heat of the moment. ‘Maybe we both need some space.’
‘Are you saying you want me to move out?’ she asked. I saw the hurt in her eyes, but I stayed firm. As Bethany went upstairs and packed her things before storming out, I didn’t stop her.
She went back to Mum and Dad’s for a while before moving in with Kayleigh and Jack at their flat in Stratford-upon Avon. In the days and weeks that followed, the house seemed so quiet without her. I felt awful.
Occasionally, I’d pick up the phone to call her but then put it down again. We were both too stubborn to backtrack and somehow a year had gone by without us speaking.
But, when I heard through the grapevine that she was sleeping in
‘Being older, I was more like her second mum’
Kayleigh and Jack’s living room, I softened. I hated the idea of her sofa surfing while my spare bedroom lay empty, and sent her a message, on Facebook, telling her so.
Her reply was defensive. ‘Don’t tell me what to do….’ she typed back. I sighed. She obviously wasn’t ready to forgive me just yet. ‘She just needs more time,’ I thought.
But then, two months later, in February 2016, Mum called early one morning. ‘Aimee, come over,’ she said, voice trembling.
Feeling uneasy, I grabbed my coat and ran there. I found my dad, Gordon, frozen in shock. ‘It’s Beth,’ he whispered. They’d had a phone call from the police at 1am to say she’d been found dead.
Sobbing, I collapsed into Dad’s arms, my heart shattering. Bethany was the baby of our family – my precious little sister. She was only 20. What had happened?
It felt like a nightmare but it wasn’t until the next day that we heard the police had arrested two suspects, Jack and Kayleigh.
‘No, this can’t be right,’ I gasped. They were her friends. They wouldn’t hurt her.
We were in shock, with so many unanswered questions. But while the police began their investigations, there was nothing more we could do but wait for news.
I was suffering from so much grief that I’d sit in tears watching the door, longing for Bethany to walk through it and give me one of her smiles. But of course, she never came.
I’d go over and over in my head all the things that could have happened, but nothing made sense. Bethany had only ever been a loving, sweet girl, how could anyone want to harm her?
Finally, in January this year, Jack Williams, 21, and Kayleigh Louise Woods, 23, appeared at Warwick Crown Court. I listened in torment as I heard the terrible details…
Police had found Bethany after Kayleigh had dialled 999, saying, ‘My best friend is dead in my flat.’ At first, she and Jack had claimed it was suicide, with Kayleigh later changing her story, saying Jack had killed her, acting on his own.
Justice for Bethany
Yet both were accused of binding Bethany’s hands with tape before repeatedly cutting her neck, causing her to bleed to death in the bathroom. They were said to have committed the sadistic killing for ‘perverted pleasure’, even practising on a Barbie doll with its hair dyed red to match Bethany’s. Despite the pair denying killing Bethany, thankfully, they were found guilty of murder and jailed for life, to serve a minimum of 26 years. It was justice. But it couldn’t bring back my sister. I kept imagining how terrified Bethany must have been and I was overwhelmed with guilt. Our last words had been spoken in anger, and I replayed them over and over. ‘If only I hadn’t kicked Bethany out into the arms of that evil pair,’ I sobbed to Mum and Dad. I remembered cradling her in my arms as a baby, singing her lullabies, promising to take care of her. I’d failed her and nothing would ever bring her back. Family and friends tried to reassure me that it wasn’t my fault, but I will always feel guilty. If only I could say sorry and tell her how much I love her. But her twisted killers took that chance away from both of us.
‘I’d sit in tears watching the door, longing for her to walk through it’