THE depravity and barbarity which marked the Wests' murder spree shocked the nation.
The full horror emerged in 1994 when police started digging up the garden of 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester, looking for the remains of Fred West's daughter, Heather.
The investigation revealed that the builder and his wife Rosemary had murdered not only her, but many more young women. Most of the victims were abducted from the streets, tortured and raped before being killed. The bodies were then dismembered and stuffed into holes in the ground.
Nine bodies were dug up from under 25 Cromwell Street, one was discovered beneath their previous home, 25 Midland Street, Gloucester, and two more were found buried at Fingerpost Field, near Herefordshire.
It is not known exactly how many women the couple killed although 13 has become the accepted figure. Fred West was charged with 12 murders, but committed suicide in prison before his trial in 1995. Rosemary West was convicted of 10 murders in November of that year and sentenced to life.
Among the victims Rosemary West was convicted of murdering was her eldest child, Heather, who disappeared in 1987 at the age of 16. Another was Fred's eight-year-old daughter Charmaine, by his Scots first wife, Rena Costello. It is believed Fred West also killed Costello.
The infamous "House of Horrors" at 25 Cromwell Street was bought by the local council and flattened in 1996 - with the space which the house had occupied subsequently replaced by a walkway.
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