Naman Shrestha
In the mid-1990s, the entire community of Gloucester, England, was rattled to its core when the gruesome crimes of Fred and Rose West were brought to light. One of the many victims of the deadly couple was Charmaine West, Fred’s daughter from his first marriage with Catherine “Rena” Costello. In order to cover her tracks and prevent suspicions from people in the community, Rose weaved a false narrative about Charmaine’s whereabouts. In Netflix’s ‘Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story,’ we get a detailed account of the murders committed by the West couple, who managed to evade justice for more than a decade or so. The three-part documentary series also consists of in-depth interviews from the victims’ loved ones and the officials linked to the investigation, sharing their first-hand experiences.
Charmaine West Disappeared While Her Father Was Serving Time Behind Bars
Catherine Bernadette “Rena” Costello West was pregnant with her former partner’s child, Charmaine Carol West, when she tied the knot with Frederick “Fred” West in 1962. On February 22, 1963, Charmaine was born in Coatbridge, Scotland, and was officially adopted by Fred soon after her birth. When she was two years old, she and her family relocated to Gloucester, where her adoptive father began abusing her regularly. Due to his extremely controlling and abusive behavior, Rena escaped from his clutches when she got the chance, leaving Charmaine and Anna Marie behind. After Rena left, her daughters were taken into custody by Gloucestershire social services until Rosemary “Rose” Letts entered the life of Fred West and became Charmaine and Anne Marie‘s caretaker.
Being a full-time nanny to Charmaine and Anne Marie, Rose, who eventually married Fred, pretended to care for the girls before becoming violent towards them. The couple and their children moved to a two-storey house at 25 Midland Road in Gloucester. A couple of months after they gave birth to their first child together, Heather Ann West, Fred was arrested for motoring offences and theft. While he remained behind bars until June 24, 1971, Rose was left to take care of Heather and her stepdaughters, Charmaine and Anne Marie. According to Anne, she and Charmaine were physically and emotionally abused by Rose during this period of time. Charmaine remained strong through it all, which further infuriated her stepmother.
As per Anne’s accounts, she also used to talk back to Rose and made statements such as, “My real mummy wouldn’t swear or shout at us.” On March 28, 1971, the eight-year-old girl was admitted to the casualty unit of the Gloucester Royal Hospital, where she was treated for a severe puncture wound to her left ankle. Rose claimed that the injury was a result of a household incident. Before Fred was released from prison, Rose took the girls to visit him, reportedly on June 15. Soon after that, Charmaine went missing, and Rose claimed that her mother, Rena, had come and taken her with her. While Rose told the staff of her primary school that Rena took her to London, she told Anne that her sister returned to Scotland with their mother. Things got even more suspicious when Rena also ended up disappearing that same year.
Fred West Led the Authorities to the Burial Site of Charmaine West’s Remains
Shortly before Fred West was released from prison on June 24, 1971, Rose West killed Charmaine West, supposedly in a fit of rage due to her constant resistance towards her violent tendencies. According to reports, she waited for her husband and partner in crime to get out of prison and dispose of her remains. Until then, she kept the remains hidden in the coal cellar of their house at 25 Midland Road in Gloucester. Fred reportedly buried her in the back garden, right beneath the kitchen window, without allegedly dismembering her.
It wasn’t until more than two decades later, in May 1994, that Charmaine West’s remains were discovered by the authorities with the help of Fred, who was at the time arrested for the murder of multiple women. When the autopsy was conducted, it revealed signs of dismemberment. Moreover, certain parts of her body also could not be found with the rest of the remains, which was a recurring theme in the discovery of almost all the victims of Fred and Rose. Thanks to forensic odontology reports, it was confirmed that Charmaine was killed while Fred was incarcerated, strengthening the prosecution’s case against Rose West.
In February 1995, despite the mountain of circumstantial evidence against her, Rose West pleaded not guilty to ten charges of murder, which included Charmaine’s murder. During her trial, testimony from Shirley Giles, a previous lodger of the West flat on Midland Road, also proved to be vital in proving Rose’s guilt. The witness claimed that she and her daughter, Tracey, who was a friend of Charmaine and Anne Marie, had paid a visit to Rose sometime in June 1971. Shirley told the jury that during the visit, when asked about the whereabouts of Charmaine, Rose claimed that she had returned to her birth mother. At the end, the jury sided with the prosecution and found her guilty of all the charges against her. Subsequently, Rose West was sentenced to life in prison for all the lives she took.
Read More: Anne Marie West: What Happened to Fred West’s Daughter?
