Where Are Fred and Rose West's Children Now? What We Know About the Kids Who Survived Their House of Horrors

Yahoo

17-05-2025

Fred and Rose West are two notorious serial killers from the United Kingdom
They sexually abused and murdered at least 10 people, including two of their own children
Now, as Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story streams on Netflix, there is renewed attention on their surviving childrenFred and Rose West transformed their home on 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester, England, into a torture chamber and house of horrors for their own children and other vulnerable, unsuspecting women and girls over the span of two decades.
The rapist and serial killer couple were parents to daughters Charmaine, Heather, Anna Marie, Mae, Tara, Louise, Rosemary Jr. and Lucyanna and sons Stephen and Barry West. Two of these children, Charmaine and Heather, were killed by their own parents after enduring years of abuse.
The Wests are now the subject of a new Netflix true crime docuseries, Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story, which premiered on May 14. The series unpacks how Fred and Rose killed at least 10 people and sexually abused numerous others, including their own kids, until their 1994 arrests.
Some of Fred and Rose's surviving children, Anna Marie, Mae, Tara, Louise, Rosemary Jr., Lucyanna, Stephen and Barry, have spoken out over the years about the abuse they endured and how they have healed since.
Here, find out where Fred and Rose West's surviving children are now.
Born Frederick Walter Stephen West in Herefordshire, England, on Sept. 29, 1941, Fred was the eldest boy in his family growing up on a farm.
He claimed his mother sexually abused him from a young age, according to World's Most Evil Killers, and said his father sexually abused his sisters. However, one of Fred's brothers later denied that he or his sisters were victims of incest, per the Hereford Times.
Rose, born Rosemary Pauline Letts in Devon, England, on Nov. 29, 1953, allegedly grew up being sexually abused by her father, per The Times.
Fred, then 27, met Rose, then 15, at a bus stop in 1969. He was still married to his first wife, Catherine "Rena" West, at the time. Shortly after Rose turned 16, she moved in with Fred and that October, they welcomed their first daughter, Heather. Fred and Rose married in January 1972.
Rose then began engaging in sex work during her marriage to Fred, who would often allegedly watch or otherwise participate, per The Guardian.
Fred's eldest child was Charmaine, who was his ex-wife Catherine's daughter from a previous relationship. Catherine was already pregnant with her when she began a relationship with Fred, but was no longer with the father. Charmaine was born in the spring of 1963, in Glasgow, Scotland.
Anna Marie was born to Catherine and Fred in July 1964, also in Glasgow. Then, Fred began a relationship with Rose and they had Heather in October 1970, in Gloucester, England. Mae followed after they were married. The couple also shared sons Barry (born circa 1980) and Stephen (born circa 1973).
Rose also had daughters Tara (born circa 1977), Louise (born circa 1978), Rosemary Jr. (born circa 1982) and Lucyanna (born circa 1983), reportedly born from sexual relationships with other men, who are presumed to have been her sex work clients.
Over the course of two decades, Fred and Rose West murdered at least 10 women and girls, according to BBC News, though the true total may be higher. During their trials, the prosecution alleged that they sexually abused even more people, including many of their own children, in a cellar they used as a torture chamber.
Fred and Rose would pick up women and girls they found hitchhiking, then kidnap them and bring them to their home instead of to the riders' intended destinations, according to the court. There, they'd allegedly both rape and beat their victims, sometimes forcing them to have sex with others. At least one sexual assault victim, Caroline Roberts, escaped, and several others have alleged that Fred and Rose attempted to follow and/or assault them as well, The Independent reported.
According to CNN, Fred and Rose dismembered their victims before burying them, allegedly taking body parts like fingers, toes or kneecaps as trophies. Among their victims were two of their own children, daughters Charmaine and Heather. The former disappeared in 1971 when she was 8 years old. According to court testimony, Rose murdered her while Fred was in prison for car theft, and he buried her under his and Rose's kitchen window when he was released.
Heather, Fred and Rosemary's oldest child, was 16 when they killed her, allegedly after she threatened to report their abuse to police. Her remains were found buried under the patio in the Wests' rear garden.
In August 1992, social workers retained custody of Fred and Rose West's surviving children after allegations of child abuse surfaced. The children mentioned how their parents would "joke" about their sister Heather being "under the patio," and in summer 1993, social workers reported the remarks to police.
After six months without finding any evidence that Heather was alive, in February 1994, police obtained a warrant to search the Wests' property. Fred initially claimed he'd seen Heather recently, but when officers searched the home on Feb. 24, 1994, he confessed to murdering her, according to Gloucestershire police. Fred was arrested and detained, and officers arrested Rose at their home just over an hour later.
She denied any involvement with the murders, while he, accompanied by police officers, returned to the home on Cromwell St. to help them locate the remains of his victims. Fred died by suicide on Jan. 1, 1995, while still awaiting trial.
Rose pleaded not guilty, insisting that Fred committed the murders alone and that she attempted to stop at least one of the sexual assaults. She was convicted of all 10 murder charges against her, The Independent reported, and in November 1995, was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Rose later tried to appeal her conviction, but was denied.
Anna Marie, the Wests' oldest surviving child, was the only one of her siblings to testify about the abuse they suffered at Rose and Fred's hands in court.
In May 2025, Anna Marie's husband told the Daily Mail that she was estranged from her siblings despite them living in close proximity.
"It's the siblings who live with the misery and pain of what went on in that house and the trauma is probably too much for them to have any contact," he said. "Even though some of them live near each other, they don't speak or see each other because that only opens up old wounds for them."
Anna Marie's husband also referenced the new Netflix docuseries, saying, "Every few years the case is back in the media, like now with this new documentary, and the public gets interested again but it's the children who live with the pain of what happened on a daily basis."
Mae is now married and is a mother of at least two children. In 2018, she published the book Love As Always, Mum xxx about her struggle to come to terms with the crimes her parents committed.
"Knowing your parents are regarded by most people as evil beyond belief is incredibly hard to live with, especially when your own experience of them has been more complicated and you've seen a side to them which makes them more than simply monsters," she wrote. "Both of them had a side which seemed, at times at least, like other people. Mum could be tender and gentle with very young children; she had a sense of humor. Dad could be friendly and make us laugh."
After seeking help from the U.K.'s Victim Support program, Mae realized Rose had manipulated her, which impacted her relationship with her siblings. Mae wrote at the time that she didn't speak to Anna Marie, but saw Tara and Louise regularly and texted occasionally with Stephen.
Stephen, who frequently ran away from home as a child, cut ties with his mother around 1999. Around three years later, he spent nine months in prison for the statutory rape of a 14-year-old girl, per the Daily Mail.
Today, Stephen is married with two children and works in construction.
"I have my own family and children now and for me, it's all about protecting them," he said in a May 2025 interview. "My kids don't know about the family history. My only concern is my own children."
Kent Online reported that Barry West allegedly died by suicide in August 2020. He was 40 years old and reportedly living in an assisted living facility, receiving mental health care.
Journalist Howard Sounes, who spent time with Barry while penning his book Fred and Rose, said at the time, "He led a very difficult and tragic life. He was a very complicated unhappy person. I spent a lot of time with him and he was very badly damaged."
Sounes added that Barry seemed immature for his age and was "haunted" by allegedly seeing his parents murder his sister.
Tara, Louise, Rosemary Jr. and Lucyanna all allegedly had their names changed when taken into foster care in 1992 and have remained private under their new identities.
In May 2025, Stephen told the Daily Mail that most of the West children are estranged, explaining, "We don't have anything to do with each other. I don't speak to my siblings and there are no large happy family get-togethers. Too much has gone on. It's probably too painful for us."
He added that the surviving West children had gone "in different directions" and were continuing to try to move on with their lives.
Read the original article on People