Could a 'Suicide Note' from Jeremy Bamber's 'Disturbed' Sister Exonerate Him in the White House Farm Family Murders?

IN the peaceful, rural community of Tolleshunt D’Arcy in Essex, the shooting of an elderly couple, their adopted daughter and her six-year-old twin boys was one of the most shocking massacres in British history.

, as it became known, saw convicted of all five slayings. But having spent over 40 years behind bars, consistently pleading , could letters written by his step-sister , hold the key to his release?

White House Farm at Tolleshunt D’Arcy, near Maldon, in Essex, where Jeremy Bamber was later found guilty to have shot dead his mother, father, sister and twin nephews in August 1985 Credit: PA Bamber continues to maintain his innocence now from behind bars Credit: Handout

This new evidence, with significant lines in which she mentions both the police and The Sun, is at the heart of his legal team’s latest attempt to overturn what they believe to be one of the greatest miscarriages of justice.

It was on 7 August 1985 at 3.36am when Jeremy Bamber, 24, who, like Sheila, 28, had been adopted by wealthy Nevill and June Bamber, both 61, called Chelmsford Police to say he had received a phone call from his father, telling him “Your sister has gone berserk with a gun. Please come over.”

Sheila had been staying with her parents along with her boys, from a failed marriage, prior to them going on a holiday to Norway with their father. Jeremy had joined them the previous evening.

Police made their way to the 300-acre farm and privately-educated Jeremy, who lived in a rent-free cottage in the nearby village of Goldhanger, which his father owned, arrived shortly after, just before 4am.

Bamber’s sister Sheila Caffell, known also as Bambi, and her twins Daniel and Nicholas were killed Credit: Times Newspapers Ltd Jeremy lived in a rent-free cottage in the nearby village of Goldhanger Credit: Channel 5

There were lights on inside the house but no sign of movement and police could not rouse anyone, either by knocking on the door or using loud hailers. After several hours they made the decision to break in and were confronted by a house of horrors.

Nevill had been shot eight times in the kitchen. Upstairs in the main bedroom, June was lying on the floor, having been shot seven times, was lying nearby, a rifle on her chest, pointing to her neck where she had been shot twice. Beside her was a blood stained bible. Her twins, , were found dead in their beds from a total of eight gun shots.

Police believed there could only be one conclusion – Sheila murdered her parents and two children before turning the gun on herself.

But three days later a discovery was made by Jeremy’s cousins Ann Eaton and her brother, David Boutflour. It was a gun silencer inside a cupboard in the boot room at Whitehouse Farm. Somehow the police had not seen this on their search of the house. When they examined it, blood matching that of Sheila was found inside.

Sheila marrying her former husband Colin Credit: Alamy Jeremy with his ex-girlfriend Julie Mugford at the funeral Credit: Rex Features

She could not have used it to have shot herself as it would have made the rifle too long to be able to reach the trigger. And obviously, she would not have been able to fire it and then walk downstairs, put the silencer away and walk back to the bedroom to die.

Privately educated Jeremy led the mourners at his family’s funeral on 16 August, openly weeping. But the case against him was building and the following month , told police that he had confessed to her to carrying out the murders because he was desperate to inherit his parents’ money and the farm priced at £436,000 – around £1.4million today.

At his trial in October, the prosecution accused him of framing his sister for the murder-suicide for his own financial benefit. He denied it but was found guilty and given a life sentence. The fact that Sheila never left a suicide note was important. But had she?

In court, Jeremy said that the night before the massacre, his parents had discussed taking Sheila’s boys into their care because of her mental health problems. She had spent time in hospital for psychosis.

Recently, documents which appear to have been written by Sheila have come under scrutiny. Some believe they reveal her state of mind in her own words.

The letters were allegedly found in a drawer in Sheila’s bedroom at the farm by police at the time of the shootings but were dismissed as being illegible. But Guardian journalist Simon Hattenstone, says he was shocked when he first saw them and noticed that, while the writing was erratic and much of it indecipherable, over half of it could actually be read.

The letters are seen in the TV documentary, Jeremy Bamber: Proof of Innocence, that takes a look at the mounting new evidence that Jeremy’s legal team are collating in an attempt to have his conviction repealed.

Key passages read: “Mummy darling, stop looking at my picture, you will break your heart. Just remember I am your daughter and no one can take it away from you and I.”

“Why do you think I’ve come to you? Because God told me I had to. Calm now Mummy, calm. We are both here with you.”

“The Sun newspaper, the police, are going to be in touch soon and get this whole dirty mess cleared up. And I must say, it’s a very dirty messy business.”

“As soon as this is dug up and the public know, then my darling Mummy, with my babies and me go to our rest.”

Was Sheila, in her scrambled mind, addressing this to June or her biological mother who she met for the first time shortly before the murders?

White House Farm crime scene Credit: Channel 4 The ‘3.37am’ note was found by Bamber among thousands of police documents he gained access to in 2011Credit: Not known clear with Picture Desk

“I believe it’s a mind that has flipped,” says Simon Hattenstone. “This is a woman who’s on the verge of doing what presumably she goes on to do a short while later. I don’t know how else you read that. To me, it’s impossible not to read it as a suicide letter.”

Forensic psychiatrist, Dr Sohom Das, believes the writing ties in with Sheila’s state of mind.

“It strongly suggests to me that there is an element of paranoia,” he says.

“She feels that some big event is about to happen or something is about to be uncovered. It shows somebody who has a chaotic connection in their thoughts and that could be a symptom of what we call formal thought disorder – a common symptom of psychosis.

“There is, of course, a theory that Sheila didn’t write these letters and that Jeremy wrote them, trying to set her up. I think, if that is the case, Jeremy did a remarkable job.

“The letters were written in such a way that I think typifies mental illness, specifically formal thought disorder and the chaos and disjointed nature of all the comments. This, to me, is the mind-set of somebody who was experiencing psychosis.”

The killings were the subject of ITV drama White House Farm in 2020, starring Freddie Fox (pictured) Credit: ITV Colin Caffell, widower of Sheila ‘Bambi’ Caffell Credit: PA

The letters were not given to Jeremy’s defence team to be used at his trial. Mark Newby, lawyer for Jeremy Bamber, feels this was unjust.

“It wasn’t fair at all for those letters not to be disclosed and to be deemed ineligible,” he says. “Jeremy was denied the opportunity to use that evidence.”

Simon Hattenstone adds: “It shocks me that the police didn’t look properly at the letters that I think the jury would look at now and say, ‘That, to me, looks like a suicide letter.’ Can you imagine if you were one of the twelve jurors and you saw this? How would you interpret it?”

Other evidence that has come to light in recent years, unearthed by Jeremy’s legal team and backers include:

The 999 call that PC Millbank revealed he answered from inside the house at 6:09, when Jeremy was standing outside with the police. Although he heard no voice, he could hear movement in the house. Despite being recorded saying this by for an article in the New Yorker magazine, he later denied it when questioned by Essex police and has since died.

Appeals lawyer, Emily Bolton, believes the correct procedure was not followed in investigating his claims.

“It’s absolutely ludicrous to allow the investigating force to go and take a statement from him. This is a force that has been incredibly defensive about this conviction and should never be allowed near any of the post-conviction investigation. From what I understand, PC Millbank was essentially a whistle-blower. He said something that undermined the police case and he should have been protected.”

Heidi Blake came across a note made by Ann Eaton ahead of a meeting with police on 9 August, to discuss the case, in which she had scribbled down things to bring up, including the sentence, “Look at silencer. Blood?”

Oddly, she and David made the discovery of the silencer at the house the following day.

In 2025, David Boutflour seemed to suggest that there was more than one gun silencer in the house. In an interview with the New Yorker podcast about the shootings, he said, “I’ve got a couple of silencers. I’m a shooting man and my dad was as well. My dad had a silencer on his gun. They [the police] took all the silencers away to inspect them.”

David’s father, Robert Boutflour, had the same blood group as Sheila. Essex Police deny that there was more than one silencer found.

Studies of the bullet wounds by four ballistic experts each conclude that a silencer was not fitted on the rifle.

Essex police was asked to respond to various allegations in the documentary. They responded: “In August 1985, the lives of five people, including two children, were needlessly, tragically and callously cut short when they were murdered in their own home by Jeremy Bamber.

“In the years that followed, this case has been the subject of several appeals by the Court of Appeal and the Criminal Cases Review Commission – all of these processes have never found anything other than Bamber is the person responsible for killing his adoptive parents Nevill and June, sister Sheila Caffell and her two sons Nicholas and Daniel.”

Jeremy Bamber: Proof of Innocence, airs on 5, Monday 8 June at 9pm