A WOMAN living two doors away from where Fred and Rose West carried out most of their infamous murders says she is being haunted by the ghosts of their victims.
Maria Lupu claims to have experienced some terrifying paranormal activity in their rented home in Cromwell Street, Gloucester.
Marc GiddingsMaria Lupa claims her flat in Cromwell Street is haunted[/caption]
Marc GiddingsCromwell Street in Gloucester where Fred and Rose West murdered a number of young girls and women between 1967 and 1987[/caption]
GettyBritish serial killer Rose West who committed the murders alongside her husband[/caption]
GettyFred West killed himself in jail in 1995[/caption]
The 39-year-old, speaking the day after a new Netflix documentary series about Britain’s most notorious serial killers was launched, lives a few yards from number 25.
That end terrace was demolished in 1996 as the authorities sought to discourage so many people from coming to the scene of the horrific events.
But while the building has gone and the bones of the Wests’ female victims have long since been removed from under its back garden patio and cellar by the police, Maria believes their spirits may remain in the street.
She said: “I do believe in ghosts and stuff. I do think they’re stuck in the house.
“Somebody was coming at me in my sleep one night. After that, the cat wouldn’t go into the bedroom.
“When we went back in, the clothes’ horse had moved from the back of the door to the middle of the bed.”
Maria said this happened about two years ago and, separately, her partner told her he had also seen a ghostly figure in the house.
She added that, even now, the bedroom is strangely cold and she believes it is linked to the murders that happened so close by.
“So many women died there,” she said.
Originally from Romania, Maria moved from her previous home in nearby Cheltenham to Cromwell Street five years ago.
She didn’t know about the awful crimes that had taken place until she informed her English mother she was moving there and she then told her daughter about the road’s horrendous history.
You don’t think what people might be doing behind closed doors.
Maria said her flat, within a three-storey building, was very cheap to rent at the time – but that the ghostly activity had made her nervous.
She added: “I do want to move away because there’s a bad energy here.
“Maybe not straight away but just some time when I can.”
Polly Lowthian, who lives in a flat right next to where number 25 was, said her greatest worry about living in Cromwell Street was being haunted by ghosts.
Marc GiddingsPolly Lowthian is renting next door to where the Wests’ former home once was[/caption]
SWNSCromwell Street in Gloucester, where Fred and Rose West lived[/caption]
The horror house was demolished in 1996PA:Press Association
The 27-year-old said: “That’s what I’m most scared of but, touch wood, nothing has happened to me so far.”
Originally from the Forest of Dean, she moved into her new home three weeks ago.
She knew about the infamous past of the street but needed somewhere to live in Gloucester to be close to her workplace and friends.
Polly said: “A flat came up. What happened here was years ago now. If it had been nearer the time, I probably wouldn’t have come.
“With housing now, you can’t be too picky.”
‘Hairs on my body stood up’
One couple who moved into their flat in Cromwell Street 30 days ago were stunned to be told by The Sun about the murders that took place just across the road from their new home.
Lucian Gheorghe and Corina Stan, from Romania, said they had never heard about the notorious serial killers.
Lucian said: “It’s good to learn something new about history and places. I like to visit places but this is not an attractive thing.”
He added that the hairs on his body stood up when he was told what went on at number 25.
One property owner, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the street had been spruced up a bit since the furore over the Wests in the mid-1990s.
The local council had put new railings in but it still had problems like many others in British towns and cities, he said.
Marc GiddingsLucian Gheorghe and his wife Corina Stan only recently moved onto the street[/caption]
Marc GiddingsCromwell Street in Gloucester still feels the impact of what happened there[/caption]
Graffiti on the walls of two homes and fly-tipped household goods were evident when The Sun was there. Police, in three cars, moved slowly in and out the area as well.
Another resident on Cromwell Street, aged 54, was in his early teens when the chilling case happened.
He remembers seeing Fred in his working clothes as he was the local builder in the street working in “many houses”.
He was friends with Fred and Rose’s son Stephen and said it was a “shock” when the mass murders were exposed.
He said: “I knew the family, I’ve lived in this street for 40 years. I knew the son as he was a friend in the street.
“The children of the family grew up here and most of us played in the street.
“They seemed like a tight-knit family. They would go to the park to play as a family with the kids.
“It was a complete shock. At that age you don’t think what people might be doing behind closed doors.”
The man he would play with on the street – Stephen West – was jailed in December 2004 for nine months for sex with a girl of 14.
The resident said since the case took place it has had a “massive impact” on the people that still reside on the street.
Chrysoula Koutsogranni, 40, said she was not aware of the crimes committed on the 25 Cromwell Street when she moved in four years ago.
She said: “I have learnt about it a couple of years ago after Covid when a couple came here and they were asking questions about it and then I went online and I found out.
“You can’t predict what your neighbour is. You don’t know who lives next door – even now someone could be doing something behind closed doors and you wouldn’t know.
“The area is mostly an immigrant area and one-bed apartments. It is not the best but I’ve not experienced any real incidents like crime or anything like that.”
She admitted that despite the horrors that happened in her street she is “not scared” of living on the notorious road.
SWNSCromwell Street resident Chrysoula Koutsogranni[/caption]
Who were Fred and Rose West?
By Holly Christodoulou
BEAMING in front of the fake autumn foliage, hand rested lovingly on his wife’s shoulder, Fred and Rose West looked like any normal couple.
But lurking beneath their plastered-on smiles was a pure evil that continues to horrify the nation.
Thirty years ago, Fred and Rose West were arrested – bringing an end to a gruesome crime spree that lay undetected for decades.
But even as the pair sat in custody, no one was aware of the true horror buried beneath the garden and in the walls at 25 Cromwell Street.
Between them, Fred and Rose West raped, tortured and killed 12 women and girls between 1967 and 1987.
The killing spree came to light after the couple’s children discussed their sister Heather being “under the patio” with social workers.
At first the comments were dismissed as off-hand remarks but by February 1994, there was no trace of Heather and a warrant was obtained to search the family home in Gloucestershire.
Fred chillingly told officers his daughter was in the garden but they were searching in the wrong place.
He and Rose were arrested on suspicion of murder and police began the grisly task of digging up the back garden.
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