The Horrifying Tale Of Suzanne Capper, The British Teen Whose 'Friends' Tortured Her To Death

Even though the circumstances surrounding Suzanne Capper's death were tragic, her murder was mainly overshadowed by the murder of two-year-old James Bulger two months later.

Still, Suzanne Capper's account of a shy, friendless girl who fiercely clung to the few ties she had managed to establish, regardless of how viciously and cruelly they abused her, is one of the most sickening murder narratives in British history.

This is the tragic account of Suzanne Capper's demise.

Long before the murder, Suzanne Capper's so-called "friends" mistreated her.

Suzanne Jane Capper was born in the Greater Manchester region of England in 1976. Her mother described her as "extremely forgiving."

She and her sister, Michelle, never knew their biological father as children. According to report, they were mostly raised by their mother Elizabeth Dunbar and stepfather John Capper. However, the marriage ended in divorce when Capper was only 14 years old, a painful event for the entire family.

Capper and Michelle stayed occasionally with their mother, stepfather, family friends, and local authorities. This instability and repeated relocation led Suzanne Capper to Jean Powell's residence.

Capper and Jean met immediately after an accidental encounter with Clifford Pook, Jean Powell's younger brother, who was around her age.

Pook was grieving a predicament with his girlfriend while sitting by the side of the road when Capper approached him to see if he was okay. Jean and Capper later met.

Jean, who was ten years older than Capper, was a 26-year-old  who lived with three children in a dilapidated house next to his John Capper's. Capper frequently babysat Jean's small children for free, spending the night at their residence and skipping school the following day.

In a short period of time, Capper spent more time with Jean and her companions than with anybody else; her family was mainly unaware of the horrors occurring behind the scenes.

Later, Capper's mother revealed, "We learned that Jean had taken Suzanne out of school and forced her to work as a cleaner at the CIS office in town." "She stole [Capper's] money, allowing her to keep £5 every week while we believed she was in school. She literally threatened to burn down our home when we challenged her about it.

The real issue arose, though, when Bernadette McNeilly moved in as a neighbor.

Jean Powell And Bernadette McNeilly Were A Match Made In Hell

Bernadette McNeilly, age 24, had three children of her own and had been living only a few doors away from Jean Powell, but by 1992, she and her children had effectively moved into Powell's home.

According to The Independent, the already dilapidated mansion had become a haven for drugs, parties, and sex.

Jean and Bernadette were weighing amphetamines in the kitchen, dealing them in the living room, selling stolen car parts, and sleeping with a multitude of people who came through the house for drugs, most notably a 16-year-old named Anthony Dudson, who had a sexual relationship with Powell and McNeilly, as well as Suzanne Capper.

The house was also frequented by Jean's ex-husband Glyn Powell, age 29, drug addict Jeffrey Leigh, age 26, and Clifford Pook.

In late November 1992, at one of their drug-fueled parties, Capper and Jean met Mohammed Yussif, a friend of a friend. Capper encouraged Jean to sleep with Yussif, which was a proposition that Jean did not appreciate.

She later told authorities she gave Capper a "nice hiding" for attempting to convince her to travel with an Arab.

Capper allegedly informed neighbors that Jean Powell bound and held her captive for four days. None of them had faith in her.

It was the beginning of a series of trivial disputes that ultimately led to Suzanne Capper's gruesome death.

McNeilly, Dudson, Jean, and Glyn Powell contracted pubic lice in a separate occurrence. Bernadette McNeilly blamed Capper.

Infuriated by this unsubstantiated accusation, the group compelled the girl to shave her pubic hair in front of them and sweep up the hair off the floor.

McNeilly was also persuaded that Capper had taken a pink duffle coat valued approximately $60 from her.

Then, on December 7, 1992, Jean Powell and Bernadette McNeilly visited the residence of John Capper to invite Suzanne Capper to a party. They informed her that a boy she liked was going to be present.

However, no boy was present. There was no gathering.

The Horrendous Torture and Assassination of Suzanne Capper

Bernadette McNeilly, Jean Powell, Glyn Powell, and Anthony Dudson, high on amphetamines, lured Suzanne Capper to Powell's residence, where they shaved her head, attacked her, beat her with wooden utensils and belts, and smothered her with a plastic bag.

That evening, they placed her in a closet. Capper shouted throughout the entire night. The six remaining youngsters in the residence heard her cries.

The following day, Suzanne Capper's "friends" moved her into the former residence of McNeilly, where no children were around to hear the teenager scream. They bound her to a bed frame with cord, rope, electric flex, belts, and a chain, injected themselves with amphetamines, and then began days of wicked torture.

McNeilly injected so many amphetamines during this period that she began to refer to herself as "Chucky," after the Child's Play figure. During house visits, Clifford Pook and Jeffrey Leigh also participated in the girl's torture.

Her mouth was packed with socks, preventing her from screaming.  She was given a bath in concentrated disinfectants, burning her skin. Her body was covered in cigarette burns.

Just hours before Capper's murder, Bernadette McNeilly injected her with amphetamines, placed headphones over her ears, and played rave music at maximum intensity while looping Chucky's catchphrase: "I'm Chucky. Wanna play?"

The torturers of Suzanne Capper extracted two of her front teeth to make it more difficult to identify her body.

Capper was loaded into the trunk of a car that Leigh had stolen and driven 13 miles to a forest near Stockport. Bernadette McNeilly doused her with gasoline as she lay almost fully naked on the ground, after Leigh, Dudson, and McNeilly had shoved her through the bushes.

During her trial, Jean Powell stated, "I saw a flash." "I turned around and saw Suzanne engulfed in flames. She was screaming... I felt numb. I was terrified."

They left her for dead in the early hours of the morning while singing "Burn, Baby, Burn" all the way back to their residence.

However, Suzanne Capper was not yet dead. She used her remaining strength to drag herself to the nearest roadway, where she was discovered by a passing vehicle driver.

At the hospital, before to falling into a coma and ultimately passing away, she was able to identify herself, describe what had transpired, and identify the perpetrator.

The Manchester Evening News reported that in the end, Jean Powell, Glyn Powell, and Bernadette McNeilly were handed life sentences for the murder of Suzanne Capper, although McNeilly's sentence was controversially reduced by one year because she was a "model prisoner, filled with remorse.

Leigh was released from prison in 1998, Pook in 2001, and Anthony Dudson in 2013.

“Suzanne was very forgiving,” Capper’s mother said. “But she was also a girl who would try to sort out her problems on her own. That’s what she did in the end, she survived her ordeal long enough to name every single one of them.”