A court heard a terrifying story of a woman who was fed only sachets of ketchup before starving, tortured and beaten to death by her three killers.
In details, it was alleged that Shakira Spencer, 35 years old, was enslaved by Ashana Studholme, 38 years old, and her lover, Sean Pendlebury, 26 years old, and Lisa Richardson, 44 years old, after she fell under their “total control,” according to what was reported by the website. The Sun.
The “beautiful” woman is said to have been starved to the point of becoming “skin and bones” by the trio in a campaign of torture.
The Old Bailey Court heard that Shakira had burned the skin on her feet and been beaten repeatedly before she was killed in September last year.
She was then placed in the boot of a red Honda Civic that Pendlebury had borrowed from his aunt and driven to her flat in Hanwell, Greater London.
Her body was dumped in a hallway cupboard and was only discovered when a neighbor saw worms crawling under her front door, jurors heard.
“Regardless of their unfathomable cruel and sadistic motives, these three defendants tortured, starved, burned, and beat Shakira Spencer to death,” Allison Hunter, the Kansas City prosecutor, said in opening the case Monday.
The prosecutor said that in the months before her death, Shakira fell under the “total control” of the trio.
She was isolated from friends and family because her free will “seemed to have been drained and stolen from her.”
The defendants allegedly stole her “self-esteem and money” when they took over her apartment and treated Shakira “like a slave.”
Jurors heard she was fed nothing more than sachets of ketchup as her weight dropped, and photographs showed her looking “emaciated and skeletal” before her death.
Hunter said the photos – taken in an “incredible act of depravity” – also showed Shakira “bruised from head to toe with black, hollow eyes.”
It was said that on the evening of the 12th, Pendlebury and Studholme returned her damaged body to her flat and placed ice around her head in a “primitive” attempt to slow decomposition.
At one stage, her body was moved to the foot of the cot where it was left to rot, jurors heard.
Ms Hunter claimed that newspapers were also placed on the floor next to the bed to make it appear as if Shakira was reading and died in her sleep.
The pair then rejoined Richardson and allegedly “carried out the clean-up.”
The court heard they purchased cleaning products and returned to the flat four days later where the decomposition was so bad the defendants “left them there to be found”.
Ms Hunter said: “Studholme and Richardson were using Shakira’s bank cards and cash cards at will, for their food, sundries, taxi journeys etc.
“But in acts of cruel and inhuman brutality, they also used them to procure materials which they used to attempt to remove traces of Shakira’s bodily fluids and DNA that would reveal the extent and locations of their final beating.”
The cause of death could not be determined, but an autopsy found horrific injuries that Shakira suffered before her death.
She had “crushing” injuries to her left ear, lacerations to her scalp and cuts to her left eye socket.
The court heard there was “flaking skin on the feet, consistent with a scald”, as the top layer of her skin had been burned.
It was said that Pendlebury confessed to his mother, Michelle Pendlebury, and his uncle, Eli Pendlebury, that he had participated in this particular attack.
