To passersby, 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester looked like an ordinary working-class family home, complete with children playing and a father forever busy with DIY projects. Beneath the floorboards and under the patio lay a mass grave, a facade so complete it forces a rethink of how predators hide in plain sight.

This deep dive traces the chronological making of Fred West, examining how a rural upbringing, severe head trauma, and a uniquely toxic partnership created an environment for decades of undetected violence.

• His predatory baseline, motorcycle-crash head injuries, and an early abuse case that collapsed when his sister would not testify.
• His first known victim, Anne McFall, and the ritual of keeping body parts as trophies.
• Meeting 15-year-old Rosemary and the murder of his daughter Charmaine while he was in  ...