Channel 5 revisits when twins cheated death on M6 and Stokie Glenn was killed

A documentary has been released revealing information about the twisted twins who ran across the M6 in 2008. Channel 5's Twisted Sisters: Madness & Manslaughter is a two-part series that delves into the bizarre behaviour of the sisters that led to the death of cherished Stokie Glenn Hollinshead.

Eighteen years ago, Sabina and Ursula Eriksson caused mayhem on the M6 in what was discovered to be a 'suicide pact' as a result of potential 'folie a deux'. A number of professionals were interviewed, as well as Glenn's family members and friends.

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The twins were born in Sweden in a town near the border of Norway. Sabina moved to Cork in Ireland where she had a partner and two sons, and Ursula moved to the U.S.

Benjamin Fitton, of true crime podcast They Walk Among Us, explained: "On March 13, 2008, Ursula boarded a plane and made a surprise visit to Sabina. On May 17 2008, the pair left without saying anything to Sabina's partner or children, and they boarded a ferry to Liverpool."

The twins caught a coach to London which stopped at Keele Services.

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Benjamin added: "For reasons unclear, the twins disembark and refuse to get back on the coach, so it eventually continues the journey to London leaving Ursula and Sabina behind. They headed towards the M6 motorway on foot."

Sabina Eriksson, who confessed to the killing of Glenn Hollinshead, 54, from Stoke-on-Trent -Credit:Stoke Sentinel

David F Rea, cameraman for the BBC series Motorway Cops was working on the day in question. On the show, a traffic officer is seen explaining to a motorway cop that one of the women speaks English, and that the one wearing red (Sabina) had been knocked down and an ambulance was on route, but she seemed fine.

Whilst he was explaining, the other woman (Ursula) runs back into the motorway and another traffic officer grabs her by the coat, but she escapes and runs into the carriageway and is hit by a HGV.

Sabina then also runs and is hit by a VW Polo, but despite now being hit by a car twice, she gets up and attacks a police officer, and runs into the other side of the M6 before she is detained.

David said: "In all my career I've never seen anything like this before, not before or after. Ursula was quite aggressive to police officers, so I was wondering what was going through her head. She accuses them of stealing her organs and I was wondering if she was on drugs, delusional, if she and sister had some kind of suicide pact.

I was amazed Sabina was alive because it should have been fatal, it was amazing that she only had minor injuries because she bounced off the VW Polo." Advertisement Advertisement

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Sabina was transported to the Royal Stoke University Hospital by ambulance and Ursula was airlifted to the same hospital with a 'crushed' leg. Sabina was checked over and taken into custody, whilst Ursula underwent surgery and stayed in hospital.

Journalist Ciara Jagger was working at The Sentinel at the time.

She recalled how Sabina appeared at the magistrates' court in Fenton on May 19, 2008.

She told viewers: "Sabina was held in custody for two nights and taken to court where she was charged with trespass on a motorway, and assaulting a police officer. She was convicted and sentenced to one day in custody which she had already served, so she was released from court and sent on her way.

"She was seen wandering the streets of Fenton. Sabina was a foreign national in a place she didn't know and she would have been confused as to where to go, and there's nothing to help you.

It would have been scary and frightening on her own with no one to reach out to, her sister had been taken to hospital and she would have had no idea how to contact her. Sabina made her way towards Duke Street, which is not far from the courthouse at all." Advertisement

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It was then that tragic Glenn and his friend Peter appeared on the scene.

They had been drinking in the Royal Oak.

Ciara added: "I can see how somebody from an outside lens might think 'What on earth would they do this for?' Stoke-on-Trent isn't a big city, it's a place of working-class people, people who take pride in being friendly, approachable and welcoming to everyone. Glenn gave her a place for the night, fed her, made her comfortable and made sure she was looked after, but when they were in the house together her behaviour was a little alarming. Peter left the house and Sabina stayed the night."

Glenn Hollinshead was 54 when he was stabbed to death -Credit:Stoke Sentinel

During an interview in 2010, Peter said: "As we walked home from the pub there was this woman in the middle of the street, she stuck out like a sore thumb and was wearing this big bubble jacket with all her stuff in a plastic bag, she seemed a little distressed, lost, not very focussed.

We got in conversation and she said her sister was in hospital and she needed to find a bed and breakfast, and Glenn said 'There's nothing around here for you to stay at, come back to mine, we'll have a bite to eat and then we'll try to locate your sister or find you somewhere to stay'.

"She seemed happy and friendly and was talking to us as we carried her things towards Glenn's house - there were two mobile phones, a laptop, duty free cigarettes and a red wool cardigan. She seemed quite warm and nice, but in the quiet moments you could tell she was getting a little bit paranoid and was pulling the curtains to one side, looking out, then quickly snatching them back - I was a bit unsettled by this looking at Glenn for reassurance but he said 'It's all right'. Advertisement

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"There was a growing fear inside me thinking 'Who is this woman?

She's hiding from someone'. She gets out the cigarettes and offers them to myself and Glenn, we take one, and just as we're about to light up she snatches them quite furiously and says 'They might be poisoned, you can't have them' - I was taken aback by that - this was a pack she'd been smoking from all night and I thought 'Something's not right about this woman', but Glenn was fine about it passing it off as she was just quirky."

The following morning - on May 20 2008 - Glenn visited his neighbour and asked to borrow a couple of tea bags as he had none in and wanted to make him and Sabina a cup of tea. Once he went back into his home, Sabina stabbed Glenn three times - including a fatal stab to the throat - before fleeing the scene.

Glenn alerted a neighbour who called the ambulance.

Sabina was seen by passers by 'hitting herself in the head with a hammer', and one witness tried to stop her but was hit in the back of the head as a result. She was seen and followed by the ambulance crew and police, but jumped from a bridge in Fenton onto the A50 - which she miraculously survived with just a fractured ankle and head injuries.

The incident happened in Duke Street, Fenton

One of Glenn's brothers, Paul Hollinshead, had been on duty as a nurse in A&E when the twins were brought in on May 17. Advertisement

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He said: "Glenn rang me and said he had a Swedish woman at his house who had nowhere to go so he said she could stay there, and that she had a sister in hospital and could I help.

I'd found out her sister had been admitted, been operated on and that's all they could tell me, and that's what I told Glenn and I offered them a lift up there, but he said 'No she doesn't want to go', and that was that.

"If I'd known about the M6 incident then I could have warned Glenn and told him what she'd said wasn't what had really happened, and I could have warned him she was really dangerous and to be careful, but I didn't get the chance.

"I went to the shop to get a pack of cigarettes and I saw on The Sentinel's front page a photo of police cars outside Glenn's house. I went and an officer said 'You can't park there', I said 'This is my brother's house', so he told me to wait and he would get someone to talk to me. I had to tell my family he was dead, I still find it hard to talk about now.

I thought the police's job was to firstly tell the family, but to find out in the paper wasn't very nice at all.

"We were told that Sabina was diagnosed with folie a deux - how can someone catch a mental illness?" Advertisement Advertisement

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Paul and two of Glenn's other brothers, Jon and Garry, expressed that they don't hold Sabina accountable for the death of their brother. They feel they were let down by police officers who chose not to detain the twin under the Mental Health Act.

On September 2 2009, Sabina pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and was sentenced to five years imprisonment, minus her time already spent in custody.

It is believed that she now lives in Sweden, and Ursula reportedly lives in the USA with a close-knit religious group.

Staffordshire Police have issued a statement in light of the TV documentary.

A police spokesman said: "Whilst in custody, Sabina had a mental health assessment under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act and was seen by a psychiatric consultant, a doctor and an approved social worker. They did not section Sabina or consider that she required this. Advertisement

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"We understand how important it is to notify family members prior to informing the media.

The family liaison officer spent time updating Glenn's son as a priority and visited Glenn's brother's house afterwards on two occasions, an hour apart, to inform him but he was out.

The family liaison officer apologised to Glenn's brother for the way he found out about his brother's death."

A Royal Stoke spokesman said: "We can confirm that, at the time of the incident in 2008, we would have fully cooperated with any police enquiries and provided all necessary assistance in line with our legal and professional obligations."

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References

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