Czech couple's chilling murder of elderly mother for hidden wealth sees them face life imprisonment

This wasn't a crime of passion committed on the spur of the moment due to anger or for revenge. It was a chilling, meticulously planned murder, interspersed with instances of torture. The cruel infliction of pain was punctuated repeatedly by just one question - where had the woman stashed her money in the house?

The retired woman allowed her daughter and her lover into her home in the Czech village of Libisany, despite previous threats made against her because she'd refused to sign over her property to her daughter.

By all accounts, she was relatively well-off.

Fearful of her daughter's increasingly erratic behaviour, she decided to leave her family home near Pardubice and move to Libisany, cutting off all contact with her daughter in the process. Why she chose to let her in that fateful day remains a mystery.

The desire for a peaceful family life, complete with grandchildren, may have overridden the 70-year-old woman's usual caution. Her daughter's older lover was invited under the guise of reconciliation, and she let her guards down. This proved to be a fatal mistake as the woman's nightmare began.

The woman was first brutally attacked by her daughter and her lover. After she fell to the floor, the man drilled holes into her skull and neck with chilling precision.

In a grotesque attempt to erase the evidence of their crime, the couple doused the 70-year-old woman's body in hydrochloric acid. Whether they ultimately found the wealth they were seeking remains unknown. But they certainly didn't get the chance to enjoy it - justice caught up with them swiftly.

Now in police custody, both stand accused of murder and face the prospect of life imprisonment.