By Lachlan Forsyth
WARNING: This story contains graphic detail some readers might find offensive.
When police found two women's bodies buried under a Christchurch house, it was likely their fate had been a grim one. Now we know it was not just grim - it was perverted.
The victims were Tisha Lowry and Rebecca Somerville, and today Ms Somerville's husband Jason pleaded guilty to their murders.
Somerville has been in police custody since October when he confessed to killing the two women, his neighbour and his wife. He remained impassive as the details of what happened in his Aranui house were made public.
But shocking as the revelations were, the guilty plea came as a relief to Ms Lowry's family.
"Well it's not over yet, there's still a bit to go through, but yeah," says Trevor Lowry.
The 33-year-old admitted strangling Ms Lowry in September 2008 after he had invited her inside. He stuffed a pair of his wife's underpants down her throat, and then had sex with her, before dragging her body under the house. Then he went back for more the following day.
Somerville then buried her body beneath the house.
A year later he choked his wife, Rebecca Somerville, to death in her bed when she refused to have sex. She too had a pair of underpants stuffed into her throat, then once he was sure she was dead, Somerville had sex with her.
He initially reported her missing, but eventually admitted killing both her and Ms Lowry, and burying the bodies under the floorboards.
Somerville was questioned by police at the time of Ms Lowry's disappearance. He said he and his wife often saw Ms Lowry on the bus, but the last contact they'd had was around a month earlier.
Somerville will be sentenced at the end of the month.
3 News