King's Lynn woman mourns children's death on 50th anniversary of their murder
A mother whose children were murdered will be mourning their death this August and it will mark 50 years since the incident took place.
Doreen Greenwood was aged 24 in 1972, married to Tony Holland with whom she had three children, Dean, Angela and Kathryn, and living near Spalding.
She described her marriage as turbulent and the decision to leave temporarily, after a big argument with her husband, leaving the children behind, has haunted her now for half a century.
Husband Tony had hired a live-in housekeeper, Eileen Boyce, in Doreen's absence, to look after the children.
But tragically, Eileen Boyce took the young children out for a walk and the youngsters never came back.
Doreen said: "I was in an unhappy marriage, he used to beat me up, he would come home drunk every night so I went to stay in London for a few weeks.
"At the time my ex got a housekeeper and never checked her out. She was mental. She drowned them."
She murdered them by drowning them in the river Welland in Spalding when the children were aged three-and-a-half, two-and-a-half and 14-months old.
Doreen has held guilt and sorrow for what happened on that tragic day 50 years throughout her life.
She said: "I came home to an empty house, I didn't have nowhere else to go.
"Those children couldn't fight for themselves, how could she do that?
"How could she walk all that way with them in the pram, it beats me up.
"I could end my life, I have tablets to keep me calm, I'm not perfect but I don't want people to hate me."
Doreen went on to have a further two more children in her first marriage, and is now happily married to Maurice, celebrating 25 years of matrimony in August and although supported and happy, the grief haunts her.
The 50th anniversary in August will see her visiting the chidren's grave.
Doreen said: "It will hit me hard. I feel guilty but I can't make anything change. I want to be with them but I can't talk like that as they'll put me in hospital.
"The council have said it its OK that when I am cremated my ashes can be in their grave. I wish I'd never left them, I blame myself, I call myself a murderer.
"If I'd come back a few days earlier they may still be alive. I keep blaming myself, I'll take that to the grave. I know that when I pass away I can to go to them in their grave."
