True Crime with Rachel Shannon
The Most HORRIFYING Case I've Covered: A Day of Joy Turned into Terror for 26 Innocent Children
03 Mar 2025
Join as we recount the chilling events that unfolded at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga workshop for children in Southport, England. What began as a day filled with laughter and creativity quickly descended into chaos and terror. In this gripping video, we share the harrowing details of how a peaceful gathering of 26 children aged 6 to 13 turned into a nightmare when an attacker entered the dance studio, armed and intent on causing harm. When investigators dug deeper into the motive of this attack, they were met with the possibility that their suspect could have much bigger plans: He was formulating a plot that could have killed thousands. With this, we can honor the memory of the many young victims, including 7-year-old Elsie Stancombe, 6-year-old Bebe King, and 9-year-old Alice Da Silva Aguiar.What are your thoughts on this horrifying case? Let's discuss in the comments.
Full Episode
Picture this. It's a warm summer morning. Your kids are up and they're excitedly getting ready for an afternoon of arts and crafts, music, and playtime with their best pals. You drop them off, excited to hear how it went later in the day. But when you return, you find out that your child didn't have a fun-filled party with friends.
Instead, they were attacked, randomly selected by a maniac whose sole purpose was to hurt your and every other child there. That is what almost 30 different families experienced on July 29th, 2024. Today's case is probably one of the most tragic and gut-wrenching cases I've ever discussed. I know I say that a lot, but trust me, this one is going to be a rough listen.
It was a warm summer day on the 29th of July in 2024 when 26 children, all between the ages of 6 and 13, gathered at the HeartSpace Studio on Heart Street in Southport, England for a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga workshop. The children had all arrived by around 9.30am that morning, all happy and excited to move their bodies to their favorite music.
For the almost two hours that followed, everyone in that party, including the adults who were watching over the children, were enjoying themselves. But that fun and joy would soon be met with absolute horror. A violent, brutal situation literally out of anyone's worst nightmares.
By 11.45 that morning, the children were gathered around a table, singing and making friendship bracelets, when all of a sudden, a man entered the room wearing a green hoodie and a face mask. He was carrying a 20 centimeter long kitchen knife and without even saying one word, he He grabbed the child closest to him and began stabbing her over and over and over again.
After stabbing the first little girl, he went around the room and started stabbing any and all children as violently and as quickly as possible. Of course, this caused an absolute frenzy to break out with the adults in the room trying their best to save as many children as they could. 36-year-old Leanne Lucas was one of the organizers of the event and was in charge of the children.
She started grabbing as many children as she could and tried to get out of that room with those girls, but as she did that, the man came after her and started stabbing her as well. She was stabbed in the head, neck, back, shoulder blade, and arm. She did manage to get out with a couple of the girls, but she passed out against her car on the road as soon as she exited the building.
As that was happening, another adult in the room, Heidi Little, had been sitting on the floor with the girls making bracelets when the chaos broke out. As she saw Leanne being stabbed, she tried pulling her away but wasn't able to. She and another little girl were able to escape the room and they went to a nearby bathroom where they hid.
There were also a few other businesses nearby as well as a few houses. Of course, they started hearing the commotion, including the blood curdling screams of all these children. According to one witness who worked next door, these were not the sounds of children happily yelling and shouting as they had heard all morning. These screams were filled with horror.
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