Chris Farmer and Peta Frampton were among the “dozens” of victims of the serial killer Silas Duane Boston.
Here’s everything we know about Chris and Peta, as well as their tragic murders — which are dramatised in the new series Dead in the Water.
Who were Chris Farmer and Peta Frampton?
In 1978, Chris Farmer and Peta Frampton — a young British couple on a backpacking adventure — went missing in Central America.
Chris, 25, was a newly qualified doctor, and his girlfriend Peta, 24, was a lawyer — both of whom hailed from Manchester.
The couple went to Australia before setting off for the Americas, remaining in close contact with their families throughout their journey.
They informed their parents in a letter that they had met Boston while in Belize and had chartered his boat to take them to Mexico.
In a letter dated June 29, 1978, Peta said it was not always smooth sailing on the boat, as Boston’s two young sons, who were also on board, squabbled frequently — and Boston also had a short temper.
The pair’s families became concerned when they didn’t hear from them for several weeks and alerted authorities, who eventually connected the couple with two bodies found off the coast of Guatemala.
What happened to Chris Farmer and Peta Frampton?
Serial killer Boston shot his wife, Mary Lou, point-blank in the head in 1968 after she said she wanted a divorce and hoped to take their two sons away.
Ten years after his wife’s murder, Boston fled rape charges in California, moving himself and his boys, Vincent and Russell, to Belize to start a new life.
It was on this tropical island, which borders the jungles of Central America and the shores of the Caribbean, that Boston committed his next heinous crime — this time in full view of his petrified sons.
The party-loving American began a tour-guide business from an old boat, where he would take visitors out spear fishing and snorkelling, along with his sons on board as crew.
In 1978, Boston welcomed British couple Peta Frampton and Chris Farmer on board his boat, after they signed up for a two-week sailing experience.
Horrifyingly, their bodies were eventually discovered 200 metres off the coast of Guatemala tied to engine parts, before being quietly buried.
The murders, which remained unsolved for almost four decades, are dramatised in new Prime Video series Dead In The Water, where Boston’s son Vince reveals how his dad pressured him into keeping silent and disturbingly confessed to dozens more murders.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Vince, 59, says: “He told us that snitches were the worst thing a man could be, and that if we ever said anything to anyone about what we’d seen, or if the authorities found out, we’d be next to die.
True crime podcast Paradise investigates murder of Chris Farmer and Peta Frampton in Guatemala in 1978
“I knew he had killed my mother in cold blood, so I really feared him and, for a long time, said nothing.”
Boston’s mother told her grandson: “I don’t want to lie to you kids. There is no Santa Claus and your mother is never coming back.
“Your dad killed her because he didn’t want to lose you kids.”
Why where Chris Farmer and Peta Frampton killed?
Twisted Boston fell out with Chris and Peta before bludgeoning them, shackling their bodies to engine parts and throwing them to their deaths overboard.
Vince, who was 13 at the time, remembers: “We were used to passengers coming on board for a day or two to go diving with us and to learn how to fish, but it was unusual to have a longer hire trip so it stood out to me.
“I clearly remember Peta and Chris walking down the jetty with all of their bags and introducing themselves to Russell and I — and we spent a lot of time with them that week in that cramped little boat.”
The Justin B, the sailing boat, was bought for Boston by his parents, who were complicit in the murder of his wife Mary Lou.
Vince remembers Peta and Chris fondly as friendly and caring, taking time to try and teach them what they were then missing in school.
However, things took a turn for the worse as the couple witnessed Boston getting drunk and high, and abusing his two boys.
Vince says: “At first, Peta and Chris were a buffer for us with our dad because he acted differently around new people, he was charming, he was cool and fun, the life of the party.”
