Rachel Hudson

Rachel Helen Hilda Manger Hudson (4 August 1983 – body discovered 17 March 2004) was a British murder victim, a mother of two, murdered by her in-laws. The court tried and convicted five members of the family (dubbed "the family from hell" by the Queen's Counsel) in December 2005.

Early life Rachel Manger was the daughter of Helen and David Woodier, who separated when she was a teenager. She had two younger sisters, Jennifer and Hannah. She came from Leicestershire, where she was a student at Lutterworth Grammar School, worked as a hairdresser, and enjoyed going to funfairs. In late October 2002, she met fairground worker Craig Hudson at a funfair in Nottingham, and married him in November 2002. Her mother tried to stop the marriage, and refused to go to the wedding, considering the family "evil". She had a child from a previous relationship, and had a son with Craig.

She was subjected to regular beatings, some with a baseball bat known as "Mr Woody" and a piece of wood known as "Captain Plank". She was made to eat cat food. This was her last recorded sighting alive, and her parents last heard from her five months before her death. It weighed only , and was covered with burns and bruises. There were a total of 60 separate injuries. Her ear was scarred and swollen, had split in half, and become infected; her mouth was injured so much that her bottom lip had detached. She had eleven broken ribs. The ultimate cause of death had been thrombosis from a blood clot in her brain, brought on by septicaemia, dehydration and repeated assaults. The injuries were such that police at first thought they had found the body of a young boy. Police took weeks to identify her, launching an appeal on the BBC TV programme Crimewatch and consulting Interpol.