Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.
Amazon Prime Video docuseries Dead in the Water will revisit the murders of Chris Farmer and Peta Frampton from 1978. Directed by Niamh Kennedy, the three-part series will premiere on the streaming service this Wednesday, February 28, 2024.
A synopsis for the doc reads, “The letters they write and the tapes they sent home were filled with tales of exotic landscapes, cultural encounters, and the thrill of the unknown. But their dream soon turns into a chilling nightmare when they are brutally murdered and the trail for their killer goes cold. Four decades later, failed by law enforcement, their family take up the manhunt and begin the descent into an unknown world of online sleuthing and make a shocking discovery.”
Chris Farmer, 25, and Peta Frampton, 24, childhood sweethearts, left Manchester to travel the world in December 1977, per The Sun. The two often wrote their families letters about their travels and adventures. Frampton’s last letter, dated June 28, 1978, detailed their journey down the Belize coast to Honduras. They were traveling with an American man, Silas Duane Boston, and his sons.
According to The Washington Post, in July, firefighters found Farmer’s and Frampton’s bodies floating in the Caribbean Sea. They found the bodies tied up and attached to engine parts about 200m off the coast of Guatemala, per BBC. The victims’ families learned about their deaths months later. The murders prompted a decades-long search for the alleged killer, Silas Duane Boston. Authorities arrested Boston in 2016, but he never faced justice.
Who was the suspect in Chris Farmer & Peta Frampton’s murders?
Based on Peta Frampton’s final letter, dated June 28, 1978, her and Chris Farmer’s families learned about their last moments. The letter said they were traveling from the coast of Belize to Honduras with an American man named Silas Duane Boston. The Sun reported that Boston’s two young sons—Vince, 13, and Russell, 12—were also on their boat named Justin B.
The outlet reported that this was the final letter the couple ever sent. Once they stopped communicating, their families grew concerned. In the following months, Frampton’s father contacted authorities, who found no record of when Justin B’s was next docked. BBC reported that the couple were onboard Justin B when it left the dock, but it returned without them.
According to The Washinton Post and The Sun, on July 8, firefighters found the bodies of Chris Farmer and Peta Frampton. They found the couple’s bodies floating in the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Punta De Manabique in Guatemala, hogtied to engine parts. Autopsies revealed that they had drowned. Authorities eventually linked the bodies found off the coast of Guatemala to the missing couple after post-mortem examinations, stated BBC.
In the meantime, the couple’s families continued their search and received the devastating news months later, per The Sun. At the time, authorities couldn’t link the primary suspect Silas Duane Boston, who had been in Belize after skipping bail on a rape charge in Sacramento, USA, to the crime. The murders then went cold for nearly four decades.
What did Silas Duane Boston do to the couple?
The Sun stated that Chris Farmer’s sister, Penny, tracked down Russell Boston, the alleged killer’s son, on Facebook in 2015. His sons would eventually reveal the details about the murders. A BBC report claimed that Silas Duane Boston was an abusive father, and one evening, while onboard, Farmer tried to stop him. The latter reportedly snapped and “tried to swing at Chris but he ducked and Dad fell into the water,” said Vince.
Humiliated by the incident, Vince claimed that a few days later, his father decided to retaliate and asked Farmer to pull up the anchor. He said, “Chris starts pulling up the chain and Dad stealthily walks behind him. He pulls out a wooden club and starts beating Chris over the head. Peta screamed and Dad threatened her with a speargun, telling her to get below decks.”
Boston then hogtied the couple with ropes, put bags on their heads, and attached heavy engine parts to their bindings. Vince said, “He [Boston] grabbed Chris’s weight and threw it overboard, then rolled him” into the deep sea. Their father then “went to the back of the boat and did the same to Peta.”
After returning to the US, Vince and Russell Boston tried to tell their family and authorities about the murders. The FBI only arrested Silas Duane Boston from Paradise, California, on December 1, 2016. They charged Boston with Chris Farmer and Peta Frampton’s murders. However, in April 2017, the alleged killer died before a trial could take place.
Dead in the Water premieres on Amazon Prime Video on February 28, 2024.
