A mum is blowing her kids’ inheritance by completing a bucket list – including jetting to the US to watch a live murder trial.
Louise Eikeland, 57, inherited £60,000 from her parents in 2015 and had it stored in a bank account – earmarked as inheritance for her two children, aged 21 and 23. But after her brother died in October last year she realised “life’s too short”.
Instead of passing down the money, Louise has decided to spend it – and drew up a list of once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
True crime mega fan Louise has so far spent £1,700 travelling from the UK to Florida, US, to watch a murder trial live from the courtroom.
She has also been on a month-long trip to India, gone to Crimecon in Nashville, US, a trip to Graceland Memphis, and took her husband Lars to see Alcatraz.
So far she’s spent £5,300 in just under a year.
Among other things she plans to visit the highest Irish pub in the world in the Himalayan foothills – and intends to spend every penny.
Louise even says her two daughters are backing her all the way.
Louise, who works in fashion, from Guildford, Surrey, said: “I feel ecstatic.
“It’s so exciting having new adventures and meeting fascinating people.
“I got a lump sum when my parents died in 2015 and invested it, but when my brother died I just thought ‘life is too short’.
“I realised it was time to start doing all the things I want to do.
“My daughters would inherit the money from me, and if there’s anything left I’ll of course help them get on the housing ladder, but when I told them I wanted to use the money to complete my bucket list they said ‘go for it mum’.
“They’ve both gone to university and started on their own paths now, which is also exciting.”
Louise spent £1,500 travelling to and through central India with a friend for a month in November last year – on a $25-a-day budget they slept on trains and in hostels.
She also ticked going to a Crimecon off her bucket list in June, when she attended the three-day event in Nashville, US.
She followed this with a road trip to Graceland, Memphis – the whole trip costing around £1,400.
Then she spent £700 and took her husband Lars to visit Alcatraz.
Also on her list is visiting the highest Irish pub in the world, in Namche Bazar in the Himalayan foothills – she’s been to the lowest bar in the Dead Sea region of Israel.
And she plans to travel from North India to Tibet, and generally to visit four new countries a year.
But the US murder trial was number one, and Louise flew to the states from Heathrow on September 13, planning to returning on September 30.
Sadly the trial, which was scheduled to last around three weeks, has been postponed, but Louise has been following the case for eight years and will fly out again to see it.
It involves the trial of Donna Adelson, 73, at Leon County Court in Tallahassee Florida, who is accused of killing Dan Markel – her son in law, in July 2014.
Donna’s trial has been postponed to find a new defence lawyer.
Louise said: “Innocent until proven guilty, but it seems to me that this is a true family affair.
“It’s a fascinating case because this family were well-to-do with everything you could have in life – boats, cars, flash houses in Florida.”
Louise became fascinated with true crime after three key events.
The Yorkshire Ripper’s last victim, Jacqueline Hill, was killed just five minutes from Louise’s home in Middlesbrough when she was just 13, in 1980.
And, a doctor named David Burkett, Louise was seeing regularly when she was in her late teens was brutally murdered in his home in 1990.
Then she met a journalist, Sandy Fawkes, in a pub in 1990, and Sandy told her about her own encounter with cereal killer John Paul Knowles.
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.