In 2008, a BBC crew was filming at the side of a motorway when it captured the most bizarre and scary incident.
Three hours earlier, at midday on May 16, 2008, identical twins Sabina and Ursula Eriksson had boarded a National Express coach travelling from Liverpool to London. They would get to Keele Services on the M6 before their behaviour became noticeably erratic. Police were called and attended, but the twins were allowed to leave after reportedly being deemed harmless.
Shortly after, the pair began running into motorway traffic, and walking down the central reservation with traffic travelling at high speeds alongside them. The footage caught by the film crew filming Motorway Cops captured the chaos, with Sabina running into the path of a Volkswagen Polo. She was knocked unconscious for around 15 minutes, before running into the oncoming traffic again.
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Meanwhile, Ursula had done the same, and at around 3pm, the Highways Agency received a report that two people were on the motorway. Officers found Sabina lying in lane three, while Ursula was struck by a lorry and suffered two broken legs. The twins somehow survived.
As emergency services attempted to come to Sabina's aid, she struck an officer in the face and again ran into the traffic. Elsewhere on the M6, Ursula screamed, spat, and scratched officers in an attempt to resist medical treatment, Stoke on Trent Live reports. The M6 northbound was closed for over four hours to allow an air ambulance to transport Ursula to hospital, and a road ambulance to take Sabina.
Five hours after the incident on the M6, Sabina was discharged from the hospital and taken into police custody. On May 19, 2008, she attended a magistrates' court where she pleaded guilty to the charges of trespass on the motorway and assaulting a police officer.
The court sentenced her to one day in prison, however as she had already spent a night in the cells, she was allowed to walk free without a full psychiatric evaluation.
The killing of an innocent man
A free woman, Sabina began wandering Stone-on-Trent in an attempt to locate her sister. Around 7pm that day, two men, 54-year-old Glenn Hollinshead and his friend Peter Malloy, were out on a dog walk and spotted Sabina.
She approached the dog and asked the two men if they had directions for any hotels or bed and breakfasts.
Self-employed welder Mr Hollinshead - who had previously been a paramedic in the RAF - took pity on Sabina and offered her a safe place at his home in Fenton for the night.
The men were alarmed by her behaviour in the house as she constantly checked out the window, but Mr Malloy left around midnight while Sabina stayed. The following day Sabina stabbed 54-year-old Glenn in the head four times with a kitchen knife. He managed to leave the house, telling a neighbour "she stabbed me" before he died.
The police chase of Sabina Eriksson
Sabina fled the scene with a hammer in hand, which she reportedly struck herself in the head with several times. Mr Hollinshead's neighbours contacted the police.
A passing driver attempted to stop and take control of Sabina but she used a tile in her pocket to strike him in the head. The pursuit came to an end at Heron Cross where she jumped from a 40ft high bridge onto the A50. She was hospitalised with two broken ankles and a fractured skull.
After being discharged from hospital, police arrested her and later charged her with murder. Ursula would be discharged later in September, where she returned to Sweden and then the USA.
The trial of Sabina Eriksson
In September 2009, Sabina pleaded guilty to manslaughter with diminished responsibility.
Both the prosecution and defence were in agreement that she was insane at the time, though was deemed sane by the trial. Sabina had no answers for her actions or the killing of Glenn Hollinshead.
Sabina's lawyers claimed Sabina was a "secondary" sufferer of folie à deux, with her sister Ursula being the "primary" sufferer whose presence or perceived presence would influence Sabina. Additionally, the court was told Sabina had a rare psychiatric disorder that made her hear voices. The case is one of the few notable cases of shared psychosis, also known as 'folie à deux', where psychosis is transmitted between two close individuals.
Sabina was sentenced to five years in prison by Mr Justice Saunders, who said: "I understand that this sentence will seem entirely inadequate to the relatives of the deceased. However, I have sentenced on the basis that the reason for the killing was the mental illness and therefore the culpability of the defendant is low and therefore the sentence I have passed is designed to protect the public.
"It is not designed to reflect the grief the relatives have suffered or to measure the value of Mr Hollinshead's life. No sentence that I could pass could do that. It is a sentence which I hope fairly measures a truly tragic event."
Mr Hollinshead's brother reportedly told The Sentinel newspaper in Stoke that he believed the criminal justice system failed his brother when they allowed Sabina to return to society after the incident on the M6.
He said: "Her mental condition should have been properly assessed after what she did on the motorway and the experiences the police had. Her mental disorder should have been picked up prior to her being let out into the community.
"We don't hold her [Sabina] responsible, the same as we wouldn't blame a rabid dog for biting someone. She is ill and to a large degree not responsible for her actions. But her mental disorder should have been recognised much earlier."
Sabina was first eligible for release in 2011, having spent 439 days in custody ahead of sentencing.
Who were Sabina and Ursula Eriksson?
The Eriksson twins were born in 1967 and reportedly had normal lives as they grew up in Sweden.
The two went their separate ways in 2000, when Ursula would relocate to the USA and while Sabina settled with her partner and two children in County Cork, Ireland.
However, it would be along the M6, while they were on holiday, where the tragic chain of events occurred.
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