The Skydive Murder Plot: How Victoria Cilliers’ Husband Tried to Kill Her

On a clear, cool Easter Sunday, British skydiver Victoria Cilliers stepped out of a plane at approximately 4,000 feet above the Army Parachute Association drop zone in Netheravon, Wiltshire. Unlike many civilian jumps that begin at higher altitudes, this was a lower-altitude descent, one typical of experienced sport parachutists. For Cilliers, then 40, it should have been routine.

She was not a novice. A physiotherapist, she had completed thousands of jumps over more than a decade. But nothing had prepared her for what happened when she began to dive: both her main parachute and her reserve failed, sending her into an uncontrolled spiral toward the ground at 60 miles per hour.

Cilliers crashed into a freshly plowed farm field, the soft soil helping to absorb some of the impact. She suffered life-threatening injuries, including a shattered pelvis, multiple fractured ribs and spinal injuries, and spent weeks in intensive care.

In the immediate aftermath, the incident appeared to be a catastrophic equipment failure. But because dual-parachute malfunctions are exceptionally rare, Wiltshire police opened an investigation. As they examined the parachute equipment, they realized the failure had not been accidental—and their suspicion quickly fell on Cilliers’ husband, British Army sergeant Emile Cilliers.

Victoria had agreed to make the jump after her husband arranged and paid for it. Emile was present for her jump; he also brought their two children, then an infant and 3 years old, to watch.

At the time, their marriage was under strain. Evidence later presented in court showed that Emile was having multiple extramarital affairs and facing mounting financial debt.

On the day of the jump—April 5, 2015—witnesses at the drop zone observed that Victoria’s main canopy did not inflate properly after deployment. She cut it away, as trained, and deployed her reserve parachute. But that canopy also malfunctioned. 

Expert witnesses later testified that crucial components known as “slinks”—fabric connectors attaching the canopy lines to the harness—were missing from both parachutes, compromising their ability to open correctly.

During the police investigation, forensic specialists determined that the slinks had been deliberately removed from both the main and reserve canopies. And as detectives examined the couple’s circumstances, they uncovered evidence of an earlier attempt to kill Victoria just days before the skydive. 

On March 29, 2015, a gas valve at the family’s home in Amesbury had been loosened, allowing gas to fill the property while Victoria and the couple’s two young children were inside. Prosecutors later alleged that Emile was trying to cause a fatal explosion to kill them all.

Emile was arrested in April 2015.

At trial, prosecutors presented evidence that he had taken his wife’s parachute rig into a bathroom at the airfield the day before the jump, including witness testimony. Investigators also showed that he had recently completed an advanced parachute packing course, giving him the technical knowledge required to interfere with the rigging.

Financial records revealed that Emile was heavily in debt. Prosecutors said he stood to gain approximately £120,000 from life insurance policies if his wife died. They also presented evidence of multiple extramarital relationships, including with his ex-wife and a woman he met on a dating app. They theorized that he planned to begin a new life free of financial pressure and marital obligations.

Emile denied the charges, and his first trial, in 2017, ended with a hung jury. 

In May 2018, following the retrial at Winchester Crown Court, a jury convicted Emile of two counts of attempted murder—one for the parachute sabotage and one for the gas valve incident—as well as reckless endangerment.

On June 15, 2018, Justice Nigel Sweeney sentenced Emile to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 18 years before he could be eligible for parole. As he handed down the sentence, the judge described Emile’s crimes as “wicked” and “of extreme gravity.” 

Emile is currently serving his sentence at HM Dovegate Prison in Staffordshire.

In interviews following the trial, Victoria said she initially struggled to process that her fall had been deliberate. She described feeling shock at the evidence laid out in court.

She has also spoken about the difficulty of explaining what happened to her children, explaining to The Daily Mail, she told them their father “did a bad thing.” 

She told reporters that surviving the fall forced her to rebuild her life in ways she had never anticipated. The couple eventually divorced, and after that, Victoria told Channel 4, “I just felt free. Like a big weight had been lifted off me. That was the end for me.” 

Victoria remarried in 2024, nine years after her fateful fall.