“I’m in love with a murderer who’s been in prison for 40 years – he’s everything I ever wanted in a man”

Exclusive:

Laura O’Sullivan is engaged to Terrell Ravon Reese but has never met him. The couple met through an app that helps Lags find pen pals, and he proposed over the phone from his Michigan jail

A British mum is engaged to a US killer jailed for 40 years – and says he’s all she ever wanted.

Laura O’Sullivan, 32, has yet to meet Terrell Ravon Reese, 31, who she reached out to last October via an app that helps lags find pen pals.

He proposed by phone from his Michigan jail two months after they spoke. Laura, a single mother of four, said: “I thought it was fucking crazy, fucking crazy, but I couldn’t control my emotions and stop my heart. He’s everything I ever wanted.”

Terrell was convicted of second-degree murder for a 2009 murder committed when he was 18 years old.

He plotted with an accomplice to rob another teenager in Detroit after arranging a car sale – but the other thug shot the victim and then escaped justice.

Laura said: “My first thought was ‘Sh**’ because it sounds so bad.

“But he didn’t pull the trigger.

“He was young and stupid, in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that landed him in prison for most of his life.”

Laura from Bristol is opening a bakery and looking after her eldest son, who is autistic, part-time.

But she wants to fly out and meet Terrell as soon as the paperwork is done – and marry him at Ernest Brooks Correctional Facility next year.

They now talk on the phone every day, exchange letters and have each other’s names tattooed on their hands.

She also enjoys “phone sex,” which makes her “more gratified than having been physical with a whole man before.”

And Laura appreciates his Valentine’s card’s message: “My wife, dammit, you just fell in love with me … I won’t let go like a bird trying not to drop its fish.”

While Laura is saddened for his victim’s family, she believes Terrell is paying for his crime.

And she admits that not everyone supports her love, saying, “I get people telling me I’m stupid, but they’re uneducated.”

Laura added: “I gave up my life for a man I never met. I figured I’d walk down the aisle and not get married in prison. But my feelings are so strong. I couldn’t ask for more.”

From prison, Terrell said of Laura, “She’s a beautiful person and a beautiful soul.”