The two adults in that Sheffield house were hiding a secret so devastating that it would ultimately end with two children dead and four others fighting for their lives. Sarah Barrass, 35, and her half-brother Brandon Machin, 39, have been sentenced to a minimum of 35 years in prison for the murders of Blake and Tristan Barrass, aged 14 and 13, in May 2019. The case has 𝓮𝔁𝓹𝓸𝓼𝓮𝓭 a web of incest, manipulation, and calculated violence that police say was driven by a single, chilling motive: Sarah would rather 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 her children than let anyone discover that Machin was their biological father.
At first glance, the home in Shiregreen, Sheffield, appeared to be a tight-knit family unit. Sarah was raising six children alone, and Brandon was always around, helping with the kids, part of the routine. Neighbors saw a devoted uncle, not the father of all six children. The truth was something no one in that house was saying out loud, a secret Sarah believed social services was getting dangerously close to uncovering. The children themselves had been told their father died in World War II, a story so absurd it could only have been fabricated to hide the incestuous relationship.
The timeline of the tragedy began in November 2018, when the family was assigned a social worker following allegations involving Blake. Concerns about his behavior were serious enough to warrant intervention. Then in early May 2019, similar allegations emerged involving Tristan. Social services escalated the case, moving from monitoring to active investigation. Sarah began to panic, messaging friends about her fears. In one message, she wrote, “I’ve thought of every possible solution to this mess. Mass murder, putting them all in care, checking into the local nut house.” She added, “I love my kids too much to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 them,” but the inclusion of mass murder as an option was a clear warning sign.
On May 21, just three days before the murders, Sarah was told a strategy meeting about the family would take place without her. She began telling people she was afraid all her children would be taken away. The next day, the family was moved from “child in need” to “child protection,” a bureaucratic shift that meant more scrutiny. Social workers began asking questions about the children’s father, who he was, where he was, why he wasn’t involved. Sarah refused to answer, becoming defiant. The questions were not random; they were probing for signs of 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮 or inappropriate behavior inside the home.
On the night of May 23, Sarah received a phone call accusing Tristan of assaulting another child. The caller said they would report it to police the next day. In Sarah’s mind, this was the moment everything would unravel. Police would start digging, and eventually they would discover the truth about her and Brandon. Instead of facing that, she decided to make sure it never came out. She and Brandon began collecting medication from around the house, including ADHD pills prescribed to some of the children. They forced the four oldest, including Blake and Tristan, to swallow multiple tablets, a dose they believed would 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 them overnight.
As the children fought to survive, Sarah was on her phone, sending messages and posting on social media, telling people the kids had a sickness bug. She described it as a rough night, nothing wrong. But when the pills didn’t work, she didn’t stop. She opened her phone and started Googling other ways to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 her children: suffocation, strangulation, drowning. She scrolled through options like she was trying to fix a bad recipe. At around 5 a.m., she called Brandon, telling him to come over because “it hasn’t worked.” Brandon, who had his own place nearby, took a taxi and arrived quickly.
When Brandon arrived, they continued. Sarah used the belt from her bathrobe to strangle Tristan. Brandon used his hands to strangle Blake. Then, to be absolutely certain, they swapped victims and repeated the act. After that, they moved on to the younger children. They ran a bath and tried to drown one of them, but the child fought back and survived. At that point, Sarah changed direction. She went into a bedroom with the surviving kids, closed the door, and started telling people Brandon did it all. In one message, she wrote, “Brandon is the dad to all the kids, the pills didn’t work, so he’s had me 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 Tristan and he’s killed Blake and a third child. I’m sat here with the other three. He’s going to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 them, then me.”
Sarah called police at 7:45 a.m., and so did a friend. Officers arrived to find Sarah barricaded in a room with the children. She told them the two oldest were with neighbors, but one of the children made a gesture, running his hand across his throat. Sarah saw it and immediately shut it down, saying, “Stop, don’t say that.” Officers searched the house and found Blake and Tristan in their beds, unresponsive. Despite efforts to save them, both boys were pronounced dead shortly after. The other children were vomiting and hysterical, suffering from the effects of the pills and the trauma they had witnessed. They were rushed to intensive care and survived.
Initially, Sarah stuck to the story that Brandon did it, that he forced her. But investigators quickly found inconsistencies. Eventually, she admitted the truth: this was something they planned together. Brandon told detectives that Sarah said she would rather see them dead than in care. She added, “I gave them life and I can take it away.” In September 2019, both pleaded guilty to two counts of murder, conspiracy to murder all six children, and multiple counts of attempted murder. The judge sentenced them to a minimum of 35 years in prison.
During sentencing, Sarah’s defense argued she was profoundly damaged by her own childhood, which was filled with neglect and 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮. She had been in the care system herself and was desperate to stop that from happening to her children. But the survivors must now live with what they saw. One child later said they were afraid they might grow up to become a killer. Another, the one they tried to drown, is now terrified of baths. The trauma, prosecutors said, is unimaginable. The children were taken into the care system, and their whereabouts remain private.
In a poignant tribute to Blake and Tristan, their family said both boys loved motorcycles and cars. At their funeral, around 300 bikers escorted the hearse, along with two Lamborghinis. It was a beautiful way to honor who they were, not how they died, but what they loved. In 2021, the house where the murders occurred was demolished, with plans to turn the space into a memorial park. Some places, the community agreed, just shouldn’t still be standing.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/5QXAhirE0YM
