Father and daughter 'stabbed to death'

A troubled teenager and her father found fatally injured at their home both died after suffering stab wounds, detectives said yesterday.

Police released the results of post-mortem examinations two days after Margaret Pierides, 16, and her father Costas, 48, were discovered at their 750,000 house in Sible Hedingham, Essex.

Officers say they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the investigation.

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Margaret died after being airlifted to hospital. Mr Pierides, a businessman, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

The teenager's friends spoke of the rocky relationship she had endured with her father but said the pair appeared to have "patched things up" recently.

She had returned home a "few months ago" after spending time in a hostel in nearby Braintree.

Kika Willings, 18, who went to school in the village with Margaret, said: "When she went back home she was so happy. She was proper sorting her life out.

"She seemed to have patched things up.

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"We were best friends. She was so much fun to be around. She was crazy."

Miss Willings' mother, Celestine Adams, 45, described Margaret as a "wild card".

Friends said Margaret had "gone off the rails" during her final year in school and had several fall-outs with her father, including rows over alcohol.

But they said the family, including Margaret's four siblings, recently enjoyed a holiday together in Greece and everything appeared "perfect".

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Mrs Adams, a mother of seven, said: "When she moved back home her life was perfect. She loved it at home.

"She was so glad to be with her brothers and sisters."

Margaret, who did not complete all of her GCSE exams, started a college course as a beautician days before her death.

Floral tributes were left outside the family's seven-bedroom home, which remained sealed off with police tape.

Villagers said Mr Pierides was involved in a number of businesses, including an ambulance and health service.

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