Father found hanged after his two little girls and their mother are murdered

A woman who found the bodies of her two granddaughters and their parents screamed "all my babies are dead" as she ran from the house where they died.

The toddlers' father is believed to have slit the children's throats and their mother's before hanging himself.

Police were called to the semi-detached house in the New Forest village of Fordingbridge, Hampshire, at 11.20am yesterday after the shocking discovery.

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The family were named locally as Andrew and Vicki Case and their daughters Phoebe, two, and Nereya, one.

Neighbours said they believed Case slit the throats of his wife and the two young children before killing himself. An ambulance service spokesman said the 32-year-old was found hanged.

The toddlers' grandmother, who usually looks after them on Mondays, went to the house after phoning the family repeatedly and receiving no answer, a neighbour said.

Residents including Alayna Brooks rushed over after the grandmother emerged from the house screaming.

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The 53-year-old went inside and found Mrs Case, in her 30s, dead in the dining room with a plastic bag over her head. She then went upstairs and found the little girls dead on a bed.

Mother-of-three Ms Brooks said the family had just returned from a week's holiday in Weymouth.

"They were so loved up," she said. "In fact if I had a marriage I would have loved their marriage – they just loved each other."

The bodies were removed from the house last night and post-mortem examinations were to be carried out on the parents. Examination of the children is expected today.

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Scenes of crime officers used a recovery lorry to take away a blue Land Rover Freelander that had children's toys inside and an 08 blue-grey Volkswagen Golf with two child seats inside.

Case, who worked as an HGV driver, had written of his pride in his family on his Facebook page.

Mrs Case ran St Aldhelm's children's nursery in nearby Sandleheath, where her youngest daughter had been due yesterday for an induction.

Another family friend said Mrs Case's maiden name was Haskell and the couple had moved recently from Sandleheath, Hampshire, where Mrs Case's mother Lynne lives.