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Inquest for family 'killed by suicide father'

Martin Halfpenny
Tuesday 03 August 2010 05:33 EDT

Inquests will open today into the deaths of a family of four, including two girls, found dead in their home.

The hearing comes eight days after the bodies of two-year-old Phoebe Case and her sister Nereya, one, were found dead on a bed at their family home.

It is believed that their father, HGV driver Andrew Case, 33, killed them and stabbed their mother Victoria Case, 31, to death before hanging himself.

How the children died has not so far been identified, but further tests will be carried out. The hearing takes place a Southampton Coroner's Court.

Detectives are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths at the house in Provost Street, Fordingbridge, Hampshire.

The family was reported to have had money problems, with Mr Case repaying cash since 2006 using a formal alternative to bankruptcy known as an Individual Voluntary Assessment.

Mrs Case, who ran a nearby nursery, is also thought to have owed money on credit cards.

The bodies were discovered by the children's grandmother Linda Haskell, 56, when she called around after being unable to contact the family.

She ran out into the street screaming: "All my babies are dead."

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