10:30am Tuesday 27th July 2010
Post-mortem examinations were being carried out today on the bodies of two little girls and their parents who were found dead in their family home, police said.
The toddlers' father is believed to have stabbed the children and their mother before hanging himself.
Police were called to the semi-detached house in Provost Street in the New Forest village of Fordingbridge at 11.20am yesterday after the shocking discovery.
The family were named locally as Andrew and Vicki Case and their daughters Phoebe, two, and Nereya, one.
Neighbours said they believed Case killed his wife and the two young children before killing himself.
The ambulance service said Case, 32, 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.
Alayna Brooks, 53, rushed over to the house herself after the grandmother found the bodies.
She told how the woman emerged screaming ''all my babies are dead''.
Ms Brooks said she 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. It is unclear where the man was found.
A cordon was set up around the £250,000 property, which lies in a pretty street of terraced and semi-detached houses, some with riverside views.
Scenes of crime officers later 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.
A Hampshire police spokeswoman confirmed that the bodies were removed from the house at around 6pm and post-mortem examinations were due to take place on the adults at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester last night.
The post-mortems on the two girls are likely to take place today.
The spokeswoman would not confirm or deny that detectives were looking for anyone in connection with the deaths.
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.''
She said she was ''appalled'' by what had happened and described the little girls as ''gorgeous''.
Another neighbour, Jeremy Pentecost, said he ran out of his house, which overlooks the property where the families were discovered.
''We heard all the screaming and the woman's mother was outside and she was collapsed on the floor. I think she was on the phone to her husband telling him to come over.
''I didn't go into the house - someone stopped me going in and I'm glad they did to be honest, I didn't want to see that.
''I cannot believe it's real. They seemed a nice couple and I joked with him sometimes outside,'' the Co-op worker, 27, said.
Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, said the alarm was raised after noises were heard coming from the house.
His mother walked past shortly afterwards and saw somebody outside the property ''walking around in the road looking like they were going to be sick''.
The neighbour said the deaths had shocked the village, adding: ''It's a small, close community. Everybody knows each other.''
The family were believed to be new to the street, with one neighbour saying she thought they had only moved in about a month ago.
Case wrote of his pride in his family on social network page: ''I am 32, I got married in 2000 and have been with my wife, Vicki, for about 15 years. We have two beautiful daughters, Phoebe and Nereya.''
Pictures on the website show him playing and sharing chocolate Easter eggs with his laughing daughters.
On July 18 he wrote about his family's upcoming trip to Weymouth.
It also reveals that he left Ringwood School in Hampshire in 1993 and worked as an HGV delivery driver for Doccombe European from May 2007.
Mrs Case ran St Aldhelm's children's nursery in nearby Sandleheath.
Acting Supt Gary Cooper, of Hampshire police, said: ''We believe it was a relative who came to the address (yesterday morning). On entering the address, they found four people dead.
''The scene is still being examined as it is a very recent incident.''
When asked if they had suffered a ''violent'' death, he said: ''It is a very unusual occurrence but something we are investigating with scenes of crime officers and the major crime branch.''
The emergency call came into South Central Ambulance Service at 11.19am.
An ambulance, the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, a rapid response vehicle and a doctor specialising in emergency medicine were dispatched to Fordingbridge.
Shelley Brewer, 31, said that she was close friends with Mrs Case when they went to school together.
She said that the couple seemed happy with no apparent problems or money troubles.
Mrs Brewer said: ''She was a nice person, she was a great friend and we got on really well in school.
''This has come as a real shock to all of us.''
Another friend, who used to work at the nursery, said that the couple's younger daughter Nereya was due to go to her induction at St Aldhelm's yesterday.
She said: ''Vicki's little one was expected down there for an induction but didn't arrive.''
Describing Mrs Case said: ''She was friendly, bubbly, one of those really nice people.
''She ran the local nursery, all the local kids loved her, all the people loved her.''
She added: ''They were just a nice couple, a nice family, they were from a good background.
''I can see their faces, they were down at Fordingbridge music festival, the kids were on the bouncy castle, they were just a happy family.''
Another family friend said that Mrs Case's maiden name was Haskell and the couple moved recently from Sandleheath where Mrs Case's mother Lynne lives.
She said: ''They just didn't give any indication of any problems.
''They were just a normal happy family, she was a happy-go-lucky person, never unhappy with lots of friends.
''Andy came from Ringwood, unless there were problems with his job as a delivery driver, I just can't understand it.
''I have kids myself and it's just terrible.''
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