Police have found a third body at a mansion destroyed by fire last week in Shropshire, England.
Yesterday, tests confirmed that one of the dead was Jill Foster, the wife of a businessman, Christopher Foster, whose company had gone into liquidation.
A post mortem examination established that she had been shot in the head.
The body of a man was found close by. It has not yet been identified but 50-year-old Christopher Foster is still missing.
It is thought the body found last night may be that of the couple's 15-year-old daughter, Kirstie.
Police say they are now treating the case as a murder inquiry.
‘Work has now begun to extricate the body to allow formal identification and a post-mortem to take place,’ a spokesman said.
Detective Superintendent Jon Groves, who is leading the investigation, said it would take some time to remove the body ‘due to its position’ but hoped a post-mortem would take place Tuesday at the latest.
‘The search and examination of the property is continuing and is still expected to take several days, possibly even weeks,’ he said.
Flames destroyed a stable block and a garage containing several luxury cars as well as part of the main residence.
Three horses and three dogs also died, with one of the dogs found next to the first two bodies.
Police have confirmed that a horse box had been used to block the entrance to the grounds of the house.
Foster made his fortune developing insulation technology for oil rigs, but earlier this year a judge ruling on a debt case said the businessman was ‘bereft of the basic instincts of commercial morality’.
Court documents show that Foster's company, Ulva Ltd, which had gone into liquidation, faced legal action from one of its suppliers for thousands of pounds, and also owed about £800,000 (€990,000).
