'All my babies are dead' screams grandmother after horror find

A WOMAN who found the bodies of her two tiny 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, 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 slit the throats of his wife and the two young children before killing himself.

The ambulance service said Case, 32, was found hanging.

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

Alayna Brooks, 53, rushed over to the house 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.

She then went upstairs and found the 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 Provost Street, a road of terraced and semi-detached houses, some with riverside views.

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 girls as "gorgeous".

Another neighbour, Jeremy Pentecost, said he ran out of his house, which overlooks the property where the family was 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.

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 his Facebook 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 daughters. On 18 July he wrote about his family's forthcoming trip to Weymouth.

His Facebook page 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 Superintendent Gary Cooper, of Hampshire police, said: "We believe it was a relative who came to the address this morning. On entering the address, they found four people dead.

"The scene is still being examined as it is a very recent incident."