24 Feb 2011

Mother and two children found dead in Leicestershire

Communities Editor

Police are investigating the deaths of a woman and two children after their bodies were found inside a house in Shepshed, Leicestershire. Darshna Soni hears of a “happy” family from neighbours.

Police were called to a home in Garendon Road in Shepshed on Wednesday evening and discovered the bodies of a woman and two children at the scene.

Circumstances surrounding the deaths are being investigated but the police have said that they are not looking for anyone else who could be connected with the deaths.

Formal identification has not yet been undertaken and post-mortems will follow.

'A wonderful family' 
The house in Shepshed is a neat, detached property next door to a church. Neighbours say the family who lived here were friendly and out-going, writes Channel 4 News Midlands Correspondent Darshna Soni from Shepshed.

"They were very much a part of this community, they always stopped to say hello," the local newsagent told me.

And yet last night, after concerns were raised by relatives, officers went round to the address and found three bodies. Detectives are now investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths and say they aren't looking for anyone else in connection to the incident.

Leicestershire Police have not confirmed the indentities, but they have been named locally as Claudia Oakes-Green and her two children Thomas and Eleanor.

They were well known to Father Michael Eastwood, the parish priest. "They came to mass every week and were a wonderful family," he told me. Mrs Oakes-Green is believed to have worked as a teacher. Her husband Iain is a senior applications engineer at a nearby company.

Those who knew the family have been left shocked and saddened. The family were not known to social services and there is no hint that they were experiencing any kind of trouble or difficulites. "They were simply a normal, happy couple raising thier two children," said the priest. "I would often hear the sound of the children's laughter coming from the back garden."