Lucy Carter (7) and her sister Hollie (3) were wearing pretty daytime dresses and were huddled together on the back seat of their father's black Ford Capri car when they were found dead on Sunday morning. Their brother, Thomas (4), lay dead on the front passenger seat dressed in a pair of jeans and a shirt.
Just 200 metres from this sad scene, their father Steven (36), was found hanged in a copse of 20 to 30 trees by a nylon vehicle tow rope. There was evidence of an attempt to set fire to the inside of the car and a petrol can was retrieved from it, but any attempt to conceal their identity and the reasoning behind it can only be guessed at in the early days of the police investigation into their deaths.
The shepherd from a nearby farm who found the three children and their father while he was out walking on Sunday spoke for everyone concerned with the case yesterday when he said it was a "terrible sight" to see and one that he would not forget for the rest of his life. "The two small girls were just huddled up in the back seat of the car and the boy was lifeless in the front," he said and he was so distressed by what he had stumbled upon that he became physically ill.
The detective leading the investigation, Detective Superintendent, Mr Jeff Virgo, of Staffordshire Police, described Lucy and her sister and brother as "three lovely, normal, healthy, happy children" of whom any parent or family would have been proud. And as we have heard so many police officers say in the past, though just as poignant in this case, Mr Virgo declared: "This is an absolute tragedy."
Just what was in the minds of those little children as they lay dying in their father's car is anyone's guess. The obvious task for Staffordshire police is to try to piece together what compelled Steven Carter to hang himself, after it is presumed, since the police are not looking for anyone else in connection with their deaths, he killed his own children. The key may be found with the mother of the three children, Teresa, described by police yesterday as "totally devastated". In the traumatic, emotional first days following a tragedy of such magnitude, Ms Carter (32), has been able to provide few insights into the reasoning behind the death of her immediate family. But with the help of specially trained police officers it is hoped that in the next few days she will be able to shed light on what police have described as "domestic strife" in the Carter household.