A FAMILY of four including two young girls were found dead the day after returning home from a holiday in Weymouth.

The parents and their two girls - aged one and two - were found by the girls’ grandmother at their home in the centre of Fordingbridge, Hampshire.

The mother and the two girls are believed to have been found with stab wounds with the father found hanged.

They were named locally as Andy and Vicki Case, and their two young children Phoebe, aged two and a half and Nereya, 18 months.

Neighbours spoke of their shock following the discovery of the family at Provost Street.

Single mum Alayna Brooks, 53, who lives in the same cul-de-sac, said she saw the children's grandmother running out of the red brick terraced house screaming: “My babies are dead; all my babies are dead”.

Miss Brooks said she understood the husband of the family, who is believed to have been a delivery driver for Doccombe European Ltd, which has a base in Downton Industrial Estate, was found hanged in a bedroom.

The two girls were on a bed and the mother, Vicki (also know as Vicki Haskell), was found dead in the downstairs dining-room. It is believe the children and mother dies from stab wounds.

The South Central Ambulance crew that attended the scene are said to be so traumatised by what they saw they are to have counselling.

Shocked mum-of-three Miss Brooks added: “I’m appalled, upset and I’m shocked. The family had recently come back from a week’s holiday in Weymouth.

“I walked back from the shop with the father and the two children yesterday afternoon; the girls are beautiful; they are drop-dead gorgeous.

“They were an amazing family; we all loved them. The couple were so loved up. If I had a marriage I would have loved theirs. It was so upsetting.”

Miss Brooks, a loan advisor, went into the house with another neighbour after the grandmother ran out into the street.

She said: “The grandmother picked them up every Monday; she had phoned and when there was no answer she went there.

“When I went inside with another neighbour there was no sign of a struggle.”

Another neighbour, Jeremy Pentecost also saw the grandmother running out of the house.

He said: “The door was wide open, she was in floods of tears, saying ‘I can’t believe it’. I think she was on her mobile phone to her husband.

“The children’s dad was a really nice guy. I used to see him cleaning his car and we had a joke together.”

Detectives from Hampshire’s major crime department are now leading the investigation but said it was too early to say if the deaths are suspicious. A cordon has been put up around the property.

The senior officer at the scene Acting Superintendent for the New Forest, Gary Cooper said crime scene investigators from Hampshire Police HQ and a pathologist were yesterday working at the house and hoped to recover the bodies.