Tragic millionaire family's funeral

Dec 19 2008

Mourners are due to pay their final respects at the funerals of a millionaire and the wife and teenage daughter he murdered.

Businessman Christopher Foster, 50, is believed to have shot dead his wife Jill, 49, and 15-year-old daughter Kirstie before torching the family mansion and turning the gun on himself.

CCTV footage recovered from the £1.2 million property in Maesbrook, Shropshire, showed a man police strongly believe to be Mr Foster firing a rifle at a horsebox as the luxury home and its outbuildings burned in the early hours of August 26.

It was days before the bodies were discovered in the charred remains of Osbaston House, such was the scale of the blaze.

The funeral of Mrs Foster and Kirstie will take place at 11am at St John's Church in Maesbrook.

Mr Foster's funeral will be held at the same church at 2.30pm.

Both services will be conducted by senior retired clergyman the Venerable Tony Sadler, formerly the Archdeacon of Walsall.

Mrs Foster and Kirstie will share a grave while Mr Foster will be buried in a separate plot next to them.

The process of arranging the funerals is understood to have sparked a feud between Mr Foster's family and relatives of his wife.

On Sunday Mrs Foster's sister, Anne Giddings, told The People newspaper that she wanted Mr Foster to be buried "as far away as possible" from her sister and niece.