British police release names in triple murder

British police today named the mother and her two daughters found murdered at their home in northern England after officers found…

British police today named the mother and her two daughters found murdered at their home in northern England after officers found the body of a man in a nearby river.

Police said Joanne Catley (33) and her girls Phoebe Hicks (4) and Emma Hicks (2) were found dead last night.

Officers began a search for the unnamed man after the mother's baby, Lily Hicks, aged one, was found safe in an abandoned car on the south side of the Humber Bridge. The man's body was found in the river.

The blue Nissan Micra led officers to a house in the village of Healing, about 22 kilometres away, where they found the bodies of the woman and her daughters.

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The missing man had had a relationship with Ms Catley, newspapers quoted an unnamed policeman as saying.

Police sealed off the street and forensics officers carried out a fingertip search of the area.

Neighbours said the woman had moved into the house with her children just before Christmas. "She came and went quietly," Ms Joyce McUrich (75) told the Daily Telegraph.

The 30-metre high bridge, opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1981, is a notorious suicide spot.