THE occupants of a house where a family of four were found dead have been named by a local today.

Police were called by neighbours to the property where they found the bodies of two adults and two children along with the family dog that was also dead.

Murder detectives have put a wide cordon in place as they scour the scene for evidence.

They attended the house in Woodmancote at around 6.45pm on Sunday.

>> UPDATE: FIRST PICTURE OF FAMILY FOUND DEAD

Inside the home, officers found the four people, believed to include two children under 10-years-old and a Staffie.

Within an hour, around nine police cars, two paramedics vehicles, and unmarked police cars were on the scene.

According to those living nearby, the house is home to grandmother Maureen Needham, her adult son Robert, a builder and his partner Kelly Fitzgibbons and their two young daughters Ava and Lexi aged about five and three.

The Argus:

One neighbour who lives less than 50 yards from the house, said: “On Sunday night we were aware a lot of activity outside.

“The activity started about 6.55pm but by 7.15pm or 7.20pm when I looked out there were upwards of eight or 10 police cars and a couple of paramedics vehicles with both marked and unmarked police cars - a lot of activity around one particular house in the lane and from there it just emerged that there had been a major incident at the house.

“Its been mentioned that it’s a murder.

"I don’t want to speculate but it’s just surprising that there has been an incident of this kind in this lane.

“The family are, as I understand it, a close family.

"The house is owned by the grandmother. after her husband died some years ago the son moved back in with his partner and they, between them, had two children.

“Recently they had been building a very large extension on the house and a brick wall outside on the frontage to replace an old hedge.

“The owner of the house, I sometimes would take to the doctors or to the hospital because she is somewhat disabled, she has had joint replacements and suffers somewhat with rheumatism.”

He added: “What is sad is that we don’t know who is dead over there. I get on OK with the owner of the house and I don’t know if she’s one of the deceased or not although I suspect at this point that she is not.

“There were three adults living in the house which means there is one not accounted for. We don’t know which one.

“I didn’t know the younger ones that well but the son he always seemed quite calm, collected, laid back, I would say.

“But his partner, I think is not quite as laid back but other than that I don’t really know and of course there are two young children they are about five and three and there is also a dog who is a Staffie.

“The mother, whenever I took her out she would say, ‘he’s done this, he’s done that’ she was quite proud of the fact that he’s got on and done the building work over there.

“You can never tell what’s going on behind doors. I’ve never heard any sound of argument coming from the house.”

Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, described the small rural neighbourhood as “close knit.”

She said: “There are very few of us and we stick very closely together.”