POLICE believe a man stabbed his wife and daughter to death before hanging himself in the garden of their home in Lloret de Mar on Spain’s Costa Brava.
Officers went to a property belonging to a Russian family in the Els Pinars urbanisation at 4pm on Tuesday after they were alerted by the couple’s son who became worried after failing to reach either his mother or sister by phone.
They found the mother, 53, and daughter, 16, had both been stabbed to death in their beds. A bloody knife and axe were found next to the bodies.
In the garden, hanging by a rope from a raised railing was the lifeless body of the 55-year-old man.
The Mossos d’Esquadra are working on the hypothesis that the man killed the two women before taking his own life.
However, detectives said they will investigate the possibility that someone else is responsible and made it look like a double-murder suicide although there is no immediate evidence to support such a theory.
Local media reports said the couple had owned the property for several years and were registered at the town hall. It is understood both children were being schooled in France.
The son will be interviewed by police when he arrives from France where he had stayed for the Easter holidays while the rest of his family were in the beachside resort town in Catalunya.