A man who allegedly shot dead his partner, two daughters, pet dog and then himself has been described as a 'bully' and 'nasty piece of work' by neighbours.
The bodies of Robert Needham and Kelly Fitzgibbons and their two daughters Ava, 4, and Lexi, 2, were found at their family home in Woodmancote in West Sussex.
Robert, 40, is believed to have shot his family, minus his mother, and then taken his own life on Sunday evening, six days into the UK's coronavirus lockdown.
Police have said they are treating the deaths as an 'isolated incident' and they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the murders.
Yesterday Robert's mother Maureen Needham, 77, confirmed the tragedy – and hinted that she may have even been in the property at the time of the deaths.
In a now-deleted Facebook post to a friend, Mrs Needham said: "It was Robert, Kelly and my lovely grandchildren that all died upstairs."
A former next-door neighbour of the couple has described Robert as a 'nasty piece of work', who she would take care to avoid. "Kelly was all right but he was a bully," she told the Mail Online.
"He was rude, he let that dog out at all hours of the night. She was nice but I kept away from him.
"He was ignorant and also made a lot of noise but he would complain to my landlord about me exercising in the house at tea time... I just didn't want to get into a confrontation with him."
The deaths came just two days after Ms Fitzgibbons posted a series of photos on Facebook of her family out in the countryside last Friday under the heading "our walk for the day", after government advice only to leave the house for exercise or essential shopping amid the coronavirus crisis.
Sussex Police went to the three-bedroom home at 6.45pm on Sunday after receiving a call raising a welfare concern for the residents.
All four were pronounced dead at the scene, along with the dog, which was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier called Bill.
Post-mortem examinations and formal identification are yet to take place, they said.
Robert Needham had been building an extension for he, his partner Kelly and their young children to live in after moving back to his mother Maureen's £500,000 home in the leafy village, according to neighbours.
Mr Needham owned a company called Needham Building Services which specialised in domestic construction, but this was dissolved last October.
Miss Fitzgibbons' stepsister Cheryl Giles said: "Kelly was the sweetest, kindest, loveliest woman who lived for her girls."
Neighbour, retired Douglas Meany, said he had known the Needham family for 40 years and often drove grandmother Maureen, aged 77 years to the doctor's surgery.
"I've known the family a very long time. We got on well as neighbours.
"As far as I know they were a fairly close-knit family, just normal, but not in each other's pockets," he said.
"For a while the house was used as a care home which the family ran. Previous to that Maureen and her husband used to run a village shop.
"On Sunday I was alerted to the fact there was a lot of activity in the lane outside. I saw two paramedic vehicles, unmarked police cars in the lane as well as marked.
"That carried on right through the night, comings and goings, and forensics seemed to arrive at around midnight.
"At first we didn't know who or what was involved, but because of the activity it was obviously important.
"As there was more police and paramedics involved, we knew that somebody was in trouble, then it came to light that there may have been fatalities and there might have been more than one," the 70-year-old added.
Mr Meany added: "We were naturally very surprised, it would take a lot for somebody to do that but there was no evidence previously that there was a problem.
"Robert was building an extension for the family to live in, but whilst he was building that he wasn't getting an income from any other building work so it might have been that there were issues over finance or it might have been issues over people living together in confined conditions.
"I think Robert and Kelly and the children tended to stay in a section of the house and Maureen stayed in another section.
"I don't know how Robert used to get on with Kelly but there was never any evidence of any discord. Maureen has relatives in Manchester and near London and she does spend time with them. I don't know where she is but I would suspect that she might be with one of her daughters."
Following the launch of a murder investigation, Sussex Police Chief Superintendent Jerry Westerman said: "This is believed to be an isolated incident contained to one property and in these early stages of the investigation we are not seeking anyone else in connection with the incident."
Woodmancote is a village close to Chichester in West Sussex.
It is in the parish of Westbourne, which had 2,309 citizens at the last count.
