Specialist police search teams have discovered a third body at the British house destroyed by an arson attack almost a week ago.
Experts found what they believed to be further human remains in the main part of Osbaston House, Maesbrook, early today.
A Home Office pathologist attended the scene and confirmed the remains were human. Work has now begun to extricate the body to allow formal identification and a post mortem to take place.
The body of Jill Foster was positively identified yesterday and work is ongoing to identify a second body found at the same time, which is believed to be male. Both the two previous bodies were found late on Friday.
Police are still unravelling what went on at the house in the lead-up to the fire, before which the family's three horses were shot and their stable set alight. The family's dogs also appear to have been killed and dragged into the house.
Police said Jill Foster's death is being treated as murder after a post mortem established the cause of death as a gunshot wound to the head. The cause of death for the second body has yet to be established, as is its identification.
Detective Superintendent Jon Groves, who is leading the investigation, said the removal of the third body found was likely to take some time.
"We had the remains confirmed as human late last night by a Home Office pathologist and work has now become to extract the body," he said.
"Due to its position, it will take some time to remove. We are hoping to get it out by the end of today, with a post mortem taking place either tonight or tomorrow. A forensic archaeologist is due to visit the site this morning to offer specialist advice to those working to recover the body.
"We are not able to release any further information with regards the body at this stage, but will do so once the post mortem has been carried out."
Detective Superintendent Groves also thanked the local community for its support over the past week.
"We have had a lot of support and understanding from members of the community and I would like to thank residents for that. The search and examination of the property is continuing and is still expected to take several days, possibly even weeks, and I am grateful for the continued support of those living in the area.
"Our thoughts remain with the families of Chris, Jill and Kirstie Foster and we will follow up every possible line of enquiry to establish what happened at Osbaston House in the early hours of Tuesday."
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