NorthWest Exploration Forum - Osbaston house Jan 2010(pic heavy)

After my bowden murder scene report I felt a little inspired to have a pop at a not so distant memory of a murder scene, the place is in a bit of a state after the blaze,non the less I felt intrigued... so guys here goes the story

Mr Foster shot his family and their pet dogs and horses before setting his £1.2million mansion ablaze in August 2008. Earlier, the court had been shown the last actions of Mr Foster, caught on CCTV security cameras on the night of the blaze, as he walked around the grounds of his home in Oswestry, Shropshire, carrying what is thought to be a bucket, a rifle and a battery pack in preparation for setting the fire.

It also heard how Kirstie had spent the final moments before her death texting a friend, with no indication of the horror that lay ahead. On the day in question, the Foster family - Chris and Jill and their vivacious, horse-mad daughter Kirstie - attended a neighbours' shooting party and barbecue. They seemed a happy, loving family, enjoying the fruits of Chris' success in business. In the course of 21 years of marriage, Chris and Jill had moved from their first home, a nondescript suburban new-build in Wolverhampton, to a beautiful country house in Shropshire, set in 16 acres of land, with four much-loved dogs, five horses, and Jill's doves.

Belinda Fathers, the Fosters' housekeeper and friend, recalls that Friday as normal, 'nothing out of the ordinary', with Chris and his family 'larking about'. But there was one possible signal of the impending horror: Chris and Jill had been looking at family photographs, including his childhood pictures. As Belinda recalls: 'They watched the wedding video and cried.

early in the hours of August 26, a 999 call reported a fire at Osbaston House. The scale took everyone by surprise. It took 12 fire crews and several days to contain the flames...But what unfolded, as the full horror became apparent, shocked even hardened investigators. As an inquest yesterday ruled, Chris had shot his wife and beloved daughter, as well as the family pets, before starting the blaze that would lead to his own death.
On the night of the fire, the first indication that something truly bizarre had taken place was when West Mercia Police turned up but no one could enter the scene, first because a horse box had been left blocking the gate with its tyres shot out, and then because of the flames and the heat.
Police stood watching vital evidence go up in smoke for three days. 'It was like a clay oven turning everything to ash' . Meanwhile, nobody knew what had happened to the Foster family. The last time Chris's mum, Enid, had seen them was at Kirstie's 15th birthday party. Chris had merely waved her off in the new car that he'd bought for her - saying: 'Bye Mum, see you.'

Trouble with the taxman was a more serious matter than Chris let on to his family. It led him into murky business dealings that had prompted threats, accusations of blackmail and betrayal, and a level of paranoia that moved him to keep a handgun in his car.
Chris loved cars. He'd arrived to move into Osbaston House in two Range Rovers to impress the neighbours. At various points, he even had matching 'his and hers' Porsches, a silver Jaguar, a Mercedes, a Ferrari, an Aston Martin and a Bentley.

He was riveted by television pictures of the Piper Alpha oil rig fire disaster, which lasted many days. Foster was prompted to invent a kind of insulation that could protect the valves from being destroyed by fire. Big oil companies wanted proof it worked. But the test was expensive. So Foster mortgaged his house for £5,000 worth of gas to fuel a demonstration. His mum Enid recalls him 'standing there with his fingers crossed while this fire was blazing. He knew that when the fire died down, if the material had protected the valves, that was it. It worked - and after that he was making money hand over fist. He had so much that he didn't know what to do with it.'

Foster soon found ways to spend it. Along with cars and motorbikes, he moved his wife and young daughter to a five-bedroom new-build on the edge of Wolverhampton with a heated indoor swimming pool. And he started mixing in higher social circles. As his friend Dave Mitchell put it: 'To come second place wasn't Chris' style. He had to be up there with the winners.'

From early on, he'd always wanted a grand house. When Jill saw Osbaston House in Shropshire Life magazine on a Thursday, they viewed it on Saturday and bought it for £1million that afternoon - with cash, as he proudly told his mother (it later emerged it was mortgaged several times). Another £216,000 went to local antiques dealers for furnishing it in appropriate fashion. Dave Mitchell felt his pretensions led Chris to be less than careful about the authenticity or state of what he bought. 'The house was in an awful state but he hadn't even looked. Some of the pictures and furniture were fakes. When the veneer burnt on one of the tables, there was softwood underneath.'It was to prove a good metaphor for Foster's grandiose lifestyle and shaky financial underpinnings.

Chris managed to move so much business offshore that he would brag didn't have to pay taxes like ordinary people but a row with his accountant went to court, when Foster told police he was being blackmailed. The accountant was acquitted but Chris' paranoia deepened. As financial pressures mounted, Foster found a cheaper supplier in the U.S. for his insulation materials - breaching his exclusive contract with a British supplier, DRC. They took him to court and won. Soon, the legal and financial quagmire he had created led to him losing his business, his prized cash-cow. With the loss of the company, Foster's dreams of the golden life were unravelling. The liquidators froze everything.

But, to their deep regret Chris didn't tell Enid of his downfall - instead carrying on pretending to work, and speaking at the barbecue party of an £11million Russian deal that he said was in the pipeline, however, there were hints that all was not well. In August, his former partner Pete Grkinic texted Chris asking if he was OK. The reply was 'I'm not good'.
He also told a close friend that he would never let any liquidators take his home or possessions away from him!

The foster family's last moments where gravely captured by the CCTV cameras he'd set up to protect the family. It shows him approaching the kennels and stable block at 3:10am, with a .22 rifle, with a silencer and a lamp attached to illuminate the target. In succession Chris foster shot his dogs in the head, his horses in the head, his daughter in the head and then his wife in the head. Police found Chris and Jill's bodies by accident, while taking pictures. They stepped on something spongy by the fireplace, which turned out to be their bodies. They were revealed to have fallen through the burned floor from above while still entwined, suggesting Chris had set the fires - pouring 200 gallons of oil into the house to do so - and then climbed the stairs to end up with Jill on the bed.

The coroner recorded that Mr Foster had died as a result of smoke inhalation, but a loaded rifle was recovered from near his body. Whether or not he intended to turn the gun on himself will remain a mystery.The position of his body suggests his motive was one of love - trying to protect Jill from the humiliation of his financial troubles.

An eerie silence fills the air as you walk past the gates(imagine a huge horse box blocking the authorities from getting in with shot out tires)
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this place isn't huge but its implications are enourmous
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The horses and dogs were shot first
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then he entered the house
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Heads to kirsty's room(childrens books still line the book shelves!)
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then to his wife...
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sets the house ablaze then takes one last embrace.

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