The brother of Jill Foster has spoken of his devastation on learning of the blaze that ravaged the family’s millionaire mansion.
Sales executive Roger Doley, of Perton, near Wolverhampton, arrived home last night to be greeted by a neighbour.
“I knew immediately it was bad news,” he said.
See more photos from the scene here
“The police had called at my house that morning before I left for work asking whether I knew where Jill and Chris were, whether they were on holiday but they gave no indication what had happened.
“When I asked, they said there’d been a bit of damage done at the house and they needed to contact them. The officers seemed quite jolly and upbeat but at the same time I was uneasy, it was in the back of my mind all day, and I kept trying Jill’s number.
“When I got home and I saw a neighbour come across with her husband I was gripped with dread. I couldn’t believe what she was telling me. The police called later and said they still don’t know where the family are.
“They won’t be able to go into the house for a couple of days because it’s unsafe due to the extent of the fire. The waiting is killing me.”
The night before the fire, 50-year-old Chris, Jill, aged 49, and 15-year-old Kirstie had spent the evening at a friend’s barbecue nearby before returning home.
Mr Doley said: “They loved that house. They moved there about four or five years ago and although it needed a lot doing to it, they fell in love with the place.
“Chris got in contractors and completely overhauled the place, it was like a mini mansion. He put in a lake and was in the process of putting in another. He’d planted trees and wild flowers and made a wood.
“Kirstie is horse-mad, and so is Jill - they’d filled the place with animals. They’d got sheep, horses, dogs, ducks, guinea pigs, special breeds of chickens. Jill even had an incubator and hatched out some duck eggs herself this year.
“For Chris’s 50th birthday this year she got him three sheep as his present. That’s how they were.”
He said the last time he saw them was a few weeks ago at a family funeral.
“Despite the occasion, we had an enjoyable time together. I went back to the house afterwards and spent a couple of hours with them. We walked round the grounds together.”
See Thursday’s Shropshire Star for the latest developments in this story
See also: Mystery over missing blaze family
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