The marriage that ended in a bloodbath had started in smiles and laughter at a South Staffordshire church on a midsummer’s day 21 years earlier.
Foster had celebrated his 29th birthday just two days before the couple’s wedding service at Codsall’s parish church, St Nicholas, on July 11, 1987.
He was working as a sales engineer at the time and living in Whitehouse Lane, Codsall Wood.
His bride Jillian Doley was a 28-year-old secretary from Perton and walked up the aisle of the Church Road church on the arm of her insurance inspector father Norman. The proud dad officially witnessed the marriage along with Foster’s consultant engineer father Geoffrey.
Burnley-born Foster was an oil pipe salesman who struck it rich after inventing thermal insulation for the industry and launching a company called Ulva, based in Telford’s Hortonwood industrial estate.
He and his wife moved from their home in St Mawes Road, Perton - now worth about £225,000 - in 1998, five years after the birth of daughter Kirstie.
The family moved to Allscott, but were on the move again within six years. They sold the Allscott home for £750,000 in October 2004, paying £1.15 million for Osbaston House.
His mother, 68-year-old Enid, moved down to the Midlands from the North of England and settled in a retirement home at nearby Church Stretton. Her other son Andrew, aged 46 and also born in Burnley, lives in Castlecroft, Wolverhampton.
Mrs Foster’s family also continues to have local links. Her brother Roger, 60, and 57-year-old sister Anne Giddings both live in Perton.
See also: Close up view shows scale of tragedy
Police say Foster killed family
First look at Foster tragedy home
Third body removed from mansion
Local reaction to Foster tragedy
Accelerant used in Foster blaze
Wife’s body found at arson house
Computers recovered from house
Did pressure cause millionaire to ‘flip’?
Businessman ‘risked losing £1m home’
Inside Osbaston Hall before the blaze
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