That sent shockwaves around the world THEY SEEMED TO BE ‘A VERY LOVING FAMILY’
in the murders and suicide.
It emerged that Robert Mochrie had been alive for more than 24 hours after he had killed his wife and children, while the bodies lay upstairs, because he sent text messages cancelling Bethan’s lifts to school and deliveries of milk.
The 45-year-old businessman then took his own life with “the same methodical planning he had used to kill his own family”.
Why he had done it has never been fully explained, but there have been various theories.
The children had been beset with ill-health – Sian had epilepsy, Luke was recovering well from a brain tumour and Bethan had severe physical and learning disabilities.
At the inquest, 10 months after their deaths it also emerged Cath had had an affair with a former colleague, David Osborne, and that Robert had been seeing a Cardiff prostitute named Charmaine Jacobs once a week.
Robert had been diagnosed with depression in 1990 and 1993, and he had lost money from a venture with the Power Station nightclub in Barry.
A meticulously-kept filing system found in the Mochries’ master bedroom revealed “very, very worrying” letters from the bank.
They had been using credit cards extensively for months.
Five months before the murders they stopped paying any bills and slipped into arrears.
Eight days before the killings the bank foreclosed on a £80,000 loan; three days before, debt collectors arrived at the door to serve papers on an outstanding £5,000 debt.
The Mochries were £200,000 debt on the day they died.
Kevin concludes: “What we found was that they were a very normal and very loving family. There was not much lying underneath that would explain why Robert did what he did.
“Sometimes it can be a combination of things, or something little that flicks something in someone to make them do something as extreme as this.” in