Burnley childhood of millionaire killer

8:40am Friday 5th September 2008

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THE millionaire suspected of killing his wife and daughter, setting their mansion alight and shooting himself was brought up in a rural part of Burnley, it has been uncovered.

Police believe Christopher Foster, 50, shot dead his wife Jill, 49 and daughter Kirstie, 15, before torching the family’s Shropshire mansion in the early hours of Tuesday August 26.

West Mercia detectives said CCTV footage shows a rifle-wielding man, believed to be Foster, in the grounds of the flaming mansion where the bankrupt businessman is also believed to have shot dead the family’s horses.

The Lancashire Telegraph obained a copy of Foster’s birth certificate which shows that he was born at Bank Hall Hospital in Burnley on July 9 1958 to mother Enid and father Geoffrey, who is listed as a salesman for a manufacturing chemists.

The family’s address at the time of Foster’s birth was registered on July 15 1958 as Red Lees Road, Mereclough, Cliviger, just yards away from the farmhouse where Arthur Sutcliffe murdered his wife andsubsequently killed himself some years later.

The majority of the houses in the Mereclough stretch of Red Lees Road, close to The Kettle Drum Inn, were only built in 1963 and a small number of the original buildings have been demolished or redeveloped.

Elderly residents, who have lived in the area since the 1950s, could not remember the Foster family ever being part of the close-knit community.

Geoffrey was born on February 6 1927 and is believed to have passed away, but Enid, whose maiden name is Jackson, was born on July 25 1930 and now lives at a residential home in Church Stretton, Shropshire.

At the time of Foster’s wedding to Jill at Codsall’s Parish Church, St Nicholas, in South Staffordshire, his father was listed as a consultant engineer.

Foster’s younger brother Andrew, was also born in Burnley in September 1962 but now lives in Castlecroft, Wolverhampton.

Police were able to identify the bodies of Christopher and Jill Foster last week.

And they are confident that a third body found in the burnt-out remains of Osbaston House, Maesbrook, is that of Kirstie.

Yesterday (Thursday September 4) it was revealed that a friend of the popular teenager has posted a picture montage on video sharing website YouTube in tribute to her.