Couple had been battered to death

6:19pm Sunday 30th November 2008

Two pensioners murdered in their home were battered to death, it has emerged.

The bodies of the couple, named locally as Arthur and Joan Toop, were found in the detached bungalow.

A 52-year-old woman, understood to be their daughter Susan Toop, was also found at the bungalow in Uplands Road, Charminster, Bournemouth, with serious injuries. She was arrested on suspicion of murder.

A post mortem on Mr Toop revealed the cause of death was multiple blunt force head and sharp force chest injuries, said Dorset police today. Mrs Toop died from multiple blunt force head injuries, said the police spokesman. They have yet to be formally identified.

The couple's daughter has been transferred to Odstock Hospital in Salisbury with injuries which are not believed to be life threatening.

She is under police escort in hospital, said the police spokesman. Officers are waiting for medical advice as to when she will be able to be take into police custody.

A murder investigation was launched shortly when police found the couple, following calls from concerned friends and neighbours. Dorset police said detectives were not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.

The killings stunned people living in what one neighbour described as "a very ordinary residential street with very ordinary people."

Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, told the Dorset Echo she often said hello to the friendly couple.

"They had two dogs and the man used to take them out very early each morning. The woman had two hanging baskets which she would tend to. They had lived there for five years and were both very nice," she told the Echo.