POLICE were yesterday investigating the possibility of a suicide pact after three young sisters and their parents were found dead at their home.
One theory being considered is that the parents may have killed them and then taken their own lives, but exactly what happened has still to be determined.
The bodies were found by a distraught relative who called at the Asian family's home in Northumberland Road in the St Mary's area of Southampton.
They were named by police last night as five month old Bijal two year old Shrina, four year old Chandni, and their parents, Mr Mahendra Karia (42), and his wife, Mayuri (39).
There were no signs of violence and a Home Office pathologist was conducting post mortem examinations. It is understood police are examining the possibility that they were given a poisonous substance.
Police were examining the domestic background of the family, including a suggestion that they may have had financial worries, to establish a motive.
A police officer said: "The children's uncle had apparently called there earlier yesterday evening. He was used to seeing the family, who are a nice family and kept themselves to themselves.
"He had not seen them and he became rather concerned. Later in the evening he went round there and made this grim discovery.
A neighbour, Mrs Lesley Tudor, said that just before midnight the uncle knocked at her door and asked if she had heard anything from next door.
He asked to go through to their back garden, climbed over the fence and hammered on the windows and doors of the house, but got no response.
"He went to the front and somehow got in. The next minute I heard a lot of wailing and then there were all these flashing blue lights," said Mrs Tudor.
The deaths have shocked Southampton's Asian community and others who knew the family.