A heartbroken father laid tributes to his three children, whose mother fell to her death from a Lowestoft multi-storey car park.
Devastated Craig McLelland was comforted by two friends as he was waved past the police cordon outside the family’s basement flat, in London Road South, last night.
And he fought back tears as he addressed reporters, next to a growing pile of teddy bears and flowers left by well-wishers.
“I don’t know what I’m feeling,” he whispered. “I’ve just lost my family.”
His partner, named locally as Fiona Anderson, was found by Battery Green car park with severe head injuries at 8am yesterday.
And hours later their three tots, aged 11-months, two and three, were found dead at the basement flat.
Their deaths are being treated as suspicious by police.
It is understood the couple had been expecting a fourth child next month.
Mr McLelland, who struggled to speak, appeared inconsolable.
When asked by a TV reporter about the mounting tributes, he agreed that they were “comforting”.
He left with his friends after laying a teddy outside the home where his children were found, and speaking briefly to the media.
The basement flat is on the junction of Grosvenor Road with busy London Road South, near to a pool club, pub and several takeaways.
A neighbour who knew Ms Anderson said she was a “brilliant girl” and is understood to have lived at the address for at least six years.
She said she had seemed “happy enough” in recent weeks, though she had not seen her for a few days.
And the tragic news quickly spread through the Kirkley area of Lowestoft, with a stream of tributes being laid at the scene.
A group of primary school aged children handed teddy bears to a PCSO, to take beyond the cordon and place behind railings outside the property.
And tearful neighbours stood in their doorways, surveying the mixture of TV trucks, children on BMXs and well-wishers carrying flowers.
What started as a handful of toys in the late afternoon had grown to a mountain by the time the sun had set on the terraced street.
One woman, who laid a flower at the scene, said she did not know the family personally.
“I’m just a normal woman with children,” she said.
A man, who gave his name as Keith, said it was a struggle to take in the news.
“It’s a very close-knit town, everybody looks out for each other,” he said. “It’s hard to take in.
“I came through this road at about 8am and it was just normal, then at midday it was all cordoned off.
“When I heard what had happened it was hard to believe.
“It’s heart-breaking.”
As details began to emerge on TV, people who did not know the family felt moved to lay tributes.
Cars parked at the KFC drive-thru restaurant opposite the flat, and people gathered in doorways to the nearby newsagent and takeaway.
Grandmother Shelle Sharp said: “It deeply affected me. It’s a tragedy.”
The door of the four-storey end terrace remained open, with a policeman stood in the doorway and two PCSOs stood outside behind a cordon.
An investigation into the circumstances of the deaths is continuing.
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