Brother's shock at mansion blaze

The Wolverhampton brother of Jill Foster has spoken of his devastation on learning of the blaze that ravaged the family's millionaire mansion in Shropshire.

See also: Devastation at millionaire's mansion

Mystery surrounds the whereabouts of Mrs Foster, her husband Chris and their teenage daughter Kirsty.

It is not known whether they were in the £1.2 million country house when it was burned to the ground in a suspected arson attack early yesterday.

Sales executive Roger Doley, of Perton, arrived home last night to be greeted by a neighbour.

"I knew immediately it was bad news," he said. "The police had called at my house that morning before I left for work asking whether I knew where Jill and Chris were, whether they were on holiday but they gave no indication what had happened.

"When I asked, they said there'd been a bit of damage done at the house and they needed to contact them. The officers seemed quite jolly and upbeat but at the same time I was uneasy, it was in the back of my mind all day, and I kept trying Jill's number.

"When I got home and I saw a neighbour come across with her husband I was gripped with dread. I couldn't believe what she was telling me. The police called later and said they still don't know where the family are.

"They won't be able to go into the house for a couple of days because it's unsafe due to the extent of the fire. The waiting is killing me."

The night before the fire, 50-year-old Chris, Jill, aged 48, and 15-year-old Kirsty had spent the evening at a friend's barbecue nearby before returning to their "dream home".

Mr Doley said: "They loved that house. They moved there about four or five years ago and although it needed a lot doing to it, they fell in love with the place.

"Chris got in contractors and completely overhauled the place, it was like a mini mansion. He put in a lake and was in the process of putting in another. He'd planted trees and wild flowers and made a wood.

"Kirsty is horse-mad, and so is Jill they'd filled the place with animals. They'd got sheep, horses, dogs, ducks, guinea pigs, special breeds of chickens. Jill even had an incubator and hatched out some duck eggs herself this year.

"For Chris's 50th birthday this year she got him three sheep as his present. That's how they were."

He said the last time he saw the family was a few weeks ago for a family funeral.

"Despite the occasion, we had an enjoyable time together. I went back to the house afterwards and spent a couple of hours with them. We walked round the grounds together."

The family had all the trappings of luxury lifestyle at the mansion, which they are believed to have bought for £750,000.

But in 2006 Mr Foster was dragged into an unsavoury court case. Two men were cleared of attempting to blackmail him into giving them £100,000 but one of them was found guilty of intending to pervert the course of justice.

At Shrewsbury Crown Court , 33-year-old Timothy Baker, of Manor Farm Drive, Shifnal, and 40-year-old Leo Dennis, from Birmingham, were cleared of making an unwarranted demand with menaces from Mr Foster. Baker was convicted of intent to pervert the course of justice and given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 100 hours of work in the community.

Mr Foster had alleged Dennis and Baker had been plotting to blackmail him after a land deal in Cyprus fell through.

Dennis and Baker claimed Mr Foster made a false allegation of blackmail to cover up a bid to have Baker assaulted.

Mr Foster denied the claims.

CCTV footage has been recovered from the house and around 80 officers and staff are working on the investigation. Detective Superintendent Jon Groves, from West

Mercia Constabulary's Major Incident Unit, said the footage would be examined over the coming days.

He added: "The house, a garage and stable block and another outbuilding were severely damaged. Two horses in the stable and another in the outbuilding have been found dead. Two dogs, which we believe were in a kennel block, are missing. A search will be carried out of the property to establish if anybody was inside, as soon as the building is deemed to be safe."

The fire was reported to police by the fire service just before 5am yesterday.