The bodies of Claudia Oakes-Green, 44, her son, Thomas, 13, and daughter Eleanor, nine, were found in February. Her husband Iain, a specialist in wind energy, was working abroad. Police broke into the family’s detached house, in Shepshed, Leics, after they were contacted by a concerned relation. The children were found in their bedrooms with stab wounds to their neck and chest. Their mother, a devout Roman Catholic, was in the bathroom with multiple knife wounds to her arms. An inquest in Loughborough heard that Mrs Oakes-Green’s mother, Betty Oakes, called police after she was unable to contact her daughter.
She had talked to her by telephone the day before when Mrs Oakes-Green, a lecturer at Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College, Leicester, had sounded “very down” about her job. She was also worried about the health of her son, an asthmatic. Mrs Oakes alerted neighbours who checked the house and saw bloodstained bedding but no bodies. The hearing was told Mrs Oakes-Green bought several knives on three shopping trips in the week before the tragedy. She used a family laptop to research “suicide, depression and self-harm”. Mr Oakes-Green attended the inquest but did not give evidence. Caroline Molotnikoff, a family friend, said Mrs Oakes-Green was “depressed”.
“I was concerned just after Christmas when she talked to me and said she was feeling down,” Mrs Molotnikoff said. “She explained she was worried about her job and concerned about Thomas’s health. I remember saying she perhaps should go to the doctor, but she laughed at that. I didn’t think it was that bad.”
Mrs Molotnikoff said she next saw Mrs Oakes-Green at the beginning of February when she was with her husband after he returned from a work trip to India. “She was still down at that time,” she said. “She did not spend much time chatting with me. She was quieter.”
Mrs Molotnikoff last saw her on Feb 22, two days before the deaths. She said: “We arranged to go for a swim with the children. She was very quiet but not relaxed.”Det Insp Simon Cure said three notes were found. They were not read to the inquest. Phone records showed Mrs Oakes-Greene ordered a pizza hours before she killed her children. The coroner Trevor Kirkman recorded verdicts of unlawful killings on the children and suicide on Mrs Oakes-Green. In a statement after the hearing Mr Oakes-Green said: “I love and miss Claudia, Thomas and Eleanor very much. Now I want to be left alone to grieve.”