In August 2000, Lee Ford, an unemployed builder and roofer, murdered his wife, Lesley, and his four stepchildren at their home in Carnkie, a village near Redruth, Cornwall, and then attempted to conceal the bodies.
In May 2001, Ford pleaded guilty to the murders at Bristol Crown Court and was sentenced to five terms of life imprisonment.
Ford committed the murders on or around 30 August, after arguing with his wife, Lesley, who had threatened to stop him seeing the two children he had fathered with her.
[1][2] Ford was visited by police officers several weeks later, after Lesley's brother contacted them to report the family missing.
Police suspected that Ford had been sexually abusing his eldest stepdaughter, Sarah-Jane, and that this had been the source of his argument with Lesley.