Jersey massacre children died of stabbing

Damian Rzeszowski with his wife Izabel and children Kinga and Kacper (PA)

Post-mortem examinations on two of the young children killed in the Jersey massacre have found they died of stab wounds.

Izabela Rzeszowski, 30, and her children Kinga, six, and two-year-old Kasper are believed to have been knifed to death by her husband Damian, 30.

He is also thought to have killed his wife's father Marek Garstki and her friend Marta de la Haye, 34, and her five-year-old daughter Julia during the attack in the capital of St Helier on Sunday afternoon.

Post-mortem examinations were carried out on two of the adults earlier in the week, with the results finding they both died from multiple stab wounds.

Police said further post-mortems were completed yesterday on two of the children, with the cause of death also confirmed as stab wounds.

The post-mortem examination on the third child is expected to start today followed by the second female today or tomorrow, police added.

It is hoped they are all completed by Friday so formal identification of the victims can take place either then or Saturday.

The investigation into the murders continues with further inquiries and forensic examination of the crime scene today.

The attack spilled from a flat in Victoria Crescent in St Helier and into the street.

Rzeszowski is believed to have repeatedly stabbed himself in the chest after the incident. He remains in a stable condition under police guard at Jersey General Hospital and will be questioned by officers when he is well enough.

Neighbours have described how they fended off the "mumbling" knifeman with a traffic cone as he chased one of the women before turning the weapon on himself.

Another witness saw the two little girls' bodies carried out of the flats by paramedics covered in blood.

A Requiem Mass to remember the victims is taking place at St Thomas' Church in St Helier this evening.

The Mass, which will be held partly in English and partly in Polish, will be celebrated by Monsignor Nicholas France, Catholic Dean in Jersey, and Fr Stanislaw Adamiak, acting chaplain to the Polish Catholic Mission in Jersey.

Family liaison officers continue to work closely with the families involved in the incident and Polish speaking officers are liaising with family members in Poland.

Two contact officers have also been deployed to support the family of the suspect both in Jersey and in Poland.

Officers will be deployed to the area of the incident on Sunday afternoon in order to engage with local members of the community and identify any other witnesses who may have been there at the same time last week.

The major incident room has completed more than 40 witness statements and over 100 lines of inquiry have been followed up.

Detective Superintendent Stewart Gull, who is leading the investigation, said he was hoping to meet the victims' families over the next few days.

"We cannot begin to imagine exactly what the relatives and friends of these two young families must be going through at the present time, but we can all be conscious of how difficult and traumatic it is, and I would ask that they be allowed the time and dignity to be able to grieve in peace," he said.

"There is also a great deal of rumour and speculation about what has happened here and that can only cause the relatives even more distress, so I appeal to everyone to allow our investigation to follow the evidence to establish the exact sequence of events."

PA