Mother who ‘killed her two young children and left their bodies in car boot’ had lost baby to cot death

By
Stephen Wright
Last updated at 6:42 PM on 28th January 2010

A mother arrested on suspicion of murdering her two young children had lost a baby girl to cot death six years ago, it emerged today.

Police were this aternoon waiting to interview Fiona Donnison, a 43-year-old former City worker, who was arrested yesterday after she walked into a police station and told officers to search her hatchback car, which was parked nearby. 

After forcing open the boot, police discovered the bodies of her son Harry, three, and her two-year-old daughter Elise.

Mrs Donnison’s mental health is now being assessed after
she was admitted to hospital with apparently self-inflicted cuts to her
wrists and upper arms. 

The youngsters had been
placed in separate sports bags and had been dead ‘for some time’. A police source said there was no obvious cause of death.

It emerged today her baby daughter Mia had died of cot death before her first birthday in April 2004.

Sources also told the Daily Mail that there had been ‘domestic
problems’ between Mrs Donnison and her husband Paul, the father of the two children, and that their marriage
had recently come under strain. He is being comforted by
police.

She has yet to be interviewed by police and doctors have described her condition as ‘stable’. 

Mrs Donnison also had two other sons – Will,
15, and 12-year-old Ollie – from a previous marriage.

Police have sealed off the family’s home – a detached £500,000 house
less than 100 yards from the quiet residential street in Heathfield,
East Sussex, where the grim discovery was made at 11.46am.

Mrs Donnison’s first husband Derek McCrow, 55, said: ‘I have heard and I’m very sorry.’ He lives with his second family in Etchingham, seven miles from Heathfield.

The car – a silver T-reg Nissan hatchback with a personalised numberplate – has been taken away to be examined.

Neighbours said the couple had lived together until just
before Christmas when they put their house on the market after
separating. A sold sign is outside the property.

Jill Radford, 61, who lived across from the Donnisons, said:
‘I have never met the couple in the house or even seen them even though
they are just opposite me.

‘There were two young children and there were always toys in
the garden. I heard that the couple separated just before Christmas and
put the house up for sale. It is desperately sad.’

Ian Paseka, who lives in the street where the bodies were
discovered, said: ‘It’s terrible. This is an upper-middle class
residential area with no crime whatsoever. We’ve never had a burglary.’

Last year, Mrs Donnison, previously known as Fiona McCrow,
uploaded several photographs of herself and Elise on Friends Reunited.

Under a picture of her daughter, which was placed on the
social networking website last July, she wrote: ‘My beautiful daughter
- I know I am biased!!’

In another entry, she said: ‘I was working full-time until
last month in the City as a credit manager for a Lloyds syndicate, and
have four wonderful children, Will (15), Ollie (12), Harry who’s two
and Elise who is one.’

In her profile, she also revealed that she drove a BMW 5
Series and that her hobbies included cookery, socialising with friends,
tennis, football, golf and skiing.

Gillian Mills, headmistress of the Cross-in-Hand CoE Primary
School, which is just yards from the street where the children’s bodies
were discovered, said police had told her that there had been ‘an
incident’.

‘It’s an absolute tragedy,’ she said. ‘I just hope that the police get to the bottom of what’s happened.’

Chief Inspector Julia Pope said: ‘This is a very tragic
incident, but I would like to reassure people that it is fully contained
and there is no threat to anyone in the area.’

Chief Superintendent Robin Smith, speaking at the scene,
confirmed officers were not looking for anyone else in connection with
the deaths.

He added that the children are believed to have been recently
living in Surrey but would not comment on who was now living in the
Heathfield house.

Mrs Donnison has been taken to Eastbourne District General Hospital, where she is under police guard, he added.

‘It’s a huge tragedy for all involved, and not only for the
family – it has a huge impact on the local community,’ he said. ‘An
awful lot of effort is going in to reassuring the local community.’

Heathfield and its neighbouring parish of Waldron has a
population of around 11,500 and is surrounded by the High Weald Area of
Outstanding Natural Beauty.

A South East Coast Ambulance Service spokesman said: ‘We sent
an ambulance and two response cars but sadly two young children were
pronounced dead at the scene.’

Post-mortem examinations on the two children are due to take place today.

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