PERSHORE Abbey filled with mourners as the husband and wife found dead in their Pinvin home shortly before Christmas were laid to rest.

The bodies of Christine and Lawson Stephens were found by their son, Gary.

At the joint funeral service for the couple in Pershore last Thursday the Rev Kenneth Crawford said there would be many questions people would ask.

"Why did this have to happen?" he said. What has happened in the lives of these two people to bring such a devastating end to their life together?"

Mr Crawford urged mourners to think carefully about how they responded to the tragic events on Saturday, December 20.

He added that earlier in their lives the couple had tragically lost a son at the age of two.

"Who knows how that death affected their relationship as a family?

"Who knows what lingering, unsolved issues surrounding Nigel's loss might have stayed with them and perhaps begun to tear them apart," he said.

Following the service a funeral cortege made its way to Pinvin churchyard for the internment of the couple.

An inquest into Mr and Mrs Stephens' death has been opened and adjourned by the Worcestershire coroner Victor Round.

Police are still investigating the deaths but have confirmed that they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.

Mrs Stephens, aged 62, was found strangled in the kitchen of the house on Abbey View Road and Mr Stephens, 63, died from shotgun wounds to the head in a downstairs toilet.