A Newmarket father found his wife had killed herself and their four year old son while he was at work

A father from Newmarket returned home from work to find his wife had slit his four-year-old son's throat and then killed herself, an inquest has heard.

Abhay Rao and his mother Snehashree Sudarshan, 28, were found dead at their home in Newmarket, Suffolk on April 26 last year - just five days after the little boy had celebrated his birthday.

The boy's father Ashok Rao, who works as a technical account lead, was at the inquest in Ipswich this morning.

He said in a statement that he arrived home at 5.50pm and found his wife and son dead.

Paramedic Paul Shannon said in a statement that Abhay was found in a pool of blood in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs.

Mrs Sudarshan, a customer service agent at Burger King, was found dead in the kitchen with a cut throat and a ligature around her neck.

There was a birthday banner on the wall and a suicide note from Mrs Sudarshan was found on a shelf in the living room, the inquest heard.

The inquest heard that the family had moved from India and had no family or support in England.

A paramedic who spoke at the inquest, described Mr Rao who'd been married to his wife since 2013, as shell-shocked as he was taken in the back of an ambulance to be supported.

Neighbour Gillian Holmes said that the family had lived at the house for about four years."I came to know them as a happy little family," she said.

"This would be general conversations about what they were doing for example if they had been swimming or gone to the park."

She said that on the day of the incident she heard Mr Rao say "she's killedherself".

Ms Holmes said she asked him where his son was, and that Mr Rao replied "he's dead".

"Ashok kept saying 'why my baby, why my boy'," said Ms Holmes. "He waspacing up and down while he said this.

"This has come as a big shock. I was unaware of any problems that the family may have had."

Detective chief inspector Caroline Millar said she found no evidence ofthird-party involvement.

She said Mr Rao had left for work at 9.30am that day and it was "likely" thatAbhay was killed by his mother soon after he ate his breakfast.

"The motive for these tragic events may never be known but the letter, Ibelieve written by Snehashree, gives an indication of her state of mind," shesaid.

"She clearly loved her son but tragically was internalising a lot of herfeelings."

Ms Millar said she believed the letter showed Mrs Sudarshan felt lonely, hadlow self-esteem and felt there had been "adverse judgment by the Indiancommunity".

Colleagues said that Mrs Sudarshan appeared upset after losing her wedding ring.

"I don't think anybody could have foreseen just how deep-rooted her feelingswere," Ms Millar told the inquest.

She described the case as "truly the saddest case I've ever had toinvestigate".

Mr Rao told the inquest: "She was always happy with me."

A post-mortem examination recorded Abhay's medical cause of death as an incised wound to the neck in association with compression to the neck.

Mrs Sudarshan's medical cause of death was recorded as ligature compression of the neck in association with incised wounding of the neck.

Suffolk's senior coroner Nigel Parsley concluded that Abhay was unlawfullykilled and that Mrs Sudarshan died by suicide.