Sian Blake Died From Head And Neck Injuries

Former EastEnders actress Sian Blake and her two sons died as a result of head and neck injuries, Scotland Yard says.

Police are treating the deaths as murder after the bodies were found in the garden of the family home in Erith, Kent, on Tuesday.

A post-mortem confirmed the identities of the victims - Miss Blake and eight-year-old Zachary and four-year-old Amon.

The search is on for the children's father, Arthur Simpson-Kent, with police investigating reports he may have fled to Ghana.

He has not been seen since detectives spoke to him on 16 December."Significant attempts" had been made to hide the bodies, said a statement from Metropolitan Police.

They were found when officers dug up the garden after sniffer dogs "indicated areas of interest" and soil that had possibly been disturbed.

Miss Blake and her children were last seen in east London on 13 December, prompting a missing person investigation, but the murder squad did not get involved until 4 January.

Her sister has revealed Sian was planning to leave Simpson-Kent over Christmas and wanted to end the relationship "a long time ago".

"She had asked to come back home and we said yes, so we really tried to plan on getting her to move back home," said Ava Blake.

"She said she would come back, sort of Christmas week, and after Christmas they would arrange about selling the property she lived in.

"She didn't want to throw (Arthur) out on the street but give him time to find somewhere else to live. That was the only point she was wavering on."

Ava Blake said her sister had changed from the "vivacious, happy person she once was" and that she suspected texts sent by Sian after she disappeared had not been written by her.

"The first part of the text, I believe my sister may have written that," she said. 

"But the rest of the wording and other texts my family received, they were not my sister. We don't use text lingo. We write full sentences."

Scotland Yard has said it is aware of a photo apparently showing Simpson-Kent, 48, arriving in Ghana, but refused to confirm reports he had flown to Africa.

Miss Blake, 43, had motor neurone disease - a fatal, rapidly progressing illness which affects the brain and spinal cord - and was reportedly looking "very frail" before she vanished.

Previously an unknown actress, her big break in EastEnders came when she was introduced as soul singer Frankie in June 1996 by series producer Jane Harris.

She was in the BBC soap for 56 episodes, reportedly quitting because of hostility from viewers towards her manipulative character.She also appeared in episodes of The Bill, Casualty, Doctors and Skins.

The Metropolitan Police has faced questions over why it took so long for its murder squad to become involved and has referred itself to the police watchdog, the IPCC.