INQUESTS on the couple in the Winsford shooting tragedy were opened and adjourned on Tuesday after hearing evidence that John Frederick Zurick and his estranged wife Debbie both died from shotgun wounds.

Mrs Zurick, 56, died at her home, Nethercote Cottage, Winsford, on February 22 and her 67-year-old husband died five days later in Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, from severe injuries.

An inquest on Mr Zurick, held in Plymouth on Tuesday, heard that he was estranged from his wife and had died from a shotgun wound to the head after an incident at the couple’s home.

Told that Avon and Somerset Police were carrying out a murder investigation into the death of Mrs Zurick, Plymouth coroner Ian Arrow adjourned the inquest and passed the case to the Somerset coroner who was dealing with the matter.

When an inquest into Mrs Zurick’s death was also opened on Tuesday in Taunton, senior coroner Tony Williams said: “I admitted into evidence an interim post-mortem report from Dr Debbie Cook, a forensic Home Office pathologist, confirming cause of death as a shotgun wound to the chest.”

The coroner added that police inquiries into the circumstances of the shooting were continuing and that he would review the case on or before June 10.

The couple, who had been married for 30 years, bred and trained clumber spaniels and were close neighbours of the Prime Minister’s father, Stanley Johnson.