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A daughter smothered her 106-year-old mother before drowning herself in what is believed to be the oldest murder-suicide in British history.

Griselda Folkard, 69, and her elderly mother Barbara Innes were found dead together in the home they shared for 40 years.

The devoted daughter had been the main carer for her frail mother as her health began to fail.

But it all got too much for Griselda who killed her mum before drowning herself in their flat in the quiet market town of Builth Wells, Powys.

Friends refused to believe Griselda had killed her mother and then herself when their bodies were discovered together last year.

But a police investigation and inquest revealed Griselda had smothered her bed-ridden mother with a pillow before taking her own life.

Neighbour Margaret Warlow, 85, said Griselda was "a marvellous woman who always looked after her mother and then herself."

She said Barbara had not been out of the house for around 15 years before her death.

Frail Barbara was confined to her bed with only Griselda to care for her after her husband passed away.

Mrs Warlow said: "Griselda's other sister married and moved away but she always stayed with her parents and looked after them and did the shopping.

"I don't know how she stuck at it with her mother in bed all the time - it was a great sacrifice.

"The last time I saw Griselda she said her mother wasn't very well and didn't have long left.

"She did say to me once: 'If ever anything happened to mum I wouldn't know what would happen'."

An inquest into their sudden deaths discovered elderly Barbara was smothered to death by her daughter Griselda after being given sedatives.

Powys coroner Andrew Barkley recorded a verdict of unlawful killing of Barbara with the cause of death being "smothering following administration of diazepam".

He ruled that Griselda then committed suicide by drowning herself in the bath in April last year.

Words and picture: Wales News Service