Were toddlers in the boot drugged with Nytol before mother 'asphyxiated them'?

Tests are being carried out today to determine whether two children allegedly murdered by their mother were drugged with Nytol before they were smothered.



Fiona Donnison walked into a police station on Wednesday and told shocked officers she had killed her son Harry, three, and daughter Elise, two.



An initial post-mortem carried out yesterday on the bodies of Harry and Elise revealed that they had been asphyxiated less than 24 hours before they were found.



The bodies of Elise, 2, and Harry, 3, Donnison were found in the boot of a car in Heathfield on Wednesday. A post mortem revealed they had been asphyxiated

Officers are investigating whether Mrs Donnison gave the children the sleeping drug Nytol before suffocating them a few hours before they were found, the Sun newspaper reported.



However the results of toxicology tests won't be known for several weeks.



A Sussex Police spokesman yesterday confirmed that officers had had 'previous contact' with the Donnison family 'within the last few months'.

It also emerged last night that Mrs Donnison, 43, suffered the agonising cot death of a baby daughter six years ago.



Mrs Donnison and her husband Paul found their world falling apart after their first child - Mia Florence - died at just ten months.

Although they had two more children, the rows and spells of depression grew more frequent until Mrs Donnison took Harry and Elise and moved into a rented home several months ago.



Friends spoke of a 'history of allegations and counter allegations' between the couple, who had both been married previously.



Last weekend Mr Donnison, 46, an accounts manager, was arrested over claims that he assaulted his estranged wife during a bitter argument.

Arrested: Fiona Donnison, pictured last July, and right, her daughter Elise in a photograph Mrs Donnison posted on the Friends Reunited website

On Wednesday, Mrs Donnison walked into an East Sussex police station and confessed to murdering her children..

Their bodies of Harry and Elise, in two sports holdalls, were in the boot of her Nissan car, parked close to the £500,000 home in Heathfield, East Sussex, where the family had lived.

Detectives were still searching the house and the rented home in Surrey where Mrs Donnison, a former City worker, moved with the children.

She slashed her wrists before walking into the police station in Heathfield - which is just 300 yards from her former home - and was taken to hospital in Eastbourne.

She is recovering under police guard but detectives have not yet been able to interview her.

A police forensic officer at work on the window of a house in Heathfield, Sussex, which was sealed off after the two children's bodies were found in a car close by

Incident: The grey Nissan where the bodies of two children were found

Family home: The Donnisons lived together in this house before separating just before Christmas

Friends said the marriage began to collapse after little Mia died in April 2004, just two months before her first birthday.

When the couple discovered she was not breathing, they took her to hospital but doctors could not save her.

At an inquest the following month, coroner Alan Craze returned a verdict of death by natural causes.

The official cause was 'sudden unexpected death in infancy'.

Family members posted tributes to Mia on a memorial website.

A poem written by one of her grandmothers reads: 'A flower blossoms; then withers and dies.

'It leaves a fragrance behind which, long after its delicate petals are but little dust, still lingers in the air...'

Cordoned off: The car is removed from the scene as the road remains closed off

Mrs Donnison is under police guard at Eastbourne General District Hospital

Her parents, and Mrs Donnison's sons from her previous marriage, wrote: 'We all miss Mia terribly - with all our love and hugs always - Mummy, Daddy, Will and Ollie xxxxx'

Neighbours noticed a marked change in Mrs Donnison after the tragedy and said she often appeared 'strained'.

A friend said she had been deeply depressed after losing Mia, but was always a 'loving mum' to her other children and well as her two older sons W, 15, and O, 12.

A woman carries her child past the scene in Heathfield where Elise and Harry's bodies were found

The friend said: 'This was not like her. She must have snapped.'

But the couple's marriage had been falling apart for a long time. The friend said: 'I knew it was never going to work between them.

'It was just not meant to be. They were both so different. I've been around them when they rowed.'

Mr Donnison is currently on police bail after being arrested for common assault.

It is understood his wife accused him of scratching her during a row at their old home.

A Sussex Police spokesman said: 'We are aware of previous contact with the police in relation to this family.

'This will be reviewed as a matter of standard procedure with various agencies and also to help the current inquiry.'

It is thought the Independent Police Complaints Commission will be asked to probe the force's dealings with the Donnisons, as there appeared to be no warning of the horror that unfolded this week.

Insiders said detectives were trying to establish what drove Mrs Donnison to allegedly take the lives of her children.

A source said: 'At this stage, police don't know what caused the break-up of her marriage and what triggered this terrible tragedy.

'It is not clear whether either of the Donnisons were involved in new relationships.'

Officers are also checking Mrs Donnison's mental health records and are liaising with social services over whether they had had any contact with the family.

Social services refused to comment but a spokesman for the local mental health trust said it had had no dealings with Mrs Donnison.

Forensic scientists last night removed what looked like a medicine box from Mrs Donnison's rented home in Lightwater, Surrey. The clear plastic box appeared to contain tablets and medicine bottles.



Neighbours on the quiet residential street in Lightwater, where one of Mrs Donnison's older sons was also living, described her as a 'loner' who had made no effort to get to know people in the area.

'She was always looking down,' said one man.



'I think she only ever waved to me once and that was because she had no other choice because I was standing right in front of her.'



An elderly neighbour said: 'The previous Monday she just put the kids in the car and went. She was gone for the whole week.



'Nobody knew where she had gone and then a For Rent sign went up but she came back on Saturday. I just assumed it was to clean the house ready to move out.'



At Mr Donnison's parents' home in Chertsey, Surrey, a relative said: 'We're going through hell. We've never been through anything like this before.

'I'm sure you can imagine how difficult it is to come to terms with what has happened.'

