Police fear a missing millionaire shot dead his family then boarded himself in their luxury country home and torched it.

Troubled company director Christopher Foster, 50, wife Jillian, 49, and their girl Kirsty, 15, have not been seen since an evening barbecue at a friend's house on Bank Holiday Monday.

Last night police released a last picture of the Foster family as they relaxed together at the bash.

Other members of the family have told police that, as far as they were aware, the three had no plans to go away.

Hours later an inferno engulfed their £1.2million home.

Aerial photographs show the remains of four burnt out vehicles, which appear to be a Range Rover 4x4, a soft top sports car, a Nissan Navara pick up truck and an unidentified hatchback, parked in the burned out garage. From the air, the blackened remains of what may have been the horses could be seen among the rubble.

Last night a police source said: "The strong suspicion is this is a domestic incident and that one of the family has killed the other two before slaughtering the animals and committing suicide.

"We know that Mr Foster had money problems because of the current economic climate."

A fire service insider said yesterday that the windows and doors appeared to have been boarded up from the inside, possibly to stop firefighters reaching the blaze.

Another police source added: "However, we know that he had made enemies through his business dealings and we are keeping an open mind on whether an outsider was involved.

"We are not going to know the answers unless the CCTV which is currently being examined shows exactly what happened or until we manage to sift through the debris and find bodies." The charred remains of two horses were found in the stable block and another in a separate outbuilding.

There were bloodstains outside the house where the family's two missing pet dogs are believed to have been shot and their bodies tossed on the flames.

The destroyed home in Maesbrook, near Oswestry, Shrops, is currently too dangerous to enter.

But a fire brigade source said: "There are signs of a firearm being discharged. The fear is that there are the remains of three bodies down there amongst all the charred wreckage."

Police have recovered CCTV footage from security cameras around the house and last night were trying to trace the family's movements.

The Fosters had all the trappings of luxury lifestyle at the mansion. But Mr Foster had troubles in his business life.

In November 2006 he was dragged into a court case in which two men were cleared of attempting to blackmail him into giving them £100,000 but one was found guilty of intending to pervert the course of justice.

Companies House list Mr Foster as the director of Ulva Limited, which went into compulsory liquidation.

Last night Jill Foster's brother, Roger Doley, said: "They loved that house. Chris completely overhauled the place, he put in a lake and was putting in another.

"Kirsty is horse-mad and so is Jill, they'd filled the place with animals.