Three to be charged with double murder

Police have charged three men with the murders of an elderly couple at their home in Wolverhampton.

Guiseppe and Caterina Massaro, 80 and 77, were found by their granddaughter on Good Friday.

West Midlands police say post mortem examinations reveal the couple - who lived on Woden Road in the city - were subject to attack by hammer and knife but have not revealed any other details.

The couple, originally from Italy, had moved to England in 1960 and had two children and a number of grandchildren, police said.

The men aged between 21 and 32 and from Wolverhampton and Birmingham are due to appear at Wolverhampton Magistrates on Thursday 28th April.

Detectives are trying to track the movements of the couple's black Peugeot 307 which went missing from their house and was later found in nearby Wednesfield.

One line of inquiry is whether its disappearance was linked to the double murder, police said.

The car is thought to have some distinctive features - an orange fir tree air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror and a sticker of the Virgin Mary on the windscreen.

Superintendent Mark Payne said: ``I would particularly appeal to anyone who may have seen this car or seen people coming or going from this address at Woden Road on Thursday or Friday.''

Speaking at a news conference in Birmingham, their grand-daughter Lindsey Booth said:

'We can't even begin to describe the devastation and trauma that has hit us. Knowing they were hurt by the hands of somebody else. The evil that took part in their house and how frightened they would have been'.