A distraught daughter died after she climbed into bed with her mum's body and torched the home they shared together, an inquest heard.
Pamela Tierney, 78, and daughter Julie, 50, were described as "eccentric loners" at an inquest into their deaths today.
The bodies of both were found in a small bungalow they lived in together in Lidgate, outside Newmarket in Suffolk, reports Cambridgeshire Live.
On May 7 last year their home was levelled by an explosion, and a huge fire then swept through the remainder.
The bodies of the mother and daughter were found inside but a post-mortem revealed that Pamela died two days before the fire from cancer that the rest of her family didn't know she had.
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Neighbours described hearing a "terrifying" explosion that shook their houses, followed by smaller bangs and smoke seen over the trees.
Newmarket firefighter Dave Turner said that as teams rushed to the scene they could see a "black plume of smoke on the horizon."
When they arrived, the fire service found that most of the building's walls and its roof was in the garden.
They noted that shards of glass in the garden did not have soot on it, indicating that the explosion had come first before the fire.
Using a thermal imaging drone, two bodies were found in one of the bedrooms. Julie Tierney was lying next to her mother in her bed.
A post-mortem examination found that Julie had died from wounds sustained in the resulting fire.
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However, Pamela was found to have died of natural causes two days before the gas explosion, which the rest of their family were unaware of.
Fire investigator Conrad Burgess told the inquest, held at Suffolk Coroners Court this morning, that the scene was like nothing he had seen before.
He said: "In my work I've seen whole roofs engulfed in flames but not an entire bungalow. We identified two bodies were lying together beneath the debris in one of the bedrooms."
The pair had apparently been reclusive and had not got on well with others in the village.
According to neighbours, they were involved in a series of long-running feuds with other families living nearby.
One man who worked near the Tierney's house at the time said the pair were referred to locally as the "witches" adding; "They kept themselves to themselves, they boarded off one side of their house and had cameras on the other side of their home.
"They never left the house."
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Meanwhile, police identified a number of suspicious elements to the case.
Firstly the explosion was not caused by gas, as there was no gas line to the house.
Heating oil was the main source of fuel for the property, and the tank was not deemed to be the cause of the explosion.
Secondly, Julie's car had been parked across the driveway into the property and had prevented fire engines from getting in.
Neighbours remarked that Julie would never park her car like this, and would always park outside the garage if she was in.
Lastly, fire investigators determined the fire had been started deliberately, potentially by some kind of mechanism which had ignited petrol that had been poured throughout the house.
As investigations continued, three days after the explosion a handwritten letter arrived at Pamela's sister's house in Norfolk.
It simply stated "Ma has peacefully passed away on May 5th."
The letter did not have a name at the bottom.
Detective Inspector Tam Burgess, from Suffolk Police, said: "The information we found was that Pamela was in quite poor health or bed-bound.
"Neighbours described them both as quite reclusive, and didn't see a lot of them.
"A letter arrived on either May 8 or 9 to Pamela's sister. We were able to identify from parts of handwriting in the house that Julie was the one who had sent the letter."
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The remainder of their family had not been aware of Pamela's condition. Julie's sisters had not been made aware by her that their mother was dying, and did not even know she had cancer.
The inquest also heard that Julie had been suffering with OCD, which had reached the point that she would not have workman visit the bungalow she shared with her mother.
It was concluded during the inquest that Julie deliberately started the fire, pouring petrol throughout the house before locking herself in her mother's room and climbing into bed with her.
The resulting explosion was likely a mistake. Fire investigators said that it would be difficult to replicate such an explosion.
Prior to the inquests, Suffolk coroner Nigel Parlsey said that he received a letter from one of Julie's sisters who said that Julie had lived with her mother her whole life.
She said that Julie's world must have "fallen apart" at the death of her mother, and that this was the reason why she had decided to take her own life while lying next to Pamela's body.
Mr Parsley concluded that Pamela Tierney had died from cancer two days before the explosion, and that Julie Tierney died as a result of fume inhalation caused by the fire she had started.
He finished by offering his condolences to the family and thanked them for their help in the investigation.
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