THE hunt for the killer of a family in Didcot ended last night when a body, believed to be the main suspect’s, was found in a wooded area in Oxford.

Police had been searching for 21-year-old Jed Allen for almost two days following the discovery of the bodies of his six-year-old half-sister Derin, mother Jan Jordon and her partner Philip Howard in their new home in Vicarage Road on Saturday night.

They had been stabbed.

Police had named Allen – a gardener who worked for Didcot Town Council and had posed with weapons in social media pictures – as their suspect on Sunday morning and were searching the city for him.

Just before 5pm yesterday members of the public found the body in a wooded area off Marston Ferry Road.

Detective Superintendent Chris Ward, of Thames Valley Police’s major crime unit, said: “This was an area that had not previously been searched by the police.

“Whilst no formal identification has taken place, I am satisfied this is the body of Jed Allen, who I have previously named as a suspect in this investigation.

“Whilst the investigation into these murders will continue, I am not seeking anybody else in connection with the offence.”

Last night forensics officers and police officers were still working in an area around a cycle path off Marston Ferry Road.

Detectives had been painstakingly trying to trace Allen’s movements since Saturday.

They knew that he took the 5.24pm train on Saturday from Didcot to Oxford Station, where he stopped off at the WH Smith shop to buy a bottle of water and was captured on CCTV at about 5.45pm.

He then walked towards the University Parks, and was again seen on CCTV in Catte Street.

University Parks – where Allen had worked previously – was the focus of much of the police operation, which at its height involved more than 100 officers, on both Sunday and yesterday.

The post mortem examinations on Derin and her parents were being carried out yesterday and will continue today.

However, Mr Ward said he believed the cause of their deaths was stabbing and it was during yesterday afternoon that police confirmed a knife, thought to be the murder weapon, had been recovered at their Vicarage Road property.

The family had only moved in about two months ago. Their previous address was in Wensum Drive on the Ladygrove estate in Didcot and Allen – Ms Jordon’s son – was known to stay with them.

Mrs Jordon’s former landlord in Wensum Drive, who had come to know 21-year-old Mr Allen in the past few years, said of his death: “It is very upsetting, and I don’t know if we’ll ever know what pressures caused him to do what he did.

“I think he was a nice boy, but the pressure built up too much for him.

“He was not someone you would think was likely to do something like this and I suspect the fact that he has killed himself shows that he knew he could not live with what he had done.

“He was not a killer at heart.”

Det Supt Ward said the relatives of the victims had been notified and added: “I would like to offer my condolences to the families in this tragic case.”