Bodies of mum & husband laid undiscovered for 12 hours in villa hot tub in Spain before kids, 14 & 16, made grim find

THE bodies of a mum-of-two and her husband laid undiscovered in a hot tub for more than 12 hours before being found by their children. The teenagers raised the alarm on Tuesday afternoon after finding Thomasina Tobin and Patrick Tobin inside the large hilltop property in Cullera near the east coast Spanish city of Valencia. Spain police have ruled out foul play Credit: Getty Irish mum-of-two Thomasina Tobin was found dead on Tuesday Autopsies are understood to point to their deaths occurring late the previous night or the early hours of Tuesday morning. Foul play has been ruled out despite a police homicide unit being put in charge of the probe sparked by the horror find. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! The kids, aged 14 and 16, spent most of the time sleeping in their top-floor bedrooms unaware of the tragedy that had occurred in the ground-floor jacuzzi. More tragic details of the “chain-accident” tragedy involving the Trinity College Dublin graduate and her New Zealand-born partner Patrick emerged overnight. Local press reported investigators were focusing on the theory Thomasina fell victim to a hot tub “technical fault” and her husband was electrocuted as he tried to save her. Sources close to the ongoing probe confirmed yesterday they were not treating the incident as a crime but were still unable to determine the exact causes of death pending post-autopsy tests conducted at a specialist laboratory in Barcelona. The water in the jacuzzi, said to have been cloudy, is also being analysed. The premise Mr Tobin died trying to save his wife was already on the table. Most read in The Sun Local paper Las Provincias reported overnight Civil Guard specialists now believe the trigger was “a technical failure in the jacuzzi’s suction system” which led to Thomasina becoming “trapped in the water.” It added: “Upon realising the danger his wife was in, Patrick came to her aid. In that desperate attempt to free her, the second fatality occurred. “The Civil Guard and forensic experts believe that the man may have suffered a lethal electric shock while handling the defective installation of the hot tub with his wet body, or when he put his hand into the mechanism in an attempt to switch off the motor.” Police and court officials have not commented on the latest reports. A secrecy order preventing civil servants from making any detailed comment, a tool commonly used in Spain to protect judicial probes, especially in their infancy, is believed to be still in place. Full post-mortem results will not be officially released in keeping with normal Spanish practice. Three relatives of the “traumatised” teenagers flew to Spain after being informed of the jacuzzi tragedy. They were taken to a hotel in Cullera on arrival, although their current whereabouts are unknown. The owner of the property where the family were staying alerted police on Tuesday afternoon after being contacted by the couple’s children. Chartered surveyor Mrs Tobin, who was 51, was from Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, but had been living in London for around 20 years. Her father is well-known playwright, actor and producer Tommy McArdle, who spent many years directing RTE drama Glenroe. Spanish police initially described her husband as an Irish passport holder before putting out a clarification on Thursday saying he was born in New Zealand.