London, June 14: A 39-year-old mother, named as Rekha Kumari-Baker, was being questioned by police today about the murder of her daughters, Davina, 16, and Jasmine, 13, at her home in Stretham, Cambridgeshire.

Her former husband, David Baker, 43, an IT worker, was too distressed to speak but detective superintendent Jeff Hill, who is leading the investigation, said he was “not looking for anyone else in connection with the girls’ deaths”.

This is police language for saying the girls’ mother is suspected of the double murder.

The two killings immediately stirred painful memories of another double murder in Cambridge in August 2002.

In the nearby village of Soham, two 10-year-olds, Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells, were found murdered. Their school caretaker, Ian Huntley, who had appeared on TV to express concern when news of the murders first hit the headlines, was later exposed as the culprit and sentenced to life.

However, the latest killings appear to be a family affair. According to today’s tabloid newspapers, the two “wild child” sisters were stabbed by their own mother.

Officially, the police will not confirm how the girls died but the mother raised the alarm yesterday morning and officers arrived shortly after 8 am. The bodies were removed from the house last night and the post-mortem was being conducted by a home office pathologist today.

Both Davina and Jasmine had their own pages on a popular networking website, Bebo, which were being analysed today by detectives.

“Officers will today, as part of their detailed investigation into the girls’ background, be looking into Internet sites, including Bebo, that were used by the girls,” said a spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire police. “They will be investigating what has been said on them and what various people have been posting.”

A Cambridgeshire county council spokesman said Davina was known to social services. “Social services did have contact with the older girl regarding behavioural problems at school,” he said. “Social services and education staff at the county council have met with the police as part of their ongoing investigation.”

“Details of the sisters’ boozing and other wild ways were revealed through their Internet pages,” today’s Sun newspaper has reported. “Davina, 16, boasts about stealing and fighting, while Jasmine tells of her love of booze — even though she was just 13,” the paper said.

The Sun went so far as to report: “Davina and Jasmine were found covered in blood in their beds just after 8 am yesterday. It is believed they were stabbed to death by their mom after a row over their bad behaviour. Mum Rekha Kumari-Baker, 39, was covered in blood.”

The 16-year-old’s last posting a few days ago discussed her favourite local pubs and revealed she was suffering a hangover. Davina admitted: “I was sick six times last night.”

According to the Daily Mail, “officers are trying to discover what sparked the violence, amid speculation that the mother attacked her daughters after rowing over their drinking, smoking, stealing and fighting”.

It said: “Their mother, who divorced the girls’ father three years ago, is thought to have recently been dropped by a long-term boyfriend.”

Rekha had left her former family home after her divorce and moved to her modern detached house in Stretham. It is understood she lived there with Jasmine. Davina, who had been due to take her first GCSE school examinations on Wednesday, had been living with her father in Cambridge, but was a regular visitor to the house in Stretham.

A neighbour described Rekha’s daughters as “pleasant and quiet girls who were very pretty”. But he added: “Rekha had a lot of trouble with the children. One had attempted suicide — I think the older one — and the other had an eating disorder.”

A senior police source commented: “It is a terrible, terrible tragedy. A number of officers were very distressed by what they saw in the house. The big question is, ‘Why?’ At the moment, we don’t know what the catalyst was.”