A grieving daughter has spoken of her family’s heartache at losing a generous and lovely father and husband.

Father-of-three David Roots, 55, and teacher Zoe O’Kelly, 53, were found dead on Christmas day in a house they shared in Belgrave Street, Eccles.

Thought to have been poisoned by carbon monoxide, the pair were only discovered after Mr Roots’ wife and daughters alerted police when he failed to turn up at their home in Hoo for Christmas dinner.

Still coming to terms with her father’s death, 20-year-old Katy Roots said her father and mother, Patricia, had remained friends since separating four years ago. They usually spent Christmas together.

I went up with mum at about 2pm and tried knocking on the door but couldn’t get in, so we went back to my sister’s house.

“We rung the hospital in case he’d gone out and got drunk; rang the police station in case he’d got arrested. There was nothing so we said ‘we’ll have to tell the police to go round there.”

We didn’t hear from them for a couple of hours so we went back to the house - when we got there the police were everywhere.

“They just said he had passed away; my sister was screaming but I was more in shock.”

Since that day the family has struggled to come to terms with their loss, but his daughter said she would fondly remember the last day they spent together .

“We went out on my birthday on December 7; went out and had something to eat, then went for a pint. It was a really good day, the last day I spent with him.

“We used to see him every Sunday. My sister was closer to him than me but we’ve always been a close family.

“I shouldn’t be losing my dad at 20, but I’ve got friends that have lost people as well and I’ve had a lot of support.”

She added: “He was the most generous person; a lovely, friendly geezer, and had a lot of friends. He was really funny too.

“We’re quite a comical family, but he was definitely the funniest.

“He’s going to be missed. I still haven’t got my head round it really.”

Born in Northfleet in 1953 Mr Roots married wife Patricia in 1981 years ago and lived in Strood before moving to Hoo.

He worked for many years at Kingsnorth Power Station as a civil engineer before moving to Primafox, a lighting engineering company in Rochester, where he worked for 10 years.

Primafox project manager Peter Shaw described him as the “salt of the earth” adding: “he was never sick and worked every day of his life. He was a model employee. All the guys knew him.

“It’s been very solemn here since then; it’s disturbing.”

Mr Roots is survived by his wife Patricia, son David, 26, and daughters Katy, 20, and Vicki, 24.

Funeral arrangements are due to be made after post mortem tests have been concluded.

For more tributes to Mr Roots and Mrs O'Kelly, see Friday's Kent Messenger