Police said there is nothing to “suggest anyone else is involved” after a father and daughter were found dead in a house.
Officers found the bodies of the 36-year-old father, and his six-year-old daughter, at the property in Harburn Drive, West Calder, West Lothian, on Monday afternoon.
The death are being treated as unexplained, and police said post-mortem investigations into the bodies will take place this week.
Speaking at a press conference at Livingston police station on Wednesday, Chief Superintendent Gregg Banks said concerns were raised when the child failed to attend school on Monday.
“Police Scotland responded to what we class as a ‘concern for’ call on Monday January 25,” he said.
“That call related to concern from a family member around their child failing to attend school.
“This led our officers to conduct inquiries to identify the child’s whereabouts, and ultimately resulted in them attending at the property at Harburn Drive in West Calder.
“When they were unable to gain entry to the property, assistance was provided from colleagues at the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to force entry, and tragically the bodies of an adult male aged 36, and a young female age six years of age, were discovered in the property.”
Chief Superintendent Gregg Banks said concerns were raised when the child failed to attend school on Monday (Nick Forbes/PA)
Mr Banks said there had been an “element of shared custody” over the child between her mother and father, and that she had been staying with her father for a “period of time” when their bodies were found.
Detective Chief Inspector Bob Williamson, of the major investigation team, said: “Our thoughts remain with the man and girl’s relatives at this extremely difficult time and they continue to be supported by specialist officers.
“They are understandably devastated and it is vital we get answers for them.
“At this time, we have no information to suggest anyone else is involved and our inquiries are continuing.
A visible police presence will remain in the area while investigations are carried out (Jane Barlow/PA)
Mr Banks added that the investigation was still at a “relatively early stage”, and called on people to avoid “speculation” about what happened at the property.
“The post-mortems have not been conducted yet. I genuinely hope folk won’t throw wild speculation out there,” he said.
“That really does not support the family who are devastated at this time. Let’s work on the facts and we will know the post-mortem facts very quickly.”
Mr Banks also appealed for privacy for the family.
“As you can probably imagine, anyone losing a family member in such circumstances is a really tragic and difficult thing to deal with, particularly losing a child,” he said.
“So the death of a six-year-old child is particularly tragic, so the family are being supported.
“But clearly my appeal has been for privacy at this time.
“When their names do become common knowledge, which they will at some point, a degree of privacy to allow them to come to terms with a really tragic set of circumstances”.
He also thanked local residents for their help over the last 48 hours, and said he wanted to “reassure” them that the events appear to be “an incident within the context of that one property”, and that there was no risk to the wider community.
Chief Inspector Elaine McArthur-Kerr, local area commander, echoed this, saying: “We understand the significant impact this will have on the local community and I would like to thank everyone for their help so far.
“This incident is very upsetting and worrying for the people living in this community and we would ask anyone with any concerns to speak to us.
“A police presence will remain in the area while we carry out investigations and anyone with any concerns, or information, can approach these officers.”
Police have appealed to anybody with any information that about the incident to contact them.