RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

An au­top­sy sched­uled to be done on the body of 76-year-old Odessa Con­stance had to be post­poned be­cause of a back­log of bod­ies at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre.

One of Con­stance's rel­a­tives told Guardian Me­dia that the au­top­sy was ini­tial­ly card­ed for Mon­day, how­ev­er, they were lat­er told it would have to be resched­uled for Wednes­day be­cause of the back­log.

"We are try­ing to hold up as best as we can. It has been hard on all of us," the rel­a­tive said.

Men­while, vil­lagers of Hin­dus­tan re­newed the call for the po­lice to find Con­stance's killers.

They said strangers from crime hotspots had tak­en up lodg­ing in their com­mu­ni­ty and Con­stance might have been robbed and killed.

Po­lice said they have not ar­rest­ed any­one in con­nec­tion with the mur­der. Of­fi­cers say they sus­pect Con­stance was killed by some­one who knew her well. Her pen­sion was miss­ing, along with a retroac­tive pen­sion pay­ment which she re­ceived in April, a day be­fore she was found ly­ing dead in her blood­ied bed.

Con­stance, 76, was last seen sit­ting on her front porch last Thurs­day. When neigh­bours checked on her around 10 am on Fri­day, they found her ly­ing dead with a wound over her left ear and blood on her face and neck.

Con­stance was fond­ly called Tan­ty and Toon­galay. She lived at Mas­tite and Nagee Road, Hin­dus­tan.

Be­fore her death, Con­stance had been build­ing a house. How­ev­er, she re­fused to move out of her old, wood­en house as she felt some­one will steal her valu­ables. Some of the items she bought from abroad had been stored in bar­rels at the old house where she was mur­dered.

Any­one with in­for­ma­tion on the pen­sion­er's death can call Crime Stop­pers at 800-TIPS.