Six­ty-four-year-old Dru­patee Chance was man­u­al­ly stran­gled and beat­en on her head, an au­top­sy at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre has con­firmed.

No one has yet been ar­rest­ed in con­nec­tion with her mur­der. 

Chance and her hus­band, Clarence, 71, had al­ready re­tired to bed on Wednes­day when he heard bang­ing nois­es at their home on Moru­ga Road, St Mary’s Vil­lage, short­ly af­ter 10 pm.

The el­der­ly man went to in­ves­ti­gate and was con­front­ed by two in­trud­ers wear­ing masks and hood­ies and armed with a knife and gun.

He was robbed of $1,000, beat­en and tied to his bed. He heard the in­trud­ers ask­ing for US mon­ey.

In an­oth­er room, his wife was al­so beat­en and stran­gled. When their son found them around 5.15 am the fol­low­ing day, Chance was al­ready dead. She was ly­ing on her back on the bed, but po­lice could not con­firm whether she had been sex­u­al­ly as­sault­ed.

Of­fi­cers of the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions Re­gion 3 are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.

—Sascha Wil­son