The 36-year-old woman found float­ing in the sea in To­ba­go ear­li­er this month drowned, but stran­gu­la­tion was al­so a fac­tor, po­lice have con­firmed.

Ac­cord­ing to an au­top­sy con­duct­ed yes­ter­day, Sta­cy Sama­roo died from drown­ing, with stran­gu­la­tion con­tribut­ing to her death.

Her fa­ther and sis­ter, who live in Trinidad, trav­elled to To­ba­go for the au­top­sy. Arrange­ments are now be­ing made to have her body re­turned to Trinidad for her fu­ner­al.

Sama­roo’s moth­er, Vashti “Lystra” Sama­roo, had pre­vi­ous­ly said her daugh­ter trav­elled to To­ba­go in Jan­u­ary to see an eye spe­cial­ist.

She had ini­tial­ly planned to re­main on the is­land un­til her next ap­point­ment in April, but lat­er de­cid­ed to leave ear­li­er this month.

Sama­roo’s body was dis­cov­ered float­ing in the sea in the Hope area on March 3, with a rope around her neck. Res­i­dents as­sist­ed in re­triev­ing the body, which was tak­en to the Scar­bor­ough Hos­pi­tal Mor­tu­ary.

Her moth­er had pre­vi­ous­ly said she was await­ing au­top­sy re­sults, as po­lice had been han­dling the body while it was in the wa­ter.

Sama­roo was the moth­er of a 14-year-old daugh­ter. To­ba­go homi­cide de­tec­tives are cur­rent­ly in­ves­ti­gat­ing the case. - Sascha Wil­son