THE 47-year-old female taxi driver who was found dead at Lust-en-Rust, West Bank Demerara (WBD), on Sunday last, died as a result of strangulation to the neck and blunt trauma to the head, autopsy confirmed.

Indira Bipat, called ‘Jenny’, of Samaroo Dam, Pouderoyen, WBD had, just six months ago, purchased a Toyota Axio motorcar with which she plied her trade. Her car was also missing.

According to Bipat’s son, Derrick Samaroo, his mother left home on Saturday afternoon around 17:00hrs saying she was going out for about an hour, but never returned.

He told the Guyana Chronicle that, while he couldn’t say what might have led to her demise, he reported her missing at the Vreed-en-Hoop and La Grange Police Stations on Sunday morning, after she didn’t return home.

“All I know is dat meh old lady dead,” the 24-year-old said.

He said that his sister, who is six years his junior, tried calling their mother on her cell-phone all Sunday night when she failed to return home, but to no avail.

Samaroo said that it was his sister who received the call saying that a woman’s body was found at ‘Dairy’, and he went to the Ezekiel Funeral Parlour, on Best Road, Vreed-en-Hoop, where he positively identified the body as that of his mother, in the presence of the police, on Sunday.

Bipat reportedly worked with ‘Goed Fortuin Cabs’, a West Bank taxi service, for the past six months after she bought a silver-grey Toyota Axio motorcar, the licence plate of which is PXX 4114.

Bipat, who lived with her mother and two children, was reportedly a security guard for many years before trying her hand at taxi driving.

Derrick said that, as a single-parent, his mother worked tirelessly to give he and his sister a better life than she’d had as a child.

Indira Bipat was the family’s sole breadwinner for many years, after her husband died.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Superintendent Rose, Chief Inspector Grant, Inspector Narine, Inspector Kooldeep, Sergeant Correia and four other police ranks visited the home of Indira Bipat with Pastor Archer of Cops and Faith Network and offered words of comfort and prayers to the family members.